It was unusually cool that night, with a soft wind blowing through the camp. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the respite from months of unending heat as I listened to the shuffling of my companions settling down for sleep around me. Maybe winter was coming? While a small part of me was glad for the coolness ruffling my fur, I worried for how much the temperature would drop and how many of us would survive until next spring. I opened my eyes and glanced around at the animals trying to sleep for the night. All were accounted for, except…
There was a new addition to our group. A few yards away, a herd of newly acquired elephants were huddled together in an exhausted mass of blood and exposed muscle. It was obvious they'd only just finished their last round of mutations. They were almost twice the size of a normal elephant, with angry red sections of ripped skin covering their bodies and vicious looking tusks extending out from their pained faces. The most telling sign of how recently they'd been changed was their eyes. Gold irises with the whites of their eyes completely blacked out.
I've been here almost six months, having completed the last of my own mutations five months ago. At first the whites of my eyes had also been blacked out, but as time goes on the black seems to fade away to gray. Mine are still pretty dark, but I've seen in others the gray become so light that it just looks more off-white than anything.
At any rate, I'm glad the elephants seem to be past the worst pain the mutations bring. The feeling of your skin being stretched over rapidly expanding muscle and bone until it actually rips apart is one of the most horrific and memorable things I've ever experienced. Every time I hear the screams of new animals being forced to endure the mutations, a fresh wave of my own memories in that hellish state disguised as nightmares haunts my sleep for weeks.
Satisfied that everyone is together and relatively safe, I settled back down for a night of restless sleep when I felt the familiar pain of an electrical shock from my collar. Without my own thought or control my body gets up and runs toward the lab building, where I see a dome-shaped machine with a brain lying safely behind protective glass at its top.
Rolling around to face me, I can hear excitement in its male voice as it gives me my orders.
"Mon beautiful Loup, we appear to have some airborne visitors. Take your pack and show them an agréable time, oui? Take les éléphants as well, it is a magnifique opportunity to see how they do after their recent improvements."
Saying nothing, I turned around and while ignoring every instinct I have screaming at me not to turn my back to it, ran back out the door towards the edge of the island. I didn't need to alert the others, I could already hear the pained yelps and smell the scent of singed hair and skin as the brain-machine shot electricity through their collars. They would follow.
I felt bad for the elephants, they obviously weren't in any shape to engage in battle but there wasn't anything I could do but follow my orders and hope they had enough energy to kill the humans they came across quickly. Putting too much strain on their bodies so soon after the trauma their bodies have undergone would kill them if they weren't careful. Besides, I've seen what happens to captured humans here and getting trampled to death by elephants is a thousand times kinder than what our kidnaper would do to them.
Approaching the only area on the small island outside our encampment with a big enough clearing to allow intruders to land on the island from the sky, I could smell several different scents in the area.
Seven different people; one female, five male, and one smelling so foreign and strange that I couldn't even identify the owner's gender. Three of the other scents catch my interest; among them a male smelling deeply of the ocean, almost like a fish.
The second is also male and it piques my interest in how attractive it is. It feels human, but has a strange undertone of something more. It has a very primal and satisfying weight to it that makes me want to roll around in the dirt where he must have been standing. Walking over to a tree where he must have leaned against it at some point, I have to stop myself from licking the bark and trying to taste the musky wildness in the scent calling to me so much.
Disturbed at my reaction, I forced myself to focus on the last scent of interest lightly skimming the top of a small pile of leaves. Rearing my head back in rage when I identify the person behind it, I can't stop a howl of anguish from bursting out of me.
It takes a moment longer than it should have to shake off the emotions, but that these people would bring a child to this place….don't they have any idea of the horrors that happen here?! If the child were to be caught, the brain-machine would not waste the opportunity to ravage and experiment on such a young mind even if only for the entertainment hearing their screams.
No, I'll track down and kill the child myself. The thought burns through the small fragment of soul I have left, but I would rather have that's child death on my conscience than ever let him suffer the fate that awaits him if he's captured alive. I'll end it quickly and come back to bury him before the vultures feed, I promise myself but it doesn't do anything assuage the guilt I can already feel simmering in my heart.
Allowing myself a soft whine in the quite of the forest, I dash off back towards my pack so that we can take care of these humans as quickly as possible, and I pray that I'm in time to find the child first.
After a few minutes, I find and follow the scent of the other wolves until I reach a small clearing where I find them fighting off a human. What I see floors me, and I can't help pausing for a moment to watch the battle. Despite all their best efforts, the wolves seem to be doing very little damage to the man, who's throwing and attacking them as if they're no more than rambunctious puppies play tackling a vaguely annoyed father.
A snort of amusement leaves me at the imagery, and it takes a moment for it to register. There's been nothing here that amused or pleased me in the slightest in all the months I've been trapped on this hellhole, and some strange man with freaky steroid-strength brings out in me the equivalent of a dog chuckle? I catch a whiff of his scent, and I'm suddenly brought back to the clearing in the forest. He's the one with the good scent; the one with a hint of something that makes me think of an arousing ability and power to protect, successful hunts, and the essence of a man in his prime. Hearing the whine of one of the others, I stand up and try to clear my head so I can focus on the fight. I stand and watch as he tosses off the last wolf and looks around for any others, and I feel a wave of excitement roll through me. Putting my search for the child on hold momentarily, I wait for him to notice me. I'm a big white wolf after all, how long could it take? All I know is that I really want to fight him. The way he handled the others makes me think he can take what I dish out; maybe even beat me.
He finally turns around and sees me, and I can feel him take a moment to size me up, the same way I've been doing with him. The air itself starts feeling thick with anticipation, and with a growl of challenge I rush off my perch and tackle him, biting down on his arm and finding I barely break the skin. Thrown off almost as quickly as I'd tackled him, I land on my side less than yards away and jump up back on to my feet ready to attack again. He lunges for me while I sidestep and run up to a nearby tree and jump off it to land behind him. Pushing off the dirt underneath my hind legs, I feel the claws on my front paws dig into his back and I bite down on his shoulder while he struggles to push me off him.
It's brief, but he grunts and seems momentarily distracted by something; allowing me to use the opportunity to leverage myself enough to toss him into a boulder behind me. Taking a second to gather my breath, I try to see him through the dust that billowed up into the air after his fall and wait for him to attack. I twitch my ears as much as possible in an effort to detect his footsteps, but all I can hear is the pounding of my own heart beat.
Suddenly I feel something land roughly on my back and I hear the sound of crunching metal before the weight disappears again. Whirling around, I crouch down to pounce again when something makes me hesitate.
My neck….the collar is gone! My mind goes blank for a second, and I can feel weight of its control over me fade completely. The relief feels like a full body punch, it hits me so hard.
I'm free. I'm finally free. Such a simple thing, and I'm not under the control of that bastard brain-machine or that damn trigger happy gorilla-man. All those times I'd tried to take it off or break it myself….but the collar was designed to read my intentions and use pain to redirect them if needed. If I purposely tried to break the collar, it would electrocute me. Looking up, I can see the man watching me warily; not attacking but not unprepared for me to attack either.
There's a part of me that really wants to keep fighting for the sheer enjoyment I get from going head to head someone of equal strength and speed, but I owe this man my freedom. I don't know what he wants or why he's here, but if it's for the purpose of capturing or killing my kidnappers, he will have my help. I'll figure out what to do next after everything's done, but until then I'll be his ally if he wants me.
Trying to show him that I was no longer a threat I sit down and wag my tail, throwing out a bark and a little happy panting for good measure. It's embarrassing as hell and I will never do it again, but we aren't the only ones on the island fighting for their lives and time is of the essence. I still had the child to think about too, but now that I'm free I have more options. As long as I don't get captured again, I can find the child and get him to safety without worrying about the collar activating and putting us both at risk.
The man slowly stands up out of his fighting stance and guardedly walks up to me, gingerly holding out a hand.
I don't blame him for the caution; I could tear the arm off a normal man. I regard his hand for a second and wonder how many fingers I could take off this one. Maybe not any, this guy seems to be made of strong stuff. Leaning forward I take in his scent for a moment and indulge in a quick lick that I regret almost immediately, because I suddenly understand why his smell calls to me so much.
I may not have always been a wolf, but I've been one long enough to recognize habits and pack standing. He might not be entirely human, but he wasn't wolf either. Still, he had the aura of an alpha with the power to back it up.
As an alpha myself, there's only two ways I could react to him. Either I feel the need kill him in order to maintain my position as top dog, or my wolf finds him a worthy candidate to be her mate – her equal.
And while I really did like fighting him, I haven't once felt truly threatened by his presence or the need to attack him and assert my authority.
Crap.
There is nothing more that I wanted right then than to feel like a bloodthirsty killer out to kill him and maintain my dominance but instead I had to resist the urge to plop myself down on the ground and let him give me a tummy rub.
…..And while the hesitant petting he's giving the top of my head right now does feel fantastic, I know we have to get moving. Standing up and letting his hand fall back to his side with some regret, I look at him and with silent agreement we both start running towards base camp.
While we're running I try to sort through what I should do. I basically know nothing about this person other than his ability to fight. I don't know why he's here. It's rare to run into a human that carries the scent of the wild in them. It's probably part of what makes him an alpha, I think, leaping over a fallen log. He hasn't killed me yet, and he did break my collar. The fact that he didn't try attacking me again after my binding was gone suggested he somehow knew the collar was responsible for my actions. Maybe he was part of the military or something and was here to catch brain-machine and gorilla-man?
Seeing the building appear in front of us, I started changing direction in order to go through the front entrance but my companion kept moving straight for the stone wall. Curious about what he planned to do, I followed along and stand next to him when he stops less than a foot away and brings his arm back as if to punch it. Is he really that strong? I wonder in amazement, moving back a step to avoid the debris and dust suddenly flying around as he breaks open a large hole. Immediately I can see the gorilla man picking himself up from the ground where he must have been knocked over and I instantly take the chance to pounce and knock him back down. Jumping off and gearing up for another attack I'm stopped by seeing the others I'd smelled earlier taking turns attacking him instead. Even with his guns, they're able to fight him off using incredible powers of their own; a male in a black bodysuit moving unbelievably fast and a green-skinned female that seemed to be able to use her mind to move things. To my alarm, during the fight gorilla-man was able to use his gun to shoot my human in the chest, but incredibly it seemed to have no effect; the bullets just bounced off.
Before I could refocus on the fight, the scent of the child I'd smelled earlier came back to me, and a barefooted male I hadn't seen before walked over to someone strapped to a surgical table and tore off his bindings. Assuming the child was safe for now, I moved towards the roaring gorilla-man who seemed to be preparing for an attack of his own.
"Try it. I hate monkeys," My human said, walking up next to me and cracking my knuckles. I growled in agreement, ready to tear apart the brain-machine and gorilla-man that had imprisoned me for so long. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and tensed, seeing the brain-machine bring out a device from within its body.
"Non, Mallah. This will not be our Waterloo. Au revoir, mes amis," it intoned with regret. Despite not having eyes, I could feel his gaze land on me. "Au revoir mon Loupe. We will see each other again, I am sure".
The sound of a whirring machine became louder and the fast-boy from earlier shouted "Get down!" before the entire room became pitch black. Before my eyes could adjust, the room lit up again and the two creatures that stood in front of us were now gone.
Fuck! I'd been so close to ripping them apart with the very teeth they had been responsible for elongating. I wanted to watch the life fade from their bodies with the same eyes they'd mutated and changed. The urge to cry out a howl of my rage and pain would have been impossible to ignore if my human hadn't put a warm hand on my hand, providing a small measure of comfort and distraction. Still, it pissed me off to know those bastards had gotten away with everything they'd done – a ll the people and animals they'd tortured and murdered.
"Wait. That big weapon thing was…..a light switch?" The fast-boy asked out loud, looking around in confusion. I wanted to bite him. Obviously not, you moron. The light was out for only a second. Maybe brain-machine could have left that quickly and quietly, but not the gorilla-man. I let out a growl and walked back outside, needing the fresh air. A moment later, I heard my human walking up behind me before settling down and waiting with me without speaking. For what, I don't know, but it was nice to have the moment of silence together.
Coming towards us, I could vaguely hear a conversation between fast-boy and a blond girl with arrows.
"What are you grinning about?" She asked, sounding irritated.
"One word: souvenir!" he replied enthusiastically as they got closer.
"Two words: gorilla lice!" She shot back. With an amused smirk she walked the last few steps towards us leaving the redhead behind. With dawning comprehension, the speedster let out a sound of disgust and ripped off the red barrette gorilla-man had been wearing earlier that morning.
Amused, I turned my head to watch my human only to be happily surprised with him giving my neck and back a good petting.
"The rest of the pack is gone. What are you still doing here?" he asked playfully, lightly scratching behind my ears. I was reaching a point of zoned-out bliss as I was enveloped in the smell and feel of him when my last pin-prick of awareness caught footsteps coming in our direction.
Smelling the green-girl approaching, I lazily watched as she stopped next to us and smiled at him.
"I think he wants to stay with you" She commented, putting her arms behind her back and leaning forward a little to watch us better.
"Can I keep him?" he asked hopefully. The question surprised me; despite how much his scent called to me I couldn't imagine what made him think he could trust me. We teamed up for all of maybe a half hour and the enemy still managed to get away. For all he knows, I could still be under the influence of their control or be some insane wolf with rabies and a taste for human flesh. Hell, I could be–
Wait. They think I'm male?! You have got to be shitting me. Look, I get that I'm not the pretty little wolf I used to be, but frankly speaking I'm tall enough that these morons should be able to see the complete lack of dangling private parts on my body. Unless they think I'm neutered or genderless or something. The fact that the guy my wolf is interested in does not think I'm female in any way is a bit of blow to my ego.
I sighed and wished for….what I don't know, but I shook it off and tuned back in to their conversation.
"-this beast? Dude, you sure make a habit of collecting strays," the fast-boy was saying, gesturing toward me. With an amused look the strange-smelling green female crouched down next to my human and put her arm around him.
"Maybe because he's such a stray himself." she said softly, looking down into his eyes with a tender look. He didn't respond back, but met her eyes and stared back in to them. As the seconds went by without either of them moving or breaking eye contact I began to uncomfortably wonder if my human had already found a mate of his own. It was strange though, I'd never seen an alpha mate with a pack member of lesser standing before. And while she did smell of odd and foreign things I had a hard time placing, I knew with absolute certainty that she had no scent of alpha on her that didn't come from him. Shuffling a little closer to the pair I inhaled deeply to try and pick out any familiar scents that could help me unlock some of the mystery behind this green creature.
Humans need visual and verbal queues such as speaking and watching body language for them to understand the emotions of the people around them. Wolves however have an upper hand in that regard. Soon after becoming a wolf myself I discovered that if I concentrated enough I could actually smell emotions. It took quite a bit of trial and error initially to figure what scents are associated with certain emotional states, but I was eventually able to make sense of some of them.
While animals are certainly able to experience emotions, they don't seem to have quite the same level of power and complexity behind it that humans do. That being said, sniffing out animal emotions is a lot easier than doing the same for humans, and since gaining my wolf form and the heightened sense of smell that came with it haven't exactly been around too many humans, so I haven't had much practice.
The ones I did were generally only hunters I needed to scare away from my territory or the terrified victims the gorilla-man and the brain-machine. Obviously I wasn't given much chance to smell out the more positive and uplifting emotions so I can't identify all of them. For that same reason however I've become a master at recognizing at the negative ones. Fear, depression, loneliness, and anger to name a few. I can smell the excitement of a hunter closing in on his prey and the glee the gorilla-man felt whenever he got his hands on a new weapon for him to test out. Even emotional pain has a scent. The closest I could ever come to describing the smell would be that of curdled milk with a hint of the metallic tang of blood.
Closing my eyes to try and focus more, I sifted through the different layers of scent and felt a buzz of apprehension brush through me as I explored further. There was the fading smokiness of anxiety closer to the surface, most likely from our recent battle, but it was another scent that concerned me. With how unusual her base scent is I hadn't been able to identify it, but now that I could tell it was there I had a hard time resisting the urge to gag on the overpowering strength of it.
Desperation – the bitter smell of citrus and sweat. I'd encountered it many times among the animals and humans unlucky enough to find themselves here, but I'd never smelled it so deeply in any living creature the way I did with this green-girl.
When emotions leave a scent it's a lot like a firework in the sense that that a strong blast of scent bursts out of someone before quickly fading away and allowing other scents to take over. Whatever this green-girl is so desperate for; she wants it with every breath she breathes. It clogs her pores and piggy-backs on all her other emotions with such force it must be an unbearable torture for her to live with. The sheer potency of it suggests her desperation has been building this way for months – if not years. Beginning to feel dizzy from burying myself in the smell for so long, I edged back and had to force myself to focus when the fast-guy started talking again.
"Well, he's gonna need a name. How about Krypto?" he asked, rocking back and forth from his toes to his heels in an obvious effort to expel some of the excess energy he seemed to have. I growled in protest over both the stupid name and being referred to as male yet again. My equally unimpressed human broke from the weirdly intense staring contest with the green-girl and only said "Pass."
"Besides, isn't that taken?" the green-girl asked, raising an eyebrow in question.
Annoyed, I tuned out of their useless conversation. A lot of things had happened in the last couple of hours and it was obvious I needed to start making some decisions about what I wanted to do next.
First of all, I was free. After wearing that damn collar for six months, I felt lighter both physically and mentally. Still, after all the things I was forced to see and do all that time left me struggling with the idea of leaving.
I'm not the same person I used to be. Literally. I've killed and tortured humans and animals alike, and even if it wasn't me in control it was still my body doing the damage and my mind an unwilling witness to every second of it.
I briefly considered staying and trying to help the animals here, but quickly discarded the idea. How could I possibly help? The pack I'd led here wasn't really mine, and I had no doubt the wolves that were in it have already begun to try travelling back to their old families. We'd been forced to be a pack but it didn't mean we really held any loyalty of obligation for each other.
I could try finding my way back to my old pack if they were still alive, but that option didn't really appeal to me either. It was guaranteed that I could reclaim my position as alpha; especially when the mutations increasing my size, speed, and strength were taken into consideration…..but still. I no longer had the option of finding a wolf mate – none could ever hope to be my equal now.
I don't know if I could take seeing my family continue to birth and raise children of their own every spring while I'm forced to live alone for the rest of my days. I love and miss them, but I know that I don't have it in me to be that selfless. Even before being taken I'd felt a growing desire to find my own mate and have family of my own; the problem now being that my choices had just become limited in how I was going to achieve that.
If I could no longer do that as a wolf then my only option from now on would be to find a human mate. That is, if I could even become human again myself. I'd changed back and forth a few times after first becoming a wolf, but it's now been almost a year and a half since I was last human. I'd felt tempted on multiple occasions to try transforming and escape after my capture but fear of what would happen to me if I was discovered had kept me from even trying. I would have been the ultimate prize in the brain-machine's long list of test subjects, and despite how bleak life here had been, I was willing to bet my life and freedom on the certainty that it would get unimaginably worse if it ever found out about what I could do.
I need to see if I can be human again. I'm painfully aware of the possibility that the mutations my body experienced may have affected my ability to do the transformation, but I have to at least try. What form I'll be living in will be the biggest determining factor in what I do from now on. The smart thing would probably be to let my human and his companions leave while I forge a separate path of my own and try to move on from here. Besides, if the way he interacted with the green-girl was any indication he isn't exactly available or open to having a mutant wolf-girl hybrid come on to him and try to start a family.
Still. Maybe it's just me being grateful towards my rescuer, or the hope that he ignited in me when I discovered there was someone out there capable of being my mate despite the all the mental and physical changes I've gone through…..And taking me wherever he's going is probably not nearly as big a deal for him as it is for me….but that he wants me at all touches me more than I'd thought it would. It makes me want to throw caution to the wind and follow him – consequences be damned.
Looking up at the man beside me, I tried to look at him the same way I would if I were human. Toned and muscled with a compact build, he had a strong and capable body without being too bulky. His hair was pitch black and cut short, with no sign of product or any particular attempt to style it. Set on a serious face, his eyes were a pretty light blue and remarkably held a hint of the look a child might have if they were lost. About the same height as I am in my current wolf form, he seemed to be tall for a human. All this pleases me, and I think the human in me finds all these qualities attractive and desirable.
I started trying to compile a list of pros and cons for going with him, but rolled my eyes and stopped. Even if it wasn't rational or at all smart, I already knew what I'd do.
When he got up and started walking with the others in his group towards a big red vehicle smelling of the green-girl I got up and followed him. As we got nearer, I saw the tall barefooted male smelling of saltwater and a shorter male wearing colorful clothes and a black mask talking in front of the entrance. Stopping a few feet away, the entire group seemed to be listening to their conversation.
"Look, I need to know. Why did you keep the mole intel a secret?" The masked-boy asked.
"The source of the tip was Sports Master." The other one replied, looking him square in the eyes.
"What?! You can't trust him!" A blond girl suddenly shouted, startling me into leaning away. Brushing against my human's side, I briefly closed my eyes as he absent-mindedly patted my back.
"I do not. It seemed possible – even likely that he was attempting to divide the team with false information." Sea-boy replied, unfazed by her outburst.
Nodding slowly, the masked-boy seemed to mull over the information for a moment.
"….Given how this mission went, he nearly succeeded. But still you had to consider it might be true…."
"Yes. As leader, I did. In which case I did not want to alert the traitor."
"I hate to say it, but….makes sense."
"I am still prepared to step down." Shaking his head, the masked-boy raised his arm instead.
"All in favor of keeping Aqualad as leader?" he called out.
Feeling my human's hand leave me, I watched as he joined the others in a unanimous vote of acceptance.
Striking a pose with his hands on his hips, the child I'd smelled earlier grinned at the group. Strange though, he had the appearance of a fully grown if not oddly dressed adult.
"Guess it's unanimous. See you tomorrow!" Waving in farewell, he turned around and began to walk away.
"You're not coming with us?" Sea-boy called out, confused.
"Nope, gotta fly!" He called back as he lifted off the ground and soared towards the sky without another look back.
Despite all the strange things I'd seen today, the image of a person flying through the air surprised me enough that I unceremoniously fell back on my ass in shock. Now that I thought about it, my human's strength and speed was not normal. While the clothes the others were wearing had admittedly seemed weird, I'd shrugged it off as some weird fashion trend I'd missed out on in the last two years I'd been missing from human society. And what about the green-girl? After the battle I'd been pre-occupied with my decision to leave with my human, but right now I wanted to smack my head into a tree over my obliviousness around these people.
There was obviously more going on here than I'd first realized. Thinking sensibly, I should not be following them to god-knows where with so little information. Mind racing, I stayed seated while my human and his friends got up and made their way over towards the red automobile while exchanging light-hearted conversation.
"So what are you going to name him?" green-girl asked my human curiously.
"What's wrong with Wolf?" he answered back.
Wolf? I kinda liked it. I would have hated it if he'd tried to force a name on me that I didn't want or need. Not that it would matter, because these were obviously very powerful people with still unknown intentions.
"Wolf? You coming with me?" he called out hesitantly, poking his head back out of the vehicle and looking at me.
…Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I went with him. It certainly couldn't be worse than the last six months I'd spent here. Even if I end up not wanting to stay with him, it would give me an opportunity to heal and rest for a while before I decide where to go next.
Standing up, I took one hesitant step forward and paused. Taking a deep breath, I could smell a hint of his scent waft around me where his hand had been resting a few minutes earlier. It still smelled heavenly, and it brought a sense of peace with it. It made me think of home; wherever that was.
Feeling more resolute, I ran the rest of the way across the ground and up the ramp leading directly to him, not anticipating how slippery the metal would be under my paws. Stumbling forward, I ran right into him with my face buried in the crook of his neck.
The second I heard the rumble of surprised laughter coming from him as he wrapped his arms around my neck I knew I'd made the right choice.