A Wolf's Kiss

The tall trees around Mark are unrecognizable to his eyes; this must mean he’s finally far away from his pack. Mark is hurt; he doesn’t know where he’s going, but it’s almost as if his body moves by itself, taking him somewhere. He trusts his wolf’s instinct, so he listens, and he runs. There’s a deep wound spreading around his ribs, and it doesn’t let Mark move fast, but Mark knows he’s going on the right path, and he feels like he’s going to be okay. ☽ The sun is setting, and the sky is a lovely shade of orange. Cole is locking the doors of his veterinary clinic while holding his phone between his shoulder and ear, and he can hear Arden humming on the other side of the line as he talks. “My dad keeps telling me I should put cameras in the clinic before I hire a person to work here,” Cole says. “He thinks I shouldn’t trust anyone.” The thought of someone from this small town robbing their only veterinary clinic is so absurd it makes Cole laugh before he finally closes the door. He pulls at it to make sure the lock is secure. “Maybe you should listen to him,” Arden counters. He’s busy typing the discharge of a surgery patient, and Cole can hear the rustle of a large veterinary clinic through the phone. A chaos Cole hasn’t experienced in two years. Cole walks towards the consulting room of his clinic to lock the back window before going upstairs to his apartment. “I don’t think so. He doesn’t like this town, and he’s trying to tell me that the person I’ll hire as an assistant will rob me.” “Well, he never wanted you to go there.” “I wanted to come here.” There’s a window in the consulting room that Cole constantly struggles with it, but this time he doesn’t get to close it; it seems like the window is stuck. It’s been weeks since it started giving Cole problems, but today it’s the first time he has to leave the window half-open. He will have to call someone to fix it tomorrow. “I like this place a lot, but I admit it would be more fun if you were working here with me.” “Not going to happen, Cole. I like the city.” Cole pouts at his best friend’s answer. “Have you interviewed anyone for the job yet?” “No, I’m going to print some papers and pass them out around town.” “Print some papers!” Arden’s voice is teasing. “I can’t believe you’ve moved to a prehistoric place.” “Shut up.” Even after struggling, the window won’t close, but Cole leaves it like it is; it’s not as if someone will try to enter the clinic anyway. Cole looks at the woods through the window. The wind blows through the trees in a lulling sound. “It’s not terrible. I like it here.” An ugly sound wakes Cole up. It was loud. It was clear to Cole that it didn't come from the street. It came from downstairs, from his clinic. Cole sits up in his bed, startled; it sounded like a crash. He gets out of bed quickly and searches for a cardigan and his glasses. He knows he should call the police, but Cole tries to calm himself down before doing anything rash. He isn’t sure if there’s a burglar downstairs, and he needs to be sure before calling for help. Cole knows he's paranoid. His father’s concern about robbers and the broken window in the consulting room makes him nervous. It was only one sound that woke him up, so maybe it was not a robber. It’s quiet as Cole goes down the stairs from his apartment to the clinic. It makes Cole wonder if the crash was just his imagination, but the closer he gets to the door leading to the clinic, he worries if the dogs staying overnight could have harmed themselves. He doubts someone is trying to rob him. It’s been a year since he moved, and contrary to his father's worries, nothing dangerous has happened. Still, he’ll feel more comfortable after checking on the dogs. Suddenly, there’s another crashing sound, and Cole hurries forward. The clinic is dark, so Cole won’t turn on the light because if someone is breaking in, they might try to escape, and if it's one of the pups, they might get even more scared than they already are. He should have set up the security cameras, as his father advised him. Cole uses the light of his phone to walk down the hall of the small clinic. It's quiet, but he can catch a little sound if he focuses, as if someone is trying to force a cabinet open. He walks closer to the door, where the sound is coming from as worry spreads through his body. It had to be the consulting room with the broken window. The broken window Cole didn’t think was a problem. He waits by the door, pressing his ear to it, and it sounds like someone is rummaging through the closets. Cole worries. What if it's a drug addict trying to steal medicine? Cole's friend from vet school told him it happened to her, and Cole didn’t believe her, but here he is right now. He takes a deep breath and opens the door. His theory seems to be accurate because Cole finds a naked man trying to steal medicine. Cole had decided not to call the police, but now, he regrets it, fear spreading through his body. He stays frozen in the door, and the man soon notices his presence. The stranger looks up in a sharp motion and turns towards Cole. Their eyes meet, and Cole is sure he sees the man's eyes turn red for a second. Cole gasps and takes a step back, clutching at his phone. “Who are you? What are you doing?” Cole shrieks. He’s afraid the stranger is intoxicated or that he could turn violent. The man stares at Cole, but he doesn’t answer. He looks between Cole and the medicine, and then he turns, ignoring Cole, and keeps rummaging in the cabinet. He doesn’t seem to be under the effect of any drug even if he is naked, nor does he look desperate to find pills. He looks in pain, but Cole is still scared. “Stop what you’re doing! I’ll call the police!” Cole tries to sound more intimidating. At that, the man finally pays attention to Cole. This time Cole holds his gaze. The stranger looks to be around Cole’s age. His black hair is damp and messy, and Cole notices a small leaf stuck in the strands. His pale skin was full of dirt as if he had been running through the woods. But Cole's eyes end up falling on the horrible wound on his abdomen. It stretches to his ribs, and it's deep. It’s four long scratches, and Cole can only think of claws. “Don’t call anyone,” the man says. His voice is rough and deep, and Cole shivers, taking another step back. The stranger lifts his hands in surrender and turns towards Cole. He walks closer. Cole’s eyes widened before he looked away. The man is naked and facing him. “No, you stay right there!” He pointed in the man’s direction. “Don’t come closer! I’ll call the police!” Cole screeches. “Don’t call the police,” the man speaks calmly but with a rough edge. “I’m not from around here. I don’t have-“ he takes a second before settling for- “papers.” Cole needs something to protect himself with - the stranger is unarmed, but he looks buff enough to put on a fight, and he could seriously harm Cole. “As if that is going to convince me!” “You don’t get it. The police won’t know what to do with me!” Cole took another step back. as the man moves closer. “I’m not from here. I’m-” Cole struggles to look at his phone, and the man takes another step forward. “I’m a shifter!” Exasperation fills the man’s voice. Cole puts his hands down at the confession. He looks at the stranger, and everything starts to click slowly. “I don’t know what you call us around here… I’m a werewolf,” the man tries. He’s careful with his words, probably to convince Cole and not scare him, but Cole doesn’t need much convincing, unlike most people. Cole knows what a shifter is. “A werewolf?” Cole didn’t recognize his own voice. He sounds scared, but he’s a lot calmer than a moment ago. He speaks gently enough for the stranger to relax. He must notice Cole believes him - it’s hard not to find all the dirt and the claw marks on his body. “Yes, a werewolf,” he murmurs and takes one step closer. This time Cole doesn’t take a step back; he only blinks. Cole’s grandfather had told him about shifters when Cole was a little kid, but after Cole grew up and moved out of this town, he remembered those stories just as fairy tales. However, every single one of his grandfather’s stories about the werewolves living behind their house returns to Cole now. “Really?” Cole asks. The stranger nods. He seems at ease now that Cole isn’t acting hostile towards him. “I could show you, so you believe me. And I promise not to hurt you if you promise not to hurt me either.” Cole gulps at the deep voice. For some reason, he is sure the man isn’t lying. Cole is still a little wary. After all, this is a man who broke into his veterinary clinic, but curiosity wins him over. “Okay… show me.” “Just a heads-up: it’s not nice to look at.” Cole swallows. “I can handle it.” He thinks he sees the corner of the man’s mouth quirk up. Cole’s phone is facing down, so the flashlight points at the floor, creating a faint glow around the room. Except for that, everything is dark; he never turned on the lights in the consulting room. It happens quickly; Cole blinks, and the man starts to shift in front of him, falling to his knees ungracefully. It sounds horrible, as if all his bones are breaking, and it must be painful. Cole’s eyes widen as he sees the bones in the man’s back shift. Cole doesn’t think he can describe what happened in front of him because no words could explain it. Suddenly, in front of him, there was not a man anymore, but a giant wolf. Cole is frozen. He can’t move, trying to understand what he’s seeing. The wolf’s fur is black, the same shade as the man’s hair. It’s an animal. There’s no way to deny it. Cole stares at the wolf, and after a long second, he decides to come closer to him, feeling more comfortable around an animal than the stranger from before. He crouches in front of the wolf and touches his head. Cole finds a broken branch in the dirty fur, and he wonders if the wolf is nasty because the man was dirty in human form. Cole pets him slowly and, after a moment, notices he’s profoundly hurt—more hurt than when he was in human form. The wolf is yapping; he’s in pain. The wound is worse in wolf form. Once Cole sees the stranger as an animal, something changes inside of him. He forgets he’s a shifter; he ignores the man who broke into the clinic to steal. Cole was a lot more cautious around him in human form; now, he just wants to help him. Cole takes a good look at the cuts on the wolf’s side, and he panics when he sees blood still pouring out. At least, in his human form, the man could stop the bleeding. Cole stands up in a hurry to prepare the table closest to him. He feels the wolf’s attention on him. He urges the wolf to come closer with a soft sound, forgetting the wolf next to him is, in fact, a shifter, not an animal, and that he can understand words. Cole soon realizes he has trouble walking, so he carries him to the table. It’s a huge animal, but Cole has trained for years to do this. He starts cleaning the wounds, but he notices the cuts are too deep, and he will have to stitch them. The wolf keeps losing blood. “I can fix this, but I imagine you won’t be able to shift back to being human if I do. I have to stitch these, and if you shift, the suture will open. If I patch you up, you have to rest and take care of the stitches. Shifting seems like an activity I would advise you not to do,” Cole explains quickly— every previous worry forgotten in favour of saving the animal. The wolf looks at him before pressing his snout to Cole’s chest. As a knee-jerk reaction, Cole brings a hand behind the wolf’s ear, and he scratches it. He sees the wolf wagging his tail once, so at least he’s lively. The giant animal keeps nudging at Cole’s chest with his snout. He makes a sound close to a yelp, so Cole believes he wants to speak. Cole takes a step back, but when he does, the wolf grunts. The animal is gesturing towards the floor, and Cole hurries to help him down from the table. He stays close and watches as the shifter returns to his human form. The exact process as before; bone cracking and skin stretching. When he’s a man again, he looks like he’s in pain, and Cole wraps an arm around his middle to help him stand up. “What happened to you?” Cole asks, bewildered while pressing his other hand against the wound. It’s much smaller when he’s a human, and that relaxes Cole, but it’s still deep, ugly, and bleeding. “Pack fight.” Cole blinks at the curt answer. That’s not an explanation at all. “I can’t return to the woods right now,” the man says. “I’d rather stay as human to recover if you stitch it.” He gulps. “Please.”