It works. Even Maggie’s jaw drops. And she’s not even old enough to feel the full effect.
The principal, however, is not thawed. She glares up at Finn—and at Deek’s still-quaking form. “Tell that to all the angry parents who will be hearing about this incident from their traumatized children.”
Poor Deek. The guilt he must be suffering since he realized he’d scared a bunch of kindergarteners.
“Traumatized?” Finn scoffs. He pins the principal with a hard look. “Ask them if they’ve let their kids watch Old Yeller. They shoot a wolf in that flick—and then the boy puts a gun to his loyal dog’s head and pulls the friggin’ trigger. Now that is traumatizing.”
She’s unswayed. “That doesn’t discount the emotional distress of school children who witnessed a werewolf swallowing a family of woodland animals whole.”
Finn straightens. “Whole? You’re saying he didn’t even tear into them?” He shrugs and opens his hand like ‘What’s the problem here?’ making Deek’s head and neck bounce and flop miserably. “Jaysus, Mary, and Josephine. You’re really going to try to tell me they haven’t seen worse on TV? No blood means it’s not even rated PG-13.”
The principal folds her hands in front of herself. “Even if violence and death weren’t an issue, there’s still the problem of your ‘best bloke,’” she puts a heavy degree of disdain in the words, “getting naked in a school parking lot. That’s indecent exposure,” she announces crisply—
And she’s not wrong.
Even Finn winces.
Deek moans apologetically.
Finn sighs and bangs his hand behind himself, striking affectionately over Deek’s ribs, making a hollow thudding noise. “I know,” he murmurs.
“He’d never hurt us kids!” Maggie explodes. “You can trust him—Deek is a priest.”
Everyone blinks. Even Deek.
Finn moves to us and shifts his werewolf passenger enough to lean down and grip Maggie’s shoulder gently. “Darlin,’” he whispers, “I know you want to help your friend Deek, but it turns out that a man who gets naked in front of children is trusted less if he happens to have an affiliation with a church, so… leave this one to me, swayt hart. Okay?”
Reluctantly, Maggie nods.
Finn ups the wattage on his smile for the principal. “I have every faith that Lucan tried his best to hide before he shifted. And I’m also willing to bet that he moved into his clothes as quickly as possible.”
She says nothing.
Finn rolls the shoulder that is not supporting the heavy half of the werewolf. “Okay then. As you know, the laws are a bit different for werewolves. He meant no harm, but if you feel you need to turn this matter over to the police, I have the number to our official liaison at the precinct.”
After a moment of frosty deliberation wherein she glances to the school’s officer for some cue—she finally shakes her head.
Finn gives her a genuinely commiserating smile. “On behalf of the wolves, I extend our sincerest apologies that you’re going to be facing angry parents for days after this incident.” He licks his lip, bites it. “I’m going to leave you with our card. If anyone feels the need to reach out to us for further assurances, they can. All right?” Deek bumps up and down as Finn’s shoulder rotates, his hand slipping into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. Finn hands the principal a card. “Thank you,” he tells her. “We’ll be sure to be more careful in the future.”
With that, we’re allowed to leave the school. First though, we have to part ways with a tearful Maggie (who hands me a llama backpack she explains is Deek’s), after which, a stress-smiling Finn carries a morose werewolf proudly out of the school doors.
Deek stays limp in Finn’s arms. He’s resting against Finn’s chest now, his neck flopped over his elbow. He looks like one of those soft mount taxidermy bodies where an artist has taken an animal and turned it into a life-sized, ultra-lifelike stuffed animal.
Although those creations don’t generally have their features frozen into expressions of utter depression and gloom.
When Finn pulls up in front of my house, he opens the passenger door and hauls Deek out because Deek is still too despondent to rise. He carries him up to the front door, where he waits for me to unlock it. When he sets Deek down, I expect our werewolf to scurry to the basement.
To my surprise, he doesn’t. He collapses there on the floor, sighing heavily, gaze downcast.
Finn rubs his temples. “Don’t worry about it, Lucan. This’ll be nothing. All