Wolf Moon

by A. D. Ryan

  I considered what just happened for a minute, trying to figure out what prompted this punishment from him. True, I didn’t really like Roxanne, but what could she have possibly done to be denied part of the kill?

  I shifted my weight to tear off another bite and pain shot up my right leg. That’s when it hit me. I hadn’t tripped on something…someone tripped me. Everything made sense. That moose was more than quadruple my size. What was she thinking? Was she trying to get me killed?

  I was too angry to eat. My hackles rose as I stared at her. I wanted to leap over the moose and attack her. Nick must have picked up on this, because he lifted his bloodied snout and nodded toward the fresh meat. Narrowing my eyes at her, I huffed, a cloud of fog rising up from my nose, and lowered my head back to our dinner. Her stomach rumbled and I could see the saliva starting to drip off her jowls. She was jealous. Maybe this was revenge enough…

  For now.

  Once the majority of the Pack had eaten, then—and only then—was Roxy allowed to eat. Nick and I stole away from the pack, still within view, and lay down. It was weird, but my first instinct was to lick the blood from his face. We did this for a while, time of no consequence. I took care of him, and he took care of me in return. Flashes of my first shift came back, and I vaguely recalled hunting a rabbit in the desert and then cleaning Nick’s jaw.

  We let our food digest, and after what had to be a couple hours—long enough for some of us to take a nap beneath the stars, anyway—Marcus howled, disbanding us for the evening. Everyone went about the rest of their evenings. Some of them would probably shift back and return home, but I was starting to see the appeal of running like this.

  Nick and I stood up, shaking the snow from our coats. We were alone in the clearing now. My right leg was still a little tender, but it was already starting to heal and feel better. Nick seemed to be doing a bit better, too. I had no doubt he was going to have a nasty bruise come morning, though.

  The moon came out from behind a cloud, and as the light shone down on us, I felt a surge of playfulness run through me. I barked, dropped my front end down while keeping my tail-end in the air, tail wagging, and waited for Nick to catch on. He gave me that dopey wolf-smile, and then lunged at me. We tumbled before scrambling to our feet and running. We chased each other back onto our property, dodging and jumping over any obstacles that were in our way. Once we were back on our land, I turned to jump Nick, but he was gone.

  When did I lose him? I wondered to myself. I sniffed the air, catching only faint traces of him in the cold air. I dropped my nose to the snow and started to sift through it, sniffing the earth for his scent.

  That’s when he hit me from the side. I was startled at first, yelping, but when we rolled to a stop, he looked down at me on my back, his tongue hanging out and his eyes playful.

  He wanted to play hide-and-seek.

  I got up, flattened my ears back and barked at him—my way of telling him to turn around while I hid. He got the hint, turning and walking a few paces away before laying down with his head on his front paws. To test him, I took a few steps to my left. His ears perked up, his left ear flicking in that direction. I went right, same thing, just reversed.

  This was going to take some strategizing.

  I went left, but instead of staying left, I circled around, making sure to give him a wide berth so he wouldn’t be able to track me easily. I pranced in the snow, dropped my nose beneath it and then flicked my head up so it rained down on me. I also rolled around in it as I went back and forth a few times, messing up the direction of my tracks. When I found myself hidden deep within the trees, I hid beneath a low pine tree. The smell was unreal as I lifted my nose to the low-hanging branch above me. My nose touched a needle at just the right angle, and I pulled back when its sharpness surprised me. A little snow from the branch floated all around me. It was so beautiful.

  After a few minutes of playful exploration of my hiding spot, I yipped to let Nick know I was ready. I hoped it was loud enough to reach him, but not too loud that it gave away my position. I lay low, placing my nose on my paws, then beneath them, then between them, my excitement too much for me to keep still for longer than a second.

  When I heard heavy, deliberate footfalls, as well as the sound of sniffing behind me, I grew anxious. He was good. I would have to learn how to cover my tracks better next time. There was a large, wolfy shadow that loomed over my hiding spot since the moon was to my back. I was just about to come out of hiding and declare him the winner—or pounce on him; whichever felt more right in the moment—when I noticed his sand-colored fur straight ahead. His nose was to the ground as he tried to figure out which direction I’d gone.

  Panic seized my heart, my breath coming hard and fast. The pine tree had masked the scent of my seeker, but the feeling of dread that filled my body like lead meant that it could only be one wolf.

  Karl.

  Chapter 15 | victim

  When Karl didn’t move, I figured maybe he didn’t see me. I stayed diligent, watching and waiting for Nick to find me before Karl made a move. He had to. I was prepared to lie under that pine tree in silence for as long as it took. If it kept me from picking up Karl’s scent, then surely it was masking mine.

  My ears flicked when I heard Karl take another step forward, and his low growl warned me that he knew exactly where I was. I felt his nose on the tip of my tail, and I yipped, tucking it tightly into my body. When I turned my head, I found him crouching, his yellow eyes on me. I didn’t like the way he stared at me—like he wanted to devour me. I shivered, and it wasn’t because of the snow or dipping temperature.

  He inched toward me on his belly. Releasing a warning growl, I darted out from my hiding place and toward where I last saw Nick. Karl followed. When he got too close, I snapped at him, but he anticipated it and moved to the side. When he refused to relent, I picked up my pace; I was smaller than Karl, which meant I was faster and could maneuver much easier through the forest. I looked around frantically for Nick as I ran, and that was my first mistake. I tripped, giving Karl the advantage he needed.

  I scrambled to try and get back on my feet, but I was having trouble finding traction on the snow and ice beneath it. By the time I finally found my footing, Karl was practically on top of me. When he was a few feet away from me, he stopped running, walking with an aggressive confidence that made me panic even more. Every stalking footstep he took echoed in my head, and the way his eyes glowed in the moonlight was eerie, especially when his mouth fell open into a toothy, malevolent grin.

  I hated that I was terrified of him, because that wasn’t who I was. I was strong, confident, and capable of defending myself…when I was human. Like this, I was useless. Sure, my instincts kicked in when we were hunting, but now? I was in fight or flight mode, and fighting wasn’t an option. I wasn’t used to this body; I didn’t know how to use it to my advantage. I had proven that the night David died.

  Where is Nick? Why hasn’t he found me yet? I wondered frantically. I wish I could call for him… Wait, I can!

  I opened my mouth to bark or howl—I wasn’t too picky, as long as he could hear me—but before I could get anything out, Karl pounced, flipped me onto my back, and wrapped his jaws around my throat to strangle the sound. That was when my instincts switched on, and I struggled beneath him. I kicked my legs, clawing at his underbelly as he worked to stop me from moving around. I whipped my spine back and forth, trying to loosen his grip on my jugular. I still couldn’t make a sound, but after one good kick to his stomach, he released me. I smelled his blood as I rolled off my back and scrambled to my feet.

  My vocal chords had been pinched from the pressure of his bite, so I was unable to bark or howl, and I only made it another two feet before he jumped on my back. He was heavy, and when he grabbed the scruff of my neck, he pulled the skin so tight I could only release a whisper of a breath.

  His front legs were on either side of my shoulders as he stood over me, pushing his snout down so I was forced to re
main on my belly in the snow. My eyes burned with tears as I prepared for what was about to happen, and a whimper of fear and defeat finally escaped.

  Karl’s jaw tightened, his teeth cutting into my skin beneath the thick fur on my neck, and he pushed down harder, muffling any future sounds with the snow around my face. He repositioned his feet, pulling them tighter to my body so I wouldn’t be able to wiggle away, and I closed my eyes, trying to force myself to black out. It was getting harder to breathe with Karl pulling my skin taught and pressing my face into the ground, so at the very least, I hoped to lose consciousness before he did what I knew he intended to do.

  The pain I could handle. Knowing what my body looked like as it went through each stage of the change, you bet. But this? This was too much. This I didn’t want to remember or even be lucid through.

  It didn’t work. The blackness never swallowed me, and I was so scared that I just gave up. There was no point. I tried fighting, and it didn’t work. My only hope would be if Nick showed up and—

  The weight above me disappeared. I briefly wondered if I had blacked out and was just coming out of it, but the feral growls around me told me I was still very much aware and only seconds had passed. One by one, I opened my eyes to find Nick and Karl fighting. There was a rage in Nick’s eyes I’d never seen before, and Karl was just as angry for having been interrupted.

  They were so vicious, teeth snapping and tearing at one another, that the air reeked of their fury and blood. My heart was still pounding, speeding up exponentially as I watched them fight. Eventually, all I could hear was my pulse in my ears. An uncontrollable shiver started in the tips of my ears, working its way down to the end of my tail until every muscle quaked. I couldn’t stop it no matter how hard I tried. I knew it was a combination of my fear as well as my adrenaline dispelling itself from my body and that it would just have to run its course.

  Nick slammed Karl into the ground directly in front of me, and Karl retaliated by biting down on Nick’s lower leg. Nick yelped, but didn’t relent in his attack.

  Afraid of their close proximity, I scrambled backward, hiding beneath the nearest tree. I went back as far as possible, pressing myself against the trunk of the pine tree and sitting up instead of lying down so I was out of reach. Their growls echoed in the night, and occasionally one of them would yelp shrilly when the other would connect. Blood flowed from the various wounds covering their bodies, and red stained the snow around them.

  Paranoid of another sneak attack, my ears continued to flit back and forth, listening for any other threats that might be coming my way, but all I heard was the wolf fight that was happening six feet from my current hiding spot.

  Then the fighting stopped. There was heavy breathing from both of them, but one sounded weak—defeated. I couldn’t bring myself to look and see who the victor was, and I admit, my mind went to the worst case scenario. Even in the darkness, I heard the snap of bones and the struggle that one goes through when changing, and I feared what was going to happen next. With a whimper, I turned my head toward the tree trunk and pressed my forehead to it, clenching my eyes shut while I waited for Karl to drag me out.

  “Brooke?”

  Nick? The sound of his voice surprised me, but I still didn’t move, afraid that maybe I was hearing things. It could still be Karl out there.

  “Brooke,” Nick called again softly. “Baby, it’s okay. It’s safe now.”

  Slowly, I opened my eyes and turned my head. Nick was there, naked, kneeling in the snow, and reaching out to me beneath the tree. There was a cut above his eye that was bleeding pretty profusely down the side of his face, and he had several deep-looking bites to his arms, legs, and torso. He didn’t seem too bothered by them as he inched forward again. Still rattled by everything that had happened—everything that almost happened, I tried telling myself to no avail—I recoiled. I saw the hurt in his eyes, and I wanted to apologize, but all that came out was a pained whimper.

  “Baby,” he pleaded. “Please come out. He won’t hurt you again, I swear it.”

  I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed in place by fear. All I could think about was Karl holding me to the ground, his hulkish wolf body standing over me and preparing to…preparing to…

  I whimpered again, my trembling legs suddenly unable to hold me up, and I collapsed.

  I wouldn’t come out of hiding in this body. I couldn’t. It wasn’t strong like Nick said it was. It was weak. I didn’t know how to defend myself this way.

  Scared and angry, Nick growled his frustration, pounding his fists into the ground before standing up. I startled at the outburst, and when he moved out of my line of vision, I noticed Karl’s naked human body laying in the snow with his back to me. He was in worse condition than Nick, bones broken, his body battered and bloodied. While it was faint, I could hear his heart beating and his chest moved with each labored breath he took. He would live. I could sense his bones and internal organs already starting to knit themselves back together.

  “MARCUS!” Nick screamed. He called out again and again, and soon, there were several sets of footsteps rushing toward us.

  “What’s going on?” Marcus demanded as he assessed the situation. “Where’s Brooke?”

  Nick explained what had happened, starting with our playful run through the woods to when he found Karl hovering over me and what he planned to do. Then there were three new sets of eyes on me beneath the tree: Miranda, Marcus, and Colby, who was still in wolf form. Nick crouched down again and tried to coax me out, but I refused to budge. Even though I knew he would never hurt me, I planned to stay out of reach until I shifted back and was better able to defend myself. I wouldn’t take any chances.

  “Brooke…” Nick’s voice sounded strained and like this physically pained him.

  Miranda laid a hand on his shoulder. “Nick, go with Marcus. Take that animal inside and deal with the situation.”

  “But—”

  “Go,” she interrupted sharply. “She’s just been through something traumatic. She’s petrified. Let me help her. I won’t let anyone hurt her.”

  Nick was reluctant, but when Marcus asked for his help to take Karl back to the house, he obeyed. And soon it was just me, Miranda, and Colby.

  “Brooke, honey,” Miranda soothed. “It’s okay. They’re all gone now. Do you want to come out?”

  I whimpered again, burying my nose in the dirt and snow.

  “Okay…okay.” She turned to Colby, whose sympathetic eyes held mine. “Colby, do you think you can shift back? Sunrise isn’t for a few hours, but do you think you could shift now?”

  Colby looked from me to her mom then nodded once.

  Miranda smiled. “Good girl. I want you to run into the house and grab a blanket from Brooke’s room. Something that smells familiar to her. Don’t grab anything from the linen closet. This is very important. We can’t risk her picking up any traces of…” She stopped herself from talking, and after a moment, Colby seemed to understand what Miranda meant and took off toward the house.

  While Colby was off fetching a blanket, Miranda relaxed flat onto her belly, regardless of the cold snow. She scurried beneath the tree a little further, and I tried to move back but couldn’t since I was already flush with the tree. Since I didn’t see any escape in my current form, I pinned my ears back and growled a warning at her before snapping my teeth in her direction.

  Seeing my fear, she held up her hands in surrender. “Hey,” she whispered. “It’s okay. It’s just you and me here, hun. You have nothing to be afraid of.” Undeterred, she slowly slid her hand over the snow until she brushed my paw. I flinched, but felt her warmth—her sincerity—seep into me, and I exhaled a breath of relief.

  “You’re safe now,” she said softly, inching closer, her hand moving up to my knee. My ears remained pinned flat, but I softened the expression on my face and laid my chin on my legs. “There you go. Just relax.”

  “Mom,” Colby said, falling to her knees in the snow, a blanket clutched tightly in her
hands. “I’ve got it.”

  As Miranda turned and grabbed the blanket with her free hand, I noticed Colby was dressed in a baggy black sweater and a pair of jeans tucked into her winter boots. “Thank you, sweetie.” She turned back to me and smiled as she pulled the blanket to her nose and smelled it. Once she seemed pleased, she held it out to me. “Brooke, I’m going to wrap this around you. You’re shaking like a leaf, and while I don’t know how much of it is the cold, this will help keep you warm after you shift back.” She moved slowly, opening the blanket up and draping it over my back. “There. Now, do you want to try and change back now, or wait?”

  The idea of staying like this any longer than necessary sounded horrible. I wanted my old body back. I wanted to feel strong and confident again. I hated this.

  “I can talk you through it if you need me to,” Colby whispered softly, army-crawling under the tree to join us.

  So she did. She had me close my eyes and focus on my breathing. She had me visualize my old body—the body that I was stronger in—and after an hour of excruciating pain, I was naked and crawling out from beneath a pine tree with my blanket from back home wrapped around my shoulders. The blanket that David and I frequently cuddled beneath on the couch while watching television. It still smelled like him, filling my head with pleasant memories.

  Once on my feet, I wobbled a bit before finding my balance, and I tightened the blanket around me, bringing it to my nose. My scent mingled with David’s, and I closed my eyes, taking me back to happier times. Times before a psychotic werewolf tried to claim me for his own without my consent.

  My stomach churned, and I fell to my hands and knees in the freezing snow, dry-heaving until my stomach muscles hurt. When I regained a little control, Colby and Miranda helped me up, and I walked barefoot in the snow back to the manor. It was cold, but I barely felt the sting. My body was numb. I had been attacked while in a body I still wasn’t familiar with. It was the most vulnerable I’d ever been, and I had no idea how to process that.