73)

I ignored him while I reached over to gulp down my drink. I gave the liqueur cabinet a longing glance, but since I may have to make a run for more ingredients, later on, I was cutting myself off.

Turning around, I got a look at my brother glaring at me with his arms crossed.

Take a deep breath, I opened with. “Werewolves don’t get cancer, at least as far as anyone I’ve talked to knows.”

That got Drew to half drop his arms as he looked past me with a blank look on his face. After a moment he spoke up. “Well… ain’t that something...”

Then he looked angry, thoughtful, and finally… curious. “What if you already had it once?”

I sat down again and felt around in my head to find out where the kids were. Then I took a moment to yell at the girls lurking just around the corner of the upstairs hallway. “You two get in the game room and shut the door, I know where you are on my land young ladies.”

As they made their way back down the hall, I took the time to take a deep breath. “We just don’t know Drew. Almost all the wolves around here were born that way but born or bit, we’re all just super healthy. Long lived too, just kind of fading off a long time after a normal human would have cashed in their chips.”

Charles spoke up. “They’re pretty sure your leg will grow back after a while, which might be hard to explain to your neighbors. Uncle John has room if you need to move.” He gave me a grin and then flinched a little at my and my brother’s glares.

Drew took point. “Son, the best times siblings and I had together were after we started living away from each other.” He shrugged. “And it’s not like I’ve told anyone up there that I’m down to one leg. Some of them figured it out, but they never asked about it.”

He shot a look at his son. “Are you thinking about this for yourself?”

My nephew got a weird smile on his face. “No. I’m thinking of going in another direction.” He held up a hand. “But let’s not go off down that rabbit hole. Right now it’s about you taking a chance on living another fifty years or so, or walking away from a wider world.”

He stared his father down. “I want my dad to live a long healthy life, even if it’s not a traditional one. But this would mean at least some major changes in your life dad. It’s got to be your choice.”

Drew looked over at me. “Tell me about the downside.”

I pursed my lips for a second. “There’s a sort of compulsion to turn into a wolf when the full moon comes up, I fought it off, but you might not. I always was more obstinate than you. I’ve been told you still think like a person even as a wolf, so it sounds more like an inconvenience than anything else.”

“The other thing is, vampires are real too. And they really, really like our blood. I had a run in with some guys that got sent after me because I outed myself by walking into a Redd’smart which is run by them. One of them was a recovering addict that leaked word about me and they managed to hunt me down.”

I shook my head. “They would have never laid a hand on me, but I don’t think they themselves even wanted to. The vampire that set them on me is now on the run with nowhere to go. So. I really don’t see them as any real danger as long as you keep out of the major cities after dark.”

My brother nodded. “Not much of a problem, but how big does a city have to be before it’s a danger?

Charles spoke up again. “Detroit, maybe some up in Capital or Ann Arbor. They like the bigger cities, other than the ones that fall out of favor. The deal with Redd’smart’s is pretty atypical.”

Drew gripped the armrest of the couch for a moment then relaxed. “Well then, let’s do this.” He started rolling up his sleeve. His son looked alarmed.

Shoot, I guess there ain’t no reason to put it off. I think until the next full moon about all that will happen is the bite itself will heal up. “I’m going to grab some first aid stuff, then strip down in another room to change.”

Drew looked curious. “Can I watch?” I glanced at his son. Charles blanched and shook his head, “No thanks Uncle John, I got no interest in seeing you naked.”

I heaved myself to my feet. “You don’t know what you’re missing boy, I am supernaturally fit, and my girl says I got nice legs.”

Drew mocked glared at me. “Wait, you won the lotto, got turned into cancer proof werewolf, and got a girl.” He shook his head in denial. “This is bullshit. I call bullshit.”

I gave him a big old grin as I headed to the cabinet outside the downstairs bathroom that had a collection of first aid supplies. As well as toilet paper, bars of soap, and bottles of combination shampoo, conditioner, and whatever the heck body wash was.

We set out gaze pads and medical tape for the bite, and some wet wipes to clean up any blood. I considered using some sort of antiseptic since even turned into a wolf, the stuff in a human’s mouth was still supposed to be pretty nasty in a bite. But Drew waved it away, “We're supposed to be trying to infect me, right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think it works that way with this, but it’s your arm. The worst that will happen is you’ll have to regrow two limbs.”

After laying everything out, I couldn't think of any way of delaying things any further and had a seat as I started to strip down.

Charles turned around, and I stood up and stepped around to stand behind my chair after getting my shoes and socks off. It wasn’t like my brother had never seen me naked before. They only had one big shared shower at scout camp, but I still didn’t want to just stand there in all my glory.

Then I let my bones get the hot feeling, this time all over. The heat spread to my muscles and skin I for the first time let myself turn into a wolf.