Scotty’s had time to realize that she’s lucky. Clara’s always argued it, always railed against it, gone all bitter and sulky and snappish. She’d hated what they were, kept her fangs blunted and claws trimmed. She’d smiled human and married normal.
Morcades knows better. Pretending is going to get Clara hurt. She knows what she is.
That’s how she’d been raised, with family that knew what they are, trained to keep themselves under control. Their father-- their mother, too-- had wanted them to be able to use their skills. Once y’hit 5 ‘r 6 they stop acceptin’ yer applications he’d warned-- he’d always wanted to write. Never got to go to school for it. They stop letting you in schools because yer scary. They start calling you in military drives, start askin’ you to learn t’ sniff out blood. Don’t you get inta that habit, girls. Don’t you let them get y’pinned in.
When ya bite, her father had insisted, y’better know why ye did it.
She’d never bitten anyone in her family. She’d wanted to dig her teeth in Clara’s stupid face, sure, but there’d never been a reason. Love always turned the bite to a snap, an annoyed growl. A nipping of the ear.
When she gets to America, packless and too nosy, she nearly rips a wolf’s ear off.
They tick her up from 1 to 3 in a day.
It’s not really fair, though. Outside packs, unfamiliar with each other, with only human intuition and wolf strength to establish who’s in charge, wolves clash badly-- it’s everywhere, true, but here she’s alone, no den to run to. Of course she’d bitten when she’d gotten scared in an alley, it had been the only way to make herself too much work to fight with.
All Scotty’d wanted was a nice walk.
It gets better when she has a job, the hierarchy gets clear-- everyone wulf wears their Tags openly. The boss is the boss and the humanity of it settles the wolf, even if it’s artificial, even if it’s unnatural, even if that’s not how a real pack worked. It’s not the best job, not with her head, but it’s improving, she’s getting noticed (years of a head of theoretical physics and now people realize she’s good.)
(sometimes the humans take a look at her throat and slip away, even if the bold 3 marks her, technically, safe. she doesn’t blame them-- ‘safe’ is a lie they’ve given humans to keep them tamed. any wolf can kill. but so can any human. the werewolf really isn’t any better than what makes it up.)
(sometimes kids pet her on a run, though, when she’s stopped to pant in the grass, so she supposes that’s nice)
She does alright, at least until there’s a brawl between a few mechanics that turns into an all out dogfight.
The human authorities will avoid dealing with them unless they hurt someone besides each other, but the wolves they’ve worked into law enforcement will usually show up if it gets too loud, politically obligated to deal with the mess. By the time someone does, Scotty’s helped a big wolf from accounting of all places haul the miscreants apart-- he vanishes before the questions start, probably scared if they think he started it they’ll mark him up and he’ll lose his job, and she feels that longing piece of her ache. She has no pack here, no family. No back up. If they decide it’s quicker to blame all of them, it’s going to be tiring to fight it.
Exhausted, she starts squinting for tags and numbers, knowing there has to be at least one wolf here, or they wouldn’t’ve come.
Police, military, security--- the wolves involved all wear tags several levels higher than their ‘real’ designation. It’s a safety thing. Teach a wolf to rip someone to pieces or hunt a man down, they start getting a little more twitchy, though it’s rare for a wolf so protective to hurt anyone.
Stress does things to people, though.
It’s why Scotty’s tried so damn hard to stay what she is. Keep her tag low and her head down. A small fight is okay, but if the humans get looking at you, you’re done for. Don’t scare ‘em. She’d never do well as a fighter, she’s always known that.
She winces at the height of the numbers present-- doesn’t bode well-- and sniffs at the law enforcement, trying to detect aggression before it’s really directed at her and holds her hands up, hoping to indicate that she hadn’t started anything, “Listen, I dunno wha’ ‘appened. I wasn’ listenin’-- they bickered ‘n’ someone decided shiftin’ was a smart move. I jus’ split ‘em up.” Doesn’t mention the other wolf, though the scent is still heavy in the air-- Scotty is loyal even if no one else is.