After about fifteen minutes the town mechanic, a grey wolf named Lance came by in his truck, dressed in a flannel, overalls and a red trucker hat that read ‘Big Game’, he spoke in a southern accent, “What seems to be the problem?”
Mr. Panchak nodded, “Humans…” Lance twisted his muzzle in confusion, “I meant the car.”
Mr. Panchak gazed at the van, “Looks like it hit one of our humps. Made it farther than anticipated. The blades might be getting dull.”
Mr. Panchak got out of the way as Lance tapped on the driver side window, “Sir, I’m Lance. I’m sure this must be all sorts of odd to you, but Imma get you fixed up, right as rain.”
The father twisted in his seat, “Mr.? Mr. Lance, I appreciate it, but we can’t leave. We have nowhere else to go.”
Lance has already moved to the middle of the car and started to lay down on the ground to look underneath, “Yep, that looks very busted. Very much so.”
Lance got back up and wiped some sweat from his brow, it was boiling at this time of year and having fur didn’t help. Lance approached Mr. Panchak, “Ya’ know sir, it might be in all of our best interest if they stay. These people ain’t no pranksters or teens fooling around in the woods. If we chase ‘em out, people might believe what they have to say.”
Lance turned to look at the family in the van, “Plus… and I don’t mean no offense by this… but I don’t think these folks pose much of a threat to anyone. You really think five humans, three of ‘em children pose a threat to one werewolf, let alone a whole town of us?”
Mr. Panchak stared back at Lance with a stone face, “Humans can get very vicious when pushed. I wouldn’t put it past the smallest human child.”
Lance chuckled, “I mean, we can get pretty vicious too sir, all things considered. Got these big teeth, claws…”
Mr. Pancake’s muzzle twisted in anger, “Humans have guns, and knives, and machetes. I don’t think the big bad wolf can do much against that. Even if we too can use those weapons, all that means is that who lives and dies has less to do with strength, and more to do with who can shoot and who has the most ammo.”
Lance chuckled and waved his trucker hat around in his paws to air it out, “Geez Mr. Panchak, I know we keep to ourselves and all, but if I’d known you better I’d say you don’t like humans very much?”
Mr. Panchak glowered, “And would you blame me if I did?”
Lance’s eyes widened as he backed up a step, “W-well… n-no sir, I guess not. You believe what you want… f-free country…”
Mr. Panchak nodded and turned to the car, “They’ll stay for now. We’ll discuss how long that stay is exactly at the town hall meeting.”
Mr. Panchak looked down and glared into the father’s eyes, “But make no mistake, I’ve got my eyes, ears and nose on you humans.”
The Timberwolf stood back as Lance started lifting the back of the van, and chained it to the back of his tow truck. The human family finally exited the van with caution and apprehension. The humans were The Adler Family, with father Will, mother Lindsey, teen son Rowan, teen daughter Annalise, and little daughter Fay. While Mr. Panchak kept his distance, Dahlia was happy to introduce herself, she greeted the kids as they exited the van, “Hey!”
Annalise backed up, Fay shrunk back into the car, and Rowan backed up until he hit the side of the van, “Hey, don’t be scared. I’m a kid like you guys. I’m not feral or anything, I mean it.”
Rowan stuttered out, “Y-y-you’re a w-werwolf.”
Dahlia smiled and nodded, “Yeah!”
Annalise shook her head, “Werewolves aren’t real.”
Dahlia chuckled, “Um, so… what exactly am I supposed to be? Someone in a costume? A furry? A Halloween enthusiast?”
Dahlia giggled and shook her head and the humans looked on with unease, “I hate to break it to you, but werewolves are real, vampires, sea monsters, hapries, dragons, all that stuff.”
Annalise shook her head, “No way, that doesn’t make any sense. Then who’s keeping all of this a secret, the government?”
Dahlia replied with a shrug, “No, just us. We’ve gotten pretty lucky, most of us keep a low profile. Some of the luckier monsters can blend into human society, like vampires. And the ones that get caught are either called cryptids… or the humans that report them are called crazy. My friend Dana got stupid drunk at a howling last summer and drunk-posted a selfie of her and her friends at a campfire… humans online called it fake, said it was part of a game dev, others thought it was the worst AI art they’ve ever seen… but no one said ‘real werewolves’. We lucked out that most of your kind very stubbornly think that none of this is real.”
Annalise asked, “So… the whole town is-“
Dahlia finished, “Werewolves. Well… we WE’RE all werewolves until today it seems. But you’re the only humans in town.”
The humans all just looked at each other and then back to Dahlia, “Aw, don’t be like that. This’ll be cool, I swear. What are your names anyways, you two look around my age.”
Annalise put a hand to her chest, “I’m Annalise, I’ll be a Senior this year.”
Rowan was still a bit shaky, “I-I’m Rowan, a Senior too.”
Dahlia’s eyes lit up, “Hey, you’ll be in my grade. Maybe we could be study buddies. If you help me out with my homework I promise I won’t eat you.”
All three of the humans went wide-eyed, Dahlia chuckled nervously, “Joke! It was a joke, I’m just joking.”
She turned her attention to the little one, “And who might you be, cutie?”
Fay was just as shaky as her older brother, “F-Fay. I’m going into Eighth Grade.”
Dahlia clapped her paws together, “Awesome. How about I show ya’ll around.”
Mr. and Mrs. Adler had gotten out of the van to talk to Lance as Mr. Panchak stood to the side glowering at the three of them. Mr. Adler took Lance’s paw, shaking it, “Thank you Mr. Laurier, how much will this cost us.”
Lance shook his head, “This one’s free of charge, besides… it’s kinda our fault your car’s in this state anyway.”
Mrs. Adler asked, “And the neighborhood?”
Lance waved one paw in the air, “Werewolves as far as the eye can see. I reckon that’s why your house was sold to you so cheap.”
The couple looked at each other, worried, shocked and dumbfounded. Dahlia gestured for the three to follow her, “Come on. Let’s get you three situated.”
Mr. Panchak immediately noticed his daughter taking off, “Dahlia, just where do you think you’re going?”
She hated her father when he got like this, she grinned and waved her paws around, “Gonna show these three around town.”
Mr. Panchak huffed, “You’re going alone with three humans?”
Dahlia’s grin grew, “Well, yeah. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. Watch this.”
Dahlia turned around, towering over the three humans. She opened her jaws and snarled at them, raining strings of saliva down on them, “RAWR, LUNCH TIME!”
The three fell to the ground in shock, panting in fright. Dahlia turned around with a devious grin, “See Dad, told you.”
Mr. Panchak had had about enough, “Be home by night fall young lady.”
Dahlia’s ears twitched as she folded her arms, “By nightfall? Humans don’t even have night vision Dad.”
Mr. Panchak barked back, “BY NIGHTFALL, AND THAT’S FINAL DAHLIA!”
Dahlia rolled her eyes as she turned around and bent over, helping the humans back up, “Come on, looks like we’re burning daylight.”
As Dahlia and the three Adler children took off, the Adler parents were in the cross hairs of Mr. Panchak, the humans and werewolf stared at each other for a moment, before the Timberwolf addressed them with venom in his voice, “Humans…”
Mr. Adler held up his hands, “Listen sir, I’m sorry if my family has caused any disturbance to you or your neighborhood, but I WILL NOT BE BULLIED… even by a werewolf.”
Mr. Panchak sighed, looking at the ground, “You humans think we’re abominable beasts. Unholy creatures that feast on the innocent, am I wrong?”
Mr. Adler shook his head, “I never said that.”
Mr. Panchak immediately snapped back, “But you were thinking it. You saw me and your first instinct is to ram me. Run me over like a deer on the highway. But I’m just as much of a man as you, maybe even more so. I have a daughter to raise and protect. Plenty of the folks around here just want to live in peace, but you’d call them monsters… the only reason you even get to do that is because you humans breed like rabbits, all… what… 8 billion of you?”
Mr. Adler was starting to get a bit heated too, “Well I’m sure we’ll get along just fine with the townsfolk. I’m sure they’ll at least be nicer than you.”
Mr. Panchak huffed, “Hah, you’ve got a sense of humor, human.”
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