Chapter 4 - Not a wild wolf.

Libby POV

The wolf seems somewhat tame…it just keeps trying to bite at the trap around its ankle. Which when I watch Ben touch, every time he pulls his hands away as if it was hot to touch. He swears before trying to touch the trap all over again.

“I’m sorry, I can’t…” He whispers to the wolf. His shoulders slumped as he finally has to admit defeat.

I don’t understand what has happened and why Ben has got himself involved with helping a wild animal, the farmer couple would have shot it on site.

“Here, let me take over.” I crouch down beside him, very slowly stroking the side of the wolf’s tummy, reassuring it that I wasn’t here to cause anymore pain.

I keep my movements slow, not wanting to lose any fingers if the wolf decides to snap at me for handling it too roughly.

“Is the trap hot?” I mutter to Ben under my breath. I don’t know why, it’s not as if the animal could understand me.

“Why?”

“You keep pulling your hands away as it if it is hot?”

I prepare myself, expecting it to burn my fingers upon touch…but it doesn’t.

I look at the wolf, inspecting its leg when I realise it is a female wolf.

Something occurs to me, not that can’t be right…I can’t have come this far only to never have actually left my old life behind.

“Where’s Beth?” I look to Ben, then around the surrounding trees, unable to see her close by.

“She’s back at the farm. She went ahead of me to get help.” He doesn’t meet my eye contact..first sign of a lie. He’s also very gently rocking back and forth, as if watching this animal in pain is causing him pain. As if he is connected to this wolf.

“And hasn’t returned yet?”

“No…”

“How long have you been out here?”

Something wasn’t adding up. There is not a chance in hell that Ben would let his sister walk on ahead of him just to stay with a wild animal.

He just wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t leave her alone with Anwir, let alone walk in woods where she might get lost for days.

I keep stroking the wolf, trying to calm it down, even providing soothing hushing sounds.

The wolf is watching me, as if it can actually understand what I am saying. It’s eyes holding some kind of recognition for me…then it clicks.

This isn’t some random wild wolf…

This is Beth.

My mind is moving at a speed I wasn’t used to now living on a farm. Where life was calmer, rural and slow. If Beth was a wolf…so was Ben.

Shit…

Shit…and triple shit.

I can’t have my old life come back to haunt me now. I want to run, I already have my backpack…there is no need for me to even return to the caravan.

But I can’t leave her, she’s in pain and only 14.

And they were my friends.

“Beth you need to calm down. Can you shift?”

Beth’s wolf’s head lifts up slightly just as Ben’s astonished face turns to look at me face on.

“You know?”

“Yes, if she shifts we can pull her leg out.” I order at him, already moving myself to prepare to act quickly. This was going to hurt her, so we needed to act fast.

“It’s covered in wolfsbane, that’s why it burns every time I touch it.”

That would make sense why to me the trap was stone cold but seemed to make Ben hiss with pain.

I take my backpack off, opening it to pull a T-shirt dress out. Something to help Beth cover up her soon-to-be naked human form.

Ben and I move quickly. He moves to Beth’s wolf’s head readying to pull her by her shoulders as soon as she shifts.

After counting to 3, I yank open the animal trap, as Ben pulls his now human sister free.

Her screams fill the wooded area, birds fly from the safety of their own nests in the nearby trees, fleeing the uncomfortable sounds of her pain.

Even I’m struggling as some of her skin has been pulled off from the trap, blood pouring out of her ankle. I’m better in a disaster than I used to be. Month’s of working on the farm teaching me to remain calm under pressure.

“She needs a hospital…” I say as I place my backpack on and get ready to leave.

“No, she’ll be fine in a while. Her healing will kick in.”

“Thank you Libby…” Beth murmurs out, the pain already causing her to become floppy in her brother’s arms. With one movement he lifts her up and safely cradles her in his arms.

“I can clean the wound back at our caravan and put her down to sleep.”

“Okay…where’s Anwir?”

He should have been with them, he was meant to be going into town also.

“I don’t now, he ditched us last minute. I thought he might have stayed back to wait for you.”

Our pace is quicker than what I was used to but I kept up, Beth needed to get her ankle taken care of. I suggest that Ben puts her in my caravan, laying her on my bed so that I can make the pancakes for when she awakes. The protein from the eggs will help to rebuild her strength when she is awake and no doubt hungry from her body healing itself at super speed.

She’s unconscious and Ben moves quickly to gather a medical kit to clean her wound. I leave him to it, instead boiling the kettle to make him a hot drink. I don’t know how long they had been out there but they both looked quite shaken up.

When he enters the main part of my caravan he finds me making pancakes for when Beth wakes up. He sits down at the small dining table, watching me.

I walk over to him with a mug of coffee, before returning back to the oven hob to flip a fresh pancake. An odd awkward silence now settling over us.

I knew it was coming, so when the words leave his mouth I’m not surprised, of course he would be inquisitive to know.

“So, how do you know about werewolves?”