Snowmelt

I

I bite the neck of the rabbit, relishing the taste of the blood. Licking my muzzle clean after I finish eating, I paw at the ground. I hate being so close to a pack, but it couldn't be helped. I needed food. Now it was time to leave.

I hit the ground with a thud, shock rippling through me, crushing weight on top of me. "What in the name of all that is mighty?!" I exclaim. "You're one to talk." a voice replies. "What are you doing so close to my territory?" "Get off! Maybe then I'll tell you..." I growl, snapping at the air above me. "Fiesty, aren't ya?" I feel a puff of breath on my flank and hear a laugh. How could they be laughing?! I'm trapped underneath another wolf, and they laugh?!

I growl again, lashing out at the air around my head, and hear the laugh ring out once more. 

The weight above me shifts, then finally disappears. I stand up, then straighten and stretch my limbs. I turn, preparing to attack whoever had done the same to me. In front of me stands a coal-black wolf with dark green eyes.

"You said that you would tell me if I let you up.  Now spill." he sits back on his haunches expectantly.

I remain standing but take a single step back. His eyes flicker towards my paws, and his ears drooped slightly, but only for a moment. The disappointment may have left his body language, but he couldn't seem to keep it out of his eyes. I sigh softly, then sit. Joy sparks in his eyes and his tail wags once, slowly, but a wag nonetheless. 

"Fine, I'll tell you why I was so close to your pack's territory-" I begin, but he cuts me off. 

"I hate to interrupt, but this isn't my pack's territory." He blurts.

"Then why did you attack me?" I growl. 

"Let me finish, you-" He begins to reply with a growl of his own, before cutting himself off, then continuing. "Sorry about that... But as I was saying, this isn't my pack's territory. This is my territory, my pack lives on my territory with me, because that's how being the alpha of a pack works." 

"Wait, what? Alpha of a pack?  But... You don't act like an alph-" I respond, shocked. Then my mind runs through how he reacted to me. He wasn't wary, like most wolves, of a strange wolf, but instead protective and assertive over the ownership of the territory. 'What are you doing so close to my territory?'  Oh no... No no no no no... I'm dead if he finds out... 

"What's with that look on your face?" He prods my paw with his and I jump back, startled by both my realization and the contact with the subject of that same realization. 

"I... I have to go..." I choke out, and I'm turning when he asks what I would never have expected.

"Will you be back?"

I hesitate, then nod once, slowly, then again, faster, more sure of myself.

"Good, but be back here tomorrow." he says, using what I can only assume to be his 'alpha' voice. "You still haven't told me what you were doing."

It is all I can do to keep myself from running as I nod, then run, faster than I had previously thought possible, five simple words running through my head like a mantra of sorts. 'I have to get away. I have to get away. I have to get away.'  

After who knows how long, I reached my den. I curled up, all my energy disappearing into thin air faster than I could think. My last thought before falling into the deep, dark, abyss of sleep is only seven words long. He was so happy I stayed longer...