BLEEDING STRANGER

ROWAN.

It is a massacre.

Limbs thrown all over the place ,blood soaking the ground, the trees.

There is no sound.

Not even the tweeting of the birds.

“What the hell happened here?” I ask in horror.

“It looks like some demon mauled all these wolves,” George, one of the permanent residents and fighters of our camp says.

“They are not rogues,” Lisa says as she walks through the corpses. “But they are not from the same pack either.”

“My question is how they managed to get this close to us without us knowing or hearing anything?” I growl out.

There is no answer to that, and that in itself is worrying.

We know how shaky our peace is.

A bunch of rogues attacked a pack and won, taking over their territory .

We are not friends to anyone.

Still, it gave them pause and as long as we kept to ourselves, they left us alone.

Mostly.

So, who are these people and why are their corpses so close to us?

“Spread out,” I command, my voice carrying in the silence and across the vast space. “Look for survivors and someone, please have the trainees come up here. This place has to be cleaned up.”

They all mice at my orders, everyone going different paths as they check the body.

I decide to head towards the forest line, to check if anyone had made an escape there.

A few feet into the woods, I see it.

Drops of blood forming a trail, getting blacker as it goes.

I trail it for what feels like an hour until I come across a cleft in the floor, where the blood stops.

Quieting my breath, I close my eyes as I listen to the sounds of the forest.

I am still as the leaves of the trees rustle in the wind and filter through my ears, as the rushing sound of a river flows through a crook, as several birds take flight into the sky.

As the labored breathing of a person echoes in my ears.

Opening my eyes in a snap, I whirl around to where a bunch of clusters of bushes are and walk towards it.

Careful so as not to startle whoever is there, I part the leaves and find a man, eyes closed, probably unconscious, lying in a pool of his own blood.

“Hello,” I call out gently before carefully approaching him. “Can you hear me? Hello?”

Nothing.

A hand to his head tells me he has a high fever and is at risk of going into shock.

I consider lifting him on me and dragging him back to our territory but something tells me that will only make it work.

Resigned, I take several steps back and shift into my wolf.

The air shimmers at my transformation, almost as if the space can barely contain my size. Even among some of the biggest wolves, I stand out.

My wolf is large. Larger than normal and even more so that I am a female. My fur is a cascade of winter white, rare and beautiful, with thick and lustrous strands that look like it is flowing under water whenever I move.

Even without anyone telling me, I know it is unique.

I have heard of pure black wolves, red timber wolves, white wolves with black spots.

Never a pure white like myself.

Winter white.

That is where our name comes from, The Winter Wolf Coalition.

I am the Winter Wolf.

Even my size is staggering.

The biggest wolf I have seen has only come to the lower chest level of a fully grown man.

I, on all fours, tower over them, easily surpassing the height of the tallest werewolves. My eyes are a vibrant and unusual shade of silver, with pinpricks of yellow irises in their middle.

Rina says I am stunning.

Lisa calls me terrifying.

Me, I am just glad to finally have a wolf.

With my transformation complete, I throw my head back and howl, a deep and resonant call that echoes through the trees, signaling my location and calling for backup.

Within seconds I get back answering howls. Satisfied that people are on the way, I turn back to examine the wolf.

That is all I wanted to do.

Examine him.

Make sure he is still breathing.

But it seems my wolf has other ideas.

Rather than sitting a respectful distance away, she walks up to him, right to his side and drops down beside him, placing her snout close to his neck as she gazes into his eyes.

“What are you doing?” I ask scandalized. “What if he wakes up and sees you this close?”

She doesn't respond, perfectly content at just gazing at him.

I try several tactics to get her up but she doesn't even budge.

I might as well not be present.

Finally, I hear the footsteps of people coming this way and soon the leaves part to reveal Lisa as well as several others.

“Um, what is going on here?” she asks as she stares at us.

I don't respond, how can I when my wolf has gone crazy.

Lisa seems to get the message that something is wrong and signals to the others to get the man.

One of them reaches for him first and my wolf nearly takes off his hand.

“Whoah!” the man exclaims as he falls back in reflex.

“Rowan!” Lisa exclaims in shock as she glares at me. “What are you doing?!”

Beats me.

“They need to get to him!” I snarl at my wolf. “If you don't back up, he is going to die.”

That seems to get through to her as she reluctantly gets to her feet and shuffles a few steps back, watching as the men carefully lift him up.

Once he is gone from our side, I demand.

“What is up with you? How can you be so up and bothered by a stranger, -an unconscious one at that-, you just met?”

She says one word in response.

“Mate.”