Night had long since fallen, and with it came a biting cold that hit her face with every stride. Sofia took a deep breath, which she then expelled through her mouth in a long puff. Air that smelled of forest, damp earth and approaching winter entered her nostrils, though those were not the only scents she could perceive. Like so many other days, Sofia had put on her tracksuit and gone for a run along the dirt path that crossed the forest. That day, however, she was not alone. Next to her, proving that he was as fit as she was, ran Dave.

“You like pop,” Sofia guessed between breaths.

“I don't dislike it, but it's not my first choice,” he replied.

“Classical music?” the girl asked.

The boy laughed with a fresh, sincere laugh that exposed his four little fangs. It was a detail that didn't have to mean anything, and Sofia hadn't wanted to think too much about it, but she couldn't help but notice them every time he smiled. It wasn't just because of the doubts she had about his nature, it was also because she found them attractive. A soft blush began to warm her cheeks and Sofia was grateful that the night's darkness allowed her to hide it.

“I know I seem rather classical, but no, I don't like classical music at all,” said Dave,

“I give up. What's your favorite music?”

“Heavy metal.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Not all of us heavy metal fans wear spiked bracelets and grow our hair long. The one who dressed like that was my friend Roberto but I was never into that style. Just the music,” he said, and his lips curved into a small smile that evoked nostalgia.

“If you grew your hair long, you'd look like a Viking,” Sofia joked, and playfully bumped his arm with her shoulder to cheer him up.

She knew that it was a canine gesture, an invitation to play and also a hug, but it felt so natural that she didn't even think about it. She had never done it with anyone before and she wasn't sure what had prompted her to do it. Maybe it was the idea she kept thinking about, or maybe it was because the boy used his body language so casually that he didn't even seem to be aware of it. At least it worked, since the smile on Dave's lips grew wider and a gleam of enthusiasm lit up his eyes.

“I’m sure of that,” he replied, much more cheerful. “New question. Favorite animal. Is it the dog?”

“Almost, but no.”

“Almost, you say...” Dave scratched his chin and raised an eyebrow. “Could it be the wolf?”

“Yes, it's the wolf. I know I'm not very original.” She laughed a little.

“I don't think so. Wolves are very interesting. It's no wonder that so many people like them,” said the boy, and he twisted his lips into such a pretty smile that Sofia blushed.

“A lot of people like them because they think they're mystical animals, sort of like the brother wolf protector of the forests who howls at the full moon. I find them interesting because they are very similar to us. They live in family groups and have a more complex language than people think. It may seem silly to you, but I am fascinated by their howls.”

Sofia twisted her lips into a small smile and stopped to do some stretching. Dave stopped beside her and his pleasant scent filled her nose. Despite how long they had been running he didn't smell of sweat, which was impossible since he didn't sweat. Cinanthropes didn't have that ability, they regulated their body temperature by panting when it was hot, but that was another of those traits that latents could also have. Sofia had been running with Dave for three days, and though she had tried not to notice his peculiarities, she couldn't help but add that detail to the long list of things that probably meant nothing.

“It's not silly,” said the boy as he stretched his leg muscles. “Many people are fascinated by wolf howls. In wooded areas they can be heard from about ten kilometers away, but in open spaces and in optimal weather conditions they can be heard up to sixteen kilometers away. Since they are crepuscular predators, it is common to hear them at night, which is why they have been associated with the moon and all the mythology surrounding it.”

Dave looked up at the sky and his smile softened. Sofia bit her lip. The moon was a symbol that had always been associated with magic, and there was a reason for that. As far as she knew from what Sara had told her, it not only forced cinanthropes like her to change, it also enhanced the powers of mages and witches when it shone full in the sky. Of course, she couldn't tell Dave any of that.

“They're just legends,” he continued after letting out a quiet sigh. “There's nothing magical about their howls, it's just communication. They use them to rally other wolves to a hunt, to locate other members of the pack, to warn other packs of their presence and also to strengthen their social bonds or to find a mate. Have you ever heard them in person?”

“No. I would have loved to, but I've never been out of Madrid, and there are no wolves here anymore.”

Sofia let her gaze wander through the labyrinth of trees that grew by the path. The crescent moon's rays filtered through the branches and created silvery light effects as they reflected on the faint mist rising from the earth. Although she was able to see with absolute clarity, she let her imagination run free. There was a time when wolves ran through those woods, and for a moment she visualized them moving like ghosts through the vegetation. There were none left.

“Yes, the Vermin Extinction Bureau wiped them all out in the sixties.”

Dave tensed his jaw and looked away with a sharp movement. The hair on the back of his neck had bristled and a sort of deep, restrained rumble echoed in his throat. It was a faint sound that Sofia would not have been able to hear had it not been for her keen cinanthrope hearing. She bit her lip. That wasn't licking his lips when he was nervous, it was something more serious, and it wasn't the first time she'd seen him do that.

“Have you ever heard them?” she asked, grazing his arm with a gentle caress to call his attention.

“Me? Yes, a few times.” The tension faded from his face and his expression softened. “I most remember the first time. I was very young, no more than two or three years old, and the wolf was a puppy, a... a little female. Sometimes I wonder what became of her.”

“If she's still alive, she'll be an old and venerable she-wolf,” Sofia commented.

“Probably,” he said, and laughed a little. “It's also possible that I imagined it all and it didn't happen the way I think it did. I have a beautiful memory, but I was very young and it's been many years. Well.” Dave arched his back and stretched his arms to the sky. “I think we've rested enough. Shall we do a sprint?”

“Sure. Do you think you'll be able to keep up with me?” Sofia joked.

“I don't know. We'll have to try and see if I can,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Before Sofia could respond, Dave broke into a run and soon left her behind.

“Hey, that's cheating!” she shouted as she darted after him.

Sofia soon caught up with him, and part of her knew he was letting her do it. She'd seen him run and it wasn't their first sprint together. Not only was he a tall guy, around one meter eighty, he was also very fit. Biting her lip, Sofia let her gaze roam over his body. Dave was wearing black sweatpants with gray stripes and a gray sweatshirt. Both were too loose for her to see any detail, but she wasn't going to deny that she was curious about what he looked like underneath.

Just as she was scanning his torso, Dave turned to her and tilted his head to the side. He caught her so much by surprise that Sofia gasped and looked away too quickly for him not to have noticed. To make matters worse, her cheeks began to burn with a distinct blush that she doubted even the darkness wouldn't be able to hide. ‘Well, that wasn’t obvious or anything’, a growl of frustration rose to her throat, but she held it back. The last thing she needed was for her new friend to realize that she was a she-wolf in human guise.

“Let's do something more fun,” Dave commented.

He had a mischievous smile on his lips that mitigated her embarrassment a little, but only a little. Her cheeks still burned as if she was right in front of a fireplace. Sofia wasn't sure if he hadn't noticed the way she had looked at him, or if he was just ignoring it. She'd rather it was the former, because the last thing she wanted was for him to think she liked him.

“What do you mean?” she asked, a little wary and all too aware of how much her cheeks were burning.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Follow me!”

Dave left the path and crossed the edge of the forest to dive among the pines. As he ran through the trees, Sofia followed him with her gaze and a smile began to creep onto her lips. The embarrassment of being caught staring at him was pushed aside as his playful mood rubbed off on her, and she, too, entered the forest to chase him.

The boy moved among the ferns and stones with the elegance of a deer, and his feet were so light they barely touched the ground. However, Sofia had her night vision and the gifts bestowed to her by the blood she had inherited from her father, and it didn’t take her long to catch up with him. In the darkness of the night their gazes met, and at the same time they burst into laughter. Then an idea popped in her head, a crazy one for sure, but it was something she wanted to share with him.

“Come with me, I want to show you something,” she said with a smile that was wider than it needed to be.

In a very dog-like gesture, she bumped his arm with her shoulder and sped up. Dave followed her with no effort, although she knew that he was holding back. As the two of them ran among the trees, Sofia felt the barrier of self control she had raised starting to falter and her natural behavior began to seep in. A tiny pang of fear shook her when the need to bark replaced the urge to laugh and smile, but it was buried under a new feeling. ‘I’m having fun. I’m playing as a dog and I’m having fun!’.

The thing is, she was no human, she was a wolf, a pup who had lived constrained all her life, and this innocent race through the forest was awakening her natural behavior. ‘This is madness!’ she told herself as she shed what little humanity she had to embrace her canine nature. Perhaps she should have tried to fight it like so many other times but she didn’t want to. Never before had she felt so alive and so free. For the first time in her life she felt like the person she was meant to be, and not the sad, frightened creature she had become.

“Gotcha!” Dave exclaimed as his arms closed around Sofia's body.

A high-pitched scream escaped her lips as the boy dropped to the ground and dragged her down with him. The two rolled in the dew-covered grass and ended up lying on their backs, their laughter echoing through the trees. Panting and smiling, they looked into each other's eyes, and Sofia noticed that her heart was starting to beat faster. Feeling her nose flooded with the smell she loved so much wasn't helping mitigate the pleasant warmth that flowed through her stomach either.

An expression of pain crossed Dave's face and he pulled away from her. He ended up sitting on the damp grass, hunched over himself and with a trembling hand resting on his chest. A low moan that made Sofia's hair bristle echoed in his throat, but it quieted as he began to breathe in long, deep breaths of air.

“Dave, are you all right?” Sofia also sat up and looked at him with concern.

“Y... yes, don't worry. It was just a pulled muscle. The pain's almost gone, but it took me completely by surprise,” he answered between gasps.

“It seems like I'm fitter than you.” Sofia let out a small giggle, more in relief than anything else.

“It seems so,” he said, and licked his lips just before twisting them into a sheepish grin.

When he tore his eyes away from her to sweep his gaze over the place they had arrived at, his mouth fell open in a mute gasp of surprise. It was a clearing bathed in silvery moonlight. A spring gushed from a crevice in the rocks and fell through a curtain of moss into a small pool of crystal clear water. Ferns, grass, lichen and tall pines made up the main vegetation, and a vaporous mist rose from the earth and created an almost mystical appearance.

“Wow... It's an amazing place...” Dave whispered in a quiet voice.

“Yes, it is. I discovered it on one of my walks,” Sofia moved closer to the pond and let her fingers trace lines in the water.

“Do you often come to the forest?” he asked as he dipped his hand into the icy water.

Sofia's lips tightened into a small grimace of bitterness.

“I don't have any friends. Yes, coming to the forest is one of my hobbies. It helps me clear my mind.”

“You don't want friends, but you wish you had them. What happened to you to make you end up like this? There's a side of you that you don't let anyone see, that you hide. Why?”

Sofia bit her lip and looked down into the pond to avoid those blue eyes so full of questions. On the surface of the water she saw her own reflection, distorted by the spring spilling over it. A whimper rose up her throat and she was very tempted to let herself go. All her life she'd been corseted, hiding her true nature out of fear, and she was tired of not being able to express herself like the she-wolf she was.

“People don't like the face I show, do you think they'll accept the face I don't show?” A shiver ran down the line of her back as she thought of the disgusted look Angel gave her when he saw the silver burn on her wrist.

“On the contrary. The mean face is what you protect yourself with, but when you relax you show your true self. If people could see what I see...” he whispered and moved his hand in the water until their fingers brushed in a shy caress.

The water gushed from the very bowels of the earth and it was so cold it cut. However, that didn't stop Sofia from feeling that unsure, inexperienced graze, that caress of trembling fingers that sought and at the same time avoided the touch of her skin. When she felt his fingertips brushing the back of her hand, when she heard those words, when she perceived the tone of his voice, Sofia felt an explosion of butterflies in her belly and raised her gaze.

The instant their eyes met, her heart skipped a beat, something that had little to do with the blush that had risen to her cheeks. Perhaps she had imagined it, but for a second she thought she caught a brief greenish glow in his pupils. However, she couldn't get a better look as Dave, embarrassed and with his cheeks so hot they seemed to radiate a light of their own, pulled his hand away as if he had touched something very hot and looked down. His tongue ran over his lips in that gesture he always displayed when he was nervous, which did not help to ease the doubts Sofia felt.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that...” he muttered in a voice so quiet and rushed that it was almost unintelligible.

“It's all right, it didn't bother me,” Sofia said, her voice as shaky as his.

Biting her lip, the girl stole him a sidelong glance. The boy was drawing circles with his fingertips on the surface of the water and he seemed very interested in the motion of the ripples. The pale moonlight outlined his face and highlighted the shape of his mouth, his nose, and the smooth fall of his blond locks over his forehead. He was a cute boy, there was no doubt about that, but that wasn't why she was studying him so intently.

‘The different one...’ Sofia bit her lip and ducked her head. A knot of unease tightened in her stomach. ‘Shit, was that what I think it was?’.

“Sofia, look!”

Dave’s hand closed around hers and snapped her out of her thoughts. When she turned to him, she saw that he had a broad smile on his face, and his eyes were sparkling with the expression of a child excited about the arrival of the Three Wise Men. However, he was not looking at her but at something on the other side of the clearing. Sofia studied the area until she saw it, perched on a rock illuminated by a beam of light that fell from above. It was a small creature, the size and appearance of a cat, but its head was longer and thinner. Its fur was gray with black spots, and its long furry tail was marked with rings.

The little animal had seen them, which did not surprise Sofia considering its big round brown eyes, and sniffed the air with interest. The girl stood very still and didn’t even dare to breathe so as not to startle it, but she was very conscious of the hand still closed over hers and the slight tension she could perceive in it. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Dave was still smiling like a little boy, and Sofia felt her own lips curl up, infected by the smile and the sparkle in his blue eyes.

After a few minutes the animal leapt from the rock and, silent as a shadow, disappeared into the mist. Dave let out a long puff of contained air and his grin became so wide that his little fangs were once again in full view. Sofia bit her lip. Maybe it was the effect of the night, but the more she looked, the less human they seemed. That was perhaps the reason why he always held it back, to conceal them. After what he'd told her, it wouldn't have surprised her if he'd been picked on for that detail when he was a kid.

“Wow, did you see that?” Dave let go of her hand and pointed to the spot where they'd spotted the little animal.

“I saw it, I saw it,” Sofia said, laughing. “What was it? I've never seen an animal like that.”

“It was a genet, a very silent and elusive nocturnal predator. I didn't think I'd ever see one, at least not in the wild.” Again he looked at the moonlit rock.

“Your favourite animal?”

“One of them. I've been fascinated by them ever since I first heard about them in Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente's documentaries. Did you know that they are not endemic to the Iberian Peninsula? The most accepted theory is that they were brought by the Arabs in the eighth century, but more and more researchers believe it was the Romans. Before domestic cats came to Europe, the Romans kept genets as pets and used them to control mice,” he explained, and he was speaking with such enthusiasm that it was hard not to get caught up in his words.

“You're unbelievable! How can you remember all those facts? I have to study for a whole day just to remember dates and famous people's names, and I forget them as soon as I take the exam.”

“I'd like to say that I have a prodigious memory, but the truth is that I forget stuff even before the exam,” he said with a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his neck. “It's... this, I don't find it hard to concentrate when I read about things I like, and I tend to remember them easily. I find it much harder to focus if the subject doesn't interest me.”

“I can relate. History class is such a drag I’m not sure how we’re even able to stay awake.”

“Me neither”

At the same time they burst into laughter, and Sofia felt a pleasant warmth wrap around her like a blanket. Getting lost in the forest to see genets might not be the idea of normality most people had in mind, but she was having such a good time that she was beginning to wish nights like this would never end.

The laughter died down, but their smiles did not. The sighing of the winter wind through the branches and the incessant singing of the spring spilling over the pond returned to the clearing. In that darkness which to her was like the pale clarity of a cloudy day, their gazes met. The boy took her hand with more confidence than he had shown before, and the warm touch of his skin ignited Sofia's cheeks.

“Thank you for showing this to me,” Dave said, and there was such sincere gratitude in his voice that Sofia shuddered.

“Don't thank me. I like having a friend to share it with,” Sofia replied as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand.

With their gazes still locked, Dave gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Sofia didn’t know whether the warm shudder that bubbled in her belly had been caused by that gesture of complicity, or by his beautiful smile that hinted at the fangs underneath. What she was sure of was that this boy who smelled of forest was becoming her best friend.