The Lone wolf

Chapter Two

Awaking early the next morning, I blinked a few times trying to get the sleep out of my eyes. Trying to get them to adjust to the light coming in through the small window. I climb up off the mattress and after grabbing my things, I head down for a shower. When I return to my room a few minutes later, I walk over to the chest full of clothes in the corner. Getting ready for work, I throw on a flannel with an under shirt, some old faded jeans and a pair of work boots. Before, climbing down the ladder and walking into the kitchen.

"Good morning," I greet my sister as I grab an apple for breakfast.

“morning," Athena replied, half asleep. She lets out a sleepy yawn, while searching through the almost empty cabinets for something to eat.

"I'll grab some food from the market before coming home," I inform her, when I realize that there is little to eat. When I finish the apple and after throwing the core away, I go to check on my mother. I open the door to her room as quietly as I can. Once I am inside, I see that she is still asleep and quietly exit. I say goodbye to Athena. , before grabbing my things, and slipping on my leather jacket. As I open the door the bitter clod hits my face. Brushing it off I head out into the cold early morning air.

Walking out to my dad's old Chevy truck. I open the door before climbing in after putting my things in the passenger seat. Before starting it and driving down the trail leading away from the house. Reaching the end of the trail I pull out onto the road.

I drive down a road that runs along the edge of town for a few minutes, passing the market and some of the surrounding shops. I turn down an old dirt road surrounded by trees that's leaves have turned red, orange, and yellow. The forest is made up of a combination of pine and oak with some bushes of various species. The trail leading to the lumber yard is full of rocks and ridges making me thankful that this old truck is a four wheel drive. After about a mile, I pulled into a makeshift parking lot made of gravel outside the supervisors tent.

Once I have grabbed my things I need for work and got out of the truck, I walk up a short path to the supervisors tent. I see that the supervisor must already be out at the work sight. Putting away my things into a locker, before turning to head back out.

Reaching a clearing I go over to my work station and collect the logs I will need to cut. There are about five other people that work here with me, some older than me, some younger, but they all were born in this town and if not they are married to someone in this town. Making it easy to keep the secret when large wolves wander too close to the work sight.

If we had people from out of town come and work here, we would have to tell evey one not to shift in this part of the forest, during work hours. One of those men just happens to be my uncle, my mom's older brother. He spots me walking up to the sight and so he walks over.

"Hey boy," My Uncle Robby greets, taking a seat on an old stump placing his axe to the side.

"Hey, Uncle Rob," I greet back, grabbing the old axe, checking the sharpness of it. I wave over to the supervisor to check in with him, like I always do.

"How has Claudia been?," Rob asked out of concern for his sister who has not been doing well since my dad died.

"She is doing better, but still not good," I inform him of her state. We all hoped she would get better, but after two years there has been little to no improvement. Her physical and mental state is slowly getting better, but it will never be the same. After about ten minutes of talking, the supervisor waves over at us informing us that it is time to get working.

At this my Uncle gets up and goes back to work. I begin working on cutting up a log into halves and then I cut those halves into halves making quarters. Swinging my axe down I hit the log cutting the log in two. I take one half and place it on the stump, before cutting it again. I then repeat with the other half of the log.

When I have a few logs fully cut I load them into the back of my truck. I continue this until the bed of the truck is full of wood. Then, I climb up into the cab of the truck, starting it and driving it down the trail. Reaching the road I head toward the market. Once I arrive at the market, I climb out of the tuck after shutting it off. I unload all the wood, and stack it up beside a stand so that it can be sold.

When the last piece has been stacked up, I get back into the truck and drive back. After about ten hours of that, from five am to five pm, with a short break around twelve. I am finally about to head home. I grab a dish of food that Athena made and take it to Rob.

"Athena made something for you and the family," I tell him, handing the dish of food to him.

"Well, tell that sister of yours thank you for me," He said with a laugh.

"Will do," I reply, heading back to my truck.

Before heading home, I swung by the market one last time. There I buy fruits and vegetables with some meat. I try not to spend more than ten dollars as we will need new clothes soon. When I am done I rush back out to the truck before speeding off. Once I reached the house, I cut the truck off, then climbed out. Taking my things in, I place them in my room. I found my sister in her room.

"Uncle Robby said to tell you, thanks," I tell her, she smiles in reply. I walk across the hall to check on mama. When I enter her room she is reading the new book I got her yesterday. I smile at her, taking a seat on the bed next to her.

We talked for a while, then I left her to the book. I return to the kitchen, before heading out back, and stripping down to nothing. I shift into my wolf before taking off into the woods. When I get to the river, I take a drink from it. I then decide to jump in and go for a swim.

After about an hour, I get out, walking up the bank, before shaking out my fur and that's when I smell it. A rabbit no more than a few yards away. I follow the smell until the rabbit comes into view. An easy meal, I stock up behind a bush hoping that it does not sense me.

When the time is right, I jump out, snatching the rabbit up in my paws. I sink my teeth into its neck, causing blood to rush out into my mouth. I begin to eat away at the small animal. Crunching down on bone, I suck the marrow out of it.

Once I was done with my meal of rabbit, I licked my lips removing any remaining blood from my white coat. Walking back to the river I take a drink from it, before laying down to let my food digest. I fall asleep, only to wake back up an hour later.

I stand up and take off feeling the wind in my fur. I run through the woods dodging trees and fallen limbs. The leaves have all fallen in this part of the woods, as it is quickly becoming winter. I run past houses and other buildings. Around large boulders, and through clearings. When I finally stop and look around, I see that I am back at the lumber yard, meaning I ran well past the other side of town.

Seeing one of the night guards I turn and head back into the woods. I run for a few more minutes when I smell it, that heavenly smell, my mate. Stopping to look around, I see that I am outside his house. Looking up I see him looking out the window. He spots me after a minute or so, he smiles down at me, making me do the same, with a wolf-like smile. When he disappeared back into his room I silently wished him a good night. I walked the perimeter of the land before leaving, making sure he was safe, and marking it with my scent momentarily. Now that it is later in the evening I decided to look around for someplace to sleep, a small den of sorts.

Once I found one, an old tree that has fallen over to make a small cave of sorts. I climb in, which is a tight squeeze for a larger wolf, and curl up into a ball on the dirt and moss floor in the den. The sun has long since set and the moon is high in the sky. A cool breeze floats through the air. Stars fill the black sky, making shapes. As the night goes on it gets colder, making me happy I found a warm little hole in the ground. And after hours of thinking I drift off into dreamless sleep.

I wake up the next morning to the sounds of the last few birds chirping. Most of them have all migrated south. Standing up, I shake out my fur freeing it from any dirt that was in it, before stretching out my legs. Climbing out of the den my paws are met with snow. It will not stick this early in the winter, but give it a few days and the town will be under a constant blanket of snow.

Walking further into the clearing I see that the sun is just barely coming up over the mountains. I decided to head home after a quick walk around the clearing, marking the den as mine. Running through the thick snow, I finally reached home after an hour. Shifting, I grab my clothes and throw them on. When I enter the house I quickly climb up to my room grabbing the things for a shower. When done I go back up to my room to get ready for class.

Once dressed I head down to the kitchen, where Athena is making oats. Grabbing fruit out of the fridge and the cutting board. When the oats are ready, I place the fruit on top of each bowl. Taking two of the bowls I walk down the hall to my mama room. Athena opens the door and I walk in. Handing a bowl to my mama I sit down in one of the chairs.

"Good Morning, Mama," Athena and I greet her. She first takes a bite of oats before greeting us in return, "Good morning my pups." No matter how old we are, she will always call us pups. We talk of today's plans while eating, Mama asking to be moved to the living room after breakfast.

Once she is moved onto the sopha in the living room, the dishes are cleaned and put away. Athena and I say our goodbyes to mama, before heading out into the cold. The snow has begun to melt as the sun grows higher in the sky. We walk down the trail and onto the road leading to town. As we reach the trail opening I spot Blaine walking down the road on his way to class. Running up behind him, I wrap my arms around his waist, causing him to let out a scream of fear.

"You asshole," He says, spinning around in my hold, " don't sneak up on me like that." I laugh at his poor attempt to harm me with a punch to the chest.

"You're so small, it's cute, you think you can hurt me," I state, followed with more laughter, making him frown. At this, I place a kiss on his frowning lips. He smiles up at me, before placing a single kiss on my cheek.

"You are forgiven," He exclaimed, wrapping his arms around me hiding his face in my chests. We hugged for a few moments before pulling away seeing that Athena was long gone. Walking hand in hand we talked about yesterday and the wolf outside his window last night. I already knew of the white wolf and just smiled as he talked of its beauty. Reaching the gates we stop to view the news board, checking for anything interesting. Knowing that we have today's class together, I walk us to the History classroom.

Entering the room we take a seat towards the back of the room. At the front of the room there is a chalkboard that says in all caps across the top, 'The Kingdom of Addindal and the Wulf Dynasty'. Well, today will be good, note sarcasm. You see the Wulf family has been all over the globe, and at one point in time there was even royalty in the blood line. When Blaine sees the board, he turns to me with a funny look. I just smile and look towards the front of the room.

"Today's class we will be discussing the Kingdom of Addindal and its rulers King Joseph Wulf and his Queen Isabella," The professor said while motioning to the class to take their seats. Once they have all done so, the professor starts talking about the Wulf dynasty and their reign over Addindal, "Addindal was a small country on an island off the coast of Europe, the dynasty reigned over the kingdom for over two hundred years before it vanished from the map, but some say there is still living descendents of the Wulf dynasty." At this the class grows quiet and a smirk grows on my face knowing good and well that it is true. The professor starts up again, " we do have a family of Wulfs here in town, Apollo, when did your family move here?"

"Well, my dad moved here from Canada after meeting my mom's brother in college and became good friends with him. My mom has lived here since she was a young girl," I say, "my dad's family is from Spain, but moved to Canada when he was little." I know of the stories about my family, my dad told them often when we were kids.

"Well, can you tell us about the legend of how the king lost his crown," He asked, hoping for a yes. I stand and walk to the front, grabbing a stool and taking a seat, after informing him of my knowledge on the legend.

"Well, the legend goes that King Joseph's first born son, Prince Edward, was greedy and vein, when it came time for him to take the throne and marry, he refused as he didn't like his bride to be, and this marriage like all royal marriages was for an alliance," I went on telling of the end of king Joseph's reign, "so the refusal of it made the Duke Robert, the bride's father, angry and so he declared war, and after many years fighting King Joseph lost the country his Great Great Grandfather had discovered and built from the ground up, and now a couple hundred years later that little island is now owned by spain, and of course it has been renamed."

"Isn't it fascinating, royalty can fall so quickly," The professor says as I make my way back to my seat. Kind of grim if you think about it but ultimately true. Sitting down Blaine leans over and whispers in a slightly seductive tone, "So, a king."

"You know it," I reply, with a wink, before wrapping my arm around him. The professor continues to talk about the history of Addindal for another two hours before class gets let out.

"Would you join me for a walk in the woods?," I ask, wanting some alone time with him. Grabbing our stuff we walk out of the building.

"I would love to," He replies, as we walk past the gates. I lead us into the woods and down an old trail. Taking his hand in mine, I pull him close. We walk down the trail head deeper into the woods, hand in hand. When we reach a clearing, I find a rock big enough to sit on.

We sit and talk for hours about his old town and he talks about the white wolf some more. After the sun goes down I take him home. Once we reach his front porch, I turn and wrap him in my arms.

"How about we meet at our spot tomorrow morning?,"He asked, talking of the clearing he had dubbed 'our spot'. Which happens to be the same spot of land where my den is. I kiss his cheek before replying,"sure, I'll be there." At that I placed one last kiss on his forehead. Trying to get out of here as quickly as possible because of his dad.

I walk back into the woods. After stripping down I hide my clothes. Once I am fully shifted I take off in search of food. A few moments later I caught a large rabbit. I devour it as quickly as I can. I ran back to my den that is conveniently at our spot and curled up inside. It is chilly as the ground is still frozen. Winter will be here in a few short days, and then the stone ridge festival will begin, I should take Blaine. The sun sets and the night falls upon the town. I fall asleep to the sound of an owl.