The Wolf at Bay Quotes

“It’s what you didn’t say, Dad.” Cooper could hear his voice loud and steady, like it had been growing inside him and waiting to burst out for years. “You never even mentioned it. Like it didn’t exist. Like it didn’t even cross your mind that I could be gay or bi or anything else. How was I to know it was okay? I never heard it from you. It wasn’t my job to tell you. It was yours to make me feel like I didn’t have to hide it from you.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“I don’t need you,” Cooper repeated, whispering into Park’s sweaty hair now. “But I want you. All the time.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“So I get it. I know you’re this ridiculous superhero and you always have been. Shit, you might not believe in magic, but to me you’re as close to magical as anything I’ve ever known. And not just because of the whole werewolf thing, but because you’re you. All special and brilliant and patient and funny and you know, sort of good-looking sometimes, I guess.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“Then let’s do this.” He opened the door and hopped out. “Just, if things get to be too much around here, remember your safe word.”
Park smiled and followed him toward the front door. “Right. What was it again?”
“‘Safe word.’”
“Ah. Nice, easy, and just a little bit subversive.”
“My yearbook quote.”
“What, easy or—”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“I played basketball freshman year of high school. Does that count?”
Cooper laughed. “No, not at all. In fact, that’ll probably just set him off on a lecture about follow-through and commitment. Why’d you stop?”
“I got cut. I was terrible.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Park tilted his head. “Why do you look so happy about that?”
“Do I? No.” Cooper tried to school his expression, but Park squinted at him suspiciously, and eventually a grin broke free again. He snagged the front of Park’s shirt and twisted it in his fingers, suddenly unable to resist touching him. “I guess it’s just nice to know you’re not perfect at everything.”
Park seemed to think that over, perhaps looking for hidden digs or sarcasm. Eventually, almost tentatively, he said, “Well, I was really, embarrassingly bad. Can’t dribble for shit.”
Cooper tugged Park still closer and slid his free hand around Park’s waist. “Go on.”
“When my hands are above my head, I’m all thumbs. Can’t catch a thing.”
“Mmm.” Cooper pressed their bodies together and inhaled the curve of Park’s neck to his shoulder.
“I never once made a free throw.”
“Oh baby, the things you say,” Cooper groaned.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“he had just made them worse. Sometimes letting people get to know more about you didn’t bring you closer, it just gave them more reasons to want to walk away.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“I know, Dad, okay? I know him. Everything I need to. And I love him. I really love him. Please just...” Cooper reached toward his father. “He makes me happy, remember?”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“That's something they didn't warn you about getting older, seeing your parents age too, seeing them as people, sad and afraid and haunted by their own mistakes.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“Blood loss, Cooper thought dreamily. Finally something’s going my way.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“Cooper slipped his lips around Park’s thumb and sucked, looking up at Park in what he hoped was an alluring way, though an ex had once told him the wide-eyed thing just made him look like a terrified squirrel getting some bad news. Definitely not the image he was going for when trying to get his face fucked.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“You’re allowed to not want help. Just because it’s good-intentioned doesn’t mean you should feel forced to accept it. Or feel bad for not wanting it.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once. The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid, will make man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees.
Cooper had frowned at the tv, trying to follow the loopy language.
"So basically he's telling that naked kid to go get him a roofie?"
Park had punched him lightly and readjusted on the couch so that his head was in Cooper's lap facing the TV. "It's not a roofie, it's Cupid's flower. Love-in-idleness."
"A flower that drugs you into thinking you are in love. Uh-huh, right. So are there Athenian police in this forest or what?”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay

“That’s something they didn’t warn you about getting older, seeing your parents age too, seeing them as people, sad and afraid and haunted by their own mistakes.”
― Charlie Adhara, The Wolf at Bay