He's running. I'm trying to enjoy the running with him. He lets me feel the air on our face, ruffling through the fur on our back. It almost feels like when Abel scratched it. The wolf liked that. He's annoyed we're not always shifting at home now, but I don't want that. Not until he learns not to piss in the corners.

He's happy tonight. The air is getting cooler, and the wolf enjoys the cold much more than the heat. It's in the autumn he starts becoming himself, the transformation finished come winter.

We're on much better terms this time around. We're not battling for control. I let him do his thing and he lets me watch. Lets me learn. I don't find his running as annoyingly bothersome either. It's actually kind of fun. I can see why he enjoys it.

We stop by a stream, dipping our paws into it. The wolf makes a content grunt and laps a few sips of water into his mouth. Then something catches his scent. He knows what it is immediately. Smells weird.

I woke up in the woods. My body was aching, and I didn't understand a thing. We had been on such good terms and then he pushed me out. My head was aching, and I couldn't remember anything after the stream. Bastard.

I struggled to my feet, painfully aware of how much it hurt to walk on the withered pine-covered floor. I didn't even know where I was, and I had no clue how to get back. This wasn't a part of the forest I'd been to before.

I groaned out of frustration and looked to the sky. Right. The sun sets in the west, and my house... What the fuck was I even on about, I knew fuckall about the direction of my house.

"You lost, boy?"

I froze, something cold drippling down my spine. I turned slowly to find an old woman standing beneath one of the smaller pine trees.

"Uh..."

"We've all been there, deary. Come. I'll help you with some clothes."

I didn't even know what to say or what to do. I think she could tell because she waved at me, rushing me to follow her. So... I did. At the very least she could maybe help me find some clothes.

I folded my arms over my chest, trying to hide it as I came closer. I didn't even care about covering anything but my scars.

"You don't have to cover those, little one."

"I don't like showing them."

"We've all got them somewhere. It's to remind us, what sacrifice we've made to receive the gift."

I frowned at her. She lifted her shawl from her arm, exposing grey skin riddled with scars. And then she took her shawl off, offering it to me.

"You're a wolf too," I said with a low voice, taking the shawl from her.

"Yes. These have been my woods alone for a long time."

"I thought the wolves had been run out."

"They had. But try telling an already old lady what she should do, and you'll see the problem they faced." She smiled a crooked smile at me and laughed a hoarse laugh. She had snow white hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, hairs sticking out everywhere from it and to be honest, if this was a movie, she'd be the witch in the forest.

But she wasn't a witch. She was a wolf. Just like me.

"I've... Never met another wolf before."

"I figured. You're very young. You shouldn't have been turned this young."

"I'm twenty-one."

"And how old is your wolf?"

I swallowed something. "Uh, I was turned three years ago if that's what you wanna know."

"Eighteen. That's no age at all."

I shrugged and pulled the shawl closer around my shoulders. "Do you know the way back to the city?"

"Yes. But maybe you'd want a change of clothes first? My cabin is right over here."

"Uh yeah, that'd be great."

"You need to be better prepared. How have you found home before?"

"I know the forest pretty well around my house and the wolf usually doesn't drift this far. He knows his own territory."

"Seems like he wanted to expand."

I shrugged. "Who knows what goes through that moron's head."

The woman laughed which honestly sounded more like floorboards creaking than a human laugh. We came to a clearing in the forest, exposing a little cabin, which looked like something straight out of a fairytale.

"Why live all the way out here and not in the town?" I asked and gently put my hand on the door frame, following the woman inside.

It was a cute little house. Decorated with framed crocheted pictures of different motivational quotes, flowers in vases everywhere, floral patterned doilies and pillows. Basically, looked like if you ever searched for images of an old woman's home, her home would show up. It was cute and the ceilings were low. Even I had to duck under the frame of the front door, and I wasn't even that tall.

"You learn to love solitude when you're forced into it." She shrugged at me and then found a pair of dark blue sweats and a yellow t-shirt from a built-in closet in the small hallway. Would've thought it was a door to another room, but no, it was a small closet.

The clothes were fine. Something I definitely didn't think was originally hers.

"Besides, wolves find their way here more often than you'd think. Very few sticks around. But I like helping little cubs like yourself."

I bit the inside of my cheek and got clothed. And then I didn't know what to do because I was just standing there now. And she was also just standing there, watching me.

"I... I need to get home now."

"Yes. I will drive you. Come."

She drove me home in a red rusty truck, I was sure would break down any second. It didn't, fortunately, and I was taken almost all the way to my front door. I had her stop a street away as I didn't want her knowing where I lived. There was something about her that didn't sit right with me. I didn't want her in my home.

I watched her drive off and then I went to my own house. I found Abel inside, making coffee, having set the table with flowers and waffles. I was about to burst out crying when he turned around, wearing my ugly flower-printed apron, spatula in hand and flour on his cheeks. I went to him, grabbed his flour-filled face and got him to bend down, so I could kiss him. He put his free hand on my lower back, pressing me to him.

"Welcome home. Had a good run?" he asked against my lips and pulled back, smiling down at me.

I ran my fingers over his cheeks, removing the flour.

"I've made breakfast," he said. "I figured you'd be starving by now."

"Oh god, I am. How do you know how to make waffles?"

"My father." He smiled brightly. "We don't need to eat, but my dad and I always loved cooking. And eating. He'd take me to as many countries as he could, just so we could taste as many dishes as possible."

I kissed him again before letting him go. "I'd love to meet him."

"Actually, he'd love to meet you too. He's... Coming to visit soon." Abel bit down on his lip and fiddled with the edge of the apron. "He hasn't visited since I started my master's. Haven't actually seen him for a good while now."

"How come?"

"He's been away. He just doesn't realise time means something when you haven't lived for hundreds of years."

"How old is he exactly?"

Abel grabbed my shoulders and steered me to the small dining table in the kitchen, sitting me down by it.

"I don't know, but he does speak Ancient Greek. He has learned the more modern language and slang as well, as he stays in Greece the majority of the time. But he's that old."

"Does... Does it ever feel weird that your parents are probably over a thousand years old?"

Abel shrugged and poured syrup over my waffles. Where did he get the waffle iron from?

"Not really. Feels normal to me, but I've grown up with it and other vampires where age doesn't really... Matter. When you turn one hundred, there's a big party and after that most stop counting. Your first hundred years is what defines you, in our culture."

"I can't imagine. Like we use age as markers here, you know? You gotta be this at eighteen, this by twenty, this and that by twenty-five. Must be liberating not having to think like that."

"I guess? I don't feel like I'm in any kind of hurry." He poured me some coffee and smiled, waiting for me to try the waffles.

I cut a piece off of one and stuffed it in my mouth. The absolute joy it released was indescribable. Abel was a fabulous cook. It was fluffy and crispy at the same time. I had no idea how he did that.

I considered if I should tell him about the wolf in the forest, but... I had a feeling her existence was a secret. That she didn't want anyone to know about her but me. And I felt oddly protective of her. I decided not to say anything about her when Abel asked where I had been last night and if it had been hard to get home. I also said I had nicked the clothes from a clothing line outside somebody's house.

I didn't like lying and I never had. Especially because at a young age I had found out I was a good one. I could tell someone whatever I wanted, and they'd believe it. But it didn't feel good to deceive people. Also, why I had moved around so much after getting turned. I always felt like I was lying. It's what had made me so happy about being with Abel. I didn't have to lie but now I was.

And I hated myself for it.