CHAPTER TWO – NATURE’S ALPHA

The reservation was alive.

There was no other way to describe the forest surrounding Cassi but that it had its own pulse, its own breath. It sung Cassi a song through the rustling of its leaves and the chirrups of its animals. The breeze that moved through the trees was warm and inviting, beckoning her into the depths.

She followed its call, believing in her heart that this was more her home than any other place had been or could be.

As Cassi walked through the trees, she ran her fingers against the bark of the trees, touched the leaves of the low hanging branches. She breathed in the earthy scent and felt her heartrate slow to a gentle rhythm. Her long day at work was soon a distant memory. The phone call from her mother became an echo from the past. The guilt gripping her chest at her ‘break-in’ dulled and became numb. She felt nothing but the living world around her.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye as she settled into nature’s embrace. She found a log beside a thin, bubbling stream and sat down upon the mossy wooden seat. It was as though she were in a dream. A laugh surged up inside of her and she let it out into the night. No one was there to laugh at her or look at her strangely.

Ever since she had been a child, Cassi felt the pull of nature. She grew up sketching the twisting boughs of trees in one of many thick art books, and she was often found recording the sounds of whispering streams and rivers on her old recorder. As a child she was surrounded by woods in a secluded cabin with her family, but when her older sister left to the city, her parents decided it was time to give up country living and followed. Things had been hard for Cassi after that. The confines of the concrete jungle was suffocating for her, and while she enjoyed the convenience, she would have given it all up for the greenery of the woods she had grown up loving.

Every weekend that she had space, she would break away from her parents, her house, and her friends and head back out into the country. After a long drive she would be amongst the trees again, sketchbook clutched in her hands and her recorder tucked into her pocket.

Her mother would always call after an hour and demand she return home, return to ‘the real world’ as she put it.

Cassi began to hate her back then, and resentment grows fast.

Here, now, in the comforting darkness of the tree’s shadows, Cassi was happier than she had been in months. She breathed in the forest air deeply, let it fill her lungs. Something caught her eye and she looked across the stream to see a wolf settled in the grass, watching her intently.

Cassi wasn’t afraid. She loved all animals, and wolves were the alpha’s of the woods. She knew there were wolves in the reserve, but this was her first time seeing one in all of her many visits. Excitement had her squirming on the log, but she quickly stilled herself. She didn’t want to startle her visitor.

The wolf’s golden eyes watched her intently, then it seemed to lose interest after a few moments. The animal rose, yawned hugely, then turned to stalk off into the trees.

Cassi’s heart sank a little, but she realised that the night was still young as she glanced at her watch. She made a split decision and started to follow the wolf.

The forest grew darker the deeper the wolf led Cassi, and she soon felt herself losing the excitement she had felt before. Fear was beginning to settle in as she followed the wolf further into the reserve. She had never been this far inside before and wondered how safe it was in the very heart of this place. Tasha and her employees didn’t carry dart guns for nothing. Anxiety gnawed at her, but her eyes stayed trained on the wolf as it wound through the trees. She couldn’t seem to stop following it. It was as though she were in a trance. All of the stress of her lifestyle had driven her to seek out any form of escape, and this wolf was the very thing she felt could break the monotony of every day life.

She had to follow.

Half an hour passed. Cassi only knew because she glanced at her watch when the wolf stopped to mark its territory and sniff about the bushes. She knew she didn’t have long before Tasha would be on duty again. She was hungry and thirsty and she needed the bathroom, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop and turn back. She wasn’t even sure she would know the way.

Finally the wolf had found what it seemed to be looking for. It, or rather ‘he’ as Cassi had realised earlier, entered a small clearing. A pond was in the centre, filled with lily-pads and algae. A small incline to the left was crowned with a large tree that overshadows most of the clearing. Huge rocks littered the area, one flat enough to lay upon with little discomfort. The male wolf sauntered toward this rock and pissed upon it, marking it as his own.

Cassi stepped into the clearing and approached the pond, her eyes dazzled by the sparkle of the surface. It was a beautiful place, one that any wolf would be at home in. If this wolf was marking it, though, that meant it didn’t belong to him. Than who…?

A distant howl made Cassi’s blood run cold. It was far away, but cut clearly through the silence of the night. Her wolf wasn’t the only one here.

As if in answer, the male wolf howled back, then lowered his gaze to Cassi. It was no longer a curious gaze, nor was it friendly. It was a savage look of hunger and Cassi began to realise she had overstayed her welcome.

The wolf rose slowly and stalked toward her, angling his body to make himself seem larger. His lips peeled back to reveal menacing teeth. They gnashed and snapped at the air. A deep growl vibrated in his throat.

Cassi felt terror completely engulf her. Every lesson she had learned from books and the internet fled from her mind in an instant. She didn’t know what to do, what would get her killed and what would lead to her survival. She stumbled back and fell over a root. The wolf stepped closer, sensing an easy kill.

In moments everything had changed. An evening of wonder and excitement, an escape from reality and a newfound ally, it had seemed, had turned on its head.

Cassi now stared down the barrel of a harsher reality than she had set out to escape.

“P-please…” she whimpered, tears rolling down her pale, cold face.

The wolf growled again, it eyes flashing gold.

It pounced.

The world stood still.

Then there was pain.

Cassi screamed as the wolf’s teeth embedded into her arm, biting through skin and flesh finding bone beneath. The beast shook her arm as though it were a chew toy. She battered at his face with her free hand, forming a fist and hitting him with everything she had. It did little more than anger the animal as it released her arm and instead bit at her face and neck.

The woods were silent as the wolf tore at Cassi. His claws ripped apart her clothes and slashed her skin. He pinned her under his heavy weight. His teeth gripped her throat, his jaws tightening, her life flashing before her.

One snap, and her neck would be broken. She could feel the hot blood pumping out between his teeth. She could smell his breath. His eyes flashed amongst the darkness and poured into her vision. She knew that she was going to die. She went limp, waiting for it, waiting for the dark to complete it’s invasion so she wouldn’t feel the pain anymore.

A flash of white amongst the dark startled her. Did she imagine it? The weight against her was lifted away with a snarl and a loud yelp. The sound of a wet collision. More snarling and the grinding and gnashing of teeth. Cassi was barely conscious anymore. She lay in the foliage, bleeding out. She was certain that the male wolf was being attacked by another animal, but that didn’t mean much to her. She was going to die here. Tash would find her in the morning during her usual patrol. A call would be made to her family.

Her mother would be so disappointed.

The savage snap of a neck broke through the quietness, ending the wild sounds of the battle between beasts. Cassi’s eyes were fluttering closed when she smelled the musky smell of wolf again. Was he back to finish her off? She was certain of it. She felt him standing there over her, smelled the musk and blood on his fur.

She was white again. Fur. It was white fur. The male wolf had been black. A different wolf?

Blue eyes, icy yet somehow human looked down at her through the dark fog and Cassi stared back at her saviour. This wolf had fought for her. She tried to smile at the animal. It felt different than the other had, despite the blood on its fur and the scars on its face. It was the eyes. They were soft and caring, somehow. Cassi used the last of her strength to reach out and touch the animal’s muzzle. The wolf let her, bowing it’s mighty head. Female. Cassi realised it was a female wolf and her smile deepened.

The darkness final took her, all her sense disappearing.

But she felt it as clear as day when the she-wolf’s sharp canine’s bit down on her wrist.