The Company of Wolves: Learn to Howl, #3

For Jim

This is a work of fiction, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

No AI/LLM was used in the creation of this work.

Baying the Moon © 2024 by Jennifer R. Donohue

Baying the Moon cover art © 2024 by Hudson Fraser

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in

any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except

for the use of quotations in a book review.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-945548-29-1

paperback ISBN:

Author Notes

Hello, and welcome to book 3 of the Learn to Howl trilogy. It has been quite the journey, in more ways than one! The trigger warnings that applied to the first two books are mostly present here, with a couple of additions. Thank you for trusting me on this journey.

It’s possible (and I’m not making any promises with regards to, say, release dates), that you’ll see another werewolf trilogy in the future. This one is from Morgan’s perspective.

The werewolves in the Learn to Howl trilogy are different from typical movie werewolves; they are people and they are wolves, with no bipedal werewolf form in between. They’re a little different from common pop culture urban fantasy werewolves; they’re normal sized wolves, they don’t communicate telepathically, and their social structures are more based on familial pack dynamics. I had a lot of fun with canine body language in the course of the trilogy, and maybe you will too!

Triggers warnings for The Company of Wolves include:

Medical experimentation

Kidnapping

Gunshot injury

Being drugged

Motor vehicle accident

Grief and grieving

Chapter One

By the time we met up with the Wards, the sun was down and the night noises crackled out of the bushes on either side of the highway. They waited for us in a diner, and I went in as Morgan stopped outside to finish her cigarette. They looked up when I walked in, bells jangling overhead, or Luke and Joe did; Everett had his back to the door and was probably on his tablet or laptop. A pot of coffee was parked at the end of the table and menus were in front of our waiting places and I had a moment to think ‘oh, my face’ and then Joe’s eyes got big, and he started to get up, but Luke put a hand on his shoulder. My face gave everything away, always. I knew it, they knew it, Morgan knew it.

I sat down with my back to the door, I’d make Morgan sit next to Luke. Everett moved his laptop over a little to give me space. Morgan’s outside, I said. She’ll be in. I realized I hadn’t really spoken in hours.

Allie? Joe asked, frowning.

I’m sorry, I can’t, I said, tucking my chin and smiling down at my menu.

The waitress bustled over and I ordered me and Morgan bacon cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes. I turned over my coffee mug, and Luke surprised me by reaching for the pot and pouring for me. The bells at the door jangled and I didn’t need to look to know it was Morgan, and she strode across the room with that little hitch in her step and dropped into the booth across from me.

Did you tell them? she asked flatly, looking at me.

No.

She smirked, like she expected as much, like she thought I was a coward. She looked around at the rest of the table. Rachel said that if we didn’t go back home after taking Allie’s wolf to the sanctuary, then we shouldn’t go home again. The waitress brought our milkshakes, vanilla, and Morgan flicked a smile at her and then sank a straw into hers.

I’m really sorry, Joe said, looking at me.

Yeah, them’s the breaks, huh? She sucked her cheeks flat on the milkshake, looked at me. I took a sip of my coffee. Nothing tasted like anything.

Look, you don’t— Luke started. I couldn’t begin to guess what Luke of all people was about to say to us.

Shut the fuck up, Morgan said easily. We made the choice we needed to make. You get anywhere on making a plan?

A pause, as tense and fraught as any I’d ever taken part of, and I watched Luke’s face, because I already knew what Morgan’s had to offer. He was caught off guard, he was kind of pissed, and then he let it go. I didn’t know why, but he let it go.

Everett’s been sorting through the clinic data, he said. They left that USB in for a few days, I guess, and he’s been all through the network.

Morgan turned her burning regard to Everett. The waitress slid our plates in front of us, looked at our faces and full water glasses, and walked away again without saying anything.

The clinic is mostly just a normal fertility clinic, that I can tell, Everett said a little hesitantly, looking at Morgan, looking to Luke. But sometimes they have more experimental patients, that they’ve done gene therapy on in utero. And patients with experimental medications after they’re born, even if they weren’t a fertility case to begin with? Or a couple, anyway.

More of that Subject A type of business? Morgan asked.

Patient numbers, but yeah. Confidentiality. He paused, looked at his screen again. The worst thing that could happen right now, I thought, would be for him to say that he combed through the records and found that a batch of them matched the house that burned in Alabama. My house, except the Wards didn’t know the whole of it. He looked around, looked at me. That was exactly what he’d found. God, did it even matter? Yeah, it mattered. Mama was why Silvernail knew about us. If Luke Ward knew that, and Bill, they wouldn’t want to get her and the boys away from them anymore. Maybe the boys, maybe they’d just agree to save my brothers, if Everett said those things right now.

Go on, Morgan said. She hadn’t touched her food yet.

Everett dropped his eyes to his screen again. But yeah, of course they want more of us to poke and prod. They had those couple days with the Culvers and then lost most of their research material. They want to use Annie and that lady and kids as bait, scoop up whoever comes for them.

And that’s just right there in the clinic data? Morgan asked, sarcastically. She really had that tone where it felt like she was hitting you without moving a muscle. They have a little powerpoint about kidnapping people for medical research?

Everett shrugged a little. She wanted to fight somebody, he wasn’t going to fight. Not only did people who fought with Morgan lose, but she also made them look bad. That’s not what their internal messaging says, but it’s what their internal messaging says.

So that’s where we are? You didn’t plan anything?

We didn’t say that, Jesus. If we weren’t sitting in a booth, Everett would’ve shoved his chair back from the table.

Well quit fucking around then.

Luke looked like he was trying to coach himself into giving Morgan’s behavior a pass. Quite the turnaround, and I couldn’t figure out why he would be different. The plan is, we’re not going to agree to their meeting place, we—

We covered that, remember.

Fucking eat your burger and listen, Luke snapped. Morgan’s nostrils flared. We all waited for her to tear Luke’s face off, except Luke, who kept talking instead. We want to meet them in public, of course, and they had to expect that. Though keeping in mind what happened at the diner that you girls went to before, we need bigger, and more public. I flinched a little, without meaning to.

The diner? Where police had to ‘teargas protestors.’ Morgan made elaborate air quotes and then picked up her cheeseburger, so I guessed Luke played his cards right, somehow.

Yeah, we haven’t been able to track that PR spin just yet, if it came from the cops, or if they had newspaper sources to manipulate. But for location, we’re thinking truck stop. There’s too many civilians, too many variables. Of course, that means we’ll have to play our own grab exactly right, but I think we’ve got a better chance than them.

A truck stop? That’s your plan? I couldn’t tell if she thought it was awful or awesome. I looked at Joe, who also did not seem to know. Who was also waiting for her to just explode, I thought.

Yeah.

Morgan chewed for another minute. Did they agree yet?

Everett hit a button on the laptop. Not yet.

They will, I said, surprising myself a little. Surprising Morgan a lot, from her eyebrows. To that, or something similar. Like you said, they had us for a little while. They’re not going to be happy without us anymore. And they want to see how I’ve changed, I thought, looking down at my plate. They want to know where their control broke, and why I was able to change. Why their ‘vitamins’ stopped working. I was their long term project, maybe their first one. Maybe their only one, until they took the aunts. And I had no idea.

I hate to bring this up, but should we lose Morgan’s Jeep somewhere? Joe asked, very hesitantly.

Oh shit, yes we should, Morgan said. Unless we want to use it as some kind of decoy at the truck stop? That sounds unhinged and appropriate.

It kinda does, I said. They’ll know the Jeep. They probably wouldn’t know whatever Luke’s driving. Or we could steal something.

What, you got the itch now? Morgan asked, but less harshly. More like the normal kind of Morgan-teasing. She was so weirdly proud of me for that.

Maybe I like showing off what you taught me, I said, because I was finally really starting to understand why she was just so much all the time. So angry, and abrasive, and aggressive. I was so tired, and so tired of crying.

Is there anything else I can get you? the waitress asked. Do you want that boxed, hon? She looked at my untouched plate.

That’s it, thanks, Luke said, leaning over to dig out his wallet, looking at the slip that she tore off and put in front of him.

Thank you, yes, I said. I’d eat in the car, or wherever we were going next. It must be she had a dinner rush about to happen, and I didn’t know how long Luke and Joe and Everett had held down this table already.

Luke already reserved a couple rooms at the hotel by the highway, Joe said to me, and I was grateful for his sympathetic smile.

Well good, we’ll just move operation, Morgan said, standing up. One of you want to come with and give us directions?

I will, Joe said.

We’ll see you there, Luke said. He stood up and got out his wallet, looked at two identical hotel keycards before handing one to Joe. I guess that one’s right.

We’ll figure it out. I half expected Morgan to snatch the card away, and I think Joe did too, but she didn’t, just stood up and waited for me to get up, and then started walking. I waited for Joe before I followed her. I was tired of being alone with Morgan right now, even if Morgan was the one who also understood me best.

When we were far enough from Luke and Everett, but Morgan was still pretty much across the parking lot, Joe said, I’m sorry about Rachel. I looked at him, startled. When I was telling you about my dad, before, I didn’t tell you that I was living with Grandpa because Dad didn’t want me home anymore.

Oh, God, I’m so sorry.

He shook his head, holding up a hand. No, no, you don’t need to do that. But I just wanted to tell you, so you’d know that I kind of understood. I know it’s different but...

Thank you, I said. It isn’t different, I wanted to say. Even if it wasn’t the same either. Mama didn’t want me because I’d become what she was afraid of. I wasn’t what she wanted me to be. With Rachel...I thought she was still proud of us, even saw the sense in what we were doing, just couldn’t join in. She had to protect her remaining sister, her pregnant niece, her doctor daughter. It just wasn’t possible for her to do all of it. Oh, we need to get moving, Morgan’s going to— on cue, Morgan tapped the horn, once.

I expect nothing less, he said, smiling ruefully.

I hope we made the right choice, I said as we started walking again. I didn’t feel like it was something I could say to Morgan, without losing a tooth maybe. My untied bootlaces clattered against the pavement and Joe glanced down at them, then looked at me again.

I think you did. And I think when all this is over, Rachel will let you come home again.

I hope you’re right. Wherever home would be then. In the pines again? Someplace else? She said they were going further to ground; was it a place that Morgan didn’t know about either?

Joe climbed in the back of the Jeep and I got in the front and Morgan drove off without comment. The hotel wasn’t far, a little concrete box with a flickering sign and rose bushes landscaping the parking lot, except deer had eaten them all down to sticks. Morgan grabbed both our bags, something I didn’t expect, and she maybe hesitated a second, looking at the guitars in cases in the back, before slamming it all shut and nodding for Joe to lead us to the rooms.

Luke and Everett weren’t far behind us. The rooms were across from each other on the end of the first floor, by the stairs and the ice machine and vending machines. The machines humming seemed very loud to me, but nobody else seemed to notice. Just new werewolf things I guessed. Still adjusting to what would’ve been a lifelong process. It hadn’t even been a year yet, maybe I could’ve been more patient with myself if we weren’t dealing with all this. None of this would’ve happened, if I’d been able to just grow up with my family like I was supposed to, Mama in the pines with her sisters, Morgan probably still bullying me because she was older, and she always had to be faster and better and just more. Morgan was the baby until I came along, I didn’t think about that until just this second.

Allie? Joe asked. I was just kind of standing in the middle of me and Morgan’s room, holding my boxed burger.

Yeah, sorry. Apparently we were meeting across the hall, and I came over. The humming was a little more quiet there. So where’s the truck stop? Did they agree to it yet?

Ohio, and not yet. They’ll probably email back in the morning.

So, what— Morgan started to ask, and then her phone rang and I about jumped out of my skin. I’d never heard her phone ring. She also looked slightly confused as she dug it out, then smiling, but still confused, she answered it. Hunter, what’s up? She glanced up at us, then she went across the hall to our room, closing both doors behind her as she went.

That happen often? Luke asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

God, which part? I asked.

Hunter is Hunter Coutard?

Oh that? Yeah, she and Morgan are real close, I said, remembering what Morgan told me once about outing people. Or not outing people. She doesn’t normally call, though, she must’ve texted first. Morgan never ignored Hunter’s texts, though. That I’d seen.

Explains why she was with you miscreants at the diner, Luke said.

Just the cost of inaction when Morgan is involved, Everett said.

That so? He was kicked back in a chair with his feet up on the corner of one of the beds. Then he nodded. Sounds right.

A legend of her time, I said dryly. I set the takeout box on the edge of the dresser and started to eat the burger, slowly, one handed, trying not to drop anything.

You both have your strengths, Joe said.

You don’t have to be nice, I said. I actually wanted desperately for somebody to just be nice, and comforting, and also didn’t know if I could handle it.

I’m not. He looked around at us, flushed a little when he saw the intent look on Luke’s face. Morgan’s got her style but you’re more...thoughtful. So when the two of you, uh, present a case it ends up working out. And you can kind of smooth people out when they’re all worked up.

Yeah, it works real good with Morgan. I shook my head. But I was flattered, and maybe a little flustered, and I closed the takeout box and hoped that Luke wouldn’t ruin this.

But Luke said, Joey’s kind of right, though. She bulldozes everything and you present a saner case. We never would’ve worked with just Morgan, but then you opened your mouth.

Now I was very flustered, because I’d never much thought about how Luke, or Bill, thought of me other than whether I was blending well enough as a wolf. Whether I was too hesitant, too soft, not enough like Morgan. Who actually saved me from having to make further comment by coming back then.

Okay, Hunter’ll be able to be an alternate vehicle for us, after we ditch the Jeep, she said.

Oh that’s good, I said, blinking. That was fast. I’m surprised she’s not grounded for a million years or whatever.

Ardith isn’t her mother, Morgan said. And we’re all adults. The corner of her mouth twitched just a little when she said it; I wasn’t an adult, quite, and it wasn’t that she had a tell when she was lying normally, it was that she thought it was so damn funny that the Wards didn’t know about me. Normally, you couldn’t tell at all when Morgan was lying.

Just blows the mind, the Coutards involved, Luke said.

Just Hunter and just as herself. Insomuch as we’re all just individuals, and not some kind of big weird organization that you Wards seem to want. Wouldn’t that be something, though, if we could get all the families in on it? Safety in obscurity stopped working, time for strength in numbers.

Could that ever happen though? I asked.

Morgan and Luke looked at each other and shrugged. Everett looked up from his screen. Yeah, maybe. It’d have to come from the Coutards, though, since they’re pretty much the ones who know everybody. All of us know some families, maybe Rachel a little more since she’s helped with peacekeeping some.

There was a pause, and then Luke said, Well if we’re just sitting around waiting for them to email us back, we might as well get some shuteye. You kids want to keep talking, you can do it in the other room.

Kids, right, Morgan grinned. Because you’re so ancient. You probably don’t want to make this weird.

Morgan, I said. She ignored me, still looking at Luke.

I’m twenty seven. You never asked.

Maybe I should’ve, that’s a special number amongst my people.

It is? I didn’t know anything about twenty seven, from any of the Culver stuff I’d read or been told, and she gave her mean laugh.

Rock stars. Twenty seven is significant amongst rock stars. I blinked at her. I swear to Christ, Allie, the things you don’t know sometimes.

"Sorry, right, I wasn't thinking about how you’re a rock star at every waking moment, sorry. I don’t know how I