Chapter 14 - Feeding Frenzy

-H-

    My throat tightened as I asked the question that I'd been dreading, waiting for an answer. My eyes met those golden, bestial ones and I held my breath a bit. His ears slowly laid back as he tilted his head, his shoulders giving an unsure, slight shrug. 

    "Well.. I guess there's only one way to find out. I think I have some chicken in the fridge. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you are a meat kinda guy.."

    My throat tightened once more, getting a little choked up even as I tried to make a little joke. I well knew what the very last thing he had eaten was. I didn't want to mention it, but in the shower he'd still had her blood on his muzzle. I'd cleaned it off and tried to move on, but now I was actually going to have to feed him.

    We made our way downstairs, the beast following close behind, not letting go.. it was like we were handcuffed together. We were both prisoners.. Hopefully it wouldn't be as grim as that made it seem. Swinging the fridge open I felt his big muzzle push right over my shoulders. He started leaning his neck and chin on me and pushing up along my back, as that nose began to sniff away at the food inside. 

    I gave his jaw a light tap, "Hey bud. Back it up.." 

    A bit of rummaging later and I laid out what I could from my fridge and freezer alike. We had meat all over the counter. Half of them were frozen, but pre-cooked things. Breaded chicken tenders, some frozen pork, some fresh cuts of raw chicken breasts, some bacon.

    Steamy breaths washed across my ear and neck again, once more he was hovering his face right over my shoulder. 

    "Agh!... Hey, you're drooling! Stooop!" I made a face and pleaded with him as a glob of wolf drool fell across my shoulder. 

    I shunted him a bit with my elbow but he was solid muscle.. He did not budge. He stepped back and wiped his drooly jowls after I stared at him however. 

    "Alright.. I guess let's just defrost and cook the frozen shit and see what you like. Want to try some raw chicken?"

    I gave him one of the big chicken breasts while most of the other stuff defrosted and cooked all at once in what was little better than a meat pile in the oven, spaced out of course. I never claimed to be a chef.. I just needed to find out what he would eat. He tore through the raw chicken in little more than a bite.. and then tore through the rest, panting and growling hungrily for more. Hunger and patience didn't mesh well, but the chicken was at least a good snack while we waited for the rest.

    By the time they had finished heating, the wolf was ravenous. Hunger brought out this look in his eyes that scared me a little to be honest. How far could I let his hunger go before he stopped listening to me.. or started hurting me or others. He didn't seem to care for anything cooked, smacking his chops over and over loudly while he forced it down like they were too dry. It didn't satisfy him, I could tell. 

    "Okay.. if you want to eat you're going to need to go back inside me and wait so I can head to the store and spend a fortune on meat.." I groaned and my wallet groaned right along with me in my pocket.. but what choice did I have?

    He listened to me, I was glad he did.. I had no backup plan for any of this if it didn't work. What if it wasn't enough? My mind raced as I sped to the butcher shop in town. What if he needed more than I could offer? What if the cuts of dead meat wasn't enough.. What if he needed live prey? Would I have to take up hunting? I had gone shooting before at a range but.. shooting a living, breathing deer? That was never something that appealed to me but.. what if that was what it took?

    The meat market was mostly quiet. I went in and pulled what cash I had out to bring to the counter. "So.. we are doing a big barbeque and I gotta feed as many people as I can with.. this."

    I little more than dumped the bills out onto the counter. "We don't need burgers or whatever.. but pork or venison or beef or whatever you have that I can get in bulk for the cheapest.. these people really aren't picky but they are hungry."

    The store owner stared at me, lifting a brow and not really seeming to buy my lie, but luckily he also just didn't seem to care. God I love people that just don't care sometimes! He gathered up some large cuts of pork for me, chuck and big rump roast, I just nodded along with whatever he was going to give me.

    I left myself some gas money, but I was carrying home a good 20 pounds of meat. Surely that had to be enough right? It had to be. Getting the bags inside the door and I to the counter I began to pull the raw cuts out, spreading them out on the granite countertop and looking over the meal. Alright big guy.. time to come out and feast.. I gulped and tried to focus again, trying to contact him. Let him know I wanted him to come back out. He wasted no time.. in fact it scared me a bit the way he tore out of me. I didn't realize how fast he could leave me when he wanted but it was so sudden, rough even as his furred flesh tugged and pulled harshly at my own this time. It was like tearing off a band-aid all over the front of my body..

    The wolf snarled as he came out, already drooling and hungry. I tried to back away from him, give him space but he flashed me a look and held onto me tight, before turning back and sniffing over all the meat. Then he began to tear into it. I was both mesmerized and horrified at the sight. It was meat, it was food, just like I'd eat except.. you know, raw. But the way he shredded and ate everything so ravenously and seemed to lose himself to his hunger. The calm and frankly patient demeanor he had presented himself with to me so many times was peeled back and his true nature underneath was exposed.

    He devoured about half of what I had gotten, panting and full it seemed.. but he gave me a look like he wasn't entirely satisfied. Those predatory eyes stared deep into mine, before he nodded at my hand. My bandaged hand. I didn't understand, but I lifted my hand for him, looking back at the creature in confusion. 

    "What?.." He sniffed at the bandage where a little bit of blood was and my heart sunk once more. "Oh.. blood?"

    He nodded slowly, a rumbling little growl vibrating in his throat. "What... it wasn't bloody enough? It was raw and fresh..." 

    He licked his lips and looked back at the meat, before his clawed paw squeezed at my arm. I was trying to understand. "It filled you up at least though.. right?" 

    Another soft but reluctant nod. "But.. it wasn't what you really wanted was it.." This time he let out a slightly sad sounding whine from his throat. Shit.

    He wanted to kill and eat living meat. He wanted blood. He wanted hot, beating hearts. He seemed to be able to be sated with raw meat but.. it seemed like it might be the equivalent of me being able to survive on nothing but nutrient paste or something. Technically yes, but satisfying.. no. We might have to figure out a way to occasionally supplement the steadier, easier meal with a much harder prospect of live kills. My stomach turned.. I don't know how I was going to be able to do all this. How long could I keep feeding him from the butcher shop before he grew angry and restless and forced himself out to get what he truly craved? He had come out so suddenly this time.. what if he saw an opportunity for a meal and tore out of me to devour something.. or someone?

    We had gotten almost comfortable together, I thought I was getting a grasp on him, on this whole situation. It was almost.. normal feeling for a moment, like something I could do. Something I could handle, but then these doubts and concerns flooded back in full. At least for the time being, for today, he seemed satiated. Plus I still had more meat for tomorrow.. or whenever he needed to feed next. Shit, how often would he have to feed? I couldn't buy 10 pounds of meat a day could I? More difficult logistics of making this work.

    I realized I had been standing there lost in my own thoughts for a few minutes now with the wolf just.. staring at me and waiting. So, I offered him a smile like there was nothing to worry about. The smile was a lie, but we couldn't deal with the truth right now. He helped me clean up the remaining meat, once he observed me sliding everything into containers. He actually seemed.. very intelligent, the way he watched everything I did, the way he studied me. It felt like he was a sponge, learning everything he could. Maybe that was promising.. It would be like training a dog that could understand my language somehow. Was that demeaning to think? Was that degrading to compare him to a pet?