Chapter 3

WEDNESDAY

"Can I open my eyes now?" Liam asked me, turning his head around.

"Not yet. We're almost there, I promise."

I pulled up into the parking space that was reserved for me, right at the very front of the location.

"Okay. I'm going to open your door and hold your hand. Once you step out of the car, I'll let you remove the blindfold, and see where we are."

He nodded. "Sounds good."

I grabbed his hand, feeling how soft and tiny it was, compared to my own scarred and calloused ones. He stepped out of the car, and I untied the back of the blindfold. As soon it was removed, his blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the light.

"The Toronto Zoo!" he exclaimed, once he could register the place in front of us. "Oh, it's been such a long time since I've visited! I wonder if they still have their penguins."

"Yeah, they do. In their African section, I think. Anyway, let's head on in."

He checked his watch. "But...it's past 3:30. I don't think we're allowed to go in an hour before it closes."

I waved my hand. "No need to worry about it."

"Isn't it closing soon?"

"I said, I've figured everything out. We've got time. Come on."

The first exhibit Liam wanted to visit came as a surprise to me.

"Let's check out the Arctic section!" he exclaimed.

"What? You want to start with that?" I was kind of expecting him to check out the African continent first, as he was a big fan of the Madagascar movies. When we were 10 and I stayed over for a sleepover, I vividly remembered him insisting on watching Madagascar 2 every single night due to his obsession with Marty the zebra.

"Of course! My friend told me they had a snowy owl. I don't want to miss out on seeing Hedwig. I'd like to imagine that I have a magical owl companion of my own, too. Now, come on! The zoo won't explore itself."

And so we trekked on over to the Arctic where the arctic animals resided. It was a smaller exhibit, with a small handful of animals available to see, but nevertheless, it was still quite interesting. Liam was ecstatic when we met the iconic character from the books, and insisted on taking several photos.

One of the exhibits contained some arctic wolves. I pointed at a particularly small one, with fluffy white fur, who was rolling around on the ground playfully. "That's you, Liam."

"Huh? Oh, that kind of looks like me," he noted. "Although my fur's a bit darker. It's so adorable!"

"I agree." However, all I could picture was Liam when I looked at that little furball.

We continued along our journey, walking through the rest of the Arctic section, while 'oohing' and 'aahing' at all the animals.

"Oh, that looks very plump and meaty." I eyed one of the individual reindeer on display, my stomach rumbling in anticipation.

"Dylan!" Liam exclaimed exasperatingly. "This is a zoo, not a supermarket, and most definitely not a hunting ground."

"I know, I know," I said, raising my hands in defence. "But you can't deny that some of these exhibits look tasty. I mean, the goose we just passed looked really nice and protein-packed. Perfect size for the cold winter months."

"What's the point of coming here if you're just going to fantasize about eating everything?" He crossed his arms and sighed at me.

I shrugged. "I don't want to eat everything, of course. For example, I wasn't interested in those fields of grass we passed."

"That's because it's not food!"

I scoffed jokingly. "Cows and horses would disagree. Anyway, let's move on to our next destination. Where to next? How about the Americas?"

We navigated our way around the world, checking out the exhibits featuring animals from all over. We met the cast of Madagascar in the African Savannah, much to Liam's delight, and saw the African penguins flop around in the water. We passed by the flamingos from the Americas, the kangaroos in Australia, and the several plant species in the greenhouse. My personal favourite was the Canadian exhibit, which was our second-last stop, although Liam had a difficult time dragging me away from the bison.

"No!" Liam exerted all his energy into trying to tug me away, but he might as well had been trying to move a mountain. I stood rooted in the spot, fixated on my buff and meaty prey as my eyes glowed. "Bad Dylan! Not food! Don't wolf out here!"

"But it looks so delicious!" I licked my lips and tried to plead with him. "Just one bite. Or ten. I'm sure the zoo people won't notice."

"We can get food from the restaurants if you're that hungry," he tried, but I still didn't budge. Eventually, I was able to pry my attention away from the animal, albeit reluctantly.

As we explored the zoo, I couldn't help but take note of his optimism. He found everything, including the less-flashier exhibits, incredibly fascinating. Even a tiny, ugly flower could put a smile on his face. It was adorable to watch his innocence and enthusiasm.

I just hoped I wasn't making a mistake.

But even if everything didn't work out the way I envisioned it to be, I wouldn't trade my week with him for anything. Walking with him, listening to him gush about the beauty of nature - it really changed my perspective on the world. He wasn't afraid to see the beauty in the smallest things, and that's what made him precious.

"Where is everyone?" Liam frowned, looking around. He had just realized that we were the only ones walking around the zoo, and there were hardly any staff around, either.

"They left."

"Why haven't we left?" He checked his watch and squawked. "It's 6:30! This place closed two hours ago!

"I kn-"

"We're going to get arrested for breaking into a zoo!"

"Do-"

"And then we're going to go to jail, and they're going to tell my parents, and they're going to kill me!"

"Fluff," I said gently. "It's okay. The zoo workers know we're here. I booked out the zoo, just for the two of us."

"You can do that?"

"My family knows people."

"Oh." Liam blinked, and seemingly calmed down. "So...we're not in trouble?"

"No," I shook my head. "I can promise you that."

He relaxed. "Phew! That's a good sign. Here I was, thinking we were breaking the law."

"I mean, we could technically blend in with the zoo," I said. "They wouldn't know we were visitors. We could just shift, and boom! Let off the hook. You can't get fined if you're not a human."

"That's true," Liam hopped on. "We could go undercover, and pretend we're a part of a new exhibit."

"Canis lupus, new and mysterious exhibit in the Canadian section. One of usual size, other of unusually large stature. Glowy eyes. Eerily intelligent and strong."

"Know how to use a phone. Can woof on command, understand fluent English and high school French, and do fancy tricks. Dang, we'd make great exhibits!"

"Yes," I agreed. "Yes, we would."

-

Eventually, we reached the Eurasia continent, which I purposefully saved for last. I had been keeping a close eye on the time, as I had something special scheduled for us right now. I had allotted a few hours for this zoo trip, as I knew Liam would be taking his time checking out the exhibits.

"Ooh, check this out, Dylan!" He hurried over to an enclosure where they featured a small, reddish animal with a bushy tail that scurried around all over the place.

"It's Master Shifu," he beamed, smiling at the red panda. "Aw, it's so cute!"

His eyes widened as something else caught his eye. "Whoa, a camel! I've never seen a real one before!"

I grinned. After wandering around all the other continents, we had finally arrived at the particular exhibit that was the inspiration for today's date.

"Welcome, you two!" Janie, one of the zoo staff came up to us, her flaming red hair tucked into her safari hat. "We've been waiting for you. Dylan, it's so good to see you again. I swear, you grow every time I see you. How's your family doing?"

"It's going good," I nodded. "Parents are happy and healthy, little brother's navigating his way through grade 8. How about you two?"

"It's going well," Janie told me with a small smile. "Anyway, glad to hear everything's going well with y'all. Feel free to swing by our pack anytime and say hello."

I flashed her a big smile. "Will do. Come and visit soon."

She turned to Liam, who looked dumbstruck as he looked at the approaching camels. "You must be Liam."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Call me Janie," she smiled. Janie patted the two camels standing on either side of her. "This is Lucy, and this big boy over here is Watson. Care to hop on?"

He squeaked. "What?" Liam glanced over to me, and I nodded encouragingly.

Janie chuckled. "Don't worry, they're very friendly. They won't bite. Here, all you have to do is this."

She demonstrated mounting Lucy the camel, who didn't appear to be at all disturbed by someone on her back. "See? Not so difficult. I can help you up."

Janie and I helped Liam up onto Lucy, and after, I hopped onto Watson, the slightly bigger camel of the two. For a few moments, we let the camels trot around and get used to our weights, while Janie explained the animals to us.

"Domesticated Bactrian camels are pack animals," she said. "In Asia, they've been used by humankind all throughout history. They're sturdy and durable animals, good for transport, particularly in extreme environments. They're like horses, mules, and packdogs, in that they're used to lug heavy things around."

"Wow, this is so cool," Liam said, gently petting Lucy. "Thanks for the explanation, Janie. How old is Lucy?"

"12." Janie patted Lucy's neck, and the camel hummed approvingly.

"Is that old?"

"Somewhat," Janie said. "Bactrian camels can live anywhere from 20 to 50 years. We're hoping our Lucy lives a good, long life. Watson is currently 15. He's too stubborn to leave us anytime soon, thankfully."

Janie checked her watch. "Are you two comfortable with riding the camels?"

"Yeah, I think I'm good, Janie. You?" I turned to Liam, who nodded.

She flashed us a thumbs up. "Perfect! Then I'll leave you two alone for a little while, let you walk them around for a bit longer. I'll be close by in case anything happens."

"She seems nice," Liam said after a few moments. At first, the slight swaying feeling was rather off-putting, but we soon got the hang of it.

"Yeah. Janie's wonderful. She's a good family friend of mine, and that's why she was eager to stay a bit longer for us."

"She's a human, right?"

I nodded. "She is. She married into the werewolf world, though. Not by mateship, but by choice."

"That's insane! I couldn't imagine becoming mated into someone else's world. It would be like me being mat-I mean, married to a human."

"That's Janie for you," I chuckled. "She has a passion as fiery as her hair. She studied wolf populations, among other things, in Muskoka and northern Ontario for her masters' thesis. It was on biodiversity or something. That's how she met her husband and my friend, Zach. Right after her university graduation, they got mated. Or married, whatever you want to call it."

He looked alarmed. "Didn't her husband have a mate?"

"No. His mate died, unfortunately. Almost immediately after they discovered each other."

"Ouch," he said in a small voice. "That must be painful."

"Yeah," I agreed. "The two of them hadn't gotten mated yet, and he had literally just turned 18, so thankfully the recovery process wasn't horrible. He was really depressed for around a year, but quickly rebounded, and was able to resume pack duties as normal. Janie entered the equation a couple months later. Six months after they met, they had their ceremony. It was last June."

"6 months? That's long."

"Yeah, but for humans, it's a pretty short period of time, apparently."

He frowned as he tried to do the math. "So...he was 20, and she was 23?"

"He was 19. His birthday is late in the year."

Liam was silent for a moment, thinking intently about their situation. It was every werewolf's worst nightmare, losing their soulmate. I was happy that Zach was able to move on fairly quickly from the loss of his mate, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case for most wolves.

"Dylan...do you ever wonder if there are werewolves out there that wait their entire lives for mates that will never show up?"

"I don't doubt it."

He hesitated, and I could feel his nerves getting worked up over this topic. "Do you ever worry about it happening to you?"

"No," I replied honestly.

"Why not?"

"Sometimes," I started, taking a deep breath as I thought about my answer. "You just know you'll be okay. That everything will work out in the end."

We held each other's gaze for a moment. As we looked into each other's eyes, something deep and powerful surged in between the two of us. I could hear his breathing rate steady and his heart rate calm down, as we both relaxed in our mysterious connection.

"Alright, you guys," Janie intervened, disrupting our brief moment. "I hope you enjoyed your camel rides."

"We did," I said. "It was a lot of fun, Janie. We'll head out, give you some time to clean up and everything."

I hopped off Watson, and lifted Liam off of Lucy. The two of us thanked Janie profusely and headed out of the zoo, deep in thought about what had just happened. I held the car door open for him, and once I plopped into my seat, I turned to him, grinning.

"Happy hump day."

He smacked his face and let out a groan of frustration. "Dang it! How did I not get that reference until just now?"