Disclaimer: I do not own Skinwalkers nor its characters. They belong to LGF, After Dark, and whoever else screwed the movie up.

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Almost Never

"Why aren't you happy? Your fears were all proven wrong. You're free of them now. Shouldn't you be happy?"

I can't help but smile at the sincerity of his question; without any spite or sarcasm, his words are honest and open and touching. Yet the effort it takes tells me I can't make the smile reach my eyes.

He looks so concerned even as he looks so perfect.

I've never seen him like this before. I've never seen him look so…pure.

Or maybe this is how I've always seen him, since the moment he saved me. Since the moment he gave me life with a kiss full of fangs. Perhaps this is how I've always viewed him.

He looks beautiful though. So beautifully concerned about me.

The sight makes me want to cry.

"Why aren't you happy?" he asks me again. His voice is soft and gentle even though they come out inhumanly guttural.

If wolves could speak…oh, I know they would sound as beautiful as he does.

"Because this never lasts."

He smiles then, and I wonder if his bittersweet smile mirrors my own. "I know." The claws tipping his fingers delicately brush strands of hair from my eyes, and he leans forward; close enough that I can almost smell him.

I remember hearing that the sense closest tied to memory is your sense of smell, and I know it's true.

"I miss you."

"I know," he whispers. He kisses me and I can almost feel it. I can almost taste the musky, wild taste that is purely his.

I know I'm crying, because my cheeks feel wet, and I start to cry against his skin that I can almost touch. I don't have much more time with him, and it breaks my heart, because I'm closer to him than I have been in so, so long.

Than I have been since the last time he was real.

"Be happy," he whispers, and the ghost begins to fade away. "You're alive, and you're free. It's what you wanted." And he's gone.

I wake from a world of silver moonlit woods and the gentle song of a nearby creek to the dark, noisy world I hide away in while my wounds heal. The tears I shed in my dreams are the only things that last.

And I never get to tell him. "All I want is you."