Bronx
I’m in the softest grass I’ve ever felt being worshipped by the sweetest hands that have ever touched me. I’ve never been petted in wolf form before, I realize. Whatever’s happening to me right now must be some sort of weird shifter fantasy dream because I don’t want it to ever stop.
I shift slightly, enabling the hands that pet me to reach deeper into my soft fur. Each tug, each touch, sends me further into my fantasy. Even when I first learned to shift and would roll around in the dirt and grass, I never felt like this. Something about this experience makes me feel whole, I realize. I feel complete.
And safe.
I feel safe and comfortable in this magical realm of being petted. I let out a soft noise: something between a sigh and a whimper, and I keep my eyes closed. The hands continue to move in my fur. Over and over, they touch me.
“I’m sorry,” I hear a tearful voice whisper, and my entire body tenses. This isn’t a dream at all, I realize. This isn’t some sort of shifter fairytale. I’m not in heaven. I’m not anywhere but on the fucking forest ground, and the person touching me? It’s not some sort of angel.
No.
It’s her.
It’s the woman from Storm Dawn.
And I’m…
Why the fuck am I lying down? I’m supposed to be following her, figuring out what she wants. I’m not supposed to be sleeping in a place where she can clearly find me. Was I really that tired that I would just sleep out in the open? Where anything could happen? I know better than that. I’ve been trained better than that.
And then I remember.
The food.
It had to have been the food.
She was asleep, and I was bored. I didn’t want to leave to go hunt anything, so I shifted into my wolf form, sneaked into her camp, and took the food she’d set out. She thought she was being clever, hanging it in a tree away from her tent. It’s one of the first things humans love to teach campers. Hang your food away from your tent so wild animals don’t bother you. It makes sense, in theory.
I’m not a theory, though.
I’m a shifter.
Here, I thought I was outsmarting her, but she was the one who was tricking me. She laid a trap and I was too dumb and stupid to see it. She bested me, but the game isn’t over yet. She’s close to me now. Too close. She thinks I’m still asleep and she could do anything to me now. I peek, almost imperceptibly, and see that she’s kneeling beside me. Something metal glimmers beside her.
A weapon.
I peek again.
Scissors.
Was this her plan? Drug me and then kill me? She’s not much of a hunter and to be honest, if killing wolves was her goal, it probably would have been simpler and easier to just use a gun. She didn’t, though. She picked fucking scissors.
Only she hasn’t killed me yet.
Why not?
I should jump up and bite her throat right now. I could easily tear her apart. I could slaughter her, but I won’t. Not just yet. Not until I find out what she’s really after.
“Please wake up,” she whispers. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
No?
Is she serious right now?
Because she could have fucking fooled me.
She drugged me and she’s right beside me with a weapon: one she could choose to use at any moment. Am I really supposed to believe she isn’t intending to slaughter me?
My entire life, I’ve heard horror stories of humans. So many times, I’ve wanted to believe they were fake. I’ve wanted to think these couldn’t possibly be true. I’ve argued, even with my own clan, that humans are brave and fierce and just as confused as we are. We’re all on this planet together, so we need to try to get along.
I’ve said this for years.
Now, though, I’m suddenly being proven wrong. I find a human wandering in the woods, and she really does want to slaughter me. Funny how that works. Jed was right. Something tells me he’s going to be pleased to find out this human is secretly evil. I can’t believe I actually felt bad for her last night. When I heard her sobbing in her tent, my heart hurt. It actually hurt for the woman, and now?
Now I wonder how I ever felt anything for this monster.
“I just need some fur,” she continues.
Fur?
My fur?
That’s what she’s after?
I have to try even harder to hold my body completely still, lest I give away the fact that I’m awake. Staying in one place when every ounce of my being wants to fight is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
What the fuck does she want my fur for?
“It’s not even for me. It’s for my friend. There’s a legend that wolf’s fur can help, that a lock of it will heal her and I…I just didn’t want to lose her. I’m so sorry, Mr. Wolf. I’m sorry.”
So she wants to kill me and then skin me?
What the fuck kind of monster is she?
She keeps petting me and even though it feels better than anything I’ve ever felt before, the truth is that I’m no pet. I’m not some puppy she can play with until she gets bored. Nope. I’m a shifter wolf. More than that: I’m the pack Alpha, and she’s in my world now.
This human might come up with cute, playful names for the shifters she meets, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a threat. She is. She’s a huge threat and at any moment, she’s going to drive those scissors deep into me.
I can’t wait any longer to see what she’ll do next.
I already know.
With a growl, I jump up and spin so I’m facing her. I snarl at her, baring my teeth. She’s shocked and I can instantly smell her fear. Yeah, she knows she’s in deep shit right now. I nip in her direction and she starts scooting back, scissors still in hand.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she whispers.
It’s too late for that, though.
I move forward until she’s backed herself right up against a tree, and then I push my face forward, close to hers, still growling. Something’s wrong, though. Normally, when my prey finds out it’s being hunted by a big, bad wolf, the scent of fear excites me. It motivates me. It pushes me forward.
This time is different, though.
This time, the woman’s fear upsets me, and I don’t know why.
“Please,” she whispers again. Her eyes are squeezed shut and she’s trembling with fear. “I’m sorry about the food.” I growl at her, intending to scare her just a little bit more, but then she does something I’m not expecting.
The woman flat-out faints, right here in the forest, leaving me alone with her unconscious body.
Well, then.
What’s a wolf to do?
*
I don’t know how long she’ll be unconscious for, so I hasten to go through her belongings. I shift quickly, stretch, and then go back to her campsite. I gather her things and return to where I left her. This way, I can go through all of her shit quickly before she wakes up, and I won’t risk losing her.
I find a length of rope, which is useful because I don’t have anything with me that can be used as a restraint. I was hunting her in my wolf form and you can’t exactly carry a backpack full of supplies when you’re a wolf. Even if it didn’t look totally suspicious, it’s not exactly the cool thing to do.
Moving toward her, I roll her body slightly forward, pull her arms behind her back, and secure her wrists together. It would be polite of me to tie her hands together in front of her body, but then, my manners have always been a bit rusty.
Fishing through her bag, I come up with a few other random supplies, including some traps.
Was that her next step?
If drugging the food wasn’t enough to knock me out, was she going to fucking trap me?
The thought makes me feel a little sick.
What if it wasn’t me out here?
What if it was Jed?
Or Alana?
Or Heather?
What if it was one of the cubs?
Traps like these, well, they aren’t designed to just catch a wolf.
They’re designed to maim.
With a sigh, I shove the offending items back in the woman’s backpack and I look at her. She seems decidedly normal. For a human, she’s very pretty, and I hate that I feel this way about her. She’s got long hair which is now dirty and soiled. Her skin is very fair, but it’s dotted with freckles. She likes to be in the sun. That much is obvious.
What could she have possibly needed so much that she was willing to hunt a wolf?
What stories did she hear about the power of a wolf’s coat?
And who is Eva?
I heard her mumblings about her friend being in trouble, and while I can certainly empathize with the pain of seeing a loved one suffer, I also can’t condone fucking murdering someone in order to save another. That’s what this comes down to. She wanted to kill me to save her friend, and I expect her to face me and my pack before we execute her. I’m going to use her as an example of why humans can’t be trusted. I’m going to show the wolves why we can’t allow humans in our midst.
She starts to stir and I know it’s time.