Eyes of the Wolf

38

Adam parked the truck in the big garage on the west side of the neighborhood of wolf houses, but didn’t immediately unlock the door.

“Look,” he said finally. “I’m sorry about what happened to your dad. I wish…I wish I could’ve gotten there in time.”

He was sincere. The sentiment lightened my spirit a bit, and I smiled to him in the mirror. The door came unlocked, and I slowly got out, still feeling a bit chafed in the posterior from the scratchy seat. His feet struck the cement just next to me, and I felt a full-body blush come over me when I remembered—again—that I wasn’t anywhere near decent.

“There’s a dresser in the corner over there,” he mumbled, staring toward the door. As I trotted over, I frowned over his embarrassment. I thought all the wolves were pretty sacked out about this kind of thing? Or was it because he was male?

Such thoughts weren’t soothing the red tint I could feel in my skin, and I was pretty certain it didn’t fade until I was dressed and coming back over to him. On pure impulse, I put my arms around his waist.

“Thank you,” I said.

“No problem,” he returned, a slight waver present in the words. I pulled away as I heard a knob turn, and the door next to our entrance squeaked its way open to allow Quill through.

“Sparrow, the Alpha wan—”

She caught sight of me and froze, her teeth immediately bared and her pupils dilating to encompass every part of her visible eyes. Her change was remarkably swift, lasting about a second, and then a big grayish-brown wolf was sprinting at me, snarling. Caught by surprise, I ran around the car before she was completely on her feet, and then I dove under the car. A huge paw followed me under and knocked me into one of the front tires. My head stuck metal when I tried to move, and the world went black for a second as I crawled, military style and blind, to the other side before she could hit me again. I heard bone crack as another shift went through, and then a yelp as two large bodies impacted and struck the thick wall. Feeling incredibly small, I got out from my hiding place on the other side of the car and attempted the change. My thumbs were halfway up my hairy arm when Quill rounded the side, panting and pissed.

“Crap!” I swore, completely bass with a half-shifted throat, and I dodged as she dove for me again. We both fell, her from twisting to try and tear off a limb, me from trying to run with too many joints in my legs. Before she could get up, a gold wolf slammed into her and they both slid into the dresser with a crack of splintering wood. I felt the elastic in my camisole snap against my skin as my ribs deepened. The wolves bit and snarled and barked on the shattered wood, Sparrow desperately trying to stay atop Quill so she wouldn’t tear him apart.

Dammit, Change, I swore at myself, feeling my tail brush the back of my thigh. Quill finally threw Sparrow from her, and he staggered into the car. Feeling like I couldn’t sit out any longer, fully wolf or not, I charged Quill as she pounced, and slammed her into the wall. Her head was still about a foot higher than mine. Why did growth wait ‘til last?

Her teeth found the skin on my shoulder, and she shook it like a terrier, ripping it open. I snatched at her ear and kept grabbing for more to hold. She reared, and I mirrored her, feeling my legs and body finally begin to lengthen. Still, she slammed into me until I was crashing into the hood and grill of the truck, and she was biting for my throat, her dewclaws rending at my ribs. Instinctively I lifted my hind legs off the ground so we slid to the ground, where I was out of reach for long enough to kick her soft belly with my back feet, grabbing for her throat with my teeth before she can get mine.

A sort of rage comes over me, and I start snarling and barking along with my adversary. A door comes open somewhere in the background as she pivots her hind end away from where I can reach her with my toenails, and she pinches an ear trying to bite something in retaliation even while I held her neck in my teeth. I tear at it, wanting to bring her down for making me like I was in danger. I want to taste her blood and make her whine and cry for threatening me and my—

Something tackles her and rips her away from me, and I feel a chunk of my ear follow. I snarl and snap and try to scramble to my feet, desperate to finish the fight with the threat and get revenge for the pain I’m now feeling, but a wolf stands over me and orders that I stay still.

*Shift, all of you,* my Beta wolf demands. My body tenses, trying hard to obey despite the close proximity of the first Change and how much I am opposed to the idea.

“—that halfie! I’ll kill her! She’s mated, and she got my brother exiled from the Pack—”

“Quill—”

“Fuck offa me, Moss! I’ll kill that bitch! She’s mated, and she ditched—”

“She is not mated—” Eagle’s familiar voice kicks in, interrupting softly from by the door.

Color begins to return to my vision until I can see the sable of the Beta’s hackled fur above me, standing guard as Quill rails at a human Moss. Adam stands, also human, at the far end of the garage, picking a thick splinter from his hand, twisted nastily from the Change. My nose shrinks between my eyes, getting paler the closer it comes to me. I shift position as my legs scrape against the ground until they’re hairless again. My rage fades last, and I register dimly that somehow the shorts had survived the shifting, so I was only missing a shirt when my bones finally gave that last crack into place, more painfully than usual.

“—a traitor!” Quill was still screaming. “She is not Pack! She isn’t deserving of a name! She is a mutt, should give her to Frost—”

“That’s enough,” my Beta growled, already straightening into his human height.

“Eagle’s right,” I whispered, glaring Quill in the face. “I was never mated to your brother.”

“You bitch,” she spat back at me. “Don’t get all cocky just ‘cause they’re all here. I’ll challenge you for real, and we’ll see who’s smirking—”

Moss slapped her. The sound rang through the building, echoing to all our sensitive ears. I put my hand to mine since one of them was still bleeding heavily, though it didn’t get all it’s deserved attention because I was still watching Quill. She was staring in shock at Moss, who kept up the contest until my attacker backed down.

Moss is tougher than I remember. I recalled when I had first met her, after the attack by Frost’s wolves. She had seemed so bright and cheery, and had given me Bolt sneakers. Now she looked like a woman of pure steel.

Cloth brushed against my skin, and I flinched before I recognized Eagle handing me a burgundy snap-up shirt. I put it on, snapping only the snap directly over my chest ‘cause my hands were shaking too hard to manage much more.

“Dawn didn’t attack anybody,” Adam was explaining to the Beta. I guess I had just caught the tail end of that conversation, because the Beta nodded and stepped aside so he could pass and leave if he wanted. He glanced at me, then knelt and gently turned my face to the side to see my ear. The hazel in his eyes darkened to green.

“C’mon, let’s get you patched up,” he mumbled, helping me up. For a second I thought I’d fall, feeling like I still didn’t have the right number of joints in my legs, but between Eagle and Adam, I stayed on my feet.

:o3

Adam and Eagle didn’t know what to do about my ear—they couldn’t stitch it back together or anything ‘cause Quill had literally torn out a chunk from the tip of my left ear. Between the three of us, though, we managed to stop the bleeding so that we could focus on everything else.

Personally, I thought Adam was more deserving of medical attention than I was. Every time he turned around, I could see the spots of blood on the back of his T-shirt.

Wait, why is he wearing a T-shirt? I thought.

“I thought all the wolves had to wear the snap-up shirts,” I commented to his back as Eagle checked on the scrapes on my ribs.

“I went to town today.”

“I know. When we met in Cold Stone you were wearing a snap-up.”

“Was I?”

“I remember.”

He didn’t answer at first, but then he came back with “You don’t always wear snap-ups, do you?”

“No.” I winced as Eagle rubbed Neosporin on a bunch of the scratches. I guess none of them were very serious.

“See then?”

“Can you please try not to shift to a wolf until Moss sees you?” Eagle asked me softly. I nodded, and she smiled. “We’ll even have some of the pot roast in the fridge, ‘kay?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

She grinned. “’Kay. I’ll go heat it up.”

I watched her trot out, then deliberated over whether being shirtless was worth not having my shirt cling to the goop on my sides. Glancing to Adam, I decided that the pros of clothes outweighed the cons.

“You decent?” he queried when he heard the front of my shirt snap. At my affirmative, he turned around again. “Wasn’t too bad, then? No fatal injuries?”

“Would seem not. ‘Course, I didn’t smash a wardrobe into splinters.”

“I’m fine. So nothing more than a few bruises or what?”

“Some scrapes on my ribs. Maybe bruises later. No big deal. You have blood on your back.”

“It’s an old shirt.”

“Blood on your arm, too.”

“It’s not fatal.”

“You gonna get it looked at?”

“Maybe. A hot soak’ll help if you’re sore.” I blinked and cocked my head to the side. He withdrew a bit and shrugged. “It will. If you’re sore from the bruises take a hot bath.”

“Okay.” He jerked a nod at my answer and stood to walk out the door. “Where do I go if I wanna run?”

“Haven’t you had enough running?” He sounded amused, though I couldn’t tell if he meant to or not.

“As a human. I can’t run around my neighborhood anymore.”

He considered. “Probably in the forest, or on one of the back roads or trails. And it’d be safe to try and take a packmate with you.”

“Where’re you going?”

“When Quill came in, it was to tell me that the Alpha wanted to see me. I think he’s waited long enough.”

:o3

Between Eagle and I, the pot roast didn’t have a chance. By the time we were thinking about licking our plates, Moss came in.

She checked over my injuries and sponged off the ointment Eagle had applied earlier. She professed my wounds were nothing serious, though she did make a frustrated noise at the ear that, by that time, I was pretty sure had quite a notch.

“Just don’t worry at it, okay?” she finally said.

“’Kay. Have you checked on Sparrow yet?”

“Not yet. Do you think he needs it?” I watched her gaze for more of the woman from the garage, but right then I could see nothing but the cheery woman I had originally been introduced to.

“He might. He had some splinters from breaking the dresser.”

She nodded, waved a goodbye, and left.

Upon my asking, Eagle told me where I could take a hot bath. After falling asleep when I did so, I woke up enough to crawl into the living room and crash on the couch. I didn’t manage to go for a run that day.