Reassurance

When Lilly woke up from fitful sleep, her lover asked, "Bad dreams again?"

"Yes. They say when you dream the same thing three nights in a row, it will come true."

He put an arm across her and pulled her close. Reassuring. "I hadn't heard that. What is it that worries you so?"

"Collins turned out to be a werewolf and killed my father and..." She shook her head. The man was an old friend of her family, and the idea, once voiced, seemed silly.

"No, he isn't."

Half-joking, not knowing why he suddenly was so tense and serious, she asked, "Why are you so certain?"

A pause, and a deep breath followed by a brittle whisper. "We can smell our own."