I had only gotten a few hours of sleep before I woke up again. It was still dark outside and I stayed on the couch trying to listen to the girls heartbeat that was thumping from upstairs. Hers wasn't the only one since other people stayed in this house, but hers was beating the fastest.
'Check on her' Zeb said sounding agitated.
'Look who's soft now' I said back to him.
I got up from the couch and started creeping up the steps so I wouldn't wake anyone up. When I got to my door I slowly pushed it open to peak inside. She was sitting up in bed and was holding on to the picture from last night, studying it closely.
When she noticed me she slowly moved the picture behind her to try and hide it. I walked more into the room and closed the door behind me.
"It's okay, I don't mind if you look at it." I said to her and sat near the foot of the bed.
She didn't say anything and pulled her legs to herself from under the black t shirt and kept her gaze down on the bed. I stayed silent and just sat with her for a minute. Her heart eventually started to slow down and was back to beating at a normal rhythm.
"Do you want to go on a run with me?" I asked her.
I hadn't shifted since I first found her and it was starting to make Zeb feel antsy. She looked up at me, but still didn't say anything back. Her frizzy birds nest was in a messy pile and her green eye was the only thing that shown brightly in the dark room.
"What do you call your wolf?" I asked her curiously.
Surely she talked often with it since she first shifted and I knew that the wolf in her probably knew more about Scout then the girl did. She looked away from me and back down to the bed and I was beginning to think that she wasn't in the mood to talk today.
"Anala." her small voice finally said.
I nodded my head and smiled when she finally looked up at me. She pointed a small finger at me as if to say it was my turn and I could feel Zeb pace back and forth, not liking the idea of being talked about.
"Zeb." I told her and she cocked her to the side when hearing the name. I scooted closer to her on the bed and she wrapped her arms around herself protectively.
"How long has Anala been with you?"
I wanted to know exactly how long she had stayed in her wolf form. If it's been years then that would make it hard for her to have any real memories of being human or her own parents.
She turned away and then handed the picture she had been hiding to me. She leaned over and pointed to the small toddler version of myself. I felt my chest tighten thinking about her being even smaller then she is now and in pain. It made me want to vomit thinking about some sick person hurting a baby.
I sat the picture back face down on the bed. I looked at her and brushed her frizzy curls from her face. Her eyes looked up at mine and I tried to think of something I could say to help this situation.
"Emerald, there are bad people in this world who hurt others and there are good people in this world who protect them. One day you're going to have to choose what type of person you're going to be and I hope you don't let your past influence that decision. Bad things happen to good people sometimes and the only thing you can do is learn from it and let it make you stronger."
She never blinked and stayed staring back at me. She lightly nodded her head and then looked back down at the picture frame before picking it back up and examining it again.
"Do I have.. parents?" she asked and looked back up to me.
I couldn't look her in the eyes when she asked this and stood up from the bed so I wouldn't have to face her.
"Maybe." I breathed.
I turned back to her, but she was looking back at the picture and had disappointment on her face.
"They could still be alive somewhere, you might find them one day or could remember something about them that could help you."
She scrunched her nose up and then placed the picture face down on the bed. I wanted to make her feel better and not worry to much over wether she had a family somewhere or not.
"Cmon let's go for a run." I said to her and placed my hand out for her to grab.
She didn't grab it immediately, but she did end up wrapping her fingers around my thumb and pulling herself up from the bed. I helped her walk down the stairs and when we were outside I could see that it was still dark out.
I helped her walk beside me and when we were finally in the open field I took my hand from her and motioned for her to spin around. She did and when she had her back to me I quickly stripped my clothes off and shifted into my wolf.
After I was done she turned back around to face me and had to still look up to see my face. My wolf was huge next to her small body and she made a few wobbly steps towards me. She looked up at my face and when her small hand reached out to touch me, Zeb let out a low growl.
She didn't seem to be intimidated by it and cocked her head to the side when looking into my eyes. It was like she was trying to see me through the wolf form and I watched the small corners of her mouth turn up slightly.
"Zeb?" she asked mainly to herself.
She reached her hand out again and her delicate fingers traced down the scar that went across my left eye and Zeb let her. She ran her hands through my fur a minute and then took a step back and tried to shift.
She shrank down and I could hear bones snapping and popping from underneath the black t shirt she had been wearing. Suddenly a small white head poked out from under the shirt and the small puppy walked closer to me.
I started walking past her and to the line of trees and she started trotting right behind me. I picked up my pace and soon we were both running through the woods together. I tried to not to run too fast so she could keep up, but I don't think she really needed me to because she eventually zoomed her small body past mine and ran ahead of me.
I picked my speed up and easily caught back up to her. She zigzagged around trees and through bushes spreading her smoke scent like a wild fire. She came to a complete halt and started sniffing the ground and air and I could smell that a small rabbit was nearby.
She started walking slowly and soon she disappeared from my view and into some thick bushes. I stayed still not wanting my big size to scare off her small prey and waited until a rabbit zoomed past me and right behind was the pup snapping her tiny jaws at it.
I slowly trotted in the direction she went, but the rabbit took a sharp turn back towards me and the small pup zoomed under my feet and chased the rabbit back the other way. After another fifteen minutes of her chasing the rabbit in circles she came out from behind a pine tree carrying the rabbit by its neck in her mouth and dropped it near my paws.
She looked up at me holding her head high and I could tell she was proud of her kill. She pushed the rabbit closer to me with her nose and I took a step back from it. She cocked her head at me and then swiftly took a bite out of the rabbits throat and began eating it.
She looked up and her white face was now covered in blood and she pushed the dead thing towards me again as if to tell me it was safe. It reminded me of how I had tried to get her to eat eggs and now she was trying to get me to eat a rabbit. I shook my head and looked away from the rabbit to show her I wasn't interested in it and she started going back to eating it herself.
After another minute of her tearing the rabbit into pieces she rolled around in the dirt and got up and started exploring again. I followed along behind her and then picked my pace up until I passed her. She yapped from behind me and started racing to catch up.
We stayed running around in the woods until the sun started coming up. We headed back towards home and when we came into the clearing of the field I sensed her heart beat speed up when seeing other people. There were a few kids around her age chasing each other around and playing games.
She stopped at the edge of the woods and stayed put watching them. I walked further away from her and when I came to my pile of clothes I shifted back and quickly slipped them on. One of the older looking boys that had been playing stopped and ran up to me.
"Good morning Alpha!" He chimed and tried his best to not look up at my face.
"Good morning Henry." I greeted back.
I turned back to look at the woods and could still see the small wolf puppy sitting there watching us.
"Woah!" Henry said when he noticed who I was looking at.
The boy started walking towards the puppy a little too fast and soon the other children noticed what he did and they started to surround her. She began barking at them and snarling her teeth warning them to back away.
All the kids stopped walking and kept a reasonable distance as they all stared in awe. I walked over to where the black t shirt was that she had been wearing and walked around the group of children to the viscous little terror that was showing off her tiny teeth.
"Stop that. It's time to shift back."
I scooped the puppy up and it made her stop growling. I sat her back down behind a pine tree and left the shirt next to her on the ground. I turned back around and walked back to wait with the kids to give her some privacy.