Royally Mated

Chapter Two

Frustrated, she left the store, the door slamming closed behind her, her bag swinging violently against her side. There was honestly no need for that woman to yell at her. She was just doing her job. It wasn't her fault that the new employee had filed the wrong information. And trying to tell the lady that had only made it worse.

"You think who did it matters? I don't care who did it, I just want it to be right! If I wanted something to be wrong, I woulda gone to my ex-husband for it! Just give me the damn discount, missy. It's not like you actually care. I need to save my money!" Ha, save her money, right. The lady was buying close to one hundred dollars worth of junk food. She could have saved her money by not buying any of it.

Angry, she started her walk home. She didn't have enough money for a car and the train didn't stop anywhere near her house or work, so she resorted to walking a half an hour each way to get to and from her menial job. Passing the only gas station in a thirty block radius, she made eye contact with the most attractive man she had ever seen, gasping at the intensity in his gaze. Partially frightened by it, she turned down a path through the woods that would get her home quicker. She had never seen him before, which must mean that he was just visiting. And because he was at the gas station, she knew that he wouldn't stay for much longer.

"Pity," she muttered. The one decent looking guy her age had come out as gay then moved away to Miami three years ago. This stranger was the first guy that made her heart stutter in a long time.

Humming an old lullaby, she made her way down the forest path, smiling when she saw two squirrels chase each other around a tree trunk. At least they could have fun in the most boring town on earth.

She was so used to walking alone in the woods that any noise in it didn't bother her anymore. She had seen all different types of animals in the woods, from tiny little chipmunks to the occasional black bear. None of them bothered her, and she didn't bother them. In fact, she would spend most of her spare time in the woods, sketching the animals she saw with as much detail as possible.

So she wasn't all that surprised when a light grey wolf stepped onto the path about thirty feet in front of her. Smiling and trying not to frighten it, she carefully reached into her bag to pull out her sketchbook and a pencil. When she looked back up, she was disappointed to find that the wolf was gone. Checking the time, she decided to wait just a little longer. She knew wolves usually didn't travel alone, so if she saw one, more were sure to follow.

Sitting down and leaning against a tree, she resumed humming to herself. Rolling her neck, she looked to the left and almost let out a scream. There was the wolf, sitting right beside her, looking at her with its head cocked to the right.

"He-hello," she murmured. It deepened the angle of its head. She studied the shape of its face and the build of its body and concluded it was a male. "What are you doing over here, sir?" Instead of answering (how silly of her, animals couldn't talk), or even scampering away, the wolf laid down next to her and huffed.

Slowly, she pulled her sketchbook even closer to her and flipped to a fresh page. As long as the wolf wasn't moving, she was going to draw him.

When she had just finished the outline of the creature, a distant howl had the wolf shooting his head up, looking off behind him. She flinched back, not expecting the sudden movement. The wolf didn't leave; instead, it lifted its head and howled back.

She suddenly grew nervous. Had the wolf not left her because he thought of her as his prey? Surely not, otherwise she wouldn't be alive or he would have called out already. Thinking back to what she knew about wolves, she recalled that they didn't hunt humans; in fact, most wolves avoided them.

So why had this one come right up to her?

A loud snarl shocked her out of her stupor. 

A very large, dark brown wolf with sandy highlights stood directly behind the grey one lounging next to her. She jumped up and back away, eyes cast slightly lower than the wolf's eyes. This one didn't seem as laid back as the friendly grey one, and even though fatal wolf attacks on humans were practically unheard of, she didn't want to be the outlier.

Until she realized the brown wolf was growling at the grey one, who had stood up and was now...bowing at the brown wolf?

This was the strangest animal encounter she had ever had.

Walking past the grey wolf, the brown one also came right up to her, but instead of laying down, it nudged her along the path, shoving her in the direction of her house. Taking the hint, she started to walk home, a little scared of not following the wolf's directions. It didn't leave her alone, though, even when she got to the edge of the woods. It continued to follow her down sidewalks, through parks, and across streets. When she finally got to her house, she turned to look at it, really look at it, for the first time, identifying it as another male. It sat inches from her porch steps, not going up them, but not leaving either.

She swallowed and shooed it away with her hands.

"Um, okay I'm home now. You can-you can go...I guess. Uh, thanks for walking me home safely?" She didn't really know how to dismiss the wild animal that followed her back to her house, but it seemed to understand her and stood up, but only left when she opened the front door.

Back pressed against the wood, she shook herself and pinched her arm. Nope, she really was awake.

"Dad?" she called out. "What do you know about wolves?"