"Wait for me!" Keifer yelled at the top of his lungs, his little voice carrying through the green valley as he bolted across the pasture of wildflowers in pursuit of the other pups in the pack.

Felix and Daniel didn't hear him, they simply ran ahead as they laughed and carried on without him. Frustration built, and he pushed himself further, he was almost caught up with them when he tripped on a rock and went sprawling in the dirt.

He yelled out. No one heard him.

He groaned as his knees collided with a stone hidden in the grass. He tumbled, his knee throbbing in pain as he hit the ground again. Keifer gave up the chase to grip his injured leg as it bled down his leg in pulses of warm red. He felt his lip begin to tremble, his eyes filling with tears as he stared down at the torn skin and bright blood.

Being that he was too far from home to call his parents for help, he simply stared at the scrape with hopelessness.

His heart sank. It hurt, and he didn't know what to do. He knew his Mommy would kiss it better if she were here, but she was distracted right now with his new baby sister. Keifer distinctly remembered when he left home that his Mommy made him promise to be careful.

Would she be mad that he hadn't tried hard enough? He'd only had parents for 3 months, and he already felt like he was failing miserably.

He sniffled, looking up the hill that his friends climbed, and they had already disappeared. He held in a sob, he had no clue what to do.

"You alright?" A sweet, quiet voice asked, and Keifer perked up. He immediately knew who it was that posed the question before he even looked over his shoulder. He always felt strange around Opal, not a bad strange, but a good strange.

She stood above him, bending down to get a good look at his injury. Her short brown hair hung in frilly waves around her chin and cheeks. She always looked so pretty, but Keifer would never admit it out loud.

"That doesn't look so good. How about we go to my house and fix you up?" Opal asked in her signature soft tone. Keifer gave a nod, but he didn't know what to say to her.

He couldn't get up by himself, so the older pup slung an arm under his shoulders, helping him to stand. He had never been this close to her before, but and eruption of tingles swept down his spine, and he felt funny. He didn't understand what it meant.

It was a struggle to lean against the werewolf girl, she was quite a bit taller than him, but she made it work with a shy smile while she half carried him to her home.

When they reached her house, Opal cracked the back door, pushing it aside as she peered inside.

"Dad?" She called, but there was no reply. She beckoned Keifer forward, where she guided him into the kitchen and into a chair at the dining table.

"Hang on a sec." She directed, and she went into the kitchen cabinets, rummaging through the contents with a concentration that Keifer admired.

At only 4 years old, he didn't understand a lot about the world, and he didn't understand his feelings for Opal. Somehow, he managed to understand that she was a good person with a kind heart, and he wanted to be around her all the time. She made him feel important.

"Ah, here it is." She announced, slamming the cabinet shut and bounding over to his side with a handful of first aid supplies in one hand and a wet washcloth she snatched from the sink in the other.

Keifer held his breath when she dabbed gently at his bleeding knee, convinced that it would be excruciating. Instead of the blinding pain he was expecting, it soothed the sting rather than aggravating it. She wiped the blood from his skin, a soft smile on her face.

"See, that's not so bad." Opal teased, and then she smiled at him. Keifer took a deep breath, and then nodded his head.

"It hurt real bad." He told her, and she nodded.

"I'm sure it did. There was quite a bit of blood, but it's all better now." She reasoned, rubbing a small amount of medicine on and then covering the nasty scrape with a band aid the color of her eyes. Dazzling blue.

Keifer watched her, always admiring her. He could never look away from her, she was so beautiful. Her bright blue eyes seemed to radiate.

The young lycan boy could never forget the manners his Mommy already instilled in him. She made him practice them every day.

"Thank you for taking care of me, Opal." He said, and she laughed at him. Putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked at her delicate fingers, convinced that he would never be the same again.

"I'll always take care of you, Keifer."

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If you're reading this, you are brave :)

Welcome to my story, I hope you like it!