The great, tiger-sized white wolf limped through the late winter forest. The snow behind and under him was stained with his crimson blood. His long pink tongue lolled out of his mouth as he gasped for breath. He quickly closed his mouth again, refusing to let go of the leather-stringed necklace with the clear crystal tied to the end. It was all he had left of her. He closed his eyes tightly against the wind that was blowing large, cold snowflakes into his amber orbs. He whimpered slightly as he felt the pain from his wounds cause his muscles to tighten and he fell onto the ground. The necklace fell a few inches away from his jaw and he tried to move his head to grab it, but the tightened muscles in his neck said otherwise. As the snow fell, he watched the new flakes begin to cover the necklace and let out a big sigh. He closed his eyes and thought about her.
Her reddish brown fur shimmered as she walked through the snow to meet her mate on top of the hill. Her necklace’s stone glinted in the sunlight and it glittered like the soft, white snow that was up to her ankles, covering her tan paws. She lowered her head and tail and bumped his chin with her muzzle, showing respect and adoration for the dominant member of the relationship.
“There’s a pair!”
The white wolf and the brown wolf’s heads whipped to the left. They saw three men on horseback riding towards them at a full gallop. The white wolf nipped his mate’s neck and took a few steps away from the humans to the safety of the forest. He looked back at her, signaling for her to follow him. She obediently trotted towards him and then quickened her pace to a run after he did. They had reached the forest when the sound of the hoof beats was growing faster and closer.
The two tiger-sized wolves ran for the safety of their home, a small straw and wood hut in the center of the thickest part of the forest. The hut was in sight. They were going to make it! The white wolf ran harder and faster, sensing the safety of his home. His tail had begun to wag when- CRACK!- the sound of a gun being shot rang out through the forest. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked behind him. Where was she?!
He turned and ran back. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Three more gunshots rang out. He arrived in a clearing in the forest to see two horse rears facing his direction. Two more horses were across from them, and all four had men mounted on their backs. In the center of their small circle was a limp, bloodied, reddish brown form. The white wolf let out a roar-like snarl of anger from his hiding place and jumped out, ripping a strip of flesh from the nearest horse’s dappled grey flank. The beast reared into the air suddenly, causing his master to slide off of his back and he galloped away. The wolf tore the man’s throat out and ran at the remaining three horses, who all simultaneously reared and bucked until their masters flew off of their backs.
After the battle, the large white wolf stood in the clearing, gasping for air, bleeding out of various knife and sword wounds, with five figures lying limp around him. The once white snow was now almost all red. The great wolf limped over to his mate’s still body and whimpered. He nudged her with his nose and whimpered again for her to wake up. She remained still. He sniffed her and then the undeniable scent entered his black nostrils - the scent of death. He took a few steps beck and whimpered again. He lowered his tail in between his quivering hind legs and lowered his head. Then he raised his great head into the air after a few minutes and let out a long, low howl. He walked over to her afterwards and dragged her to their hut. He laid her body in the center of the round hut and took the necklace off of her bloodied neck and left the hut...
The wolf groaned and awakened. His amber eyes remained shut, and he felt a strong warmth against his stomach and chest. It was the warmth of fire. He half opened one eye and saw, indeed, a blazing fire before him. He lifted his head slowly and looked around with both eyes half opened. He was in what appeared to be a house, not like the hut he and his mate had lived in, but a real house, with stone walls, a back room, a fire pit in the earth, and a raised living area on a wooden platform. He tilted his head to the side and sniffed the air, his black nose quivering slightly and quickly.
“You are awake, my beautiful one?” a soft voice asked from behind him. He turned his head as much as he could and saw a figure standing in the doorway. He bared his teeth at the silhouette.
“Please, do not be angry. Do not strain yourself, either, majestic and noble beast. I have merely saved you from bleeding or freezing to death. I have done you no harm,” the figure said, stepping away from the lighted doorway and closing the curtain-door, revealing herself as a young woman with long, light brown hair and shimmering green eyes. She was dressed in all white and set a basket of herbs down on the ground of the house. She took a few steps towards the tiger-sized wolf and his face relaxed. She smiled and knelt by his side and put her hand on his head.
“Now that’s better. You see? There is no reason for you to be in such a foul mood with me,” she said. Her touch made the great wolf shudder. It was as if some sort of energy transferred through his body from her palm. He felt the hair above his spine raise and then drop when she removed her delicate hand from his head. He tilted his head to the side and looked at her eyes.
“You are safe here. You can show me your true form. I know what you are,” she said.
And how do I know that you are not one of them? the wolf asked her, his voice ringing sharply within her mind. How do I know that none of those herbs were meant to poison me and kill me? My mate was already killed. How do I know that you are not the daughter, wife, or sister of one of those men? He bared his large fangs as he spoke to her. They glinted in the orange fire light, along with his amber eyes.
“Please, don’t act like that. If I wanted you dead, would I not have injected silver into you when I found you? Would I have bothered to bring you back to my home, clean out your wounds, stitch them, and lay you down by the fire?” The wolf covered his fangs with his lips once more and stared into the young woman’s eyes. “You don’t have to apologize or feel guilty. I understand why you are so distrusting now that you told me that.”
The wolf said nothing in return. He simply nodded his great head and laid it down on his large paws. He watched the fire’s tiny reflections dance on his black claws. His ears lowered when he thought of how it reminded him of the sun glinting off of his mate’s necklace, which he had lost in the snow.
“Please, werewolf, show me your other form so that I can be sure that I stitched your wounds properly. It was hard to tell with that thick fur you have in this form,” she finally said, smiling and petting his head gently. The huge wolf looked at her uncertainly and then let out a big sigh. He forced himself into a sitting position and closed his eyes.
Before I do this, I request that you give me some clothes, he said. Transformation and clothing... Well, let’s just say that they don’t mix.
“You are lucky I kept my brother’s clothes, then,” the woman said. She stood up and walked onto the upraised wooden part of the house and into the back room. She came out with a pair of black pants and an olive green shirt. She placed them in front of the great wolf and walked outside of the curtain door of the house.
The oversized wolf closed his eyes and when he opened them, he was no longer in the form of the white wolf. Sitting there now was a naked human man with pale skin, dark, messy hair, and the same amber eyes of the wolf. He struggled into the clothes as quickly as his aching body would let him and found the clothes to be slightly baggy.
“I am finished now,” he said, holding the pants up with one hand as he stood in the center of the front room of the small house. The woman came in and looked at him. He could have sworn he saw a hint of red come across her cheeks. “Do you have anything I can use to tie these pants up?” he asked. She nodded and walked into the back again. She came out with a length of rope and he tied it through the sheath holes that had been made into the pants. He bent over and bit through the long end of rope to cut them so they would be able to hide under the shirt.
“I’m sorry, but would you mind taking the shirt off?” she asked, her face still a little red. “I think that there may be a sword tip in your side.”
He nodded and took off the shirt. She examined a large wound in his side that had already begun to grow infected and the area around it was swollen and red.
“Lie down on your other side,” she said. “I’m going to need to cut the stitches and make sure that there’s nothing inside that wound. I couldn’t tell how the wound was with all of that thick fur of yours.”
The werewolf hesitated and then lied down as he was told. The woman took her medical supplies from the other side of the fire and used a small blade to gently cut off the stitches. She nicked the werewolf’s side accidentally and he growled in pain. She placed her hand on his head and gently pet his hair a few times to calm him and then apologized.
She is not human, either, the werewolf thought. Her scent is different, and her touch is too gentle and kind. But she’s not a werewolf. What is she?
“This is going to hurt. I have to go inside the wound and pull the tip of the blade out,” the woman said, looking into the werewolf’s cold amber eyes. He nodded and clenched his jaw shut tightly and growled when she stuck two small, pointed, flat needles into his wound and wiggled them around, searching for the foreign piece of metal causing the infection. The needles found it and she tightened them around the tip of the sword. With a quick jerk of her wrist, the ripped the blade out of his wound and he snarled loudly.
The wound was bleeding more now, and she put a thick cloth over it and pushed on it a little to stop the bleeding. It doesn’t hurt anymore, he thought. She’s definitely not human. Is she some sort of witch? A spirit? He looked up at her as she began to stitch the wound closed. When she finished, she rubbed some sort of herbal ointment on it. He sniffed the air. It smelled sort of like mint leaves, dandelions, and other herbs he didn’t know. Now his wound was tingling. Not hurting. Just tingling. And cold.
“You... You are not human, either,” the werewolf finally mustered up the courage to say. “What are you?”
“How did you...”
“Your scent isn’t human or werewolf. Also, your touch is too kind and gentle to be that of either species. Now what are you?”
“I...” she sighed. “I am an angel. My name is Selene.”
The werewolf’s wild eyes widened. An... Angel? They were all supposed to have been killed by the humans and the demons... he thought. She said I was lucky that she kept her brother’s clothes. Was her brother killed by humans or demons or something? “You’re... You’re really an...”
“Yes. I am probably the only one left around here now. Eternal life isn’t much when you have no one else to share it with,” she said, frowning. “You still never told me your name.”
“It’s not really that special, but if you want to know, I am Wildfang. I was born in a werewolf tribe, which is why I have a wolf name rather than a human name. And...” he paused. “I know how you feel about being alone. Like I said before, I lost my mate earlier to humans.”
“Oh. I forgot. I’m sorry that I brought that up, Wildfang.”
“That’s alright. Now I just have to go find someone who has a high rank in their tribe, seeing as mine was taken and tamed by demons.”
“Well, maybe... maybe we don’t have to be alone. Maybe we could...” her voice trailed off and she looked away from him. He sat up and put his hand on her cheek and turned her head to look at him. When she looked, she saw him smiling. And then he nodded.
