KELL GOES BARKING MAD

Life carried on as usual at the Coogans’, which meant that Bradley and Belinda took every opportunity to remind me what a loser I was.

I didn’t care. Much.

Let them think they’d gotten away with the Great Cane Field Ambush. Let them think I was too much of a wuss to get revenge. They’d find out soon enough that Rafe Khatchadorian was a force to be reckoned with.

As would Kell Weathers.

Kell had let his true nature slip through his fake nice-guy act one night when he came over to pick up my mom for a date. She was busy getting ready upstairs when Kell walked up to me.

I’d been giving him the silent treatment the last couple of times I saw him. I still remembered his part in the Great Drop Bear Incident, and even though I wasn’t going to try to get revenge on him, I wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones, either. Neither was he, apparently.

“You don’t like me too much, do you, Rafe?” He prodded me in the chest. It hurt. I guess geologists have strong fingers from picking up all those rocks.

I shrugged, trying to ignore the pain. Then Kell jabbed me again.

“I asked you a question, Rafey.”

I shrugged once more, and right in front of my eyes, Kell began to mutate into a werewolf.

Hair sprouted from his face, and his hands curled into vicious-looking claws. His eyes glowed red, and drool dripped from between his fangs and slid down over his bottom lip. He looked a bit like Hugh Jackman’s less handsome Wolverine brother crossed with a rabid German shepherd.

“If I didn’t like your mom so much, I’d clobber you,” Kell the Werewolf hissed.

I didn’t even know werewolves could hiss, which just goes to show that you learn something new every day.

“And if you mention a word of this to her, I’ll deny it all.” Kell threw back his head to howl at the moon. There wasn’t a moon visible, so he howled at the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. I guess werewolves can’t always get full-moon access.

By the time Mom came downstairs looking glitzy, Kell had lost all trace of his inner werewolf.

“Nice to see you two getting along,” Mom said. She smiled so wide I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her friend Kell was a chest-prodding bully. Plus a mutant werewolf.

“Best of mates,” Kell said. He looked at me. “Isn’t that right, Rafey?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

Mom and Kell headed out toward the bright lights of Shark’s Bay, laughing and joking like two lovebirds. Seeing Mom all dressed up, I was struck with a horrible thought: Kell Weathers is going to ask her to marry him tonight!

No one wants a werewolf as a stepfather. I mean, being thisclose to having a bear as a stepfather a while ago was enough to scare me pretty good. Besides, it wasn’t so much Kell being a drooling creature of the night that worried me, although that would be pretty inconvenient. It was him getting super friendly with my mom and what that could mean for my family. The night before, I was using Mom’s laptop and noticed she’d been reading up on Australia’s immigration laws.

I had no real problem with Australians (other than Bradley, Belinda, and the Surf Gorillas—and Kell, of course), but I wasn’t eager to become one anytime soon. The whole thing was starting to make me depressed.

I went to my room, rubbing the sore spot on my chest, and sat down on the bed. This was going to require some serious thought.