First, let me give you a little background information. I grew up in Athens, Georgia. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the jokes that can be made from that. Anyway, when I was in high school, my family and I moved to Smyrna, Georgia. My dad had wanted to open up his own restaurant and he thought it would be a good place for it. And it was. Between my four brothers and me, we never really did without anything. My family was pretty well-rounded. I played sports, I was in the marching band in high school, I had boyfriends. Really, it was all good. I have no complaints, other than those that I can remember about be an adolescent stuck at home. You know, normal stuff.

Eventually, when I went off to college in Atlanta, my parents decided to retire. They moved to Florida and my brothers wound up moving away from Smyrna with their families. For some reason or another, I felt it was my obligation to go back and take care of the place. No one really said it was, but the relief I could feel coming from my parents when I told them was enough to tell me they had been thinking of asking me to do it.

So, there I was, living in Smyrna, running the diner and going to school at the local community college in my spare time. At this rate, it was going to take forever for me to graduate, but I was still determined to do it. My goal was to become a teacher, math in particular. Everyone thought it was a great idea, but something always felt wrong about the way they said it. They said it like it was an apology or something. Maybe they knew something I didn't? More than likely, they thought I'd be stuck at the diner for the rest of my life.

Now, up until "that night," the most exciting thing to ever happen to me was my move to Atlanta. And that didn't end so well if I was back in Smyrna.

That night...It was different. My car had broken down at the diner and I was there alone. Luckily, it was a small neighborhood, so I locked my car up and walked home. I was musing over just what could be wrong with my car, going over possible costs for repairs when I started noticing some footsteps behind me. Not like a person was following, not exactly - more like an animal, a dog or something, following behind me. Only, its steps were wrong. I can't explain it, but I knew something was wrong. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting to see a dog limping along there. But, no, every time I looked, there was nothing there.

I reached the gate of the fence that surrounded my run-down house and the steps stopped. Out of the corner of my eye, while I fumbled with the latch in my nervousness, I saw it. It was huge, beautiful...not a dog. It looked more like a wolf, if you can believe it. It wasn't breathing right, something about it told something in me that it was hurt; it needed shelter. The latch gave, the gate swinging open as I stood there. Instead of walking in and slamming my door shut like a normal person, I turned and walked towards the wolf. I talked to it, for whatever reason, in a calm soothing voice, just hoping that it wouldn't jump and attack me.

"Good boy...please don't kill me...I won't taste very good...oh, you look hurt..." I kept my voice soft, positive. My only intent was to not show fear. I figured if I showed any fear I was dead. It made sense to me, so I went with it. "Come inside and I'll get you all patched up, okay?"

With that, I turned back towards the gate, trying my hardest not to turn my back on the wolf completely. I headed up towards my door, pulling out my key to unlock it, holding it open for the wolf. At first, it didn't move, but then it came along, limping its way into my house. I had assumed the thing would sit on the floor for me, but no...He or she jumped up on to my couch. Who was I to argue with a wolf about where it wanted to sit? I went into my bathroom and came back out with some gauze bandages and some antiseptic. Sitting on my coffee table while the wolf stretched out over the sofa...yes, the whole sofa...I began cleansing the wounds. The wolf twitched under my ministrations and I was convinced I was about to lose my hand, my arm, maybe even my head. It was slow going since the wound was ragged and fairly deep, but I got it covered up with clean dressings and put all my supplies back into the bathroom.

When I got back out to the living room, the wolf had sat up, making room for me on the edge. It was kind of cool, I thought. Who was I to argue? I also thought it would make a great story to tell my dad the next time I spoke with him on the phone. I sat down on the couch and almost immediately, the wolf lay back down, stretching out on top of me! I held my breath at first, but then relaxed, running my hand carefully over its fur. By now, I had come to the obvious conclusion that the wolf was male...kind of hard to miss, honestly. While I stroked his fur, massaging him gently, my finger got hooked in a collar of sorts. He twitched slightly when I moved it around, finding a charm on it. I thought it might be one of those things with an owner's information on it, but it was not. It had some weird symbols on it, beautiful symbols that seemed to burn themselves into my memory. I dropped the charm and returned to petting him, lost in thought.

Soon, I turned on the television, trying to distract myself, but found I was too tired to stay there. I wanted to get up and go to bed, but the wolf had already fallen asleep, his snores soft and steady on my legs. The only thing I could really do was lean over, against the wolf's back to try and drift off to sleep.

I don't know how long I slept and it wasn't the most comfortable sleep I'd ever had. When I woke up, rubbing my eyes, something felt different...off. Dropping my hands from eyes, my vision slightly blurring from rubbing them, there was a man sitting on my coffee table! I jumped to my feet, diving over the table to get to the opposite side of the room. I looked around for the wolf, but didn't see him anywhere. This was not how I had intended on waking up...Really, even the wolf wasn't how I had intended on waking up!

He stood up, dressed in black jeans and a very nicely tailored shirt and turned to me. He had the nerve to thank me! Then he mentioned Shadow. He lifted up his shirt, revealing a wound that was almost fully healed. He claimed that he and Shadow were one and the same. He sounded rather sane. He looked even better. But, seriously? He was going to come at me with this ludicrous information? The sad thing? I actually believed him. He could describe everything that had happened the night before. He knew what I had said to the wolf...I felt like a moron.

Then he smiled. Those eyes...that scent that I couldn't describe...I felt like I was drugged.