Fanfiction

If I were a wolf, what would I wanna eat?

Charlie muses silently in the butcher’s shop of Littleroot. She definitely has the money to get whatever she wants, her father’s wealth truly seems unending. 

“Ah, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before Miss,” the butcher interrupts her thoughts. The gentleman flashes Charlie a charismatic grin and extends his hand over the counter. “It’s clean, don’t worry.”

Charlie takes his hand and returns the smile. “I’m new to town, my name is Charlie. Charlie Morningstar.”

“Alastor,” he shakes Charlie’s hand, the man deceptively strong for someone so scrawny. “Pleasure to be meeting you sweetheart, quite a pleasure,” he smiles enthusiastically. 

“It’s very nice to meet you too, Alastor,” Charlie says, very much enjoying the polite man’s company more than anyone else in town. 

The man raises his eyebrows casually as Charlie looks at the meat his shop offers. 

The blonde’s right had was wrapped in gauze, a quick and very poor job Alastor notes. But he’s most intrigued by the blood he can see seeping through. 

How curious…

“You’re the lovely young woman staying just out of town, are you not?” He asks, wrapping an order as Charlie observes his cuts of sirloin. 

“I am,” Charlie perks up happily. “What… what have you heard?” The blonde asks hesitantly. 

“I’ve only heard that you’re from the city, and you’re staying at that house off the highway,” he lets his eyes conspicuously flit down to her injured hand. 

“Oh… um, yeah. I am,” Charlie nods, slipping her bandaged hand into her pocket awkwardly under Alastor’s piercing gaze.

“That old house giving you trouble?” He asks casually. 

“…Something like that,” Charlie mumbles, thankful he doesn’t seem too interested in what actually happened.

With Alastor’s help, Charlie decides to get beef, and venison. The deer meat coming very highly rated by the butcher. 

Most of the food, the deer especially, for her wolf. Oddly enough she couldn’t get her hands on any ribs, Alastor said they were ‘reserved’ for a repeat customer who paid extremely well. 

Her wolf… Charlie shakes her head. It’s a wild animal, she sounds like one of those prissy influencers that have exotic pets. 

Although she can’t help but feel attached to the creature already. 

She thanks Alastor and tips gratuitously, the man watching with a smile as Charlie walks away with a box full of meat. 

Apparently Charlie buying almost all his deer and cow wasn’t at all suspicious to the butcher. It’s not like Charlie’s complaining though. 

The blonde walks through the town plaza, smiling at anyone she passes. 

Charlie’s aware the general consensus on her being in town isn’t exactly… the greatest. 

She’s a rich, white woman from the big city, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. But she really did come to town with the best of intentions, all she wants to do is her use her dad’s massive amounts of money for something good. 

Originally her plan was to make connections and study the creatures living in the valley, of course now she’s got more important things to attend to at the moment. 

Charlie walks past the cute little local businesses with a smile. It’s not often she’s somewhere without company advertising and giant chain stores. 

It’s… nice. 

Charlie lived in the city her whole life, maybe she’ll move here permanently. Buying the cabin she’s staying in definitely isn’t out of the realm of possibility, her father’s money is more than enough. 

Charlie’s gaze gets drawn to the town’s bulletin board, pinned dead-centre amongst the adds for guitar lessons and a community bowling league, is an article from the town’s newspaper.

Wolf Menace Kills Sheep. Seeking More to Join the Hunt. 

It makes Charlie stiffen when she sees the hefty reward listed underneath. 

$1000 Reward for Intact Body. 

There’s a very high chance that reward is for the wolf currently residing in her house. Charlie swallows thickly as she looks at the pictures and rough sketches of the animal that accompany the article. 

It’s short and stocky, and missing its left eye… that’s definitely her wolf. 

Charlie sighs softly, shaking her head and walking back to her SUV. How anyone could advocate for the killing of such a beautiful animal was beyond her. Especially an animal that didn’t even inhabit in the area!

She awkwardly balances the box of meat on her hip as she walks, fishing in pocket for her car keys. 

“Yeah, and then she wanted me to pay for the whole bill, and I was like: no way bitch, as if you’re-“ 

The approaching man’s words get abruptly cut off as he walks into Charlie, the two fall backwards on their asses rather unceremoniously. 

“O-Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Charlie asks quickly, sitting up swiftly to check on the man. 

“What the fuck?! Watch where you’re going bitch!” He scoffs, grabbing his companion’s hand and pulling himself up. 

Charlie recoils slightly, even though he bumped into her…

Charlie collects herself, picking the box back up (nothing was ruined thank goodness.)

“Ugh, you’re that spoiled daddy’s girl who’s trying to fix everything with ‘smiles and rainbows’ and ‘listening to nature’!” The man says mockingly, rolling his eyes and running a hand through his short brown hair. 

“Come on Adam, that brat isn’t worth your trouble,” the woman with him sneers at Charlie. 

“Pfft, of course she isn’t,” Adam nods, crossing his arms and glaring at Charlie. 

Though Charlie hears him mumble some obscenity under his breath as the two of them walk away. 

What a dick.

Charlie huffs, scowling slightly. Most of the people in this town were polite to her, returning smiles and making small talk. 

Clearly Charlie still has some work to do on getting in everyone’s good books. 

She unlocks her car and sets the box in the backseat. She pauses once she’s in the drivers seat, whining slightly as she slumps down. 

Charlie rests her head on her steering wheel, resisting the urge to bang it against the wheel. 

“This is worth it… this is so worth it,” she mumbles to herself. Charlie sits up, leaning against the seat. She smiles softly when she sees the little picture of her and her mother hanging from her rear-view mirror. 

Charlie’s young, around eight or so, sitting on her mother’s lap and laughing as her mother tickles her. Charlie vaguely remembers her dad setting up a fancy photo shoot, Charlie and her mother are both wearing matching red dresses. 

Her mother would want her to keep going. Wherever she is. 

-

Vaggie blinks her eyes open slowly, her ears twitching at the silence that surrounds her. 

It’s peaceful, which is weird. 

She tries to stand up, only to immediately collapse back down into the rather soft ground.

Vaggie stills, taking in her surroundings slowly, her gaze calculating as it sweeps across the confines of her new environment. 

She starts to become aware of just how much pain she’s in. Vaggie whimpers quietly, her ears flattening against her skull pathetically. 

Her body is itchy, and it feels like she has things holding her skin together. 

Vaggie bites at a particularly sore spot on her shoulder. Her teeth catch on something foreign and she keeps biting 

Vaggie pulls away with a yelp when she reopens a wound, blood colouring her fangs in a pinkish red. 

She forces herself to stand up, her legs shaking even more. Vaggie limps forwards on her now-bleeding leg, eye scanning her environment seeking a way out. 

She almost falls down again, her leg giving out after a few steps, but the wolf forces herself to keep moving. 

Vaggie’s ears prick up at a clacking noise that comes from her left. She turns towards the source of the noise and bares her teeth, ears pinning back as she readies herself to attack. 

She tenses her muscles and prepares to run. Vaggie’s not sure where she’ll run exactly, straight ahead and hopefully put the door seems like the best plan. 

Hopefully she can hold her own long enough to tackle the approaching threat and then bolt. 

A tired and slightly disgruntled Charlie opens the door, eyes on the floor as she kicks off her shoes. 

She spent the drive home in silence, her mind running wild with thoughts and anxieties. 

The blonde worried about what exactly was going to happen with the wolf once she got home, and what her plan was in general. She can’t stay hiding in this valley forever, as much as she wants to keep avoiding all her family drama. 

Charlie even debated calling her father, but ultimately decided against it. If he can’t be bothered to reach out to her after however long it’s been (Charlie’s lost track, but she knows it’s been a while), then Charlie won’t waste her breath trying to talk to him. 

The blonde is pulled from her thoughts rather abruptly when she’s knocked to the floor. 

Her head smacks against the metal threshold of her front door painfully when she comes falling down, and she blinks away tears of pain to look at whatever ran her over. 

“What the fuck?!” Charlie gasps, her head pulsing with the beginnings of a killer headache. 

She locks eyes with a snarling wolf, the creature’s teeth bared and tinted a pink-ish red. The source of the colouring makes itself apparent once Charlie sees the blood dripping out of the gash on its right shoulder and down its leg. 

The wolf must’ve bitten off its stitches once it woke up. Charlie assumes the foreign substance must’ve been itchy and irritating to the wild animal.  

“Oh-shit,” Charlie sits up quickly, easily sending the wolf tumbling down to the ground. 

Vaggie falls to the floor with a thump, her heart hammering as she realizes just how easy it was for this human to overpower her. She’s a lot weaker than she realized. 

Vaggie gets up on shaky legs, moving with surprising speed for someone with bullet holes in her side. 

“W-Wait! Hold on, you can’t leave!” Charlie stammers, tripping over her feet to chase after the spry creature as she practically throws herself forward to pin the wolf down. 

Vaggie stiffens when Charlie grabs her, tge human woman’s hands tangling in her matted fur. She grits her teeth and tries to wriggle out of the tall woman’s grip. 

“You’re hurt, please…” Charlie begs, she sounds genuine, something Vaggie has never seen from a human before. But the wolf knows better, the woman is clearly lying to get Vaggie to let down her guard so she can kill her. 

Once it becomes clear that her assailant doesn’t intend on letting Vaggie go, the wolf stops struggling, lying limp on the floor in defeat. 

“Okay… I’m gonna let go of you and close the door. Don’t go running outside when I stand up,” Charlie says slowly, cautiously standing up and letting go of Vaggie to quickly close her front door, rendering Vaggie trapped once again. 

Seeing no other option, Vaggie silently stalks back to the makeshift nest the human had made for her, slouching down onto the pile of blankets. 

“There you go buddy, no need to go crazy or jump on me again,” the woman sighs shakily, still shaken from being attacked mere moments before. 

“I’m Charlie,” the blonde says with a smile. “I don’t really feel all that comfortable letting you run free when you’re this hurt and the whole town’s after your head, so you’ll be staying with me. I figured introductions are in order,” Charlie grins. 

“There… just stay right there. I’ll be back, I need to get some stuff from my car,” the blonde eases away from Vaggie. 

The grey wolf watches obediently as Charlie leaves, settling down in exhaustion. 

She can hear Charlie bustling around, setting things down and picking them up. 

Some part of her is screaming to run, to get out while the human is distracted, but Vaggie is far too tired and in too much pain to care. 

“Okay… I got a muzzle, I-I don’t want to use it, but I haven’t to give you a bath and properly clean your cuts so nothing gets infected,” Charlie mumbles, Vaggie can tell the human is talking to her, though she doesn’t know why. It’s not like Vaggie can say anything, maybe it’s a human thing. 

Vaggie’s not entirely opposed to the idea though, she can’t remember the last time she was safe enough to bathe, and she’s dirty. 

She tilts her head curiously at Charlie’s words, trying to communicate her interest in the idea. 

Charlie laughs lightly, flashing a grin that makes Vaggie’s heart skip a beat. 

“Well that settles it then, you’ll get a bath.”

-

Vaggie immediately regrets ever being complaint once she sees the evil contraption Charlie wants to use to bathe her. 

A metal snake that will spit water on to Vaggie while she’s trapped in a fake lake that’s above ground and can be drained at will. 

“Oh, it’s not that bad, I promise,” Charlie pleads, her sleeves rolled up and all manner of shampoo at the ready. 

Vaggie growls, her ears pinning back as she glares at the metal snake. 

“Oh, it’s alright, it’s just a shower head,” Charlie says gently, holding it out to Vaggie so she can sniff it. 

Vaggie huffs indignantly, turning away like she’s too good for it and making Charlie giggle. 

“Alright, hop in,” she pats the edge of her bathtub, much like one would with a dog when you want them to go somewhere. 

Vaggie awkwardly scrambles over the ledge, Charlie helping her as she slips into the bathtub. 

The big wolf whines in discomfort, her nails scrabbling against the porcelain at the new texture underneath her paws. 

“Bet that feels a little weird, huh?” Charlie chuckles gently. “I’m gonna turn the water on, so don’t panic,” she twists the handle to turn the water on for the bathtub, starling Vaggie and making the wolf back up from the sudden rush of water. 

The blonde just laughs, pulling the handle and making the water come out of the shower head she’s holding in her left hand. 

Vaggie likes that even less, growling and biting at the water. 

“Oh my god, you’re okay,” Charlie giggles, grabbing Vaggie by the scruff of her neck to help hold her in place. 

“You have so much fur, buddy,” Charlie sighs, watching in slight horror as she brushes her hand through some of Vaggie’s dry hair and comes away with her hand covered in the soft grey fluff. 

Vaggie stews angrily as she gets shampoo rubbed into her fur. Charlie humming softly as she works. 

Vaggie can catch some words as Charlie sings, and she finds that the blonde’s voice is quite nice. 

“I feel pretty… I feel pretty and witty and bright… I pity, any girl who isn’t me, tonight.”

Charlie rinses Vaggie a final time and studies the wolf. “You look a lot better, huh buddy?” She grins. 

Vaggie huffs, standing up to shake herself dry. 

“Wait, wait wait!” Charlie shrieks, putting up her hands to block the water. 

“Ah… damn, looks like I need a bath now,” Charlie laughs, pulling her soaking shirt away from her body. “I smell like a wet dog.”

Vaggie swishes her tail, and if looks could kill, Charlie would be dead. Although the blonde could not be more oblivious to her guest’s angry gaze. 

“I know you dried yourself, but I need to get in there to find all your cuts, so I’m gonna use a hairdryer,” Charlie explains, steering Vaggie into the living room. 

“Stay,” Charlie says firmly, making sure Vaggie is sat down before she walks away. 

The blonde comes back with a ‘hairdryer’ and sits down behind Vaggie. 

“Okay, this won’t be as bad as the shower,” Charlie smiles gently, plugging it in and turning it on its lowest setting so she doesn’t scare the wolf. 

“Thank you for sitting still,” Charlie sighs tiredly, alternating between blow drying Vaggie’s fur and hand drying it with a dry towel. 

The wolf huffs in response, Vaggie’s tail swishing back and forth on the floor and her ears twitching in mild irritation. 

“Now that you’re clean, I can stitch your wounds back together. It’ll probably hurt,” Charlie sighs apologetically. 

Vaggie exhales softly, slumping reluctantly and letting Charlie inspect the reopened wound on her shoulder. 

“How did this even happen anyway? Did you bump your shoulder against something?” The blonde asks, gently wiping at the bleeding wound with a clean cloth. “Or… did you bite it?” Charlie says, she sounds disappointed. 

“I bet it feels kinda weird, but unless you want me to put something on you so you don’t bite it, then you’ll have to get used to it,” she sighs. 

Vaggie pauses her brooding, she’d ripped it open with her teeth because it didn’t feel good, but the threat of having the human put something else on her, something that could apparently stop her from bitting at it, doesn’t sit well with Vaggie. So the wolf decides she’ll leave it be. 

The blonde gently brushes her hand through Vaggie’s fur, reveling in how soft it is after a simple wash. All the wolf’s major injuries have been tended to, and provided Vaggie doesn’t move around too much, they’ll heal nicely. 

Charlie pulls her hands away when Vaggie stands up, the wolf shakes herself reflexively, the action only severing to make her fur poof up everywhere. 

Charlie has stifle a giggle at how silly the once-intimidating creature looks now. 

Vaggie reaches up to paw at Charlie’s face, making the blonde close her eyes. 

“Ah! Hey, watch it!” Charlie laughs, swatting at Vaggie’s big paw gently. “You don’t look silly at all, I promise.”

Vaggie growls slightly, stalking away and dropping down on to her blanket nest. 

“I’ll get you some food.”

Vaggie perks up immediately, she’s starving, and with how advanced this human is, it stands to reason that she’ll have good food. 

Vaggie watches Charlie bustle around, grabbing what looks like raw meat. Vaggie can’t stop her tail from wagging ever so slightly. It looks and smells good, really good, well-fed and healthy. Nothing like what Vaggie’s been surviving on with the slim pickings in the woods. 

“Here you go, it’s deer,” Charlie smiles, she looks nauseous as she places the meat down. Charlie’s remained agin of why she doesn’t like handling raw meat. 

It’s all kinds of disgusting, but her wolf needs to be fed. 

Vaggie’s initially wary when Charlie sets it down in front of her, who knows what the hymn could have put in it, but her worries are silenced when she smells it. 

Better meat than anything Vaggie’s ever eaten before, if the deer’s from these woods, it must have found a safe place to graze. 

“Yeah, it’s good I bet. Apparently it’s all wild, so you’re getting really healthy food, huh bud?” Charlie smiles, slowly settling down a few feet away from Vaggie, watching as the grey wolf practically inhales her food. 

Really hope it doesn’t mind that it probably won’t be able to go outside for a while. At least until the town cools down the hunt for it. 

Charlie sighs, who knows how long she’ll have to have the wolf for? Some of those injuries were really severe, like the spots where the wolf got grazed by bullets. 

Charlie certainly hopes she’s prepared for whatever this will bring. 

All she can do is hope. 

__________