Chapter 1

A growl escaped from her throat; the filthy animal escaped, again.Tyra knew she shouldn't of, but she couldn't resist; when it's blood pulsed through her jaws, she had to bite again. 'It may have escaped once, no, twice,' she thought, 'but not again.' The beast was a large elk, a Wyoming elk that had evaded a small wolf pack attempts to bring it down. She watched them with a smirk, the male was too powerful, a sick or elderly one would suffice for them. She growled again, and spat his foul blood out. Only a fresh kills blood would be enough. She raised her head a sniffed the air; he had escaped. She shook her head and turned away.

Tyra cleaned her fur up a bit. Her color was, at least she thought, beautiful. Her fur was split like a husky or malamute, a gray blend on top. But on her belly it was pitch black with a few flacks of gray. Her eyes were a golden and silver blend. Tyra sighed and started to walk off to find that rabbit hole she wanted to find.

After trotting for an hour and soon found the rabbit hole she was looking for. A rabbit would be enough to suppress her hunger, tonight. Tyra stuck her head into the hole and barked and two rabbits ran from the escape route. Chasing the larger one down, she cornered it quickly and grabbed it; a shrill shriek escaped from it's throat.Tyra began to tear off the fur to get to the warm meat below.She sneezed, rabbits in winter had always had to much fur.

As she hungrily devoured the rodent, she thought back today to what happened at school. She was a junior in high school and, even though she was a lone wolf in the woods, she still had a few friends who she talked to every now and then. Kids called her a 'punk' by the way she dressed and acted. She knew those pack of humans, but the one pack she was fully accepted into was the 'vegetarian' group. Mostly because she would never bring a live animal and eat it in front of the whole school. Also because Tyra never ate human prepared meat; they tainted it with nasty stuff.

Humans may be on top of the food chain, but they certainly cheated there way up. The alpha males (A.K.A., dad's, daddies, fathers.) usually 'provided the food.' 'No,' Tyra thought, 'they provided the money.' Even hunters cheated; would you ever see a man attack a deer with his 'claws'? No, a gun would suffice. Though she was partly human, she still hated it. She wasn't a pure loupe-garou, she was a shape shifting one; Tyra could shape shift into any wolf species, dogs excluded. In the moonlight, she only was connected to her canine side more, weaker when a crescent and no connection when there was no moon, but she could still shift. Though she could, Tyra was usually her mixed wolf. She was Homo Lupus, a human wolf. Werewolves were born when she bit someone under a pure full moon, when she was most connected with her wolf side. No one, except her late grandfather, was like her in her family, though they tried to help. She only ate the vegetables she grew in the back field, in direct sun and moonlight, her favorite was wolfsbane. It was a human myth that wolfsbane repelled werewolves and shape shifter alike; Tyra actually found it quite tasty.

Thinking back to school, she remembered how big a smile Justin wore after she pushed him away for about the hundredth time. She did like him, at first, but then he started to act bolder, and they could never be any ways. Even dating was a problem for her kind, mostly her. She had dated a guy, once, when they lived in Colorado. But he nearly discovered the truth and they moved to Wyoming, up near Teton and Park; far away from Colorado, but still with the Rocky mountains.

Tyra sighed, and finished up the rabbit. She licked her lips and stretched out. Looking up in the sky, it was close to sunrise. So Tyra jumped up and started running home. Not to get home to sleep, but just to run. She reached near the river, which was more like a large stream, and sped up. She Hadn't been able to jump it last time, but hopefully this time...

Suddenly another wolf, black and brindle, shot out in front of her. It surprised Tyra and she skidded to a stop before she fell into the still-not-melted river. She turned and growled, raising her hackles to scare off the other. It was sitting down and looked at her, cocking its head as if it was confused with her 'sudden' appearance. She sniffed the air and figured he was a male. She growled louder, guessing what he wanted. 'But he he won't get it...' Suddenly, she turned and ran the way he came. He barked and chased after her, but if her got any closer she would fight him.

Suddenly, she remembered that the way she was running was the longer way home and to a way across. 'Stupid!' She stopped and turned to face him, growling loudly to hopefully scare him away. But he cluelessly stared at her; 'obviously a desperate male,' she thought. He stood up and slowly walked over to her. Tyra continued to growl, and the closer he got, the louder she became. He finally sat in front of her, and she thought she saw something other than the wolf in eyes. Caring? Maybe...Love?

She jumped at him, biting his leg as she ran off, he turned towards her, but didn't try to chase her. 'Not that I could.' He sighed, she probably guessed, and guessed right. He watched her run, smiling slightly, but then limped the opposite way, back to his 'den'. Which was no more than a cave with a bed and fire pit.

Lena shook off, she had to swim across which wouldn't of been so bad in the summer. It was late November and freezing cold, especially after swimming across a half-frozen river. Swimming wasn't really a good thing to do, especially around winter, but what was done is done, so Tyra ran on home, mostly to dry her fur.