Hawkstar
17 November 2007, 11:13 PM
I plan to make a trilogy. I will post all chapters I have now, and post the rest chapter by chapter. Please read this! I have put a lot of time and effort into my writing passion. I plan to make this book at least 12 chapters.
EDIT: Someone please post what you think! I need someone to post so I can put the next few chapters without double-posting!
Prologue
The flames of the bonfire leaped into the air and lapped at the nighttime sky. Around the fire sat a large pack of wolves, their fur illuminated by the fire. The wild dogs sat around the fire in a circle. They sat in a field, behind them was the tree line of the forest. Then, a large, white wolf walked out of the trees. His gold eyes gleamed in the bonfire’s light. All wolves fell silent as he sat down beside a small, black wolf.
“My pack,” he addressed all the wolves. “it is too dangerous now for us to live here. The humans are tearing down the entire forest. We must leave, but there is nowhere else to go. We must do the unthinkable to survive, we must disguise ourselves as humans.”
A mother wolf, Ana, looked down at her only pup, Odin, who sat beside her. He was much too young to understand all this. She looked up at the white wolf. “But Great Pack Father, what about our pups? Will they never know of their wolf heritage?”
Great Pack Father looked at her, sorrow in his old eyes. “We must raise the pups as humans. They can know who they really are, but they will grow up and live as humans.” He addressed the whole pack now. “We can return to our natural form, but if humans see us make this change we are as good as dead.” He raised his head to look at the moon. “We will meet here every full moon, in our true form. Now, go and depart. Never forget the pack or who you are.”
As Great Pack Father left into the woods, a chorus of howling filled the night. Ana remained silent as she glanced at Odin, who was baying all of his heart out at the moon. A pang of sorrow shot through her heart as she realized he would be a young adult before the next full moon. Would he remember the fire, or Great Pack Father? Would he even remember her?
Chapter 1
Odin rounded the corner of the building and entered the alleyway. His tail tucked between his legs, he sniffed and overturned trash can. He was a brown wolf with deep blue eyes. Odin was not yet fully-grown, he was seventeen in human years. A wolf at age seventeen is usually at the end of his days, but since Odin became human, he could live a human life span. That was one of the advantages of being what the humans called a “Werewolf”.
Every full moon he and his mother, Ana, traveled to the place of his birth to meet with the rest of the former wolf pack. The old Great Pack Father had passed away recently, so there was a new leader of the pack. The new leader was a black wolf named David. The wolves had human names, except for Odin and Ana. Thankfully, their names were human names, just very rare names.
As he bent down to pick some chicken bones out of the trash, he heard a terrified sound. The sound echoed through the city. Odin recognized his mother’s howl and raced to the apartment. By the time he reached the door, he was in human form. He raced up the stairs and saw their apartment door wide open. When he came in, he saw a silver wolf lying on the ground, motionless. His mother was dead.
He knelt down beside her and stroked her silky fur. “Who could have done this?” he whispered. Then he saw a wound on Ana’s chest. He gasped as he saw the bullet embedded in his mother’s fur. A hunter had been here. He could be in danger. He had to leave, now. He reached and took his mother’s silver necklace from her neck. It was only a simple chain, but it was all he had left of her now. He got up, stroked his mother one last time, and put the necklace on. Then he ran out the door.
That night, Odin sat in yet another alley. He had lost track of how many he had visited, not to mention they all looked about the same. He fumbled with the necklace in his hands. The wind blew and ruffled his brown hair. He looked to the sky, the moon was full and high in the sky. As he got up to leave, he looked in the direction of his apartment one last time. He could never return now.
As his claws slowly grew out and he became wolf, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned just in time to see a human come into the alley. He was completely wolf now, but he hid behind a dumpster. The human had a black moustache and looked anything but happy to be there. His red flannel shirt was dirty and ragged. His blue jeans were no better. The human carried a brown paper bag. As he opened it, the smell of fresh food blasted Odin. The wolf slowly stepped out into plain sight of the man.
The man frowned for a moment, then smiled. Odin smiled his wolfish grin and walked toward the man and sat beside him. “Hey there, dog.” The man said. “You must be hungry.” The man reached into his bag and pulled out a sandwich. He put it on the ground in front of Odin. Odin bent down and sniffed it.
“Go on.” said the man. “I have plenty.” Odin ate the sandwich, witch turned out to be turkey and cheese, in a couple of ravenous bites. The man munched on his sandwich and Odin got up to leave. “See ya, dog.” The man called to Odin. “Hope to see you around soon.”
Odin smiled at the man over his shoulder and traveled on. He left the city limits and began to run. He traveled tirelessly on the wind. When he reached a field, he smelled fire. As he stopped and looked up, he saw a huge tower of flames on the horizon. He raced toward it and stopped when he reached it. About nine wolves were sitting around the fire in a circle, speaking quietly with one another. They stopped and looked at Odin.
“Odin!” A large, gray wolf named Luke called to him. “Where is Ana?”
Odin almost choked on the tears that welled up in his eyes. “She, she was killed by a hunter.” All the wolves gasped.
“A hunter?” David stepped into view from the trees. “Is this true, Odin?”
Odin nodded. “Yes. I went back to our apartment and she was dead on the floor. There was a bullet in her chest. I had to leave.”
David studied the necklace on Odin’s neck, then looked down. “I am so sorry, Odin.” David walked alongside Odin and they sat beside the fire.
A young she-wolf named Hazel piped up. “How could a hunter find Ana?” Hazel was about the same age as Odin. She was silver, like Ana. Her sky blue eyes burned holes in Odin’s heart as she asked the question.
“I, I don’t know.” He said.
A gunshot echoed off the trees. The wolves stood up and aimed their ears in the direction of the sound. Odin sniffed the air. The scent, it was the same scent that had lingered around his mother’s body and the bullet. His blood ran cold as he realized what the scent was. It was a hunter.
Chapter 2
“David!” Odin called to the leader. “It’s a hunter!”
The wolf pack stood with their fur bristling. Odin didn’t know what to do. Panic crept into his heart. The entire pack could be killed right here.
Two human men, one carrying a gun, came into view. To the packs’ horror, Hazel ran with a snarl towards the men. She stopped suddenly as the man with the gun aimed his gun at her. Her bared teeth and snarl were replaced by a look of panic and fear.
Odin leaped in front of Hazel, putting himself in the line of fire instead of Hazel. He bared his teeth and snarled at the hunters. They glared at him and the one with the gun fired it. The bullet flew inches over Odin’s head. He did not budge. Instead, this only infuriated him more. He leaped at the man and brought him to the ground. The man shouted and tried to push Odin off. Odin held on to the man’s arm with his teeth. He bit harder until blood seeped through the hunter’s shirt. The other man grabbed a stick and hit Odin’s back with it, causing the wolf to lose his grip. He stumbled back. “Hey!”
The men stared at him. Odin spoke again. “What are you doing? Stay away from us!”
The two men looked at each other, then at Odin. The man with the gun got up and smirked at him. “We know who you really are, wolf. You’re not normal. Do you have any idea what kind of big money a lab will pay for a real, live werewolf?”
The man with the stick hit Odin hard. This time it struck his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and the men carried him off. They put him in a large dog carrier in the back of a blue pickup truck and drove off.
The rest of the pack ran to Hazel’s side. The she-wolf was staring after the men and Odin. David nuzzled her and tried to comfort her, but she just continued to stare blankly at the horizon.
Odin awoke in a damp, cold cage. He was in a room with a few tables. Two were empty, the other had a large computer on it. The cage itself was on the floor. The floor was hard tile, white like the walls. There was something that looked like a meter beside the cage, it had at least twenty buttons and knobs. Odin opened his jaws and closed them around one of the bars of the cage. Thankfully, there was plenty of room to move around. He bit hard and pulled, but the steel bar would not move. He growled in frustration when a young woman in a white lab coat walked in through a door. A white door, of course. Everything was white here.
The woman had hazel eyes and blond hair. Her hair was short, only down to her shoulders, and she wore narrow, black, rectangular glasses. She knelt beside the cage and reached into her lab coat pocket. Odin drew back when she pulled out a medical needle. He winced as she injected him with the strange needle. He quickly retreated to the back of the cage.
“It’s alright.” The woman said. “We just want to run some tests. Those fools think you’re a werewolf. You and I both know that’s just nonsense.” She reached her hand through the bars and patted Odin on the head before going to the desk with the computer on it.
As the woman typed on the computer, Odin sat down. He was beginning to feel tired. Through his blurred eyes he could see the woman beside the cage again, this time with yet another needle. He barely felt it as she began to draw blood through the syringe. After she withdrew the needle, he lied down and drifted off to sleep.
As Odin awoke, he heard voices coming from the computer desk. He looked around. The woman was talking to an older man, maybe in his thirties, who appeared to be her boss.
“Are you sure these test results are correct?” The man asked her.
“Positive.” Replied the woman. “There are traces of both wolf and human DNA in the blood samples.”
“Let me see the wolf.” The man said.
The woman gestured towards the cage. “Go ahead.”
The man turned to look at Odin, but the wolf was gone. All that was left was a cage with very bent bars.
After running through many hallways, Odin raced out the front door of the lab. He was finally free, but he couldn’t keep from wondering what the humans would do now that they knew about him. Would they hunt him down? What about David and the other wolves? Would they discover them? He thought of all this as he ran to freedom.
Chapter 3
The rain fell heavily on the ground as a wolf walked along the empty sidewalk. The city was deserted at this time of night. Her silver fur was stained with mud and garbage. She had been traveling for days now. She was tired, lonely and hungry, but faith drove her on. She had to find him, she had to. After all, Odin had saved her life. Now she had to return the favor. As she rounded the corner, she saw a brown dog lying on the sidewalk. She raced over to it. It was barely breathing. Then she saw this was no dog, it was a wolf!
The wolf opened his eyes and looked at her. “Hazel?” He said weakly.
Hazel was amazed. She had finally found him! “Odin! What happened?”
Odin slowly got to his feet and shook the water from his damp coat. “I escaped from the lab and they tried to shoot me.” He told her. “I got away, but they know.”
“Know? You mean…”
“Yes, Hazel. They know who we are.”
“What are we going to do?”
Odin started in the direction from which Hazel had come. “We’d better get home and warn the pack.”
Hazel started after him. “They are not still there! We have to wait until the next full moon.”
Odin turned to face her. “Then where are we supposed to go?” There was an angry edge to his voice.
“I, I don’t know,” Hazel said.
“Hold it.” Odin spoke sadly. “I think I know.”
As Hazel and Odin entered the apartment, the rain poured even harder. Odin, in his human form, rushed to close the open balcony door.
Hazel, also a human, sat on the couch and glanced at a nature magazine. Odin shut the door and sat beside her. She was very beautiful in human form. Both forms, actually. Her long, brown hair fell over her face as her blue eyes scanned the article about pandas and the illegal hunting of them.
Odin cleared his throat. “So.” He said to Hazel. “What should we do? I mean, what if the hunters find us and the pack?”
Before Hazel could reply, a knock sounded at the door. Odin slowly got up to get it. When he opened the door, a black blur ran past him into the apartment.
“Lemme in and lock the door!” It shouted.
Odin quickly locked the door and ran over to where the black wolf stood on the living room floor.
Hazel put the magazine down quickly and stood up. “David! What are you doing here?”
“Hunters.” David panted. “They were shooting at me!”
Odin stood beside Hazel. “Hunters! How did they find you? Or a better question would be, how did you find us?”
“I figured I’d better just find somewhere.” David replied. “Hide first, ask questions later.”
Another knock sounded at the door. This one was loud and impending.
“Better get it.” David said to Odin. “If you don’t, the hunters will suspect something.”
“Alright.” Odin said. “Hide, you two!”
Hazel quickly became a wolf and followed David into the bedroom.
Odin opened the door. There stood the two hunters. This time they both had guns. “G’evening.” One of them said. Odin recognized him as the one who had hit him with the stick.
“Good evening.” Said Odin.
“Say, you haven’t seen any wolves around here, have you?”
Odin laughed. “Wolves? Are you serious? Where are we, the mountains? Wolves don’t live in the city!”
The other hunter spoke now. “Ah, well. Thanks for the help, kid.”
Odin smiled. “Any time now.” He breathed a sigh of relief as he shut the door and locked it again.
Chapter 4
The howl, it was a long, mournful sound. It echoed through the city and was aimed at the setting sun. The source of the howl, Odin, sat on the balcony. His tail was wrapped around his feet and his head was pointed upward. His eyes were closed and he was still howling.
Hazel, in human form, watched him through the sliding glass door. Once Odin had stopped, she opened the door and stepped onto the balcony.
Odin turned his head to look at her as she sat down in a plastic chair. Once she had sat down he looked towards the horizon. Suddenly, he felt soft, silky fur brush against his right side. He turned and he saw a beautiful silver wolf sitting next to him. At first he thought it was his mother, but the wolf’s eyes were sky blue, not golden like his mother’s.
“Hazel…” he began.
A look of sorrow filled Hazel’s eyes. “You miss her, don’t you?”
Odin hung his head. “Yeah. I do.”
“This is what she would have wanted you to do.” Hazel said. “She would want you to warn the pack.”
Odin suddenly perked his ears and sat up. “Hazel! Tomorrow is the full moon!”
Hazel smiled. Wolves get very excited when the full moon approaches. Odin got up and wagged his tail, inviting her to dance. She got up and, together, they leaped and danced in joy of the coming night.
Then David stepped out onto the balcony, his gold eyes surveyed them for a moment, and then he joined the wild, joyful dance of the wolves.
That morning, the three wolves departed for the field. They stumbled along the sidewalks in the pouring rain.
“I hate this human form.” David grumbled. “Imagine! Only two legs! How on Earth do they keep their balance?”
“Oh, stop complaining!” Odin said.
Hazel suddenly stopped, causing Odin to run into her. “Ah! What is it?”
Hazel pointed to two men across the street. They both carried rifles. “That!” She said.
“Hey!” One of the men called. “It’s those kids!”
“The hunters!” Odin said. “Let’s get out of here!”
As Odin ran with David and Hazel, he could feel fur, claws and a tail grow. His eyesight got sharper and colors got brighter. His ears grew and became pointed. As his arms got longer and hands became paws, he dropped to four legs and ran faster. He didn’t care if the hunters saw him, he had to get away. He looked back and saw David and Hazel were still human, yet he was wolf.
David called after him. “You idiot! What are you doing?”
Odin only ran faster. He could hear the hunters running and calling after them.
Hazel watched in dismay as Odin disappeared around a corner into an alley.
The hunters had Hazel and David backed against a wall. The wall was blocking off an old alley. David considered climbing it, but it was too high to climb in human form. It was about twelve feet tall.
The hunters closed in and aimed their rifles. “Well, wolves.” One said. “We don’t care about capturing you anymore.”
“Yeah.” The other hunter agreed. “We just want to kill you now.” They aimed the guns at Hazel and David’s heads.
Then a vicious snarl sounded from overhead. To both the wolves’ and the hunters’ amazement, Odin leaped over the wall and landed on all four feet in front of Hazel and David. He bared his teeth and growled at the hunters.
“Well, well!” Said a hunter. “Look who it is.”
Odin stepped back as the hunters prepared to shoot.
“Hey! What are you doing!” A female voice called. “That wolf is government property!”
The hunters turned and ran away. Odin turned to Hazel and David. “Go!” He barked. “Don’t let them get you!”
With one last look back, Hazel and David ran.
Chapter 5
Odin backed up against the wall. He could not jump this time, he was not able to get a running start.
A woman with short, blond hair came around the corner. She looked at Odin and walked up to him. It was the woman from the laboratory. “Hey there.” She said as she knelt down eye level to Odin. She reached out with her hand and rubbed Odin’s chin. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them quickly. Realizing where he was, he quickly backed up.
The woman drew her hand away and sat up straight. “The tests,” she said to Odin. “they said you were human as well.” A haunted look came into her eyes as she spoke to Odin. “That’s impossible, isn’t it?”
Odin smiled. “Not entirely.”
The woman gasped and Odin sat up and perked his ears. Men. A group of men were about to come around the corner. He could hear their footfalls. He turned, and with one last look at the woman, leaped straight up and over the wall.
“Natalie!” A group of about five men carrying tranquilizer guns came around the corner and stopped. The man in the lead was the one who had spoken. “Where is the wolf?”
“I, I don’t know.” Natalie said. “It jump-” She paused for a moment, then went on. “I came and he was gone.”
The leader turned to the rest of the men. “Split up and keep looking.” The men all went in different directions and walked off. Natalie sat down against the brick wall of a building and sighed.
“Why?” Natalie looked up to see Odin standing in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell them where I went?”
“Because.” Natalie told him. “I wanted to protect you.”
Odin sat beside her. He let his chin rest on his paws. “Thanks.”
Natalie stroked him with her hand. As her hand ran over the necklace, she stopped. “What’s this?”
Odin looked up at her. “It was my mother’s.” He let his chin rest on his paws again. “It’s all I have left of her now.” He added quietly.
“What happened?”
“She was killed by hunters, that’s all. That’s who we were running from.”
“Odin!” David stood on top of the wall, his tail was standing straight up. Odin perked his ears and lifted his head, but did not move.
David jumped down from the wall. He glared at Natalie, who quickly withdrew her hand. Odin stood up and looked at David.
“Odin! Hazel and I have been worried sick about you, and where have you been? Sitting here with, with her.” He shot a nasty glance at Natalie.
Odin stood up and bared his teeth at David. “And what’s wrong with that?”
Natalie stood up, interrupting the would-be argument. “Wait,” she said to David. “Hazel? Who’s that?”
“What’s it to you?” David growled.
“Shut up, David.” Odin barked. He turned to Natalie. “Hazel is another wolf who is traveling with us.”
“Yeah, just another wolf.” Hazel called from atop the wall. “Let’s go! We’re gonna miss the meeting!”
“Meeting?” Natalie said to Odin.
Odin nodded. “Yeah. Every full moon our pack meets in a field outside the city.”
Natalie was about to say something when Odin heard footfalls coming around the corner. It was one of the men. Odin held up his tail in warning and whispered to Natalie, so low only they could hear. “I hope I see you again.” He jumped over the wall with David and Hazel.
As the man approached, Natalie could not help but keep staring over the wall.
The three wolves approached the bonfire. The other wolves howled in joy when they saw David was all right. They yipped and sniffed each other, as if to say: “Where on Earth have you been?”
Odin, however, sat alone beside the fire, gazing into its depths. He could not stop thinking of Natalie and how she had protected him.
Chapter 6
Odin was awakened by the sound of howling and snarling. He sat up, he must have fallen asleep by the fire. He turned toward the direction of the sound. The pack was growling at a woman who had come near. She looked terrified. The woman looked at Odin, then he recognized it was Natalie. Why had she come here? Odin was even more shocked when he saw David snapping at Natalie.
Odin ran towards them, growling. “Stop it!” He growled at David. “She’s no threat! You should know this, David.”
“Oh?” David cocked his head. “I suppose you would.”
Odin growled but said nothing. He turned to Natalie. “What are you doing here?”
Natalie looked around at the wolves. “I came to warn you about something, but some people don’t seem to want my help.”
“Warn us about what?” Odin asked.
“The two hunters.” Natalie said. “They’re headed this way. I came just in time to-”
A wolf barked and cut her off as the two men approached the wolves with their rifles.
The men looked at each other. “Who’s she?” One man asked the other. The other man shrugged. “She probably knows too much, though.” The man agreed. They aimed their rifles at Natalie.
Odin stood beside Natalie, they were both frozen in fear. Just as the men were about to shoot, Odin leaped at them. On his way to landing on the ground, he grabbed one of the men’s rifles in his teeth. They man holding on to the rifle was brought down with it and Odin.
The other man aimed and managed to shoot Odin’s back, which was a pretty good shot, considering the speed at which Odin was moving and fighting.
“Odin!” Natalie yelled as more wolves ran to fight off the hunters. As the wolves and men fought, Natalie rushed to Odin’s side. He was lying on his left side, his right side was soaked in blood from the wound on his back.
He bent his head to look at her. “What are you doing? Get out of here!”
Natalie stroked the fallen wolf with her hand. “No, I have to make sure you’re okay.”
Odin stared at her, his eyes were puzzled. “Who are you?”
“I’m Natalie Jones. I work at the animal research laboratory downtown.”
“Yeah well, I’m Odin. I thought you wanted to keep me in the lab?”
“Not anymore.” Natalie smiled. “Not now that I know who you are.”
Odin slowly got up. He looked around. The hunters were gone, and so was the pack. Only Luke remained. The silver-gray wolf looked at Odin over his shoulder, sorrow in his eyes, then limped away into the forest.
Odin stared after him. “They don’t trust me anymore.” He looked up at Natalie. “Not since I’ve been with you.”
“I, I can leave.” Natalie said.
Odin shook his head slowly. “No, no. You have to help us. It’s your destiny.”
“What do you mean?”
A distant look came into Odin’s eyes as he spoke. “There was an ancient promise from God himself. He told Great Pack Father, when he was younger, that a young human girl would save the wolves from extinction. You’re the only one we’ve meet so far, and the only one who is not terrified of us.”
Odin sat on a rock on a hillside. He looked out over all the remaining forest. His paws started to slip, but he steadied himself. He bent his head back and howled. The sound echoed off the trees. He lowered his head at stared out at what the pack had once called home.
A growl sounded from behind him. He turned to see a dark gray wolf standing with its teeth bared. He leapt at Odin, who snapped his teeth at the wolf’s leg. The gray wolf landed on the ground about two yards away. They both leaped at each other again.
As the wolf passed Odin in midair, he snapped at Odin’s neck, drawing blood. Odin landed and stood, panting, beside a rock. Without thinking, he jumped up onto the rock and howled. To his surprise, a distant howl replied. The other wolf looked about as shocked as he was.
A few seconds later, a huge white wolf rushed out of the trees behind them. The wolf jumped on the gray wolf. Odin could only stand and watch the battle unfold.
EDIT: Someone please post what you think! I need someone to post so I can put the next few chapters without double-posting!
Prologue
The flames of the bonfire leaped into the air and lapped at the nighttime sky. Around the fire sat a large pack of wolves, their fur illuminated by the fire. The wild dogs sat around the fire in a circle. They sat in a field, behind them was the tree line of the forest. Then, a large, white wolf walked out of the trees. His gold eyes gleamed in the bonfire’s light. All wolves fell silent as he sat down beside a small, black wolf.
“My pack,” he addressed all the wolves. “it is too dangerous now for us to live here. The humans are tearing down the entire forest. We must leave, but there is nowhere else to go. We must do the unthinkable to survive, we must disguise ourselves as humans.”
A mother wolf, Ana, looked down at her only pup, Odin, who sat beside her. He was much too young to understand all this. She looked up at the white wolf. “But Great Pack Father, what about our pups? Will they never know of their wolf heritage?”
Great Pack Father looked at her, sorrow in his old eyes. “We must raise the pups as humans. They can know who they really are, but they will grow up and live as humans.” He addressed the whole pack now. “We can return to our natural form, but if humans see us make this change we are as good as dead.” He raised his head to look at the moon. “We will meet here every full moon, in our true form. Now, go and depart. Never forget the pack or who you are.”
As Great Pack Father left into the woods, a chorus of howling filled the night. Ana remained silent as she glanced at Odin, who was baying all of his heart out at the moon. A pang of sorrow shot through her heart as she realized he would be a young adult before the next full moon. Would he remember the fire, or Great Pack Father? Would he even remember her?
Chapter 1
Odin rounded the corner of the building and entered the alleyway. His tail tucked between his legs, he sniffed and overturned trash can. He was a brown wolf with deep blue eyes. Odin was not yet fully-grown, he was seventeen in human years. A wolf at age seventeen is usually at the end of his days, but since Odin became human, he could live a human life span. That was one of the advantages of being what the humans called a “Werewolf”.
Every full moon he and his mother, Ana, traveled to the place of his birth to meet with the rest of the former wolf pack. The old Great Pack Father had passed away recently, so there was a new leader of the pack. The new leader was a black wolf named David. The wolves had human names, except for Odin and Ana. Thankfully, their names were human names, just very rare names.
As he bent down to pick some chicken bones out of the trash, he heard a terrified sound. The sound echoed through the city. Odin recognized his mother’s howl and raced to the apartment. By the time he reached the door, he was in human form. He raced up the stairs and saw their apartment door wide open. When he came in, he saw a silver wolf lying on the ground, motionless. His mother was dead.
He knelt down beside her and stroked her silky fur. “Who could have done this?” he whispered. Then he saw a wound on Ana’s chest. He gasped as he saw the bullet embedded in his mother’s fur. A hunter had been here. He could be in danger. He had to leave, now. He reached and took his mother’s silver necklace from her neck. It was only a simple chain, but it was all he had left of her now. He got up, stroked his mother one last time, and put the necklace on. Then he ran out the door.
That night, Odin sat in yet another alley. He had lost track of how many he had visited, not to mention they all looked about the same. He fumbled with the necklace in his hands. The wind blew and ruffled his brown hair. He looked to the sky, the moon was full and high in the sky. As he got up to leave, he looked in the direction of his apartment one last time. He could never return now.
As his claws slowly grew out and he became wolf, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned just in time to see a human come into the alley. He was completely wolf now, but he hid behind a dumpster. The human had a black moustache and looked anything but happy to be there. His red flannel shirt was dirty and ragged. His blue jeans were no better. The human carried a brown paper bag. As he opened it, the smell of fresh food blasted Odin. The wolf slowly stepped out into plain sight of the man.
The man frowned for a moment, then smiled. Odin smiled his wolfish grin and walked toward the man and sat beside him. “Hey there, dog.” The man said. “You must be hungry.” The man reached into his bag and pulled out a sandwich. He put it on the ground in front of Odin. Odin bent down and sniffed it.
“Go on.” said the man. “I have plenty.” Odin ate the sandwich, witch turned out to be turkey and cheese, in a couple of ravenous bites. The man munched on his sandwich and Odin got up to leave. “See ya, dog.” The man called to Odin. “Hope to see you around soon.”
Odin smiled at the man over his shoulder and traveled on. He left the city limits and began to run. He traveled tirelessly on the wind. When he reached a field, he smelled fire. As he stopped and looked up, he saw a huge tower of flames on the horizon. He raced toward it and stopped when he reached it. About nine wolves were sitting around the fire in a circle, speaking quietly with one another. They stopped and looked at Odin.
“Odin!” A large, gray wolf named Luke called to him. “Where is Ana?”
Odin almost choked on the tears that welled up in his eyes. “She, she was killed by a hunter.” All the wolves gasped.
“A hunter?” David stepped into view from the trees. “Is this true, Odin?”
Odin nodded. “Yes. I went back to our apartment and she was dead on the floor. There was a bullet in her chest. I had to leave.”
David studied the necklace on Odin’s neck, then looked down. “I am so sorry, Odin.” David walked alongside Odin and they sat beside the fire.
A young she-wolf named Hazel piped up. “How could a hunter find Ana?” Hazel was about the same age as Odin. She was silver, like Ana. Her sky blue eyes burned holes in Odin’s heart as she asked the question.
“I, I don’t know.” He said.
A gunshot echoed off the trees. The wolves stood up and aimed their ears in the direction of the sound. Odin sniffed the air. The scent, it was the same scent that had lingered around his mother’s body and the bullet. His blood ran cold as he realized what the scent was. It was a hunter.
Chapter 2
“David!” Odin called to the leader. “It’s a hunter!”
The wolf pack stood with their fur bristling. Odin didn’t know what to do. Panic crept into his heart. The entire pack could be killed right here.
Two human men, one carrying a gun, came into view. To the packs’ horror, Hazel ran with a snarl towards the men. She stopped suddenly as the man with the gun aimed his gun at her. Her bared teeth and snarl were replaced by a look of panic and fear.
Odin leaped in front of Hazel, putting himself in the line of fire instead of Hazel. He bared his teeth and snarled at the hunters. They glared at him and the one with the gun fired it. The bullet flew inches over Odin’s head. He did not budge. Instead, this only infuriated him more. He leaped at the man and brought him to the ground. The man shouted and tried to push Odin off. Odin held on to the man’s arm with his teeth. He bit harder until blood seeped through the hunter’s shirt. The other man grabbed a stick and hit Odin’s back with it, causing the wolf to lose his grip. He stumbled back. “Hey!”
The men stared at him. Odin spoke again. “What are you doing? Stay away from us!”
The two men looked at each other, then at Odin. The man with the gun got up and smirked at him. “We know who you really are, wolf. You’re not normal. Do you have any idea what kind of big money a lab will pay for a real, live werewolf?”
The man with the stick hit Odin hard. This time it struck his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and the men carried him off. They put him in a large dog carrier in the back of a blue pickup truck and drove off.
The rest of the pack ran to Hazel’s side. The she-wolf was staring after the men and Odin. David nuzzled her and tried to comfort her, but she just continued to stare blankly at the horizon.
Odin awoke in a damp, cold cage. He was in a room with a few tables. Two were empty, the other had a large computer on it. The cage itself was on the floor. The floor was hard tile, white like the walls. There was something that looked like a meter beside the cage, it had at least twenty buttons and knobs. Odin opened his jaws and closed them around one of the bars of the cage. Thankfully, there was plenty of room to move around. He bit hard and pulled, but the steel bar would not move. He growled in frustration when a young woman in a white lab coat walked in through a door. A white door, of course. Everything was white here.
The woman had hazel eyes and blond hair. Her hair was short, only down to her shoulders, and she wore narrow, black, rectangular glasses. She knelt beside the cage and reached into her lab coat pocket. Odin drew back when she pulled out a medical needle. He winced as she injected him with the strange needle. He quickly retreated to the back of the cage.
“It’s alright.” The woman said. “We just want to run some tests. Those fools think you’re a werewolf. You and I both know that’s just nonsense.” She reached her hand through the bars and patted Odin on the head before going to the desk with the computer on it.
As the woman typed on the computer, Odin sat down. He was beginning to feel tired. Through his blurred eyes he could see the woman beside the cage again, this time with yet another needle. He barely felt it as she began to draw blood through the syringe. After she withdrew the needle, he lied down and drifted off to sleep.
As Odin awoke, he heard voices coming from the computer desk. He looked around. The woman was talking to an older man, maybe in his thirties, who appeared to be her boss.
“Are you sure these test results are correct?” The man asked her.
“Positive.” Replied the woman. “There are traces of both wolf and human DNA in the blood samples.”
“Let me see the wolf.” The man said.
The woman gestured towards the cage. “Go ahead.”
The man turned to look at Odin, but the wolf was gone. All that was left was a cage with very bent bars.
After running through many hallways, Odin raced out the front door of the lab. He was finally free, but he couldn’t keep from wondering what the humans would do now that they knew about him. Would they hunt him down? What about David and the other wolves? Would they discover them? He thought of all this as he ran to freedom.
Chapter 3
The rain fell heavily on the ground as a wolf walked along the empty sidewalk. The city was deserted at this time of night. Her silver fur was stained with mud and garbage. She had been traveling for days now. She was tired, lonely and hungry, but faith drove her on. She had to find him, she had to. After all, Odin had saved her life. Now she had to return the favor. As she rounded the corner, she saw a brown dog lying on the sidewalk. She raced over to it. It was barely breathing. Then she saw this was no dog, it was a wolf!
The wolf opened his eyes and looked at her. “Hazel?” He said weakly.
Hazel was amazed. She had finally found him! “Odin! What happened?”
Odin slowly got to his feet and shook the water from his damp coat. “I escaped from the lab and they tried to shoot me.” He told her. “I got away, but they know.”
“Know? You mean…”
“Yes, Hazel. They know who we are.”
“What are we going to do?”
Odin started in the direction from which Hazel had come. “We’d better get home and warn the pack.”
Hazel started after him. “They are not still there! We have to wait until the next full moon.”
Odin turned to face her. “Then where are we supposed to go?” There was an angry edge to his voice.
“I, I don’t know,” Hazel said.
“Hold it.” Odin spoke sadly. “I think I know.”
As Hazel and Odin entered the apartment, the rain poured even harder. Odin, in his human form, rushed to close the open balcony door.
Hazel, also a human, sat on the couch and glanced at a nature magazine. Odin shut the door and sat beside her. She was very beautiful in human form. Both forms, actually. Her long, brown hair fell over her face as her blue eyes scanned the article about pandas and the illegal hunting of them.
Odin cleared his throat. “So.” He said to Hazel. “What should we do? I mean, what if the hunters find us and the pack?”
Before Hazel could reply, a knock sounded at the door. Odin slowly got up to get it. When he opened the door, a black blur ran past him into the apartment.
“Lemme in and lock the door!” It shouted.
Odin quickly locked the door and ran over to where the black wolf stood on the living room floor.
Hazel put the magazine down quickly and stood up. “David! What are you doing here?”
“Hunters.” David panted. “They were shooting at me!”
Odin stood beside Hazel. “Hunters! How did they find you? Or a better question would be, how did you find us?”
“I figured I’d better just find somewhere.” David replied. “Hide first, ask questions later.”
Another knock sounded at the door. This one was loud and impending.
“Better get it.” David said to Odin. “If you don’t, the hunters will suspect something.”
“Alright.” Odin said. “Hide, you two!”
Hazel quickly became a wolf and followed David into the bedroom.
Odin opened the door. There stood the two hunters. This time they both had guns. “G’evening.” One of them said. Odin recognized him as the one who had hit him with the stick.
“Good evening.” Said Odin.
“Say, you haven’t seen any wolves around here, have you?”
Odin laughed. “Wolves? Are you serious? Where are we, the mountains? Wolves don’t live in the city!”
The other hunter spoke now. “Ah, well. Thanks for the help, kid.”
Odin smiled. “Any time now.” He breathed a sigh of relief as he shut the door and locked it again.
Chapter 4
The howl, it was a long, mournful sound. It echoed through the city and was aimed at the setting sun. The source of the howl, Odin, sat on the balcony. His tail was wrapped around his feet and his head was pointed upward. His eyes were closed and he was still howling.
Hazel, in human form, watched him through the sliding glass door. Once Odin had stopped, she opened the door and stepped onto the balcony.
Odin turned his head to look at her as she sat down in a plastic chair. Once she had sat down he looked towards the horizon. Suddenly, he felt soft, silky fur brush against his right side. He turned and he saw a beautiful silver wolf sitting next to him. At first he thought it was his mother, but the wolf’s eyes were sky blue, not golden like his mother’s.
“Hazel…” he began.
A look of sorrow filled Hazel’s eyes. “You miss her, don’t you?”
Odin hung his head. “Yeah. I do.”
“This is what she would have wanted you to do.” Hazel said. “She would want you to warn the pack.”
Odin suddenly perked his ears and sat up. “Hazel! Tomorrow is the full moon!”
Hazel smiled. Wolves get very excited when the full moon approaches. Odin got up and wagged his tail, inviting her to dance. She got up and, together, they leaped and danced in joy of the coming night.
Then David stepped out onto the balcony, his gold eyes surveyed them for a moment, and then he joined the wild, joyful dance of the wolves.
That morning, the three wolves departed for the field. They stumbled along the sidewalks in the pouring rain.
“I hate this human form.” David grumbled. “Imagine! Only two legs! How on Earth do they keep their balance?”
“Oh, stop complaining!” Odin said.
Hazel suddenly stopped, causing Odin to run into her. “Ah! What is it?”
Hazel pointed to two men across the street. They both carried rifles. “That!” She said.
“Hey!” One of the men called. “It’s those kids!”
“The hunters!” Odin said. “Let’s get out of here!”
As Odin ran with David and Hazel, he could feel fur, claws and a tail grow. His eyesight got sharper and colors got brighter. His ears grew and became pointed. As his arms got longer and hands became paws, he dropped to four legs and ran faster. He didn’t care if the hunters saw him, he had to get away. He looked back and saw David and Hazel were still human, yet he was wolf.
David called after him. “You idiot! What are you doing?”
Odin only ran faster. He could hear the hunters running and calling after them.
Hazel watched in dismay as Odin disappeared around a corner into an alley.
The hunters had Hazel and David backed against a wall. The wall was blocking off an old alley. David considered climbing it, but it was too high to climb in human form. It was about twelve feet tall.
The hunters closed in and aimed their rifles. “Well, wolves.” One said. “We don’t care about capturing you anymore.”
“Yeah.” The other hunter agreed. “We just want to kill you now.” They aimed the guns at Hazel and David’s heads.
Then a vicious snarl sounded from overhead. To both the wolves’ and the hunters’ amazement, Odin leaped over the wall and landed on all four feet in front of Hazel and David. He bared his teeth and growled at the hunters.
“Well, well!” Said a hunter. “Look who it is.”
Odin stepped back as the hunters prepared to shoot.
“Hey! What are you doing!” A female voice called. “That wolf is government property!”
The hunters turned and ran away. Odin turned to Hazel and David. “Go!” He barked. “Don’t let them get you!”
With one last look back, Hazel and David ran.
Chapter 5
Odin backed up against the wall. He could not jump this time, he was not able to get a running start.
A woman with short, blond hair came around the corner. She looked at Odin and walked up to him. It was the woman from the laboratory. “Hey there.” She said as she knelt down eye level to Odin. She reached out with her hand and rubbed Odin’s chin. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them quickly. Realizing where he was, he quickly backed up.
The woman drew her hand away and sat up straight. “The tests,” she said to Odin. “they said you were human as well.” A haunted look came into her eyes as she spoke to Odin. “That’s impossible, isn’t it?”
Odin smiled. “Not entirely.”
The woman gasped and Odin sat up and perked his ears. Men. A group of men were about to come around the corner. He could hear their footfalls. He turned, and with one last look at the woman, leaped straight up and over the wall.
“Natalie!” A group of about five men carrying tranquilizer guns came around the corner and stopped. The man in the lead was the one who had spoken. “Where is the wolf?”
“I, I don’t know.” Natalie said. “It jump-” She paused for a moment, then went on. “I came and he was gone.”
The leader turned to the rest of the men. “Split up and keep looking.” The men all went in different directions and walked off. Natalie sat down against the brick wall of a building and sighed.
“Why?” Natalie looked up to see Odin standing in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell them where I went?”
“Because.” Natalie told him. “I wanted to protect you.”
Odin sat beside her. He let his chin rest on his paws. “Thanks.”
Natalie stroked him with her hand. As her hand ran over the necklace, she stopped. “What’s this?”
Odin looked up at her. “It was my mother’s.” He let his chin rest on his paws again. “It’s all I have left of her now.” He added quietly.
“What happened?”
“She was killed by hunters, that’s all. That’s who we were running from.”
“Odin!” David stood on top of the wall, his tail was standing straight up. Odin perked his ears and lifted his head, but did not move.
David jumped down from the wall. He glared at Natalie, who quickly withdrew her hand. Odin stood up and looked at David.
“Odin! Hazel and I have been worried sick about you, and where have you been? Sitting here with, with her.” He shot a nasty glance at Natalie.
Odin stood up and bared his teeth at David. “And what’s wrong with that?”
Natalie stood up, interrupting the would-be argument. “Wait,” she said to David. “Hazel? Who’s that?”
“What’s it to you?” David growled.
“Shut up, David.” Odin barked. He turned to Natalie. “Hazel is another wolf who is traveling with us.”
“Yeah, just another wolf.” Hazel called from atop the wall. “Let’s go! We’re gonna miss the meeting!”
“Meeting?” Natalie said to Odin.
Odin nodded. “Yeah. Every full moon our pack meets in a field outside the city.”
Natalie was about to say something when Odin heard footfalls coming around the corner. It was one of the men. Odin held up his tail in warning and whispered to Natalie, so low only they could hear. “I hope I see you again.” He jumped over the wall with David and Hazel.
As the man approached, Natalie could not help but keep staring over the wall.
The three wolves approached the bonfire. The other wolves howled in joy when they saw David was all right. They yipped and sniffed each other, as if to say: “Where on Earth have you been?”
Odin, however, sat alone beside the fire, gazing into its depths. He could not stop thinking of Natalie and how she had protected him.
Chapter 6
Odin was awakened by the sound of howling and snarling. He sat up, he must have fallen asleep by the fire. He turned toward the direction of the sound. The pack was growling at a woman who had come near. She looked terrified. The woman looked at Odin, then he recognized it was Natalie. Why had she come here? Odin was even more shocked when he saw David snapping at Natalie.
Odin ran towards them, growling. “Stop it!” He growled at David. “She’s no threat! You should know this, David.”
“Oh?” David cocked his head. “I suppose you would.”
Odin growled but said nothing. He turned to Natalie. “What are you doing here?”
Natalie looked around at the wolves. “I came to warn you about something, but some people don’t seem to want my help.”
“Warn us about what?” Odin asked.
“The two hunters.” Natalie said. “They’re headed this way. I came just in time to-”
A wolf barked and cut her off as the two men approached the wolves with their rifles.
The men looked at each other. “Who’s she?” One man asked the other. The other man shrugged. “She probably knows too much, though.” The man agreed. They aimed their rifles at Natalie.
Odin stood beside Natalie, they were both frozen in fear. Just as the men were about to shoot, Odin leaped at them. On his way to landing on the ground, he grabbed one of the men’s rifles in his teeth. They man holding on to the rifle was brought down with it and Odin.
The other man aimed and managed to shoot Odin’s back, which was a pretty good shot, considering the speed at which Odin was moving and fighting.
“Odin!” Natalie yelled as more wolves ran to fight off the hunters. As the wolves and men fought, Natalie rushed to Odin’s side. He was lying on his left side, his right side was soaked in blood from the wound on his back.
He bent his head to look at her. “What are you doing? Get out of here!”
Natalie stroked the fallen wolf with her hand. “No, I have to make sure you’re okay.”
Odin stared at her, his eyes were puzzled. “Who are you?”
“I’m Natalie Jones. I work at the animal research laboratory downtown.”
“Yeah well, I’m Odin. I thought you wanted to keep me in the lab?”
“Not anymore.” Natalie smiled. “Not now that I know who you are.”
Odin slowly got up. He looked around. The hunters were gone, and so was the pack. Only Luke remained. The silver-gray wolf looked at Odin over his shoulder, sorrow in his eyes, then limped away into the forest.
Odin stared after him. “They don’t trust me anymore.” He looked up at Natalie. “Not since I’ve been with you.”
“I, I can leave.” Natalie said.
Odin shook his head slowly. “No, no. You have to help us. It’s your destiny.”
“What do you mean?”
A distant look came into Odin’s eyes as he spoke. “There was an ancient promise from God himself. He told Great Pack Father, when he was younger, that a young human girl would save the wolves from extinction. You’re the only one we’ve meet so far, and the only one who is not terrified of us.”
Odin sat on a rock on a hillside. He looked out over all the remaining forest. His paws started to slip, but he steadied himself. He bent his head back and howled. The sound echoed off the trees. He lowered his head at stared out at what the pack had once called home.
A growl sounded from behind him. He turned to see a dark gray wolf standing with its teeth bared. He leapt at Odin, who snapped his teeth at the wolf’s leg. The gray wolf landed on the ground about two yards away. They both leaped at each other again.
As the wolf passed Odin in midair, he snapped at Odin’s neck, drawing blood. Odin landed and stood, panting, beside a rock. Without thinking, he jumped up onto the rock and howled. To his surprise, a distant howl replied. The other wolf looked about as shocked as he was.
A few seconds later, a huge white wolf rushed out of the trees behind them. The wolf jumped on the gray wolf. Odin could only stand and watch the battle unfold.