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Mason

“Idon’t understand,”Mom said, shaking her head. She held the check reverently in her trembling hands. I was afraid she might accidentally rip the thing right in two. “How did you get this money together? I thought we wouldn’t be able to pay Mr. Bellock ontime…”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom,”said Jennifer. She crouched down so she could be at Mom’s height in her wheelchair, and put her arm around her shoulders. “Mason and I were able to grab some extra work again. Like I told you, you don’t need to worry about paying Ackson Bellock hisfee.” Her tone changed at the word, filled withvenom.

“That’s right,”I said evenly. “Jennifer and I have things taken careof.”

“Ijust don’t knowhow the two of you can be earning this much money. Especially you, Jennifer, you’re only sixteen. You’re not doing anything… You’re treating your body withrespect?”

“Hounds of Hell, Mom,”Jennifer said, smacking her forehead. “I’m not whoring myself out. Though, Mason on the other hand… Omegasarein high demand.” She gave me a slylook.

“Muzzle it, Jennifer.”I grunted. “I’m doing most of the heavy lifting,” I reassured Mom—which was not entirely true. Even though I was four years older than my sister, she was more than able to pull her own weight. “Jennifer is just helpingout.”

“You shouldn’t even be doingany of this,” Mom said, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m your mother. I should be taking care of youtwo.”

“No, Mom,”I said. “We’re a family. We take care of eachother.”

Mom said,“Come here, honey. Come here,” and the three of usembraced.

“Love you, Mom,”Jennifer said. “Don’t worry. Mason and I will take care ofeverything.”

Apiercing howlfrom outside interrupted our family moment. Mom groaned, wiped her eyes, and rolled her wheelchair over to the window looking out over the front of our apartmentcomplex.

“That damn homeless prowler is back,”she said. “We’re paying so much in clan fees, the least they could do is keep this damn neighborhood clean. Oh, he’s peeing in the entrance way again.” She threw the window open and leaned her head out. “Excuse me!” she shouted. “Leave your mark somewhere else, we don’t like having to smell it every time we walk out thedoor!”

Iwentover and peeked out the window. On the street three stories below, a disheveled wolf with wild eyes turned its head up to us and let out another deranged howl before shifting back to human form and hobbling off down the street, nearly knocking over a couple of rough looking teenagers who cursed and spat onto the sidewalk after him. A helicopter roared overhead, its searchlight flitting back and forth like an erratic eyeball, and two police cruisers tore down our street with sirens blaring, off to do absolutely dog shit nothing to stop the overflowing crimes that happened every hour of every day in South East Wolfheart. I closed thewindow.

“Jenniferand I are going to run out for groceries,” I said. “We’re going to make dinner before I have to head out for myshift.”

“Honey,you don’t have to do that. I can get out of this thing to at least cook dinner forus.”

“Mom,”I said, “we still don’t know what’s wrong with your legs. Just take it easy, okay? We’ll take care ofit.”

“Please?”Jenniferadded.

Mom thoughtabout it and nodded, looking away. The helpless defeat on her face cut into my heart. I hated seeing her this way. She was the strongest woman I knew, besides my little sister. The worst part was that we could barely afford to even get her the wheelchair. The clinics we could afford to take her to could only provide painkillers and a brief examination, which only turned up question marks. Her legs just weren’t working right, and shifting into wolf form only made it successively worse, which meant her options for work were now slim tonil.

But maybe…Maybe after tonight, we would finally be able to afford to get Mom some real help, a doctor who could fixit.

Jenniferand I left the apartment building, gingerly avoiding the reeking puddle of wolf piss that stained the wall beneath the mailboxes. Just another beautiful day in theneighborhood.

“This really is the big one,”she said as we turned down the sidewalk, walking close enough so that we could speak at a low volume. We’d gotten really good at it—you never knew when police ears could be trained your way. “Security will be focused on the party. The opportunity will be huge, and we need this. I’m going to be starting school again. We can get Mom some better treatment, and take abreak.”

“Or not doit anymore at all,” Isuggested.

She laughed.“I mean, it’s good to be optimistic, but let’s be real. We agreed to keep it stealth. No more than we reallyneed.”

“Right…”

“It does bringup the question. How much longer can we dothis?”

“Idon’t know.But I’m not going to lie, there’s a part of me that really likes sticking it to those rich sons ofbitches.”

“Iknow,”Jennifer said. “Besides. They hardly even miss what we take. How many haven’t even realized they’ve been robbed? What does that say aboutthem?”

“Yeah,”I said. It was all so annoying to think about. The fact that these smug, highborn pieces of trash could live up in their estates, bathing in luxury that they hardly even cared about. It was true. Jennifer and I had infiltrated so many mansions that hadn’t even noticed anything was missing. Hell, sometimes we found neat stacks of cash just sitting around on countertops, or precious gemstones in bowls as decorations, like they were candy. “Still… I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I think we should stop after this one. Every time we go out we’re risking everything, even if it we are taking stuff that’s barelydetectable.”

She stopped walking.“Are you kidding? How will we afford the clan fees? Our living expenses? Mom’s medical costs? I’m still in pre-academy, and it’s not like you went to an academy or anything. No offense, Mason, but what else could you do formoney?”