Winter's Widow

Chapter 121: The Wolves Den

Natasha's pov:

They threw me in with the wolves. I'm locked in here with them. Is this a punishment? Is this torture? What did a little girl like me do to deserve something ad horrific as this? Caged with the wolves. I'm trapped in a dark place. The room is dark, but I can see the blood that stains the walls and floor, making the room almost red. As I scan the large dim room around me, all I see are hungry gray wolves, and other little girls just like me. A group of little girls about my age, all huddled in the corner, terrified. They're dirty and worn, with scratches and bruises covering their frail bodies. They look at me with wide eyes as the wolves stare at me hungrily. Now I see. There's a reason they don't wash the blood off these walls. This room is red with the blood of innocent children, who were brought to war too soon. Red with the blood of those who couldn't survive. Stone walls stained red by those who were too weak to make it. I can see the aggression in the eyes of the pack. The canines are slowly approaching me, closing in. A little girl against all these wolves, I don't stand a chance when the first wolf attacks. Soon after, 7 other wolves are biting and clawing at me. From under the pile of teeth and gray fur, I hear their growling and barking. Their sharp teeth and claws tear into me and open skin, drawing blood. I try my best to push them off me and fight back, but there are simply too many. They all start leaving one by one, leaving me bloody and bruised. It hurts, bad. I'll be sore for a couple days at the least. They could have very easily killed me if they wanted to. But they didn't. They let me live. Why?

I stumble to a standing position, and view the other little girls all cowering in the corner. They all look at me with frightened eyes. Some of them are even crying. I don't blame them, I am too. I slowly approach them, carefully avoiding the angry wolves that fill the room. Before I get to them, a wolf snaps at of of the girls. He locks his jaw around her ankle and drags her away from the other girls. That girl was crying significantly more than the others. Now she's full on sobbing. The other girls scream as she's dragged away and maliciously attacked by a pack of bloodthirsty beasts. Her screaming drowns out the other girls screaming though. Just terror a pain.

Soon, the screaming stops, and the wolves disperse. She's dead. All that's left is a bloody scrap on the floor. A lost little girl eaten alive by blood hungry monsters. I slowly back up to the opposite corner, where I now stand alone, secluded from the other girls. Horror and terror spreads over me, but I don't let it show too much. From my position in the corner, I see a wolf that stands out from the rest. A lone wolf, laying in the corner across the room. He's significantly larger than the rest of them. Definitely much scarier and more intimidating. He's a massive beast. A big white wolf. A recluse in the corner. One of the things that stands out most about him, is that he's muzzled. The only wolf in the room with a muzzle. He must be particularly dangerous. Makes sense, for a wolf of his size. But still, something about this wolf in particular stands out. Not just because he's the only pure white wolf on here, or the fact that he's muzzled. There's something that draws me to him.

Before I can think about it, I find myself slowly approaching the big wolf. Careful steps, to avoid the other gray wolves. I feel the girls eyes on me as I limp to the other side of the big room. My heart rate speeds up as I get closer and closer to the wolf. Soon, I'm only about 5 feet away, and his ear twitches my direction, and I freeze. He's laying facing the other direction. I continue to make my way towards him cautiously. I don't know what is telling me to do this, but I feel like I have to. He slowly turns his head to me, and stares up at me with sharp silver eyes. I freeze. He slowly stands up. He's even bigger standing. A giant beast. I bet he could carry me on his back easily. He stares me down as I get closer. I cautiously reach my hand out. My hand finds the back of his muzzle.

Click.

I pull the muzzle away and it falls from my hands to the cold stone floor. I step back quickly, in fear of him attacking me. I lower my guard a little when he makes no action. I'm still worried about what he'll do next. He approaches slowly and with heavy steps. He stands on his hind paws and rests his fore paws on my shoulders. I was right, he's heavy. I wince as he licks the blood and tears off my face. I let him, because I'm not about to challenge a wolf of this size and power. When he finishes cleaning my face, he rests his head on mine. He stays like the for a moment before hopping down on four paws again. I slowly back up, and head back to my secluded little corner. When I get back to my safety corner, I lay down and close my eyes in exhaustion. I feel how musty and damp the hidden room is. Locked away in the wolves den. I'm tired and hurt. I just want to escape. I open my eyes and nearly scream. I stop myself just in time.

He's standing over me, staring me down. Silver eyes piercing into me. A huge body of fluffy white fur standing over me. I knew taking that muzzle off was a bad idea. I'm such and idiot. He's going to kill me.

With now warning, the beast collapses on top of me. He's laying on me with his head rested on my chest. He closes his eyes. Normally, I'd be terrified, but for some reason or another, I feel perfectly safe. Actually, he's very warm. He's keeping the cold at bay for me. I guess this is how he's repaying me for taking that thing off him. I slowly raise my hand and start petting him. He doesn't seem to mind. Maybe he even likes it. I close my eyes and relax my muscles. It isn't long before I fall asleep.

 I wake up to the sound of barking and growling. I open my eyes and see the white wolf standing over me again, growling at a pack of the bloodthirsty gray wolves.

Is he trying to protect me?

Soon, war ensues. 8+ wolves all gang up on him. I try to help by tearing the gray wolves away, but then they attack me back and rip me away from him. They force me to watch while they tear and bite at him. I can hear his angered and pained howling among the rest. His barking is noticeably deeper toned than the rest. Eventually, after a hard fought battle, the gray wolves won. A river of tears hits the ground as I'm forced to watch as they drag his unconscious body away.

My eyes snap open and I quickly scan my surroundings. I sit up fast and focus on my breathing to steady my racing heartbeat. It's dark in the room, so that helps calm me. It's cold in the room too, which also helps. I hug my blanket to my chest as I feel tears slowly streaming down my face. I hear shuffling behind me and quickly wipe the tears away.

I feel him pull me to him. His silver eyes stand out against the darkness of the room. He wipes the tears off my face with a cold metal hand and rests his flesh hand on my almost bare shoulder. He stares me in the eyes with amazing intensity for someone who just woke up. His long dark hair contrasts nicely against his pale skin. He pulls me closer for and embrace and rests his jaw on my head. I wrap my arms around him tightly in return.

"What happened?"

"...I-I was trapped in the wolves den. They all attacked me, and almost killed me. One of them didn't attack me, and he was nice to me. I took his muzzle off him. A big white wolf, and he protected me. All the other wolves started attacking him and taking him away from me. I tried- I tried to help, but I couldn't. They took him away...I'm sorry..." More tears start to fall.

He rubs my back soothingly.

"...And then what happened?"

"...Then I woke up...And you were right next to me."