This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. All characters are over the age of 18. Please enjoy!
The full moon shone huge and bright in the night sky. It was shining so brightly Aric almost didn't need headlights as his pickup wound up the mountain highway. The heater was blasting in the cab, his music loud and thumping off the trees that lined the small road. He yawned widely and tugged at the collar of his flannel as he glanced at the clock.
"Sheesh," he muttered rubbing at one eye. It was nearly 11:30pm. He didn't know why he had decided to come up after work this Friday. He should have waited till Saturday morning.
His mother had asked that he prepare their family cabin for the winter. It wasn't the family cabin so much anymore as it was his parents' spring, summer, and early fall home. They migrated, like birds, down to the Arizona desert each winter. So, from about mid-October to March the thing was deserted.
Back in his younger, more party-centric days Aric would bring small groups of friends up to the cabin to go snowshoeing or snowboarding and drink too much spiked hot chocolate. Then as 30 approached they would come up to do some winter camping, enjoying the hot tub and expensive whiskey as snow fell silently all around.
But now, in his 40's he simply didn't have the time or energy to come up as often as he used to. These days he only came to winterize the cabin as a favor to his aging parents.
He had already deposited them safely at the airport the previous Friday, which was when his mother had asked him if he would mind taking care of the winterization. He always would, whether they asked him to or not, but she never failed to make sure he had the time to do it.
Aric yawned again and cracked the knuckles of one hand against his thigh. He'd had a busy day installing fancy closet doors in two different homes; both of which had been huge, bougie McMansions.
He hated doing those jobs. The houses were always slapped together using the cheapest building materials and sloppiest techniques, dressed up so they sold at top dollar acting as luxury rather than truly being luxurious. The last job had him shimming and tweaking things by fractions of inches just to get the closet doors not to rub the bedroom carpets bald.
He was exhausted physically and mentally, but work was only going to ramp up in the next couple weeks. With holidays and events approaching, this was the last free weekend he had. Driving up during the week just wasn't feasible since he usually had jobs booked for each day. So, this Friday was the last one he could make work before the first frost burst every water pipe in the cabin.
The Siris radio signal began to cut in and out as he neared the cabin. He sighed and switched off the music. It made him twitchy to have the music cutting out every second. He was close to the cabin anyway, only 15 minutes away now. He yawned again and his eyelids drooped heavily. They slowly slid closed as the road stretched out in front of him.
A massive bump woke Aric with a start. His eyes flew open as he approached a sharp curve in the road.
"Fuck!" His teeth gritted as he slammed his foot on the brake. The pickup skidded to a halt, fishtailing slightly on the mist dampened asphalt.
"Oh fuck," he muttered.
His knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and he sucked in a few deep breaths trying to calm his racing heart. He wondered what the huge jolt was that had woken him. If it hadn't been for that he would have gone sailing through the curve in the road and off the side of the mountain.
Glancing in his rear-view mirror he saw an enormous furry lump, glowing red from his taillights.
"Goddammit," he muttered. He carefully reversed his pickup with shaking hands. Once he'd thrown it into park, he pulled on his jacket.
The crisp October air bit at his adrenaline heated face as he climbed out of the cab. He made his way to the back of the pickup and found the biggest wolf he'd ever seen, curled in a crescent shape.
"Oh man," Aric said. Tears sprung to his eyes, which he scraped away with the swipe of a callused hand.
"I'm so sorry, buddy."
He crouched down and studied the wolf, looking for any signs of life. A small trickle of blood ran from its nose, and its mouth hung open, tongue resting on the road, but otherwise it seemed...sort of OK. Aside from being totally knocked out.
The wolf lay on its side, which rose and fell in long slow breaths. Even though he knew he probably shouldn't, Aric reached out and ran a hand over the wolf's fur. It was soft and warm. He could feel the deep thudding of the animal's heart in its chest. He looked back up at the head and found the wolf staring at him.
With a gasp Aric fell back on his ass, scooting away quickly. But the wolf didn't move, just continued with its heavy slow breathing. Aric cautiously stood again, moving closer to the wolf once more. It watched him carefully, the eye following his movements. He drove one hand through his hair and put the other on his hip.
"Shit," he muttered.
This wasn't the first animal that he had mistakenly hit. He'd been making this trip into the mountains since he was a teenager. Hitting a deer or a racoon was something of a rite of passage. He'd always just gently move the body off the road, so it wouldn't get squashed into the pavement. Then he'd leave it for nature to take its course or for road maintenance to come along and scoop it up.
But something felt different to him this time. His brain told him to do what he usually did, carefully move it to the side of the road and leave. But when he thought about doing that his chest tightened, and tears sprung into his eyes again.
"What the fuck?" Aric whispered to himself, and the wolf huffed in response. A low whine wheezed from its throat and that's what clenched it for Aric.
Without a second thought he brought down the tailgate of his pickup then moved behind the huge wolf and scooped it up quickly. It was heavy, absolute dead weight, but that still didn't deter Aric as he grunted under the bulk of the wolf, carefully placing it into the bed of his pickup. He hopped up next to the animal and moved it to the center of the bed, then covered it carefully with an extra drop cloth he had from work.
He smoothed one hand down the head of the wolf, bringing a thumb to gently circle the soft fuzz of its ear. He wasn't sure why he did it, it was just what his hand did like it had a mind of its own. The wolf's eye closed and it sighed heavily.
"Poor thing," Aric muttered.
He stood abruptly and hopped out of the bed. He closed the tailgate securely and inspected the damage to the front of his pickup. There was a substantial dent, but nothing he couldn't fix once he got home. He climbed into the cab with a sigh and drove attentively the rest of the way to the cabin with the window down, cold air blowing across his face.
The pickup bounced along the rutted driveway and Aric winced at the thought of the wolf jostling against the hard metal of the truck bed. He took it much slower than he usually did and eased to a stop as he reached the front of the cabin.
For a second Aric thought about pulling into the garage to keep the wolf warm. But the thought of waking up to a recovered, angry wolf trapped in the garage was enough for him to ditch the idea. Instead, he grabbed armfuls of all the ratty garage towels he could find.
He lowered the tailgate and climbed into the bed. The wolf was still breathing, but its eyes were closed. Aric spread the larger towels into a makeshift bed and tucked them under the sleeping wolf. The smaller towels he tucked under its head and around the paws. He rearranged the drop cloth over the massive frame as thunder rumbled overhead.
Aric looked up at the once clear sky to see clouds rolling in quickly. He frowned and looked down at the wolf. It wouldn't matter how bundled up it was if it got soaked by rain. He jogged back to the garage and found a large blue tarp and some rope. He quickly rigged up a shelter of sorts over the bed of his truck just as the first fat drops of rain started to fall.
He gave the anchoring ropes a little tug to test the sturdiness, nodded, quickly grabbed his overnight duffel, and the small cooler containing his food for the weekend, then jogged to the front door before the rain could soak him.
The cabin was cold and dark. Aric was too exhausted to do anything but grab a quick hot shower and fall into bed with the space heater slowly warming the small bedroom. He'd deal with everything else in the morning.
~~~~
The sun streaming through the bedroom windows and directly into his face woke Aric early the next morning. He glanced at the ticking clock on the bedside table which read 7am. He stretched noisily, grunting and groaning with the soreness that seemed to come with being a middle-aged person. The wolf flashed into his mind, and he covered his eyes with one hand.
It had been so stupid to bring it back here. And did he really make a tent for it in his truck bed. It was a wild animal for fuck's sake. It would have been fine if he'd just left it. He sat up and pulled on some jeans and a sweatshirt before cautiously venturing out to check on the wolf in his truck bed.
