Cerry and I went downstairs to find Emily, and hopefully John. Following the scent of bacon, I led Cerry into a dining room. There was a huge table that sat three across the short ends and six along the sides. Pack members, all in human form, filled most of the seats. That was odd.  Normally, wolf packs will have members in various states of change unless humans were around. 

John was sitting at a corner, pushing some eggs around on his plate. There was an empty seat between him and Emily. She saw us, and moved to get up. Cerry said, "No, stay!" She motioned me to take the seat, and slid into my lap. She put a hand on John's shoulder and asked gently, "How are you doing with all this craziness?"

He just looked at us with haunted eyes.

Someone placed two platters of eggs and bacon in front of us. I said thanks to the motherly woman standing next to us. She glanced at John and said, "Don't worry about your friend. We'll take care of him." Addressing Cerry, she said, "We've all been told to be considerate of your, um... phobia." 

"Thanks," Cerry said. "I appreciate it." 

 "So, I hear this isn't new to you?" John asked me.

"Yeah. Since college, actually. I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I was unconscious until too late."

"It couldn't be helped, from what I understand."

"I couldn't have prevented it, but maybe I could have changed how it happened."

The farmhouse's back door opened, and wolfscent filled the room.  Three young wolves ran into the room.  Cerry saw them and buried her face in my shoulder.  The cook yelled and swatted the leader with her spatula.  The trio skidded to a stop nearby, and their fur blurred.  Soon, three youths were standing next to us in human form.  

The leader, a girl, said, "I'm so sorry! We forgot!"

Cerry turned to look at them and said, "No, it's okay!  If I'm going to live this life, I need to get used to it.  You know what, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what?"

"Could I watch you change back? If I can put human faces to the wolf bodies, it might help."

The three changed back.  Cerry shuddered a bit, but kept watching.  When they were done, Cerry reached out and said, "Can... Can I touch you?"

The girl wolf nodded, and pushed her snout into Cerry's palm.  She was soon making happy noises while Cerry scratched behind her ears.

Emily asked, "Is this the same woman that was terrified by us last night?"

"Yeah," Cerry replied.  "I just have to remember that next month, I'll be as scary as they are!"

I'll tell her later that the truly scary thing about wolves is they travel in packs.  I could take on one or two of them, but twenty? No way.

Vivian's scent blew past me. She breezed in, looked at Cerry and me, said, "Oh!  That looks cozy!" and plopped into John's lap. He sat there, stone-faced, as she put an arm around his shoulder. "C'mon lover! Why the long face?"

I looked at her and said, "You really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"What you did to him!"

"I did what I had to do! I followed pack law! I..."

"We know that.  It wasn't what you did.  It was the way you did it.  Look, John is the ultimate expression of an engineer.  If he had a religion, it's creed would be the scientific method.  If there's no proof, if it's not logical, it doesn't exist. Suddenly, his entire worldview was ripped out from beneath him. If werefolk exist, what else is real? Astrology? Champ?" I was referring to the Nessie-like creature puported to live in Lake Champlain. "Vampires?"

Cerry cut in. "It's not just that, though.  There's a saying: 'If you can't change something, change how you think about it.' That's the biggest thing Zach did for me. He gave me time to understand what was happening and come to grips with it."

I nodded, then added, "You didn't do that. You have a law degree, passed the bar, and apparently you're fairly high up in pack leadership. You're obviously smart. You should have realized this. If you told him what was happening and why, and told him who you were and gained his trust, it would have made all the difference.  Instead, you thought with your crotch, not your head." I paused to hammer my point home.

"You raped him."