keep going to Lunam. Six hundred years of tradition can’t be wrong, can it?
A tall brown-haired beauty queen walks out of the house with a camera in her hand. She snaps a picture while Jessie introduces her. “This is my daughter, Tandy.” Layla leaves Jessie’s side to give Tandy a huge hug. “She came down for the weekend just to meet you. She has to go home tomorrow, back to her new baby boy.” Jessie’s face beams with pride as she gives Layla the baby’s stats. Weight: 8 pounds. Length: 22 inches. Name: Warner. Current age: 2 weeks.
“You look amazing,” I tell Tandy. Her body looks as fit as mine, and I work out, a lot.
“Thanks, but it’s just nature. We are back to true form within a week.” Tandy twirls and the ladies laugh.
“I don’t get it.” I feel like I’m being left out of a joke.
“Why don’t you girls go chat while we get dinner started?” Jessie hasn’t let go of Layla since we arrived. She pulls her away, and I feel like this is the beginning of the end.
Tandy loops her arm around mine and leads me into the house. Jessie and Bonnie live together with Bonnie’s daughters. I walk into the house and directly into the living room. The first thing I notice are the pictures that cover the walls. There is a large framed photo of Bonnie and a handsome man in a military uniform.
“That’s our dad,” Krystal tells me. She walks up to the photo, kisses her fingers then taps the man’s face. “He died in a helicopter accident in Afghanistan or Pakistan. I can never remember where exactly.”
“It was Kabul ,” Sophie Ann says as she walks past me into the hall and disappears.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Krystal.
“It’s cool, it happened a long time ago.” She shrugs and follows her sister out of the room.
I’m here two minutes and I’m already blown away. I thought our kind lived and died for the pack. I guess we can also live and die for our country.
Over the next hour I learn more about myself than I have in eighteen years with my mom. For starters, our bodies heal quickly after our fifteenth birthday, which is why Tandy looks like she stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog a two weeks after giving birth. Our healing process is accelerated when it comes to natural injuries like childbirth, minor cuts, and bruises. A bullet to the head or a knife to the chest will kill us just like a human. I think back over the last three years, and I can’t recall having any injury worth remembering. Minor cuts and bruises never really bothered me. I run ten miles a day and never get sore. I always thought it was conditioning and training. I wonder why Layla never told me about this convenient trait? Maybe because she knew I’d test it. Slicing my hand to see how fast I heal is so something I would’ve done. Part of me wants to go to the kitchen and do it now.
In between her schooling me on how this whole wolf thing works, Tandy talks about her son, Warner. She has a gazillion pictures on her cell phone. Warner eating, Warner pooping, Warner burping, Warner puking. “I know it seems crazy having a kid at our age, but I couldn’t be happier.” Tandy sneaks a shot of rum in her diet coke then sits on the sofa beside me. “Hopefully, you’ll get knocked up your first try.”
I am mid-sip when Tandy starts talking about me having a baby. I literally choke on my drink. It’s some sort of beer that Jessie cooked up. She said the drinking age doesn’t apply to something she brews in her backyard. The ale is dark and tastes sort of nutty. Even though I’ve only drank half a glass, I already feel buzzed. I clear my throat and tell Tandy I don’t want to think about that yet. She asks me what I’m afraid of.
“Please tell me you’re not a virgin.”
“If I find a mate at Lunam, and we have, you know…” I giggle like an immature school girl rather than say the word sex. “It won’t be my first time.” I cover my face with a throw pillow and wait for Tandy’s
A tall brown-haired beauty queen walks out of the house with a camera in her hand. She snaps a picture while Jessie introduces her. “This is my daughter, Tandy.” Layla leaves Jessie’s side to give Tandy a huge hug. “She came down for the weekend just to meet you. She has to go home tomorrow, back to her new baby boy.” Jessie’s face beams with pride as she gives Layla the baby’s stats. Weight: 8 pounds. Length: 22 inches. Name: Warner. Current age: 2 weeks.
“You look amazing,” I tell Tandy. Her body looks as fit as mine, and I work out, a lot.
“Thanks, but it’s just nature. We are back to true form within a week.” Tandy twirls and the ladies laugh.
“I don’t get it.” I feel like I’m being left out of a joke.
“Why don’t you girls go chat while we get dinner started?” Jessie hasn’t let go of Layla since we arrived. She pulls her away, and I feel like this is the beginning of the end.
Tandy loops her arm around mine and leads me into the house. Jessie and Bonnie live together with Bonnie’s daughters. I walk into the house and directly into the living room. The first thing I notice are the pictures that cover the walls. There is a large framed photo of Bonnie and a handsome man in a military uniform.
“That’s our dad,” Krystal tells me. She walks up to the photo, kisses her fingers then taps the man’s face. “He died in a helicopter accident in Afghanistan or Pakistan. I can never remember where exactly.”
“It was Kabul ,” Sophie Ann says as she walks past me into the hall and disappears.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Krystal.
“It’s cool, it happened a long time ago.” She shrugs and follows her sister out of the room.
I’m here two minutes and I’m already blown away. I thought our kind lived and died for the pack. I guess we can also live and die for our country.
Over the next hour I learn more about myself than I have in eighteen years with my mom. For starters, our bodies heal quickly after our fifteenth birthday, which is why Tandy looks like she stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog a two weeks after giving birth. Our healing process is accelerated when it comes to natural injuries like childbirth, minor cuts, and bruises. A bullet to the head or a knife to the chest will kill us just like a human. I think back over the last three years, and I can’t recall having any injury worth remembering. Minor cuts and bruises never really bothered me. I run ten miles a day and never get sore. I always thought it was conditioning and training. I wonder why Layla never told me about this convenient trait? Maybe because she knew I’d test it. Slicing my hand to see how fast I heal is so something I would’ve done. Part of me wants to go to the kitchen and do it now.
In between her schooling me on how this whole wolf thing works, Tandy talks about her son, Warner. She has a gazillion pictures on her cell phone. Warner eating, Warner pooping, Warner burping, Warner puking. “I know it seems crazy having a kid at our age, but I couldn’t be happier.” Tandy sneaks a shot of rum in her diet coke then sits on the sofa beside me. “Hopefully, you’ll get knocked up your first try.”
I am mid-sip when Tandy starts talking about me having a baby. I literally choke on my drink. It’s some sort of beer that Jessie cooked up. She said the drinking age doesn’t apply to something she brews in her backyard. The ale is dark and tastes sort of nutty. Even though I’ve only drank half a glass, I already feel buzzed. I clear my throat and tell Tandy I don’t want to think about that yet. She asks me what I’m afraid of.
“Please tell me you’re not a virgin.”
“If I find a mate at Lunam, and we have, you know…” I giggle like an immature school girl rather than say the word sex. “It won’t be my first time.” I cover my face with a throw pillow and wait for Tandy’s
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