A Fox Among Wolves

Chapter Fourteen

"Please don't hurt me, please. I won't tell anyone, I swear!"

Blinking open my eyes, I roll off the small section of the couch I had been sleeping on and move towards the small whimpering form laying on the other end of the couch. Another nightmare seems to be haunting the human, head thrashing and tears running down his face as he lets out another whimper.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," I whisper, my voice scratchy from sleep. My hands run along his arms, trying to soothe him back into the deep sleep he has been in ever since we found him. The closest he comes to waking up is during his nightmares, but he has never fully snapped awake, always falling into a restless sleep once they passed.

Suddenly, the human's eyes snap open, his brown ones meeting my green. He doesn't keep my gaze for long, his eyes flicking between my ears and my tail. He scrambles away from me, almost falling over the back of the couch in his haste to get away.

"Oh god, you monsters are real," he says, voice cracking in genuine fear. His eyes continue to alternate between staring at me and looking around the room, confusion in his eyes. "I thought it was all just a horrible dream."

His eyes settle on me again, a look of terror spreading across his face. His bloodshot eyes can't seem to decide whether to stare at my ears or my tail.

"Monster?" I question, trying to keep the shock out of my voice. That is something I have never been called before, and to hear it coming from the human's mouth is almost hurtful, especially since I have been taking care of him nonstop for four days.

With a shaky hand, he points to my ears and then down to my tail before drawing his hand back against his chest. "You're a hybrid," he whimpers, pushing himself further into the couch. His whole body trembles in fear as he looks at me, his eyes wide and glassy as if he is about to cry.

"Ah, I see." Nodding in understanding, I stand up from where I am sitting in front of the couch and walk into the kitchen.

It is a lot to absorb. The human seems to think of me as a monster just because of my hybrid features. I wonder if he thinks of other humans as monsters or just hybrids. How weird to judge someone by their species, but I guess most of the humans had been like that before they were wiped out.

Not many humans had too much respect for hybrids, seeing us as inferior to them, even though we are physically and mentally stronger than them. They even discriminated amongst their own species, defining people by their race or religion. Hybrids and humans are so different. Even if some breeds of hybrids are wary around others, there is no outward discrimination.

Opening the fridge, I pull out some leftover chicken soup from the night before, pouring some of it into a clean pot sitting on the stove. With a quick glance at the clock, I see that it is couple minutes past midnight, meaning that I had only been asleep for about an hour before being woken up by the human.

My head clunks against the cabinet behind me as I slouch against the kitchen counter. It has been a long series of nights. My friends offered to look over the human while I got some sleep in my own bed, but I have refused to leave his side. I do not want something to happen to him while I am passed out, knowing that once I go to sleep, it will be difficult to get me back up again.

Seeing that the soup is done heating up, I pull it off the stove before turning off the burner and pouring the appropriate amount of soup into two bowls. Quickly, I grab two spoons and make my way into the living room. I am stopped in my tracks, though, once I realize the human is gone from the couch. Somehow, I get my feet to move again and set the bowls down on the coffee table before searching the downstairs area for the little human. He couldn't have gotten far, seeing as I was only in the kitchen for a couple of minutes.