Chapter Two

After a while of running we hit the opening within the woods and he leans over as he huffs and gasps for breath. I pant and head to a puddle leaning down and taking a drink. It taste earthy especially with the slight taste of dirt which doesn’t bother me anymore. I know my immune system is strong along with my high body temperature that should act as a purifier for the water I’m drinking. He removes his sweatshirt off him and stretches again putting his hands behind his head so he can breathe. He ties the sweat shirt around his waist and places his hands behind his head again as huffs a few breaths before setting his hands back down and turns to me with a smile.

 

"You ready to go again Colbs?" He asks ruffling my head before heading off in a jog.

 

I follow along the same as before. This time I take the woods into mind letting it absorb me. The sounds of the birds awakening fill my ears with their songs. The feeling of the damp earth beneath my paws seems to be more absorbing when I can hear the earth shift beneath my paws as I pass over it. The wind flowing through my fur as I run is refreshing and spirit lifting. I fold my ears back slightly allowing the wind to pass by but not enter them and making me a little more aerodynamic.

 

As we get closer to the other opening signaling the backyard of the house I speed up and practically fly into the opening. I turn back to the woods just as Cody is entering the opening gasping for breath. He laughs as he falls to the floor exhausted and shakes his head when I run up to him still with energy. He laughs at me as he get up and holds himself up against the tree.

 

"Man Colbs, you're quick! Flying through the woods like that...wish I was a wolf." he says pushing himself off the tree and walking over to my petting my head laughing.

 

He heads to the house and after leaving his shoes outside enters. I wait for him outside the door while he grabs a towel and returns. Like usual he kneels down wiping the mud from each one of my paws. Then i move around him inside and make my way to the kitchen. It’s already six ten and the sun is already rising and peaking in through the kitchen windows. Rachel is up and already dressed in jeans, brown boots, dark brown sweater, and her hair tied up in a bun maneuvering around the kitchen fixing breakfast. The smell of bacon practically makes me drool.

 

"Hey mom." Cody says walking into the kitchen. She stops and turns around taking in her son's appearance. Her dark green eyes even go down to his feet ready to shout if there is mud.

 

"Morning honey."She says with a smile and kisses him on his cheek. he blushes and moves away with a laugh. She smiles and goes back to cooking.

 

"Morning numb nut!" A masculine voice says from behind me entering the kitchen.

 

I already know its Erick before I turn around. He walks into the kitchen with black pants, dark grey hoodie, and his light brown hair messily styled. His light brown eyes look at his mother apologetically as she shoots him a glare but as she turns around the dart to Cody and a smirk appears.

 

"Morning gorgeous." Cody says dripping with sarcasm and rolls his eyes.

 

As Erick grabs for bacon and mouths a string of curses at Cody. But when he attempts to shove a second handful in his mouth I raise myself setting my paws on the counter and snatch the strips from his hand. Seeing me coming at him he immediately drops the strips and moves away startled. Cody is doubled over laughing as I lick up what’s left of the bacon on the floor.

 

"Cody what in the world is�"Colby! Get out of the kitchen! Go on now. Go!" Rachel says turning around looking to Cody laughing but then looking to me and begins swinging her towel. I move away and am almost out of the kitchen when I smell the familiar scent of Allen's aftershave.

 

"Oh c'mon Rach. Leave her alone. She was just sticking up for Cody." Allen said walking into the kitchen and running his hand along the top of my head, down my neck and around below my mandible turning me back towards the kitchen. I follow nudging his hand wanting to be pet again. Her eyes narrow as she sighs and shrugs knowing that when it comes to Allen she usually can't win an argument.

 

"You know Cody, wolves have a pack mentality. And they're very protective of their alpha. It is likely that to her, you are seen as her alpha." Allen says matter-of-factly petting me as I raise myself on his lap and his face is in front of mine where he sits on his stool. he stares at me with admiring eyes. Man did Allen love wolves. Every other day he always had a fact telling Cody about the species.

 

"Yeah dad...you told me that one." Cody said with a laugh as he poured orange juice. Allen laughed his deep laugh and pushed me gently off him as he reached for bacon. His hand makes a slapping sound as Rachel gets it with her towel.

 

"Wash those hands!" She snaps at him with a smile. Allen looks ready to argue but like everyone else in the family he knows that when it comes to hygiene, Rachel will always win that argument.

 

The early morning carries on like usual; family talk, laughing, and talking a little about what’s on schedule. Allen says he has work in his study and also has to go down to animal control to check in. Erick has a Spanish test and a math test that he is freaking out about but on the upside for him there is pizza for lunch because it's Thursday. Cody has track meeting at lunch and also starts a new zoology project today in science. Rachel talks about how she plans to clean the house and stops talking about a sweater she’s almost done with mid sentence.

 

"Where is Justin?" she asks looking at the boys and Allen. Cody sighs shaking his head.

 

"Hey, maybe we should give him a family wakeup call..." Allen says with a mischievous grin. He looks to Cody giving him a nod to me and then winking.

 

"Yeah!" Cody says standing up straighter and smiling. He looks to me and motions me to follow as he dashes out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

 

When we hit the second floor he goes down the hall and stops on the first door on the right. He opens the door and heads over to the curtains. the sun light into the room brightening it reveals Justin who is sprawled out sleeping. Cody laughs and motions to the door in. i look and see Allen is silently laughing with Erick. Rachel is last in wiping her hand on her kitchen towel. Cody moves to me giggling and kneels down petting my head and ruffling my fur.

 

"C'mon girl. Howl." He whispers to me with a smile.

 

He ruffles my head once more and begins. He starts out quietly howling until I begin howling. Then Allen and Erick join in behind us. I go forward stopping at the end of the bed and begin a howl and toss my head back as I push the howl out it spurts that sound like hellos mixed with howls. it’s the sound I make when excited and also when I'm attempting to be a wake up alarm on queue. The family just begins to laugh breaking off howls as I continue. I stop when I hear Justin yelling.

 

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT ALREADY! I'M UP! I'M UP! STOP!" He shouts at me tossing pillows. I let out a few whimpers wishing I could tell him that’s what he gets for getting back in the middle of the night and staying out so late. The family leaves the room laughing and I hurry and follow behind Cody not wanting to be left alone with him when he's so angry.

 

"I'm going to go get in the shower girl." Cody announces as I follow him into the room and already he's heading back out. Without thinking I follow along after several seconds. He quickly is already undressed by the time I get to the bathroom fluffy mat in the middle of the floor. I quickly turn away and attempt to head back out but Justin is stumbling in.

 

"Dude, you're mutt is in here." He snaps glaring at me but not taking a look at Cody and beginning to brush his teeth.

 

"She's not a mutt. She's a wolf Jus. And I’m in the shower man. What the hell?!" Cody says from within the shower. i don’t dare turn around and hope Justin hurries so i can move through. He’s blocking my way out the door.

 

"Well whatever. And I'm brushing my teeth. Calm down. I don't want to see your junk or anything." He said pausing between brushing his teeth. The water shuts off and i hear the curtains move behind me. i whine wanting Justin to move but he ignores me.

 

"Dude. No peaking." Cody says sarcastically to Justin as he grabs his towel. i take special care to look away and avoid staring into the mirror. I hear the towel being removed from the rack and then head Cody step out of the shower after drying off. He moves around me but still as I step aside pressing myself slightly against to wall so he can squeeze by i take care not to look.

 

"Move Jus so we can get out of the bathroom." Cody says to Justin. He scoffs but moves out of the way enough to let him go through but when i attempt to pass he backs up knocking me into the side of the wall. He steps back away and smirks down at me.

 

"Oops...Sorry Colby..." He says sarcastically and then rolls his eyes and looks back to the mirror to brush his teeth.

 

I fight the urge to growl and bite his leg and head back to Cody's room. Luckily he already has his boxers on when i walk in. but i cant help but notice his body is still wet. He looks to me with his bright white smile, his hazel eyes with long eyelashes meeting mine. I intake a breath but quickly look away and head over to my bed in the corner. He laughs lightly and shuts the door and then sits on the end of his bed putting on his brown boots. He has his training bag already ready at the foot of his bed and he tosses in his deodorant after he uses it. then he pulls on a black long sleeve and a grey hoodie. His hair is still damp but he doesn’t bother doing anything with it. It’ll fall into place like usual once it dries. He stares at the mirror a couple seconds and fixes a few strands of hair making sure none are on his face. Why would it matter? He never cared. He sees me staring through the reflection and smiles.

"You must think why am I fixing my hair like some chick, huh?" He says to my spreading lotion on his face and looking at me. I stare back at him almost nodding. It wasn't normal for a wolf to nod.

 

"Well..." He begins turning around facing me and moving towards my bed. He kneels down so that he's at my level and smiles sheepishly. I whine nudging his hand urging him to continue. He laughs lightly and rubs my head before he does.

 

"...between you and me...I'm going to talk to Sarah today." He said with a smile and shrugged as he turned red.

 

Sarah Marshall. He has had a crush on Sarah since freshman orientation. He showed me pictures of her on the computer and also in his yearbook. She isn't all that pretty but she didn’t have nice cheek bones. They were very pointy in my opinion. She also had her eyes too widely set apart. but I wasn’t one to judge. He liked her because when he got lost she attempted to help him out and when his brothers pulled a prank on him sending him into an empty classroom as part of initiation she didn’t laugh. In my opinion that isn't much to go off of. At times i wished i could phase and ask him what exactly he knows about her besides looks. What her favorite food was? Or what movies she liked? But i didn’t. instead i just listened while he talked and blushed silently like he was doing now.

 

"C'mon girl. Let’s go get some breakfast..." He said with a sigh looking back to me coming back to reality and then stood and headed out of the room.

 

I followed him out and down the hall and stairs. he already had his bags ready and set them beside the kitchen chair ready to go. He sat at the dining table beside Allen who sat at one end of the table. He had the paper open and already had his morning coffee in front of him. I looked to Erick who had a book open and was reading. Which, was strange�"even for him. Rachel was still making toast in the kitchen. Footsteps entered the kitchen and looking Justin walked through and dropped himself into the chair across from Cody and beside Erick.

 

"Don't you just love the call of the wild son?" Allen asked behind his newspaper to Justin. Justin shot him a look that�"if looks could kill�"would burn a hole right through the paper.

 

"I also love the sound of a gunshot on the hunting channel..." he remarked quietly as he took a bite of his eggs. Cody shot him a look ending his laughing. Justin smirked in response and drank his milk.

 

"Dad...they can't like shoot Colby right? She's like protected...right?" Cody asked reaching to touch my head. He was way off so i moved beside his hand for comfort. As he touched the side of my head his body loosened up a bit and became less tense.

 

"Well Cody...if she's on our property then yes she's protected. When Jerry gave her to you he had the papers done making it official. But should she leave here and attack someone whether it's bite or a kill...they'll probably euthanize her. She is a wild animal after all Cody. Even here with us...she could always turn to her instincts." Allen said setting down his paper and staring intently at Cody and then turned his gaze to me as he ended watching Cody pet me.

 

"...you're wrong dad. Colby would never hurt anyone..." Cody said tensing again as he pet me.

 

I moved closer moving his hand along my neck so my head was across his lap and beside his side like a makeshift hug. its the best i could do while he sat in a chair and i wasn’t allowed on him while they ate. He relaxed again and even smiled down at me laughing lightly. Allen let out a sigh and stared at Cody a few seconds before continuing.

 

"Should you not want her to still be wild Cody...that is terrible...she's already here living as a pet...but she will never be truly ours...she will always be wild. Never domesticated Cody...you understand right?" He said quietly to Cody but everyone at the table was listening. it seemed this was supposed to be a private conversation, that’s what it felt like. Cody's grip on my coat grew tight on my neck as he pulled me closer to him. He nodded staring down at me as i stared up at him.

 

"...yeah dad. I understand." He whispered just loud enough for Allen to hear.

 

After a few seconds sounds started up again and the clinking of plates and silverware could be heard. Conversation started up too and even the sound of Allen lifting and returning to his paper was heard. Cody continued to stare down at me still petting me deep with thought. Suddenly he let out a small sigh and smiled down at me.

 

"I should get going now...don't want to be late..." Cody said to no one in particular and grabbed onto his bag.

 

I stared as he set his dishes in the sink and wrapped the remains of his bacon in a paper towel. He even grabbed several sausages from the plate which i knew were for me because he hated sausage. With a quick wave of goodbye he was out the back door with me in tow. He used the steps of the porch this time as we walked to the side of the house. It was a shortcut to his high school through the woods. A fifteen minute walk when you speed walk but now as we hit the woods were slowed down it'll take half an hour. I watch him as he opens his paper towel and grabs at strips of bacon and begin eating them. He tossed me one which I easily caught and munched on. We walked in silence a few minutes before he sighed.

 

“You know Colby...if you ever want to leave...you’re free to go.” He whispers as he hands me sausage. I doubt he expected me to understand and frowned slightly when i had stopped walking and stared up at him. Did he not want me? No, he loved me right?

 

“...not that you have to Colbs...just if you want too.” He said after a moment with a smile. I stare at him a few seconds and he stretches his arm out waving the sausage urging me to take it. After a second i oblige and i do feeling slightly better and more understanding. he was just looking out for me. He smirks and shakes his head.

 

“I swear Colby...sometimes it’s like you can understand what I’m saying.” He said shaking his head at me and smiling to himself. I couldn’t help but think that if i was in my human form i wouldn’t help but drop a sarcastic note on him. Huh. Me understand you? Funny!

 

After a few moments of silence Cody started talking about Sarah Marshal again. Wondering aloud what he should say to her when he got the chance today. What he could say to her if he had got that far. What he wanted to say to her. It was amusing watching his struggle and speak to me as if i can talk back. I whimpered occasionally discreetly answering his questions as he tried out lines on me. I was sad when we reached the end of the woods though. The drop off point where he had to leave me behind. As he kneeled in front of me he gave me the rest of the sausage and rubbed my head rustling up my neck fur before patting my side and telling me to wish him luck kissing me on my forehead. I couldn’t help but think both paws crossed.