• Chapter Four •

|E T H A N ' S P O V|

An entire week had passed since that day Ethan had met Liam and Jared who had saved him from almost becoming bear food and then once again after they found him being held captive by an evil tree.

Ever since he had left the pair, who were gracious enough to give him a meal to eat before they went their separate ways, Ethan had finally decided that he was going to learn how to hunt properly so lately, he's been watching other hunters during their hunts so that he could try and imitate their movements and so he could take down some pointers.

From his observation, he came to the conclusion that the main objective to focus on while hunting was to stay low, keep quiet and hunt the weakest or easiest prey.

Ethan had already begun practicing how to hunt on animals like hares and ducks since they were easier to catch and lacked a lot of strength but since they were smaller they weren't as satisfying and fulfilling like a mountain goat or a sheep would be so today Ethan had finally decided he was going to hunt for something bigger than a petty bunny or bird.

Today he was going to hunt for a deer.

He was sort of scared and hesitant at the thought of hunting a deer since this would be his first time hunting an animal bigger than an adult raccoon but the voice in his head was practically forcing Ethan to do it and even called Ethan a wimp.

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'Hurry up would you?' The voice groaned impatiently. 'I want to eat but your slow a*s is taking to long.'

'Can you be a little patient?' Ethan asked in annoyance.

'No, I don't think so.' Ethan just rolled his eyes before continuing his journey towards the smell of deer.

It wasn't long until Ethan reached his destination which was at a small clearing which had deer scattered around.

'I am so pumped up!' Ethan could literally picture the voice jumping around in excitement. 'Let's do this!' The voice cheered loudly making Ethan's ears flattened on top of his head.

'Can you be a little quieter?'

'Is this okay!?' He shouted.

'No, it's not actually but whatever.' Ethan sighed. 'Let just get started already.'

'Okay! Phase One: Stay Low.'

Ethan nodded his head at the command and pressed his body up against the grass covered ground before he begun crawling towards the clueless herd. While doing so, however, he accidentally pressed his paw against a pointy rock which forced a yelp out of him, making a couple of deer snap their heads towards the sound.

'Be quiet Ethan!' The voice shouted anxiously, slightly scared that the deer may run away. 'Don't forget, Phase two: Keep Quiet.'

'Sorry.' Ethan apologized as he licked his paw a little.

He got ready to continue his mission but he had to wait a couple of seconds since there were still a few deer who were on high alert but thankfully they slowly lost interest one by one and got distracted by the things near them. Once Ethan knew no more deer were looking his way he began his move, making sure he didn't hurt his paw on a pointy rock again.

Once Ethan knew he was at a reasonable distance from a small group of deer who were a little further away from the rest of the herd he began observing them. There was a total of four deer, two male's and two female's, who seemed to be nearing their forties or fifties.

Ethan didn't want to disturb the men since they were rather big in size and looked like they could easily trample all over him so he looked away from them and instead turned his attention towards the women. One of the female deer looked lively and energetic while the other seemed weak and tired.

'Phase Three: Hunt The Weakest Or Easiest Prey.' The voice whispered lowly.

Ethan maneuvered himself so that he was in a crouching position before breathing in a breath of air and then releasing it. He shook his behind a little, eyes zoomed in on his target before he sprinted off.

All of the deer looked up at the sudden movement and once they saw Ethan they all scattered and ran into the forest, avoiding Ethan as best as they could. Ethan didn't really care about them he only cared about his prey who was trying to run towards the treeline.

Sadly though, the deer was a lot slower than the rest of the herd which made it easier for Ethan who was able to pounce onto her back with ease before he sunk his teeth into her neck. The deer cried in pain and tried to buck Ethan off of her but Ethan only clenched his teeth harder around her neck and even extended his claws so that they could pierce into her skin.

The poor deer continued her weak attempts at getting Ethan off of her only to be met with defeat because soon enough she collapsed to the ground out of exhaustion with her eyes fluttering shut and just like that she was no longer alive.

'You actually managed to catch one?' The voice asked in shock as Ethan placed the lifeless deer on to the grass.

'I-I think I did. Oh my god, I did!' Ethan cheered as he jumped around happily with his tail wagging like crazy.

'I'm going to be honest here and tell you that I did not see you getting this far.' The voice admitted shamelessly.

'You're so rude.' Ethan sneered.

'I'm rude but honest.'

Ethan only scoffed at the voice's response before he grabbed the deceased deer and dragged it away from the open and into the forest so wouldn't get disturbed while eating. He found a hollow tree log that was big enough for him and his dinner to fit inside of so he didn't hesitate to crawl in.

Ethan began eating his well-deserved dinner quickly knowing that any close by a predator would want to have a taste of what was his. By the time Ethan had finished the sun had already disappeared and was now replaced with the moon which indicated that it was now time for Ethan to head off to bed so rolled onto his back and let out one final belch before allowing himself some shut eye.

---

Three hours had passed since then and Ethan was happily sleeping the night away in his log feeling completely content and carefree when it was rudely interrupted.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ethan couldn't help but jump onto all fours, accidentally hitting his head in the process when he heard the loud sound that was echoing throughout the forest.

'What was that?' Ethan asked himself.

Ethan was deeply confused since the sound didn't sound like it was something made by mother nature but instead it sounded like it was something man-made.

'If it was something man-made that would mean a human would be here but why would a human travel this far into the forest, we're basically in the middle of nowhere?' The voice asked in confusion.

Ethan didn't answer since he didn't know the answer himself so he decided to be a dumba*s and investigate. He started making his way towards the direction where he had heard the sound and soon saw three humans in the clearing where he had caught his first deer, laughing and cheering as one of them held up a dead badger proudly.

The humans were right in the middle of the large clearing so Ethan made his way over, out of curiosity. Once there he hid behind a bush and poked his head up to see what they were doing and even turned his ears towards them to hear what they were talking about.

"Did you set up all the bear traps Dave?" One of the humans asked the other human.

"I sure did, K. I covered 'em up and everything," Dave replied.

"What about you Harold? Did you set up the cages?"

"Yep. Once they're in the cage they're never coming back out." Harold chuckled darkly.

"Perfect." K grinned wickedly.

'Let's leave before they notice us.' The voice advise.

Ethan nodded his head and turned around to leave when he let out a loud shriek when he saw a snake behind him, staring into his brown eyes.

"Hey, what was that?" Ethan heard a human ask.

'D*mn you, you evil snake! You blew my cover!' Ethan growled.

The snake blinked at Ethan a couple of time with no expression on its face before it slithered away into the darkness. Ethan was going to leave as well but before he could make another move a loud bang was heard just as a bullet flew pass Ethan's head, hitting a tree that was in front of him. Ethan flinched in shock before turning his head around to see all three humans holding their guns up and pointing them directly at him.

'Welp. Looks like you're in deep sh-' Before the voice could finish his sentence one of the men shouted.

"Fire!"

Ethan didn't know what that meant but he knew it wasn't anything good so he took off running hearing loud banging coming from the weird machines the humans held.

Thankfully Ethan had eaten beforehand because he could run for hours without stopping so he knew the human wouldn't be able to catch up with him since they were just humans but he was proven wrong when he heard a loud beeping sound coming from behind him. When he turned his head around he saw the three humans in a metal box with four wheels that was catching up with him in seconds.

'Head for the trees!' The voice commanded and Ethan obeyed.

He ran for the treeline and just as he jumped into the trees one of the humans managed to shoot Ethan in the leg which caused Ethan to tumble over. Trying his best to ignore the pain in his leg, Ethan shook away the dizzy feeling in his head before he stood up and continue running into the forest.

Fortunately for Ethan, the humans metal box was far too big to fit in between the trees so the humans were forced to go on foot. They hopped out of their cars as quick as possible before they started chasing after the wolf.

'First, we were running away from bears and now we're running away from humans.' The voice grumbled. 'Can't I get a break?'

'What are you talking about?' Ethan grunted in pain as he hobbled away as fast as he could. 'I'm the one who is doing all the work here, all you do is complain all day.'

'Complaining is my number one job.' The voice stated. 'If I can't complain what is my purpose in life.'

Ethan didn't have the energy to roll his eyes so he simply ignored the voice as he ran in all sorts of direction, not really knowing where he was going but as Ethan continues to run he kept stumbling over his hind leg.

"Why isn't my leg healing and why does it hurt so much?" Ethan groaned.

Usually, when Ethan had a wound it would heal quite quickly but this wound wasn't it was barely healing at all and it felt like someone had poured acid inside his wounded leg and it was slowly eating away at his muscle and skin.

Basically, it hurt like h*ll.

'What is wrong with me?' Ethan grunted in pain and irritation.

'Everything.' The voice jumped in.

'Shut up would you?' Ethan growled.

'Rude.' The voice mumbled.

'I'm rude but honest.' Ethan fired back.

'Hey! Those are my words! You can't use them.' The voice stated.

'Says who?'

'Says me, that's who.' The voice responded.

'Whatever.' Ethan rolled his eyes before he turned his focus on escaping the humans.

He could still hear the human chasing after him but the sounds of their footsteps and banging guns were slowly starting to fade away as Ethan continued to run without slowing down or looking behind him but when he noticed the tree was slowly fading away he slowed down his run into a trot just as he came to a place where there a long road in front of him where tree should've been.

'Oh no. We've been traveling too close to the human's territory no wonder they were in the forest.' Ethan gasped and stumbled backward.

'If we cross the road and make a run for it maybe we'll lose them.' The voice suggested.

Ethan thought for a short second before deciding to agree with the voice in his head. He started to run forwards and headed for the road but before his paws could even touch the road something suddenly sharp clamped into his uninjured hind leg which forced out a loud yelp from him as he fell forward.

Ethan turned his head to look at his hind leg to see that it was being held tightly by a bear trap and that blood was already beginning to seep out of the newly formed wound. He let out a loud whimper of pain, feeling the trap painful burning his insides like the metal object in his other wounded leg.

'Oh, no.' Ethan whimpered in fear since he didn't know what to do next. 'W-We're going to die.' He cried as he dug his muzzle into the dirt to distract himself from the pain in both of his legs.

'No we're not Ethan.' The voice said in determination but you could still hear the uncertainty in his voice. 'Lets just chew off our legs and crawl away.'

'That's a stupid idea.' Ethan whimpered as his body began to tremble.

'I know.' The voice was starting to get worried.

"I think he set off a trap you guys!" One of the humans shouted before three sets of footsteps could be heard running in Ethan's direction.

'Ethan. We gotta move.' The voice insisted.

'I-I can't.' Ethan stuttered. 'I-It hurts to m-much.' He began seeing black dots filling his vision just as the humans arrived.

"What a catch." One of the humans smirked as another pointed a gun straight at Ethan's head.

Ethan closed his eyes in defeat, waiting for the moon goddess to retrieve him and take him to the afterlife when a loud growl could be heard and a wonderful scent filled his nose

Seconds away from passing out, Ethan managed to catch a glimpse of a black colored wolf flying over him and onto the three humans, tearing them apart. He wanted to stay awake to see his savior and to dig his nose into his fur but sadly he began to get drowsy and just as he fell unconscious he was able to catch the voice saying one last thing.

'Mate.'