Chapter 2 Friday
Dad looked up from the desk when I walked into his study.
"I finished my homework."
"Good." He looked down at me, smiled, and went back to messing with his papers.
"Is there a pack hunt tonight?"
"Yes," said my Dad.
"Are you going on it?"
Dad put down the papers and paid attention to me. "No. I don't think so. I've got to finish this work." He leaned back in his chair and stretched. "While you and your Cub Pack are enjoying yourselves down in New York City, I'll be giving a dull presentation at the Budapest Conference." Dad laughed. "You've got the better deal, Kit."
"Well, then can I go?"
"Where?"
"On the hunt. You're not going, so maybe I can go in your place."
"Son. You're not old enough. The hunt's on four feet, and you can't change yet."
"I could if you gave me some of that stuff you make in your lab."
"You mean, Lycanthrozine?"
"Yeah." I held my breath. Dad would either laugh, or growl. But there was a small chance he might actually say yes. No harm in trying, not much harm anyway. I might get another lecture, but dad looked too busy to give me a major talking to.
Dad laughed and mussed up my hair. "Don't be in such a rush to grow up. It'll happen soon enough." Dad got sort of serious. "It isn't right to use a drug to induce the transformation. The first changing is special. You'll look back on it with pleasure for the rest of your life. Don't spoil it. You know, this is a pretty good time to be a werewolf pup."
I was afraid I was going to get another 'When I was a boy' story, but I didn't.
"What good is it being a werewolf if I can't change," I said. "Humans never have to keep things secret all the time, and they never have to get an Elso Lecke whipping."
"Come on," said dad, "You see and hear much better than humans,
and your Elso Lecke was years ago."
"I still remember it."
"You're supposed to. I still remember mine too. But without the Elso Lecke, we would still have the urge to eat people, and that we must never do."
"Yeah. Yeah," I said. I'd heard that a zillion times.