The Curse

Chapter 3

A sound.

I jerk in the direction of the noise to see what made it, but the woods are too thick and dense to see it properly.

But I know it's them. I can smell them.

A wild, earthy, free smell.

Another sound.

My eyes flick in the other direction.

There's more of them than before.

I tilt my nose in the air to get a better scent and growl.

There's at least five wolves. Maybe more. And they know that I have caught scent of them.

They know that I am different, yet they don't run away.

Then I see one of them.

He has brown fur with a touch of red when his fur catches the sun. He starts toward me with obvious authority.

The alpha.

But I do not back down. I stand my ground. They were only animals. I was not going to back down to the real, liginamite wolf when I was clearly superior.

He seems slightly surprised in my refusal to be submissive, if that's possible for an animal to feel.

I bare my teeth and growl in warning. He acknowledges my threat.

He slows and bares his teeth in return.

He has abnormal green eyes. I stare directly into them, refusing to have any other thing have control over me.

I am done. Just done of being controlled by everything.

He sees my challenge. I hear his deep threatening growl.

I growl back.

We stalk towards each other, neither of us backing down.

He snarls at me. Then it occurs to me that I have never actually fought a wolf or anything that was this close to my ability in doing serious damage before.

I guess I'll just have to learn fast.

I show my teeth as threatening as possible.

I will not be controlled by anyone again.

I barely notice the chain dragging behind me as I slowly stalk towards the brown, red alpha wolf.

I stop short and tense my back legs, ready to spring at him. I am mildly surprised and impressed with myself. I notice that, even though I don't know how to fight well enough yet, the wolf part of me does. I suddenly find myself listening to what my instincts tell me to do next.

He picks up speed towards me.

I have never fought a real wolf before, but I think I have a pretty good understanding of the game.

When he's in my striking range, my instincts start going wild.

I'm barely keeping my attack instincts at bay.

I feel my mind sharpen and focus on one thing: attack.

I lean forward and start my lunge, teeth reaching for the alpha's throat--

Suddenly, a new wolf comes between us.

I am so surprised that I try to stop, but I'm already in motion.

I jerk to the side and try to reign in my instincts. But it's already too late.

I find myself clamping down on the new wolf's ear.