It was an all too familiar feeling. The feeling of his body aching at every craves. Breathing hurt. With every breath he could feel his chest ache. Shuffling on the stone step, Charlie looked down upon the village. All slept, even the guards who usually stood guard outside the hut of the Chiefess. The Chiefess herself still slept. Glancing over his shoulder, he peeked past the red and white cloth curtain and to the group of sleeping women.

Nolkonoe, Phukomeia, and all other of high status who were present last night slept. It hadn’t been a dream. He looked down to the new mark on his right bicep. It wasn’t a dream. Looking to where the Merchant carriages, caravans and wagons once were, he knew they had left him. The Beginnings of a tear began to roll down his cheek. He was eighteen. Last night would have been his birthday. He was born at night at nine o’clock. Now that once celebrated night was the night he was abandoned. Left to the clutches of these…

Again, he looked over his shoulder to see the mass of black tails wrapped around or laying along the women’s bodies. What were these things? They looked human, yet the ears, tails, and… what where they called, the things that hung in caves that looked as if they could skewer a human if they were to fall? He could think. His mind had too many questions, too many conflicting emotions to make one coherent thought. Another few tears rolled down his cheeks.

Should he run? His body twitched to do so, but whenever he moved his legs, they simply froze and prevented him from leaving. Again, he looked back to the monsters.

All slept in a deep sleep, so deep that they hadn’t even noticed him when he clumsily hit them several times while escaping from the arms of the Chiefess. He could run. They wouldn’t even know. But then where would he go? His pertains couldn’t have sold him, right? This was just some mistake. A bad birthday trick by the Merchants. Curling his legs into his chest, he looked towards the horizon that seemed to be lined by the ever-stretching canyons of the desert.

They were going to come back. They had to.

Another hour or so past of Charlie sitting in quite.

A few sounds came from inside the hut. But he was none the wiser as he continued to stare lovingly out to the horizon, just waiting for the sign of a caravan, wagon, or horse to come and collect him. Nolkonoe raised her head from the lap of the Lead Warrior. Instinctively, she glanced to the Chiefess. For a second her heart raced as she realised the absence of Charlie. Sniffing the air, and pricking her ears, she soon found him.

His small sobs were barely audible. If it wasn’t for her heightened sense, she probably wouldn’t have heard them. Crawling stealthily from the bed as to not wake her lovers, nor give away her presents to Charlie, she moved from the bed. Still keeping low the ground, she stalked towards the sobbing boy. Moving to his back, she watched him. He talked in a hushed tone. Muttering words to himself, he still didn’t notice her. Nolkonoe moved closer until her breasts almost touched his back, and her stilled breath almost caressed his neck.

Listening, she realised his weeps were pleads of help. Poor thing. She couldn’t imagine what he felt right now. But at least she could try to get a good idea. Pouncing, she wrapped her arms around his waist as she nuzzled her face into his neck. Jumping, Charlie turned to face her. Nolkonoe beamed a smile at him to try and combat the signs of tears around his red eyes. Leaning forward, she gave him a few gentle licks on the cheek, removing his tears.

“Why do you cry?” She asked, moving around him before pushing him back up the stone steps and onto the stone platform that lead to the Chiefess’s hut.

“This is a nightmare, right? You’re going to eat me, right?” He asked, his speech full of cracks and trembles. Nolkonoe spread his legs. Climbing onto his lap, she rested her head against his chest.

“No, my pup. Nor is this a dream. This is very much your reality. Your new reality,” she said, gently caressing the side of his face with one of her hands.

“Please tell me then that this is a joke,” he said, his eyes begging to swell with tears once again. His heart sank as Nolkonoe shook her head ‘no.’

“She was right,” Charlie muttered, thinking back to the night before.

“Who was?” Nolkonoe questioned, having a hunch to the answer.

“The Chiefess, she said…” he stopped for a second as he began to bring himself to say the abhorrent words.

“My family doesn’t love me,” Charlie said, tears finally bursting from his eyes in full force as he sobbed.

“Poor thing. It’s alright, it’s alright,” she reassured as she began to comfort him with loving kisses on his cheek and gentle fingers running through his hair.

“They don’t love you. But that doesn’t matter now. You are in somewhere far better than anywhere else before,” Nolkonoe said, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

“Where do I go? What the fuck do I do?” Charlie said through sobs and bursts of tears.

“Go nowhere, do nothing, just stay here in my arms,” Nolkonoe moved around to his back. Lifting him, she placed his head onto her shoulder and rested the rest of him against her body. Before he hadn’t noticed, but in whatever form she was in now had made her a good foot or two taller.

“My family… my,” Charlie didn’t speak as he simply cried into the shoulder of Nolkonoe.

“Calm my love, clam, you are home now. Look,” she said, turning him to look towards the bed of wolf women.

“All here love you. Including me. Last night, that ritual was something very special. We made you a member of the tribe, and pet of the Chiefess. With that contract you singed, you have given your life to us. But we are not monsters, we have given you a gift,” Charlie quieted his crying as he listened to her words.

“What are you?” Charlie said, trembling as the realisation of the large ears and tail she had been similar to that of the Desert Crawlers, hinting to him that maybe her appetite for humans was similar as well. Killing his red face again, Nolkonoe wiped his tears away.

“Calm yourself pup, we won’t eat you. We only eat those we don’t like,” Nolkonoe whispered as she cradled him, nurturing his fear away. She was a calm, too calm, as if this was something she had practiced this for a long time.

“We are Wolvanticai, a rare, magic species. As part of calming you, the Chiefess has given you a piece of magic, a magic that ruins through our blood. A magic that forbids us from ageing. We understand this can be quite as stressful thing for such a young thing such as yourself. So, we have given you three hundred years until you begin to age again,” Charlie looked up to Nolkonoe in shock as she said this.

“So, when you said you were five hundred moons old?” Charlie said, this new discovery pushing aside all pervious thought.

“I’m five hundred years old, the third oldest in the tribe behind the Head Warrior and Lead huntress,” Nolkonoe confirmed.

“And the contract?”

“Yes, the contract was to sign away your rights, as I said,” Nolkonoe placed a kiss onto his forehead. Still, she was calm, so calm it was as if she had no sympathy for him. But still, Charlie could help but be calmed by her deep, red eyes. Wait, red? For a second, he blinked, and her eyes were back to their usual deep red.

“The contract you signed shall last for fifty years. Meaning that once it is us you shall be free to leave the tribe. And if you do leave, the two hundred and fifty years are an apology, time to give you to live as you wish,” Nolkonoe said as she held onto him tightly.

“How can I trust you?” Charlie said, looking up into the eyes of the wolf woman.

“And even if what you said is real, where am I meant to go? My family don’t want me, I have no friends, where the fuck am I meant to go!” Charlie yelled into the of Nolkonoe. Nolkonoe only nodded.

“I don’t know,” Nolkonoe said, he large ears drooping down to the sides.

“What the hell am I meant to do? Three hundred years! What can I do?” he said, tears beginning to swell in his eyes. Grabbing the sides of his face, Nolkonoe leant down to look him in the eyes.

“I don’t know. But I do know where to start. Keep true to your promise, help me, help us defeat the Region Lord!” she said, her eyes not budging from his. A smile spread over his lips.

“So that’s what she meant. That’s what you meant. You said to not move against the Region Lord for three days, so that you could make me into a pet,” Charlie said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at how blind he had been to their plans.

“But now you are hers, you are under her protection. Of course, this means that it will be far harder for the Region Lord to harm you,” Nolkonoe said, wanting to change his mind from such pessimistic thoughts.

“Your idiots, in what bloody fucking world would I help you! This is illegal, the contract is illegal, my family will come to save me, just you wait!” Charlie said, wiping a tear from his eye. Nolkonoe sighed as she continued to hug him.

“It was the Chiefess’s idea. She has had it planned for years now. The party at Vinichitraiy, where you farther and mother tried to find you a woman to marry you. And that he did, or well, it was the Chiefess who had found you. Originally, she was going to mate you last night as she did, but we have changed your status from husband to pet. This makes you property of the Chiefess.

Charlie only nodded. Placing his head against her, he tired to think of something to say.

“Fuck she was right. My family don’t care, do they?” he said, allowing Nolkonoe to hold him.

“I’m sorry she was so harsh about getting the message across. But look on the bright side, as her property, if the Region Lord hurts you, he could instigate a war. Something the Merchant Union wouldn’t take kindly too,” Nolkonoe explained. He listened but said nothing as he tucked his head against her chest.

“So, I’ll ask you again, will you help us? Or shall you drown into the pool of self-pity that your family has placed you into,” Nolkonoe said, her eyes giving him more of a feeling of love and warmth than his mother ever had.

“Would you…” he stayed quite as he lay against her.

“You wont eat me?” he asked, starting again to tremble like a leaf cracking in the wind.

“Never,” Nolkonoe said proudly.

“Promise?” he said, looking up to see the sharp fangs that neatly decorated her gums. Again, placing a kiss onto his lips, she smiled at him.

“On my life, I shall never harm you. I will never willingly cause you fear. And I will protect you from both,” she explained in her deep, loving native accent.

“Can I think about your proposal. To stay here, and fight the Region Lord that is,” Charlie said, taking her words of whether to swim or sink to heart. Nolkonoe smirked.

“I’ll give you the time to think. Well, it isn’t like you have three hundred years or anything,” Nolkonoe joked, placing a kiss onto his head.

“Thank you,” Charlie said, allowing Nolkonoe to begin to rub the top of his head.

“Can you…” he muttered as she sank into her arms, his flurry of emotions still battling for control of his mind.

“Yes?” Nolkonoe said, looking to the bed to see Phukomeia, Klipesia and her mother had awakened but didn’t move. They only watched the young boy hugging tightly to Nolkonoe.

“Can you hold me for a bit longer,” he said. He didn’t know where his future lay, who he could trust and who he couldn’t, but he did know that the feeling of Nolkonoe against his body comforted him greatly. Smiling widely down at Charlie, she found it hard not to try and claim the adorable creature for herself.

“You can stay with me for as long as you wish my little pup,” she said, placing a kiss onto his head.

“You’ll never be alone again. You will always be loved here, you shall always feel needed and cared for,” she whispered, lifting him into her arms before returning back into the bedroom.

“You sit and be happy, think about ways to fight the Region Lord. We shall sleep, then when we wake, we shall plough our minds for ideas,” Nolkonoe said, keeping his head tucked against her chest. Klipesia and Phukomeia moved to allow Nolkonoe onto the bed. Both stared at him as Nolkonoe placed him onto the bed.

“Morning,” Klipesia said as Nolkonoe placed the boy under the blankets. Phukomeia cuddled onto one side of him, Nolkonoe on the other. Charlie allowed the women to hold him as he relaxed.

“Thank you,” Charlie said, finally feeling some what secure in the arms of the wolf women. The Chiefess raised her head, then did the rest of the women.

“Is he asleep?” the Chiefess asked as his eyes shut.

“Yes,” Nolkonoe said, stroking his hair.

“Is he angry?” the Chiefess said, crawling to his side and placing her head against his arm.

“a little. But I think you saying before about his family defiantly softened the blow,” Nolkonoe said, seeing how quickly Charlie had fell asleep.

“Is he scared?” the Chiefess asked, knowing that the native wine probably dulled his senses to a state in which he wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t a threat. And considering he never seen her kind before, she feared he would be kicking and screaming. But no, he did nothing.

“a little, but nothing we can’t use our charm to fix,” Nolkonoe said, her eyes turning a deep red as she gazed down onto him. The last of the tenseness in the boy’s body seemed to vanish as he sunk into their arms.

“Adorable,” the Chiefess said, placing a kiss onto the side of his head.

“Do you think he hates us,” she said, staring at his eyes as they flickered open for a second, only for fatigue to grip him once again, and for his eyes to close.

“No, he is just very scared at the moment. But he will come around to us eventually,” Nolkonoe said, lying down on the pillow and allowing Charlie to lay on her arm.