TW: Blood

The wolf was lying on top of me, whimpering and sniffing my face.

“Oh, so this is a dream.” I laughed. “Alright, now that I know it’s a dream you can’t kill me because it’s my dream and I can do whatever I want hm?”

The large wolf let out another whimper, still on top of me, its head falling next to my head. I lifted my hands to touch the wolf’s sides when I felt a warm thick liquid. I held up my hand to see it covered in blood.

“Oh shit. You’re bleeding.” I gently rolled the wolf off me. Its eyes were closed and it was panting heavily, letting out occasional soft whimpers. “Shit. Oh god, okay. What do I do?” I moved the fur out of the way to reveal a large cut on its side. Taking a few deep breaths I was filled with an overwhelming need to help the wolf. Even if this was a dream I was determined to save it. I went and grabbed my first aid kit, along with a bowl of lukewarm water and a towel. I sat back down next to the wolf, whispering things like “you’ll be okay” and “I’m going to help you don’t worry.” I applied pressure to the wound for a few minutes, to get the bleeding to stop, then I cut some of the hair that was in the way. I cleaned the wound out using water. Turns out it wasn’t as deep as I thought it was but it will definitely take time to heal fully. Bandaging it should do the trick for now. Does the vet even take care of wolves? God, what am I thinking right now? This is a dream. Having finished the bandaging, I cleaned up everything. When I went to sit back down the wolf was now staring at me, still lying down. His breathing was almost back to normal and he was no longer whimpering. 

I stared at him for a bit. “This is by far the strangest dream I’ve ever had. At least you didn’t eat me this time.” The wolf grunted and rolled his eyes at me. “What the- you did that as if you understood me? Oh duh, you’re in my dream so you probably can huh? Hey, then I command you to talk, dream wolf.”  I joked. The wolf sat up slowly, lying on its belly. He looked at the bandages and started biting at them. “Hey wait don’t-“ before I could stop him, the bandages came off revealing a scabbed over cut. “Oh. That healed really fast.” I said. The wolf began licking at the scab and soon it was as if it never even happened. Even the hair I’d cut off grew back in an instant. “Woah that was actually really cool.” I watched as the wolf stood up and backed away from me, sitting on the opposite side of the room. He whimpered a little putting his head down. “Does it still hurt somewhere?” I asked, starting to stand up. The wolf barked at me, making me freeze in place. It wasn't an aggressive bark or anything it just surprised me. After a minute of staring at each other, the dream- well got weird, to say the least. The wolf’s body started to change form, its hair retracting into its skin, and you could hear bones cracking and shifting until suddenly, I had a naked Damien standing in my living room, hastily moving to cover himself with one of the decorative pillows on my couch. 

“Kayden, please please don’t freak out,” Damien said, sounding very panicked and exhausted. I was already looking away from him. My face turned an unhealthy shade of red.

“Oh god, how am I meant to face you tomorrow after having a dream about you like this? What is even happening right now? Maybe I have been reading too many fantasy books if my brain is coming up with shit like this. But why you of all people? And naked too? Oh god.” I groaned,

“Kayden please breathe for a second. Do you- uh- could I borrow a pair of pants or something.” Damien said. He was rubbing the back of his neck, still standing on the other side of my apartment. 

“Oh um. Yeah. That’d be nice.” I made my way to my room, dazed, grabbing the largest pair of sweatpants I had. “Uhm here,” I handed him the pants, “you can change in my room I guess.”

“Right. Why don’t you have a seat and just relax, okay? I promise I'll explain.” He said, a mixture of concern and panic on his face. He had bags under his eyes and he looked completely worn out like he hasn't slept in days. Completely different from the Damien I saw a few hours ago. He made his way to my room, still holding the decorative pillow. I went and sat on the couch trying to relax a little bit. Damien looked way better than I had imagined. Actually, that sounds weird. I didn't purposely imagine him, okay? It just happened. And now I'm dreaming about it. When am I going to wake up?

Eventually, Damien returned, sitting as far away from me as he could on my tiny couch. He was fidgeting with his hands and looked like he was extremely nervous. He kept glancing at me and then looking away quickly. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“What’s wrong?” Damien said in dazed disbelief. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair anxiously. “Okay.” He breathed. “Kayden I need you to not freak out when I tell you this. I also need you to trust me, okay?” He said, looking at me with a pained expression on his face. I nodded, starting to get nervous. “Okay. This is going to sound insane but you have to believe me. Uhm. You- you’re not actually dreaming right now. What you saw just now was real, okay? And that time in the forest was also real as well… except I didn’t- I never- ate you.” He spoke very slowly like he was talking to an alien trying to get it to understand him.

All I could do was stare at him in disbelief. A few minutes went by before Damien spoke again. “Please say something so I know you’re not completely losing it right now.” 

“H-how? What? Are you sure?” I laughed but Damien remained with a serious expression on his face. Really? I pinched myself hard enough to make a bruise. It made me flinch in surprise. “Holy shit. Is this actually real?” Damien nodded shyly, looking away from me. “Alright. What- are you then?”

Damien sighed, running his hands through his hair again before they moved to the back of his neck. “I’m a werewolf. Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Yeah, I… sorry I’ve never talked about this to anyone before so I’m sorry if I make it sound really confusing.” Damien wasn’t looking at me. He seemed like a scared child caving in on himself.

“Hey,” I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, “it’s okay.”

Damien gulped, hesitating before speaking again. “Basically the wolf gene in modern-day werewolves has weakened with every generation. Since we live amongst humans we have no use for many of the survival traits a werewolf used to have. Nowadays we can only turn into a wolf on full moons or if we’re badly injured like I was a few minutes ago. However, on days when there isn’t a full moon, we are still able to half transform where our body will remain human-like but we’ll have wolf ears, a tail, and if we need, elongated nails, for defense purposes. We’re more comfortable in that form, minus the nails of course. They’re kind of bothersome when it comes to doing everyday tasks. Besides that even if we hide our wolf features we’re faster and stronger than most humans and our senses and instincts are heightened. Uh, for example, we can smell strong emotions from humans. Like if you’re really pissed I’d be able to tell. Uhm, a-any questions?” Damien was gripping his knees like his life depended on it, his knuckles were turning white. But his face remained expressionless but there was something in his eyes that gave him away. He was terrified.

“I- uh- can I see the wolf thing?” I asked, curiously.

“You’re taking this way better than I thought you would.” Damien eyed me suspiciously.

“In all honesty, I still half believe I’m dreaming. This entire situation is just crazy but also oddly fascinating at the same time.”

“Right. Alright then. Here we go.” Damien said. Suddenly his ears grew fluffy fur and started to shift and grow towards the top of his head. An even fluffier tail sprouted just above the tight sweatpants I lent him. It grew long, almost reaching my side of the couch until he shifted it back towards himself. His ears were pulled back and he had a nervous expression on his face. Meanwhile, I was practically beaming. That was the coolest yet strangest shit I’ve ever seen. I crawled closer to Damien inspecting the new addition to his image.

“You look kind of cute.” I chuckled. Damien rolled his eyes. He relaxed slightly, his ears still back but not as forced as before. “This is so weird dude. Can I touch them?”

“Huh?” He looked at me surprised. His ears now perked up. “You’re not like freaking out right? You’re okay, right? You aren’t scared of me or anything?”

“I thought you said you could sense my emotions?” I teased.

“I can. But you smell very relaxed and happy right now and it’s making me second-guess myself.” His ears started to go back again.

“You look like anything but scary honestly. I think you’re more scared than me.” I said, gesturing to his ears.

“I can’t control it.” He pouted, rolling his eyes and turning slightly red.

“So, can I?” I asked again. Damien nodded shyly, moving his tail to the other side of him so I wouldn’t accidentally sit on it. I reached up and gently moved the tips of my fingers along the fur on his ears, they twitch a little. “Did that tickle?” I giggled.

“A little.”

I continued petting them for a while. I wonder if it’s the same as dogs I thought… I started scratching behind one of his ears. Damien leaned his head into it and let out a content little hum. His tail started to bounce a little. I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. 

“Stop it. We’re supposed to be having a serious conversation about this.” He growled, swatting my hand away.

“Sorry, this is just so cool. I had to test out the scratch behind the ear thing.” Damien blushed slightly, looking away. His tail started to wag faster. “You’re also way more expressive like this.”I chuckled.

"You’re making this embarrassing,” Damien grumbled.

“Sorry, sorry." I was starting to feel extremely exhausted from the stress from the storm and this entire situation. As much as I wanted to ask more questions it was getting hard to think straight. "What time is it?” I asked.

Damien checked his watch, “almost 2 AM.”

“Oh wow really? You should spend the night. I’ll let you have the bed.”

“You’re okay with me sleeping here?” Damien asked, baffled.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I’m genuinely worried about you. Do you just let anyone stay over? You did hear the me being a werewolf part right?”

“I don’t let anyone stay here,” I grumbled, turning away. “I’m exhausted right now and if it turns out this wasn’t a dream we’re continuing this interrogation tomorrow so there's no chance I'm letting you run away, wolf boy.” I stood up, grabbing an extra pillow and blanket for the couch.

Damien rolled his eyes and I could tell he was holding back a smile. “I’ll take the couch. I’m already intruding by being here. Plus I want you to get a good night's rest, a lot has happened tonight.”

“Oh yeah. Are you okay by the way? How’d you get a nasty wound like that?” 

“I’m fine. I’ll explain more about everything tomorrow, okay?” Damien walked me to my room, making sure I was settled before he made his way back to the couch. I fell asleep seconds after my head hit the pillow.

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