47. Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 26th
Waning Gibbous Moon, Twenty-Six Nights to Full Moon

I picked my parents up at their hotel at noon on Thanksgiving. The dinner was more like a late lunch, and we would be eating around three.

My mom was bringing up the rear as always, trying to make herself look absolutely perfect.

“Come on, mom, we’re going to be late,” I complained as my dad and I waited for her outside the bathroom.

“It’ll be just a few more moments, sweetie. I missed a few stray hairs when I was plucking,” She said through the door.

I sighed and flopped onto the bed. The evening was going to be stressful enough, I needed to just breathe and relax.

“Okay, I’m ready,” She finally came out of the bathroom. Her blonde hair was curled, longer than it had been before I left for college, the dye job fresh and not showing a hint of gray strands or any brown roots. It was a large contrast to my dad’s hair, which was more grey than brown now, and shorter than I remembered it, starting to thin.

I grabbed my keys off the bed and took them to the car, “Now remember what I told you on the phone,” I said as I drove.

“Hmm?” My mom asked from the backseat. My dad was beside me in the passenger seat so he could have more room for his legs.

“They don’t want to be treated like freaks or abnormal people. Just treat them like you would treat anyone else, and don’t mention anything about diseases, curses, or cures.”

My mom was silent from the backseat. It wasn’t a good sign.

When we pulled up to the house, there were already several cars there. I helped my parents out of the car and we went up to the front door. I tried to just go straight in, but my mom slapped my hand away from the doorknob.

I looked up at her as she rang the doorbell and stood to wait. “This is the proper way to come in when you’re a guest.”

I sighed, remembering that my parents didn’t realize quite how close I was with the pack leader’s family, or how open he was about people coming over.

The door opened and Sylvea was standing there to greet us. “Hi Selene, these must be your parents.” They introduced themselves and they all shook hands. “Quinn is on the deck, as usual. He insisted on doing more than the traditional turkey and ham, so he has the grill fired up and he’s cooking brisket to go with the meal.”

“Thanks, I’ll go introduce him to my parents,” I said as we walked into the home.

“Was that Mister Quinn’s daughter?” My mom asked as we continued through the house. Sylvea went back into the kitchen.

“No, that’s his wife.”

“She can’t be older than you. Don’t they have a son your age?”

“He’s a few years older than me, actually.”

“Hmm, must be a second marriage,” She postulated. I didn’t bother to give her the real story. It would have been too much explanation.

We went out onto the deck, where Quinn was standing with Randall, one of his bodyguards, and a few other pack members. “Oh, here’s Selene right now with her parents!” Quinn exclaimed as we walked up to them.

“I’m Quinn,” He said to my parents, shaking their hands.

My mom gaped for a second until I nudged her, hoping she wouldn’t embarrass me. “I’m Alyssa, and this is my husband, John. Pleased to meet you,” She said politely. I held my breath, waiting for her to screw up the introduction. “You’re so young, you can’t be Mister Quinn,” She said.

He laughed, “Just call me Quinn. Everyone else does. And yes, I look that way, it’s a perk of being me.” He flashed a smile at my parents and then at me.

Randall stepped forward, waiting for me to introduce him. I cleared my throat and my parents looked over to me. “This is Quinn’s son, Randall. We’ve been dating for the past few months.”

I could hear my mom stop breathing, and then she mouthed to me, “Is he?”

I sighed and put my hand over my face. “Yes, mom. He’s the same as me.”

“How will I ever have grandchildren?” She asked, her voice a little too high.

I could feel my face growing red with embarrassment. “Just drop it mom, we’ll talk about this later.” I pushed them back inside and threw Randall a look that said, I told you so.

Back inside, I hovered around my parents as they met various pack members. The elders were there, along with Kate and Pete. Kate looked lonely without Lilith around, but as it was still light out and Lilith couldn’t consume solid food, it was a safe bet to say that she wouldn’t be showing up.

I grabbed them some drinks and we moved into the living room to sit down. “They’re all so nice,” My dad said, taking the wine glass I handed him.

“What did you expect? They aren’t bad people.”

“We didn’t really know what to expect, really. But I guess even animals can act tame,” My mom interjected.

“Mom!” I shushed her. “That is a very rude thing to say. You forget that I’m one of those animals you’re talking about.”

“Oh honey, you aren’t like them,” She reached out and stroked my hair.

“I’m more like them than I am like you.”

Randall walked in after my statement, both of my parents at a loss for words. I walked up to him and hugged him, no longer worrying about what they thought. My mom scoffed from the couch, my dad only narrowed his eyes at Randall, though that was probably what any dad would do around the man he just found out his daughter was dating.

“So what do you two think of our home?” Randall asked, picking a neutral topic.

“Oh, it’s very beautiful,” My mom said quietly.

My dad added in his own adjectives, “Large and spacious,” He nodded.

“It’s been in my family for generations. One day it’ll be mine,” He smiled.

“Dinner’s ready!” I heard Sylvea shout from the kitchen as she began rounding up people to start eating. As we got up, I could only pray that my parents would just eat and keep their mouths shut. That was something we would all be thankful for.

* * * * *

We all held hands while Quinn did the prayer, and then we got our plates and got in line for the food. There was too much to fit on the table, more food than I had ever seen before. There were two turkeys, a huge ham, and the brisket that Quinn had been working on. There was a huge bowl of mashed potatoes, and the rest of the spread consisted of cranberry sauce, peas, corn, sweet potato casserole, green been casserole, and plenty of gravy. That wasn’t even counting the dessert. Pies of all kinds, pumpkin, cherry, apple and lemon. The entire house smelled like spices and mouthwatering food.

I piled on the turkey and ham while my parents went around and got a small sampling of everything. Sylvea hadn’t cooked everything, several of the side dishes had come from other pack members, but it all looked delicious.

The dining room table wasn’t large enough for all of us, so some of the younger pack members ate at a separate table that had been set up in the kitchen. My parents and I sat at the main table though, alongside Quinn, Sylvea, Randall, Kate, and the Elders, as well as one of Quinn’s bodyguards.

The first part of dinner was mostly quiet; the only sounds were of people chewing and swallowing, quiet comments on how good the food tasted, the moistness of the turkey, the richness of the gravy. It was the after part that worried me. What would come out of the mouths of my parents after they were full, after they were done with the chewing and beginning to converse with the others.

“Where’s Lucille today?” Randall asked Kate in-between bites.

Kate sighed, “She said she couldn’t come today, no matter how many times I asked.”

“Oh, maybe she’s doing family stuff or something,” He said.

“I don’t know, maybe. She doesn’t really ever talk about her family.”

“Maybe they don’t accept her,” He shot a quick glance at me. I had a feeling he was talking about my family rather than Lilith’s hypothetical one.

My mom leaned over to whisper to me, “Is everyone here…?”

I glared at her, and several others looked at her inquisitively. She didn’t realize that everyone at the table could hear her whispers.

“Care to elaborate?” Quinn asked, smiling as he cut a piece of turkey.

My mom, taken aback, just gaped for a few seconds. Regaining her composure, she spoke, “I was just asking Selene if everyone here was um, the same.”

“The same in what way? Happy? Content with our lives? Werewolves?” He put the piece of turkey in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully as he waited for my mom’s reply.

“I just didn’t think there were so many,” She said.

“There are a lot more of us, a lot more,” Randall interjected.

“But you still manage to keep so secretive.”

Quinn looked at her sternly, “We like our secrecy.”

She put down her fork and focused her gaze on Quinn, “But what if you weren’t so secret? If you came out to the general public, then the government could do research for you, help you find a cure.”

I heard several sounds of disapproval around the table. I just groaned and wished I could hide somewhere. Everyone around the table was talking at once, the voices becoming jumbled.

“You mean do research on us.”

“You want your own daughter to be a lab rat?”

“Maybe we don’t want a cure.”

Quinn silenced everyone as he spoke, “Alyssa, you seem not to understand us. We are no longer part of the general human community. Yes, we can interact and we can pass ourselves off as human, but we have a part of us that is animal, and we will have that part until we die, and if we were to expose ourselves to the world as what we are, we would be locked up, caged, treated like our more dangerous animal sides. We would be killed, experimented on, hunted, and eradicated. Humans don’t like what they cannot control. And besides that, a cure, even if one existed, isn’t something that we’re all that interested in. Is anyone here unhappy with what they are?”

I followed my mother’s gaze around the table. No one spoke.

“We don’t need a cure. What we have isn’t a curse; it’s a blessing. We are more than human. We are different, yes, but we don’t mind.” Everyone nodded along with Quinn’s words. Everyone except my parents.

“I think you joining these people was a mistake, Selene,” My mother stood up and my father reluctantly followed. “They’re brainwashing you or something. They’re not normal. Let’s go.”

Her and my father left the room, my face flushed and hot. I apologized to everyone and got up. “I drove them here. I’m going to take them back to the hotel. It’s probably for the best that they go anyway.”

Randall stood up and walked with me. We went outside where they were waiting at my locked car. “I’ll come back later, if it’s okay with your family.”

“You’re welcome anytime, Selene. It’s not your fault your mom’s deluded. She’s got some strong opinions and she just wants you to be normal again. Come back when you can, okay? Don’t let them take you away.”

“I won’t let them. I’m going to see them off and try to get away.” I kissed him goodbye and didn’t care that my parents were watching.

The ride back to the hotel was tiring to say the least. My mom went on and on about how rude everyone was and how quickly they just shot down her suggestion without even considering it. It was as if she didn’t think that they had considered it in the past. My dad was his usual quiet self, just allowing her to ramble as he sat in his seat and stared out the window.

“I don’t want you going over there, I don’t want you seeing that boy again. If you do, we’re going to pull you out of this school.”

“Mom, you can’t run my life anymore. I’m eighteen, my student loans are paying for college, so you aren’t paying a dime, and you’re being irrational. You aren’t considering my own happiness.”

“Well, I just don’t think it’s right to be content like that,” She said once more before I dropped them off.

“I’m going to make my own decisions from now on, mom. If you can’t stand by them, then I’d rather you not even bother with me anymore.”

“You really shouldn’t talk to your mother like that,” My dad said, glancing nervously at her.

“No honey, she’s right. We did the best we could for her, and she’s old enough to make decisions now, even if we don’t approve. Even if it’s a mistake, at least she’ll learn something from it.” She pressed her lips together in a tight line.

“Goodbye,” I said as I rolled up the window. They waved to me as I drove off and went back to Randall’s house for the rest of the evening.

-----
A/N: Sorry once more for lateness. I had a bit of writer's block on this chapter because I wrote the first half before finals and then took a break from it. In-between, I kind of forgot exactly how I wanted to write it. Anyway, it's quite long. One of the longest chapters so far I think, though there's a lot of dialogue so it's not too long of a read.

The wedding went well even though it rained, I passed all my classes and graduated, and my birthday was a little lackluster compared to the other events, but it's okay. After last year's 21, the rest of the years are just numbers.

I will have the next chapter set up to automatically post on Monday while I'm on my cruise. I can't get internet on the ship because it's really expensive. We're getting out of the time killing/filler phase and into the story again.

I hope Selene's mom wasn't too over the top. >.<