Werewolfing. 5

Chapter Five

Seb pushed his way back into the restaurant, stomach tightening by the second. He couldn’t tell if was the imminent transformation, or the fear of what would happen if the stranger was discovered.

The restaurant wasn’t warm and welcoming anymore - it was full of people that probably wouldn’t treat him kindly if they knew the truth. He slipped between people and waiters, dipping and dodging trays of food that suddenly smelt nauseating.

Seb checked under tables, half expecting Riley to emerge from the back of the restaurant shouting and lecturing, too desperate to care about the confused looks and hostile glares he earned as he working his way clockwise around the room. He wondered while he searched, he wondered why he was looking for the stranger, a boy who hadn’t even told him his name nor shown anything close to gratitude.

I’m looking for him because he’ll be easy to find. He’d be a charcoal smudge on a canvas of colour - as soon as Seb laid eyes on him, he’d know instantly. It’d be easy. He hoped.

By the time Seb had searched all of the tables, he was trembling. It wouldn’t be long now. He could practically feel his fingernails narrowing into claws. He sprinted to the bathrooms, calling out and then realising he didn’t have anything to name the stranger. He checked the reception area, sprinted up to the family’s quarters, and then back down again to the door by the kitchen, panting like a dog and leaning against a wall until he’d caught his breath.

Seb sidled into the kitchen, slinking around the door and then checking everywhere he could before he was shooed out with obscene gestures and angry shouts. A waiter watched Seb leap out of the kitchen, followed by angry hollering, and made a grab at the scuff of his neck.

Nope. Years of dodging bullies’ punches kicked in as Seb stooped under the hand and pushed it out of the way, making a dash for the door that lay around the corner at the end of the stuffy corridor. He was shaking so hard that his hands couldn’t grip the damn door handle. He heard the waiter behind him, almost around the corner. Seb gave up on the doorknob and threw his trembling body through the swing-door on his right as quietly as he could, falling forwards onto the floor of some kind of storeroom.

It was cramped, like everything else in that building was, and full of vegetables and spices and strange powders, all lined up on metal racks that ran in rows up and down the cupboard-room. As he calmed down, he noticed another smell that made his nose wrinkle. It was unwashed human, and the unmistakable stench of musty wolf.

Shaking, just like Seb was, and crumpled under the food selves was the stranger. He stared up at Seb, who made a shhh motion with a quaking finger as he crouched down to the stranger’s level.

“C’mon,” he whispered, “we have to go. It’s not that bad,”

Nothing. No kind of movement. No recognition in those awful, livid eyes.

“You have to come. You can’t shift here. These people don’t know about our wolves!” He hissed.

Silence.

“Please. We’ll have to move away if you get caught. You need to come with me.”

Silence.

“You’re-” Seb’s voice died in his throat as a violent shudder ran up his spine. He fell onto all fours, jolting horribly against the floor and heaving like he was about to vomit. He shut his eyes. All he registered before he opened them again was pinpricks and pressure all over his skin, and a moment of near perfection as his senses of smell and hearing burst and intensified.

He opened his eyes gingerly and wriggled out of his suffocating clothes. Underneath the metal rack, the stranger had transformed, too. He lay curled up and still shivering as Seb picked up his clothes and glared.

The door swung open and light sprawled across the room. Seb scrambled under the shelf with the stranger, biting back barks of pain as the metal dug into his back and wincing at the sound of his claws scrabbling across the floor.

Footsteps came closer and patrolled up and down, peering into the corners. Seb pushed harder against the stranger, pressing them both up against the wall as the footsteps approached and searched over everything again.

It was the longest thirty seconds of Seb’s life. His heart galloped in his chest, his breathing stopped as he stared at the waiter’s feet. He could feel the stranger panicking in exactly the same way. If it hadn’t been so serious, it would’ve been laughable - his future depended on a pair of feet and which way they turned.

Eventually, they sighed and muttered something as they went. Seb waited another minute, until he’d heard the footsteps leave and fade into the mind-numbing beat of the club down the street. The noises of the kitchen and the restaurant returned to humming like a wasps' swarm on the brink of attack.

Seb clawed his way out of from under the shelf, ears pulled back in displeasure. The stranger followed, waving his tail faintly. Seb raised his lips to bare his teeth, flinching whenever he heard anyone go by outside. This isn’t the time to wag your bloody tail.

Seb sat back on his haunches and tucked his tail close to his body. His ears twitched every time someone walked by. The stranger settled down, laying his head on his scrawny paws and occasionally sneaking a glance at Seb.

It felt as if his mind were drowning in anger, lapping at his thoughts and rising like floodwater. Seb didn’t stifle the growl in his chest. It was the stranger’s fault, all his fault. That idiot wandered off for no reason, probably just to cause trouble and ruin Seb’s life. In that little room, that damnable storeroom with its dusty walls and its grimy windows, he could solve it all.

One well-placed bite, one little snap, and all of his problems would be solved. Seb stared at the stranger’s neck. A very dark part of him, one that hadn’t stirred in the years since his adoption, threatened to overthrow his conscience. Just one moment of violence, and he’d never have to feel this anger ever again.

The stranger whined, sitting up and turning the back of his neck away from Seb’s jaws. The whites of his eyes showed as his hackles came up. Seb let his snarl die, bringing his ears forward into a friendlier position.

He sighed and buried his morbid temptations. Shame and guilt welled up as he collected his clothes up in his mouth. The stranger copied and cocked his head as if he were waiting for some kind of instruction.

Seb scanned around the room, padding around the metal racks to stare up at the filthy window. Garish streetlight filtered in through the dirt. He reared up onto his hind legs, resting his giant paws on the windowsill and staring into the glass.

It didn’t look too thick; typical frosted glass that was covered in a layer of something greasy that Seb couldn’t name. He counted down from five in his head.

Seb smashed his skull against the window. Shards of glass flew and settled in his fur, glinting in the silver like a grey sequin-covered dress. Seb shook his pelt out and clambered up out of the window, slipping on a misplaced paw. The knives of glass still left in the windowpane dug into and pierced the soft parts of his underbelly. He scrabbled with his hind paws and tumbled over into the gutter in the street outside, yelping into the bundle of clothes in his mouth.

Scents of night in the city blew over him and ruffled his fur. Fumes and bins and the wind melted together into a delicious mess of smells. Through his dull eyes, the road was a mess of fuzzy red and golden lights that rumbled at the mouth of the alleyway.

The stranger followed, nimbly and swiftly, with all of the silent grace of a jaguar. He landed next to Seb, who was still picking himself up and complaining about his cuts. He picked up a soft creak and heavy footsteps, as door to the storeroom swung open and two men flooded inside.

Seb took off toward the main road, looping from the back of the building to the restaurant's front, splashing water and something unspeakable up his legs and into his fur as he went. Each stride felt as if it were ripping the wounds on his stomach wider and wider, dripping blood as he paused by the corner that led onto the pavement. The stranger stopped beside him, sniffing and peering down the pavement.

It was empty, apart from a car swinging out into the foggy darkness. A plane soared and banked overhead, whirring quietly. Seb looked at the stranger and nodded, taking off down the street. They loped past Chinese takeaways and kebab shops, shaking off the rain as they listened keenly, turning their ears to every noise.

They skidded to a halt outside the shabby Indian restaurant and Seb surged forwards to poke his head through the dog flap in the front door. He cringed backwards with a yelp as the dog - a big-boned German Shepherd named Cody hellbent on defending his territory - shoved his muzzle through the door and started barking. Behind Seb, the stranger barked back.

The doorknob grated against metal as it was turned, and Seb could hear a human trying to soothe Cody as his barks died into raspy growls. The front door opened, and Seb rushed backwards, into the shadows. The stranger followed suit, cowering beside Seb.

Cody was dragged indoors, while his handler muttered something about stupid kids as she shut the door. Seb glanced at the stranger, whose shoulders were haunched over - presumably - with fear and tail was tucked between his legs like a disgraced dog.

A car’s engine wheezed into life as it pulled out of its parking place. Its garish lights shone onto Seb and the stranger, blinding them. Pain flashed across Seb’s eyes and fear squeezed his chest as he flinched away, springing across the main road behind them. A van screeched past, blaring its horn as it almost ran them over.

Seb stopped at the railings that divided the pavement from the canal below, watching the road and the cars go by as he pushed against the metal like a cornered lab rat. His lips rippled away from his teeth in a petrified last line of defence for an attack that never came. Seb forced his breathing to go slower, trying to pick apart the scents in the rain and the fumes.

There was nothing but water, nighttime, and rubbish floating up from the canal. The stranger pressed up against Seb’s flanks, quivering, as a lorry rumbled past. For the first time, Seb didn’t shy away from the contact. Even though the bloody twat was responsible for everything - everything - that had happened, Seb found himself making a low, rumbling sound to try to reassure him.

Seb glanced back at the door to Tanvi’s restaurant. Safety was one thing Seb doubted they’d have that night. Riley is going to kill me. The rain started to fall harder. It was a perfect, torrential cloak for them to slink away under.

And so, checking over their shoulders with every other step, they did.