Chapter One

I stare at the window in the darkness watching the rain hit and run down it. Again another storm has come. It happened often, the rain. Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy the scent of rain. Especially since tomorrow I know that when we go outside it will be the scent of rain mixed with the scent of damp earth and pine from the wood's pine trees. Thinking about it made me look forward to the morning's run. Lifting my head from where I had it across the covers I can see that the time was just barely three in the morning. Another whole two hours before he would awake. I look to Cody where he sleeps like always�"mouth open, head to the side, hair tossed in front of his face, perspiring from the heat of the covers. The heater had long since shut off but still he was hot.

 

"hmm...ngmm..." Is the sound he makes as he shifts in the queen size bed.

 

I get up just before getting kicked in my side again. I have learned that when he moved while he was sleeping there was going to be pain. He moved often in his sleep. And even though it was a large queen bed he seemed to take up the whole thing despite his normal size of a sixteen year old. Usually he'd sleep in a diagonal position and I would have the whole right hand corner to myself. But last night he fell asleep laying a normal way and so I had a quarter of the half. Of course I could go sleep in my own bed that lay in the corner of the room on the floor. But it lacked warmth. It also was hard because the wood floor was hard and could be felt once I lay on the bed and it sunk in. I also didn't want to be taken from this closeness.

 

I had been used to sleeping with him since we were eleven. We are the same age really. Except he doesn't know. In fact he doesn't know the whole me. Sure he knows where I like to be scratched. What I like to eat. My favorite game. My favorite movie. My favorite video game I like to watch him play. But he doesn't know the other part of me�"the human part. He doesn't even know that his pet wolf that his uncle had brought him on his eleventh birthday is in fact a werewolf. Yes, I am a werewolf. My name is Colby. Well, it was Anastasia before my mother died and my father sent me and my brother away for safety. It was Cody's uncle Jerry that helped out as a favor to my father. He was a human yes, but he knew about me and about us. He had arranged it so that I would be given to Cody on his eleventh birthday as a wolf pup. And I would stay as a wolf in hiding and thus Cody named me�"his present�"Colby. I didn't know why I was in hiding because it never was explained to me but my mother told me to listen to my father before she died. And so I did which, is what led me to follow Jerry. My father had told me, “This is for your own good. Listen to Jerry. He can be trusted.” Those were the last words he had spoken to me before leaving me in our old house’s library. And I listened.  

 

I was able to be in their care because�"as Jerry explained to me�"Cody's dad is a Zoologist, and specialized in wolves. So when he brought it up to him that he was offering them a wolf pup as a present for Cody, his dad was all over it. Cody's dad Allen was an awesome man. Sure he was a little weird and enjoyed making all sorts of animal sounds, but he was also funny. The day when I was brought to their house Jerry carried me from the car to the house and put me in a box�"with my permission, and plenty of persuasion, of course. When Cody had opened the box his eyes were so big and his smile was so large. His mom was quick to pull him away before he could touch me. But Allen was the first to grab me and looked me over. Everywhere! Even announced I was a female to the whole family before shoving me into Cody's arms pulling away his objecting wife. He admired my coat loving the mixture of the grays and my eyes being exotic with the darker gray almost black surrounding them. I also remember the first weekend when I was still settling into my new surrounding he told Cody to howl with me. Cody was sad because I didn't want to be near him and stayed in the corner of the room on my cold hard make shift bed at the time�"bundle of towels. And so that was Allen's advice "howl with her" he had said. Cody thought it was stupid. And at first so did I. I was depressed and wanted nothing more to just go home and be with at least my brother something familiar. But then that night as I sat out back where he had taken me for a walk in the neighboring woods he began making strange noises. At first it frightened me because it was unexpected. It was quiet one minute and then the next it sounded like he was in pain and being killed. Then when he finished and his smile wavered before it fell and he realized I wasn’t going to howl with him, off in the distance we heard them�"the howls. The wolves far off in the woods were answering claiming their territory threatening any other pack that would enter. He laughed and if I was in my human form I would have too. Instead I felt giddy and pranced around wanting him to do it again. He laughed at me and stared at me and made his noise again. And that time I joined him. That was our first howl together. As time passed his howling got better. And sometimes the whole family joins in and I feel a surge of joy when we howl together because it's like they're part of a pack�"like we’re one big pack.

 

Along with his dad Allen, there is his Allen's wife, Cody's mom, Rachel. She was against having a wolf in her house at first. But she has warmed up to me a bit. She still warns the boys not to play too rough with me and always has a panic attack when we track mud through the house. She’s swatted me with the broom quite a few times and even has sprayed me with a squirt bottle like some kind of dog. But she really is a nice woman and doesn’t know any better. During the day when the boys are at school and Allen is at work or in his study she sits in her chair in front of the fire reading or knitting. And I am right there at her feet. She even gives me food when no one is looking. Bacon, eggs, pieces of cooked steak, she gives me even though she tells the boys not to�"not that they listen. Along with Cody, she also has two other sons. Justin is seventeen and Erick is eighteen. They both go to Cody's high school. They are the average older brothers that pick on the younger one. They've even messed with me at times. Erick attempted to tie fire crackers to my tail once but luckily Allen caught him and he was grounded for three weeks. And when I was smaller and newer in the house they used to chase me with blow horns around the house. It is irritating the noise that they create and especially with my sensitive hearing it’s a pain, so of course I would run away having no choice and not being able to phase and yell at them to stop. Until I began to learn they were frightened when I bared my teeth. So that's all I do now when it looks like they're going to mess with me�"I bare teeth.

 

"nnng...maaaint....." Cody groaned in his sleep moving too quickly kicking me in my side. I get up with a yelp and move away from him. I get up from the bed growling lightly wishing I could curse at him but at the same time I'm okay with this. Sure sometimes I want to bite him but it doesn't me I don't love him.

 

I walk to the door and lift my nose biting on the doorknob to open it. I hear the click and move to the crack in the door using my nose to nudge it open. Walking out into the hallway quietly I stop to look around. The sounds in the house tell me everyone is sleeping because of the silence. The rain on the roof is the only other sound besides the sleeping breathing, Allen's snoring, and the refrigerator downstairs running. I move to the staircase and begin descending when the window in the front living room opens. I hurry down the stairs alerted and feeling the hocks on my back raise seeing the soaked intruder entering and let out a low menacing growl. But as the intruder raised and meets my eyes with his shocked ones I realize it’s just Justin.

 

"Shhh....it’s okay girl...shhhh..." he whispered close to me spreading the smell of alcohol towards me.

 

I let out another low growl with a huff shaking my head and attempting to remove the smell of his breath from my nose. He smiled and shakes his head at me running his hand across the top scruffing the back of my neck in a sloppy pet before moving away and up the stairs. I should have knew it was him, he was

always sneaking out and coming back late.

 

I move to the kitchen where my water bowl sits next to the dog food. It was a mixture of vitamins and minerals that Allen had made to fit a diet for a wolf. Although it was disgusting at first I grew used to it. It still was gross but not as bad when I was hungry. Every now and then Allen would get meat for me and the boys and he would feed me. For some reason it amused the boys when I ate meat. They commented on how awesome it would be to watch me hunt for real.

 

After finishing what was left of my food and chewed what was left of the meat bone from a steak Allen had tossed me yesterday I lifted my head to see the clock on the microwave. It was four forty-five now. Fifteen minutes and Cody would have to get up. I exit the kitchen and bound upstairs skipping steps and enter the room again. I sit at the end of the bed patiently waiting for the alarm to set off and him to awaken. I let out a couple of whines but he doesn't even stir. I get up on the bed causing it to shake with my weight. I let out another whimper followed by a bark closer to his head this time. this time he frowns and stirs lightly rolling over onto his side. I grab the covers moving them from him but his hands have come to life and are attempting to pull them back up. He's tug-of-warring with me while still trying to sleep. I end up winning when he huffs and tosses the covers over me in defeat.

 

"Damn Colby. Alright I'm up!" he says getting up as I move from out of the covers. I look at him where he rubs light honey brown eyes and looks to me. He smiles shaking his head and reaches out petting me.

 

"C'mon girl!" He says in his partially high pitched voice that cracked slightly he uses when he wants to get me riled up. For his own amusement I oblige and let out a bark followed by a small howling speech that in wolf form sounds like a string of hellos.

 

He gets off his bed and doesn’t bother slipping his shirt on. He gets to the door after ruffling my head side to side as I attempt biting playfully at his hands. He exits the room and runs down the hall to the bathroom shutting the door before I could nip him. He laughs at me from the other side as I scratch at the door. I give up after a few seconds and move away back to the room. Should Rachel wake up before her alarm because of a disturbance she would be cranky the entire morning.

I get on the bed after picking up the covers from the floor with my mouth and await Cody. After several minutes he bounds back into the room changing his plaid sleep pants and slipping on his jogging pants. Then he slips a black armor work out shirt on over his messy hair along with his work out hoodie that only scatters the his messy dark brown hair around. He slips on his running shoes and I knowing what’s going on gets me impatiently pacing the room ready to go. He laughs at me and motions to the door.

 

We head down the stairs racing slightly and he heads to the kitchen. He sets up the coffee maker for his parents and siblings later�"like always�"and then get to his stretching. As he reaches down touching his toes I roll myself onto my back and stare up at him with my tongue hanging out causing him to laugh. I loved making him laugh. it was like music to my ears. it was as soothing as his voice.

 

He opens up the back door after a few minutes of stretching. Then he counts to three before we both bound off the back porch�"him over the railing and me having to go around and use the stairs. I hit the floor causing a splash but quickly get into the rhythm of running. We run across the open area of the backyard. It had stopped raining awhile ago so all that remained was the damp earth. And I was right about the smell.

 

As we hit the woods the smell of the trees is intoxicating. it opens my senses and running like this�"I know this feeling is my wolf side. Cody runs beside me on his cleared out route he and his brothers had made for his runs. This was his workout and often his training course for the track team that he was on. He was pretty fast but his brothers messed with him because I guess he choked on a few of his meets and ended up falling. I haven’t been to one of his track races but I was always dying to go along. But still watching him run like this with me I think is so much better. For now only my eyes are on him and he seems free and encouraged by it.

 

He watches me as I maneuver easily through the woods quickly keeping pace with him. His dark brown hair moves as he runs at first flowing slightly behind his head because of the wind but soon is sticking to his for head and neck drenched with sweat. His face his normally lightly tanned face is a dark reddish pink color with heat from exertion. He watches me still as he runs commenting on keeping up and saying let’s go and if that’s all I got. it’s a lot harder than it looks maneuvering over and under fallen trees, pulling through narrow spaces. He laughs as a rabbit in a rush jumps out at me yelping a cry of fright and then runs ahead. Part of me wants to chase but the other part is finding the situation funny.