by Noah Harris
Adrien started to wonder whether not knowing more about the wolf was the reason why he felt so empty or if it was something else. He couldn't help but feel the wolf within was what was lacking in his life. He wanted nothing more than to learn more about his kind, and to meet others. Adrien wanted to embrace his heritage.
When he brought this up with his father, the argument started. It had lasted all night and into the early morning. He wanted to know about pack life, about other wolves. His father had told him to drop the subject. He had refused. His mother had cried while they shouted at each other.
They had taken several days to cool down after that. It was a week later that he told his parents that he would be dropping out of school to travel.
They weren't happy about that, but after a few minor arguments, they realized they had no say in the matter. He was going. Whether they wanted him to or not.
They helped him pack, a little begrudgingly, and his father gave him advice on where to go. He knew he wanted to find a pack and others of his kind. His dad didn't know where to find anyone anymore, after being so long out of the werewolf community, but he told Adrien where some of the friendly and unfriendly packs tended to be, according to what he knew.
Adrien had been traveling for a couple of weeks. He had packed his car with little more than essentials and was driving in the northwestern direction. Adrien camped in the woods some and slept in the car when it rained. Most nights he found a place to pull over near the woods, and he would shift and go for a run. That, already, was more freedom than he was used to, and he reveled in it.
Other than heading in a vague direction, Adrien had no destination in mind. He is convinced he'd find something eventually that would help him figure out who he was.
Two nights ago, during one of these nightly runs, he caught the scent of other wolves. Having never been around any shifters other than his father, it took him a while to determine that the scent was, indeed, from werewolves and not just ordinary wolves. Heart and mind racing, he spent the next night trying to track them down. Most of it was instinct. He hadn't been trained to hunt, let alone in wolf form. He was sure he was sloppy, but he was determined.
Now, tonight, there was a full moon, and the night was alive with their scent and their energy. If he couldn't find them, the wolf within would.
He left his car parked off the side of a little-used road, stripped, and left his clothes and glasses in the car. Now he stood a good distance away, hidden deep within the woods from any prying eyes. He doubted he would come across any hikers or kids wandering the woods. The scent of humans was thin and more of a drift on the wind than on the earth itself, telling him that they very rarely came around here. Even so, there was something thrilling about being completely exposed, open to anyone's view, feeling the dirt beneath his toes and the wind caress his body. He had never done this at home.
As the sun set and the moon began to peek over the horizon, his skin rippled. A shiver that ran over his entire body, starting at his head and going down to the soles of his feet. Adrien felt the wolf rise to the surface, the familiar grip of something he couldn't control, a change he couldn't control, but instead of fearing it, dreading it, he let it go. He let it consume him and gladly embraced the wolf, giving himself over to it.
The change ripped through him. His bones crunched and shifted. His skin shivered and tore, reshaping and growing his thick gray coat. Forced to his hands and knees, he squeezed his eyes shut against the pain, but he no longer feared the pain. He was getting used to it. Because beyond the pain, after the change would be freedom. Sweet, exhilarating freedom.
He shook his new body, tensing and relaxing the newly formed muscles. Everything felt right. Powerful. He panted from the effort of the change, and with each breath, he could smell the world around him. New scents, too subtle for even his sensitive human nose to pick up. The world was alive in ways his human self couldn’t comprehend. Even though his eyes were bad enough to need glasses, in wolf form, his eyes were better, and his other senses made up for anything they lacked. He put his nose to the ground and sniffed. He smelled the pack, but the scent was several days old.
He threw back his head and let loose a primal howl, drawing out the tone until his lungs were out of air. Then he listened. No response. He lifted his nose and sniffed the air, ears perking as he caught the scent of a deer. Distracted away from the scent of the pack, he set off to hunt the deer.
He charged through the woods, feeling the earth beneath his paws, dodging bushes and leaping over roots. He followed the scent of the deer until another; fresher scent of rabbits caught his attention. He steered away from his former prey in order to chase down a new one.
This happened several times. As an inexperienced hunter, Adrien found himself to be very easily distracted. Everything was new, and everything was exciting. His wolf instincts told him to run, to hunt, and so he did, but he did so with a reckless and unfocused abandon that one might see more in a puppy than a young man of his age. In all his runs as a wolf, he had only managed to catch anything once or twice.
Still, he didn't care. The freedom tasted too sweet to care.
He was so distracted by his surroundings and the new vivid sights and smells, that he didn't notice the pack until they were nearly upon him.
He had his nose to the ground, sniffing out a rabbit hole when he heard them howl. It started as one; then the others lifted their voices to join the chorus. Adrien's head shot up, his ears perked. The sound sent shivers through him to his bones, demanding he respond; demanding that he join the pack in their call. So he threw back his head and howled to the distant chorus.
They cut off shortly after that, leaving his voice to echo alone in the night. He waited, and the call came again, but this time, there was only one voice, and instead of a howl to call the pack and show the thrill of the night, it was questioning. He answered, and held the note as long as he could.
Then, heart pounding and blood pumping, he set off in the direction of the call.
He found them not too far away, gathered on a hill cleared of trees. He stopped once they came into sight and then approached slowly, his head and ears down.
He tried to stand still and submissive while the wolves took turns sniffing him. They were everywhere. He jumped a few times as noses prodded his underbelly and his tail. He tried to sniff them back, but there were too many, and as far as he could tell, they all smelled relatively similar.
Then they all stepped aside, and a large, black wolf with dark brown eyes approached. He strolled, unhurried, with powerful strides. Adrien could see the way his muscles moved on his shoulders, the way he calculated each step. The wolf appeared calm and unafraid, but also powerful, and ready to strike at any given moment. He knew without a doubt, despite never meeting a pack before, that this was the Alpha.
The presence of the wolf kicked Adrien's instincts into gear. He lowered his head and tucked his tail before gently lowering himself to the ground and exposing his belly. The Alpha sniffed him and bared his teeth in a snarl. Adrien let out a whine and exposed more of his neck.
Then something changed. The alpha lost interest and left him, showing confidence enough to turn his back to the stranger. As Adrien rolled onto his feet, the Alpha threw back his head and howled once more, calling his pack to him. The others tilted their heads and responded. Adrien, back on his feet, joined his voice to theirs and felt the thrill of being part of the chorus.
Then they started to run.
A stampede of paws digging into the earth, propelling them forward. Flashes of grayscale colors as they darted through the trees. The sound of breathy pants, both of exertion and excitement. Barks, growls, howls. The hunt was in him. Adrenaline filled his veins. He felt the way his body protested, the way he pushed his muscles to their limits. He had never run like this, all night without abandon, but he kept going.
The wolf refused to stop. Adrien refused to stop. For once in his life, he felt truly alive.
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