I woke up with what felt like Coop licking my face.

"Coop, get off me..." I muttered and tried to push my puppy away, but when my fingers touched the fur I realized this animal was a lot bigger than my puppy. And then I remembered. Cold concrete cell, completely surrounded by wolves and wolf dogs. I'm still flaring.

There was a man who came in, and he was holding two things. A gun and a needle. He grabbed me and stabbed me. Then shot me in the foot and I passed out. I never lost my flare, but I did pass out. I can't feel it hurting though. I was much too cold in this concrete cell to feel very much of anything, actually. One, tiny little window with thick bars isn't a great escape for all this cold air, I think they purposely kept this hell air conditioned.

The dog who was licking me, was Shadow. Her large, chocolatey eyes fixed on mine. She was concerned, and she whimpered. I rubbed her ears gently and shoved myself into a sitting position. It hurt, but what didn't hurt. My foot was wrapped in gauze, padded like my shoulder and my hip where bullets had grazed me.

The other wolf dog, the one I'd mistaken for Shadow when I'd first woken up in this place, was laying not too far off. Watching. The only real difference between them are silver tipped ears and blue eyes instead of brown eyes and pitch black ears.

Shadow whines at me and I realize I must have been out for quite a while.

Eventually, the little puppy who reminded me of Coop, the one who was at the door before, was snuggled up around the ill puppy. The poor thing was shaking, it's coat matted and ungroomed, while the dog I'd assumed to be it's mother was no where to be found. I crawled over, not trusting my foot to hold my weight whether it was gauzed and padded or not. The larger wolf dog puppy growled halfheartedly as I crawled closer, and for a second I froze.

The larger puppy stared right at me, his bright eyes a shocking shade of green hardly ever seen in a dog, or any other animal for that matter. I stared right back at him until he stretched his head out to me. I ran my fingers over his ears lightly. Now I couldn't keep calling them the larger puppy and the sick puppy. Forest for the healthy pup, because I've never even seen eyes that bright of a green on a human, and for the sick little wolf dog I named him Blue.

I pulled Blue onto my lap and patted my leg until Forest joined him. Shadow's twin curled around my lower back, her silver tipped ears twitching nervously. Light, the brightness of her ears and stomach to Shadow's almost pure midnight colouring. I laughed a little when the Blue licked my fingers feebly, and was struck by how any one could leave a puppy this sick to just die. Ben's always been so strong, as long as I've known him, and Mr. Blue is no weakling either, and maybe having their last name as his own will give him strength. At least that's what I thought. His shaking stopped and his breathing slowed. It felt like an eternity but in reality couldn't have been more than five or six minutes.

Blue's breathing stopped. He stopped moving, his tiny heart stopped beating. And I cried. The wolves howled, and I howled with them. Honoring the loss of one who's life had barely started. I cried until I heard foot steps, and even though my eyes must have been red and puffy I made some small effort to look like I hadn't just been bawling my eyes out.

Light growled at the door, Shadow growled with her. Silver began barking, a loud sound that hurt my ears. Forest growled sadly, then howled again. There was a loss in his voice so great it made my heart shatter. I couldn't help the last few tears that slipped out of my eyes before the metal sheet of a door was thrown open.

A young, pretty woman with slightly frizzy red hair slipped in and closed the door behind her. The growling stopped. She held a large platter of raw meat and placed it on the floor. Light and Shadow raced to the plate. Wolfing down a few morsels before each grabbing one and scuttling back to me, Forest and Blue's body. Light let Forest take the food right out of her mouth, and then Shadow did the same. Forest hummed happily from my lap. The woman approached me with a little bag. She looked awfully nervous so I couldn't help being wary of the bag's contents. It smelled sort of like food, but human food, not the delightfully smelling raw meat she'd brought in.

"I don't bite you know." I half whispered, half growled, my voice raspy from disuse. She jumped and then laughed.

"So you do talk!" Her voice was high pitched and tinkly.

"I am capable of it, yes." I replied, my voice warming up a little as I talked.

"Here. I snuck this in for you, I figured you wouldn't really want to gorge yourself on raw meat products." She said and slipped me the bag before taking a small needle out of her pocket. I stared at it.

"Don't worry, it's just some pain meds." She rolled her eyes, not seeming to understand my attitude towards the simple needle with clear liquid in it. But I was starting to feel a bit of pain through the cold, my body warming up through my blanket of wolf dogs. And even though it was only a very small amount of pain, it was excruciating. I didn't want to know what it would feel like when I was all warmed up and could fully feel anything.

"Fine." I muttered and offered her my arm. Her hand's were gentle, long, thing fingers working diligently on the task at hand before she left. She smiled as she left, placing her fingers on her lips in a shh sort of fashion, and then pointed at the little bag she'd slipped me.

I opened it and decided if I ever saw her again I'd have to hug her. It was a plain cheese burger, but it was still a cheese burger. I devoured it quickly and shoved the bag in my pocket after licking it a few times.

That woman definitely gets a hug.

Thanks for reading all you wonderful people. Seriously, start reviewing cuz I know you read the story. Review or I might stop updating. Just get the emails of my reviewers and send chapter updates to THEM! Leave you all in the dark. Now review, I'm done with my tiny rant right this second...

Also, special thanks to SvC1610512 and wolveswolvesandmorewolves

And if you don't like that I've given special thanks to these two people for no apparent reason, you may go take a tree up the ass. Sincerely, me.