Getting Lucky

When they woke up the next morning, Flappy was whining by the door. Groaning, Traven stretched and said "I forgot about this part of civilized life." He stood up and grabbed the new harness and leash. Flappy had a pained look in his eyes as Travon struggled but eventually figured out the harness and connected the leash. The two of them exited the hotel room, and Lucky got up to make some coffee. She had started drinking coffee in the morning back at the orphanage, and it had been Lucky who 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 room was nice, having a living room area and a small kitchen. She had paid for a week in advance, figuring it would take them that long to find a place to live.

After pouring herself a cup of coffee, she sat down on the couch and pulled out the new iPhone she had purchased with a one year prepaid plan. She set the phone up, with the last name Lancaster that she had legally changed it to when she was 15, with the permission of the Smiths. Lucky Leigh Lancaster had a ring to it that Smith did not. They often laughed about it, Mr. Smith would pretend to be hurt but she knew it didn't bother him at all. She thought about calling them but wasn't sure how to explain what had happened and how she had come to be living in a hotel with a man she had just met and his adorable dog.

She would call them, she had the number memorized. She debated with herself, deciding in the end that she had to at least let them know she was okay. She didn't have to let them know all the details yet. How was she going to explain that she was a werewolf? She was sure they would love her no matter what, but she didn't want to freak them out. She dialed the number, it rang a few times and she heard a familiar voice pick up.

"Hey, it's Lucky." She said, and found that she didn't know what to say next. It was like her brain just froze.

Mrs. Smith was quiet for a moment, probably afraid to believe. "Lucky is that really you?"

"It is. A lot of stuff has happened." That was an understatement.

It finally clicked and Lucky could hear Mrs. Smith yelling at her husband "it's Lucky! She's alive!"

"What!?" Mr. Smith in the background, she could picture him with his beard and glasses, 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 giggled a little. "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 Travin and Flappy entered.

"Hey beautiful," Travin said, then noticed she was on the phone and covered his mouth, looking embarrassed.

"Who is that?" Mrs. Smith asked, sounding suspicious. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. That's Travin. He's my... boyfriend. He's a really nice guy, and he has this dog that I am in love with." She smiled at Travin, who feigned heartbreak and told Flappy he was always getting all the girls. Hearing this, Mrs. Smith couldn't help but laugh. Flappy barked, and ran over to Lucky demanding that she scratch his ears. Which, of course, she did.

"Well I guess a bad guy wouldn't have a good dog, that's not how it works." Mrs. Smith said, and Lucky thought of Nyah and how she had handled her "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 I am okay. Can I call you in a couple of days when I get settled?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm looking for a place to live in Albuquerque." She figured she would have them visit eventually. Just then, Flappy started growling, hackles raised, staring at the door. Travin growled lowly, and Lucky felt her heart jump in to her throat. Had they found her?

"Open up, police," she heard a commanding voice from outside. Her heart dropped in to her chest.

"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 more. They really were such good people. She didn't know how to tell them what had happened to her. It would devastate them.

Lucky told Travin to hide in the bathroom, and went to answer the door. Of the two of them, Travin was the most likely to be on the radar, although the room and everything else was in Lucky's name. Could someone have recognized him?

"Open up, we just have a few questions for you." The cop knocked again, and Lucky opened the door.

"Can I help you?" She asked, facing the tall, uniformed police officer, whose thick glasses made him seem a bit less intimidating somehow. Nyah was quiet, not sensing any threat.

"Yes, we are just 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." Lucky didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. On the one hand, they had not been in wolf form anywhere near here so it was unlikely it was them. On the other hand, what if Travin's pack had hunted him down?

"Wolves? I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary," Lucky told the officer. Flappy growled, eyeing the officer suspiciously. "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 lab I had when I was a kid." The officer looked sad for a minute. "Can I pet him?"

"Sure, he loves ear scratches," she told him. The officer bent down and scratched Flappy behind his ears, his tail began to wag. Then, looking past the officer, he growled again. 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 was correct, the two wolves, reddish brown in color, sat across the street, staring right at Lucky. Not knowing what to do, she waved at them. Strangely, the wolf nodded its head, cocked it to the side, and lifted a paw as though waving back. He almost seemed to grin as he and his buddy suddenly took off, headed for the hills.

The officer was in the middle of a call to animal control. "I've never been so flabbergasted in all my life," he was saying.

Travin came out of the bathroom, surprising Lucky. "What's going on, dear?" He asked casually, drying his hands on his sweatpants.

"Well, there were some wolves, across the street, two of them." Travin's face paled, and Lucky's heart dropped.

"Wolves? That's odd," he said shakily.

"They were abnormally large," the officer said, scratching his head, still on the phone with animal control. "They took off to the northeast of the hotel. Brownish reddish color. Very unusual looking."

Travin breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Lucky and smiling. 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 had a lot of questions, but felt a little better knowing Travin was less concerned.

"Well, I'm going to let you folks get back to your day," the officer said, handing a card to Lucky. "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."

"Was it a wolf who killed all those people in Las Vegas?" Lucky asked, holding her breath. Might as well find out what they knew.

"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, people have been saying it was too big to be a wolf. It also apparently acted very strange, not hurting anyone outside, a lot of people reported that it just seemed anxious to get out of there. And the way it jumped in to the fountain to wash off the blood. 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 shut the door, ran to Travin, and hugged him. "That was terrifying. What is going on? They were like us, right? What could they be doing here? I swear one of them was looking right at me and when I waved at it it waved back at me." Lucky was panicking. She didn't know much about her kind, and she began to wonder if she would ever feel safe again. Would she always feel like this? Hunted?