Heart of a Wolf

thing I could remember. Pain. Insurmountable pain. And then… nothing.

Kindness. Warmth. Safety. That was what I remembered most, the gentle calm that found me before darkness stole me away. I honestly should’ve been out of my mind and screaming at the top of my lungs. Instead, I was more concerned with whatever waited for me outside the confines of my cell.

In here, I felt safe.

It was dark save for the bit of light that made its way through the window and very quiet. It was the perfect place for someone suffering from a migraine, except for the lack of bedding, of course.

Turning my attention back to where they’d left me, I frowned when I spotted claw marks on the far wall along with the floor around my feet. That’s when I realized I wasn’t wearing what I’d had on earlier. A loose gown hung from my shoulders, the fabric mimicking my movements and feeling more like a second skin than anything else.

It wasn’t anything like a hospital gown. The material was woven into place and a lot softer than the ones we had in our exam rooms. The fact someone disrobed me didn’t worry me nearly as much as it probably should.

Whenever I sensed my fears building up in the back of my mind, something stopped them, fighting them back.

Deep in thought, I almost didn’t hear the door open to my left. Bright light flooded the room, causing me to shield my eyes until the newcomer closed the door behind them. I hadn’t noticed the door before as it sat in one of the darkest corners of the room, but as far as I could tell, it was the only way in and out of the building.

The sound of claws clicking on concrete found me first, followed by the hazy silhouette of a very large dog. No, not a dog, I corrected myself. A wolf.

Icy panic coiled around the base of my spine as I scrambled away from the bars, running into the wall not too far behind me. “Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”

The wolf made a deep guttural noise and canted its head to one side, promptly sitting down on the floor in front of me.

With more light hitting its fur, I was able to make out a few minor details between looking at it and the door it’d walked through. Dark chocolate fur covered most of its body, its dark irises circled with a ring of gold that shone in the dark.

The wolf was rather beautiful if not for the open muzzle pointed in my direction.

“Where am I?” I asked, honestly not expecting a response.

“Where’s your master?” I craned my neck, but whoever let the wolf in didn’t accompany it.

The wolf was obviously trained. No wolf would’ve set foot inside a human settlement. Not wild ones, anyway. But one raised alongside humans since it was a pup? I’d heard of it being done before.

“Where’s your owner?” I asked when it didn’t move.

“Where did you come from?”

No response. The chocolate wolf just stared, its tail barely moving an inch when it finally lay in front of me.

“Oh, so they sent you in here to look after me, huh?” I asked with a laugh, hugging my arms around myself to keep them from shaking. “What’re they afraid of? That I might get out?” I scoffed, then walked over to the bars and pulled on them just to prove my getting out of the cell without a key wasn’t an option.

My demonstration didn’t impress the wolf. It released a huff of breath, then set its chin on top of its paws, its eyes never leaving mine.

“You know, you’re very serious for a wolf,” I said, taking a few steps back before getting down on the wolf’s level.

I wasn’t sure what the proper etiquette was when it came to wolves, but I did remember something about not holding eye contact. So, as much as I hated to look away, I did just that,

averting my gaze so I could study the deep marks in the floor instead.

They didn’t match any claws I’d ever seen, the grooves being far too large to fit the wolf in front of me. Perhaps they didn’t come from a wolf at all but something else entirely.

Perhaps whoever owned the property (not to mention the chocolate wolf) had used the cell on someone before, someone who managed to bring in a knife along with them.

Studying the parallel lines, that made as much sense as them coming from a wolf. No one, no matter how skilled, could carve lines like that.

The door opened again a few minutes later, filling the room with light before drowning it out again. The click of heels on concrete was my only clue before the woman from the garage spoke again.

“Oh good, you’re up,” she said, her tone hard to read. “You also survived the night which… well, we’ll get into that later,”

she said, releasing a long breath as she approached my cell. “I see you’ve met Fallen. You’ll have to forgive her unusual approach. She doesn’t trust newcomers the way I do. You’ll find that’s pretty common around here until they get used to you.”