A/N:First off, Happy Thanksgiving!
So…for some odd reason, my supernatural story idea and need tends to peak around the holiday season. It's so strange but every year around this time I feel almost compelled to write some story regarding wolves or vampires, or what not. My last story I do believe was 'Secrets That We Keep' and as my writing has gradually improved since then so I'm hoping this story will be even more excited than that.
In regards to the others, don't worry, I haven't forgotten anything and I'll get to it when my muse wants me to. She has a mind of her own, that muse.
Sorry I've been MIA for a little while. I recently spent some vacation time with a very special someone and I'm just getting back from that.
Anyhow, enough of my rambling, hope you all enjoy this ride.
Disclaimer: Any unoriginal character that is used in this work does not belong to me.
Abigail Carmichael scowls in disdain, the spot from her flashlight slightly shaking against the ground as her hands tremble from the cold. She heaves an exaggerated sigh, her cheeks puffing out in the process as the action admits a small cloud of air, visualizing her breath in the near night.
"Fucking outdoors…making me look for goddamn firewood in the middle of goddamn nowhere…" she grumbles, her eyes scanning the ground for any useful yet manageable piece of wood that she can take back to camp for the fire. So far she has only gathered a measly set of twigs that she know won't do any good.
The leaves underneath the snow covered ground crunch underneath her boots as she pauses and stoops over to pick up a small stack of twigs that only slightly aid to her pitiful collection. "Better than nothing…" she reasons with a shrug, standing up straight only to let out a small frightened squeak when she comes face to face with a foreign object that she soon recognizes as a low hanging branch.
"Damn city's done went and turned me soft." She mutters, shaking her head and chuckling slightly at her petty fright before she reaches up and begins attempting to break off a more smaller part of the branch. A victorious sound escapes her lips, only for it to be muffled by a small pile of snow dropping onto her head from the disturbance of the tree. Thank god for her beanie and thank god even more for there not being anyone around to witness her struggle in the woods.
Adding the baby tree branch to her collection, Abbie decides that she's got enough for her to head back to camp. If this isn't enough then the fire is just going to have to make due with what it's got because it's far too cold to be hunting for wood in the dark not to mention, alone. At least, that's what Abbie thinks.
Just as she is about to turn around to head back, she hears the feint noise of a twig snapping which causes her to pause. Listening intently, she looks around, attempting to pick up on any kind of noise that may be around. After a few seconds, she shrugs it off as nothing and is about to take her first step when she hears the twig again.
"Damnit, Carmichael, you're freaking yourself out." she grumbles, shaking her head once more as she sets off back to camp. She has taken about ten steps forward when the snapping is heard a third time, followed by what she swears is a low growl. "What the hell?"
Shinning her flashlight around, Abbie tries to ignore the sound of her heart thumping in her ears. She shines her light past a stock of trees, flickering back immediately when she is met with a pair of glowing yellow eyes.
"Shit!" she hisses loudly, her hands shaking violently as the growling continue while the owner of the eyes slowly steps out into the clearing. Abbie gulps and takes a step back only to trip over a tree root and fall onto her bottom, while her eyes taken in the appearance of the brownish colored wolf, eyeing her with intensity.
About a million and one thoughts run through Abbie's brain as she attempts to figure out whether or not she's supposed to run in a situation like this. She remembers reading something about what to do in a bear sighting but she isn't sure if the same thing applies to wolves which are probably much faster than bears are anyway.
The wolf continues to watch the brunette intently, digging it's pause into the snowy ground as it's lips curl back to revel a set of long pointy teeth. It takes a half step towards the terrified human, testing her to see if she's smart enough to run. An almost smirk like expression crosses the wolf's face when it is reward with a small shriek. A growl escapes it's lips as it takes one full step forward only to growl once more when the human scrambles to her feet and takes off into a full on sprint, twigs and logs forgotten.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Abbie repeats, not giving a damn that she forgot her twigs and her flashlight. She's pretty sure she knows the way back and even if she doesn't, she hopes that she has enough energy to out run the furry monster. "Oh goddamn it! Why do these types of things always happen to me!?"
The thudding sound of boots against the ground only spur the wolf forward, though it doesn't make any motion to move into the attack position. It wants to give the human a good scare for a bit before really getting down to business. It's not every day a foolish human wanders into the woods alone at night.
It watches in slight amusement as the human scrambles over a fallen tree, something that it pounces over with ease, landing onto the snow ground with a satisfying thud. Leaves and twigs snap repeatedly underneath it's pause as it continues its chase; a chase that is going to be successful by the end of the night.
Allowing the human to struggle over yet another fallen tree, the wolf pounces atop of the trunk, planting its hind legs into the bark as it prepares to pounce once again, closing the distance between it and the human. Just as it pounces, a great forces strikes it midair, sending it slamming against a tree in the opposite direction. It snarls, showing its teeth and attempting to wiggle free, only to be met with a much greater snarl and a paw firmly pinning its head to the ground.
Abbie, who is by now a blubbering mess, practically dives through the familiar clearing and skids back in to camp, her snow drift putting out what was the beginning of what looked like what was going to be a successful fire.
"Oh, Abbie, c'mon! It took me forever to get that started." Casey Novak exclaims, putting down her fire starting tools in defeat as she sends her best friend a glare.
"The thing, that-that thing!" Abbie squeaks, scrambling to her feet as she all but climbs into Olivia Benson's lap, earning a grunt of disgust from the woman in question. "That thing tried to kill me! It was gonna eat my beautiful face!"
"What thing? And where's the firewood?" Casey questions, standing up to peer in the general direction that she had seen Abbie run from.
"That big ass wolf! God it was fucking huge!" Abbie exclaims, scooting further into Liv's lap as she wraps her arms around her head. "I dropped all the twigs when it chased me through the woods."
"Way to go Tex…" Liv grumbles, practically prying the southerner off of her before letting her fall to the ground.
"Way to go?!" Abbie screeches, standing up and pointing to the general direction of the woods. "That big ass monster just had me run for my life and you're worried about a pile of freaking twigs!? What if it had eaten me?!"
"Then maybe it could've brought us the wood…"
"Oh now Benson has jokes? Listen here you little-"
"Stop it!" Casey exclaims, snapping between the two. She takes a deep breath and pinches her noise before turning towards Abbie. "Abbie, are you sure what you saw was a wolf? There aren't supposed to be any wolves out here. Bears maybe, coyotes maybe, but no wolves."
Rolling her eyes, Abbie takes off her beanie and throws it to the ground in frustration. "I swear on my Mama's life that what just had me running like a headless chicken was a wolf! It was the biggest wolf I've ever seen. Granted, it was the only wolf I've ever seen but I'm sure that if I had seen one before now, this one would be the biggest!"
There is a small silence as Casey and Olivia share a look before Liv is the one who sighs and speaks up first. "Okay Abbie, say that you did see a wolf. The main point here is that there isn't any firewood and if there isn't any firewood there's no fire. And if there is no fire that means we all freeze out here and then the wolves will be having 'us-cicles' for dinner..."
"Abbs, where'd the wolf go?" Casey asks curiously, she too knows fairly well that there aren't any wolves in these woods. At least, there shouldn't be any wolves in these woods. She's just asking for her own peace of mind; better safe than sorry right?
"No idea." Abbie responds, shaking her head tiredly. "I was out there collecting some wood like you guys said and when I started to head back, I shined my light and found the two scariest pair of eyes looking back at me. Then I started running, because what else was I gonna do? I heard it chasing me because it was stepping on everything and right when I got here, I heard a thud, a bunch of snarling and barking and it was gone. And to think I was this close to being a chew toy…"
"Yeah, if the wolf was into the whiskey and tobacco flavor." Olivia snorts, barking out a laugh at her own joke only to scowl when she is met face first with a wad of snow. She scoops some snow into her hands and flings it in Abbie's general direction only for the brunette to duck out of the way at the last minute for the slush to hit Casey square in the head.
"You two…" Casey grumbles, shudder as the snow seeps down into her shirt. Honestly, a camping trip with her two best friends was most definitely not supposed to turn in to a comedy circus. "Look, I've got the fire restarted. Let's just have some dinner and get some sleep."
"But what about the…"
"There aren't any wolves out here…"
"Fine." Abbie relents, folding her arms tightly, partly because of the cold but the other part being her childlike defiance. "But if there are any wolves, I saw we offer em Liv to eat. I'm sure they prefer the butch detective flavor over mine any day."
The loud banging of the door causes the blonde napping cross the couch to startle. She sits up, just in time to see a glaring brunette stalk through the living room with a small but visible red scratch across the side of her cheek. Though she knows that the wound will heal within a matter of minutes she can't help but be concerned by what caused it.
"What happened to you?" Serena Southerlyn asks with pure curiosity, only for a small smirk to tug at her lips a few seconds later. "Get whacked with a tree branch again?"
Kim Greylek's grown curls into a full out snarl as she flips the blonde off and rolls her eyes. "No. Your alpha just decided it was time for heroics and ruin my late night snack."
"If I'm her alpha then clearly I am your alpha too."A cold and stern voice states with a small hint of dry humor as a tall blonde strides into the room, smirk firmly in place. "Unless of course, you'd like to challenge that?"
Kim is just itching for a response, but she knows better and simply shakes her head as she rolls her eyes once more. "It doesn't matter. You didn't have to do what you did…it's not like I was gonna eat her…"
"Kim you were chasing and snarling, what was I supposed to think?" Alex Cabot responds firmly, her smile having faded.
"I just wanted to scare her…maybe get a little nibble in, but not enough to cause any lasting damage."
"Kim it's wrong and you know that. The humans are allies."
"Yet they shoot at us the first chance they get." Kim snorts, shaking her head in response. "Or did you forget what happened to your mother?"
The silence is heavy, and Serena has about three seconds to react before she finds herself diving in between the two women, utilizing every last bit over her strength to keep them apart. "Stop it!" she exclaims, grunting as she plants her feet firmer on the ground to keep from budging. "You two always do this and frankly, it's starting to get annoying. So what Kim chased the human, it's not like any harm was done."
"This time." Alex all but growls, snatching away as she is still reeling from the comment about her mother. "You have not been raised to act like barbarians. You will respect my decisions. Just try defying me again and see if you come out with just a scratch on your face."
Kim's hand involuntarily travels to the now healed scratch that was on her cheek. She and Serena watch in silence as Alex storms past them without another word, retreating out the back door of their cabin.
"You really shouldn't have said what you did about her mother." Serena says quietly, breaking the heavy silence after a few moments. "You know she's only trying to be the woman Alice raised her to be."
"And I make a valiant point." Kim retorts. "Alice is dead because of the humans. How are we supposed to see them as allies after that?"
Serena sees Kim's point and her shoulders slump as she sighs heavily. "I know…but Alex is in charge, and we have to listen to her and respect her decisions."
"I know…" Kim responds shaking her head as she folds her arms tightly. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."
Hope you guys like this little intro chapter. Things will start to get pretty interesting next chapter. Leave your thoughts!