A/N: Hello, all. I have returned. Now, I only have to update Pretty Little Evening Star before Tuesday in order to prove FlamingDoritos wrong. Anyone who reads Tales from the Faerie Court will know that I've been on a block recently, so this chapter may not be great-- I'm just trying to get back on my feet. Anyway, thanks for the reviews:

FD: Yes, they will appear soon enough-- I think I'll have fun writing them :)

another cc: Yeppers, here's your update. Thanks :)

angel-Janna: Yeah, I know, sometimes the seriousness gets a little overplayed. Glad you like it... and of course, we can't forget that bathrobe :) (Although sadly it is not mentioned in this chapter. It shall return soon).

Anyway, you probably just want to get to the chapter, so here it is:

Chapter Four

Mom’s the Word as Far as the Wolf’s Concerned

Running… must not stop running. Must… keep… running…

Gunshot. Bullet… zips by my head. Must… run… faster…

I turn my head and look behind me. A man… a man with a gun. Shooting me. A man.

My father.

I am on all fours, running. Must… escape… must… not… be… hit…

“Mr. Wolf?”

Must… keep… running…

“Wolf?”

Must… escape…

“WOLF!”

My eyes snapped open. It was third period on Monday, and I was in Bio. I gave a sigh of relief; it was just a dream…

“So, you think you can sleep in my class, do you?” snarled Mr. Bane from directly in front of me. “Kindly remind me what mark you received on your last test.”

I smiled apologetically; I didn’t want the whole class to hear that number.

“I thought so.”

He made his way back to his own desk and sat down. “Although… now that I think about it… taking a nap does seem like a good idea.”

And so he collapsed onto the surface of the desk, sound asleep.

“Well then,” whispered Morgan from beside me. “That was…”

“Weird?” Travis finished for her.

She nodded. “Exactly.”

We took the opportunity to work on some of our other homework for the second half of the class, not really speaking much seeing as we were all in different classes first two periods. I was working on English… Morgan had math homework… Travis… well, he’d swiped a copy of Penthouse off of Mr. Bane’s desk and was occupying himself with that; neither of us glanced his way the entire time.

Finally, the bell rang.

“Class dismissed,” Mr. Bane yawned, pulling himself to his feet. “Wolf, I’d like a word with you.”

“See you later, Ryan,” sighed Morgan, gathering up her things and leaving the room.

Grinning like an idiot, Travis handed me the magazine. “You don’t mind returning this for me, do you?”

“Uh…”

“Thanks, man!”

Before I could protest, he was gone.

“Dammit,” I muttered to myself; now I would have to take the blame for his crime.

I waited for the rest of the class to leave before I approached him. Sure, Mr. Bane was no threat usually, but in his sudden good health, he kind of scared me.

“Uh, Travis took this,” I told him, cautiously placing the magazine on his desk.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure. Why are you wearing your sister’s necklace?”

Well, that definitely wasn’t what I’d expected. The way I saw it, I could give him any answer but the truth. There was no lie I could tell that could make me look worse than if I told the truth.

“Er… because I thought it was pretty.”

Except maybe that.

Mr. Bane looked at me strangely. “Well, take it off. I’m confiscating it.”

I stared at him in disbelief; if he confiscated it, I was screwed. “Why?!”

“Because silver is a dangerous thing in this town, that’s why,” he replied. “Take it off and put it on my desk, right now.”

Defeated, I did as he said; what else could I do?

Without warning, he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and dragged me out of the room.

“What the-?” I started to say, but he cut me off with a sharp tug to my skin.

“You can’t expect to live your life like this, Ryan,” he muttered in a soft undertone, “Imagine; Ryan Wolf, son of the great Jesse Wolf, shot and killed in the forest. Think of your jackass father, your pretty mother… what would that do to them?”

My eyes widened. “You know something!”

“I don’t know,” he answered, “What is it you think I know?”

“It’s not what I think you know; it’s what I know you know.”

“Then what is it you know I know?”

“You know.”

“How do you know I know?”

“I know I know you know.”

“I know.”

By this time, we were in the parking lot, right next to Mr. Bane’s rather tacky orange Matrix™. He opened the passenger door and practically threw me inside, then, placing one hand on the hood, propelled himself to the other side of the car with surprising athletic grace and slid into the driver’s seat.

“Buckle up, Wolf.”

I did. “Where are you taking me?”

“Should be fairly obvious.”

Slamming on the gas, he quickly backed out of the parking space and roared from the lot onto the road; he drove like Cruella deVil in the animated Disney movie, but now that I thought about it, I could’ve expected that from him.

He took on hand off the steering wheel and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket—I decided not to point out that talking on the phone while driving was irresponsible (A/N: That’s today’s lesson, kiddies! Drive responsibly!).

“Hey, baby, it’s me,” he greeted whoever he was calling. “Yeah, I’ve got a kid with me who recently got bitten… yes, I’m bringing him to the registry right now. Is there any way someone else could work on him, though? I want to use this as an excuse to spend some time with you… yes, baby, I love you to… and no, I don’t give a damn about your husband. Yes, of course I’d beat up your husband if you wanted me to; I can take him with both hands tied behind my back on my worst of days. Will you let me beat up your husband? Please? Pretty please?”

“Watch the road,” I hissed at him, getting rather annoyed.

“Sorry, cutes; this kid’s a wiseass. I gotta go. See you in a few, sweetheart!”

“You’re dating a married woman?” I demanded.

He smiled. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yeah.”

“Isn’t that a little immoral?”

“Hey, it’s not like that!” he snapped, “I’m crazy about my girlfriend; I love her to death! Besides, it’s not like she and her husband weren’t having problems anyway, I happen to know for a fact that he’s cheating on her too.”

“Oh.”

We didn’t say anything else to each other for the rest of the drive. Finally, he pulled up in front of the registry and escorted me inside.

“Hey, Lorraine,” he greeted my mother as soon as we made our entrance, “Is Sandy here?”

Aha! He was dating my mom’s friend Sandy Brown! More than once I’d heard her talking to my mom about her distant husband, and, for a woman in her early forties, she definitely wasn’t unattractive.

Making her way towards us, Mom shook her head. “Sorry, Pierce; Sandy just left. Right now it’s just me… Ryan!”

Our eyes met; I felt like crying. She didn’t look angry or disappointed, just… sad. I couldn’t tell why; was it because I was hurt and my life was ruined, or because I hadn’t told her?

“Sweetheart…” she addressed me, looking me over in concern, “…when did this happen?”

“Friday night,” I answered quietly.

“So that’s why you were here Saturday,” she mused. “Well, come with me. Pierce?”

“Yes?” answered Mr. Bane.

“Stay here. I want a word with you after.”

She took me by the hand and led me down the corridor to one of the rooms at the back. It looked very much like a clinic room, but then again I supposed this was almost a sort of medical checkup anyway.

“You could have told me after your dad left,” she scolded gently, closing the door behind her.

“That’s what Morgan said,” I admitted as I sat down, “but I didn’t know how long he’d be there, and he might have gotten suspicious. I guess I just didn’t want to be the next Janie.”

Apart from Summer, I have two other siblings; my little brother Dylan and my older sister Janie, who was attending college in the nearest city. As far as I knew, Janie and Dad hadn’t spoken since she’d left because Dad had practically disowned her after she had a baby in her senior year of high school. I don’t know why he made such a big deal out of it; sure, fathers don’t usually like their daughters getting pregnant if they’re in high school, but most of them find it in their heart to forgive. She even married her boyfriend, but no, even that wasn’t enough to get her back in Dad’s good books.

Mom nodded. “I guess you’re right. Your father does have his… prejudices. But even after Saturday, you could have said something, just at home.”

“What if he walked in, though?” I asked as she pulled a syringe from a small refrigerator in the corner of the room.

“He wouldn’t have; in case you haven’t noticed, Dad and I aren’t exactly in the newly-wed phase any more.”

That was true; that brief, almost forced kiss I’d witnessed on Saturday had been the most affectionate I’d seen my parents in years. I always figured they were just past the PDA stuff once they hit forty.

“Okay, honey, hold out your arm.”

Wincing slightly, I did; I’d always hated needles. Now, I had to have seven each month. Go figure.

“Ow!” I exclaimed as she quickly administered the shot. Damn, those needles…

She frowned. “Did I hurt you?”

Feeling the need to look tough, I shook my head. “No.”

“You look a little pale,” my mother stated with concern. “I think I’ll keep you here for a few minutes.”

I nodded; I didn’t care too much about missing business management class anyway.

She looked at me suspiciously. “You weren’t using silver, were you?”

“Not the whole time,” I told her truthfully. “I transformed Friday night, but Morgan and Travis tranquilized me and watch me the whole time. Then I went to Summer and she lent me a necklace, but Mr. Bane confiscated it.”

“Summer,” sighed Mom, shaking her head. “I’ll definitely be speaking with her about this. She should have come straight to me and not given you anything. Do you know what awful effects silver can have on you now?”

“Okay, okay,” I relented, “I’ll stop using it. But how am I supposed to get out of the house every night of the full moon without Dad noticing?”

“I’ll make your excuses for you,” she assured me, “Just get to the forest every night, and make sure you’re wearing this.”

She handed me a reflective red collar.

“I love you, Ryan; I don’t want to see you get hurt. I know of only too many people who have handled this the wrong way and I don’t want you to be one of them.”

I took a deep breath. “Thanks, Mom. I love you too.”

Mom smiled. “Do you think you’re ready to go? I’ll take you straight home.”

“Okay.”

She then led me back to the lobby.

“Pierce?” she addressed Mr. Bane. “Would you mind watching the place while I take Ryan home? I’ll pay you.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I can take care of the place while you’re gone. Just hurry back, okay?”

“I promise.”

They exchanged a quick, friendly smile, then we left.

“How do you and Dad know him?” I inquired as soon as we got into my mom’s blue Honda Civic™.

She frowned as she carefully pulled out of the parking space. “Who, Pierce?”

“Yeah, him.”

“We hung out in school,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the rode. “He was your father’s best friend. I went to my prom with Pierce.”

I frowned. “Didn’t you and Dad date when you were in high school?”

“I dated both of them. Just imagine Archie, Betty, and Veronica, just with the genders reversed.”

“Oh.”

I decided not to ask any more questions, remembering that if I knew too much, all I had left to think about was my unfortunate case of lycanthropy. This way, instead of lying awake in bed thinking about my pitiful existence, I could lie awake in bed thinking about why Mom chose Dad and why Dad and Mr. Bane stopped being friends.

Either way, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting too much sleep for quite some time.

A/N: Sorry about the bad ending. The chapter had done everything I wanted it to and I just couldn't think of a good way to end it. Anyway, thanks for reading and review s'il-vous-plait!

(According to my hit and review count, only five percent of readers are reviewing, which isn't great. Come on people, let's see if we can pull it up a bit! Thanks.)