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THE WOLF DIDN’T have time to react. Neither did the woman. She tried to duck out of the way, but moved so slowly compared to the beast that, had it intended to attack her, she would have been easy prey.
Instead of attacking, the creature leapt over her in a single bound and raced across the field.
Startled out of the reverie of the other wolf’s bizarre scent that reeked of human essence, the wolf took chase after it.
"Michael," the woman called after him. "No! Wait!"
The wolf wasn't sure exactly what the woman had been saying, just knew, based on her scent and the urgency of the words she spoke that she'd been trying to get his attention.
It was no matter. The wolf was focused on the strange wolf-human creature that was getting away.
He continued his pursuit, a good twenty or so yards behind the other, which was nearing the edge of the park.
The wolf felt shivers of trepidation as he neared the southern edge of the park. He had always avoided the lights and sounds that were so prevalent beyond the darker shadows and more comforting solitude offered by the trees and bushes and rocks and water.
But the other boldly leapt over the small rock wall leading to the street and temporarily disappeared behind it.
The wolf reached the street a few seconds later, following the other wolf by the scent.
When he reached the wall, he leapt onto it and paused to regard the surroundings before venturing forth.
The other wolf was not in sight.
Instead, a naked male human was lying on the sidewalk not four yards away.
The wolf stared at the naked and sweat-glistening human. The scent coming off it was the same scent he had been pursuing, but the human scent was stronger than the wolf scent.
The naked human was, the wolf could tell, the same being as the other wolf it has been chasing - the merged scents were too distinct. However, impossibly, it was the wolf in a human form.
It stood upright in its newly acquired human form and walked to a car idling at the curb, the exhaust pumping out a putrid scent worse than the one coming from the other vehicles passing in the street. The engine made a unique clicking noise like the sound of teeth gnashing together.
The wolf watched as the other, now in naked human form, yanked open the far door and hauled another male human out with a hand on the man's throat.
It held the human off the ground and squeezed.
There was a crack and the man went limp before it dropped him to the ground, barely letting out a moan, and now giving off the stench of urine and feces.
The other stepped over the dead human and got into the car, and the vehicle screeched away.