Raises By Humans

‘I have to find my brother before rogues do,’ fifteen-week-old wolf pup Samuel tells himself after days following the scent of a car that replaced that of his brother. Tired and exhausted he collapsed on the doorstep of the wild animal sanctuary. ‘He must be inside,’ was Samuel’s last thoughts. Samuel was the biggest and the strongest of the whelping. Their former Alpha forced his pack to stay in their wolf-form to keep them strong and out of danger. A few days ago, Samuel along with his brother and a few other pups were grabbed from their pack by a hybrid, later on, saved by an enslaved she-wolf who thought she is helping them by dropping them in the woods. Samuel woke up with a drip feeder to him and a soothing voice, “hello big guy.” Samuel blinks a few times, trying to focus, ‘what is this place?’ he wonders. “Think you are well enough for me to take this off,” the lady’s voice comes again by a little pain where the drip was attached. “Let see if you can stand up and drink some water. I bet you are very hungry,” the lady picks him up and puts him on the floor in front of a bowl of water, a bowl of dog food, and a bowl of raw meat. Samuel immediately went for the raw meat and ate hungrily. “Slow down big guy,” the lady tells him. “I have a Mackenzie Valley Wolf pup, between fifteen and twenty weeks,” Ronel says over the phone, calling another centre in hope that they have the same kind as she has not had a wolf at her centre for over a decade. A few bears, raccoons, rabbits, birds, snakes but no wolves. After calling a few more places Ronel gave up, “guess you will be a lone-wolf.” Ronel took Samuel to the kennels where stray dogs are being kept, waiting to be taken to a nearby town for adoption. Samuel was not happy about being locked up in a kennel like a dog and howl the whole morning long. Ronel left just after lunch to fetch her fourteen-year-old son, Luke. “Is that a wolf?” Luke asks excitedly when he enters the animal shelter, throwing his backpack to the side to go say hello to all the animals and take the dogs for walks. “A Mackenzie Valley Wolf pup. He is just the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. His fur is almost white and his eyes blue,” Ronel says walking through the door that leads to the kennels. “Oh my word! You call that a pup?” Luke exclaims, running over to the kennel where the pup is being held. “Hey buddy,” Luke puts his fingers through the cage, but Samuel just looks at him, not even bothered to wag his tail. “Perhaps this will cheer him up,” Ronel takes out a piece of raw meat and the scent hits Samuel’s nose. “Now be careful, I only gave him rabies shots this morning so don’t let him bite you, ok?” Ronel says passing the piece of meat to Luke. ‘I hate it when my tail wags,’ Samuel thinks, feeling his tail wagging uncontrollably at the idea of meat. Samuel patiently waits for Luke to put the piece of meat down. “One would swear he has spent time around humans the way he waits and behaves as if trained,” Ronel says, thinking the pup’s behaviour is strange for a wild wolf. “Can we keep him?” Luke pleads, padding Samuel while he eats. “I will have to speak to your father,” Ronel says, smiling. Luke takes his phone out and takes a few photos of the wolf pup, “I know if he sees him, he will say yes.” “Also, we will have to wait to see if he does not belong to someone, ok?” Ronel warns her son to get too attached. Four o-clock Ronel started to lock up and found Luke doing his homework with the wolf pup at his feet, “it is time to go home, honey.” After packing up his books Luke took the wolf pup back to his kennel, “see you, tomorrow buddy.” As they start to walk away Samuel started to cry and howl making the dogs go crazy as well. “Can we take him home? Please mom,” Luke pleads with his dark brown eyes. “Fine, but you will be cleaning up after him and I don’t want any tears if his owners come knocking,” Ronel messes up his neatly styled blond hair. ‘I hope I am not going to regret this,’ she thinks as she lets the wolf out of the kennel, looking at her sensitive son. Luke is not like other boys his age, he has no interest in girls, and even though Ronel wants to talk to him about it, thinking that perhaps her late bloomer might be interested in boys; she fears that he might be insulted by her thoughts. Her husband always tells her that he was exactly the same as a kid and if he is gay that they have to let him ‘come out of the closet’ on his own terms. His grandmother on the other side always argues how they can just say that a fourteen-year-old might be gay if he has not even tried to be with either s*x; always arguing that he is too young for the ‘birds and the bees’ nonsense and that they should be happy that he is a late bloomer as it keeps him out of trouble. Weeks turned into months and soon Samuel was part of the family. Luke named him Sky because of his blue eyes but most of the time just called him ‘Boy.’