Lupine Dreams---Chapter 3    Author:  Islador

							
His slumber was deep and restful.  He was sleeping next to her and it was very nice.  The accelerated healing his body was going through took a lot of his energy, but he would be okay.  His wounds were healing fast.  He could tell that the eye was almost completely healed and that the skin had grown back, sealing the wound in his side.  The deep itch of his ribs coming back together was irritating, but it was a small price to pay.
  
He was reveling in the feel of her next to him.  The smell of her feet didn’t really bother him, in fact he rather liked it, it was HER smell, no perfume, just her.  He enjoyed giving her a hard time about it though, seeing her face go indignant as he wrinkled his nose.  He loved to see her so animated, watching the play of emotions on her face; seeing that she, too, had a sense of humor.  If you couldn’t laugh at the world around you, it was just a miserable existence, and he had had enough of that.

His keen sense of hearing let him know that something large was walking towards their camp.  Something large and on four legs, and that meant only one thing, a bear.  It had been awhile since he had seen one in this part of the forest, but when the humans stopped killing them, they had slowly migrated back into the area.  Now the bears were a nuisance; they were extremely territorial and they don’t like to share.  Well, hopefully this one will keep walking and pass them by, but he knew deep down, it wouldn’t.  Bears treated campsites like an instant snack source, which the foolish humans just kept providing.
  
The bear finally caught wind of him along with the food, it started growling and huffing.  Stercus!  That damn thing wants to fight instead of passing by.  Well, there goes the healing process.  I hope this one isn’t one of the big ones, maybe I can just growl a few times and it’ll get the idea that this is one campsite it will have to give up on.  He slowly got up and slithered out of the tent, making sure he didn’t disturb her.  He didn’t want her to panic and scream.  That usually just pissed off the bear and made the screamer a target.  He wanted to avoid that at all costs.  In his weakened state, he was going to have to bluster and bully the bear, only attacking if he absolutely had to.

He stood in the middle of her camp, sniffing the air, trying to get a read on the bear.  He heard it shuffling and huffing to his right.  He turned and sniffed again, this time he caught the scent. O Stercus!!  It was one of the big ones.  This wasn’t going to be pretty, those bastards play for keeps, and they fear nothing.  He let loose a low growl, the hair on his neck and back rising up, his tail out straight behind him.  

The bear heard him and answered back with one of its own.  Nope, this was going to get ugly, it was determined to get whatever it wanted.  His anger at this situation finally hit him full force, the adrenaline pumping into his blood, and something else, something unique to his kind.  His muscles started to ripple, the fire in his eyes burned fiercely, glowing red-hot.  He drew in a huge breath, filling his lungs to maximum capacity.  The growl that started was too low for a human to hear, but the bear heard it.  Dagomarus let it rip through his throat, pushing it out with all of his anger and power.  The pitch rose until it was ear shattering, his fury directed at the bear.
  
The bear paused for a second, then charged into the campsite, stopping just ten paces away from Dagomarus.  It let loose its own challenge and pushed off the ground with its front legs.  The bear hopped up and down three times and roared again.  Dagomarus went silent; he knew if he wasted another breath on a growl, the bear would jump him.  He slowly lowered himself to the ground, gathering his power in his legs for a leap of his own.  The bear misread the body language, thinking that this was just a wolf.  It pushed off one more time, rising up on its hind legs, spreading its forelegs.  It let loose another roar, letting Dagomarus know that it thought he was the victor of this little spat. 
 
However, Dagomarus was waiting for just such a move.  He pushed off the ground with every ounce of strength and fury he had in him, flying right into the bear’s chest, going for the throat.  He hit the bear hard, but somehow it remained standing.  He fell away from the bear with a chunk of flesh and fur in his mouth.  He had missed the jugular vein and got a mouthful of fat and skin instead.  The bear swung one of its forelegs, catching him in the ribs.  He yelped while flying through the air.  He hit a tree hard and landed on his back, dazed.  He couldn’t breathe, his muscles screaming in agony.  He could still feel all four legs, so he hadn’t broken his spine.  He did feel four new broken ribs and there were at least three gouges that had went deep into the muscle of his side.

The bear grabbed the backpack and started shredding it, trying to get to the food inside.  It ignored the wolf, figuring that nothing would bother him after that hit.  Dagomarus knew that if he didn’t get up now, the bear would find her inside the tent next and that would not be good.  He rolled over onto his feet and got up slowly, trying to keep his movement out of the bear’s notice.  He moved off to the bear’s left flank, positioning himself to make another attack on the wound he had inflicted the first time.  The bear ignored him, continuing to shred the contents of the backpack.

Dagomarus found his spot and gathered himself for one more leap.  This time the bear wouldn’t be able to swipe at him so easily, or put as much force into a swing.  He didn’t need to have another one of those.  When the bear shoved its head into the food wrappings, Dagomarus made his move.  He shot forward, digging his muzzle into the open wound on the bear’s neck, reaching that prize, the jugular and the windpipe in one bite.  He bit down as hard as he could, locking his jaws down on those precious tubes of life-sustaining flesh and muscle.  

The bear reacted immediately by pushing off the ground, standing up on its hind legs, trying to swing loose the ferocious wolf locked to his throat.  Dagomarus began to rake the bear’s sides and belly with his claws, trying to inflict as much damage as he could.  He knew that if he were shook loose, this would be his last chance of saving her.  He fought with every ounce of strength he could.  The bear tried to growl and roar, but the air had nowhere to go, Dagomarus had its windpipe squeezed shut and the blood going to the brain was flowing out is neck instead.

The bear shuddered and let loose one last spasm of fight, but it was over.  The bear fell to the ground, carrying Dagomarus with it.  They landed with a huge thud; as almost three thousand pounds of muscle and bone combined hit the ground.  Dagomarus had twisted his body along the bear’s side to keep from getting smashed.  He kept his hold on the bear until he was absolutely sure it was dead.  When he couldn’t feel a heart beat for several seconds, he let go.  There was a slurping wet sound as he removed his muzzle from inside the wound.  He had done it!!  He had killed the beast!  Commodum habitus es Asinus!  I own your ass!

He was so relieved that he had killed the bear and saved her from certain death.  He was so proud of himself that he went right to the tent flap and stuck his head inside to share his joy.  A beam of light suddenly blinded him and then she screamed and passed out.  O Stercus!  He had just scared her right out of her mind.  He felt like a complete dumbass, Asinus stultissimus; yep, that was him all right.
  
He left her where she was; he was dripping blood and he wasn’t about to make her any angrier when she woke up.  He turned back to the bear carcass and figured that it would be a shame to let all that fresh meat go to waste.  He tore into the bear and ate until he couldn’t eat anymore.  He left the remains and went to the creek to wash up and finish healing.  With that much fresh meat in his belly, it wouldn’t take anytime at all for his wounds to heal, even his new ones.

				******
	
She was dreaming of ferocious beasts growling and snarling at each other, when suddenly she realized it wasn't a dream.  There really was something outside her tent making the most god-awful, ground rumbling, otherworldly noise she had ever heard.  Her hand shot out and found the space that the wolf had occupied empty, and she couldn't see a thing.  It was totally black inside the tent.  Then there was another roar, but this one was different, vaguely familiar.  Then it hit her--a grizzly bear made those sounds.  But, that other growl!  Christ!!  It made her blood turn to ice when she heard it again.  She could feel the concussion from that growl deep in her chest.  The sound hit her like a fist.  

It also set off a deep-seated fear; one that she had never felt before, completely primal, way down deep in her subconscious.  This was something that primitive humans must have run screaming into the night away from.  The grizzly made one more snarling roar in response and then it just stopped; then the ground shook.  Something massive had just hit the ground.  The next thing she heard was the distinctive sound of ripping flesh.  Thick fluid splashed onto the side of the tent. Then nothing.  Total silence.  She could hear her heart thudding in her chest and thought it must be loud enough to hear three miles away.

	Movement outside the tent flap caused her to whimper.  OH GOD!!  Whatever is out there is now going to rip into me!  She started to franticly search for the flashlight that she always kept next to her in the tent.  Her fingertips brushed up against the cool metal and she snatched it up.  She quickly figured out which end was the correct one and just as she hit the button, the massive head of her ‘friend’ slid past the flap and looked right into her face.  Two red orbs stared back at her, the massive jaws were dripping blood and there were bits of flesh caught between the fangs.  She screamed and then passed out.

					******

	Her body shook violently and she sat up, whipping her head around looking for the monster that was going to eat her alive.  Nothing but her in the tent; the flashlight still in her hand, but the batteries had long since died.  She looked at the sides of the tent and there it was, the dark brown stains of dried blood splattered all over.  No sign of her ‘friend’.  It was light outside, now. She could see just fine.  She slowly crawled out of her sleeping bag and inched towards the flap.  Carefully lifted the flap with the end of the flashlight--Hey! Better to lose a flashlight than a hand!  She looked out into the morning light and saw utter destruction.  Her backpack had been shredded, the contents strewn all over the campsite.  

Here and there were large, dark brown stains on the pine needles.  It was still too early in the spring for flies to be out at this altitude, so the stains were just as they had been made.  Then she spotted the remains of what might have been a grizzly bear.  It was hard to tell now, there wasn't much left of it.  Something had eaten most of it, leaving the rest for the crows and buzzards.  She stepped around the still wet pools of blood on the ground, scanning the area for the wolf.  When she got to within a few feet of the remains of the bear, she heard a noise to her left.  She whipped her head around, expecting to see a giant streak of gray just about to crash into her and crush her.

	Instead, she was looking at a very wet, but completely clean, gray wolf, lying on its belly.  Two eyes stared at her over the short distance; the bandages were gone.  The eye she had pulled the splinter from was healed, complete, bright and looking right into her.  Then she noticed that the large bandage on his side was missing.  But instead of a gaping hole, there was fresh pink skin, with just a hint of peach fuzz on it.  He still had yet to move a muscle.  He was looking at her face with such concentration that it was very unsettling.  

"Wha-" she squeaked, cleared her throat, tried again.  

"What happened to your wounds?  They are almost completely healed.  Your eye is normal.  That shouldn't be able to happen over night.  The hole is sealed; grown back.  How?"

  He shrugged with his eyebrows.  Still not daring to move anything more.  Then she turned and looked at what remained of the grizzly, waving her hand in the general direction of the carcass.  

"And this?  How?  Nothing's meaner than a grizzly." 

Again, he shrugged with his eyebrows.  She took a tentative step towards him.  He scooted back on his belly, keeping the same distance between them.

	That made her stop.  She looked into his eyes and understood what was happening.  He was scared of her, or more accurately, for her.  He didn't want to show anything but utter submission to this woman.  Her vision blurred as her eyes overflowed with tears.  This great big giant of a wolf had not only saved her life, but he was trying to make peace with the fact that he had scared her senseless right after doing it.  Her legs gave out; landing on her knees, she held her arms out, reaching for him.  Then he was there, lying in front of her, gently licking the tears from her face.  Whimpering, trying to tell her how sorry he was for frightening her so badly.  After a few minutes of this, she finally got a hold of herself and gently pushed his muzzle back.  Giggling at the tickling sensations on her cheeks, she finally wiped her eyes on her sleeve, sniffling and smiling at him.  

"What am I going to do with you?"  

He got a big grin on his face and his tail started wagging back and forth.  

"Whoomphhh!"

The force of the answer blew the hair out of her face.

	She giggled and reached up to run her fingers around his formerly injured, no, ruined eye.  Her long thin fingers gently caressed the fur around the eye.  She marveled at the colors!  So deep!  It was like looking into the deepest, bluest lake.  Yet, underneath that midnight blue, was something else, violet swirls, that shifted with the dappled light filtering down through the pine trees.  She could feel herself slipping into a dream-like state as she stared into those eyes.  What was she feeling?  Happiness?  Yes.  But underneath that was something not so happy, troubled, frightened, and…?  Then it hit her, pain!  Oh GOD!  The pain!!  It ripped into her heart like a scythe cutting down wheat.

The sob that burst out of her throat nearly ripped her vocal cords.  The wolf jerked his head out of her hands, severing that connection that had unexpectedly formed between the two.  He jumped up to his feet, and stretched his neck out, pointing his nose into the sky and let loose with a howl that filled the morning air with such sadness that the surrounding sunlight seemed to dim because of it.  The sub-harmonics that filled the valley floor turned the atmosphere into a liquid, too thick to breathe, suffocating.  

When the cry trailed off into silence, the woman found two paws holding her face; the wolf on his back, reaching up the only way he could to touch her and hold her, almost like a human lover would comfort her.  His whimpering increased and he crooned to her.  
  
	There was a hollow feeling in her chest, right where her soul should be, but it felt so empty!  So cold!!  Her shivering increased until her whole body was vibrating with it.  Then she heard him crooning to her, trying to comfort her.  The pads of his paws felt warm on her cheeks.  Slowly, she started to warm up, the shivering stopped, and then she felt the love pouring through those huge paws into her face, through her blood, into her heart.  When she had finally recovered from the shock of that connection, she took a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs to maximum capacity.  

She could smell him now, that deep musky odor of MALE, mixed with the raw iron scent of blood.  Slowly she released the air from her lungs, blowing it out through her mouth, through the silky soft hairs on the bottoms of those giant paws.  She was holding those paws to her cheeks, forcing them against her skin, reveling in their softness.  Finally, she was back to normal, and she slowly pulled those paws from her face.  She ran her fingers over them, rubbing them, caressing them, squeezing them.  She couldn't get enough of him.  Finally, she gently released them and he slowly rolled over onto his belly and laid his head back into her lap.  Not looking into his eyes, as she did not want to repeat THAT experience any time soon, she softly asked him.

"Who are you?"

His only response was to croon softly, causing her blood to run fast for a few seconds.  Then he stopped when he realized what effect that was having on her.  Ever so slowly, he stood up and backed away from her, standing just out of arms’ reach.
  
	He stared off into the deep forest, listening to the birds as they began to sing again.  Just having that much space between her and him, felt like a chasm had opened up in the earth.  She didn't like that feeling at all.  She wanted to touch him again, have him touch her again.  When she started to reach for him, he curved his body away from her outstretched hand and took another step away, just to make sure.  

"Don't.  I want to touch you. I have to touch you.  I feel so empty when we can't touch."

Her eyes began to water and she sniffled.  He saw it out of the corner of his eye.  He hung his head down to the ground, his nose almost touching the pine needles.

	The thoughts racing through his mind were almost too much to comprehend.  How could he forget what effect his gaze would have on this woman?  It had been so many years.  He had run away from the humans so this wouldn't happen again.  He had spent so many years running wild with his distant cousins through the forest and the rolling hills that he had almost forgotten what he was, who he was, and what would happen if he ever got near the humans again.  VAE!!!  I am so raptus regaliter it isn't funny!  It hit him like a bolt of lightning!  Latin!  I'm thinking in Latin again.  Gods!  How many years has it been since that has happened?  He realized that he had started doing it last night.
  
The sound of soft weeping next to him brought him back to the present really fast.  He turned to look at his new love, hearing her soft voice, almost too soft, but he could hear it just as clearly as if she had shouted it.  

"Don't you love me?"

She was trying to get him to look at her.  He took two steps to her and draped his head over her shoulder, rumbling deep in his chest.  Trying to get her to understand.  Of course, I love you!!  Why do you think I'm so miserable!!  But all he could do was rumble.  She started laughing into his chest, when she understood what he was trying to say.  

"You DO love me!!"  

She hugged him so tight; he almost felt the squeeze through to his bones.  He grunted, giving her a hard time over her hug of death.  She pushed him back and then stood up.

	"You aren't really a wolf, are you?"

Hope tried to surface in her eyes as she figured out that her new 'love' walked on all fours!  He looked at her with a deep sadness in his own eyes, and then began to move his head up and down.  Yes, I am.  Well, not completely, but for right now, yes.  Even though he couldn’t say it out loud, she could read it in his eyes and the expression of his 'face'.  When the realization had a chance to sink in, she began to think about what new lovers are supposed to do to show how much they love each other, and then the blush started rising up her face, until it was almost beet red and it crept all the way up to her scalp.  

"Oh."

Her voice got so small.  He quickly caught on to what she was thinking and he couldn't help it, the wolf actually starting laughing.  The deep rumble came out of his chest; the chuffing was almost continuous.  He didn't have any problems with that act, or acts as the case may be, but he could see how that mental image scared her to death.  Then he glanced at her face.  Uh oh.  She's getting mad.

	"Stop laughing at me!  How can you be so crass!  Good girls aren't supposed to do that!  Hell!  Bad girls aren't even supposed to do THAT!"

He backed up a couple paces and stretched out his forelegs, putting his head down between them, but leaving his butt in the air.  He bowed before her, hoping that the incongruous image of a giant wolf doing this would diffuse her anger and shame.  

"Oh, stop it.  I'm trying to be serious here for a minute."  

He cocked his head and pushed his ears at her, in the classic, HUH? face that all canines, and lupines, have.  

"Quit it.  Now."

Uh oh, this isn't working.  She's really pissed.  He watched her carefully for the next few moments as he could see her thinking things through.  She took several deep breaths, in through her nose, out through her mouth.  Something clicked deep in his memory.  Oh, yeah.  Those crazy monks in those orange robes used to do that just before they kicked your ass.  He scooted back, just in case this might be one of those times.  She caught the movement, and squinted at him, contemplating.  He went still; like a deer caught in the headlights, he froze.

	VAE!!  She was a hot one.  She will make an excellent alpha!!  The thought of her being his alpha female started things to flow, primarily, blood to a certain organ.  Before he was fully aware of it, his shaft had slipped out of its sheath and had begun to swell.  Again, the slightest movement caught her eye and then her eyes went WIDE!!  The size of that thing!!  WHOO BOY!!  

"That is NOT going anywhere near me!  You understand!?!"  

Her voice had taken on the heat of a blast furnace but her face was cold as ice.  He looked down at his expanding member, and then watched it slip back to where it had escaped.  The only tell tale sign that anything had happened was a few drops of pre-cum dripping from the hairs around the opening of the sheath.  He brought his head back up, and looked at her with a 'who? me?' expression.

	"Jesus Christ!!  I thought I was having a hard time trying to fight off 24 years of cultural stigma of doing anything with you, but then I see that.  My God!!  That wouldn't fit, even if I wanted to!"

He let her blow off some steam.  He knew that actually, it would fit.  Several past experiences had taught him that.  As a matter of fact, there was that one woman in his past who absolutely adored it, no, craved it!  What was her name......Catherine?  Then he had a mental flashback of her face.  Whew!  Gods! She had been ugly, but she loved to fuck her beasts.  Then he remembered that she had graduated to horses and he had left before he became twisted.  No way was he going to take sloppy seconds from some stallion.  The hiss from his left let him know that his ruminations of the past just might get him in trouble again.  He looked at her to see what she was hissing at.  Oops.  Once more the shaft retreated into its sheath.

	"Is that all you can think about?  Sticking that monstrosity inside of me?"

He actually got a sheepish grin on his face and looked down at the ground.  He almost lost it again.  Gods!  I have to stop doing that.  He finally got himself under control and looked at her.  Before she could say another word, he chuffed at her and then moved his muzzle to point over her shoulder.  She turned and surveyed the wasted campsite.  Her clothes, the food; the only thing left standing was the tent and it was ruined as well.  She'd never get all that blood out of the nylon.  Then the events of the previous night came back to her.  She stood there for a few seconds, and then turned back to him.  

"You’re right.  We need to get out of here before something or someone else finds this mess."
  
She walked back over to the tent and retrieved her boots, plopped down on the ground and began to lace them up.  While she was doing that, she paused for a second, and then looked up at him.  He tilted his head, waiting for the question.  

"What's your name?  I mean; I can't just go around calling you ‘Wolf’, can I?"  

The irony of the situation did not escape him, but he waited for her to remember that with his mouthful of fangs, he had no speech.  Then it was her turn for the light blush and the sheepish glance. 

"Sorry, forgot.  I just feel like you have been talking to me, when in reality, you're just looking at me, making funny noises and faces, and I can somehow tell what you are thinking."

  He grinned.  Not everything, my love.

	She reached into the tent and rolled up her sleeping bag with her pillow and the flashlight.  Those were the only three things that had survived the mauling intact.  Well, almost.  She spotted her wallet next to one of the trees and retrieved it. 

"Well, at least I have this.  Now I can buy us dinner."

She began walking uphill.  She continued to talk.  

"When we get to my truck, I'll put you in the back and we can go to my place in town." 

He stopped right there and whoophed at her.  She turned to see what he wanted, and then she saw it in his face.  Fear.  Real fear.  

"Oh, crap!  That's right, someone shot at you yesterday and nearly killed you!  And now here I am, trying to take you to the same type of people who wouldn't blink an eye before taking another shot at you.”

  She sat back down and started to think about the alternatives.  Then she had an idea.  Yes!!
 
"There's an old abandoned Ranger shack ten miles from here.  It's over that way."

She pointed towards the northwest. 

"I can go back to town, get more supplies, and then trek back out here.  Luckily the fire access road goes almost all the way to the old shack, so I won't have to hike far to get to it."

He nodded approval of her plan.  All of a sudden, she got a funny look on her face.  

"Uhm...What kind of dog food do you like?"

  He leaped right at her.  She squealed and started running full tilt up the hill towards her truck.  He snapped at her butt the entire way.