The Dehumanization of Ethan Brown

Jake continued to pay Ethan at least a thousand a month toward the house. Ethan used that money for household expenses and put the money that he and Ryan earned into the bank. Nici announced that she was pregnant again when Daisy was four. “We haven’t never taken a long vacation,” Ryan said as they were lying out in a park after dark. “We should go to the mountains for a month and just enjoy nature.”

“And live off of fucking dog chow,” Ethan said as he snuggled against Ryan.

“No. I have a hunting license and we both have fishing license,” Ryan said. “We could bag a deer.”

“And if anyone learns we killed it with our claws not a gun,” Ria said.

“It’s no fun shooting it,” Ryan said. “I haven’t hunted anything bigger than squirrels for years.”

“I’ll arrange to take the month of October off,” Ethan said.

“Sounds good to me,” Ryan said. “I haven’t time off since I was hired. We use the money he gives us for the house mostly for food. Do we really have to eat out so much?”

“No,” Ria said, “but Ethan doesn’t want more money going into the bank than both of you make.”

“But in a few years when Jake is no longer paying us for the house,” Nici said.

“We can cut back some. Ethan has enough money in the bank for us to live comfortably the rest of our lives,” Ria said. “Ryan, I’m sure insurance company pays you well.”

“Only a little more than I made at the pizza parlor,” Ryan said. “I wonder what Jake will do with the money when the house is paid for.”

“Maybe he’ll quit working and enjoy his reclining years,” Nici said.

“Jake is only nineteen years older than I,” Ryan said. \"He has a long life ahead of him.\"

\"Baring death by violence,” Nici said. “We live eighty to ninety years like humans.”
f wef we’re constantly repairing our cells,” Daisy asked. “Why do we get old and die?”

“Our cells make mistakes in copying themselves and we deteriorate,” Ethan explained. “I wouldn’t be a curse if we lived forever. We age around the same speed as humans although the process isn’t the same. Nweekweek, I’ll teach you about our anatomy and physiology for your schooling.”

“Could we starve to death?” Daisy asked.

“In olden times, a large appetite would have been enough to cause us to eat human flesh. Meat was very expensive and hard to come by,” Ryan said. “I’ve never heard of werewolves dying from extreme hunger. The pain become unbearable and we’ll eat anyone we can find.”

“Why didn\'t we steal livestock?” Daisy asked.

“I\'m sure we did. There are times when there is no livestock to be found,” Ria said. “Honey, we have four acres. We could raise goats or sheep now that the children are getting older.”

“We would need a fence,” Daisy said.

“Of course,” Nici, her mother said. “I’ll call to get a fence built tomorrow. We can get sheep next spring. Emilio raises chickens and Robin raises rabbits. Why can’t we raise sheep?”

“Because we’ll eat them,” Ryan said.

“Daddy, that is the idea,” Daisy said.

“But sheep are raised for their wool. Goats are better,” Ethan said.

“Let’s get the livestock after we take a vacation in the mountains,” Ryan suggested, putting his hand on Ethan’s back. “As soon as you get the time off from the bus company, we’re out of here.”

Ethan drove to the Catskills with the windows of the car open. He could smell an odor of pack -- nearly family. He wondered if they were descendants of the few old people that survived the massacre or just ones that left during Christopher\'s rein of terror. Christopher enjoyed many females, which was uncommon for werewolves since nearly all were monogamous. Camilla had been the product of one of his affairs with a human woman. Ethan pulled the car over at a scenic overlook. \"I smell your mother\'s family,\" he said. \"Ryan, do you recall Christopher\'s smell?\"

\"No, I was a baby when he died,\" Ryan said.

\"I believe they\'re Albany pack,\" Ethan said.

\"We\'re the Albany pack,\" Ria said. \"You need to show them that you\'re alpha.\"

Ethan checked a camping thermometer. It was forty degrees although he felt warm in only a tee shirt and cut-offs. He brushed his long curly hair. \"Ria, are you ready to introduce ourselves to the remainders of our pack?\"

\"They aren\'t going to accept you as alpha,\" Nici said.

\"They have no choice.\" Ethan knew he was strong enough since Ryan had uttered that curse. He was a pure blood. Ethan started up a narrow path following his nose. \"They can\'t be more than two miles away.\"

\"I\'m your second,\" Ryan stated.

Ethan trekked through the woods quickly leaving the women and children behind. Ria would be able to follow his scent. Ryan kept up without a problem. Finally, Ethan found a trailer home, a clothing line and a few pots and pans around a fire hole coveby aby a grill. \"They must be around.\" As Ethan sat a rock never the fire pit, he took a deep sniff of air. \"They\'ll be back.\"

\"I bring up the equipment and lead the ladies here,\" Ryan said. \"Where do you think they are and why aren\'t the women and children here?\"

\"Maybe they went fishing,\" Ethan said. \"They are close by. Can\'t you smell them?\"

Ryan nodded. \"The car doesn\'t have four wheel drive so we\'ll have to leave it at the lookout.\"

\"Don\'t carry too much at a time. We don\'t want humans to have suspicions.\"

\"I won\'t. The women can carry some stuff. Do you think the pack will appreciate a gift of food?\"

\"Sure. I\'ll bring up the food after you return with the camping equipment.\" Ethan waited finally a female around Nici\'s age arrived carrying a two or three year old cub. She was wearing a dress that no more than dirty rags and the baby had on only a cloth diaper. Humans would have been wearing much more clothes in the weather. \"I\'m the new alpha of the Albany pack,\" Ethan said.

\"The only survivor was Chistopher\'s bastard by a human whore. She was adopted by the Syracuse pack.\"

\"And people like yourself that left before the massacre. I\'m married to her eldest daughter. That makes me the rightful alpha,\" Ethan said. \"Is there anyone here to challenge my claim?\"

\"I was born in these mountains,\" the female said.

\"How many seasons has your family been here?\" Ethan glanced back at the dilapidated trailer. It could be twenty or thirty years old. The clothes on the line were no more than rags.

\"I don\'t know,\" the female said.

\"I\'m Ethan Brown.\"

\"Carrie Gabriel.\" She started to nurse the baby.

\"How many others live up here?\"

\"Twelve including the five children.\"

Ethan paced around the ring of stones that surround the fire pit. He knew he was awesome sight: pure, five-eight and hundred and sixty pounds with long dark brown hair and thick body hair even his feet were hairy. Ethan should have taken the Lopez name. Brown wasn\'t a pack name in the Northeast. \"Where are they?\"

\"Fishing,\" the woman said. \"I have to get back to them.\" The woman picked up an empty bucket and some lures.

Ethan could join her pack fishing once Ryan and the woman arrived with their supplies. Nici was the first to get up the mountain to the site. Daisy was close behind carrying a duffle bag almost as large as her. \"She shouldn\'t have carried that bag,\" Ethan said.

\"There are no humans on this trails.\" Nici put down her bag of camping equipment including a tent, camp stove, two sleeping bags and lanterns. \"You could get the food.\"

\"Sure,\" Ethan said. \"This Nici Lopez and her daughter, Daisy.\"

\"Make yourself at home,\" Carrie said. \"The others are fishing. You\'re welcome to join us.\"

\"I\'ll set up camp,\" Ria said.

Ethan returned to the site with carrying two fifty-pound bags of dog food. There was two elderly men, an elderly woman, one man between thirty and forty years, a woman of similar age, and a man of nineteen or twenty plus the woman that he already met. The children were naked with long hair but they were clean and of good weight. \"I\'m the alpha of the new Albany pack. This is Ryan Lopez, my second in command.\" Ethan gave a speech to show that he was in power.

\"Living among the human trying to pass for one of them,\" one of the elderly men said.

\"I live in a nice house and have new clothes to wear and fresh food to eat,\" Ethan said. \"I\'m opening my arms to you.\"

Ryan pulled Ethan by the arm. \"Are you crazy?\"

\"They are Christopher Gabriel\'s kin,\" Ethan said.

\"Why did you leave the pack?\" Ria asked.

\"Christopher was allowing intermarriage to humans. He forgot what we were,\" the oldest woman.

Ethan wanted to tell them that he was half, but they could smell that he wasn\'t. He didn\'t want to tell them that Ryan worked magic on him. The last thing he wanted was this pack thinking he was a phony. \"I was raised with humans most of my childhood because my father wanted to protect me. My father was Albert Feldman, the Syracuse alpha.\" He hoped that they couldn\'t smell his half-truths.

\"His only son was a half-breed,\" said elderly woman.

\"I\'m full-breed,\" said Ethan. \"He feared, if others knew I was full blooded, I would be hunted down and killed. Anyone who challenges my rightful claim I\'ll fight to submission or death.\"

\"Two males, two females and their cubs isn\'t a pack,\" said the elder man who spoke before.

\"Do you challenge my claim?\" Ethan asked.

\"No, I\'m old and weak,\" said the man. \"Fighting you would assure my death.\"

\"Then we have a truce.\" Ethan sniffed the man, bit his neck and licked the dripping blood. He learned from Juan well. The man had allowed himself to be sniffed and marked. He and his people belonged to Ethan now. They didn\'t need to move back to Albany, but they were part of Ethan\'s pack and under his rule.

The middle-aged woman sniffed him. \"He\'s telling the truth. He smells of Feldman.\" She then sniffed Ria. \"His woman also smells of Feldman. Too much inbreeding, all that killing, we\'ll need each other when the cubs mature.\"

Ethan whispered to Ryan as they walked into the woods away from the others. \"The old man is right: two males, two females and their cubs aren\'t a pack. There are more than those twelve in the mountains. I can smell them. We could be with our own and no longer need to pretend to be human.\"

\"We would need quit our jobs, buy an RV and pack our things. We don\'t want the human police thinking that foul play was involved,\" Ryan whispered back. \"Ethan, do you think we can trust them?\"

Ethan took Ryan\'s hand and licked his fingers. \"If we stay, we\'ll never feel lonely again.\"

\"I don\'t feel lonely with you.\" Ryan kissed Ethan briefly. Ethan kissed Ryan back and stroked his beard briefly with his hand. Ethan walked back to the campsite. The two women had put up their large tent and laid sleeping bags in it. Ethan removed his clothes and changed his shape. Stretching out and shaking out his fur, he showed the others that he wasn\'t afraid as he fell asleep on the rocky ground; the mountain air felt like home. As he stirred in the night, he knew that he was finally home. They would leave the house near Albany and live with their kind in mountains.