Hearthway Hollow

Big Billy

Once upon a time, in a familiar place a long time ago there was a wolf and a doctor. Or well, that's the romantic way to start the story. The actual start is much more gruesome than that. I was young and angry, in fact, I was more animal than man. The wolf had taken over and I was a feral piece of shit. I don't remember much from back then aside from seeing her. I remember her eyes as clear as day. Her makeup was smudged, her eyeliner and mascara had melted into something of a raccoon mask. Not a very good look but I will always remember how taken I was by her.

Well, to properly begin we must go back a little further than me waking up to a hot doctor tying me to a bed. We must go back to when I was dumped at the edge of a small town. I was half dead, bloodied and bludgeoned and rightfully so. Remember I was a feral shit. I also didn't know when to quit, so being bloodied and near death, I'm still trying to start fights. Hearthway Hollow was on its way to becoming the legend it is today, back then it was something other weres laughed about. A town where weres and humans tried to live together in some sanctimonious harmony? Bullshit.

I needed no Alpha to tell me what to do, I didn't need Elders lording over me. Well, I thought that and I was pretty wrong. Weres are not animals, weres are mortals and human too. Now, mortals and humans are pretty dumb, unlike wolves in the wild they need a leader or at least a group of people who know better than your own dumbass to guide you the right way. I needed that back then and I still need it today, I am not ashamed of that need anymore.

Well, anyways, back to me being bloodied, stupid, and near death. I may have been hanging on by a thread but I was still trying to whoop ass. Now, back then, the Elder was fresh, young, and beautiful. She had recently taken over from the previous Alpha, Eva, her mother. Nora was a young first-time leader taking reigns from the mastermind of Hearthway Hollow. I was her first big decision. Being feral and an outsider I posed more problems than promises. And being one quick bite to the throat away from death it would be an easy choice you'd think. But Nora was kind-hearted, she was loving and trusting. She also had a three-year-old at home who was something of a tantrum-throwing tyrant. She looked at me and saw that three-year-old tantrum-throwing tyrant and she took pity on me.

"Take him to the hospital," Nora said with a cool voice.

Her husband, Abel, was holding me down with another wolf named Winona. "Are you serious?" Abel snaps at her.

"Look at him!" Nora scoffs and motions to me. "He's hurt! Of course, he's angry. Remember when Adam fell down yesterday and wouldn't stop biting you?" There are tears in Nora's eyes. "Don't you see your son there?"

Abel glares at her then looks down at me, my snarling face and mangled body. He sighs and shakes his head. "This is not a three-year-old going through a phase, love."

"Are you so sure?" Nora asks.

Winona is smiling the whole time, then again, she's always been a smug conveying harpy, which is why I still adore her to this day. "I think she has a point," she replies. "You forget, I was with your grandmother in days when this town may as well have been a mud pit had a music festival."

Abel grunts and looks back to Nora. "What should we do?"

"We need to get him to a hospital," Nora starts. "Get him patched up and calm. From there, we'll find a way to work with him."

I was knocked out by Winona's foot. When I came to I was looking into those raccoon eyes of the beautiful doctor. Apparently, I had been fading in and out of consciousness for hours and she had finally gotten me restrained to the point I couldn't move.

I snarl and snap my jowls at her and she just glares at me. She doesn't flinch, she doesn't budge. She gives me the death stare that still makes me quiver in fear and get a little hard to this day.