“I… um… I met Brian years ago, when he came here thinking he was going to die. Instead, I gained a friend and companion. In my way, I loved him as family. As he wanted, I called him by his nickname, Buster. I will miss him,” said Sam with tears streaming down her face. She took a shot of whiskey.
“To Buster,” they all said and finished off their whiskey. Then, as each one shifted just a bit, a chorus of howls began to fill the night air. Angie, Meg and Sam listened to the sing-song vocals, Ginny was higher pitched, while George made the ground rumble or so it seemed. After a couple of minutes, it slowly died down. Off in the far distance, two more howls cascaded across the hills. Then there was silence.
Ginny picked up the urn, opened the top and stood off to one side and slowly poured the contents out. The breeze caught the ashes and tumbled them across the meadow. When two thirds of it was gone, she put the top back on and gave it back to Patrick to put in the pack.
Luc took the whiskey and after raising it to the sky, he poured a libation out on the earth. Then he capped the whiskey and put it in the pack as well.
“Let’s go home,” Luc said.
“Luc, who were the other two howls we heard,” asked Sam.
“Donald and James most likely,” said Luc.
Sam blinked. “Oh,” as it dawned on her. “I didn’t know.”
“No, most times you never would. We try to keep quiet,” said Luc as they walked down the mountain.
“Okay. I won’t tell,” said Sam.
“I know you won’t. Besides, you’re family,” said Patrick from the other side.
They walked down into the area behind the B&B, with George as ‘Buster’ trailing behind. No one was around, and they got inside without incident. It was late and they all headed to bed.
***
Luc woke up early. He heard some sort of noise and couldn’t figure it out at first. Then it hit him.”Growling? Who the fuck is growling?”he wondered. Luc grabbed his jeans and headed downstairs towards the noise. It came from the backyard and Buster’s house. There in the back yard were a bunch of reporters huddled together in a corner and ‘Buster’ leaning towards them in a menacing way. He was growling.
“Hey Buster, settle down!” he hollered as he approached. “What set you off boy?” Luc looked at ‘Buster’ and then he noticed the net shredded under ‘Buster’s’ feet. Shreds of it hung from ‘Buster’s’ fangs. Luc turned to the crowd of reporters.
“Alright you idiots, what in the hell did you think you were doing?” he hollered, his voice heavy with sub-vocals.
“None of your business!” one hollered from deep in the corner.
“We were just looking at the dog and he attacked us!” said another.
“Bullshit,” said Luc. “Unless he’s grown opposable thumbs, ‘Buster’ doesn’t use nets to catch or attack reporters. Plus, if he really wanted to hurt you, do you think that any of you would be alive?”
“That… that thing is a werewolf! It needs to be hauled in, dissected and studied,” said another man in the huddle.
“Right. You know, you guys aren’t too bright. How does one become a werewolf?” he asked as he stroked ‘Buster’s’ head.
“We all know that one! You get bitten,” said one of the reporters.
“Okay, so you idiots were going to tackle ‘Buster’ here and haul him off for science and none of you were worried about getting bitten?” asked Luc.”Stupid idiots!”he thought.
“Well, um… Joe here had a tranquilizer gun, but it didn’t work,” said the reporter.
“You shot Sam’s dog with a tranquilizer dart?” asked Luc.
“Yeah. See, it’s right there!” the reporter said pointing to a red fletched dart.
Luc looked down and saw that the dart had lodged in ‘Buster’s’ collar. He plucked it free and put it in his pocket.
“You have really bad aim. It hit his collar. Now, to be honest, from the looks of this thing, it’s Bear tranquilizer. You’d have killed him. Then I would have gleefully shot your ass full of this shit and left you to survive,” Luc growled. The force of the sub-vocals rattled the fence timbers.
“Need any help Luc?” asked Patrick as he walked up behind Luc.
“Yeah. Call the Sheriff. I’m not letting them out of here until the Sheriff takes all of their names and hopefully arrests them for trespassing,” said Luc.
“Sounds good to me,” Patrick said. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. “Yes, can I speak to Sheriff Dobbs? Sure. Yeah. Tell him we have some trouble down here at Sam’s B&B. Thanks,” he said and hung up. “Dispatch will get him here as soon as they can. I think the poor man is still in bed.”
“Thanks Patrick. Would you clear the rest of the net off of ‘Buster’? These idiots thought that they’d haul him off to be a lab rat toy,” said Luc.
“Idiots. He’s just a big husky wolf hybrid,” said Patrick loud enough for the reporters to hear. “He certainly isn’t a werewolf you idiots!” he hollered directly at them.”And if I was Catholic, I’d be saying three hail Mary’s for that lie,”he thought.
The two men stood next to ‘Buster’ who had finally stopped growling. The reporters were still huddled in the corner. Luc and Patrick could hear the sirens getting closer and soon saw the flashing lights on top of Sheriff Dobbs SUV.
“What in the hell is going on here?” asked Sam coming up behind the two men and ‘Buster’.
“These fine upstanding citizens were trespassing and planning to kidnap ‘Buster’ here,” said Luc. “Luckily for them, ‘Buster’ cornered them and woke me up with his growling.”
“Ah, and you two called Dobbs?” asked Sam.
“Yes,” said Patrick.
“Good, ’cause I’ve had just about enough of this shit,” said Sam. In the week since Brian’s funeral, there had been reporters and all sorts of kooks showing up. Sam still had the B&B closed down and at this rate she was getting peeved.
Sheriff Dobbs got out of his SUV and made his way over to them. “What in the hell is it this time Sam?” he asked.
“Trespassers and dog thiefs,” said Sam. “They snuck onto my property, through a closed gate marked ‘PRIVATE’ and tried to steal my dog.”