Finding a wide bowl, I quickly filled it with water and grabbed some dried meat from the pantry. Carrying them back outside, I set the bowl down beside the wolf. It dipped its big head to eye it, before it looked back up at me with an expression that I could have sworn was somehow unimpressed.
“Not thirsty? Okay.” I held out the meat. “Hungry?”
The wolf just eyed the meat with the same disinterest, its black eyes drifting away to drive its point home.
I laughed a little. “Okay.”
After taking the meat back to the kitchen, I stepped out into the cool night and scratched the wolf’s head.
“You’re gorgeous,” I told it, sinking down to sit cross-legged. “I never knew wolves were this big. But then, I know you’re not a normal wolf. Pretty sure a normal wolf would never act like this.”
The wolf just gazed at me, panting softly. It raised one huge paw and lightly dragged its blunt claws over my knee, the universal sign of a dog wanting a fuss.
I grinned and scratched at its ruff, its muzzle, behind its ears. It panted with pleasure until it dropped down and rolled over, stretching out its huge body for a belly scratch.
I obliged, scratching at its ribs until its left back leg kicked in time. The movement drew my gaze down, and I chuckled and quickly looked away. “Definitely a boy, huh?”
The wolf froze for a second, then squirmed and twisted onto his front… almost as though he wasembarrassed. I let out an incredulous laugh, scratching behind his ears again.
“Hey, nothing wrong with a big pair of balls. On a human, I mean,” I added quickly.
The wolf’s head cocked, his tongue lolling out. Then he lunged up and licked my chin before snuffling into my hair. I squirmed, laughing, feeling lighter than I had in weeks.