The howling sent chills down her spine. The way the beasts’ cry reverberated against the naked trees made her feel as though it were coming from all around her. That perhaps, there was more than one. What if the entire pack were out? She brushed the fear from her mind, the whole pack rarely went out these days. It would be far easier to get away, if it were just a few.
She moved silently through the trees, slipping over rocks, and gliding through the tall grass. It had been ages since she had been a part of the pack, but the skills came back quickly. Her boots crunched lightly on the dead underbrush beneath her feet. She knew it had been a mistake to go back, to try to see them.
Nothing good ever came of revisiting the past.
There was a hot, heavy snort from behind her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Her blood froze. It had not been as easy as she had thought.
Slowly, she turned. The alpha of her pack was looming over her, his orange eyes glowering at her. A snarl rippled his black lip back over his blood-stained white fangs. Her mind scrambled to think of something, anything to say that wouldn’t get her killed. She held out her hand in a placating manner, hoping to buy herself some time.
Suddenly, there was a flash of white followed by searing pain.
Her hand was gone and she was screaming.
She woke in a cold sweat, her heart racing. It had just been a dream. But in the distance, she could hear wolves howling.
Inktober 2023, Prompt #1: DREAM


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