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It was a quiet, impatient dinner that the Ainge family shared that evening. Finding out that Tommy had discovered his friends were also werewolves was one thing. Having the father of one of his friends come over to meet them all was another. And of course, neither of Tommy's parents were that thrilled to hear about how Tommy found out about his friends. Not only did Tommy have to reveal to his mom and dad that he was still hanging out with Ryan after his father specifically told him not to, but learning about the fight that caused Tommy to lose control and transform at school was the hardest part of the story for him to tell.

"It's a good thing Justin's father is coming over when he is," Michael Ainge explained. "I'm beginning to wonder how long you can keep this together before something happens and you change in the middle of class."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Tommy said softly, between bites of meatballs with a little bit of spaghetti. "Sometimes I can't stop myself from doing what the wolf inside of me wants to do."

"Look, Thomas, I understand this isn't easy for you, but 'the wolf made me do it' is not an excuse. You're still a human being - for the most part, anyway. You've got to learn to control yourself or else we're all going to be in big trouble."

It wasn't long after they had finished dinner when the doorbell finally rang. Tommy and his father went to the front door to greet Mr. Grey and his son together. Tommy had seen Justin's dad a few times in the past, but knowing now that he was a werewolf too made his build make a lot more sense. Justin's father was relatively short, but rock-solid. Short, slicked-back black hair in a widow's peak framed a face whose expression made it clear that this visit was purely business and no niceties. After inviting the two of them in, they made their way to the living room, where Tommy's mother had already sat down.

"Thomas told me all about what happened today," Michael explained. "I just want to start off by saying that I'm terribly sorry about what Thomas did to your son and I hope-"

"I'm not interested in what happened between the two boys," Mr. Grey interrupted. "That's not why I'm here. Justin took responsibility for starting the fight and I'm dealing with that accordingly. What I want to know is why you're neglecting your duties as Tommy's father."

Michael squinted in confusion. "Uhh... come again?"

"You heard me. If you don't want to be part of the pack, that's your decision, but if you can't keep your son in check then we're going to have to step in."

"Step in??" Michael repeated. "What are you talking about?"

"Your son transformed in public today," Mr. Grey explained, like a school principal disciplining a delinquent. "Now fortunately, he was able to duck into a bathroom and keep himself hidden until Justin over here was able to get him to change back - a technique that you should have taught him a long time ago. You don't teach your son any of the lore, you don't show your face at the gatherings, and just for good measure, a Paladin moves into the neighborhood and you don't notify us?" Mr. Grey began to punctuate his words with a sharply-pointed index finger. "I have a pack to protect, Mr. Ainge, and if you're going to be putting all of us in danger like this-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," Michael stammered, hands up in submission, clearly sensing that the situation was more intense than he originally thought. "I think there's been a big misunderstanding here. I don't know anything about lore or gatherings or any of that stuff. I'm not a werewolf."

"Oh, come on, don't give me that crap. Are you really going to look at me with a straight face and tell me you're not a werewolf, but your son is?"

Michael nodded assertively. "Thomas isn't my biological son, Mr. Grey. He's adopted."

With a blink of the eyes, the look on Mr. Grey's face as he heard the news went from angry and accusatory to confused and confounded. "Wait... he's adopted??"

"I can show you the papers if you want."

Mr. Grey looked off to the side, blinking rapidly as if trying to work out a Sphinx's riddle. A few seconds passed before he looked over at Justin. "Did you know about this?"

Justin could only shrug back at his dad. "I never asked."

Mr. Grey sighed, looking sheepishly back at the Ainge family. "Well... I must've scared the living daylights out of you guys just now."

"You can say that again!" Michael said indignantly. "Do you know how hard it is to have a werewolf for a son and not know anything about how it works? We've been trying to figure all this stuff out by ourselves, and we were hoping that you'd be able to tell us what we're supposed to do. Instead, you barge in here and start threatening us? What the hell is your problem?"

Mr. Grey scrubbed his face with his hands, clearly trying to wipe the proverbial egg off of it. "Mr. and Mrs. Ainge, I owe the two of you a sincere apology. I would never have talked to the two of you like that if I knew you were both human. What threw me off is that you have the aura too. It's an unbelievable coincidence that a False Positive would end up adopting a werewolf. Having either one is unlikely, but having both together... it's like a lottery ticket."

"Mr. Grey," Helen chimed in. "I'm sorry, but it's almost like you're speaking another language to us. What's this about auras and False Positives and everything else?"

"Well, I guess the easiest thing for me to do is start from the beginning, which means formally introducing myself." Mr. Grey took a breath to get established, then resumed. "My name is Anthony Grey. I'm a detective in the Thousand Oaks Police Department. But I'm also the pack Alpha for the werewolves who live in this area. I'm responsible for the safety and well-being of all werewolves living in Thousand Oaks and its vicinity. Justin here is what's known as a Junior Alpha - essentially, he's an extension of my authority for all werewolves younger than him."

Michael nodded in acknowledgement. "So what you're saying is, you're the leader of the pack?"

"Exactly. All in all, there are about 80 or so werewolves living in this city and its surrounding areas. Our existence is a very closely-guarded secret. Nobody knows of us except for a very small percentage of the human population who either have to know for national security purposes or have stumbled upon the secret - which the two of you seem to have done. I take it your son manifested just recently?"

"If you mean when he started changing," Helen replied, still puzzled over the lingo, "it happened over the summer."

"That's what I figured. The onset of puberty generally is the point when a young werewolf starts having transformations, but the condition of lycanthropy is present at birth. It's what gives us our aura."

"Aura?" Michael repeated.

"Werewolves can sense each other's presence," Anthony continued. "It's a self-preservation mechanism. It allows werewolves to seek each other out and gravitate to one another, creating the bonds necessary to form a pack. It's no accident that the friends that Thomas has been playing with from a young age are also werewolves; even if he didn't know it back then, it was the auras coming from each of them that caused them to befriend each other. That's how we stick together. Some humans - like you, Mr. Ainge - are born with a werewolf aura; we call people like you False Positives, because other werewolves will mistake you for one of them."

"Wait... I have a werewolf aura?" Michael asked in an astonished voice. "Does this mean I might... turn into one?"

Anthony chuckled. "No, Mr. Ainge. It doesn't work like that. We figure that the werewolf aura is likely some sort of genetic combination that some humans have just by the nature of their heredity. Without any sort of transmission of the condition, there's no risk of spontaneously becoming a werewolf. But I've yet to meet a False Positive that isn't friendly to our existence, so there might be something to be said about that."

Michael nodded in acknowledgement. "So, what was it you said about someone moving into the neighborhood? A Paladin, you called it?"

"Yeah, that's where things get sticky," Anthony replied. "The Paladins are a secret society of people who have been tasked with rooting out the supernatural creatures who live among humans. Holy warriors, you could call them. Fact of the matter is, there was a time not too long ago when werewolves weren't the only ones out there. Vampires and warlocks also existed, but they were hunted to extinction by Paladins. Werewolves have only survived as long as we have because of our ability to blend in with normal people. And like normal people, 99.9 percent of us are completely safe, and pose no threat to humans. We just want to go about our lives and be left alone. But it's that point-one percent that ruins it for all of us, because it's those guys that give the Paladins an excuse to go after anyone supernatural. Having one in town, especially in this area where several werewolf families live, puts us all in a lot of potential danger."

"But if they're a secret society," Helen wondered aloud, "how come you know so much about them?"

"As pack Alpha, I've had a couple of scrapes with a Paladin or two. Also, over the years I've managed to get enough inside information to know when one is poking around."

"So, who is it?" Michael asked impatiently.

Anthony sighed again. "I really don't think your son should be here for this."

"Thomas needs to know more than any of us," Michael rebutted.

Anthony nodded his head somberly. "His name is Linus Colton."

As soon as the name was announced, Tommy felt a pit in his stomach the size of a beach ball. His heart thudded loudly, his skin going totally pale. His mouth hung open, his tongue going suddenly dry. A low gasp was the only sound that his throat allowed him to make. The first name wasn't one that Tommy recognized, but that last name was.

"Colton?" Michael repeated. "Isn't that the family that moved in across the street? You're saying he's a Paladin?"

"I wish it weren't true, but you're living across the street from a werewolf hunter."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Mr. Ainge said, exasperated. "You know who he is and where he lives! Hunt him down! Take him out! Tear him to shreds or whatever it is that you guys do!"

"This isn't the Wild West, Mr. Ainge," Anthony said sternly. "A family man getting disemboweled in a picket-fence neighborhood for no apparent reason would arouse a lot of suspicion around town and on the news - not to mention from any other Paladins who hear about it."

"So arrest him then. You're a cop, right? There's got to be something you can get him on."

"There's two problems with that. For one thing, Paladins have mastered the art of stealth. When they strike, they do it where there are no witnesses, and leave no evidence behind. Even if I knew that a Paladin was behind a killing, there's no way we could pin it on any one individual. And second, if we put a Paladin on trial, he would make it a point to expose the secret as part of his defense, and then the witchhunt would be back on. The only real recourse we have is to ride things out and not give him reason to suspect us."

"So what do we do then, Mr. Grey?" Helen asked. "Just go on acting like there isn't someone living across the street who might kill our son?"

"There's not much else we can do," Mr. Grey replied. "We know about him, but he doesn't necessarily know about us. As long it stays that way, we'll be safe. The problem is that your Tommy seems to have befriended Linus' son, and that could be big trouble."

"We've already talked to Thomas about Ryan," Michael explained. "I told him to stay away from Ryan - for reasons that had nothing to do with any of this, actually." Michael looked over at his son. "You see what I was talking about now, Thomas?"

Tommy barely heard the conversation whizzing past him the entire time. All of his thoughts had been centered on the fact that Ryan, the unassuming kid from across the street, the boy he'd already professed his feelings to, and the first person outside of his family who knew he was a werewolf, was the son of a killer. Was Ryan tricking me this whole time? he thought. Was he just getting me to reveal myself so he could tell his dad?

He must have been lost in thought for some time, because when he finally became aware of his surroundings again, he could feel his dad's hand on his shoulder, speaking directly at him. "Thomas? Thomas, are you listening?"

Tommy didn't reply. He was too overwhelmed with shame and heartbreak to utter a word. Instead, he jumped off the couch and dashed to his bedroom, slammed the door behind him, flopped onto his bed, and began crying like he never had before.

It was over an hour of being alone in a room that was growing dimmer by the setting sun and the ensuing twilight. Finally, the door opened, and the bedroom light was flipped on. Tommy lifted his head off the pillow and looked back to see his father standing in the doorway. "Can I come in?"

Tommy sniffled back the last of his tears. "Yeah."

"Tommy... I don't know what to say," his father said as he walked toward the bed, crouching next to Tommy and stroking the boy's hair. "I'm sorry. You don't deserve half of the stuff that's been thrown your way. But at least now you have the pack to help keep you safe, right?"

"But... what about Ryan?" Tommy asked. "I know you said not to play with him, but he didn't have anyone else to play with all summer, and then the other kids were being mean to him. And now..."

"He knows about you, doesn't he?"

A pang of shock jolted through Tommy's body. He sat up in surprise. "What??"

"If you never stopped playing with him, then you probably kept doing all the stuff I was telling you not to do. And knowing what I know about what makes you change... I'll bet you couldn't help it. Am I wrong?"

Tommy said nothing, but the bright red coloration that appeared on his cheeks was enough of an answer.

"We figured as much," his father said with a clear shade of disappointment in his voice. "Look, Thomas. I told you not to hang around Ryan, and I told you not to tell anyone about your secret. You see the trouble you've caused now by disobeying me?"

Tommy could only muster a very slow - and a very guilty - nod of the head.

"If things weren't so serious, I'd be grounding you until high school. But we really don't have time for that now. Mr. Grey said that the safest thing to do is to stay friendly with him."

Tommy grimaced at the instruction. "But I don't want to be friends with him anymore. Not if his dad is a Paladin."

"You're going to have to try. The only safeguard we have left is if Ryan hasn't told his father yet, and there's a better chance of that if you and the other boys get along with him and not let on that you know."

"What if he's told his dad already?"

"If he did, then we'll just have to deal with it," Tommy's father answered. "Mr. Grey promised to put the rest of the pack on full alert. They can't do anything aggressively against Linus, but they can protect you. And since Paladins are instructed not to harm other humans, I'm pretty sure you'll be safe in here."

Tommy's tears began to return. "I'm scared, Dad."

"I know, Tommy. Just hold tight and everything will work itself out. And one more thing: Mr. Grey said the pack is having a gathering on the next full moon, this Friday. He's officially invited all three of us to attend. It'll give you a chance to meet the others in the pack, and maybe learn some of the lore that you're supposed to know. All the other boys will be there, too, so maybe they can help teach you some stuff, too."

The prospect of going outside for a full moon for the first time was enough to finally break Tommy out of his funk. He smiled at his dad. "Really? Awesome!"

"I thought that would cheer you up," his father chuckled. "Now give your dad a big old werewolf hug before you go to bed, OK? Grr!"

That really gave Tommy something to smile about. "GRRR!!" He fell into his dad's arms and gave him a strong embrace. Even amidst all the chaos, the wolf inside of Tommy couldn't have felt more comfortable. His father may not have been a werewolf, but he had the aura - and that was all he needed to feel safe.