I rose myself to my feet and tiredly walked towards the wolf, noticing how he stopped howling once he sensed my presence. I glared down at him heatedly, spiteful that he caused me so much pain. The wolf sensed my negative energy and brought the front of his head against my belly.
“No,” I growled out, so the wolf moved his head downwards to a spot that was even worse. “Get out of there.” The wolf shifted his head to the side and leaned against my hip.
I found my left hand stroking his fur reluctantly, somewhat enamored by the soft texture of his fur. It almost reminded me of Damian’s blanket, I realized, and then bit down at my bottom lip once the thought crossed my mind. I had enough and bent low onto my knees, being at eye level with the creature that was steadily breaking my sanity.
“Are you Damian?” I questioned him and received only a blank expression. “Are you?” I paused to lay my hand over the side of the wolf’s jawline. “Damian.”
The wolf mistook my gesture as something more and began cuddling up with me. “No,” I groaned, but he had already pushed me down onto the rocky slab and prodded his head into the side of me. I lay helplessly, knowing he was too strong for me to overpower him. The wolf took a seat next to me, and curled his body beside mine, letting his chin rest next to my wounded shoulder with his nose sniffing the air slightly.
“I hope you can smell my blood,” I jeered at him. “Since you gave this to me.”
The wolf closed his eyes and leaned more of his weight against me, a thing I was slightly thankful for, since he was so warm. There was an occasional cry of black birds overhead as they could see the last of the wolf’s dinner, and a chorus of howls from wolves that were leagues away, but aside from that, the area was thankfully quiet. I squinted my eyes to see the heavy mist hover over the rocky cliff under the moonlight, and the furry creature beside me that was keeping me warm. My fingers stroked his fur thankfully, and without realizing it I somehow slipped out of consciousness because of the pain and fell into a deep sleep.
***
When I woke up the next morning the spot was empty. The container that once held the raw hunting meat was covered up with a sturdy lid. I raised myself higher, taking note of the squawking of a raven that circled over the raging waterfall. I then looked behind me and saw nothing but the bleakness of a rocky wall. I immediately felt pain as I tried to sit up over my entire right shoulder where the wolf brought his fangs into me.
“Ahh,” I groaned in agony. It took a few moments to sit up properly, and eventually I was able to look around the entire area in search of the wolf. The raven must have saw me moving; it fluttered downwards and landed on a slab of rock that was near me. Black eyes focused on me intensely, and then it let out a screeching sound that was on the verge of being annoying.
“I have no food for you,” I yelled at it, and used my hand to shoo it away. “And I’m not Damian.”
Feeling weak, I slowly raised myself to my feet and moved closer to the water’s edge. I need to clean up this wound, I told myself, knowing it would be infected. I will have to see a doctor too.
“Sara.”
I turned around to see the opening of the forest where the wolf once led me, seeing Damian standing there completely naked with a nervous look about him. He was completely grimy, a fresh scratch in the set of claw marks trailed over the front of his left arm as he placed a hand over it.
I should have asked what he was doing here naked, or why he was not surprised to find me in this spot alone, but I didn’t. I lowered my gaze as the truth slowly hit me, and then I turned my back to him as I let out a stifling cry. Damian approached me slowly, hovering just behind me with a sense of worry.
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed out pitifully.
“Ashley.”
“I know.”
“Damian are you …”
“Yes.”
I turned around to face him, seeing the truth in those eternally sad eyes of his. He saw how much I faltered before him, and immediately wrapped his arms around me in silent comfort. I allowed myself to cry against the side of his neck, so overwhelmed with everything that I could not control my emotions any longer. Damian gingerly rubbed an arm against my solid back and chose to remain silent so he would not disrupt my troubling thoughts.
“I have no control over it,” he finally relayed. “It all comes back to me in pictures, like dreams. I am sorry about your friend, Ashley.”
“You killed her!” I said with spitefulness.
“He did.”
“No.”
“The wolf, Sara,” he insisted with a tenseness to his voice. I curled my arm around him more, so distraught to do anything else. “I would never hurt you, even the wolf knew that.”
“He bit me,” I complained, and slunk out of Damian’s arms to show him. I carefully removed the cloth binding to reveal the ghastly wound to him. My top set of teeth pierced my bottom lip to suppress the series of groans that escaped me as the cold morning air kissed my sensitive skin. “Damian, I will have to see a doctor.”
“It’s infected.”
“I know,” I blurted out. “It killed Ashley and then it bit into all that red meat and—”
“Sara,” he cut in sharply. “That is not what I meant.”
“What do you mean?”
He let out an uneasy sigh and deliberated laying a hand over the side of my arm. Damian decided to take a step back and closed his eyes partially as he revealed, “it is infected by a werewolf.”
I blinked at him, trying to recall the folklore that I heard as a child. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying when the full moon rises and the wolfsbane blooms, you will be as cursed as I am.”