A Full Moon Ch. 05

"I'll take care of him."

"I know you will Jon. And, if he asks to be turned cause I feel he will, you do it. Your ability to touch silver should transfer to him." I opened my mouth to say I would never do such a thing to the kid, but he just looked at me and I dropped my eyes because I could not help it. His gaze was that strong. "Sorry, Jon, but I feel it should be you if anyone."

"I'll consider it." He nodded and left.

I went back inside and Dylan was clomping down the stairs to go to the police station. "Can he stay with me whenever you feel I need a sitter?" I smiled. Yes, he did like him.

"If he wants. Not afraid of that big bad wolf?"

"Naw, he's a big ole puppy." His grin was huge. I was glad to see he was bouncing back but faster than I thought. His life really must have been hell. "Lets go and get this over with."

When we got there and the desk officer had us wait in a lime green room that was seriously in need of a wash with something other urine and Pine Sol. Dylan was content to just stare out the window but I was on my laptop doing some work. We had been waiting for a few hours when the door opened. "Finally here?" asked the detective from the scene.

"Been here since about four actually. No wonder they call it a waiting room." I closed my laptop and Dylan stood.

The man checked his watch. "Three hours? Who signed you in?"

"Taller than me, blonde hair, brown eyes, maybe thirty years old, bored look on his face, smelled of burritos and cheap wine. Maybe a quicky during lunch cause he had a fresh hickey he was trying to hide with the collar of his uniform." I stopped when the detective grinned.

"I know who you mean." He motioned for us to follow him to the mountains of paperwork. "Did you ever think about being a detective yourself, Jonathan?"

"Nope, I just notice things. Like you favor our right hip and that female officer over there with the tight bun thinks you're hot." Dylan chuckled a bit. He knew I could smell the change in her pheromones as we walked by.

"You're a hoot, Jonathan. Old football injury, the hip, and that officer is married with a kid." We entered his office and got to work.

"Still doesn't stop her from liking you. Before we get started, do you have a gopher to run get Dylan something to eat? We haven't had dinner." I could hear his tummy rumbling and it was making me want food too, but I was not a growing boy...much.

"Sure." He pressed a button. "Millie, Dylan is here. Can you take him out to dinner?"

A moment later and older woman with a kind face and doe eyes popped her head in. "Hey Dylan."

"Hi Millie. I'm back." She wore an officer's uniform but with a different badge.

"C'mon, kiddo. Lets get you fed and let them handle the paperwork."

Once he was gone I looked at the detective. "He's been in and out of foster care since birth. Seven families in his short life, none of them willing to put up with his oddness. The silence, the obsession with werewolves. Just been shunted around. Here is his file." I was handed a two inch thick accordion folder stuff full. "Kid's got issues."

I stared at the folder and then set it aside. "Detective, am I able to adopt him. Legally?"

"Your background check is clean and clear if that's what you mean. But why? He's a handful."

"I went through the system myself and I know what he's going through with that. I don't want the little dude to have to get caught by the rip tide when I can save him. I know the silences and about him liking werewolves."

"Not liking. Obsession. Clinical obsession."

I waved his worries away. "Dude, my obsession is my body. I work out a lot but no one calls me on it. His is about the wolfman. Any comic geek out there is thought of as an oddball cause of their hobby that consumes their life. This little dude is no different."

Smiling, the detective handed me an application. "Here. I have gotten a court date to decide his fate. Set in two weeks. Fill that out and I'll submit it. Get it in now and they will see you're serious about keeping the little dude and it will make it easier for them to decide." I filled it out in triplicate and got the rest done in record time. "You push paper for a living?"

"Guilty. Sales when I'm not in charge of layoffs."

"Oooo the Heavy." I grinned.

"Actually had to fire someone today. But also got a recommendation for a promotion answered for another guy." We talked while I worked and about ten minutes shy of finishing up the little dude came back in. I had decided I would not get his hopes up cause I wanted it to be a surprise.

"Here you go Millie. The interim paperwork for Dylan." She looked at the top page and smiled. It was my application(s). She leafed through it and nodded. "All set then. Well, Dylan, until the court date you'll be staying with Jonathan here." That brought a huge grin to his face. Millie saw it and I could smell her get happy and relieved. Finally, her scent said, he had found himself a home.

The next new moon came and I was a bit tired the next day having slept poorly. Entirely my fault really since it may have been the last night with the little dude and I wanted to give him something to remember if they took him. We rented everything werewolf and ate popcorn. Betty and Mr. Andrews came over to join the party, Betty bringing over her daughter who was a year younger than Dylan. It did not trouble him at all that Dylan was the only human in the room. He thought it was awesome. We stayed up until two in the morning having a mondo awesome party and then got up at eight for court at nine.

The judge saw us trudge in and looked concerned. After getting the preliminary crap out of the way the judge looked us over. "Why are the three of you so tired?"

"My fault, Your Honor. I felt that, since last night might be the last I get to spend with the little dude, he needed something to bolster his spirits. We stayed up really late watching movies and eating junk food. Not the best choice maybe, but he deserved something." I could see it actually won some brownie points with her that I wanted him to have something good to look back on.

"Not the best but maybe correct. I have looked over your record, Mr. Davenport. Steady job for the past five years, financial stability, a desire to give Dylan a home." Dylan looked at me in shock. I could barely keep the smile off my face. "Having filled out the application in triplicate shows you want this situation to remain."

"I do Your Honor. I want to adopt Dylan." Pat's eyes misted over and I could feel him radiating love from every pore. I hadn't even told him I wanted to keep him permanently cause he would've totally blabbed just from body language.

"And would that be okay with you, Dylan?"

She must have expected a shrug or at most a nod, but she was shocked when he said, "Heck yeah. I'd love it."

"My, my. With that rather vocal yes it is the decision of the court that you are given custody of Dylan Parker." Before the last words were even out of her mouth he flung himself into my arms. There was another mountain of paperwork for me to fill out and all that, but right then I was feeling on top of the world. I had a man I loved and was getting the most awesome little dude ever, giving him a home.

We finally got out of the courthouse after lunch and Pat had to go to work but I had the whole day off to deal with family matters. "Hey Jon?"

"Yeah little dude?"

"I gotta ask what you and Pat were doing out there in the woods." He seemed to find this suddenly important.

"Full moon night, had to run around rather than be cooped up. The Lunais of the area gather every full moon away from the Lupus hunting ground. Like a huge family picnic only at night and a lot hairier." Dylan giggled. "It was my own first intro to the pack and Pat and I slipped away for some alone time." I was not comfortable talking about that to the kid so I glazed over some facts. "We were running and I smelled the camp fire and then saw the Lupus. The rest you know."

"Yeah. Umm...Jon?"

"Yes...umm...Dylan?" I was teasing him and his reticence so he'd know he could ask anything he wanted.

"Will you turn me?" Mr. Andrews had said he would ask but I figured it would be at least a few weeks down the line, not the day I adopted him.

"Is that a question of if or when?"

"Both," he replied.

"I would say if you really wanted it, and I know you totally do, I would say give it a little time. Get use to living with Lycans before you become one. Meet a few more." He nodded like he knew I would say something like that. "I'll do it, don't get me wrong, but...ya know?"

"Yeah." He seemed satisfied with that. I had said I would do it and I would.

"I'll see if I can't bring you to the next picnic. Wonder if they've ever had a human other than the Hunters around during then."

"Hunters?" he asked and I told him what I knew about them and why they were necessary. To protect us we had to protect the humans from us. That meant sometimes killing our own, usually the ferals or loners that may wander into pack territory that were endangering humans and thus our own way of life among them.

The two of us grabbed lunch and then I drove by the office to pick up some work. The receptionist looked at me oddly when I said I was doing that with Dylan in tow. "Who is this?" she asked and Dylan hid behind me and smelled so much of fear that I had to fight the urge to snort.

"My son. Adoption went through today. Just grabbing some work to take home since I know Mr. McLeod would not like a minor running around my floor bothering the ladies." I walked away and into a thankfully empty elevator. "You know she's Lupus."

"All but the janitor and the mailman were. I couldn't tell wha' the lady in the black skirt and pink top was though."

Good to know he only knew wolves by sight. "If my info is correct she was an Owl." His eyes got as huge as saucers and I stifled a laugh. "Yes there are other species. Not many that I know of, but maybe Mr. Andrews could tell you about them if you asked really nice."

"Wow. More than wolves?" I could see him thinking he was way behind on his research. "I like Mr. Andrews. He's one of them but he's so cool."

"Most I would say most are pretty cool if given a chance and most would avoid humans during the moon. Some though....aren't. Just like normal people." He nodded to that as the elevator opened and he got his first look at the office. It was rather drab today since it was the height of the work rotation and not many people paid any mind to me as I walked by, my silver pendant in plain view and Dylan trotting at my heels.

"Here are your messages, Mr. Davenport," said Pat as I walked past. I motioned for him to follow and he did, the little dude smelling very confused.

In my office I closed the door and Pat stepped up to give me a kiss. Then he handed me the messages that I looked over before sitting at the desk and dialing records to let them know I had a dependent now. "Yes, I'll fax over his records when I can find them in the mounds of dead trees." The records clerk was a Lunais. "Yes it is actually. Yeah, I couldn't let the little dude disappear into the system again. Is that allowed?" I asked and smiled, knowing my scent went from neutrally happy to OMG happy. "He may decline but I'll ask him." I dialed a few other numbers and saw to that business while Dylan wandered around my office and stared out over the city from my window. Pat was scribbling the info down that the persons on the other line would give me while I typed it into my computer. Once done I hung up and said, "All set. Little dude we need to get your stuff from your old place and then back to the new one." I tossed Pat my car keys. "I'm stealing your Hummer." He tossed me his keys and I grabbed my work from my desk.

There was a knock at my office door. I sniffed and paled. Pat did too. "I'll mind Dylan. Keep him out of mischief." Pat took the little dude to the door just as Angus was coming through. Dylan looked at him and then paled and I think he was one wrong word away from pissing his pants. "Mr. McLeod," Pat said in passing and led Dylan away under the scrutinizing gaze of the Pack Leader.

"May I ask who that is, Jon?" He shut the door behind him.

"My foster son. Just finalized the legal stuff today. Little dude's been through hell in the past month. We were just on our way to get his belongings from his old home. Picking up work."

"Nice to see that you're taking your duties seriously even when taking a day off. There is something that has come to my attention in the recent past that needs your expertise." I sighed inwardly. "Nothing major, just something to do with your current selling sector before you joined us. I would like for you to investigate it and then correct it."

"I will do that. Anything else before I take off?"

"This is not a place for kids."

"I understand and it won't happen again." He nodded like it had better not and I flipped him off to his back much to Gene's mirth as he passed by my open door. I grinned and left with the little dude in tow.

He said nothing as we walked to the Hummer but I could still smell his fear and knew I would never bring him here to the office again. "That was the current Pack Leader and will get it if he doesn't show his douche colors too badly to Mr. Andrews, but you did not hear me say that." I looked at him out of the corner of my to see him smother a grin. "I won't take you back there. Too much for you and my poor nerves."

"Yeah. That guy was one mean Lupus." I nodded. I knew he was no one to cross but that did not mean I would bow to him. Never that.

Getting his things was short and simple as he didn't have much except for a bunch of Tupperware tubs and one small suitcase full of clothes. It made me sad to see he did not even have something so simple as a single toy in all of that. The only thing of obvious value was an old computer that should have gone out in the trash a decade ago. My cell phone had better computing power. Yet he insisted on carry it himself when I knew it weighed a thousand pounds of outdated hardware and software. We got home and I just toted it all up to his room and saw him plug his comp. It took forever for it to go through its POST and then for him to log in. I left him to his own organization and went down to do some of my work. It didn't take long either since it was simple number crunching and I had most of the formulas in my head.

Then I got to that problem Angus told me about. I looked into the old files and found nothing suspicious until I got to a small anomaly that didn't quite add up but I could not tell why. I stared at the thing and couldn't see why it made me think it did not belong. Checking the account I found it was a payroll number and the amount was something that should not be there really. Then I recalled the guy I replaced was embezzling and I wondered if this was how he did it. The amount was small enough to go unnoticed unless you were anal about the books. Money was being siphoned off the payroll account to go into a dummy worker whose name was not listed, yet the overall amount we send to the satellite for pay had not increased in the last two years prior, not without a paper trail a mile long. I checked for a department name and found one I did not have in my roster. I double checked the number and then dialed the office. "Jonathan Davenport's office."

"Pat, it's Jon. I need you to check on a dep number for me." I gave him the number and he ran it through his computer.

"That's a classified number. I don't have access. Takes a VP or higher authority." He sounded confused as to why he would not have access. "There are only two types of numbers with that level. R&D and security. Each has their own sub codes and whatnot. Sorry I could not be more help."

"Thanks. I'll get a temp code from Angus since I'm doing something for my sector."

"I'll have him email it to you." I hung up and wondered what the last guy was up to. He didn't have VP access to hide a code cause I was sure there was something bogus going down. Maybe he had just been a scapegoat for someone higher up with access to that level of security. Well, until I got that clearance code I could do nothing else with this so I went up stairs to find Dylan's door shut.

I knocked softly. "Hey, Dylan, can I come in?" I hated when my folks just walked in. In a moment the door opened.

"Thanks for knocking." I ruffled his hair and I could see he was working on his ancient computer.

"Done unpacking already?" Nothing had really been changed so I knew all those tubs were still packed in hiding in the closet.

"Fer now. I wanted to get what I felt about the Owl Lycanthrope lady down. Since I can't find anything in all my notes about them I have to start somewhere."

"Tubular. So you really are obsessed with Lycans." He looked mildly hurt but nodded. "I think it's kinda bodacious you got a hobby you like so much that no one can take from you as long as you got eyes and a brain." He smiled. "Would you like to see something way awesome?" He nodded and I told him I would be right back. I changed into those modified sweat pants and came back. Dylan looked confused, his eyes locked on the silver pendant.

"Is that silver?"

"Yup. I can touch it. Not sure why or how but I can. Since you like Lycans so much...would you like to see a hybrid change?" He looked like someone had given him the keys to Toys R Us and said have at it.

"You mean you can change when it's not even a full moon?"

"A bit. Not all the way. Pat can too and he's the one who turned me into a drool machine." Looking withing myself for that thought process I enacted that partial change. It was not painful at all compared to the full change that would happen again in two weeks. Hair sprouted from every pore but not the full length coat I would get. I grew and filled out, my muscle mass nearly tripling even in this state. When the process was done I looked at Dylan who was grinning from ear to ear. "That's the partial change. The other is a lot more painful and can take a lot longer. Gotta grow a tail ya know. So, start taking notes, little dude."

"You mean you'll let me examine you?"

"To some extent yeah. Figure you want to know more about us, so what kinda father figure would I be to not help ya out?"

"The kind I always got before," he murmured but then got out his notebooks and started to give me a basic physical. What did it feel like? What did I sense? What changed? What stayed the same? All the while he was not taking notes but drawing me. I saw it emerge with a talent I had never seen.

"Whoa, little dude, lemme see that?" He showed me the drawing, smelling scared or readying himself for something negative. I could not believe the details he had shown. I took it over to a mirror and compared the drawing to what I saw. Dead to rights it was me. "Ya know, with this talent, you could make one awesome artist for fantasy novels or even make one wicked cool video game."

"You...ya like it?" I nodded and handed it back. "Everyone else says I should do something realistic. Something real life."

"They obviously did not know werewolves exist. It's really amazing." His grin was huge and he gave me a big hug which I returned as gently as I could size my strength had increased with my change.

"Do you really think I could make a game?"

"Not with that old clunker no. You would need to get a much better computer." He sighed and nodded knowing that to be true.

"Do I get an allowance for doing chores and getting good grades?"

I thought about it and nodded. "Sure. Ten bucks a week if you do all your chores. Five bucks for every A you get, 3 for every B, a buck per C, but you owe me five for every D and ten for every F. Your chores will be keeping your room clean, doing the dishes, taking out the garbage and dusting." All light work things and I hated dusting since I would now sneeze my head off.