I didn't know I was a wolf

Chapter 1

One foot in front of the other, watch out for that root! Oh, big rock. Samantha loved running in the mountain trails. She had run them most of her life. She loved the way the air smelled, the wildlife, the views. Any time she had problems, that is what she would do, run to the mountains. Today was no different. She was deep in thought on some issues she was dealing with work when she saw it. The biggest, scariest looking wolf she had ever seen. She had lived in her small mountain side town all her life, she had heard the wolves at night, had volunteered at the wolf rescue, but had never seen a wolf that size. It was staring at her like she was lunch. ‘s**t, what do I do now?’ she thought. Even though she was scared out of her mind, she could not help but admire the wolf. It was stunning. It’s black fur faded to silver. Did it really have green eyes? She was not planning on getting that close to it to find out

“Nice wolf… I promise I won’t even make a good snack, too scrawny and full of sarcasm… I’m just going to walk away now ok?” she said calmly as she slowly backed off. Never give them your back, that was the biggest lesson when dealing with wildlife. As in with bears or cougars, speak calmly, back away, make them know you are not a threat or easy prey. The wolf continued to stare at her. Then, a red wolf came next to it. It almost looked like a fox except it was huge. Not as big as the black one, but still bigger than any wolf had a right to be. ‘Well, this is how I die’ she thought. ‘Justin is going to kill me’ she thought. Justin was her husband, they had been together for eight years, since she was a grad student finishing her masters degree.

The red wolf looked annoyed and was trying to get the black one to leave, but the black wolf… it just stared. It didn’t even seem to notice the red wolf. Samantha had to admit, it was stunning, even as she knew she was for sure going to die, she could not help but need to know  what is fur felt like, what color its eyes were…  She was clearly officially crazy. The black wolf slowly walked closer. “Nice wolf, nice wolf. Please don’t eat me” she repeated over and over again like a mantra while walking away slowly, but the wolf kept coming. “You are really beautiful Mr. Wolf, but please do not eat me” she asked the wolf. ‘Am I losing my mind or did this wolf just smile at me?’. The red wolf looked annoyed and ran back to the forest. Black wolf kept coming for her. “Please don’t eat me Mr. Wolf ok?” The wolf was close enough she could reach out and touch it. Then… it sat. It just stared at her. Before she knew it, she reached out her hand and touched the wolf. It was soft, like touching a really expensive warm coat. Something inside of her sighed with relief, tears came to her eyes. It felt like everything in her life had led her to this one moment. The wolf closed its eyes and if she didn’t know any better she could have sworn it was thinking the same thing. With no thought, she knelt down and started petting the wolf. Green, its eyes were green and they looked… intelligent. She was clearly both delusional and moments away from her death. Yet she could not stop touching this stunning animal.  

The red wolf was back, it growled at her. Samantha thought she was going to pee herself from fear. The black wolf snarled at it, so red backed away tail tucked under. The spell felt broken though, Samantha needed to get the f***k out of here. So while the black wolf was distracted she quickly backed away until she could no longer see them and ran as hard as she could down the mountain back to her car. She felt like the wolf was still close by. She felt sad to no longer be near it. She felt relieved to be alive. She was still processing this information as she dove in to her car and could swear there was a pair of green eyes watching her from the forest.