Luna Lost

Little Damien

The smell hit him first.

He stopped so suddenly that his paws slid through the dry leaves beneath him.

Food. Real food.

Not the usual scraps he managed to find when he was lucky. Not the bitter little things he dug out of the forest floor or the occasional rabbit he was still learning how to catch.

This smelled amazing. His little nose lifted higher and his ears perked. Something was cooking. His stomach rumbled so loudly that he glanced down at it as if offended. He was hungry, and whoever was cooking had to be the best cook in the entire world.

His paws carried him forward before he could think better of it. One step, then another. He followed the scent through the trees, keeping low as he went. But there was something wrong, he knew that much.

Even though he was young, even though he hadn't shifted yet, his instincts were stronger than most wolves his age. Stronger than they should have been. He was different. Rare.

His kind wasn't supposed to shift until they came of age, and until then, he was stuck like this—small paws, sharp little teeth, fluffy tail, and a body that didn't always feel like it belonged to him. One day, he would shift.

One day, he would finally see what his human form looked like. But not yet. For now, he was just a little wolf. A very curious little wolf, and apparently, a very hungry one.

He slowed as the trees began to thin, and almost immediately the scent of smoke reached him. Campfire. His ears flicked forward and he crouched behind a fallen log. He peeked around it and there! Just as he suspected.

People. A small camp sat in a clearing. Too far out, much too far. Everyone knew the rules. The safe zone ended before this part of the forest and no one was supposed to camp this deep unless they had a very good reason.

His nose twitched. There were two adults and one child- a little girl. She couldn't have been much older than him, maybe younger. She sat near the fire with her knees pulled to her chest, watching the flames while one of the adults stirred something in a black pot.

His stomach growled again. He winced, but luckily the girl didn't seem to notice. He should leave, that was what his instincts told him. Stay away from humans. Stay away from anything beyond the safe zone.

Especially strangers. But then something caught his scent. Something underneath the food, the smoke, the people. Something he couldn't quite understand. He sniffed again, His little nose wrinkling. What was that?

It wasn't wolf or human. It wasn't anything he recognized. The scent seemed to crawl over his skin, raising the fur along his back. His instincts screamed at him to run, but something else pulled him forward, something magnetic.

He crept closer, one paw at a time until he reached the very edge of the bushes. He couldn't go any farther, he knew that. So he stayed there, barely breathing, his body hidden in the leaves. His eyes fixed on the little girl.

She was still staring into the fire, and then the girl went completely still. The little wolf froze, the air felt thick. Her head tilted, ever so slowly and it looked like she sniffed the air.

His ears flattened. No. No, no, no. She couldn't smell him. Could she? He hadn't made a sound, he hadn't moved. He hadn't even breathed. The girl looked toward the trees.

Straight toward him, and he felt that pull again. His heart slammed against his ribs. She stood and the little wolf responded by pressing himself lower into the bushes. Maybe she hadn't seen him. Maybe she was looking at something else.

He held his breath. She took one step, then another toward him. His claws dug into the dirt. His instincts screamed “Run now!” But he couldn't. Something kept him rooted to the spot.The girl walked farther from the fire, and closer, ever closer to him, until she was only a few yards away.

He could see her clearly now. She looked small, much too small to be wandering around out here. Her striking light grey eyes moved across the bushes. Searching. Then they stopped, right on him. The little wolf's heart nearly stopped.

She saw him. She actually saw him. He considered bolting, but then the girl did something he didn't expect.

She smiled. Not a frightened smile, not the kind humans gave when they saw something dangerous. It was a soft, almost relieved smile, like she'd been looking for him. She crouched down. "Oh..," she whispered, slightly taken aback by how cute he was.

His ears twitched, but otherwise he didn't move. The girl glanced back toward the camp. Then she looked at him again. "You have pretty eyes." His entire body went rigid. She slowly reached her hand toward the edge of the bushes, and the strange scent grew stronger.

His nose twitched. That was it, that was what he'd been smelling- that pull he’d been feeling had finally come to a head and a word resonated in his tiny little mind so loudly it almost launched him forward:

Mate.

And somehow, deep inside his little wolf's heart, he knew one thing with absolute certainty. He wasn't supposed to have found her. But he had. And now that he had something primal told him not to let go.

He took a step towards her small, intricate hand, and sniffed. His nose was filled with so many intoxicating aromas all at once; cinnamon, vanilla, blood, venison, and an overarching floral scent that made him feel warm deep down inside.

In that moment his poor small mind lost all of its ability to control his actions and he bit down. Not hard by wolf-pup standards, but hard enough that it drew a tiny amount of blood that hit his tongue only slightly, and hard enough for her to recoil in what appeared on her face to be fear and anguish. Then she did what most little girls do when they see him, she started to cry.