19 Don't like him

Dinner that night was some type of roast and vegetables. Apryl had forgotten the name of it, but it wasn't bad compared to some of the other food she had been asked to try. Slowly she had been getting used to eating more cooked versus raw food and the smells weren't so hard on her nose.

Her siblings were still struggling with it, but as more days went by as they understood that raw meat wasn't going to be an option except for the pups who would take longer for their digestive systems to adjust to the different food, they began to eat more of what was offered to them.

Lydia never seemed offended when they didn't eat however. Shifting from being a wild werewolf to one that lived among humans had been a difficult shift for her as well. Especially because it was much more stressful then compared to how it was now.

Her family and a few other small packs had to work together to help build up and adapt the small community that had already been established in order to make it safe, effective, and allow for them to grow their families without fear of being found out.

Lydia had been more open about her experience shift than Brian had. This made Apryl wonder if he had grown up like this and didn't really understand what a change it was for some werewolves to go through. If Summer or her cousin knew about where Brian came from, neither had mentioned anything about it beyond Lydia saying how thankful she was to find someone who was understanding of how much more cautious than he was of living around people.

Apryl went to go be with her siblings while her mom and Lydia cleaned up. She had tried to convince her mom not push herself too much but Summer insisted a little bit of exercise was good for her. Apryl suspected that the unspoken part was that it helped her to feel less guilty as well.

She didn't want to argue with her mom about it, she let her do it.

Brian had disappeared to finish up some leftover work after dinner and she was happy about that. He wasn't a bad person by any means, she just wasn't used to someone with his kind of behavior or at least she assumed that was the reason.

When she came to visit the pups and her other siblings, she was surprised to see Oreo in his human form. He was curled up in the back corner near Timid with the blanket wrapped around himself.

"Well you did say I should see about practicing more." He told Apryl when he noticed her surprise look and before she had a chance to say anything.

"You're not scared of my little siblings?" she asked, surprise noticeable in her tone as she closed to the door behind her.

"Not scared is going a bit too far, but their teeth don't hurt as much as I thought they would and Timid helps out if they get too bad." He replied as he patted the other wolf's head which was resting against his leg. Even though it couldn't the soft rhythmic 'thump, thump' sound indicated that Timid was wagging her tail. She didn't at all seem phased about Oreo being in his human form rather than his wolf self.

"If you can hold your human form, we might be able to get you some clothes. I'm sure Brian has some that you could borrow for the time being." Apryl told him. She more than delighted over this development but at the same time she didn't miss the uncertain look that passed over his face.

"I would prefer if you didn't ask Brian." Oreo told her as he averted his gaze. "I don't think he's thrilled with us being here and not doing anything." Apryl was surprised to hear him be so open about something like this.

"You're family though, he shouldn't have a problem being here considering the circumstances and all." he offered her a small sad smile as Timid nuzzled further against him.

"You might see it that way because you've practically grown up with the two of us around, but to Brian we aren't actual family since we're unrelated. To him we're probably just two extra freeloaders who he has to take money out of his pocket for without any return on the investment."

"That's a horrible way to look at it. I don't care if he does think that way. To me you're family and I'm going to make sure you get treated as family. Gimme a few days and I'm sure I can find an alternative to set you up with some clothes." Apryl assured. This thought of such a thing frustrated her and did nothing more than increase her dislike of Brian If It was true that he felt that way.

Sure Timid and Oreo weren't related to them by blood, but they were still valid members of the family. She knew that her father would've fought for the same thing. If he didn't share her feelings on the matter, he would've never let them come with his family. Instead, they would've been left to fend for themselves and if they wanted to live with humans, they'd have had to find their own way.

She would find a way to make everything work. Once she was in college. She was sure that when she knew her class schedule that there would a job somewhere that she could pick up.

If Oreo could or wanted to work as well, that would certainly help take some of the pressure off her. Before that however, she had to make that he would be safe and comfortable working on his own. Being lower rank in the pack than she was meant dealing with a totally different set of pressure, that which she knew she wouldn't be able to understand even if Oreo did try to explain it to her.

Apryl knew that Lydia would be able to help connect her with some other werewolves who could help with getting Oreo setup with a job and fake any necessary paperwork that he needed, but she also wanted to reach out and create her own set of resources in case there was any reason to worry about her extended family.

She didn't like to think ill of her aunt and mate but if there was anything suspicious going on with Brian and Lydia knew about it, it would decrease the amount of trust she had in other. Not only that, but it would make her doubt anyone who was on good terms with them and the type of sway they might have over access to resources and aid that would help them get on their feet.

She had stuff to do over the next few days, but Apryl realized as she lay there playing with her younger siblings who were overly thrilled to see again that her best bet might be to connect with Keith since he seemed to come from a different community and see what type of resources he could offer or suggestion of where she might want to start looking. Maybe he would even have a job that he could connect her with that would help her start being able to save up some money.