• Blue eyes pale as ice opened and nimble feet took to a run as the smell of a wolf hit my over sensitive nostrils. The forestry seemed to be gliding past my lithe body rather than me gracefully stampeding through it. Piercing orbs took in every molecule of every tree drowning in an ocean of moss, every microscopic insect, and even the particles dancing in the air between the breaks of foliage where the moons beams clung to the bits of the earth’s surface it could touch. If I didn’t know better than I do I would have sworn trees jumped out of my way so that I collided with nothing but the stale atmosphere as I sped towards my fowl smelling prey.

    In a matter of nanoseconds I was met with a small meadow bereft of most of the grass that had once dressed the area leaving patches of unattractive weeds in its wake. The trees coming towards the area had been scarcely clad in leaves but the thin saplings here were nothing other than barely developed children newly born from the womb of the world. Bare and ugly they were, matching the irregular grass patterns leading downhill to a stream with water like liquid peanut butter crashing into jagged rocks, running deep into the woodlands to meet of with its mother river flowing smoothly. The sounds of the racing droplets of the universes natural tears alongside the abrasive noises of forest creatures clawed at my ears as I stood taking in my surroundings at the edge of the tree line.

    In the midst of it all lying on the ground was the beast whose smell beat the inside of my nose, tearing the flesh there, and filling my internal being with its horrid stench. My worst enemy, the king of wolves and fairytale beasts alike, laid there soaking in the rays of the ball of ivory beauty hanging in the sky while the sun pranced around giving its light onto another part of the world. It was so still I would have thought it dead were it not for the almost inaudible breathing emitting from its enlarged muzzle. Creeping forward stealthily I came around its backside so to have the element of surprise on my side. When I’d gotten to the point to where I was close enough to leap on the mongrel without being, detected I pounced on its furry back straddling it. The wolf snarled, twisted and tried biting me feverishly, but nothing phased my attack. “Submit,” I growled lowly into the big fleecy ear pulling its onyx pelt around the neck. As it succumbed to me I braced myself on my knees turning the mutt over into its back so I could bury my face into its neck. The intoxicating scent of blood tickled my senses reminding me of my parasitic nature.

    I just might have taken a bite out of the animal beneath me had it not been for the grey wolf that had barged in and ripped me away from it. In an inhuman voice barely forming words the larger ashen dog roared at me, “Stay back you scrounging bloodsucker.” Sitting behind him in a sort of stupor sat the black wolf with the startling white paws that I tackled. My eyes narrowing into slits, I’d never been very good with orders. One foot, my left to be precise, placed itself in front of me as one eyebrow lifted as if to say, ‘And if I do?’ With an outraged growl it came running at me trying to get a shot at my head, neck, or chest. Seeing as I didn’t have a death wish quite yet I granted it access to none. Claws dung into my arms, teeth cut into my leg, I was swept off my feet in the harshest of ways multiple times, however I did not mar the wolf once. A blur of black from the right tackled the attacking beast. The one I’d surprised was attacking the larger seemingly older shifter. Standing one the sidelines gave the most helpless of feelings, nonetheless I knew that I was not to bring harm to the gray wolf in any way as the smaller one had expressly ordered me to never harm any of its kind.

    My wolf struck the other across its face leaving an angry mark then, while it was still in shock, turned and ran straight past me with an odd sort of signal meaning for me to follow. The two of us high tailed it silently, with an air of suffocating tenseness, until we felt it was safe to stop. The smaller, black wolf who had helped shifted back into his human form and hurdled himself at my chest. No words were spoken between us as we both knew where we stood with one another. He tilted his head back to look at me and I knew we both had the same thought in mind. The other wolf was coming and neither one of us was going to make it out alive.

    “I love you.”