Behind Closed Gates [Edited]

Prologue

The grass itched under her coat as she finally shifted around. Her mind was clouded, foreign chemicals swimming her blood, as it finally focused on what was around her. The grass... some part of her warned that it wasn't the same as the one she'd fallen asleep on.

The wolf opened her eyes, an iridescent blue, and surveyed her surroundings with a blink. Her ears pinned back, a whine whistling between her white fangs. She was smart enough to see the painted walls, the plastic boulders, the unburnt lights in the corners putting that stale heat on her back.

Despite the clouded mind, the wolf shot to her feet, fumbling at her weak knees. Her bright blue eyes leapt from wall to wall, the enclosure barely the size of a room. She saw the little trap door in the lower corner, no doubt leading to an outdoor enclosure, but the wolf had panic seizing her mourning heart.

She was trapped. A zoo? Her ears were flat, a low growl echoing through her hoarse throat. The coarse fur at the back of her neck flared up as the wolf hunched down. The rough grass tickled her belly, which was churning with horror.

The wolf, just growing into her form, didn't know much about zoos. She knew about humans... werewolves... vampires... the hierarchy of those supernatural beings, the young wolf knew of those. The contraptions of humanity's animal kingdom? Behind bars and fed minimal food? The wolf did not know of that.

And... she was alone. The wolf had no one with her, no one to help her through this. One iridescent blue eye locked onto the tiny box in the upper corner of the enclosure, the light sheen of the camera visible with her keen eyes. Her growl eased – if she showed her other half, her human half, to the world of the humans then she was putting her entire species at risk.

So the werewolf, the young blue-eyed wolf trapped in the zoo, dimmed the bright glow of her eyes and eased her posture. She could almost picture the humans watching on the other side sighing with relief that she wasn't violent.

But this wolf was. This wolf... she would wait. She would abide by their rules, but she would break free. Even if she was alone, the wolf wouldn't succumb to the gates they had put her behind.

With her easing posture, the young wolf calmed her panicking and mourning heart, and sat back down on the itching grass, holding in her howl. The wolf will run in the woods again – but for now, she waited.