When they woke up the next morning, Flappy was whining by the door. Groaning, Traven stretched as he sat up. "I forgot about this part of civilized life."
He stood up and grabbed the new harness and leash. Traven struggled with the harness, and the poor dog fought an uncomfortable battle with nature. Finally, the two of them exited the hotel room. Lucky got up to make some coffee. She had started drinking coffee in the morning back at the orphanage, and had risen early every day to make sure a fresh pot of coffee was ready when the Smiths and some of the older kids got up.
The hotel suite was nice, with a living room area and a small kitchen. She had paid for a week in advance, figuring that would give them time to decide what to do next.
After pouring herself a cup of coffee, she sat down on the couch and pulled out the new iPhone she had purchased the previous day. She had an important phone call to make, and the knowledge that she was going to make the Smiths' day made her smile. She hesitated for a moment, wondering how to explain what had happened. Her thoughts tumbled around like clothes in a dryer, one full of change that had fallen out of pockets. How could she explain the events that had led to her present situation? She couldn't tell the Smiths she was living in a hotel with a werewolf she had just met and his adorable dog.
How was she going to explain that she was a werewolf? She couldn't hide it from them forever. She supposed she would tell them when the time was right.
She dialed the number, listening as it rang a few times. Then she heard a familiar voice. Mrs. Smith. "Hello?"
"Hey, it's Lucky." she said, and found that she didn't know what to say next. Her brain froze and lump lodged itself in her throat as she imagined the woman who raised her getting this call after so long. Mrs. Smith was also quiet for a moment, perhaps afraid to believe.
"Lucky is that really you?" She finally asked.
"It is. A lot of stuff has happened." Boy, that was an understatement. Lucky could hear Mrs. Smith yelling for her husband, "it's Lucky! She's alive!"
"What!?" Mr. Smith exclaimed in the background. She could picture him, running in to the room, probably wearing one of his sweater vests.
"Is he wearing a sweater vest?" Lucky asked, suppressing a giggle.
"Yes, he is. How did you guess?"
"Lucky guess." She chuckled a little and so did Mrs. Smith. She had missed them so much, but now she didn't know what to say. She decided to just speak from her heart. "Listen, I will tell you what happened, but I am not ready to talk about it yet. I just wanted to let you know I am safe."
Just then the door opened and Traven and Flappy entered. "Hey beautiful," Traven said, then noticed she was on the phone and covered his mouth, looking embarrassed.
"Who is that?" Mrs. Smith asked, her tone slightly suspicious . "Are you sure you are okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. That's Traven. He's my, well, my boyfriend. He's a really nice guy, and he has this dog that I am in love with." She smiled at Traven, who clutched at his chest, feigning heartbreak.
"Are you stealing another girlfriend from me?" he admonished Flappy as he took the harness off. "I know you're cute and all, but really? Flappy, you get all the girls. It's so unfair." His serious tone made it hilarious.
Hearing this, Mrs. Smith couldn't help but laugh along with Lucky. Flappy barked, and ran over to Lucky, clearly demanding that she scratch behind his ears. Which, of course, she did. "He's a good boy, aren't you, Mr. Flaps."
"I'm a good boy too," Traven whined, doing his best impression of puppy dog eyes. Lucky cracked up, hoping that Mrs. Smith would be able to hear her happiness.
She must have, because the suspicious tone was gone. "Well I guess a bad guy wouldn't have a good dog, that's not how it works."
Lucky thought of Nyah and how she had handled her bad owners. "You are right about that." She said.
"Lucky where have you been? We have been so worried. We thought the worst." Mr. Smith took the phone from his wife.
"She said she's not ready to talk about it yet," Mrs. Smith told her husband. "But she is safe."
"I really am, I promise I am okay. Can I call you in a couple of days when I get settled?" She couldn't tell them. Not yet. She wondered if she would ever be able to tell them the truth. It would break their hearts, knowing how much she'd suffered.
"Where are you?" Mr. Smith asked, sounding bewildered but relieved.
"I'm looking for a place to live, maybe here in Albuquerque." She figured she would have them visit eventually, once she was settled somewhere. She wasn't too keen on the idea of going back to Las Vegas.
Suddenly, Flappy's whole demeanor changed. He stood up, growling, hackles raised, his eyes to the door. Lucky felt her heart jump in to her throat. What had the dog on alert like that?
Could someone have found her? No one had seen her leave Las Vegas, they had only seen her wolf. She had been careful to leave as few traces of herself as possible behind. She had burned the original money bag and put the money in the tent bag, leaving the tent behind. There had been a few blood stains on the burlap bag.
"Open up, police," she heard a commanding voice from outside. Her heart dropped in to her stomach as her mind raced through every possible scenario. Were they here for her, or were they here for Traven?
"I will call soon, I've got to go, love you," Lucky quickly disconnected the call, hoping her abrupt end to the conversation didn't cause them to worry about her. They had surely done enough of that.
She told Traven to hide in the bathroom, insisting that she would be the one to answer the door. Of the two of them, he was the most likely to be on the radar, at least in human form, and the room was registered to Lucky Lancaster. He tried to protest, but she insisted, shooing him into the bathroom.
"Open up, I just have a few questions for you." The cop knocked again, and Lucky opened the door.
"Can I help you?" She asked, peering up at the tall, uniformed police officer, whose thick glasses made him seem a bit less intimidating. Nyah remained quiet, not sensing any threat. She did wonder what a werewolf was doing dressed as a cop, but she didn't say anything for fear of alarming Lucky.
He carried an air of authority, standing tall in his crisp, clean uniform, and freshly polished shoes. She tilted her head to the side, giving him her friendliest smile. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, thinking to herself that there was something different about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Good morning, ma'am, we are just going door to door checking to see if you have seen anything strange going on this morning, around the hotel. We had a report of some wolves in the area." His expression remained neutral. Lucky didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. On one hand, they had not been in wolf form anywhere near here, so he couldn't be talking about them. On the other hand, what if someone from Traven's pack had been in town, and recognized him? She shoved her anxiety out of her mind as best she could, not wanting to seem nervous.
"Wolves? I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary," Lucky told the officer. Flappy growled, eyeing the officer suspiciously. He sensed her nervousness, she realized. She was being called out by a dog. "It's okay, Flappy, he's a good guy." She told the dog, who seemed to understand and sat down obediently next to Lucky.
"What a cute little guy," the officer remarked. "It's okay, buddy, I'm not here to hurt anyone. He reminds me of the labs a good friend of mine keeps around." The officer looked closely at the dog for a minute, then surprised her by asking,"can I pet him?"
"Sure, he loves ear scratches," she told him. The officer bent down and scratched behind his ears, smiling as the dog's tail began to wag. Then, Flappy growled, his eyes trained on something across the street. The officer turned to look, and let out a low whistle.
"Well I'll be damned," he said, "those are the biggest wolves I have ever seen. And they are.... watching us." He wasn't hallucinating, two huge reddish brown wolves sat across the street, staring right at them. They projected an intelligence one would not expect to find in ordinary wolves. Before she had time to think about it, she waved at them. To her amazement, one of the wolves nodded its head, cocked it to the side, and lifted a paw as though waving back. It almost seemed to grin. They suddenly took off, headed for the hills. What on earth? She was certain they were werewolves.
She stepped outside, watching them disappear as they dashed into the open desert surrounding them. When she came back inside the officer was in the middle of a call. "yep, the resemblance is uncanny," he was saying to someone, a weird smile struggling with the corners of his mouth. He saw Lucky looking at him curiously and quickly ended the call.
Traven came out of the bathroom, startling both Lucky and the cop. Her heart pounded, and as she eyed her mate it began pounding faster. He was absolutely the sexiest thing she had ever seen, wearing only a pair of sweatpants. Since when were sweatpants sexy? Since he put them on, apparently. He looked delicious, and her face heated up and turned red as her imagination opened up.
"What's going on, dear?" He asked casually, drying his hands on his sweatpants. "Is everything okay?" He pretended to be surprised to see a cop standing in the doorway.
"Well, there were some wolves, across the street, two of them." Traven's face paled, and Lucky's heart froze at fear she saw in his eyes.
"Wolves? That's odd," he said calmly, only his eyes showing his true feelings. "What did they look like?"
"They were abnormally large," the officer said, scratching his head. "They took off towards the desert. Brownish reddish color. Very unusual looking."
Traven breathed a sigh of relief when the officer described the wolves, the fear leaving his eyes as he smiled at Lucky. They must not have been from his former pack. Were all of the wolves from his pack the same color as he was? Miles was the same color as Nyah. She wondered if fur color identified the pack a werewolf belonged to. It made sense.
"Well, I'm going to let you folks get back to your day," the officer said, handing Lucky his card. "If you see anything else, give me a ring. And be careful. After what happened in Las Vegas, the last thing we want is for anyone to be attacked by a wolf." Lucky felt the world stop spinning for a moment and she thought she might faint. Was the whole damn world talking about her wolf?
"Oh yes, I saw that on the news. Was it a wolf that caused all that chaos in Las Vegas?" Lucky asked, holding her breath. Might as well find out what they knew, it would be useful information.
"Well, the FBI is involved now, along with a bunch of other government agencies, animal welfare groups, it's quite a mess." The officer sighed. "We don't know much more than the general public. There are so many strange things about the attack, like the wolf, if it was a wolf? Many people have been saying it was too big to be a wolf. It's behavior was strange, it jumped into the fountain like it wanted to get rid of the blood, it was not aggressive towards anyone outside. In fact, almost all of the witnesses reported that it just seemed anxious to get out of there, that it seemed scared. Just weird. And now these two wolves show up here in Albuquerque." The officer realized he was rambling. "Well, you two have a nice day." He tipped his hat and made his way back to his patrol car.
Lucky turned to Traven, and they quickly found peace in each others arms. She listened as his heart slowed down, her face pressed against his bare skin. The electric-like hum pulsed between them, slowly expelling the turmoil raging in her mind.
She hadn't expected to become anonymously famous. She hoped she would be able to remain anonymous!This was all so crazy! How had she managed to become some modern day version of the Big Bad Wolf?