With regionals a couple of weeks away, it was a rarity for Rachel to be home before anyone else. But her last class had been cancelled and today was a day off from practice, she needed to give her voice some rest. The last thing she needed was another throat infection. She opens the front door and winces at the sound coming from the garage. Carlos—her step father had insisted that they not use the garage for a few days while the wolf was healing but the poor thing sounded like it was being tortured.

She sighs slightly and pokes her head into the garage where the wolf was currently gnawing on the bars before sitting back and smacking the bars with its paws, whining. The wolf's ears flick over to her and it's whining ramps up before it begins to howl balefully at her.

"You poor thing," Rachel coos, the sight was horrific and brought to mind all the horrid conditions that chickens lived in just to pump out a few eggs. The cage looked far too small for a majestic creature like that and she takes a step towards the cage, only for the wolf to growl at her.

Rachel stops for a moment, she had heard her mom arguing with her step-dad about how dangerous it was, and how it was a terrible accident waiting to happen but she had seen how the wolf seemed to enjoy Santana's company, and playing with her. She pauses for a moment before realizing that the trick was probably that Santana seemed to feed him non-stop. He had probably come to recognize her as the bringer of snacks. She could totally do that, to prove to Santana that she wasn't that special. "I'll be right back with food," she informs the wolf in an even tone and the wolf stops growling and immediately sits down and smacks it's water bowl.

Rachel laughs, it seemed to understand that one word more than anything. She hums and heads to the kitchen looking around and making a face at the roast that was thawing on the counter. She didn't understand why her family insisted on eating meat. They certainly didn't need to and her vegan lifestyle was far more healthy. She pops open the fridge and grabs the bag of baby carrots and a bell pepper and some broccoli and cauliflower, washing it and cutting it into small easier to eat pieces. She puts it all in the dog dish that Santana had washed in the morning and heads back to the caged up wolf.

"It's okay, see I brought you food!" Rachel whispers quietly and carefully carrying the dog dish filled with the fresh veggies. She smiles when the wolf sits up and approaches the front of the cage, it's tail wagging happily. She laughs when it licks its nose and tries to walk up to her and bumps into the cage again.

Rachel makes it to the cage and looks at the wolf whose tail had stopped wagging and seemed to be studying her carefully. "I'm not going to hurt you, I got you food. Yummy veggies that will help you heal and make you big and strong." Rachel promises as she begins to fiddle with the cage. "Come on, I know you're hungry so come get something to eat," she coos. Maybe she can convince Carlos that the wolf needed to be let free, this was no place for a creature such as this.

Rachel finally gets the cage open and places the veggies in the far corner closest to the door. She wanted to help this creature, but she also wasn't stupid. Santana had talked on and on about this dog and if it liked Santana then surely it was going to love her. "Come here boy, I know you're hungry." The wolf stares at her for a moment and then immediately lunges at the open space, with a speed that causes her to panic and fall back onto the ground.

The door to the cage swings open as the wolf forces it open the rest of the way. It steps out of the cage and growls at Rachel loudy, taking a menacing step towards her as it smacks the dish away.

Rachel swallows and backs up, perhaps this hadn't been her smartest idea yet, and she flashes a smile at the wolf. "My—what big teeth you have—please don't eat me. Please, I have regionals in a couple of weeks and I hear that McKinley is super strong and my team needs me." Rachel continues to back up slowly as the wolf continues to growl at her staring her down, till her back hits the wall and the wolf is standing on top of her. She was going to die a tragic death at the hands of an animal that she would have defended. Instead she feels a snort of air hit her face and she opens her eyes to the wolf staring at her before turning around and walking off toward the main house.

Rachel takes a few calming breaths trying to calm her nerves and stop the shaking, the wolf hadn't attacked her. She was still alive, she hadn't done anything humiliating like wet herself, though if she was being honest she had peed a little. She slumps a bit and tries to pull herself together when she hears a loud clang coming from the kitchen. "Shit." Her mother was going to kill her. Scrambling to her feet she immediately takes off towards the kitchen nearly slipping on her socks as she tries to run into the kitchen. She stops at the entrance to the kitchen to see the wolf simply chowing down on what was supposed to be the roast for dinner. "Shit."

The noise is enough to cause the wolf to turn to her and growl lowly before grabbing the roast between its jaws and taking off into the living room.

Immediately Rachel runs after it, she knew it was probably a bad idea she had no idea how she was going to get the wolf back into its cage. Suddenly understanding why he was locked up and not allowed to roam freely in the house. She could already hear Santana's caustic sarcastic remarks in her head, and the inevitable grounding her mother would give her for being so stupid. She skids into the living room nearly falling but the wolf was no longer there, at least—it didn't appear to be in the room. She immediately takes a few steps towards the back of the couch but she didn't see him.

She chews on the inside of her cheek and slowly turns to the staircase biting her lip, "Please, please, please don't tell me you made it upstairs," she bites her lip. She had important stuff upstairs and she was already having flashes of the wolf tearing it apart. She could only pray that she had left her door closed for once.

She stops at the top of the stairs and smiles noting that her door was indeed closed as was her parents, even Santana's door was closed, which probably meant that he was in the bathroom and she immediately heads to check it out, frowning when she didn't see him. She turns and heads back out to look carefully at the doors, with their round handles there was no way that he'd be able to open the door right? "Here boy, come here boy." Rachel said wishing she had a squeaky toy of some sort to bring the wolf out. She stops noting the wet spot on the staircase outside of Santana's room and immediately heads to and opens the door.

She wasn't normally allowed in the room but this was an emergency, and as she pokes her head in the room, but there was no indication that the wolf was even around. She immediately gets on her hands and knees to check under the bed but it wasn't hiding under her bed or her desk. "Santana is going to kill me," she groans.

~O~

"What do you mean you lost him?" Santana yelled struggling to contain her temper. Rachel had probably done something stupid like released the wolf out into the wild or worse. The poor animal was probably terrified of Rachel's incompetence.

"I just wanted to feed him, and he was whining and howling! It was cruel and unusual! I've seen you playing with him, he's trained. How was I supposed to know that he would run away?" Rachel said defensively. "He ran upstairs somewhere and I can't seem to locate him, and I've checked everywhere. But you should have heard him, he was so upset, crying and howling like he was being tortured. It was the only humane thing I could do—"

"That's what dogs do when they're caged up, they whine because they don't like being cooped up, but it's injured you idiot. What if he rips his stitches? What if he hurts himself?" Santana snaps at her, wanting to shake the diva, the worry creeping into her voice.

"You let a wild animal run through my house?" Shelby questions her daughter horrified. "Rachel it's a wolf. The only reason it's even in the garage was because it was injured!"

"I'm sorry!" Rachel groaned inwardly. "I was trying to help the animals! It seemed safe, Santana does it all the time! It even lets you pet him Carlos!"

Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose, "All I want to know is how you lose a wolf in a house? This house especially it's not like we live in a fifty room mansion," Carlos asks. He shakes his head, it was a question for another time and he turns to Shelby. "I'm sorry but maybe you and Rachel should wait outside. Santana and I will split up and check every room carefully. It recognizes us, and he's probably stressed out and panicked, which means that he might lash out if he sees someone unfamiliar. Santana get the rabies stick, we might need them if we can't get him back in his cage."

Santana nods, "Right, let me just drop my bag off in my room real quick and then we'll go room by room." Santana shook her head. "He shouldn't have gotten into any of the rooms right papi? We've got round door handles."

"If the dog is intelligent it probably knows how to open doors like that, I once saw the result of a boxer opening one and what was left of the door handle." Carlos grumbled rubbing his temples. "Hurry and be careful, I'll go get the rabies sticks."

Santana nods and quickly makes her way to her room. She pops the door open and glances inside, but there was nothing that had jumped out at her. She sighs and drops her bag onto her bed and pauses before looking under her bed and under her desk but she didn't see any sign of the wolf. She sighs and is about to head back out when she hears a snore coming from her closet. She stops and slowly heads over opening the sliding door as quietly as she can only to spot the wolf curled up in her laundry basket with a half-eaten roast on the floor beside basket, fast asleep.

"How the fuck did you get in here?" Santana chuckles. Her words seem to rouse the wolf from its nap and it turns its head to her for a moment before stumbling out of her laundry hamper and grabbing the remains of the roast in his mouth. Santana takes a step back so the wolf could get out and raises a brow when the wolf drops the roast in front of her feet and walks right past her, hopping onto her bed so it can continue with it's nap. "Shelby is going to be pissed." Santana snorts, trying and failing to cover up her amusement.

The wolf's ears flick towards her and it rolls onto its back and barks at her.

Santana shakes her head knowing what it wanted. "Found him!" She calls out to her father and approaches the bed and begins to rub the wolf's tummy. She rolls her eyes when he begins to wriggle happily and his foot begins to twitch. "Who's a good boy? Who is? You are? Yes, you are," Santana smiles pulling back a bit when the wolf seems to have had enough and rolls back onto his belly. She probably shouldn't be rewarding his bad behavior but he was safe and that's all that mattered to her.

"Santana are you—" Carlos stops when Santana holds up her hand and watches as the wolf glances at him before getting up and digging his nails into the sheets before once again plopping down on the bed. He recognized territory marking anywhere, and the wolf had now claimed Santana's bed as his own.

Santana immediately looks up at her dad, "Can I—"

"Absolutely not. We're taking him back to the cage and—" Carlos frowns when the wolf lifts its head and barks at him loudly, before smacking Santana's bed as if he was trying to say something. "Santana he's a wild animal, and I know he's taken to you but I need to keep Shelby and Rachel safe—and I need to keep you safe."

"I'm fine. He likes me, and see he brought me food so that must mean he really likes me." Santana points to the half-eaten roast. "It's pack behavior right?"

Carlos cringes at the sight of the half-eaten roast. "Is that—"

But Santana had to plow onward before her dad could think of any more reasons to say no. "Look, he wouldn't have even gotten out if Rachel had acted like a normal person and left him where he was safe. But no yet again she thought she knew better than everybody else. Why keep him in the kennel if she's just going to try to let him out again—"

"She won't—"

"You and I both know she will. Because she's an entitled brat who thinks—"

"Enough." Carlos interrupted her with finality. He looks at the wolf that's on Santana's bed, the animal only seemed to tolerate his daughter and they still needed to check for infections though the wound was healing nicely. "I'd rather him be in the kennel Santana. He can't roam the house like he owns it."

"Well—why can't we just bring the kennel upstairs? I'll keep him in my room, for now. It'll probably keep him out of trouble."

"You can't keep a wolf in a bedroom. It needs to be able to run—"

"So I'll take care of him. Please Papi." She's begging now but she doesn't care. "I'll walk him and clean up after him and do everything until we find his owner."

Carlos sighed, he didn't know how to say no and he knew Shelby wouldn't like it. Especially now that the wolf had eaten dinner. "If this happens again Santana, he's going back to the garage. Is that clear? And you have to put flyers up."

Santana grins and nods, "Yes sir. You hear that buddy we're going to be roommates." Santana turns to the wolf who barks at her and kicks her pillows off her bed before circling once and plopping back down on Santana's bed. Santana blinked and stared at the wolf, she was quickly coming to the realization that she might regret this decision. She holds her hand out for it to sniff and isn't surprised when it licks her hands. Or it could be the best experience of her life.