Chapter 7

Wild's sleep was restless that night. It was a new territory, new sounds that made him jolt up despite the closed and locked door. He knew there were still people there despite the early hour, and he was on edge because of it. All in all, he didn't sleep too well. It didn't matter too much. He'd gone a few nights without sleep before as an experiment. At around 6:30, there was a knock on their door. Wild knew I was the man that was with Elaine yesterday. He'd said his name was Richard? Wild also knew he had something. Food was his guess. Despite the conversation he'd overheard about his appearance, Richard genuinely seemed to like him, so Wild got up to get the door.

The offer was poptarts, the smores kind. Wild didn't know there was such thing as smores poptarts. He only knew what smores was from the books. "Gotta be honest, I wasn't really sure if you even ate human food with your wolfish appetite!" Wild rose a brow. "We can eat anything a human can." Richard made a show of wiping his forehead in exaggeration. "Grreat! Because I just realized Smores has chocolate in it, and I'd rather not poison you three!" Richard certainly was a weird one. "So kiddo... you travel pretty well on those." Richard pointed down with Wild following Richard's finger to his paws. "Kinda had to learn. I didn't want to be left behind." The topic of his paws wasn't one he liked to discuss. "Do you have a head of hair or fur." He reached to touch, but Wild flinched back, baring his teeth. "Dunno." Richard flinched back as well. "Look, kid, I am trying to get a better sense of you so I know what to tell your parents. They will want to know." Wild curled up on his cot. "Too much..." Wild responded quietly.

Richard left sometime around 6:45 or so. When he did, Westley sat up. "Who was he? He said something about our parents?" Wild whined lowly before groaning and sitting up to face the younger male. "He was a friend of Dr- Agent Moore's. He's found our parents, I guess, and letting them know ahead of time that we've been through... changes." Westley's ears perked before falling back. "Do you think they'll still want me..?" Wild didn't really know the answer to that. "They should, you're their kid, changes or not." Westley seemed to maul over that a moment before smiling. "Yeah! You're right!" There was a creak on the furthest end as Tiffany sat up, rubbing her eyes as her tongue poked out. Wild could see traces of new changes, minor ones, on her. Her canines were a little more pointed. Her nails, too. "Ethen ne?" Her tongue got in the way of her speech. "Yes, even you." Wild understood anyway.

Another knock at the door interrupted their pack bonding.

This time, it was Agent Moore. Wild let her in, giving the other two poptarts that had been left on the counter by Richard while he was up. "Your friend visited. Gave us breakfast." Wild still wasn't sure what to think of her. He'd trusted her, and she lied to him, but it was to get him out with these two. He understood why, so why did he still feel hurt that she didn't trust him with her secret? "Friend... Richard was here?" Wild nodded, his ears flicking back. "Got a toothbrush or anything?" Elaine shook her head. "I can bring some next time around? What happened with Richard?"

"He's telling our parents about our changes in appearance." Westley piped up. "Wild theth thay will loph uth anyway!" Tiffany chirped. Elaine smiled, processing what she was trying to say. "I'm sure he's right!" She encouraged the younger two. "So, would you like to head outside now?"

The question had been answered with three hybrids waiting at the door for her. Wild was eager to see the outside. To see the grass and the trees and the sun. He had missed it all on his way here with the bag over his head. Elaine chuckled in mild amusement, noting that Tiffany seemed to have recovered quickly. "Follow me and try to keep quiet. It's still early." Elaine was saying as she led the group out. Wild knew a thing or two about keeping quiet, keeping the click of his claws almost inaudable to the human ear as he, Westley, and Tiffany followed after her. "Bro, how you do that?" Westley whispered to Wild. "Practice." Was his short reply as they went out to see the world for real this time.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon. The clouds were dyed in shades of blue and yellow. It was bright for the three, but they were fixated on it. Wild had never seen anything more beautiful than the sunrise. He registered birdsong in his ears, the cool chill of lingering night on his skin. It gave him goosebumps, but he didn't care. The trees were so thick and full of life. He could smell all sorts of animals who made homes in the trees and used them as a food source. He moved into the grass, almost involentarily. It tickled at his skin, a feeling he recognized from the bathroom break they'd taken. He'd been in grass without realizing it. Wild crouched down, still not looking away from the lightning sky, to feel it. He felt an urge so strong that it was nearly impossible to push back.

Wild wanted to run.

It had taken awhile for Wild to pull away from the outside world, from the need to keep going and never stop. Elaine had to physically pull him back a little. "Come on, we should get you guys back inside." With one last look back out, he followed Elaine back inside. Back to the office bedroom. Westley and Tiffany were already flicking through the cartoons. Wild couldn't get it out of his head. The beauty of it all. He was mesmerized by the pretty sky, the blueish green grass, the forest, so full of life. He'd been so close to it all to the dreams he'd been dreaming up for the past year, maybe longer.

Once more, Wild heard those Chelsea boots from a mile away. Some things really never did change. Elaine knocked on the door, to which Tiffany opened it for her and smiled up with her as her tongue flopped out. "Hi!" Elaine smiled right back down at her. "I brought you three lunch!" Elaine was let in, and she put boxes on the counter. A sandwich, cucumbers, strawberries, and a granola bar were contained in each box. Westley and Tiffany eagerly grabbed at theirs. Wild waited a little longer before coming up himself. "They were hungry." Elaine mused. "They are still growing." Wild pointed out. He grabbed his box. "Thank you." Then he retreated back to the back.

The thing about wolf teeth is how much harder it is to eat nonmeats. Chewing took a lot longer. Wild was aware that Westley and Tiffany were now watching him try and consume his lunch. The pizza had taken him forever, too. Only then, the other two were distracted by completely different things. "Can you eat raw meat without getting sick?" Westley asked. He nodded a reply as he worked at a strawberry. It was something they had him try before. raw hamburger. He wasn't a fan of the taste of blood. "Did you like it?" He shook his head.

He wasn't a monster.