Chapter 10

When Ana and Toya reached the Portside Grill, it was dark. They walked around to the front.

“There you are! Where have you been?!” Karen nearly shrieked. She stormed up to them and thrust two brown paper bags into their hands. “There’s your food. Thanks for sticking me with the bill!” Karen stomped off, leading the way back to the hotel.

“Karen! Karen, we’re so sorry. We went for a walk, but we lost track of time.” Ana reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be mad Karen, please?” Ana urged.

“Hmph.” Karen shook off her hand.

“Karen, come on.” Toya stopped her. She turned to look at them. “We’ll pay you back, if that helps.”

Karen rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Just tell me next time when you two decide to leave me. Almost had a heart attack when I couldn’t find you guys anywhere.”

“We’ll tell you next time, I promise. Are we good now?”

“I guess so.” Karen fell in step beside Ana. “So, did you have a nice walk?” she asked conversationally.

Ana shrugged. “There were a bunch of bratty kids running around. Be happy you didn’t go.”

Karen’s cell phone rang. She answered it. “We’re coming up to the lobby entrance now, Dad.” She snapped the phone shut. “Houston, we may have a problem,” she announced to the others. They hurried into the hotel just as their parents were coming out of the elevator.

“What did we say?” demanded Mr. Walker. He went on without waiting for an answer, “Be back before dark!”

“Now, Mark,” said Mr. Montoya, “this is one of the safest parts of town.” He glanced at his son, who understood his meaning, and nodded.

Mr. Walker took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “I suppose,” he relented. “But you kids need to be more responsible in the future.”

“Yes sir,” they said solemnly.

“Okay, let’s head up, it’s getting late.” Mr. Walker led the party back up to their rooms. All the parents went into the Walkers’ room to finish their card game. Karen headed to her room to make her nightly call to Jason. Toya and Ana went into his room.

“I need to call the guys,” Toya said, reaching for his phone. Ana nodded and sat cross-legged on the bed. He dialed Milo’s number and sat on the bed next to her, laying his arm across her shoulders.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Milo.”

“Toya, what happened?” A voice echoed in the background. “Porter wants to know everything,” Milo added. There was a beep, and static crackled as the phone was put on speaker.

“He did try to expose us,” Toya said shortly. He was about to go on when Porter interrupted.

“How did that poor excuse for a werewolf try to expose us?” he demanded angrily.

“Let him talk, Porter,” said Owen. “Go on Toya.”

“His plan was to take a hostage, and shift in front of them. I think it was to gauge a human’s reaction to our existence.”

Porter swore loudly. “Did you stop him in time? Please tell me you did.”

“No.” Toya grinned as Porter spluttered incoherently. “Calm down, Porter. Lucky for us, he took Ana.”

Ana glance up at Toya. He smiled at her and kissed her forehead. She smiled back and rested her head on his shoulder.

Porter fell silent. “He took Ana? Well, that was a lucky break for us, boys,” Owen laughed.

“She could have been hurt, Owen,” Milo pointed out.

“I don’t think he ever intended to hurt her,” Toya disagreed.

“Well that’s a relief. What happened to him?”

“He ended up going off the edge of a cliff,” Toya told them quietly.

“You did what you had to do, Toya,” Owen said consolingly. The others agreed softly in the background.

“Yeah,” Toya sighed. “I’ll fill in the details when I get back.”

“Alright, sounds good. We’ll talk to you later then, Toya,” said Owen.

“Bye T,” said Milo and Porter.

Toya hung up. He looked down at Ana, who had fallen asleep. He carefully moved to place his phone on the bedside table. He leaned back and laid his head against the headboard, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

“Jason!” Karen squealed. She jumped into his arms.

He laughed. “How was your trip?” They sat on a park bench off the path, and watched the ice skaters carve figure eights.

“Great! I wish you could have come!”

Jason smiled. “Sounds like you had fun without me, then.” He looked around the park, the snow making it look like a winter wonder land. “There’s Randy and Ana.”

Toya waved as they approached. He sat down and pulled Ana down next to him. “How’s your break going so far?”

“Better, now that you all are back.” Jason winked.

“Missed us that much, did you?” Ana teased. “We’ll have to go out to dinner some time and give you all the juicy details.”

“Sounds good. We’ll set that up some time.” Jason looked at Karen. “Well, should we go?”

“Sure,” she agreed. “See you guys at school on Monday.” They got up and bid Toya and Ana goodnight.

“Well, should we head home too?” asked Toya. Ana nodded, and they walked down the path that led out of the park.

When they reached Ana’s house, Toya walked her to the door. They paused. Ana looked up at him, and smiled. “Well, thanks Toya. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Toya nodded. He hesitated, and then leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. He pulled back. “Goodnight, Ana.” He squeezed her hand and walked back down the snowy driveway.

Ana sighed happily, and watched Toya disappear down the street. She smiled to herself, went in the house, and shut off the lights.

A wolf howled at the moon.