The Drunk Wolf novel · Chapter 4 of 32

Chapter 4: Bacon Rolls at Dawn

Morag took the kettle off.

Ailsa didn't move.

She was still holding the ledger open at her brother's name.

"He cried for a week," she said. "He's nineteen. He thought it was something he did."

"It wasn't," Struan said.

"I told him to stop moping. I told him plenty of folk live fine without a wolf." She shut the book. "I said that to him."

I put my hand on her back. She let me leave it there for about two seconds.

Then she stood up and gave the ledger back to Struan.

"Keep that somewhere dry," she said. "I'm going to want to hit somebody with it."

Struan put it on the shelf above the still.

Then he took down the bottle that lived beside it.

It was the stillhouse bottle, the one the night man kept for the cold. Half full. He'd been drinking from it for ten years.

He pulled the cork.

Morag watched him over her glasses.

I thought he was going to pour himself one.

He walked to the drain in the stone floor and turned the bottle upside down.

The whisky went glugging into the grate.

"Struan," Morag said. "That's a twelve-year-old."

"I know what it is."

He shook out the last drops and set the empty bottle on the floor.

Then he went to the cupboard under the stairs, where the lads kept theirs, and did the same thing.

Then the flask in his apron.

Then the half bottle hidden in the coal scuttle, which even Morag didn't know about.

"In the coal," she said. "In my coal."

"Sorry, Gran."

He turned to me with his hands empty.

"You said ask when I'm sober," I said.

"I'm asking nothing. I'm quitting." He looked at the drain. "I've been holding the wolf down with that stuff for ten years. It's out now. I can't keep a lid on it drunk."

← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend