When Rae awoke hours later, though the sun was low on the horizon and the sky had darkened into a steely gray, the air was still sultry and close. Rae’s skin was flushed and prickling; she lay in the grass barbed with heat and sweat feeling something not right. The wind had picked up so the stalks swooshed around her, hot and dry and angry in their motion.

All-belly beast, hissed the dry stalks about her.

All-toothy fur, rattled the seeds on the stems.

Despite the heat, Rae shivered and rubbed her arms. She was unsettled. Though she had never felt unsafe in the fields and hills beside her home, now, suddenly, she did.

She sat up, wiping the sweat from her brows and eyes, ready to hurry home. But as she lifted her head above the grass, she found herself not alone.

She saw the eyes first.

For an instant, she felt a flash of comfort. Ah, there you are, she thought, but these words had no sooner darted inexplicably through her mind than she saw the muzzle.

Then the ears.

Then the fur.

The gray stare, the canine snout, the tawny hide… it was a moment before these impressions formed into the word wolf, wolf… but the word came rushing into her consciousness in the same moment she found herself scrabbling backward gasping, “Wolf, wolf,” at the creature that stood staring a few short strides away in the field.

The creature did not move.

The wind pushed at its fur, at the surrounding, wavering grass.

It flicked its ears.

It raised its snout, sniffing.

Rae wanted to stand. She wanted to run. She cast about, looking for any place where she could find safety, any place she could escape.

Nothing. Around her only a wide sweep of field.

She could not reach the line of trees in time.

She could not reach her house in time.

Heart in her throat, she stopped her scrabbling motion. She stared at the creature.

The wolf stared at her.

In the distance, she could just hear Ness calling—Rae, Rae—and from here, she could just see Ness’s small figure by the house, Mop’s by the barn surrounded by the flock.

She wanted to yell… she wanted to cry, Help… Mop, Nessa, help me! but the words were dry in her throat. What would the wolf do if she made such a noise? Steady, unblinking, the gray eyes took her in. Rae could sense its damp breath, the hot cavern of its mouth, the sharp white strength of its teeth all through her skin and bones. Her hand trembled as though the wolf had already taken her arm in its maw.

Slowly, slowly, she stood. Was she breathing? She could not tell. The air around her pulsed with the force of her own heartbeat.

The wolf’s ears flattened against its head. It crouched. It bared its teeth. Lip curling, the creature growled, a deep, menacing rumble.