Hate by K.A Knight
Iwatch the blonde female they call Dawn press herself against the large male and a snarl escapes my muzzle, my wolf feeling possessive. He wants her attention again, those hands stroking through our fur until we purr like a pup. Embarrassment shoots through me at how easily she controlled my animal, making us nothing more than an oversized dog rolling onto his back for scratches.
I have been trapped in this body for so long, trapped in my wolf, but she called to me. Brought something out in me. I had been lost to the animal side, giving myself over to it knowing I would never be free, and then I felt her all those moons ago.
When I found her in that forest with that god, I had watched from the shadows, more wolf than man, wondering who she was, what she was, and why she pulled me to race across Earth to find her. I didn’t show myself to her, I observed and waited from afar, each day my mind returning more and more until I was simply a man in a wolf’s body.
But then she was taken. I had sprinted through the forest alongside the vehicle and watched as they brought her here, a howl of agony and grief leaving my maw. I feared I would never see her again, so when I felt her move outside, I took the chance. But it wasn’t her, it was a man.
That tug was still there, however, that calling, unwilling to let me turn away until I watched her turn back to the blonde I had been tracking. It filled my wolf with joy, he had known all along it was her, I didn’t. She can shift like us, but with faces. I wonder what else she can do. I want to ask, I want to reach out.
I want her to touch skin, not fur, but I can’t.
I can’t even reach for her mind. She might as well be a million miles away, and when she looks over at me, I know all she sees is a wolf. Not a man. Fine, if this is all it can be, if this is the closest I can get, so be it. I will walk through this life by her side as her pet wolf, it’s better than receding back to that dark, dead place as my wolf takes over.
Maybe one day I will find a way to reverse the magic that keeps me trapped like this and I could be at her side as a man. But that would require a miracle, a touch of destiny. The fates told me once I would never walk this Earth again until I learned how to love, how to care and not destroy.
But that is what I am, it is why I was born. To destroy. I was raised to prevent that, to keep me under control—not that it worked. They feared me, feared what I could do. The gods who raised me, they tried to entrap me. The first two attempts failed, but I grew complacent, believing I was stronger than them and they won. They locked me in this form, so far under the earth that I could never harm anyone. It is said I will lead the end of this world and kill the gods.
They feared what had not even happened yet, and for that I was cast aside. Magic entrapped me, but one day a woman appeared to me. She told me I would be free, but what I did was my choice. I could complete the prophecy, killing this world, or I could save it.
She spoke of love.
Love. Who could love a monster like myself?
Even the gods feared me, no, no one will ever love me. But before my death or theirs, I will ensure this woman is safe. I don’t know why it is important, but I have to. My wolf is unable to take a step away from her.
She turns to look at me then, those eyes flashing black and for a moment. For just a moment I believe that just maybe the fate wasn’t wrong. But then she turns away again, bestowing a kiss on the male and I growl in anger.
Fate was wrong, I am nothing more than a destroyer and this woman will not be able to stop me, she will burn with them all.
