She Wolf

Sonja's Tale

A She-Wolf Adventure

By Throat Wolf throat_wolf@hotmail.com

Sonja was hungry, incredibly hungry. She should have fed, would have fed days ago, except that she was not in a place where it would have been appropriate. Circumstances had forced her to the heart of the city, where it was not so easy to find prey--or, at least, prey that would be both acceptable to her palate and not easily missed.

But now she had no choice. The hunger was upon her, and would not let her rest. She knew that if she did not feed, and soon, she would be forced to take the first possible victim she found--an act which could have unpleasant consequences, especially if it were to be seen.

As much as she disliked it, Sonja knew that she had to hunt.

The professor dismissed the class, and Greg Dodgwick filed out into the hall along with the rest of the college students. Physics was hard, especially at the 400 level. His head was still filled with abstract problems, the kind of thing that the professor had droned on and on about and he for some reason just couldn't get out of his head.

Greg walked down the hall, shifting his knapsack to one shoulder. He was just a bit under six feet in height, with brown hair and a surprisingly clear complexion for a college student. There wasn't really anything special about him . . . which was why he stopped and stared when he noticed who was watching him.

It was a girl, with long, dark hair and a slightly pale, Slavic complexion. Her clothes were simple, slacks and a tee-shirt--and she didn't seem to be wearing anything underneath the shirt. She was looking right at him, with an unreadable expression. As Greg watched, she slowly beckoned to him, then stepped back into one of the doors along the hall.

Greg's better judgement was telling him to go, but he ignored it. The girl had been . . . well, beautiful almost wasn't the word. She looked like she'd stepped out of a movie or a TV screen or something. And Greg was curious as to what she wanted with him. And to tell the truth, he also hoped for a chance to get a look at what was under that shirt.

And so Greg followed her into the door, which opened into a deserted classroom. As soon as he entered, he saw her standing there--completely nude. Greg gasped, and his knapsack hit the floor.

"Come a little closer," the girl said in a delicately-accented voice, lips slightly parted.

Greg walked slowly up to her, knees shaking. Was this some strange sorority ritual? he wondered. Get someone alone and have sex with him in a classroom?

Needless to say, Greg was very surprised when she suddenly became a giant wolf, and immediately thereafter, swallowed him whole.

A couple of minutes later, Sonja hurriedly pulled her clothes back on. The meal had been faster than she would have liked, but it couldn't be helped; there was no time for the kind of foreplay she usually favored. She would have preferred not to have had to eat him with his clothes on, but there had been no time. At least he had struggled nicely on the way down, and he seemed to be free of any foreign substances. So often of late, her victims had just lain there unconscious and she'd had an unpleasant few moments as her Wolfen body eliminated the alcohol or drugs they'd been sodden with. "I'll have to eat here more often . . . " she decided.

Just before pulling her shirt back on, her chest heaved, she belched, and then spat out a belt buckle, a pocketknife, and a handful of loose change. Pulling the shirt back on, she shouldered Greg's knapsack and walked once more out the door. In the back of her mind, the psychic life-essence of this latest victim was tucked gently into place.

Later on, Sonja sat at a table at the campus Burger King, eating a Whopper. It tasted good, even though it was hardly even a snack to one of her physical needs. But then, she only ate human food for the taste and to seem "normal" anyway.

What would she do now? she wondered. Head back to the wilderness? She would have to, she surmised. She'd been here in the city for far too long. What would happen when the hunger came again? For all she knew, the police could be out looking for her vanished victim even now.

That was a drawback to being a Wolfen in this day and age, Sonja reflected. If you wanted to eat a proper meal, something you could actually enjoy--something intelligent--it caused all sorts of trouble. Human civilization was one of the worst things to happen to the Wolfen in a long, long time.

Sonja at last got up, threw her trash away, and walked back to the city bus stop. She would return to her hotel room and stay the night there, then take the next available transportation out of town.

Tired from the day's hunt, Sonja fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Greg wondered where he was. His last recollection was of being crammed into a huge lupine maw and unceremoniously swallowed. Screaming, he'd plopped into a narrow and confined open space that could only be a giant stomach, and it had contracted in on him, and he'd lost consciousness.

Now, he was in the midst of a vast plain of grey, ethereal, roiling clouds, and he didn't know what to make of it. "Where am I?" he asked. The words echoed back in his ears. "Where am I? Where am I? Where am I . . . "

"What is this place . . . ?" Some of the clouds parted suddenly, and a forestscape was spread out before him. As there didn't seem to be anything better to do, Greg walked into it. "Is this Heaven?" he wondered. "Or the other place, for that matter?"

As he walked into the open field, Greg noticed that he could see the ground through himself. Unlike everything else here, he was transparent. "Am I not really here at all? Am I a ghost?"

"You shouldn't ask so many questions," a voice said from beside him.

Greg looked down to see a little girl standing there. She seemed to be about six or seven, and had short blonde hair. She wore a pink, frilly dress, and was also transparent. "Who are you?"

"My name is Megan," the girl said. "Hi!"

"Uh . . . " This was getting entirely too surreal for Greg. "Hi. Uhm . . . where are we?"

"I don't know," Megan said. "Have you seen my mommy?"

"Um, I don't think so . . . "

"I haven't seen her. Ever since the car wreck." She looked sad. "Maybe mommy's dead. Or maybe I am." She didn't cry; Greg got the sense that she'd already done a lot of crying, and had no more tears left.

"Maybe we both are," Greg agreed. "Do you remember anything since the wreck?"

"After, you mean? Sorta." Megan screwed up her face in concentration. "There was this man and this woman, and they dragged us out of the car. And then the woman came and hugged me real close, and it got real warm and dark. And then I woke up here."

"Where is here?" Greg asked.

"I dunno," Megan said. "But it's real weird. Lookee." She pointed across the field, and Greg watched.

The field was full of young . . . well, wolftaurs, was the only way to describe them. They were perhaps about the size of a large Great Pyrenees or Saint Bernard dog, and were frolicking like children. There were larger wolftaurs there, too, watching them. As Greg looked on, one of them stood up, shimmered, and changed into a human woman. Greg noticed that it was the same woman as the one who had . . . eaten him. "Is that the woman who pulled you out of the car?" he asked.

"Yeah! She's come and talked to me sometimes since then. She's real nice. And that's the man. I don't like him!" Megan pointed to a man who walked into the clearing, past the woman, and flickered into a wolftaur himself. The woman walked past some bushes and was soon gone to view.

The smaller wolftaurs seemed to be playing some kind of strange game now. They were chasing one another, tackling each other . . . but then when two fell together, only one got up. Greg watched closely, and was startled to see the hindquarters of one 'taur hanging out of the mouth of one of the others, which then tilted its head back as if to swallow.

But it didn't swallow, not really. In fact, a couple of moments later, it released the other 'taur, and they started chasing each other around again. Greg shook his head. "What are they doing?"

"I dunno. I've tried talking to them, but they never see me. It's just the same thing, over and over again. Look at this." Megan pointed. The wolftaur who had been the man Megan had told her about had been watching them, and had walked over next to one of the other adult 'taurs--this one obviously female, from the breasts hanging from its chest. The male 'taur lay down next to her, and kissed her on the lips. Then his mouth swung open wider, and he started taking her head full into his mouth. And he didn't stop there. Gradually, opening wider and swallowing every so often, he moved his mouth down over her human chest, then around her more lupine portion. She didn't seem to be struggling . . . if anything, she was enjoying it. Her tail was wagging slightly. None of the other Wolfen seemed to behave as if this was unusual . . . in fact, one other pair began to do it themselves (but with the female swallowing the male, in this case).

Greg couldn't take his eyes away from this display. It seemed disgusting, yet somehow . . . enthralling. What was going on here?

As the male wolftaur's jaws moved closer to the she-taur's hindquarters, he lifted his head up and tilted it back. The she-taur suddenly began to struggle, trying to pull back out, but she couldn't--she was too far in. The he-taur tilted his head further back, swallowed--and she disappeared. Greg could see the squirming outline of the struggling 'taur as it slid through the he-taur's humanoid torso and down into its belly.

One of the other she-taurs had noticed this, and jumped up, her lupine muzzle showing an expression of shock. She turned to run, but the first he-taur leaped and tackled her to the ground. She shrank into the form of a normal wolf and tried to scamper off, but the he-taur grabbed her with one hand, stuffed her into his maw, and swallowed.

By now, the female wolftaur who had been swallowing another male wolftaur had seen this, and had opened her mouth to let her partner begin to withdraw. But now the rogue who had swallowed two already stepped over to her and grasped the hindquarters of the male 'taur she had started to swallow--and began to push. The she-taur couldn't do anything about it--she already had most of her partner down her throat and could scarcely move. Before either of them knew it, she had completely swallowed the male 'taur. And the other male 'taur had begun to swallow her.

"It always happens like this," Megan said. "I can't figure out why." Greg was too distracted to say anything.

By now the younger 'taurs had noticed what was going on. Some of them were screaming, others had run off into the brush. The wolftaur completed his meal just as the girl who Greg had recognized re-entered the clearing.

The girl looked aghast, and she shimmered into her wolftauran form. She barked something accusingly; the other simply laughed and advanced on her, snatching up a young 'taur who had gotten too close, opening his maw (Greg got a good view down it; it seemed to be a whole lot larger open than when it was closed) and tossing it down. His throat muscles gripped it tightly, and the last thing that was visible was the fear on its face before it went down.

The she-wolftaur looked more aghast, and then, realizing there was nothing she could do, turned and loped from the clearing. The he-taur started to follow, but its belly was too swollen from its meal to move very fast, so it settled for grabbing a couple more of the small 'taurs and swallowing them instead.

Then the scene faded, leaving Greg and Megan standing there, and Greg wondering exactly what it was that he'd just witnessed.

Sonja woke up slowly. She'd had the dream again--the dream of when Mikhail had betrayed her, betrayed the whole tribe. How could he have done it? What could have led him to do it? All she knew was that of all their tribe, she alone had escaped being devoured and imprisoned by him.

She'd fled around the world to try to escape him, but he'd come after her. That she knew from the time she'd intervened at that unfortunate car wreck. A girl and her mother had been severely injured and trapped inside the burning form of their car. Abandoning her human guise, Sonja had gone and ripped it open, dragging the girl free and then going back to get the mother.

But when she'd gotten there, she found no other than Mikhail had gotten there first. He held the broken yet still alive body of the woman in his arms. "Why, hello, Sonja," he'd said. "It is so nice to see you again . . . "

Trying to keep a level temper, she'd moved forward to take the unconscious woman from Mikhail's arms. But Mikhail had stepped back, changed to his Wolfen form, and placed the woman on his tongue. Before she could do anything about it, the woman had begun her trip down into his hungry belly. "The same thing I will do to you," Mikhail said. "But not now. I would be . . . disturbed. And I would like to have more time to enjoy my meal." Sirens were sounding in the distance as emergency vehicles came near. "Dos vedanya." With a sardonic smile, Mikhail was in his human form once more and then was gone.

Sonja had moved back to the side of the road where the semiconscious little girl lay. Even with the abrasions and bruises, she was still adorable, and reminded her in some ways of the young whom she'd lost the last time she'd seen Mikhail.

"I won't let you go through life without a mother," she'd decided. "I can't." She picked up the young girl, embraced her. "Forgive me." Swallowed her.

She'd talked to the little girl since then, in the back of her mind. Comforted her, embraced her, told her that everything would be all right. She didn't know if Megan believed her, but at least Sonja knew that she would be safe from the world. Sonja had considered birthing her as a Wolfen, but it didn't feel right. Not while her mother was kept within Mikhail. If she could somehow free her, free the others . . . but that wasn't likely. Mikhail was so much stronger than she was . . .

"This is true," the accented, cultured voice of her enemy said. "And I shall now prove it."

Sonja sat straight up in bed as the bedroom light came on. Mikhail was standing right there before her in his darkly handsome human guise, his eyes flashing. "You have pined long enough for your friends. Come and be reunited with them."

"Why are you doing this?" Sonja asked. "Isn't being what you are enough? Why did you have to devour the rest of the tribe? Without their permission, it was an abomination, a perversion of the ways we all follow!"

"Why?" Mikhail echoed. "Control, my dear Sonja. While their spirits rest inside me, I control them. I can do unto them whatever I wish, and they have very little power to contest my will. As you will soon find out."

Sonja shivered. "No! I won't--I'll fight you."

"I don't think so," Mikhail said. His eyes bored into hers, and she felt her resistance beginning to wane. "Another benefit of keeping their spirits in me is the power I am able to draw from them. Which gives me an additional measure of control. Come here to me . . . "

"No!" Sonja cried as her body betrayed her. She slowly got up and crawled toward Mikhail and the certain doom that awaited her. "No, it's not right! You can't!"

"I can and will." Sonja came to the end of the bed and stood before him, eyes never wavering from his no matter how hard she tried. "Mmm . . . I like your human form. Did I ever tell you that? I think eating you this way is going to be the most fun of all."

"If you're going to do it, then do it," Sonja said. "Don't keep me waiting."

"What a delightful sense of humor you have," Mikhail said. "But first, I think, something else." His face moved closer to hers, and their lips brushed, his hand moving down to caress her rounded breasts as their mouths connected.

Despite all her efforts, Sonja felt herself responding intensely to Mikhail's touch. With a feeling of horror, Sonja realized that he could even control this part of her, too.

"You bastard . . . " Sonja thought. "I'll have my revenge on you yet . . . "

Mikhail removed his lips from hers long enough to say, "I doubt that sincerely, my dear."

Everything seemed to fade away, after that, and Sonja wasn't quite sure what happened then. But the next thing she knew, she was lying on her chest on a thick, wide mattress of wolfen tongue. Her breasts were firm and peaked, an electric tingle passing through them at the warmth and softness they were touching. As full awareness returned to her, Mikhail's head tilted backward, and she began to slide down into his throat. "No!" Sonja cried, realizing what was happening. "No! You can't do this! It's not right!"

But despite anything she could do, she slid gradually back down his tongue, and her legs were gripped tightly by the warm, damp flesh of his throat. He swallowed again, and she slid in up to her waist, and then to her busom. Just a couple of more swallows, and the last thing she saw before darkness enclosed her was Mikhail's teeth silhouetted against the light from the hotel room fixture.

Just as Greg had thought he'd gotten used to this strange place, it all disappeared again, and everything had started shaking. The roiling clouds turned black, and thunder rolled. "What's happening?" Megan screamed. "I'm scared!"

"Just hold onto me," Greg said, holding her tightly. "Everything's going to be all right." I hope.

The shaking and rumbling grew to a crescendo pitch, and then, just as suddenly, it was gone. But now everything was subtly different. The texture of the clouds had changed, and their motion was different. "What's happened now?" Greg wondered.

"I don't know," Megan said. "It's never done like this before."

Greg looked around, again trying to find some sign of where they were. He knew that he had been . . . eaten whole by that girl-turned-wolf. That had clearly been no dream. Ever since then, he'd been wandering around in this misty limbo, seeing strange things, all of them related in some way to that very same girl. Surely this couldn't be heaven . . .

Just then, a scream split the air. "Behind you!" Megan yelled, pointing. Greg turned.

There was a naked woman chained up against a huge boulder, being menaced by a rather large wolftaur. As he watched, the 'taur traced a claw down between her breasts, drawing a trail of blood. "It took me years to find you," the 'taur said. "But now I have eternity to make you pay for them." He laughed coldly.

"That's the woman who--" He broke off as the 'taur placed his lupine forepaws to either side of the woman's head, positioning himself over her. "He can't be planning to--" The woman's scream made it quite clear that he was.

Greg knew that he couldn't let this happen. Even if that woman had swallowed him whole and digested his body, he still couldn't stand by and watch this. Taking a deep breath, he ran up behind the Wolfen and planted a vicious kick in the nether regions beneath his tail and slightly forward. It had the desired effect, as Mikhail howled in pain and rolled off the woman. He glared at the woman, then at Greg. "I'll be back," he said. "And I'll see to it that you both suffer for this." He disappeared.

Greg turned his attention to the woman. "Are you all--" He broke off as the rock and the chains disappeared, the long scratch closed, and clothes appeared over the woman's body. "--right?" Greg finished, more from momentum than any other reason.

"You rescued me," the woman said. "I attacked you, ate you--and yet you still saved me."

"Maybe I just have this thing for dumb animals," Greg retorted. "Besides, it seemed like the only way I could find out just what the hell is going on here."

The woman looked down. "You may not like what I have to tell you."

"Let's start with your name, perhaps?" Greg suggested. "And who and what you are."

"Very well. My name is Sonja, and I am a Wolfen."

"What's that?" Megan asked. "Is that like those big wolves in the clearing who were eating each other?"

"You saw that?" Sonja asked. "But how? Ah, wait. I must have been dreaming. Yes, those creatures were Wolfen."

"What's with this eating thing?" Greg asked. "You ate me, but obviously I'm still alive. I just don't know where . . . "

"That is what happens when a Wolfen takes a human as a meal," Sonja explained. "The body is digested, but the spirit is kept, filed away in the back of the Wolfen's mind, from which it can later be reborn in a new Wolfen body.

"So . . . we're in your mind right now?" Greg asked.

"Unfortunately, no . . . " Sonja sighed and looked at the mist between her feet. "We're in his mind. Mikhail's, the one who was trying to ravage me. You see, a long, long time ago, he broke one of our most sacred taboos."

"Do tell," Greg said. "Eating all the other Wolfen in that dreamscene, right?"

"That is correct. You see, it is not wrong for us to . . . eat each other, as long as the other is willing. The young practice it, but they do not go all the way for they are not yet mature enough to bear children. Likewise, the adult Wolfen will do the same, regurgitating or not swallowing unless both are in agreement. It's a very personal thing, in fact . . . if you allow yourself to be digested, you are in fact saying that you would like to have that other Wolfen for your next mother or father--and the converse is true if you are willing to eat and digest the other. Doing it against the other's will is one of the worst crimes one can commit."

Megan sat blankly through this lecture on Wolfen biology, understanding enough to ask, "So . . . you ate me . . . because you wanted to be my mommy?"

Sonja reached over and hugged the young girl. "In a sense. Your real mommy is around here somewhere, in Mikhail's mind."

"In Mikhail's mind?" Greg asked.

"Yes . . . that's what I was trying to say. He finally caught up with me. He was much too powerful for me to handle--I couldn't resist him. And so here I am."

"Wait . . . you said that we could be reborn in Wolfen bodies?" Greg asked. "So we could get out of here?"

"We could . . . but only if Mikhail were to pass us on to a female Wolfen through mating with her. And I fear that Mikhail would be more likely to devour a female Wolfen than mate with her. He's a most sadistic creature, who never should have been made a Wolfen."

Greg sighed. "So it looks like we're stuck," he said. "Are you certain there's no other way out of this?"

Sonja sighed. "If I were stronger, I might challenge him in a psychic contest of wills for control of his body. But Mikhail has always been stronger, especially with all the spirits his mind now contains. There's no way I could win--unless . . . "

"Unless?" Greg asked.

"You were my most recent meal, as I was Mikhail's . . . " Sonja said, deep in thought. "Therefore, parts of our bodies are still flowing in Mikhail's bloodstream. So, if we combined our energies and drew on those parts of our own bodies . . . we might have a chance at defeating Mikhail!"

"All right," Greg said. "What do we have to do?"

"I'll show you." Sonja gestured, and great crags of rock rose out of the mist around her and Greg. Megan was separated from them by the walls.

"How did you do that?" Greg asked.

"We're inside Mikhail's mind," Sonja reminded him. "Anything we want can become real here . . . as long as Mikhail isn't making it otherwise. And thanks to your unexpected attack, he'll be recovering for the next hour or so."

"Um . . . okay. So, how do we . . . ?" The rest of the words just sort of froze in Greg's mouth, for when he looked up, he noticed that Sonja was stark naked. And so was he. "What do you--wait. You want me to have sex with you?"

Sonja smiled and nodded. "The symbolism will help our mental energies combine. Besides . . . it'll be fun."

Greg shrugged and grinned. "The sacrifices I make . . . very well." He walked across to her and they embraced, and the passion began.

Greg soon found that the best thing about making love mentally was the perfect control it afforded. Not to mention the opportunity to have multiple, sustained orgasms if he so desired. In addition, Sonja wasn't that bad of a partner. Part of it might have been their mental environs, but she certainly had a hell of a body.

Greg suddenly felt a bit dazed and drowsy. Perhas it was from the lovemaking experience--he'd never done it THIS way before. As he was leaning against her, he barely noticed how she suddenly seemed to change, to grow more furry. He looked up at her, saw her lupiform mouth opening . . . and opening. Before he knew it, her tongue was caressing him, contouring itself to his body. It was warm and moist, and it felt wonderful. Then everything suddenly seemed to grow dark and warm, and Greg let himself drift away.

The craggy walls around her crumbled away, and Sonja stood alone in the midst of the dreamscape. She was naked, but this didn't bother her; there was nobody around to see it. Even Megan had disappeared, shifted to another part of Mikhail's mind. Sonja was alone.

And then a nearby drift of mist transformed itself, coalesced into the shape of a Wolfen. Mikhail had returned.

"So, you think to make yourself stronger through a merge, strong enough to defeat me?" Mikhail laughed. "You have no chance. You may be able to draw upon your two spirits, but I can draw on all the rest!" Mikhail laughed, shifting to Wolfen form and growing larger. "I think I'll crush you like a bug!"

Sonja matched him, size for size, adopting her own Wolfen form. "I don't think so. You've had your fun long enough, Mikhail." She pounced forward, and the fight was on.

They fought hard, attacking each other with all their might. What might seem to an onlooker like physical combat was actually only symbolic of the mental struggle for domination that they fought. Sonja held her own for a long time, but at last she weakened. With one final blow, Mikhail knocked her unconscious.

"Bitch," Mikhail muttered. "I'll see to it that you can never fight me again." He opened his mouth wide, leaned over Sonja's supine form, and quickly engulfed her. As his mental form swallowed, he prepared to eliminate Sonja, to convert her lifeforce into pure mental energy.

But then shafts of ruby light began to shoot out of his body. "Wh--what's happening?!" Mikhail gasped as he doubled over in pain.

The areas of light grew wider, spreading across Mikhail's body. "You thought that by swallowing me, you could digest and eliminate me," Sonja's voice said from inside his mental body. "You were wrong." The ruby area covered Mikhail's mental body, and his physical body began to writhe, to change.

"No!" Mikhail gasped. "This cannot be happening!"

"There are some things even you don't know about being wolfen, Mikhail," Sonja said, as his body reshaped itself into hers. "I guess I'm just lucky enough to be able to take advantage of that."

Sonja's hotel bed sagged under her lupine form--after the exhausting change she'd just put her body through, she didn't have the strength left to change to human form. Changing gender was not something that Wolfen often did--the physical effects were simply too draining. She hoped that nobody came to clean the room before she could regain her energy.

While she rested, Sonja turned her attention inward, sorting through the cluttered mental space, full of the people and Wolfen whom Mikhail had amassed over the years. There were thousands upon thousands of them . . . people who had been eaten by Wolfen who had been eaten by Mikhail. It was kind of sad, actually . . . most of them would probably never see the light of day again The world could never support that many Wolfen. But many of them would never know or care . . . they slept and dreamed within the dark recesses of her soul. With no reason to be wakened, they would probably continue to dream until the end of time. It was a kinder fate than most ordinary humans would receive.

Sonja was looking for specific people and Wolfen. Friends from ages past who Mikhail had devoured without warning--it was great to be able to talk to them again--and those from more recent times. Greg Dodgwick, Megan, and her mother. It was simple enough to gather those three together, and let herself appear among them.

"I take it we were successful?" Greg asked.

Sonja nodded. "Mikhail . . . is no more."

"Did you kill him?" Megan asked, wide-eyed.

"His mental energies are completely dissipated," Sonja replied. "It's only what he deserved for what he's done over the years. Perhaps now we Wolfen can return to what we once were as a species."

Megan's mother spoke up. "What happens to us now?"

"You'll be reborn, as Wolfen."

"As Wolfen?" Megan's mother asked. "You mean, like you?"

Sonja nodded.

"But what if we don't want to--to have to eat people like that?" she asked. "I--I just don't think I could go through with it. It's not--it's not right."

Sonja shrugged. "Then you can come back to me, and I'll take you into me again. You won't have to eat anyone else; you can stay with me forever." She smiled. "But I don't think you'll have any trouble. It's all a matter of adapting to it. Isn't it less cruel to eat as the Wolfen do, letting your meal live within you for as long as you do, than it is to eat dead meat and necessitate all the killing of cows and pigs and other animals?"

Megan's mother still looked uncertain. "If you say so . . . "

Greg chuckled. "I'm willing to give it a shot. So, how do we do this, then? What happens?"

"Are you ready, then?" Sonja asked.

The three nodded uncertainly. "As we'll ever be, I guess," Megan's mother said.

"Good," Sonja said. Everything faded to black.

The young Slavic woman stepped down into the stairwell as the bus slid to a halt. "You sure about this, Miss?" the bus driver asked. "Ain't nothin' but forests for miles around."

"I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern." Sonja stepped out of the bus and watched it as it rolled away into the distance. When it was out of sight, she turned away from the road and began walking. The forest was a lush green, and Sonja could already smell the creek that ran through it at some point nearby. A few hours of hiking would bring her to the perfect spot to raise her litter, she was sure of that. Not long from now, there would be six more Wolfen in the world, and soon more than that.

It would be fun, having children again, at least for the few months or so she would have with them before their memories began to return and they regained the personalities they'd had before. Greg, Megan, her mother, and three of the Wolfen whom Mikhail had taken on that first dreadful day. It would be wonderful to have their company again.

Sonja hiked deeper into the woods . . .

THE END

Author's Notes:

And there you have it . . . the other tale of the Wolfen. If I get much positive feedback, I might be moved to write more. I can imagine Wolfen being useful in other scenarios, such as, perhaps, space colonization.

Though I don't mention it directly in the story, I could see Sonja as being a daughter or grand-daughter of Astra from the original She-Wolf story. Wolfen live a long time.

(This story is copyright 1995 by Throat Wolf. Permission is granted for this one electronic distribution and archival, but not for distribution by any other means, including CD-ROM.)