Behind Closed Gates [Edited]

Chapter One

The tour guide walked with her group of ten through the local zoo, keeping an eye on the young kids. They were lumbering around their heavy backpacks with ease – their werewolf strength powering their arms and legs. The teacher, the disguised Luna of the Silverwood pack, walked towards the curious tour guide.

"What is the next enclosure?" She asked. The tour guide couldn't help be mesmerised by the teacher's beauty. She had rippling chocolate-like hair that cascaded down her body like a waterfall. She had full red lips, and her eccentric green eyes were full of life. The teacher only wore denim jeans and a white blouse, and the envious tour guide, despite feeling dull in comparison, smiled at her question.

"Our most prized animal. She's one of our oldest but attracts the most attention." The tour guide said, taking her eyes off the teacher and pointing to the indoor enclosure ahead. She wouldn't let her envy affect her job.

The teacher raised an eyebrow before looking past her. Her eccentric eyes widened in shock, a look of worry coming across her face as she saw the next enclosure.

"Ma'am?" The tour guide asked. "Are you alright?"

The teacher looked back at the guide, unreadable emotions flashing through her eyes. They brightened, almost glowing, but the teacher controlled herself.

Not here. She thought to herself. The teacher smiled on the outside, but it was clearly forced. "Can we skip this enclosure? One of the students was involved in a wolf attack before they moved out here." She lied, but the tour guide believed it.

The tour guide's brown eyes widened. "O-Of course, how awful! We will have to walk past the corridor though..?"

"That's fine." The teacher was stern.

The guide paused for a moment, word lost to her. "She's not very vicious, for a wolf, I mean." Nervous laughter escaped her. "But she doesn't usually come to the front of the enclosure... We've been trying to lure her out, but she doesn't like people very much."

The teacher frowned at the information. "You only have one?"

The tour guide nodded. "We don't have enough space to fit an entire pack in here, so we only have the one female. She's been here for ten years – but she's pretty docile."

The teacher pursed her lips before hesitantly turning to the kids behind her. "Okay kids! We're going to go and see the spiders now! Follow our guide, and don't fall behind!"

"Yes Miss Woods!" The kids said in unison - they'd practised the phrase for hours to blend in with the humans - before following the guide and their teacher past the enclosure's corridor to the spiders. The guide commended the teacher for her students excellent manner, and they got so distracted in conversation that neither saw the one bright-eyed student lag behind.

Drawn to the scent of the animal, the 14-year-old girl walked up to the entrance of the corridor. The smell, that strong-woodland stench, had haunted her nose for several minutes while they were walking around. The sign on the front was a single silhouette of a howling wolf, a clichè symbol for her kind, but she was confused. Why can't we see the animal side to us? The question echoed in her mind as she walked down the corridor. Why not?

Walking past the intimidating pictures of the wolf they had up on the wall, the little girl rounded the corner to a large open space. The enclosure started a few metres away, the large room decorated with facts about wolves and the story of the incredible discovery of the wolf under a willow tree.

Willow, the Wolf of Silver Creek Zoo.

The little girl ignored the pictures on the side, the interactive display on a wolf howl as well as the pawprint of Willow hanging on the wall where any human child would have compared it to their own hand print. Instead, she walked up to the low fence in front of the mesh cage ahead of her. The scent was stronger now, wafting between the low bushes and the hanging willow they had in the corner of the indoor enclosure.