And we see Max in a totally different place...safe from the cruel world that he had just came out of.

Chapter 2: Safe and Sound

Sometime later...

Maximus slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a totally different place and he heard the sounds of the rain pattering around the roof and he sits up and looks around to see he's at someone's house...and on someone else's bed and sees himself wrapped in bandages and stuff and wondered how he got there and who took him there.

Suddenly, his ears perked up as he heard some footprints come in and he was still a little bit afraid that someone's coming to get him and by the time he saw Akashi, he was more frightened than ever and Akashi came this way towards him and Max said, "Please don't hurt me."

Akashi reaches his paw out and just rubbed the cub's head softly and soon enough, he looks at this wolf in the eye and notices that he's not like the other ones he came across earlier and he asked, "Did you...bring me here?"

"Yeah, I did. And I see you're okay." Akashi replied.

"Why?" asked Max.

Akashi let out a deep sigh and wasn't exactly sure how to explain this to a young cub, but he could at least bring in a reason why he did so and he said, "I just couldn't believe that someone would do something like that to you. I just had to save you from these monstrous wolves before they could hurt you."

"But...you're a wolf." Max stated.

Akashi couldn't argue with that logic and he nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I'm a wolf...but I'm not one of them. I never could be."

"I always thought wolves are scary and mean. At least...that's what my mom said." Max said, flattening his ears.

It was heartbreaking to see this kid suffer so much and for Akashi, it just brought him back to himself in a different way, yet similar to all the suffering he's endured and that just made him feel like he's not the only one and Max asked, "My mom's not coming back, isn't she?"

Yet another question that was hard to answer and he knew he saw everything he had witnessed between Maximus and his mother and there were a few minutes of silence in between them, but Max didn't need a response and he said, "I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want me anymore. Why did she even have me?"

The look on Max's eyes completely broke Akashi's heart when he saw the cub's eyes getting all misty-eyed and he just had to hold him and Max was a little afraid of getting touched, but when he found that the wolf was actually hugging him instead of hurting him, Max closed his eyes and hugged him back as well.

"Don't worry. You're safe now. I promise you...that I won't let anyone hurt you or leave you behind." Akashi whispered.

"You promise?" asked Max.

"I promise." Akashi replied.

They let go for a second and Max looked at him and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Akashi. What's yours?" asked Akashi.

"Maximus."

Akashi smiled at this and he blinked his eyes for a few seconds and said, "How about I call you 'Max' for short?"

"Okay." Max replied.

With that, Max laid back down to sleep a little bit and Akashi could tell that he's got a huge responsibility to look after him after the cub's mother left him and someone has to raise the cub somehow and it might as well be him...and maybe they can learn a few things about each other like never before and he thought to himself, 'You'll never be alone, Max...not when I'm here.'

It's a start of an amazing relationship! Stay tuned for more!