Howling With The Wolf Extract

There he was again, the man I couldn’t name.

I had been coming to this club for almost three months, every night watching him, though I danced with others. There was nothing to his face that was extraordinary, nothing that would really bring a girl—or a guy—to their knees over him.

But there was something to the way he stood, the way he walked, that said he was sure of himself, not cocky. Confident, but not arrogant. He knew where he stood, he was comfortable with who he was, gay or straight. I hoped he was gay. I’d only get a chance if the mystery guy was gay.

I envied him. But I also loved him.

Girls flocked around me, each drunker than the last, hoping to get with the guy in black, with his bad-boy swagger and cute ass. They did this every night, flocked to me, distracting me so I couldn’t spend my nights looking him over, as I knew he did to me.

My friends noticed him, of course, thought they didn’t notice me watching him in return. They’d point him out to me at least once a night and laugh, making rude jokes and gestures.

I ignored them, glancing away when he looked, afraid to meet his eyes. They were a brilliant, shiny grey, especially in the strobe lights, and I couldn’t help but imagine what they would look like up close. Maybe even close enough to kiss.

I chewed my tongue for a while, dancing with a blonde whose name I couldn’t remember. I thought fast, trying to decide whether to go over to the boy or not. At the end of the dance, the girl staggered off, probably to throw up in a corner, and a redhead took her face, drunker than the last, if that were possible.

I made up my mind during the dance, and ignored the attentions of the girl who thought she was next in line for a dance. I finished my drink, then left the empty glass on the counter.

“Back in a sec, guys,” I said, smiling at the boys.

“You’re meant to dance with me,” a brunette pouted drunkenly.

“Dance with him,” I suggested, pointing her towards Gary.

“Okay.” She dragged Gary from the bar and I ignored his glare as I headed for the bathroom.

I glanced over my shoulder. The boys were all occupied by the girls rubbing themselves against them. I slipped into the crowd, circling the dance floor, hoping the boy was still there.

He was, and I smiled. I stepped up behind him, easily managing to surprise him with the heavy dance beat on the floor.

I put my hand on his throat, tilting his head back so he  could see me standing behind him. His hands automatically flew up to prevent a strangle hold on my arm, but he didn’t pull me away, just starting to smile up at me.

I walked over, meaning only to talk to him, but those beautiful grey eyes capturing me. I leaned down and kissed him, upside down, the soft fuzz of a 5-o’clock shadow on his chin tickling my nose. One of his hands drifted up to my hair, running through it, and he held my arm with the other. He didn’t want me to let him go.

After a few seconds of sucking his tongue gently, I pulled away with a smile. The boy twisted around in his seat, hope in his eyes, but I only winked at him and melted back into the group of people dancing behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see he’d leaped over the chair to follow me, but his eyes were darting everywhere, not fixing on me. He couldn’t find me amongst all the people.

I smiled and blew him a kiss that he couldn’t see, then slipped back to my friends, hoping they’d been too occupied by the girls to notice the kiss. They were homophobes, every one of them, but they were my friends. I hid who I was from them, and they didn’t kill me, as simple as that.

At three o’clock, when the club was closing down, I stuck my hands in my pockets and walked the three blocks home, all the while remembering the feeling of his lips on mine. I hoped I could kiss him again sometime.

*

I stared at him the next evening, watching him as I was dancing with the girls, though there weren’t so many tonight. He watched me, his eyes never leaving me, that I saw.

Again, I excused myself from my friends, wondering how long I could do this. I slipped behind a surly-looking bouncer and a pissed-looking guy who was spitting at a man on the ground, hoping he couldn’t track me through the crowds. That would definitely ruin the surprise.

My hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned his head, looking up at me. “Hi,” I said, so quietly that I wasn’t sure he heard, and blushed.

“Hi,” he said at the same volume.

I let my hand slip down over his chest as the other went over his shoulder. I was leaning so that my weight was on him, my lips only an inch from his. I leaned a little closer and kissed him tenderly, my tongue barely touching his lips. He clung to my hand, but I smiled and let him go, vanishing into the crowd.

I returned to my friends, watching him, trying to be subtle about it. It seemed none of my friends had seen him with me, or, at least, didn’t want to make a fuss about it.

Three o’clock rolled around, the club closed, and I headed home, his kiss still sweetening my lips.

*

“Shane. Shane, the dude’s watching you again.”

I turned to look at the man I’d been kissing every night for the last fortnight. He was watching me, his grey eyes darkened by the dim lighting in the club. I looked him over, keeping my expression neutral for my friends, and winked at him. He blushed a little, and I smiled, turning back to my mate.

“So? He’s watching me, big deal.”

“Man, I don’t think you’ve seen the way he looks at you. Sometimes he looks like he wants to eat you.” Gary glanced at the guy, and I suddenly felt protective.

“Hey, man, back off. If he wants to look, then let him look. I don’t have a problem with it.”

Gary looked like he’d been forced to swallow a lemon whole. I shrugged and turned back to surveying the women around me, though none of them were even close to what I needed.

I needed a man.

More specifically, I needed the man on the other side of the dance floor, who was still watching me closely.

“I’ll be back, Gary,” I said, draining my drink and wandering off towards the bathrooms. When I saw he’d stopped watching me, I headed off into the crowd.

Maybe tonight I’d have the guts to ask the guy out, instead of just kissing him. Hell, maybe I’d even ask for his name.

I rested my hands on his shoulders, and he relaxed, leaning back.

“Why don’t you ever come at me from the front?” he asked, looking up at me with a smile.

“Because I don’t like coming from the front,” I whispered in his ear, letting my dark hair shield my face from Gary, who was bound to be watching my man closely.

I leaned in and kissed him softly, my tongue barely brushing his. I liked these kisses. They were sweet and gave me sweet dreams for the rest of the night, full of this man and his perfect lips.

“Hey,” he called, grabbing my arm as I turned to leave. “What’s your name?”

I smiled at him. “Shane.”

“I’m Soren.” He smiled back.

I leaned down to give him a quick peck on the lips, and he let me go. I slipped away, but I felt his eyes on me all the way back to my friends. I leaned against the counter, ordering another drink, and surveyed the women before me.

No, none of them could possibly compare to him.

I talked to him, I realised, feeling my grin spread across my face. What a perfect name for him. Soren.

Gary was looking at me funny, but I ignored him, letting some girl or other pull me off to the dance floor.

*

I searched through the people leaving the club, hoping to find Soren. I wanted to walk home with him, talk to him, maybe steal a few more kisses, but he wasn’t there. I thought I spotted him walking down the street, but it could have been anyone.

I said goodnight to the boys and headed off home, hands in my pockets, humming a tune. My ears were still ringing from the noise in the club, so I didn’t hear the car pull up behind me.

Three men grabbed me, hauling me to an alley, and I saw their faces in the streetlights. Gary, Stewart and Roger, my friends from the club.

“What’s going on, guys?”

“Shut up, fag,” Gary snapped, throwing me against the wall.

“What—?”

Gary slammed me in the mouth, and I felt my jaw break. I grabbed his hand as he went for another shot, and they hit me in the kidney. Once I was on my knees they used foot as well as fist, until I felt like I was dying.

There was pain everywhere, blinding pain. One of them kicked me in the throat, silencing anything I might have said.

They left me in the alley, feeling like death.

That was where he found me.

I was conscious, though I didn’t know how. I figured that the pain I was in had stopped my body from letting me faint, but I knew it was near. Black tainted the edges of my vision, and I barely noticed that he was kneeling beside me. Pain spiked in my neck and my jaw as me pulled my head onto his lap, and I hissed in pain. He steadied me, his hands lightly flying over my body, checking me out,

“Fuck,” he swore, then tried to straighten my nose. “Shit, Shane, who the fuck—”

“Gary,” I hissed, stiffening in pain as everything hurt. “Help.”

“I’m going to help, okay?” he searched through his pockets, but swore when he couldn’t find what he was searching for. “My phone. Fuck! I must have left it on home tonight. Of all the nights…”

Pain screamed its way to my head as I coughed, and something wet passed my lips. I knew it was blood. I was dying.

“Help,” I gasped.

He was quiet, his eyes darting. He sighed, closing his eyes. “I can’t get you to a hospital—you’ll bleed out before we get there. And I can’t leave you here, if those boys come back. There’s only one thing I can do.”

I stared at him, trying to focus my eyes. They were starting to swell shit with my broken nose. Or was I starting to lose it?

“Hey! Hey, Shane, stay with me.” He shook me gently, sending a surge of pain to my brain. It woke me up, and I stared up at him.

“Help.”

He was chewing his lip. “I have to turn you.”

I found the notion funny, even if I couldn’t physically laugh.

“Vamp…”

“No,” he said, his grey eyes turning a shocking blue in the darkness. It took me a second to realise that they were glowing. “Wolf. Try not to scream.”

I stared in horror as his head changed, bones crunching and blood dripping down from his mouth. He opened his mouth in a silent scream and the blood dripped down his muzzle from his fangs, which had grown to match the wolf’s head now sitting on Soren’s shoulders.

I tried to scramble back, to get away, but my arms and legs were broken; I could do nothing more than stare in horror.

The wolf-headed Soren looked down at me, his human hands gently stroking my face. I stopped trying to get away, too terrified. Instead, I let its croon and pet me, its blue eyes compassionate and caring in its canine face.

“Easy,” the wolf’s head said in Soren’s voice, “It’s still me here, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m gong to try and help you, but you have to relax, okay?”

I nodded, staring at the creature. Its misshaped face slurred the words, but they were still understandable. “‘Kay.”

The wolf’s eyes grew softer, and I felt myself relaxing more. He wouldn’t hurt me.

The wolf leaned down, sniffing at my ear. I trembled a little, how close its canine muzzle was to my neck, but relaxed as time went past—I don’t know how long—with it not doing anything.

Soren leaped forward, his sharp teeth sinking into the crease between shoulder and neck. I opened my mouth to scream, but the pain in my jaw shut me up, as did Soren’s blue eye right beside mine.

The pain was almost unbearable, but I had plenty of other pains. This wasn’t the only one I had. Too much of me was broken.

I felt Soren’s canine tongue lick gently at the bite wound, and I started to cry uncontrollably. This was just too much, I had to be dreaming. There was no way that this was real—

Ice spread through my veins. Soren pulled me to my feet, mindful of my broken legs, and swung me up into his arms. His head cracked and shrank down into his more human form, though his eyes still glowed blue. He smiled at me, walking deeper into the alley.

“I’ve got you, Shane. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Then the ice struck my heart, and I fainted.