I remember a splash of red on the snow.

I remember the twitch of a paler-than-usual finger.

I remember the press of a warm nose, the pattering of feet, and more warm spots. They were all pressed around me, first one, then three. I was terrified enough to feel one snout, but three was almost too much.

Three wolves. A whole pack, pressed up to me, sniffing me, nipping me, licking at the gushing wound that the first one had caused.

The first wolf. My weary, tired eyes sought him out as they fought to stay open. I didn't like him. He had wild blue eyes, a whitish-yellowish coat that stuck up in all directions, and he couldn't keep still. Even while he was biting at me, the rest of his body kept jumping back and forth, from side to side. And he was huge.

The second one to come, he was more relaxed. He had a brown, slightly bushy, but well-groomed coat, one that matched his chocolate eyes. He was much more calm, but still seemed a bit….playful, even as he circled me and watched me like prey.

Which, in all fairness, I supposed I was.

I was an innocent little boy, no older than eight. I remember my eyes drifting to the swing set that had been given to be for just that birthday, a week earlier. It was covered in snow now. Even though I was told I was growing, I didn't believe it. I still don't, even if I'm not quite the little boy I was then. I still get mistaken for a girl, even without the pre-pubescence of youth to explain away my lack of breasts. At least back then that could be explained.

Anyway.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted to pull myself up and force my legs to take me home, my safe, warm home, that was just a few yards away. But I couldn't.

I couldn't muster up enough strength to sit up, much less run to the house. I'd lost too much blood. Much too much blood. The snow around me was stained with it, creating a pool, a pond, a river of blood. All I could do was lay there numbly, staring up at the sky, and wait for the end to come.

Eight-year-old me had never been told in so many words to be scared of the creatures that lived in the woods behind my house. There were plenty of animals to be feared, for sure- wolves, bears, foxes, deers. The list went on and on. Any animal desperate enough in the frost of winter could be a predator. That being said, we were always the ones- humans- who took over their territory. A certain respect ought to always be held for them, right? As long as I had respect for them and kept my distance, nothing could go wrong.

Then I heard more footsteps. More? Weren't two wolves enough? Even at eight, I knew that I didn't want a painful death, and two wolves were more than enough to tear me limb from limb. The large, almost white one had already proven that. The large hole in my leg had already proven that.

The two wolves that had been….nosing me, stepped back. Another came forward.

I was half-dead. A good amount of my blood was strewn on the snow around me. The crazed wolf hadn't been merciful.

But, even through my glazed eyes, I could tell that something was different about this last wolf. The way he walked, the way that he carried himself, the way the others backed off as he approached. Everything screamed 'alpha male.' A term I wasn't familiar with, but a power that I could feel.

He approached me, eyes low to the ground. Eyes the colour of a stormy sea, a churning ocean. A deep, deep blue, with more than just a hint of green. The stoic eyes studied my own purple ones, and I could do nothing but stare listlessly back.

He brought his nose closer to me and sniffed. He sniffed at my palm, at my wrist. He circled me. He pawed at my bloodied and still bleeding leg. He stared.

Then he lifted his head and made a low noise to the other wolves, and their heads snapped back up. A quiet growl was heard from the insane-looking wolf, but he stepped away from my bruised body after a long moment. The brown wolf looked intently at the leader for a bit longer, then bowed his head and also stepped away.

I continued staring at the green-eyed wolf, unable to move my head in either direction. His coat was semi-short, not as bushy as the brown wolf's admittedly boring one, nor as wild and untamed as the blonde's. It was a white, almost light blonde colour. Almost similar to the crazed. He was beautiful.

My breath caught in my throat when he looked back at me. His stormy eyes looked almost intelligent in the way that they looked me up and down, appraising me. Not like I was a meal, but as though I was worth something to him. I just stared back.

Then, just like the others, he backed away. Unlike the others, however, he watched me the whole way, his eyes never leaving mine as he slowly backed his way into the woods.

I never looked away, never turned my head, hardly even blinked until he was out of sight. Then, and only then, did I let my eyes start to flutter shut. Only then did I let myself start to fade into the blackness. But it wasn't until I heard my cousin's voice screaming out for me that I let myself totally succumb to the darkness only lit by a pair of tempest-tinted eyes.

A/N: Hello all! Welcome to the re-re-re-working of an old story of mine. If you look in my profile you can still see the single chapter of it that I have left, just an author's note at this point. 2011 was when I first started it, then promptly gave up. It was based on the book "Shiver," and I guess it technically still loosely is. But I haven't read the book in forever, so we'll see how closely it follows it when I start just writing what I want.
But ya'll don't care about that. Welcome old and new readers! I have the first three chapters re-worked. The first two are short little things, then the third one is quite a bit longer because I took the third and fourth chapters of the original one and condensed them into one.
But you don't care about that either. I'll upload the second chapter sometime tomorrow or the day after, then the third chapter probably next week. That gives me some time to work on the fourth chapter. No promises on length for that one.
Please leave some reviews, even though I know there isn't much to work with!