"If I wanted to hear about werewolves, I would have picked up a Goosebumps book," I muttered under my breath. He looked up at me.
"Did you say something?"
"No."
There was a silence.
"Werewolves have enemies?" I asked, picking up the conversation where we'd—or should I say, he'd—left off.
"Only one."
I stared at him earnestly, feeling like my eyes were about to bug out in anticipation.
"So you see," Squaw continued, "the cold ones are traditionally our enemies.149 But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did—they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at me. At my pale face.
Did he think I had a pale face? I was outraged and pinched him fiercely on the left bicep.
"Ow!" he exclaimed.
"What?" I asked. I put on the most innocent face I had and then winked at him and licked my lips. He didn't respond.
"If they weren't dangerous, then why... ?"
"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He deliberately worked a thick edge of menace into his tone. I shuddered.
"What do you mean, 'civilized'?" I chortled, looking at his long hair and thinking about the fact that Squaw himself lives in a cone-shaped hut made out of bear skin and a pole, and that his dad didn't have any legs.
"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."
I tried to keep my voice casual. "But what about Fredward?!" I blurted out in one enormous breath, spraying spit and little chunks of whole wheat bread all over his brown face. "Are the Cullens, like, their great grand-colds?" I asked, chortling incredulously.
"No," he paused dramatically. "They are the same ones... !"
He smiled at my engorged eyes, pleased, and continued.
"There are more of them now, a new female and a new
149. Apparently the Quaaludes are werewolves?