Hairwolf
Chapter Twenty Nine

Ominous starts trailing the bars looking for a way in. It’s a slow path of discovery for him but he’s heading right to the entrance and soon discovery time will be over. He advises Brizzbee, “hurry.”

The Creature-Stef rises fully into the moonlight. She’s all fur and ready for battle. Ominous winds his way to the corner of the cage and finds the latch to the gate. But then he’s ripped from the cage by the Creature-Stef and thrown across the ground. She growls and attacks him. Ominous throws her but she lands on her feet and dives back at him. She gets a fist full of his clothes and fur and tosses him into the cage.

That hurt. He rises slowly just as she attacks again but this time he trips her up and drops her. He jumps on her, pinning her to the ground.

Lillian grabs a dart from Brizzbee’s bag. She’s not going to stand by and wait for the outcome. She explodes from the cage and drives the dart deep into Ominous’ backside. He spins around with another backhand, but she ducks. He then kicks out at her. She didn’t see that one coming and lands back in the bushes. Stef, furious, grapples to her feet and knocks him to the ground. He lands hard but it isn’t stopping him. She jumps on him and hits him with everything she’s got. He throws her off into a tree but she’s back on her feet, squaring off with him.

Brizzbee and Foster exit the cage, grabbing two sticks, standing between Ominous and Stef. She hurtles past them and straight at Ominous. She and Ominous tumble into the tent, causing it to collapse on them. The wood burning stove spills open, causing the tent to flare up.

Ominous flails at the tent looking for an exit. He’s frantic and out of control. The fire is freaking him out. Finally, his claws shred the tent and he starts to flea but the Creature-Stef gets a

hold of him. She rips at his fur, punching and clawing him. He howls and growls and bursts upward, striking her down. He runs out of the area.

Brizzbee loads another dart, racks the bolt, and raises the weapon. He takes aim just as the Creature-Stef runs passed, bumping him. The gun fires, hitting Lillian right in the ass. Again.

“Son of a bi. . .” Lillian says, dropping instantly to the ground.

Foster picks up his sidearm, holstering it. “Stay with Lillian!” He crosses to the cage and takes a dart. He puts it in his shirt pocket. Brizzbee alerts, “Be careful! Both of them.”

Foster takes a second dart and runs off.

Brizzbee removes the dart from Lillian’s butt and carries her into the cage. He finds a bucket and collects water from the lake and throws it on the tent fire until it’s out. He’s antsy, wanting to do

something but there’s little to do. Little he can do. And to make matters worse, he’s managed to shoot Lillian. . . again.

“She’s gonna kill me,” he says. “I know it. I know it.” Brizzbee looks out into the darkness, smiling. “A frigin werewolf. Two of them. Two. Not one, two.”

The Creature-Stef tracks Ominous through the woods, stopping frequently, smelling the branches, tree’s and rocks. She has his scent but it’s everywhere, confusing her. She races ahead. Ominous springs from behind a tree, tripping her up. She stumbles through a fortress of downed pine trees, and finds herself concealed within the barricade. She gathers to her feet but a sharp pain draws her attention to her side. There’s a broken branch sticking out of her side and blood is seeping out from the wound. She disregards the wound and keeps her attention on Ominous. He’s just outside the pine barricade, watching, waiting.

She readies for his attack. He jumps over the downed tree and lands right on her, straddling her to the ground. She’s weak and can’t move him.

He’s studying her features, smelling her hair, neck, and face. He’s excited and howls as if letting her know who the alpha is.

A second gunshot rings out, causing him to jump. It’s Foster, lowering the weapon from the sky and leveling it on Ominous. Again, both Ominous and the Creature-Stef slap their hears from the loud shot. Ominous growls at Foster but Foster isn’t threatened. He’s confident with the gun in hand. He edges closer.

Ominous leaps off of Stef and over the trees and disappears into the forest. Foster looks in

through the tight bushes. He finds Stef looking back at him, tapping her ears. She’s just as

cautious with him as she was with Ominous, watching him like a hawk, ready to strike. He pushes through slowly, a little at a time.

“Stef? It’s me. Dave. Are you okay?”

She’s not responding to his voice. She’s not responding to anything other than her animal instinct for self-preservation. To her, he’s a threat, much like Ominous, only smaller and less formidable. Her eyes shift back and forth from his gun-hand to his eyes.

He notices this and considers the possible desperate situation. If he holsters his gun, he’ll be unprotected. But then again, what’s he going to do, shoot her? He knows he won’t do that. His options are limited. His only hope is she recognizes him. He removes a dart from his shirt pocket

at the same time that he holsters his weapon. She’s watching, suspicious and angry.

This is certainly new territory for Foster. He’s going to be testing all of his skills as a warden trying to get the Creature-Stef to trust him.

In this state, the Creature-Stef is not who she was twenty minutes ago and he knows that. He has to play this out carefully but she’s not giving any indicators as to what he should or should not do. Then he notices the stick in her side and the blood. If it’s deep it could kill her. Maybe. He isn’t sure. He doesn’t know a thing about her in this state.

“A werewolf. How do you treat a werewolf? Oh, that’s easy, Dave. You don’t. You go home,” he says laughing to himself in all the excitement. But then he notices the Creature-Stef curious over

his sounds. This may be his way in. Which means he’ll have to get closer. He gets down on his

knees and pushes slowly through the pine bushes towards her. He has doubts about this but he has

no choice. He starts talking again hoping to make himself less of a threat.

“Stef. It’s me, David. Remember? I have to see that wound there. Stef?”

She’s not liking any of this. His voice is different than her other plaything, Lillian, but they don’t look the same. And it’s threatening her just as much as his presence. She rears back on him. He offers his hand, palm down, hoping his scent will waft into her nostrils. He moves forward, hand first, ever so slowly. She wants nothing to do with him and looks away. He cautions back giving her a moment to calm down.

He kneels down just out of her reach and settles in. He’s careful not to make any sudden or fast moves. He puts his focus on the ground, drawing circles in the dirt. It’s working.

She settles back and relaxes her concerns over him. He locates a small root and pulls it from the ground and starts chewing on it.

She’s watching him, emotionless, uncaring and unconcerned. He pulls on another root and offers it to her. She looks at the offering and considers it. She wants it but then again she doesn’t.

She’s growing weaker by the minute. Her eyes are getting tired. A branch cracks just outside the barrier and Foster jumps up skinning his firearm from its holster, turning his back on her. Her eyes are locked on a specific area until she notices the firearm and then she covers her ears. She puts her attention back on the area where she heard the noise and lets her nose take over, collecting all the information she needs and she relaxes. She’s waiting on Foster with his firearm. Is he ready to defend her or is he claiming her for himself? She doesn’t know what to make of him. Is he a threat or a new play thing? She’s not in the mood for either.

She watches as Foster turns back towards her and holsters his weapon. She’s in too much pain to care. He sits back down a little closer to her, still out of immediate reach, but closer. He digs up more roots and holds them out for her. She’s reluctant, but hungry. It’s working.

She slowly reaches out for them. If he knows anything, it’s his wildlife. And she’s no different. Not in this state. She takes the clutch of roots and devours them. He extends his hand once again towards her face, palm down. Maybe she’ll breathe him in. Maybe it will strike a nerve in her subconscious that he’s not a threat.

But then she grabs hold of his wrist and pulls him in towards her. He falls flat on his face becoming an easy target. She pulls his hand up to her face and pauses on his scent. It’s familiar. But she doesn’t know how or why. And at the moment, doesn’t really care.

She pushes his hand away, almost in disgust. She doesn’t need any play things right now. She needs rest and food. She holds her wound in pain, rolling to her side. He continues to pull more roots from the ground and offers them to her. She takes them, wanting more and more.

Foster looks around wearily, knowing Ominous must be close by, watching, waiting to strike. He turns back to Stef and finds her leering at him. It’s as if she’s already forgotten he was there and once again feels threatened by him. It’s clear he knows nothing about her in this state or her him.

He regards the dart in his hand but that’s the easy way out.

He needs to gain her trust. The trust of the Creature-Stef. He pockets the dart and considers his next move.

“You’re wounded...” he says. “That’s a pretty bad wound. I have to get that stick out, Stef.” He inches closer, pointing to the wound. He has no idea how she’s going to react. Her thoughts, mind and personality are distant traits, locked somewhere deep inside her. In addition, her transformation was seriously interrupted. And he has no idea what that means.

He extends his hand, palm down. She looks at it, but it’s empty of food. He’s offering nothing. She lazily slaps it away. He slowly sweeps it in front of her nose. Maybe he wants her to take a bite

out of him. As he swipes his hand back under her nose she bites out, grabbing his fingers. She’s got him and she isn’t letting go. There’s no blood and it’s not a hard bite but it’s enough to keep his

fingers in her mouth. This could be her way of letting him know she’s not playing around.

“No. No. Smell,” he says, demonstrating. This is taking everything he has. Every emotion in his body is telling him to pull his hand out of her mouth. But he doesn’t. He needs to show dominance, in a gentle way. There can be no fear. Fear is weakness. He relaxes his fingers and allows her to taste them.

“Easy, Stef. Easy.”

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