Wolfy

Chapter 1Dogs barked. Dogs, not wolves. Mateo groaned and opened his eyes slowly, squinting at the bright lights. There was a chain-link wall before him. Blinking in confusion, he wondered why he would be…there. A bang sounded from somewhere, and the barking changed into enthusiastic whines. Mateo staggered upright, his head feeling heavy on his shoulders. A hangover from hell, maybe? A process of squeak-clank-munching started outside. One by one the dogs quieted. Mateo looked down at his…paws? Oh. s**t. Dog pound. If he had paws, that meant wolf form. The footsteps approached methodically. He couldn’t chance changing back, not when these people obviously had no idea there was a human inside the “dog” they’d put in the kennel. The squeak of the door of his cage alerted him to breakfast time. He backed away to the farthest corner and couldn’t help the growl that bubbled up from his chest. “Jesus, you are one ugly mutt,” the man scoffed at him. “No wonder they want to put you down as soon as possible.” The metal food bowl clanked down onto the floor, and the door closed again. The next door opened, and Mateo gulped. Put him down? Then something else occurred to him. His whole body jerked as he bent to look between his hind legs. Thank you, Jesus. They hadn’t chopped off his balls yet. The relief he felt was soon overtaken by the fact that he already knew why they hadn’t done it; they didn’t think he was worth it. They neutered dogs they knew would be adoptable. Him, apparently not so much. The human walked back through the aisle and the door on the other end closed with a heavy sound. Mateo decided to try shifting. Not completely, not when he didn’t know the schedule around here and couldn’t really see an easy way to open the lock from the inside, but just to see if he could. He looked down at his front paws and willed one to change. A twitch went through the limb, his claws scraping against the concrete. He tried again. Nothing. Instead of panicking, he sat down and tried to think. His head felt off, heavy like he was hungover, but wolves didn’t get hangovers in shifted form. Being stuck inside his wolf meant that something made it so. Nothing but his head hurt, but then he would’ve healed already. There was no way to tell what day it was, but he doubted he’d lost more than a day. The last thing he remembered…The bar! He’d been doing his usual routine of drinking until he couldn’t remember how lonely he’d felt lately, seeing his packmates paired off, having kids and being happy. The bartender he knew by name hadn’t cut him off yet, so he hadn’t been that drunk. He’d decided to take a leak, and so he’d left the bar and started toward the bathrooms. He’d…heard a sound? There was a fire door next to the bathrooms, and he’d heard something weird from outside and decided to investigate. Shit. His sister, their pack alpha Elena, would kick his ass and laugh hers off, and not necessarily in that order. Mateo spent a few minutes sniffing himself as much as he could reach, and finally found the source of his sorry state from high up his back. Aconite. A hunter—nobody else would know that aconite, also known as wolfsbane or monkshood, could potentially kill a werewolf—had gotten him. But why the hell would they just knock him out and dump him at a pound? None of his current predicament made sense, and it worried him more than a little. His stomach growled, and he looked at the bowl. He couldn’t see what was in it unless he went closer. It didn’t smell good, though. This clearly wasn’t a nice pound, but rather one of those that fed the dogs generic food because that was all they could afford. When he finally gave in and went to the bowl, he saw that it was some canned mush on top of kibble. It smelled horrible to his wolf nose, and he sneezed, then backed away from it. Couldn’t the hunter have dumped him into a nice place that fed the animals raw food like meat and veggies maybe? Sighing, he went into the corner and plopped down on a blanket. He needed a plan, but his head was pounding, and he had to rest for a bit, first. * * * * Mateo dozed for a while, time was always weird while in wolf form. If he couldn’t see the clock, it was hard to tell how much time had gone by. Of course, the routines around him told him it had been most likely morning when he woke up, the dogs were that hungry, but now, he had no clue. Eventually, the door at the end of the aisle opened, and every now and then, humans walked by, looking at dogs. Potential adopters. Mateo stayed in his corner, wondering how this could help or hinder his escape. There were families, too, but most seemed to be either couples or people who reeked of loneliness, literally. In wolf form, he could smell certain strong emotions as they wafted off people, and he much preferred the excitement of the kids and some adults to the acrid smell of loneliness any day. Some people looked at him, but most seemed to recoil from his form. Parents guided their children away from his cage as if he was dangerous just because he existed. Older people seemed scared, too. Only one young couple had a quiet conversation he tried not to listen in about potentially adopting him. It wasn’t until an employee came to talk to them that they changed their mind. “We don’t know much about him yet,” the employee said. “Is he new, then?” The young woman peered at Mateo through the chain link. “Yes, he only came in last night and since there wasn’t a vet available, he’s just been in the kennel for now.” “How did he end up here?” the young man asked. “Someone dumped him at the front door. He was knocked out with a sedative, we think.” “Oh, poor thing,” the woman said in a tone that suggested she was making puppy eyes at Mateo. He didn’t look up to see. He didn’t want to make eye contact with these people. They deserved a dog that would stay, not one that would run away as soon as he was able. “Yeah, dogs like him rarely find homes and I think it’s better that way. There are so many dogs here that are mild-mannered and will work nicely if you extend your family later. I don’t see this one getting used to being an indoor dog. You can tell it’s been alone for a while now, maybe in a run in someone’s backyard.” Hey! His fur wasn’t that messed up. Sure, his wolf form was big and scraggly and looked a bit weird, but that was just his heritage shining through. Being a mix of Mexican and Mackenzie Valley wolf made both him and his sister appear bigger, scruffier, and well, like mutts. Nobody knew how that made any sense because in the wild, both Mackenzie Valley and Mexican wolves were subspecies of the gray wolf, so they should’ve probably looked more…regular. But no. Oh well. The humans continued talking and wandered off to another cage, and Mateo relaxed again. Time moved forward, and he heard two employees talk about how the visitors’ hour was soon over, and the less pleasant part of the work would begin. “Five to be put down today. I’m thinking the new one, too. We just need to figure out how to tranq it without getting bitten,” a male voice said somewhere. “Oh yeah, he’ll be tricky. And he hasn’t touched his food. Maybe feed him something in a treat?” a woman pondered. “That might work.” Then, “Fifteen more minutes.” The male employee came closer and fiddled with something on Mateo’s door, then walked away once more. Mateo tried to shift again. He concentrated his human brain inside the wolf and tried to force his human form out. A low, quiet whine escaped him when nothing happened. Sure, he could wait until they tried to come get him and attack, but you weren’t supposed to do that to people who didn’t know you were a wolf. Panic was starting to claw at his insides, and he panted nervously, wolf brain pushing to the fore again. He snapped out of it when the sound of running feet stopped abruptly by his kennel. He could hear a man talking in an almost pleading tone further down the aisle, and one of the employees answering him, sounding annoyed. “You’re a pretty doggie,” a small voice told him, and Mateo did everything he could to concentrate on it. He pushed up to his feet slowly, fixing his gaze to the front of his cage. “Whoa, and you’re really big, too!” Mateo walked to the chain-link on unsteady feet, realizing the noises outside meant visiting hour was ending. This little person in front of him might be his only hope if he didn’t want to attack humans and try to fight his way out of certain death in their hands. He pressed his nose against the chain link and waited. “My daddy says I’m not allowed to pet strange dogs because they might bite.” The kid’s tone was thoughtful. Mateo whined. “But you seem okay.” Small fingers pushed through the wall and touched his nose carefully. “You’re a nice dog.” “Lily!” A worried sounding male voice, probably her dad, called and there were more running steps. Mateo could hear the worried inhale of the employee. “That’s the first time that dog has shown any interest in people today,” he told the family. The child—girl, because she was called Lily, Mateo decided—smiled radiantly. “He’s a pretty dog,” she announced to the men. “Isn’t he a bit—” The father tried to come up with something. “He’s pretty and he’s nice, and I would like to take him home, Daddy,” Lily said firmly and turned around, with her small fingers still on Mateo’s head. He turned so that she could grasp the fur on the side of his face and pressed against the wall to get closer. He whined again, the wolf liking the gentle yet firm grip that in no way felt restricting and somehow reminded Mateo of his pack. The man, Lily’s father, came closer and knelt by the girl. He looked at Mateo skeptically, and Mateo’s wolf side lowered his gaze immediately. It wanted to roll over and show its belly to the man. Mateo’s human brain didn’t understand why the man had such an effect, but he let it happen and whined again, hoping to sound heartbreaking. “This one?” the man asked his daughter. “Are you sure?” “Sir, I don’t think he’s a good fit with a small child in the house—” “I am not small; I am fun-sized, and he’s a good boy!” Lily all but shrieked at the man who blinked in surprise. “But we haven’t had a chance to do a full health check, and he hasn’t been neutered, either,” he tried. “Look, I can see the mark on his paperwork here, and I know what it means,” Lily’s dad said quietly, the strange authority in his tone shaking something inside Mateo. “Yes, but—” “Daddy, can we take him home now?” Lily cut him off again. Her fingers never left Mateo’s scruff, of which he was truly grateful. “We can take him to our nearest vet tomorrow. He doesn’t have any fleas or anything like that, right?” Lily’s father asked. “No, no parasites we could find when he got in.” There was a scratching sound, and Mateo realized it came from the man scratching his own neck in thought. “I suppose I could let you adopt him. But if you decide he’s not a good fit, find another shelter. I’ll mark him as…you know.” Mateo risked a glance at the man and saw him nodding at something on his door. With the way Lily’s dad frowned, Mateo guessed it was whatever marking system they had for the dogs that were to be euthanized. “You can do that?” “I’m not supposed to, but I haven’t seen him make any contact with anyone today. I’m sure I can confuse the paperwork and say they took him to be cremated or something.” “Daddy, what’s cream-ated mean?” “Nothing, sweetheart.” He turned to put his fingers through the links and held them to Mateo’s nose. Without hesitation, Mateo sniffed them and then licked as much of the skin as he could. He could feel the hesitation from the human, but then he relaxed, and finally Mateo could, too. “Okay, we’ll take him.” “Yay! He’s going to be the bestest dog, ever!” Lily let go of Mateo to do a little happy dance right there outside his cage. The warm feel of her fingers on his fur lingered, and his feet trembled briefly. He didn’t have to stay and die; he was safe. For now.