Chapter 3

I didn’t know what Abella was thinking about me, but she was smiling from ear to ear. So it was up to her to wallow in her guilt. But not a cat or a dog, a wolf.

It wasn’t practical to take in a wolf that could even turn into a human. “Besides, with a child, what about my love life? Everyone will think I’m married……! ‘It’s ridiculous that I’m raising him.’

Confused, she steeled herself. It felt like she was abandoning her child, but Abella shook her head and pushed the thought away.

“Sweetheart, can you turn back into a wolf?”

“Ma?”

“Wolf, fur, fluffy wolf, huh?”

I gestured, pawed, and told him to turn into a wolf, but he didn’t seem to understand a word of it, just scratched his little head.

‘You’ll have to turn into a wolf to survive in the mountains…….’ Abella grunted and whimpered, and I roughly wrapped my clothes around her.

Whatever it was, I had a feeling I shouldn’t be this involved with him anymore. “Okay, let’s not worry too much. She’s in human form now, but if we take her to the mountains, she might turn into a wolf on her own.

Trying to think positively, Abella took the child into her arms. She carried him out of the house, hoping that he would turn back into a wolf.

* * *

Abella trudged up the mountain, away from prying eyes, on a path only she knew. The child whimpered in her arms, unaware of where they were going.

I wonder how far they climbed. Deep into the mountains, she reached the spot where she had first spotted the wolf. She paused to catch her breath and looked at the child in her arms, still in human form, not wolf form.

“Now, sweetheart, you can go back. This is where you belong.”

“Ma?”

She gently set the shaking child down on the ground, and Abella stumbled backward.

“No!”

Then, as if sensing something was amiss, the child moved its tiny legs toward her, trying to sneak up on her. She drew a firm line in the sand and shouted, “I’m not your real mother.”

“I’m sorry, but this is where you’re supposed to live, so you can live, huh?” Abella had saved the wolf’s life by bringing him back from the dead. Still, she felt uncomfortable, like she was abandoning a child.

“I’m sorry, I’m not your mother. You were found here.”

She didn’t know whether to explain to the child or to strengthen herself. Abella rambled on and on.

“Turn into a wolf. You’re a wolf, right? Your real mom will be looking for you.” The child’s expression grew sullen as she resolutely pushed me away.

Her bright red eyes followed Abella as she took a step, then two, away from me, as if to tell me not to leave her behind.

She didn’t feel comfortable meeting his eyes any longer, so she quickly looked away and turned around.

“I’m sorry, but you used to live here, so you’ll be fine……!”

With those last words, Abella began to run, leaving the child alone in the mountains as the sun began to set. She didn’t stop, even though her breath was rising to the top of her lungs.

“We were going to send him back to the mountain when he was better. Let’s not get too worked up about it. It’s okay, I did what I was supposed to do.”

She couldn’t figure out why she was feeling so much pain in her chest. But that didn’t mean she could add a wolf child of unknown origin to Abella’s already tight household. It just didn’t make sense.

* * *

By the time Abella reached home, the sun had completely set, and a drop or two of rain had begun to fall. The raindrops, which seemed to be falling in a steady trickle, increased in intensity as the darkness of night fell. There was even thunder and lightning, and it poured down like a hole in the sky.

As Abella stared blankly at the window, her heart pounded as she remembered the child she had left behind in the mountains.

“Did he escape the rain? Did he change back into his wolf form?”

She tried to push the thought out of her head, but it wouldn’t go away. The last time she saw him, he was standing there, unable to follow her because she was adamant, and she couldn’t keep her mind still.

“No, it’s none of your business.”

She used to live there, and Abella had done her part by bringing him in and tending to his wounds. Abella clenched her fists hard, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her heart.

“Just because it bothers you doesn’t mean I can’t do anything for you, right? It’s not like raising a kid is a simple task. You’d think twice before getting a dog or cat, too.

I can’t even get married if I have a child. What kind of man would want to meet a woman with a child?”

Realistic thoughts flashed through her mind, but guilt still weighed her down. The torrential downpour made her feel even more uncomfortable. Abella’s face darkened as the rain grew more intense.

“Should I have sent him to the police?”

Sending him to the police won’t necessarily keep her safe. Abella, who grew up in an orphanage, knew it wasn’t a good place. She heard that some boys from there ended up in a dangerous boys’ army. A child’s safety wasn’t guaranteed in such a situation.

Abella walked around the room, not sure what to do. As she sat on the bed, she saw a big patch of wolf fur on the white blanket. Seeing it made her feel a bit more alive.

She tried to reassure herself, saying, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ She remembered being in the mountains and believed everything would be fine.

To find comfort, Abela wrapped herself in the blankets. The wolf, who usually cuddled with her, was now gone. After just a few weeks together, the absence felt empty and lonely.

The tiny bits of black fur were no longer there, and they had only been together for about a month. There’s a saying that you look like a ghost when you come in and when you leave, and in this case, it seemed true.

Abella’s face turned serious. “Are you sure she’ll be okay? Even though she’s a mountain child, she’s injured and doesn’t have parents.”

“She wasn’t a fully grown wolf; she was just a child,” Abella said, biting her lip and unable to hide her nervousness. She felt like she couldn’t calm down, so she bit down until she tasted blood on the tip of her tongue and then pulled her hand away.

Suddenly, she noticed a bag of chicken from the butcher. It was the meat she had picked up on her way home from work to feed the wolves. When she saw it, her heart sank. “This can’t be right!”

A wolf can’t survive alone in the mountains, hunting without parents! My mind went blank. Leaving the little one alone on the mountain would be like sentencing it to death.

What if she gets wet and succumbs to hypothermia? Even if she doesn’t die, she won’t be able to make it in the wild with such a small body. It was crazy to leave her in the mountains!

I realized that even if I couldn’t take care of her forever, I should at least bring her home, at least until she’s older. Or maybe it would be better to hand her over to the police. With that thought, Abella stood up.

The sun had gone down, and the mountains were now in darkness. Despite the pouring rain and the potential danger, she quickly placed a candle in a glass jar and hurried out of the house.

Fortunately, having traversed the mountains for years, she knew the path well, and even in the night, it was adequately illuminated. Finding her way back to where she had left her child wasn’t too challenging.

She plodded through the heavy downpour, stepping through the muddy ground, squinting her eyes as she looked for her child. However, the constant rain made it hard to locate him.

She called out at the top of her lungs, “Baby, baby, baby,” but her voice was drowned out by the pounding rain. Nevertheless, Abella continued to search through the damp vines of the trees.

But no matter how far she searched, there was no sign of the child.