Page 7 of Curvy Girl and the Mountain Man Wolf
I slip under the quilt beside Lily, who immediately curls against me in her sleep. The bed is surprisingly comfortable, and the quilt is heavy and warm. Despite my racing thoughts, exhaustion pulls at me, dragging me toward sleep. The last thing I register before drifting off is the sound of movement in the other room.
Kane, settling in for the night on what must be a too-small couch for his massive frame.
Hours later…
I wake with a start, momentarily disoriented. The room is dark, but a faint glow comes from somewhere. Moonlight reflecting off snow through a gap in the curtains. Lily is still asleep beside me, her breathing deep and even. What woke me?
Then I hear it… A low, guttural sound from outside. Not quite a growl, not quite a howl. Something in between that raises the hair on the back of my neck.
Wolf. We're in the mountains, of course there are wolves. But this sounds close. Very close.
I slip out of bed, slowly not to wake Lily, and move to the window. Pulling the curtain aside just enough to see out, I peer into the darkness. The storm has passed, the sky now clear and star-filled, the moon casting blue-white light across an untouched expanse of snow. The trees around the cabin stand like silent sentinels, their branches heavy with white.
And there, at the edge of the clearing, is a massive shape. Larger than any wolf I've ever seen, even in nature documentaries. Its fur is dark, nearly black, and its eyes—
Its eyes catch the moonlight and reflect it back, glowing like silver coins in the darkness. It's looking directly at the cabin. Directly at me.
I jerk back from the window, heart pounding. That's not a normal wolf. It can't be. It's too big, too... deliberate in the way it stands there, watching.
Should I wake Kane? Tell him there's a wolf, or something, outside his cabin?
Before I can overthink, I crack open the bedroom door and peer out.
Kane is gone. The blankets he was using are folded neatly on the couch, but the man himself is nowhere to be seen. The front door is slightly ajar, letting in a draft of cold air.
What is he doing outside in the middle of the night? With that... thing out there?
Concern wars with common sense. I should stay in the bedroom, keep Lily safe. But what if Kane doesn't know about the wolf? What if he's in danger?
I close the bedroom door and quickly pull on my boots and coat over my pajamas. Lily is still sound asleep, and I know I'll only be gone for a minute, just long enough to call out to Kane, warn him.
Moving quietly, I slip into the main room and approach the front door. Through the gap, I can see moonlight in the snow, the night silent and still. No sign of Kane. No sign of the wolf.
I open the door a bit wider and step onto the porch, the cold hitting me harsher after the warmth of the cabin.
"Kane?" I call softly, not wanting to wake Lily but needing to warn him. "Kane, there's a—"
Movement catches my eye, a dark shape emerging from the trees. The wolf. It's even larger than it appeared from the window, its shoulders easily reaching waist height. It stops at the edge of the clearing, those silver eyes fixed on me with an intelligence that seems impossible for an animal.
I should run. I should get back inside, lock the door, wake Lily and barricade ourselves in the bedroom. But I'm frozen, transfixed by those eyes. They're familiar somehow, in a way I can't explain.
The wolf takes a step forward, then another. It's moving slowly, its massive paws leaving deep prints in the snow. Not threatening, exactly, but not cautious either. Like it knows me. Like it has every right to approach.
"Kane!" I call again, my voice higher with fear. Where is he? How can he be out in these woods with this creature prowling around?
The wolf stops at my call, ears flicking forward. Then it does something that makes my blood run cold. It sits back on its haunches and simply watches me, head tilted slightly to one side. A pose so human-like, so aware, that it defies everything I know about wild animals.
The door creaks behind me, and I whirl to find Lily standing there, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Mommy? What are you doing?"
"Lily, go back inside," I say urgently, moving to place myself between her and the wolf. "Right now."
But Lily is already looking past me, her eyes widening. "Puppy!" she exclaims, far too loudly on the quiet night.
I turn back to see the wolf still sitting there, watching us. At Lily's voice, its ears perk up, and its massive head tilts to the other side, as if curious.
"That's not a puppy, Lily," I say, trying to keep my voice calm while gently pushing her back toward the door. "That's a wild animal. We need to go inside."
"But it's not scary," Lily protests, trying to peer around me. "Look, it's just sitting there."
