The Lone Wolf

15, Hunting & A Secret

Anodyne moved close enough to pet Fox's head, smoothing his palm from Fox's forehead through his hair. "You've already made mine better. My only wish is that yours could be better."

Fox didn't know how to feel about the hand petting him. Anodyne only did it once, though, but he moved one of his coils to cover Fox's waist, like a blanket.

"It's marginally better than it was before. I have to be happy with that," Fox told him. "I already know it can't get better."

"Why do you believe that?" Anodyne asked. Fox heaved a sigh, the action a bit more difficult with a heavy bit of snake lying on his stomach.

"Month after month, year after year, I do nothing but struggle. I can't find a home. No one wants me in their home. I'm only here because this pack is trying to keep itself safe. What promise do I have that anything could get better?" Fox responded.

"I had no promise, and yet here I am. Here you are," Anodyne pointed out. "Perhaps you just have to wait until a pleasant surprise comes along."

Fox flushed at being called a pleasant surprise. But maybe Anodyne was right. Maybe all he had to do was keep living each day as it came, and hope that one day an opportunity fell into his lap. Fox had been searching for an opportunity for so long, though, he didn't know how much longer he could wait. He supposed he shouldn't keep complaining, however. He'd been resigned to killing himself before he got captured here. It shouldn't matter if things never got better. If worse came to worst, he could find some way to kill himself here.

Life wasn't all that bad here, anyway, especially in comparison to how bad life had truly gotten for him before. He wondered if he was being whiny or ungrateful. He had a bed and a shower to himself, he had access to food, usually not so great, but it was still food regardless. He didn't have a very strenuous job, and he had three people here who liked him. Four, maybe, if he included Ahren, but the Alpha probably only tolerated him more patiently than the rest.

Fox and Anodyne quietly listened to the music. It changed from one orchestration to another.

"Have you ever thought of killing yourself?" Fox couldn't help but ask.

"I can't deny that the thought hasn't crossed my mind. But I tell myself that I am one of the last of my kind, and killing myself would do my species a disservice. I hope that someday someone will come to take a sample of my semen, or bring in a female, and I can fulfill my duty of ensuring my species' survival," Anodyne said. He moved closer to Fox, adjusting his coils to press in around Fox's body, keeping him snug. His torso came to rest behind Fox's head, and Anodyne cradled him. Fox blinked up at the naga, meeting saddened golden eyes.

"Please don't kill yourself, Fox," he whispered. "I don't want to lose a friend."

~~~

During breakfast the next day, Fox and Star ate side by side as usual. Fox gave her his soggy french toast, and she gave him her crumbled bits of blueberry muffins. Normally it was just the Betas who monitored their mealtimes, but today, just as everyone was finishing, Fox noticed Ahren appear from one of the pathways between the trees.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as the Alpha approached one of the Betas and spoke with him off to the side, quietly enough that Fox could only pick up a few words here and there. He heard Ahren mention his name and Star's, and something about trying something new.

The Beta looked incredulous at a specific thing Ahren said. He looked over at Fox and Star and back at the Alpha, brows furrowed and visage uncertain. Ahren placed a hand on the Beta's shoulder and assured him that they had a plan, and this was an experiment.