Page 6 of Wolf's Whisper

"Alright then, be that way." My body was growing stiff from the hike and the cold. I stretched my limbs, threw on one more log for the fire, and grabbed the fur for inside my tent.

"Goodnight, Wolfie." I waved as both I and the night fell.

The next day his paw looked much better and he obviously felt much better. It was quite clear as he ran circles around me, happily yipping at my pack for more meat.

"Shhh!" I shushed the noisy wolf, hoping he'd stop barking at an old tree. "You'll chase all the animals away!"

But Wolfie didn't care. He just cheekily jumped up and down as he started to chase his own tail.

"Should've never fixed your damn paw," I grumbled as I heard my stomach rumble in hunger. The wolf had turned out much hungrier and needier than expected. We only had a couple of measly jerky strips left and I couldn’t afford to eat them all just to still my hunger. Even my latest calculations had been off and I could almost see the meat disappear in thin air. Except that it disappeared into our stomachs. Well, mostly the wolf’s.

I knew I still had a whole bunch of freeze-dried vegetables in my pack, but I wouldn’t touch that stuff unless absolutely necessary. I'd prefer to have a mouthful of meat than a plate of cardboard mush, and would only force it down my throat after ran out of meat. But at the rate this was going, that would be much sooner than anticipated.

The only way I could prevent myself from eating mushy vegetables was by adding more meat to my rations. But that meant going out on a hunt on my own.

Of course, I had hunted before. How could I not? But then again, I'd never gone out hunting in this state. Without the safety of home a few miles back, without hunger clouding my good judgement, or without anyone to guard my belongings.

I listened to the forest, but it was so dead quiet. The snow isolating and muffling all sounds definitely didn’t make it easier for me to gauge how many animals were in my perimeter. With the night falling quicker every night, the amount of daylight I had was limited. And I desperately needed that daylight.

I wondered if I trained the wolf, he would help me hunt. It might give me a slight edge over the other animals or he could help me track. I had always been lousy at tracking, even with footprints in the snow.

I felt my stomach rumble again and as it did, I stared hungrily at my pack. There was enough meat in there to still my hunger now or last me a couple of more days. It was obvious which choice I should make, but I could already feel the hunger cloud my mind. That was what hunger did.

I knew that well enough. It was one of the things my grandpappy had always warned about.If I went out on a hunt now, I might stray too far from my camp and get caught in the night without a fire, I might jump off a ledge to chase an animal and break my legs, or maybe run head first into a tree and knock myself out. It all sounded like stupid things to do, but with my stomach driving my body instead of my head, it all sounded far too plausible as well.Hunting was a tricky business.

I pulled up my nose at the thought of cardboard vegetables, but decided to refrain from going out on a hunt. It might just be the last thing I did. And honestly, I didn't feel like killing myself just because I was too stubborn to eat my vegetables.

I threw a dirty look at the grey wolf jumping up and down in the snow. "Doesn't mean I’m not in the mood to kill, though." I pulled up my nose as I polished my bow.

Instead of going out for a hunt, I decided to collect some fallen branches from around the camp. I could stand the hunger for a while, and I didn’t mind having to share my camp with a loud wolf, but I'd be damned if I was cold.

When I returned to my camp, there was a chiselled, naked man casually lounging around. What. The. Hell?

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