Lili watched tiny tongues of fire slowly eat the twigs she collected as she sat alone by the cave. The flames were the same color as the sun sinking toward the tops of the trees. A small sigh escaped her as she thought of another day gone. It had been three days since she woke up in the pack's cave, and there was no sign that anyone was looking for her, not that she had the means to really know. She wasn't allowed to leave the clearing in front of the cave unless accompanied by one of the pack members. It wasn't a formal rule, but it was the way it had worked out since she had arrived. And she was never allowed to go too far, even if she was with someone. If her brother was really searching for her, Lili had no way of knowing.

A tall figure stepped in front of her and her view of the sun casting a long shadow over her. She peeked up to see Ludwig looming over her like one of the trees in the forest. His incredible height made her feel even shorter than she was. She waited for him to speak, but he didn't say a word. The only movement he made was with his eyes. They swept from her to her small fire.

"G-good evening, Ludwig," Lili said softly. She felt like she was withering under his blue gaze.

"Why aren't you sitting with the others?"

She blinked in surprise. That's not what she expected him to say. "Well, I just thought that…I, um…" Lili wasn't sure if she should tell him the truth. It seemed like a petty thing to think, but lying wouldn't get her anywhere either. "I don't think they like me," she finally whispered.

Ludwig's eyebrows furrowed. Maybe he didn't like her either. Maybe he was going to tell her that they had changed their mind about keeping her alive. "Come with me."

"W-what?"

"Come with me." He held out one of his large hands to help her to her feet.

Lili hesitated. What if it was a trap? But as she glanced up at Ludwig's face, she noticed his expression had softened. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't scowling either. In a way, he was asking her to trust him.

"Okay." She took his hand and rose to her feet. "Where are we going?" she asked while casting a glance back at the rest of the pack, completely oblivious to what was going on around them.

"You'll see," Ludwig answered mysteriously.

He led her toward the darkening forest with long strides, his hand still closed gently around hers. Lili had to walk quickly to keep up. She stared at the back of his blonde head wishing that she knew what he was thinking. The others in the pack were so easy to read, but Ludwig was a complete enigma. His expressions were never extreme, and he always kept his deep voice controlled. He was methodical, observant, and cautious. Lili had gathered all of this from just three days of watching him, but she still didn't know who he was on the inside. Did he like jokes? Was he really as tough as he looked? Did he care about what others thought about him? She didn't know. They stopped a fair distance away from the others, and Ludwig let her hand drop.

"Do you trust me?"

The question caught Lili off guard. She hadn't been expecting something so straightforward. A wordless moment passed between the two as she tried to gather her thoughts. Lonely chirping came from a single cricket hidden somewhere on the forest floor, and the call of a bird pierced the air causing a momentary stillness.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

The word tumbled out of Lili's mouth before she knew what was happening. It was the same as the time he had asked her if she was scared. The answer had come simply by gazing into his unwavering eyes. They seemed to extract the truth from within her better than the similar stare her brother gave her when he asked her questions.

A small upward curve appeared on Ludwig's lips. "Good."

He looked away and closed his eyes. A shudder passed through his body, and he bent over as if in pain. In the blink of an eye, the human Ludwig had transformed into the wolf Ludwig. Lili had seen everyone in the pack turn into a human, but it was her first time seeing it the other way around. But that wasn't right, was it? Werewolves could only change on the night of the full moon, yet the pack had been running around as wolves for the last three days. A gasp caught in her throat. What was going on?

Ludwig opened his large blue eyes and lowered himself into a crouch. He looked at Lili in a way that made her think he was beckoning her. "It's going to be a long walk."

She understood what he was doing. He was offering her a ride on his back. She should be scared, terrified even, but those feelings never came. What would it be like to ride on the back of a wolf? Lili took a step closer, and his eyes followed her every move. Tentatively, she reached out a hand and touched his golden fur. It was thick and warm.

"I won't hurt you, will I?"

"No," he told her gently. "There are worse things than giving a human a ride."

Lili nodded and moved even closer. She carefully pulled herself up onto his shoulders and settled comfortably between his shoulder blades. "I'm not too heavy?"

He turned to look at her with one blue eye. "Don't worry about me. Just make sure to hold on tight."

The words were barely spoken when Ludwig took off. Lili had to grab handfuls of the fur on his neck to keep from falling off. The speed was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Wind whipped her short blonde hair away from her face as they shot through the forest, and everything around her looked like a blur. She thought it was a miracle that they didn't run into any trees. How could Ludwig see where he was going? Somehow he must have because he seemed to know exactly where he was going.

After a while, Lili began to relax. She was actually starting to enjoy the thrill of being the fastest thing in the forest. Nothing could touch them. They were invincible. A smile spread across her face as her laughter filled the air. She was having fun.

"Are you all right?" Ludwig's voice rumbled beneath her.

Lili couldn't find the words to answer. She was better than all right. She was on top of the world.

"We can stop if you want."

"No!" she cried.

Ludwig turned his head to look up at her, but didn't say anything else. They continued through the forest as it grew darker and darker. Sounds of the night could be heard softly at first, but they soon grew in volume until Lili could hear nothing else. An owl's hoot here. A cricket's chirp there. The constant rustling of the undergrowth as they sped through it. She listened until she heard everything and nothing. They were the night, harbingers of doom to anything that was unfortunate enough to cross their path. Lili didn't feel quite so small anymore.

"We're here," Ludwig said. He slowed his pace until he was only walking, his chest heaving to get much needed air.

"Where is here?"

"You'll see." He crouched again so she could disembark.

Lili did so as quickly as she could. She was afraid her extra weight was making it difficult for him to breathe. A hasty look around told her that she was in a part of the forest she was unfamiliar with. The thing that caught her eye was an enormous tree beside her that was easily twice the height of all the others near it. It's thick branches created a webbed pattern above her head that blocked out most of the moonlight. Lili found herself enchanted by the majesty of the tree.

"This is why we're here."

She turned to see Ludwig had changed back into his human form and was watching her closely. "We came to see a tree?"

"We're going to climb it," he clarified.

"But…" Lili looked up. The lowest branch was twice as tall as she was. How did he expect her to climb this tree? "I can't reach that high…"

Ludwig stepped closer to the tree and dropped down on one knee. "You can climb on my shoulders." Lili's eyes widened at the thought, and he noticed her hesitation. "You trust me, right?"

"Yes." Reconfirming it made Lili feel more confident. She carefully stepped onto Ludwig's knee, and then his shoulders. He stood with her balanced on top. Now she could reach the first branch with no difficulty at all.

"There's a lot you don't know about us," Ludwig said, "but it's important that you learn."

Lili hoisted herself up onto the branch and looked down with wobbly knees. She had never been so high off the ground before. "D-does that have something to do with…um…c-climbing this tree?"

"Actually, it does." Ludwig jumped and grabbed onto a different branch with ease. He made tree climbing seem effortless. "This is an exercise in trust. It's important for every member of the pack to trust each other and the alpha."

"Who's the alpha?"

"Me."

Lili was not expecting that. Ludwig was the leader! She had ridden on the back of the alpha male of the pack! She wasn't sure whether to be flattered or embarrassed. A blush spread across her cheeks, and she was glad Ludwig couldn't see it in the dark. He was already reaching up for the next branch.

"Ludwig?"

"Yes?"

"Why can you transform when it's not the full moon?" She watched his expression as she pulled herself up onto a different branch.

"The answer to your question goes back to the treaty signed between humans and werewolves," he replied. "It is clearly stated in the treaty that we are to leave humans and their territory alone, except on the night of the full moon." He swung to another branch. "That is the only time we are allowed free range of the forest. It's been so long since humans have seen us transform on any other day that they have forgotten we can."

Lili did her best to keep up with Ludwig, but his height gave him the advantage. She struggled to climb up a few more branches. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked, slightly out of breath.

"Because you are part of the pack now whether you like it or not."

Her eyes lowered. Whether she liked it or not was not the issue. There were certain individuals in the pack that made it very clear that she was not welcome.

"Look that way," Ludwig instructed. Lili did as she was told, and a gasp caught in her throat. The forest stretched out beneath her as far as she could see. Dark leaves and branches rippled as a soft breeze caressed the tops of the trees. Hundreds of stars twinkled in the heavens like distant candles that were too far for the eye to see as a gray cloud here and there covered them up like a game of peek-a-boo. "This part of the forest is our territory."

"It's beautiful," Lili breathed. She never had imagined the forest could look like this. All her life she had grown up thinking it was a shadowy and dangerous place, and it probably still was, but now she knew it could be a wonderful place too. They spent a long time starting at the forest blanketed by night.

"A different pack lives to the east. It's important that you never go there under any circumstances."

"Why?" Lili tried to hide the concern in her voice, but it didn't work.

Ludwig wouldn't meet her eyes. "They will kill you." There was an obvious edge to his voice.

"But what did I…I never…why would they…I don't…why?" She felt her whole body grow cold at the thought of another group of wolves that wouldn't think twice about killing her.

"Werewolves and humans have never gotten along. Grudges run deep, and some don't care about blame." Ludwig turned toward Lili suddenly. "Promise me that you'll never go there."

"I-I promise," she said. She had no intentions of ever going there in the first place.

He seemed to relax a little after hearing her say that. "It's getting late. We should go back."

He began to climb down the tree first. Lili watched him go with apprehension. Climbing up the tree hadn't been so bad, but climbing down seemed much worse. Her legs grew unstable as she looked down toward the ground. Had she really climbed up so high? Gradually, she eased one leg down to a branch beneath her, and then another. She forced her limbs to work and carry her to the ground. A strong gust of wind caused the branches of the large tree to sway, and Lili grabbed the trunk for dear life. She couldn't do this. Somehow she had made her way up, but there was no way she was going to get back down.

"Jump."

The voice was coming from below her, and she knew it had to be Ludwig, but she couldn't even bring herself to open her eyes to look. She could ride a werewolf through the forest, but she couldn't climb down a tree. This was turning out to be one interesting day.

"Jump," he called to her again.

She wanted to, she really did. Anything would be better than being stuck in a tree. Lili tried to focus on her breathing, the texture of the bark on her fingertips, the sound of insects in the night, anything to distract her from her current situation. She was finally able to open her eyes and look down. Ludwig stood on the ground below watching her. It wasn't that far, but she couldn't find the strength to keep going.

"Do you trust me?"

There was that question again. Even though she couldn't see his eyes very clearly, she knew they were there trying to coax the answer out of her. But they didn't have to coax. She already knew the answer. With a deep breath, she let go of the tree trunk and stepped off her branch. Lili shut her eyes tight as she fell. Something warm and strong broke her fall. She opened her eyes to see Ludwig looking down at her with that half smile of his, only this time it might have passed for a full smile.

"Yes," she whispered as she smiled back at him.