FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Rabbit and Her Wolf

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothes

The wolf approached the rabbit in the rain, stopping mid-way down the hill just outside a heavily wooded forest. Her words echoing in his ears, "You can always find me here, my love, should you ever need me." He needed her now.

She was staring into the lake at the bottom of the hill, forlorn and silent. Her ears twitched first at the sound of his burdened footfalls, and then her nose. She could smell blood on the air as he drew near, all her fur on end.

Earlier, he had asked her, "Have you ever loved a wolf before?" while holding her in his arms. He'd been a gentle lover, and her heart swelled at the feel of his claws lazily trailing through her fur.

She had grinned, resting her head back against his chest and gazing up into his curious eyes. "I hazard to guess you've never loved a rabbit before."

"Never," he admitted freely. "But you, my little bunny, you seem to like the danger. You flirt with the darkness, like none I've met before would ever dare."

She shook her head, looking off toward the trees, pensively. "No, my wolf, I have never had another wolf. Nor any predatory lover, to be sure. You have made a reckless bun out of this little rabbit."

"Have I, now? I would have guessed it had always been a part of your nature." He nuzzled into her.

"Perhaps I should question my own nature, then."

He touched her cheek, turning her face back up toward him. "Should you?"

She smiled, perhaps a little in spite of herself, and shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not."

She pressed back tighter into his arms, and cuddled close, watching the sun as it slowly dipped lower and lower in the sky, welcoming the twilight with her ear to his heartbeat.

When the moon had risen, they'd departed. She was tired and he had some hunting yet to do. So, he walked her to the lake where she was usually to be found, kissed her little rabbit nose, and left with a promise that he'd be back soon enough.

When she was alone, she stared into the calm water of the lake and sighed. She was in too deep. "How could you do this?" She asked herself. "How could you fall for someone like him?"

Her heart answered back, "Because he thrills you. Because, despite his own inclinations, he would never hurt you. Because you push each other to be more than a wolf and a rabbit."

"But is it true?" She asked her heart, "Can it be true? And if it's true, what am I going to do about my sheep?"

The answer was on her tongue instantaneously. "You have to tell her. You have to choose."

Resolved to finish things the right way, she walked back into the woods in the direction of the little cottage where the wolf's old lover resided, and to the barn in the backyard where her sheep would be sleeping.

The light was on in the cottage, but it was quiet. The air was still.

Approaching the barn, however, she heard them before she gazed through the crack in the barn doors. Soft, pleased moans echoing each other. Her eyes didn't believe what they were seeing. A pale and freckled, red haired woman was lying in the barn with what she had thought to be her sheep. They caressed each other's curves like well-versed lovers.

"Oh, Red," moaned her sheep.

Tears burned a path down her rabbit cheeks, her entire purpose in coming to this spot lost in the flood. She couldn't take her eyes off them.

The wolf could smell his rabbit as she crossed through the woods and to the clearing where the cottage sat. He followed her scent across the field. She came swiftly into view, the light from the barn revealing a trail of tears dampening the fur on her cheeks. His steps hurried toward her until the familiar scent of Red hit his senses and he stopped dead in his tracks.

He wasn't sure he wanted to cross that field. He watched his rabbit slowly step backwards from the barn doors, tearing her eyes away. She turned away from the cottage and sprinted back into the woods. She hadn't seen him. He took a breath and chased after her.

Once out of the clearing, heading in pursuit of his little bunny, he called out to her, "Rabbit? Rabbit, stop!"

She did. She didn't know where she was even heading. She had just needed to get away from there. But his voice cut through the darkness and stopped her in her tracks. Her whole body shuddering. She dropped to her knees and buried her face in her paws, sobbing openly.

He approached her slowly. "Rabbit?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Rabbit, look at me." He coaxed her, kneeling in front of her and reaching out to take her paws into his own. Her hands were trembling. She watched him take a hold of her paws, letting him wrap his own around them. "Breathe," he whispered.

She drew a breath slowly. Then again.

"What did you see?"

Anger flashed in her dark eyes, just a second of it, before the sadness returned. Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head.

He insisted, "Little love, what did you see that made you run like that?"

"Your ex lying with my sheep," she whispered, her eyes still affixed on his paws surrounding her own. She felt so small.

"Sheep?" He asked, a twitch in his fingers. "What do you mean your sheep?"

Fear flashed in her eyes now, followed by a twitch in her little rabbit nose, and she looked up to him. She saw him. "My wolf," she whispered.

His paws dropped hers, "What do you mean, your sheep?" He rose to his feet, looking down at her.

"I was going to tell you." She shook her head, reaching for his hands. "Please."

He shook his head. "No."

"She," the rabbit searched for words, "We, well, I mean, I," she bit her lip, shaking her head. "Why am I crying? I went to tell her goodbye. Why am I crying? Wolf," she stood, stumbling just a little, her limbs still unsteady. "I love you."

"What sheep?" He looked down at her.

"Before you, I loved a sheep." She lowered her eyes, "It all happened so quickly. We were just flirting in the woods, so I didn't think to say anything, and then you and I," she trailed off, "and I fell. I fell so hard for you."

He took a breath. "But you love her?"

She shook her head, "I," she looked down, hurt still deep in her eyes, "I did." She shook her head and reached up to touch his cheeks, to turn his eyes back to her own, but he was staring back through the woods toward the clearing where he now knew his competition lay. Competition that reduced his tiny rabbit to scalding, body trembling tears.

"How dare she," he growled.

He had left her in a rage. A storm swelled in him that she had been unable to quell with words and touches. And now he returned to her, wearing the skin of a familiar sheep.

The woolen body lay limp across his shoulders in tatters, practically unrecognizable. Blood was still dripping down his arms and off his sharp claws. She was not prepared to look at him, and when she hesitantly glimpsed him over her shoulder, glimpsed the remains of the sheep she used to love in pieces, weighing him down, she quickly looked away. Fear, anger, confusion. They all passed through her eyes, and then hatred settled. And tears blossomed anew. And she was trembling, staring back into the waters at her rabbit feet as the rain washed the blood from uphill down passed her toes and into the waters. Her eyes closed, tears trailing.

"You leave my side. While I am reduced to tears, you leave my side, and return to me in the skin of my sheep?" Her voice trembled, but her words did not waver.

"I admit, I left in an uncontrollable rage when I witnessed how deeply she hurt you. I admit, I did not control myself. And my hands are covered in her blood. But I did do this for us. For you. My heart was screaming for you." His tone was one of exhausted defeat. He knew what he'd done. He knew how he was hurting her right now. "I just, we can be together now, without them to harm you. I want it to be just us." He let the wool fall from his shoulders, stumbling down the hill towards her and collapsing in a thud to the wet earth at her feet. He was on his knees before her. A wolf cowing to a rabbit.

Still, she would not face him. He gently touched the back of her ankle, petting her fur cautiously. She drew a breath.

"And what of Red?"

"What of her?" He looked up at the back of her head, still turned away. Red hadn't even crossed his mind. He laughed sourly, "She's probably still cowering in that god-forsaken barn."

"Do you love Red, Wolf?"

He had to feel the question, it was so far from his mind. There was nothing there, nothing in the words love and Red but a past he did not want to confront any longer.

"Well?" She demanded, turning her head and opening her eyes to stare down at her wolf's down-turned head. His ears lowered when she raised her voice.

"I do not."

"Does she live?" The rabbit squeaked quietly through her tears. "Does she live while my sheep had to die?"

He looked up at her, a quiver in his facial muscles. There were those words again, those possessives. Her Sheep. He took a breath and sighed. "I did this for you, for all those tears you shed. I left Red to be alone, completely and utterly alone, with neither myself nor her sheep to comfort her for their actions. This is deserved, is it not? I don't care for her anymore, Rabbit. There's only you. And she deserves all the suffering one can bestow upon her. And that sheep, she can no longer hurt anyone."

"Don't you see? You killed our sheep, hers and mine. Regardless of her own actions. You make us both suffer, here. How is that loving me? I told you-" her voice cracked, "I told you I was going to break it off with her. You didn't let me choose. Wolf, I-" she shook her head, her voice lost in her throat, swollen with tears.

The rabbit's eyes traveled to the woolen husk behind him, and a tremor ran through her skin, all her hair on end. Tears still flowing.

"Bunnikins?" He implored her. He tried to reach her cheek with his paw, to turn her eyes away from what he'd done and back toward him. To remind her that he was still here. But she stood defiantly staring at what he'd done, ignoring his touches with all but her fur, which was still on end.

"I can't." She whispered, finally. "I loved her, Wolf." Her eyes found his, tears he caused now streaking those sweet, furry cheeks. "I didn't want to. Not after my heart found you, but I did. I loved that sheep. I loved her at least enough to want her to live, even if she broke my heart. And you," she shook her head and didn't stop shaking her head, only silence escaping her lips, followed by more sobbing.

He lowered and shook his own head, "I did this for us." He reaffirmed. A touch of anger in the words as he repeated them, seeking her eyes with his own and searching them for some relief, "I did this for us, Rabbit. For you. So you didn't have to confront the heartbreak she caused you. So that Red could hurt for her own involvement in your pain, in this pain. And so that," he struggled, gesturing at the bloody wool, "That creature over there, with no remorse for playing either side, so that she could not be allowed another chance to wedge her way into this broken triangle. How you could ever love a lowly barn sheep like her," he scoffed, "It's beyond me."

He stood and took her paws into his, looking down into her eyes. She tried to pull from his grasp, but it only tightened on her paws. She felt his claws on her fur. He resisted digging into her skin. He could smell her fear, and her fear made him hungry. Her fear reminded him of the first night they met, the first time she'd slipped away from him.

"Let me go, Wolf." She looked into his eyes, and her composure fell. The strong, playful Rabbit he loved so much gave into her fear, and she squeaked at him, "Please just let me go."

He did. He drew in a trembling breath, and backed a few steps away. He looked down at his own hands, he felt the hunger in his stomach and the anger at her not understanding rise, and the fear of his losing her began to overwhelm him. He never meant to frighten her. Ever since that first time she'd trusted him to touch her, he'd promised never to scare her again. And yet here she was, trembling in front of him. Curiously, not fleeing, even though she had all the opportunity in the world to as he fell again to his knees before her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, lowering his head and his ears, angry tears streaking his own cheeks, washed away towards her feet in the pouring rain.

She watched the rain take his tears to her, and slowed her breathing. Her heart ached, and part of her wished he'd just swallow her too and end them both. She fell to her own knees before him, her arms draped around his shoulders, her head bowed in sadness, and she just cried. She couldn't hate him, but how could she love him now? They were doomed. It had always been doomed. How could a Wolf love a Rabbit, and a Rabbit love a Wolf? How could this end any other way than in pain and death?

"I just, I wanted you for myself, Rabbit. I just wanted all of your heart. I couldn't bare to see you cry. And your sheep, she said such hurtful things. She didn't care, Rabbit. She didn't-" He shook his head, "and I was already so mad. I was so blind with rage, the throbbing in my head, I didn't even know what I'd done until it was over."

She knew. She believed him. But she also knew that part of her would never recover from this. Not entirely. Not in the way he needed her to. "I don't think I can forgive you, Wolf. It should not have happened like this." Her voice was quiet, resigned, and so very sad. "It doesn't matter if she didn't love me. I hurt her as much as she hurt me. She never knew. I can't. It should not have ended like this."

"By the time I was done, I'm certain she knew." He whispered.

She looked at him, her tears stemmed, but her sadness even deeper than before. She was broken. He had broken her worse than her sheep ever could. "This is all my fault. I killed her. I can't forgive you. I love you Wolf, but how can I forgive you? How can I forgive myself?"