Page 72 of The Last Sanctuary
The white wolf watched her. The wolf stood ten feet away, in between two tall pine trees. Raven hadn’t heard her silent approach. The wolf moved as a ghost, drifting like the otherworldly fog from last night.
Raven lowered the gun and dropped to her knees on the leaf-strewn ground. Instinctively, she bowed her head. It made her feel a bit ridiculous. She didn’t care. Overwhelming relief flooded her entire body.
She took a breath and raised her head. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you, Luna.”
The wolf’s lips pulled back. Just enough to show a sliver of teeth. She pivoted and trotted away. She glided between a gnarled pine tree and a thicket of huckleberry bushes.
Before she slipped out of sight, she paused, looking back over her shoulder. Her yellow eyes stared at Raven.
An invitation. She wanted Raven to follow her.
Raven rose to her feet. She zipped and re-shouldered her pack, then grabbed her rifle. Exhausted as she was, she didn’t want to be alone. She would go wherever the wolves wanted to take her. “Please don’t go far, or my feet will fall off.”
The sun sank behind the trees. As dusk fell, she trailed the wolf, winding through dense thickets of mountain laurel and sumac, traipsing through copses of yellowwood, maple, and white oak trees.
Luna disappeared often, her loping gait too swift for Raven to keep up. When she was lost, Raven would stop and wait. Within a few minutes, Luna reappeared. Her jowls pulled back, not in a snarl necessarily, but perhaps an irritated grimace, her wolfish expression like a mother irked at her troublesome, too-slow children.
“I’m trying, I promise.” Her legs ached. Her eyes burned. Exhaustion pressed down on her like a thousand bricks. Still, she followed the wolf.
It was nearly dark by the time Luna led her up a steep hill, then around several moss-covered boulders the size of trucks. Eventually, the wolf paused before a massive rock jutting at least twenty feet high and thirty feet across. At its base opened a narrow, dark crevice about five feet wide and three feet tall.
The wolf ducked inside the crevice and disappeared. The crevice appeared to be a cave.
A series of yips and whines echoed from inside the cave. A moment later, the large black wolf emerged. Shadow trotted up to Raven and pushed his shoulder against her hip, like a greeting, or a sign of grudging affection, perhaps.
“Hello to you, too.” She dared to stretch out her fingers. Gently, ever so gently, her fingertips grazed the ruff of his neck.
The wolf didn’t growl or react at all.
Growing bolder, she cautiously stroked the fur along his spine. Though his guard hairs were coarse, the thick black fur underneath was incredibly soft.
Shadow circled her. He rubbed against her thighs as she petted him. He was so powerful that when he bumped her, he nearly knocked her off her feet.
After a few minutes of this, he abruptly departed. He trotted to the cave entrance and slipped inside.
For a long moment, Raven stood outside the cave, conflicted. In the wild, adult wolves didn’t use dens unless they had pups. Wolf packs preferred to sleep outside beneath the stars.
Was it possible they had chosen this cave for her? Did they want her to come inside with them? Was that why they’d invited her here? If she dared to invade such a tight, intimate space, and the wolves didn’t accept her presence, it might trigger a defensive attack.
She had two options: find another tree and spend an exhausted, restless few hours feeling cold and incredibly uncomfortable, or she could accept the invitation of these strange, wild creatures and willingly enter a wolves’ den.
Raven chose the wolves.
Removing her pack, she retrieved some of her beef jerky and a bag of nuts, then hid the pack behind a nearby boulder. Though her throat felt dry as a desert, she took only a few swallows from her water bottle. She needed to conserve what remained and find a fresh water source first thing tomorrow.
Using her whittling knife, she cut several slender branches from a nearby pine tree to brush the dirt near the cave of her footprints and then covered the pack.
She crept to the crevice, careful to keep her balance on the sharp edges of the rocky shelf. Taking a breath, steeling herself, she dropped to her hands and knees.
She crawled inside the cave, dragging the rifle with her in one hand, the flashlight in the other. Dense darkness washed over her. The smell of earth, pine, and rotting leaves filled her nostrils.
Once inside, she flicked on the flashlight and shone it across the walls. The cave was around six feet across and four feet high.At the back, it narrowed into a small tunnel that led who knew where.
On the left, Shadow and Luna lay tangled in a furry pile. Shadow licked Luna’s muzzle while she nuzzled her head against his neck. The wolves lifted their heads as she entered.
Luna yawned, showing her gleaming white teeth, as if to remind Raven who was in charge.
Her heart thudded in her chest. “Trust me, I know.”
