In the forest behind the house everything was quiet, there wasn't even a crow croaking like everyday. The silence was broken by a scared squeak of a squirrel, followed by a light stamping of leaves.

The wolf stopped to smell the air, moving his grey, fluffy tail back and forth like he was cleaning dust away. Then, cautiously, he entered the wooden hovel next to the house.

This smell is worse than the one of a female in heat... food?

No food. His stomach grumbled.

A sound of footsteps.

Shane quickly turned around to see if it was the human who lived in the house. It was him. A weird guy, tall and muscular, whose hair was black like the feathers of a crow and whose eyes were red like the blood of the deers.

The wolf snapped his teeth, menacing. The boy looked at him with no particular expression, then lowered himself on the heels.

- Hey - he said. He had a hoarse voice, like a growl from the depth of the throat. Shane kept being defensive, relaxing just a bit. - There's nothing to eat, here.

I can see that too...

- Are you hungry?

Shane gurgled in affirmation.

- I'll bring you something to eat - said the boy, going back in the house. The wolf ran away and disappeared in the forest.

Chase came back in the hovel that he used as a closet, with a skimpy piece of meat in his hand. The wolf with golden eyes wasn't there anymore. On the ground, only confused footprints.

He shrugged and left the meat in the hovel. He was sure: the wolf would come back.

That evening the dark haired boy waited a long time for the wolf, peeking continuously outside the window while he had dinner. The animal didn't come.

The night came. Shane trotted along his favorite tree, the one which delimited his territory, and smelled it. Nothing new. He went cautiously to the human's house, the human with the irresistible smell.

He went under his window and then got up to put his paws on the edge of the window. Chase was sleeping, illuminated by the soft light of the moon.

Something in him made him mark the house and the hovel as a part of his territory. The next move was to mark the human, if he was worthy of his trust and ready to deal with a special wolf like him.

The boy suddendly lifted his head and turned to the window.

- Ah, it's you - he said, calm. They stared at each other for a bit, then the wolf decided that it was enough and disappeared in his house, the forest.

While he stared and was stared at by Chase, an indefinable sensation shook the depth of his (empty) stomach. He wasn't a simple human, he wasn't like him but... he was different.

Shane found an annoying fox in his bed, which he chased away with a growl. The fox turned around just one time, before looking for a shelter owned by someone but not used.

- Don't fall in love with humans, they will never understand you - it alerted him. Shane snapped his jaws near its reddish face.

~~~

In the following days he forced himself not to wander around that place too much, even though the presence of the human attracted him. Surely it was because he left him some fresh meat everyday, meat that he smelled a bit and never ate completely.

That morning he decided to go hunting, he had smelled for some time a female deer with its baby. He followed them for a lot of time, while trying to control the hunger that weakened him in a obvious way.

In the exact moment that he decided to attack the mother (the baby could wait, it wasn't like the usual agile and tender but it was skinny and trembling) and tried to jump on her, the male deer came.

Damn it, I didn't hear it...

The deer immediately pointed its anything but reassuring horns towards him and, even though Shane managed to dodge some blows, resolute not to give up his lunch, he was eventually hit on the chest by the deer's sharp horns. The blow left him breathless; he started bleeding copiously.

This is the end for the lone, haughty wolves like you...

He suppressed a yelp and ran away. Where could he go, before transforming himself? In a form or in the other he was going to die anyway, without help.

He ran to the hovel. The door was ajar as always. He went in, collapsing clumsily on the ground; his bulky body started getting smaller. His view became black and a suffocated moan escaped from his mouth not canine anymore.

A moment later the door opened.

- Oh my God! - squeaked Chase, bringing his hands to his face. In front of him there was a beautiful... naked boy, with a big, bleeding wound on his chest. He was about to take him inside the house, when he opened his golden eyes and stared at him with death in them.

- Help... me - he whispered, desperate. The dark haired boy picked him up with no effort and put him down on his bed, before taking care of his wound. He was so skinny that he could count his ribs.

- What's your name? - he asked him. The brown haired boy gave him a pained look and didn't answer. Chase was sure that he was that wolf, his wolf, no one had golden eyes like him.

- I'm thirsty - growled the wolf-boy. It wasn't weird, for him. He talked hardly ever, so it was natural for him to express himself like he did in his other form.

- Don't move - said Chase, and came back not even a minute later with a glass of water that he made him drink slowly. - What happened to you?

But Shane was asleep. The dark haired boy watched him until the night came. He was so beautiful, the most beautiful boy.

Chase decided to sleep on the couch and went in the living room. The wolf-boy opened his eyes and shook the covers away, then left the bed. The wooden floor was strange under his bare foot. He stretched, trying to make the less noise possible. His chest hurt as ever where that damn deer hit him.

Wolf, wolf, wolf..., he thought. A second later the boy with brown hair and golden eyes disappeared and the big grey wolf appeared. The hair on his chest was spotted with dry blood and he had a strange medication that he tore off with his teeth.

He trotted quietly to the door. His savior was asleep.

The door was closed.

Damn it.

There was nothing to do but try to open it with his head. A grumbling stopped him.

- Do you thank like this the person who saved you? - asked Chase, laying on his stomach and staring at him, expressionless.

The wolf wagged his tail.

- I understand, you ungrateful creature. What's your name?

The animal growled and writhed, but kept standing.

- Shane - he said. His voice was very different from his human one that he heard before.

- Shane - repeated Chase. - You know how, I mean, you can talk, Shane?

The wolf writhed again and shook his head.

- Will you come back? - insisted the boy with red eyes.

Shane wagged his tail again and turned towards the door. It took him only a hit with his head to open it. The last thing that Chase saw of his wolf was his thick, fluffy tail.

He'll come back, he told himself. And he believed it.