The Last Wolf

“Flower power!” Rose screamed as she ran towards me. I laughed before she threw her arms around my neck.

“Really,” I laughed before hugging her back while taking the red solo cup from her.

“Hell yes!” She held her fist towards me, I put mine against hers. “I can’t believe you finally made it out of that house! Seriously, what’d you do over the winter; because you’re freaking hot and all I got was fat.”

“You’re not fat!”

“Liar!”

Rose is my best friend, has been since I met her in kindergarten. A teacher once told us that we fit together because we both had beautiful flower names, flower power became our best friend catchphrase. When we were older, Rose looked up the two flowers online. Roses are elegant with perfect petals that start in a puckered blossom and spread to a beautiful cup. Dahlias, on the other hand, are wildly colored in all sorts of shapes and sizes; they always looked kind of like weeds to me.

“Come on, Lye, let’s get you a drink.”


Four hours later, the nearly full moon lit up the southern sky and reflected off the lapping waves of the river. I had my fifth beer in hand, taking small sips between outbursts of laughter and dancing to the loud music filling the forest, while random boys tried to hook up with Rose and me. I was close to giving into one boy with sandy brown hair and big brown eyes, a second string runner on the football team. He had just told another really lame football joke (could he be any more into himself?), when Rose pulled me to the side.

“Look over there,” she pointed to a tree that seemingly held up a guy about my height, six foot or so, with cropped, bleach blonde hair. “He’s been staring at me all night; will you come with me to talk to him?” I glanced at the guy again, caught him quickly turning his face away and grinning to another group of guys.

“I don’t think we should be talking to him,” I half whispered. There was something about the way he was casually leaning against the tree. His clothes melting into the shadows of the bonfire made him seem as if he could disappear into the woods and never be found again. The more I studied his face the less I recognized him. “Where’d he come from?”

“There are a lot of people who don’t go to our school here,” Rose reasoned. “Just come with me, and then you can excuse yourself later, okay?” Her eyes opened wide as she put her hands close to her chest in a sort of prayer stance, small droplets of water started to form in the corners of her eyes. I couldn’t resist that puppy-dog face; I nodded reluctantly before she yipped, grabbed my hand, and gleefully pulled me across the field to the tree line.

My heart began to race as we grew closer to the crowd, I didn’t feel right about just walking up to them. Something in my brain was telling me to grab Rose and get the hell out of Dodge; something besides my best friend was pulling me towards the guys, and it felt strong, deadly. “Rose,” I hissed. She pulled harder on my hand until we were standing in front of the boy she wanted to talk to. Several of the crowd around him turned to look at us; Rose with her tiny stature, dirty blond hair, sharp features, and diamond shaped brown eyes that were so dark they almost looked black; and me with my coppery red hair, almost yellow almond shaped eyes, my lanky yet strong stature. I suddenly felt like a target.

“Hello,” Rose started in her ‘I’m trying to be sexy’ tone. She pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth as she looked into the tree guy’s eyes. A smile formed as her lip slipped from between her teeth.

“You,” he smiled as his teddy bear brown eyes focused on Rose for a second, “brought me just the girl I wanted to see.” He winked at me as his friends cackled.

“W-what?” Rose’s face fell. She turned to me with glaring black eyes and a tight mouth.

“I don’t know you,” I stated, my lips were taunt, eyes darted between him and his friends.

“You should get to know me,” he laughed as he reached for my arm. I jerked it back before grabbing Rose’s hand.

“We shouldn’t have come over here!” I started to walk away, but Rose’s hand was snatched out of mine. A scream was stifled before it left her glossy pink lips, something rumbled in my chest.

“See boys, I told you I could smell it from here.” He moved swiftly from the tree, blocking Rose from my line of sight.

“I don’t know what you think, but you better let her go now,” I hissed. Something primal crawled through my brain; it was me or this stranger, but I wasn’t leaving this party without Rose.

Growling echoed from the shadows of the night, Rose let out a whimper, the guy grinned. “You have one choice,” I growled. My tone was low and icy, “Let her go, and I won’t hurt you.” Adrenaline rushed through my veins, my fingers curled into fists, I could feel heat radiating off my skin in waves.

“I’d like to see you try to hurt me,” he laughed bitterly.

Before I knew what was happening, I was on top of him. His cheek was red, blood smeared his shoulder, and panic flooded his big brown eyes. “Get off me, Bitch!” I grabbed his collar and slammed his head down on a root. My hand made its way to his chin.

“Let. Her. Go!,” I breathed each word through gritted teeth. Rose was crying for me to leave him alone, to just get off him and leave with her. My heart raced with the heat of battle, I suddenly felt the urge to kill him. Gasping for breath, I dropped his chin before pushing myself into a standing position. Rose grabbed my arm and started hauling me away.

I heard a cracking sound too close for comfort, turned around, and a wolf stood growling where I left the boy. The weirdest part about it, the wolf had the same brown eyes with tiny flecks of gold and bleached blonde hair as the guy I’d pinned to the ground. I was frozen in place, the other partygoers panicked and ran causing more wolves to appear and attack. I pulled out the mace my father had given me for my birthday two weeks ago and sprayed as much of the can as I could into the wolf’s eyes. I kicked the animal as hard as I could in the chin, a sickening snap echoed around me as my foot carried its head back down. I quickly turned away from the wolf. The screaming ceased as the roaring of car engines began. I couldn’t find Rose.

My stomach lurched as it forced the alcoholic contents out, my muscles began to ache. Something was wrong with my body. I turned back towards my prey, the boy with the blond hair and brown eyes laid in place of the wolf, his spinal cord was snapped as if someone forced his chin back to far.

“Did I kill a boy or did I kill a…”