Page 7 of Baiting the Werewolf

The wolf takes another step towards me. I squeeze my eyes shut. Fuck, why couldn’t I have just stayed home? Why couldn’t I have talked to Logan like a normal person? Why couldn’t I have asked why he was avoiding me?

I was afraid. That’s what it all boils down to. I was afraid of more lies. Of his rejection. His dismissal. I was afraid he'd leave me.

I’m still afraid. And the worst part is I’d never know why he was lying to me.

At least, they probably won’t hurt him if they’re full after eating me.

The rustling grows louder, and I stand there, frozen. Waiting. For claws? For those teeth to finish the job quickly? For an angel to descend from heaven I didn’t even believe in until this very second to come and save me? I don’t know.

My body shivers with raw fear. The kind I’ve never felt in my life.

I hear more footsteps approaching. A chill runs down my spine.

Probably the last feeling I’ll ever experience.

With the last steps, I imagine the wolf jumping up to dive on me.

I curl in on myself, keeping my eyes firmly shut.

There’s another growl. This time, the earth shakes with its vibrations. The trees rustle violently. Then a gust of wind sweeps through.

Then… nothing.

No claws. No teeth. I sit there, huddled in on myself in my now-dripping clothes. I don’t even know when I sat down. Maybe some lingering survival instinct kicking in a few hours too late.

I unclench my hands and slowly blink my eyes open.

It takes me a minute to process the scene in front of me. The wolves are still there. But they’re fighting with each other? To decide which one will get to eat me?

I scramble back, away from the action. Plastering myself against a tree, I watch the most random fight unfolding in front of my eyes. Then I spot him.

Jacob.

The wolf who's been visiting me for as long as I can remember. I realize that sounds insane, but I've long since accepted I attract the most random shit. In this case, random giant animals who don't behave like animals.

Jacob, named after everyone’s favorite character from the early-aughts sensation Twilight, first showed up in my backyard when I turned fifteen. I screamed as soon as I spotted him and ran back inside, watching him from the window until he padded away.

He didn't grace me with his presence for the next two years. Then he came back the day Mom died. We'd just come back from the hospice, and I wanted to be away from everything. So, I sat in the backyard looking at Mom's favorite flowers.

I didn't scream when I saw him that time. I didn’t run. Just sat there waiting. For what? I didn’t even want to wonder.

But he didn't eat me. Just walked toward me slowly. Carefully. With his head down.

For a second, I was worried he'd destroy the flowers. He didn't. Just folded his giant body to sit beside me.

I didn’t move for a very long time. Just stared at the flowers, letting the tears I'd been holding back for months flow.

He didn't move either and stayed with me for hours. Just sitting there, resting his head on the ground beside the flowers.

When my dad called me for dinner, he disappeared before I could make sense of any of it.

Jacob took that day as permission to show up any time he damn well pleased. Weirdly, it was often when I needed him. Like the days when watching Dad drink himself to coma got too much. Or the day when Marissa brought her homophobic boyfriend home.

She broke up with him soon after. And Dad cleaned up his act too.

But Jacob kept showing up to help me. He was there the day I got too drunk in college in a new city and lost my way home. He patiently herded me back. But that one had to be a hallucination.

He was there when my first boyfriend cheated on me with a girl. Even on the day I tried to wear a grey turtleneck sweater to class. Like he knew I could never pull that shit off.