Blackfoot Forest The Strangest Thing

Eyes dilated wider as he arose from the creek, an imposing ashen shape more wraith than wolf. She cowed before him, stare cast to the ground in submission, the way it would for a pack alpha demanding her compliance.

“I was enjoying it,” a quick hiss, then a flinch at her own folly. In view now was the scale of his paws, tipped with well-honed claws. She braced.