Wolves of Secrets 3: Family Values

Antonia Armstrong

Morro and Lloyd chuckled and talked as they headed to Morro's foster parents' home. Ever since Lloyd had his breakdown during the school protest, his friends had been working hard to help him relax. They made sure that Lloyd knew that they would always be there for him and help him when he needed it. The only plan they had right now was to just keep doing what they had been doing. If he didn't have lunch, they had all pitch in. If he needed help with schoolwork, Zane and Jay were on it.

They had also invited him to over a dozen sleepovers, mainly when Misako was being a little too pushy again.

They had arranged for Lloyd to stay over at Morro's next week and they were coming to confirm it with the Dobsons. While the blond teen wasn't looking forward to a vegetarian dinner there were no other options. Cole's father didn't like Cole having friends stay over, saying that the apartment was too small. There was little to no space at the junkyard with Jay. Kai and Nya's parents also said no because they would be out of town again and they weren't comfortable with people in the home due to recent events.

Zane was also out of town with his father to a university to give some medical school students a talk.

That left only Morro but Lloyd was fine with that, even if that meant a night of nothing but veggies. Nya also said that she would call over later since there was an upcoming geography test coming up and the trio were planning on studying together. As the boys approached the house, however, it became clear to the two werewolves that something was wrong. They could hear shouting and screaming coming from inside. They could make out the voices of the Dobsons, Nelson, and a stranger.

Fearing the worst, the pair ran into the house and were shocked by the scene they entered too.

Nelson was sitting at the bottom of the stairs laughing as the Dobsons desperately chased a young girl around the age of fourteen in the living room. Neither Lloyd nor Morro had ever seen this girl before, but they were relieved that no one seemed to be in danger. The girl wore black lipstick and had short, dark red hair that was swept to one side on the front. Her hair had a few black streaks. She wore a black shirt with a white lightning bolt symbol, a tan jacket with a red X on the right side on it, short blue shorts with black stockings underneath, and maroon boots with black shoelaces.

The girl was covered in filth and she smelled horrible.

It was like someone had set fire to a pile of garbage in the two werewolves' noses.

"Who's this?" The lone wolf frowned in confusion, trying not to gag.

"She's our new roommate." Nelson chuckled as Morro's face dropped in shock at this new development. By now the Dobsons had given trying to grab the girl so they let Nelson lead her upstairs to show her their bedrooms and they tried to clean up the mess. Lloyd just followed Morro around as he demanded answers from the tired couple, not sure what to say or whether he should get involved. Morro hadn't been told by his social worker or his foster parents about this new addition.

But he shouldn't be too surprised since the Dobsons were known for taking in emergency foster children, mostly before he came along.

On approval, the fostering service would decide how many children the adults were approved for, what age, sex, and category of approval. There were times when the fostering service may ask them to take a child or young person outside of their approval range if it is felt this would meet the child's needs. When this happens the fostering service can vary approval for a short time. This was either to allow for longer-term plans to be made or for a review of approval as a foster carer to be done so that approval status could be changed to accommodate the child for a longer period.

There were some exemptions to this, however.

The usual fostering limit was three, so nobody may foster more than three children. That is unless the foster children were all siblings. The local authority within whose area of the foster carer lives exempts the carer from the usual fostering limit to specific placements. In considering whether to exempt a person from the usual fostering limit, the local authority must consider several things first. This could be the number of children whom the person proposes to foster.