"Mother fuck," groaned the wolftaur in disbelief as he stared K-9 Unit cruiser parked at the gate to his grandparent's ranch house, just a little ways away. Those golden wolf eyes looked towards Trevor Phillips through the edge of the curtains. The father of Alice and Tommy Phillips—who were asleep in the basement—and abusive husband of Holly Phillips who, while a Kitsune with unmeasured magical abilities, was several miles away working the second part of a double shift at the town's hospital. A hospital David worried he'd be seeing again soon...
"Explain tha dragon," said Trevor as he had his hand where his Glock 22 was at his side. He stood across the room and outside the house from the wolf creature, still on the other side of the front door. He was dressed blue jeans, black boots, and a white [appropriately termed] wife-beater with a black and red checker flannel shirt over top. Leaning his bald head left and right, his green eyes tried to see through the slender tall window panes beside the door he stood at.
It was at that point that David Nicolaus Scott the Third let the curtains fall back into place. Checking his still unlocked phone, his last message—"Dunkin told their word."—was listed as 'Delivered'. Before moving back over to the foyer, he thought to send another message to Holly. But what? he asked himself, knowing Trevor was getting impatient. What more do I type which doesn't incriminate me later?
A wolf like David, well... he was going to have to fight the 'alpha' for the position. Mr. Phillips was in David's territory, threatening the cubs. Clearly he was a danger to his pack. There was no question. The 1% werewolf part of him knew he had to throat Trevor or they'd never be safe. For better or worse, the human-mind he had shook out thoughts of murder.
David had had a few run-ins with the cops, but he had been white, so nothing serious. However, one thing he did have related to this moment was a run-in with an angry boyfriend in Randell Hall. Nineteen years ago Randy threw David off a roof, barely missing the swimming pool, and broke the young man's arm in three places as well as his wrist. He still had the scar. Truth was, at that time, he had unknowingly entered someone else's territory, the girlfriend Francisca Soares. This time around, Trevor was in his place, but Trevor... Trevor was armed with lethality.
"Eggsplain the dragon, David Scott!" demanded the cop standing on his doorstep with the mildest of inebriated slurs to his speach. "Son ova murder anda thief..." he went on. "Had twenty-two jobs in eighteen years and kept only one of them: town slut."
Another person might be mad, but not David. All the 'thumb' at the front door was spouting was facts, but he was going to wake up the kids. So the wolfaur casually and quietly walked back over to the door, standing in front of it. "Dragon?" asked David. "Crazy on top of drunk." David sighed. I have no idea how I'm going to cover up a missing cop.
"I have photos."
"No you don't," David said. Cops were known for their lying, and there was something about his tone that seemed to indicate it was a bluff that the now wolfen-eared man would not have picked up on yesterday. Still, David stood on the other side of the door with his tail flicking back and forth, turning his eyes to the Chronivac open on his phone. Could he find the photos if they were real? Where they nearby? The cloud? How would you target them if they're in the cloud? Questions for later...
"David Nicolaus Scott the Third—" Trevor said somehow in the same tone his mother had when he legitimately got in trouble growing up. "I'm giving you until the count of ten to open up this goddamned door and let me to my children."
"Cops are on the way," David said. "I suggest you rethink your life choices and leave before they get here."
"I already cut your phone line," Trevor explained. "ADT can't transmit. No one's coming, David. It's just you, me, and my kids."
David put his hands together. Calling the cops wasn't true, but he was trying to dissuade him. But if he'd cut the landline then the security system wouldn't function. This was planned. This man was about to get violent and there were cubs in the cave. No. This would not do at all.
The fur across David's back went on edge and he growled... his hair frizzled. Clenching his fists, he raised his muzzle to the air and let out a loud howl, punctuated by barks. A warning howl. Danger! While he could hear Trevor unsheathe his pistol and bring it to bare on the front door, a howl from the ancient world came to his ears from below. It was Alice, and David could hear Tommy complaining about waking him.
"Mister Teal!" David bellowed a code word. It meant to fortify the basement. Quickly, he heard the pitter patter rushing up the basement stares. Only two legs. Tommy. The three bolt latches on the basement door locked one after the other. Meanwhile, through the soundscape of the house, David could hear four heavy paws bounding towards the lower, side entrance of the house and slamming shut the heavy metal interior door. A moment later, the paw-slams made it across the basement floor to the rear entrance, slamming the second.
Long ago, David Scott Senior saw fit to secure his home against invaders known and unknown... and also tornados. Right now, Trevor Phillips was kind of all three. From that basement came another howl... It wasn't words, yet it spoke to David. Alice was ready to attack anything that came for her brother as a dire wolf and somehow, that felt really comforting to the wolftaur.
Prepared or not, David wan't entirely full of good ideas. His next one was a doozy. If he left things as they were, he was certain the next result would be Trevor blasting open the front door. So David reached for the latch. "You want me to explain the dragon?" he asked, undoing the lock. He was going to show the cop what he was in for—
Pops sounded loud and close, from the patio on the other side of the door. The framed Scott family photo, the shelf it sat propped upon, and the light yellow wall behind behind David all splatter with red. One pop became four in quick succession... all of which had been accompanied by little fractures wood flaking off on David's side of the heavy birth door.
David's golden eyes shifted downward, his already bloody white shirt with the black design on the front slowly turned red from gushing blood as all four shots hit center mass, two hitting him right where one of his hearts was. He stood there for a moment on all fours, before sitting down on his hind legs, stunned and in pain.
David dropped his phone.
As the K-9 Cop kicked opened the now unlocked door, he saw the monster that was David Scott looking down at himself. David's left index finger was poking one of his new holes. Absently, the wolftaur considered the 'white clothing in a horror movie' trope and gave a harsh chuckle before his upper torso slumped sideway with his lupine legs going the opposite way as he fell over.
"Well, shit," the off duty officer said as David spit up blood, eyes turning to look up at Mr. Phillips. "Uh good. I'mminda clear," he said, aiming his Glock at David's wolf head. "No laws protectin' monsters," he said and fired again. And with that, David's entire body went limp.
(|[***]|)
After the first howl, Thor had leapt from the car window and come running. He arrived on the scene just as the door kicked open and the much larger canine had slumped over onto the floor, blood painting the tile of the foyer. The beautiful specimen German Shepard barked and came to a stop at Trevor's side,.
"Good boy," master said, patting his head. Slowly, the cop slide his gun back into its holster , moving into the house letting a whistle go from his teeth. "Disis a nice place," he said. "Which bedroom da'ya think they fucked in, boy? All of'em?" Moving away from the front door and down into the living room, Trevor called upwards, assuming the children were in one of the upper rooms. "Thomas Acker Phillips," he commanded attention. "You bring you an' your sister's asses out here this second!"
Thor sniffed David's crotch to get the scent. Male and female canine together. A finger moved. He barked.
"Thor. Leave that thing alone," he said. "Here!" and pointed to his side where Thor hurried over to him as Trevor entered the kitchen area. Checking the fridge, he pulled out a brown bottle. Finding the bottle opener on the side of the tall brown appliance, Mr. Phillips popped the top and took a swig. "Y'all gettout here before I finnish dis and you won't be grounded," he called upward, his free hand at the side of his mouth as he did.
(|[***]|)
While both children were scared, it was more important that Alice was acting like a cornered animal. "Think he has the Emitter?" a little girl's voice came from the muzzle of the stocky brown and gray dire wolf in the basement. Green wolf eyes turned from watching the door at the top of the stairs to her human brother standing behind her.
"No," said Tommy Phillips. "Unless you think that's what he means by grounding?"
Alice's ears flicked towards her brother. The strong jaw of the big wolf opened slowly. "You think... you think he'd punish us with it?"
"No," Tommy said, reflexively defending his father. Then his green human eyes, like his mother's and father's, met the green lupine eyes of his sister. The boy then shut his eyes and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Yes," he changed his answer, once again opening his eyes. "Yeah, he would," he realized. "He'd punish mom too."
The fur down Alice's back bristled as she growled. "David is at the front door. Dad's in the kitchen, calling up... I think he thinks we're upstairs."
"You know where he is?"
"Wolf ears don't lie," she said as she turned them toward him, then back forward. "If he doesn't have it, we can get it," she said firmly.
Tommy shook his head. "He can't get us here, besides... we can't make it do anything without the program on David's phone. The phone is what's important."
"Screen locks after a minute."
"Yeah, I know." Tommy clenched his fists. "So... either we wait for mom, or..."
"Or?"
"Or you take the Emitter and run. Neither dad nor Thor would catch you. Bigger wolf, bigger speed, right?" Tommy looked at her. "I'll hold him off... you, like, run to town and get mom." Tommy moved in the direction of the heavy side door that Alice had shut not moments ago. He motioned with his hand for his sister to follow him. "If I start unlatching the locks to the basement door, he'll hear. We need to sneak around the front.
(|[***]|)
The bullet in David Scott's head slowly pushed itself out and softly plinked on the tile he'd bled out all over. Idly, he'd wondered why it hadn't simply passed all the way through him... but a part of him was happy he wouldn't have to dig it out of the wall later...
He heard a dog whining and smelled a male that wasn't Alice or Trevor. While it was possible Trevor couldn't kill him, it wasn't something he wanted to fully test. Resisting the inclination to groan in pain, he felt what seemed like to hard rocks in his heart dissolving. Was that a werewolf thing? No easy way out, so whatever's left inside is eaten by the body? Uh. More questions for later...
Thor was aware something was happening with his master's kill, but not what. A slowly bubbling sound could be heart, that of David's body wetly knitting itself back together. Thor growled, standing up on all fours. Meanwhile, the hand of Trevor's which wasn't holding onto a beer went back down to his side where his gun was holstered.
David's golden eyes looked over at his phone a short distance away from where he laid crumpled. At least none of his body was bent the wrong way or showing bone this time. And, truthfully, he didn't remember it hurting as much. Carefully and quietly he leaned his humanoid torso forward and picked up the phone one-handed. Selecting both Trevor and Thor in the selections, he set their transformation type and style.
Before he could hit the button, the front door slowly began being pushed open. He heard the heartbeats of Tommy and Alice before he heard Tommy counting.
Thor barked.
"Shit," David said aloud, realizing the kids were trying to... what? He searched his brain for quick answers: Save me? Rush their dad? Get the Emitter? Maybe. Definitely. That has to be it. They're trying to keep it from him, no question.
"He knows," he heard Alice growl.
Shoving passed her brother big dire wolf shoulder-slammed the solid birch door off it hinges and into the foyer atop David. Quickly those lupine eyes turned to face her father, a man who had just recently shot another wolf monster dead and had no idea this dusty-furred dire was his own daughter. His gun was already out of his holster and shots were already exploding. Both children were screaming. The mag was only a third empty before he started firing at this new monster and the liquor was clearly affecting his aim, luckily. He missed a few shots into the wall.
Pushing the door off of him enough to raise his upper torso, David jolted out around the corner of the foyer and clicked the Emitter's primary button. Trevor reacted as if David were aiming a gun at him, his shots going towards the wolftaur primarily now. One bullet struck David in the shoulder and he dropped both parts of the Chronivac: the app on his unlocked phone, and the Emitter.
Trevor Phillips tried to hold onto his gun, but his hand was shrinking. In fact, all of him was. All his clothing began to get looser as both he and his dog shrunk 'inwards' towards their center of mass. The previously 6'2" officer quickly shrank with haste, becoming one one hundredth his previous size as he briefly suspended in the air. He and Thor were their proper size, relative to each other, but now each less than an inch tall.
Before gravity took over once again to have them plummeted towards the living room carpet, David scurried as if all six limbs were legs. A scream from Trevor, a fearful bark from Thor, and both were now captured in one furry hand as if they were large flies. Gathering himself up onto four legs, he recalled a good place to put them. Swiftly he rushed over to the end table between the two couches and he dropped officers into the tissue box there.
"Fucker shot me," David growled down as the much smaller Trevor still reached for his gun only to realize fully that he was now naked with his dog. "What's the matter? Can't pick on someone bigger than you?" David grinned a big canine smile, growling so deeply that it shook the air around the tiny figures. "You two OK?" he called backwards into the room.
"I am!" Alice bared happily. "Tommy?"
No response.
David's eyes went wide as he stared through the wall, directly at us. "You didn't," he whispered accusatorially as his canine head slowly turned to look back toward the foyer. The white wooden door laying horizontally, leaning up against the corner of the wall there. New blood was pooling from around the corner. There were bullet holes in the wall that was between where the two wolves were and where Tommy had been seconds ago...
Both four-leggers moved quicker than they had known possible, rushing back towards the front doorway. Alice lifted the door in her heavy jaw and pulled it up. From there, the barely taller David two-handed the door and roughly chucked it behind him.
There before them, laying in the foyer, was not the Tommy Phillips they had feared to see. Instead, was wolftaur not unlike David... just a little more rounded and smaller. All his cloths were just gone, so their dual-sexed underside was visible to other two wolves. Most importantly, he was limp and quiet, bloody all over his upper torso.
Coughing, Tommy opened his now golden eyes to look a the two of them. "Did it work?"
"Did what work?" Alice barked.
From beside him, Tommy picked up David's phone and handed it to him. He hesitated before grimly relaying: "Dad shot me." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I reached for the device... all I could think of was... 'Mr. Scott didn't die'... so I made me like you."
"You used my Preset," David smiled, reaching down for Tommy as two bullets pushed out of the boy's side. "Quick thinking," he chuckled, a bit nervously at the whole situation. Day two of he Emitter and we already had 'child death' on the docket.
Alice sat back on her haunches. "Why aren't his eyes green like mine?"
"Uh... I don't know what a Preset is," Tommy admitted.
Blinking, David checked the history log. "Oh," said, looking over at the now bigger boy. Alice's head tilted to the side, inquisitively. "He just... genetically made me his father." Tommy looked away. Alice smiled, moving over to her brother and leaning into him, a wolf action meant to comfort. David smiled, then put one arm over Tommy's shoulders. "C'mon, kids. A man cannot live in a tissue box..." he chuckled and moved away toward he living room. They each laughed, the tense moments now behind them.
Tapping a few buttons on his phone, David selected the tissue box and transmogrified it in reptile cage. Its dimensions were largely the same. Easily four times as tall as Trevor now was, the glass walls of the case now loomed above him. Reaching in, David removed the tissues, and then closed the black lid over the top of the drunken man and his partner.
Being that the end table was positioned in the corner between the two couches, Tommy lounged his lower lupine body across one of them, looking down at the cage that held his father. The dire wolf that was Alice moved to the other couch, her muzzle titling down to eyeball the now tiny man who had shot her brother. And, directly between the two other wolves, David Nicolaus Scott the Third sat back on his hind legs on the floor.
The pack had surrounded the intruders.