Lupine Dreams

tops as he looked out over the rolling hills in front of him. Dotting this frosted tan landscape were his prey, cows. They were huddled together for warmth in the early morning but were startin

l about how many cows he and his pack of cousins took. If they hit one ranch too many times, the humans would hunt them down and kill them. This had happened before, when he had gotten too complacent in his territory and lording his power over t

scle before he issued a command, they had all learned this from how their former alpha male had gone down in a flurry of blood and gristle. This new alpha male was beyond anything the small ones had ever experienced. Their racial memory told them that this giant and his brothers had once ruled the mountains and valleys, but not anymore

surround the herd. The alpha stayed low in the tall grass at the fence line, knowing that his color and bulk would give his position away too soon. He wouldn't take chase until the others had spooked the herd and the slowest could be separated out. The pack of coyotes had finally reached their positions when the beta male made h

fur in preparation for flight, but he knew that if he ran now, he'd never make the tree line before his own head would explode with a high power rifle bullet. The rest of the pack had already started back for

bastards!' thought the alpha. Very carefully he lowered himself even deeper into the brush along the fence line; making sure he didn't bend a single blade of grass

fuckers something

last time they try to

first shot? I lo

and was holding his rifle up for the others to see. The alpha memorized every detail of that face; burning it into his anger filled mind. He watched them come together and the

he had escaped their line of sight, the blinding hot pain erupted in his side as the second bullet found its mark. His left lung filled with blood immediately and he could barely breathe, but the adrenaline and the momentum of his full out run kept him going forward over the top of the hill. The blood in his lungs

g, he stopped. Looking back, he made sure the humans weren't going to try and come after him. Listening carefully for any sounds of running footsteps or worse, engines starting up, he

d through his body. It helped to clear his mind, snapping him out of his more primal state of pain. Letting the cold water flush out his wounds, he realized that his right eye still didn't clear up. He slowly turned his head to look at the wound in his

th the cold, clear water of the creek, he moved back to the bank and pulled himself out of the water. Looking back at the way he had come, he could see the blood trail he had left. He needed to get mov

wouldn't find his trail. Still leaving a blood trail, he walked into the woods and headed for the Front Range. He picked a valley between two peaks and used that for his reference point to keep from turning towards his wounded side and walking i

d to a trickle. He hadn't had to cough as often, so he knew that his insides were starting heal. His right eye still didn't work and the pain from it was constant. Not having that eye working really threw his depth perception of

re. The sound of liquid hitting the pine needles drifted out of a copse of scrub brush. He cocked his head towards the bushes as the sound trailed off. Then more rustling as something large shifted against the branches. Before he could move to hide, a tall human female

. He realized that any sudden movement would tear his wound open again and he wasn't so sure he wouldn't bleed out before any food got to process in his stomach. Neither one of them had made a sound since she had ste

I'll leave you alone

eek. He continued to stare at her with his one good eye, not making a sound or moving a muscle. He knew how dangerous humans could be in panic situati

some food wil

, spraying blood out his nostrils. He slowly moved his head up and down. She jumped at his movement and so

nt some

er head to the side a little, mimicking the age-old posture that dogs have when they hear or see something they don't understand. This struck him as extremely funny and he couldn't help himself, he started chuffing repeatedly. Then the pain from his wo