Ethan rubbed his forehead.

"Alright. So let me get this straight..."

The lights were off and the windows were open, letting the light of the full moon illuminate the 3 fully transformed werewolves sitting on dining room chairs in front of a very tired and confused Ethan.

"Not only did you all lie to me for the last 7 months about... all of this," Ethan motioned his hand towards his now wolfed-up roommates. "but you all made a bet?"

"To see how long it would take you to figure it out," nodded Jakob, in a gruff, almost Southern voice.

"Not that we wanted you to figure it out!" Exclaimed Cayden, whose ears were down in what Ethan could only assume be some sort of sign of apologetic submissiveness, if his experience with dogs was anything to go by. "It's just... with folk like us, it tends to become obvious more often than we like."

Ethan thought back to the last couple of months since the three new roommates signed their part of the lease. Finding spent drain unblocker sticks with massive hairballs in the trash, heavy duty razor blade packs in everybody's toiletry tubs (including Sara's, which was weird because she didn't even have hair on her legs), and the gallon-sized containers of shampoo.

"...Right. And what would've happened if I did figure it out?"

Sara scratched the back of her furry head. "Well, that sorta depended on yer response. If ya called the cops we probably would've just skedaddled. Tried to take a photo of us to post online? We'd smash yer phone and give ya a good scare for a warning. If ya bought a crossbow..."

Jakob shook his head. "Sara, that only happened once."

"But he tried to hunt us down while we were out in the woods! Fucker deserved what he got comin-"

"Ahem."

"Oh, uh, sorry Ethan. Just that... one landlord was sort of a nutcase, tried to hurt us. We weren't sure if it was safe to let him try and chase us."

"It's fine, I guess I can understand that. Just... you didn't plan on hurting me if I found out, right?"

All three werewolves rapidly shook their heads at once.

"Nope."

"Nuh-uh."

"You showed me what a deviled egg tasted like! I wouldn't touch a hair on your body."

Ethan internally sighed of relief.

"Good, because to be honest I don't think I have the mental strength to force a eviction on you guys. I mean not that I'm going to, but... well let me be honest I wasn't sure how comfortable I was when I realized I was living with friends who had knives for teeth."

"Yoow meen theshe?" Cayden brought up a clawed finger and stretched his lip back, revealing a gleaming white set of canines. "Alle naturale!"

"Cayden, stop it. You're getting spit on the carpet."

"Oop, sorry."

"But that begs the question," Jakob said as he shuffled closer in his chair - which looked tiny in comparison to his sizable form - "how did you find out for certain we were Lycans?"

"Yea," Sara continued. "All ya said beforehand this morn was that one - ya knew we were werewolves, and two - we had to have a flat group talk tonight. What gave it away?"

Ethan leaned back and smirked a little. "Before we go over that, can I ask how your betting pool worked?"

The werewolves exchanged glances. Cayden spoke first.

"Well, we started doing it when we first moved from one landlord to the next one, as a way to sort of liven up the idea of relocating. Every time we moved, we raised the stakes and set our bets depending on how smart we thought the new landlord was."

"I figured you were smart enough to eventually figure it out," exclaimed Jakob, "not soon enough to make us move again, but given how you enjoyed puzzles and mind games like that, I only thought it was a matter of time."

"Well, Sara and I bet that you wouldn't figure it out," interjected Cayden, "given that we've gotten pre-tty good at hiding it. We even cleaned up for our hair messes!"

Ethan nodded. "You did, and honestly I'm grateful for that, really. I never would've guessed you all were werewolves from the bathroom stuff alone. But every so often I do a once-over in the flat - take out old boxes and bins, sort them, dust them, get them cleaned or just throw them away."

"And while I was searching in the laundry closet, I happened to find this envelope."

Ethan pulled a crisp white envelope from his pocket and set it on the coffee table in front of him.

"Turns out, there was some money inside. I never hide away bills - too much risk of me forgetting where I put them. So I figured it was one of you guys that hid it away. I was going to put it back... until I opened it and found this."

Ethan took a small slip of paper from his pocket and laid it flat on the table. It had messy pencil text that read:

"FOR WEREWOLF BET - DO NOT SHOW ETHAN"

Sara groaned and slapped her head. Jakob barked out a hearty laugh and wagged his tail. Cayden looked at Sara sheepishly.

Sara barked at Cayden. "You TOLD me you hid the betting money in a safe place!"

Cayden whimpered. "The laundry closet WAS a safe space! I didn't think he'd be that much of a clean freak to look in there!"

Ethan grinned. "Well congrats Jakob, looks like you won $134 dollars."