I Don't Need Help (Isabelle)

[Kiba]

This was a bad idea. Kiba knew that it was a risky move to come out of hiding in broad daylight but he didn't have much of a choice. He was starving. Starvation, the common curse Kiba faced whenever he left the safety of the forest to venture into the dangers of human territory. For a time he thought he might never have to deal with it again when he had found a place to make his home in the forest. He had found the perfect place to hide away while having plenty of access to big game to fill his stomach. But two many run ins with other supernaturals during new moon nights had forced the white wolf to flee. He didn't like it but he had to give up on the forest. Just like the many times before Kiba was forced to leave everything behind and start a new life. But in order for him to start a new life he needed to find a safe place. The only way he could do that was to go through human territory. After a few days of traveling Kiba found his way into a smaller portion of human territory. It looked like a small town, more quiet and peaceful than the city, but still just as dangerous.

Kiba had been cautious at first when he first entered the town. He had found places to hid in for the day and only came out at night to continue on his journey and feed. But as the hunger grew it was getting harder for him to stick to night travels. He had to find some food if he wanted to keep going. So he left his current sanctuary to look for something. It was not going well, he couldn't even catch a single squirrel to hold him over. Eventually he started going through trash. He hated having to live off of human scraps but it was the only thing he had left to fill his stomach. At least there was a lot of trash lying around. It didn't take him long to find a trash can to knock over and rummage through its goods for what little scraps of meat that might be left. Then suddenly everything went to hell. Kiba had made a bit of noise when he knocked over the trash can. At the time the wolf didn't think much of it. The street he had wandered into was pretty empty, which was a good sign that most of the humans that lived in the area were probably not around. Making some noise would not be an issue.

But someone did hear and came out to see. The moment they saw him they freaked out, there was a shout and the wolf turned to flee. He didn't even see the gun the human pulled out but he heard the first shot. Kiba bolted as fast as he could out of the area but he wasn't fast enough to avoid the second shot. There was another loud bang and a sudden burst of pain. The wolf yelped and nearly fell over. He tried to keep going as fast as his legs could carry him but his injuries were too great for him to go far. The white wolf turned and ran around the back of the houses for cover before he stopped moving to assess the damage. “Damn it.” the wolf growled as he looked over his right leg. The damn human had shot him in the hind leg as he had tried to flee.

The wound did not look too good either. It was bleeding badly and it hurt more than he would like to admit. Kiba whimpered when he tried to put pressure on his leg. It was going to be impossible for him to move with his leg like this. To make matters worse he could feel the bullet still lodged inside. Kiba leaned against a nearby wooden fence for a moment. He needed to act fast if he had any hope of making it out of here alive. He would have to pull the bullet out somehow. Leaving the damn thing in his leg could cause serious problems in the long run as he healed. After that he would have to somehow drag himself to a safe place to lay low for the day. Kiba sighed and braced himself before he sunk his fangs into his leg to try and rip the bullet out. Hopefully the damn thing had not buried itself so deep into his flesh that he could still get to it.

[Deleted]

Izzy was sleeping in as late as she could, she was trying to sleep off last night. Staying up all night can cause some really big problems but at least where she worked they understood. It was late when she was woken from her sleep by a loud gunshot. She jumped from the sound of another shot and ended up sitting up. "Who in the world would shoot a gun in town?" She mused softly to herself.

Walking outside she looked around for the source of the shot. She saw someone trembling and holding a small gun.It was one of her neighbors and she looked at him hard. "What do you think your doing?" She asked keeping her glare. She was developing a headache, a side effect of what happened last night.

"S-sorry, I saw a wolf! It was so big!" He said as he looked at her.

"A wolf?" She sniffed the air, looking for a scent and what she caught was the scent of the wolf she saw not to long ago. The opposite of a werewolf. "Which way did it go? Do you know?" She asked, even though she could follow the scent easy enough.

"No, why do you want to know?" He asked giving her a confused look.

"Because, unlike idiots like you, I care what happens to wolves and other animals that wonder into human areas. Unlike you I don't just shoot them," She said before turning away and walking off, following the trail of blood along with the scent. What the hell was that guy thinking!?

As the smell got stronger she looked up, eventually seeing the wolf from a couple weeks ago. She knew it was him and as she walked forward she wordlessly looked down at him. She winced as she saw him bite the bullet wound to try and get the thing out, at this rate he would do more harm than good.

[Kiba]

This was bad, very bad. Kiba didn't intend for this to happen. All he wanted was to help sate the growing hunger that was plaguing him since he entered human territory. He knew the risks of doing what he did in the day time but he had tried to be careful...and he ended up getting shot because of it. Damn that human and his fucking weapon! The gunshot had really done a number on his body. Kiba had been shot at a few times in the past, but most shots he had managed to avoid. The few that he didn't were nothing more than a light grazing against his flesh. They stung but they were easy to recover from. But this...this one crippled him. He could barely walk let alone run once the bullet entered his leg. The injury forced the white wolf to come to a screeching halt. It was a good thing that he had managed to drag himself out of sight of his attacker before he was forced to stop moving. As bad as staying in this place was he needed to rest and access the damage done.

What he saw did not help his mood. There was so much blood already, and that was with the bullet still buried into his flesh slowing the blood flow. The wound looked pretty bad and he knew that if he had a chance to recover from it at all he would have to pull the bullet out somehow. It would cause him to bleed out more but if he left the bullet in his leg it would never heal right. He would be stuck with a permanent limp. That was like a death sentence for a lone hunter like him. A permanent limp meant he would be slower than the prey he needed to catch in order to survive. If he couldn't hunt at all then he would eventually starve to death. Risk bleeding out now, or slowly starve to death later. Those were his only options. Kiba didn't even need to think twice about his decision before he sunk his fangs into his leg. He would take a quick death over a slow one any day. At least this one still had a chance of him living if he could pull it off.

It was a pretty big 'if'. In theory it was a simple plan but it was harder to pull off than he would have liked. Kiba let out another yelp of pain as he forced himself to open the already serious wound. He had braced himself for the pain that he knew was coming but that didn't help him handle it in the end. It was agonizing just trying to do this. To make matters worse the bullet had sunk in deeper than he thought. Try as he might he couldn't get the thing out like this. He needed to get out of here and figure some way to properly tend to this wound before it got worse. Kiba slowly stood back up, favoring his injured leg he was about to limp off somewhere else when he noticed that he was being watched. His body tensed at the sight of the human female. She wasn't the same one who had shot him but her presence wasn't a good sign. Kiba bared his fangs and growled at her. He might be injured but he was still capable of instilling fear in others. So long as she didn't have a gun to shoot him like the other human did he could scare her off so he could make his escape. If not he would have to fight her off. The odds wouldn't be in his favor but he didn't have much of a choice. He was trapped, he could barely run as it was and she was blocking his only exit. One of them had to leave, and if she was going to get in his way he would have to make her leave.

[Deleted]

Izzy held up her hands showing she was unarmed. Come on and stop being an idiot she thought as she looked at him and knelt down. "Just know I didn't mean to run into you again, that injury looks pretty serious though," She said with a half smile, why was fate yet again throwing this stubborn wolf at her. She couldn't figure it out but this was very obviously the same wolf. If he would just get her scent he would know who it was, if not by her words. Of course he probably wouldn't be happy anyway.

Honestly she wasn't thrilled to run into this white wolf but if she didn't help he would more likely end up dead than if she did. She didn't want his death on her hands if she could help it. She took a deep breath, if he attacked she would have to shift and she didn't know which form would come out of the panicked mix. He was in no condition to fight in her eyes and she really didn't want to hurt him further, in the end she would just have to watch and see what he would do.

[Kiba]

Kiba knew that he was in trouble the moment that this human came into the picture. He was afraid that this might happen. Since he couldn't move very well he didn't get too far away from his attacker. There was nothing stopping the human from chasing him down and finishing the job if he wanted to. He had the advantage, he had the weapon and use of both of his legs. There was little that Kiba could do to stop him, the only thing he could do was hope that the human would be satisfied enough that he fled. But hope didn't mean anything. Hope was merely a dream or wishful thinking of the desperate. It didn't mean anything. Hope wouldn't save him from his fate. There was at least some kind of light at the end of this tunnel though. Though a human did show up it wasn't the same one that had shot him. It was someone else, a female. She was an unknown, she didn't have a weapon on her that he could see and if she did have one she hadn't drawn it right away.

She was still a threat but maybe it was one he could deal with. Kiba bared his fangs and growled at the new human. He had to scare her off if he wanted to get away in time to recover. The paranoia and fear of the situation made him miss one very important factor, he knew this human. He didn't realize it at first until she came closer to him. The male tensed as she knelt down over him, pressing himself closer against the wooden fence as he instinctively tried to get away from her. That was when he caught her scent. Kiba's bright blue eyes widen in shock as her scent filled his nose. Could it be? Was this the werewolf he had met back in the woods? The one that was the main reason he had forced himself to leave the safety of the forest to move elsewhere? Another growl rose out of him when he realized who he was dealing with.

“Go away.” the wolf snarled at her. Why did he have to meet her now of all times? Kiba had tried so hard just to avoid seeing her again, he had left his den just to get away from her. And now here he was standing before her again once again in another vulnerable state. He was not happy to see her here, and from the sounds of it neither was she. He growled again when she claimed she didn't mean to run into him like this. Sure she didn't. This coincidence was all too convenient to feel to be true. He wasn't buying it. He glared up at the werewolf when she talked about his injury. “Its fine, I am fine.” he snarled back. It was an obvious lie and she would no doubt call him out on that. But he didn't care. All he wanted was to be left alone so he could care for himself. There was no way that he would openly admit his own weakness to this female no matter how true it was.

[Deleted]

"One, though I'm not exactly happy to run into your stubborn self, I don't want you dead. So, I'm not leaving you alone," She said with a hard look at the wolf. She didn't think it was best to leave him by himself anyway, he was skin and bones on top of the bullet wound and now bite mark.

"Really? Your fine? Then you don't have a bullet lodged in your hip that you were going to rip a bigger hole in your flank to get out? You have had enough to eat? And your not starving and in human territory where I live?" She said, every question being rhetorical and not needing an answer, obviously the answer to all of them was no. This wolf was a bigger idiot than she previously thought. This wolf obviously was stubborn and to prideful to eve ask for help, even if he needed it.

[Kiba]

Life was a strange, cruel, and twisted thing. Kiba had left the safety of his territory in the forest just to escape any more potential trouble he would run into from nosy people like the werewolf that had bothered him. Only to have himself get into a bigger mess than he intended too, and being forced to deal with the very same werewolf that made him leave in the first place. What a cruel twist of fate. It seemed like he was never going to rid himself of this troublesome female. It would be even harder now for him to get away from her now in his current state. It had been bad enough the first time when he had been stuck in his human form. He was weak then but at least he could move and might have been able to put up some kind of fight if things had come down to it. But this? This moment was worse. The injury he had suffered gave him a tougher time just trying to walk than the pain from his forced transformation had given him that night.

This wasn't going to be easy. That didn't stop him from telling her to get lost. He might not be able to fight but he was not going to admit that weakness in front of a potential threat. His demand fell on death ears. Just like before this werewolf just dismissed his words and said she didn't want to leave him in the state that he was in. Of course she wouldn't leave so easily. Still Kiba tried to play the tough wolf, lying through his teeth about being fine on his own. Was it any surprise that she called him out on that? Of course it wasn't. It didn't matter how much he thought that he could handle this himself. It was only natural that he only relied on himself to deal with his problems. But deep down inside he knew that he was in trouble here. But he wouldn't admit it it. He couldn't admit it.

“Yes I'm fine” Kiba snarled back. “This isn't the first time I have been shot at. I can deal with this by myself so go.” Forcing himself to put his problem leg down Kiba tried to limp past her to prove to her, and maybe even himself that he was tougher than this damn female thought he was but he barely took two steps before the pain and sudden dizziness overwhelmed him and he fell down. This was harder than he wanted it to be. All this time that he had wasted talking to this female was more time he stood out in the open bleeding out. He needed to get to a safer place before it was too late. With a small whimper Kiba tried to pull himself back on his feet so he could move past the werewolf before he passed out.

[Deleted]

Of course the male would try to say that he was fine when he very obviously wasn't. She wasn't believing him for a moment. She just glared at the wolf as he tried to say yet again that he was fine. She just rolled her eyes, if he could get up and walk normally maybe she would just let him go but as it was that wasn't happening.

"Yeah right, and I'm stupid," She said sarcastically under her breath. "You may have been shot at before but did the bullet ever penetrate your skin and get stuck inside you?" She asked, almost knowing the answer was no. She couldn't be sure on that one but she had a good idea that it wasn't a yes answer. She sighed as he took two steps before falling to the ground again, he was almost to weak to move. If he hadn't been skin and bones he probably would have been able to just go on. As it was she was going to have to wait for him to pass out and then take him into her home to get the bullet out and hope it wasn't to late. Any other way and he would probably bite her.

[Kiba]

The longer Kiba stood there the weaker he started to feel. With all the blood pooling out of him it was amazing that he could still remain conscious at all. It was by sheer stubbornness that he was still in the waking world. If there was one good thing about the white wolf's stubborness it was this. But no amount of stubbornness could keep him alive for long. There was only so much stress, pain, hunger, and blood loss he could take before it completely overwhelmed him, and he was getting dangerously close to that. It was time for him to go and he knew it. The only problem was he needed to somehow get past the werewolf. How was he going to do that? Whenever Kiba told this female to leave him alone she did the opposite. Had he not been in his current condition her presence would have been little more than an annoyance like it had been in the past. But now she was the only thing blocking his way, and he had even less means now to protect himself from her if she decided to keep him here by force.

He didn't know how he could beat her if he needed to so for the moment he had to settle with talking. As usual he tried to play off his injuries instead of admitting his weakness. His words didn't match his actions so of course the female didn't believe him. She didn't hesitate to call him out on his lies and berate him for acting like it was nothing. He couldn't help but wince a bit when she asked him how often he got seriously shot like this. They both knew the answer to that. This never happened before. Kiba had learned quickly during his life on the run how dangerous humans were and took steps to avoid them as much as possible. The amount of times he had been shot at before this naturally was small, and he had been fortunate enough to not get seriously injured the few times it did. He had a few close calls but even those times he never had a bullet stuck inside of him. Now that he did he didn't know how to get it out. Even that fact was blatantly apparent.

But what could he do? He had got shot so he had to deal with the aftermath. The large wolf grumbled under his breath but didn't give the werewolf any response. He was done talking. What he needed to do now was leave so he tried to push himself to do that. He didn't get too far before his body gave out on him. Kiba couldn't walk past the werewolf before he collapsed to the ground. He tried to push himself back up but the moment he lifted himself up another wave of dizziness forced him back down again. He couldn't get up. He wanted so desperately to get up but he just couldn't do it. What little strength he had left was rapidly leaving him. Kiba whined as he made one last attempt to crawl forward before everything went dark.

[Deleted]

As soon as the male wolf was out after whining she set to work, thankfully they were almost right behind her house. She sighed as she picked up as much of the male as she could and drug him toward the house. Once in the living room she placed the male with his injured side up and set to work.

First she tried something that she hadn't tried before and that was controlling the change enough to give herself the claws of her anthro form. It worked but she was in pain the whole time, she did her best not to wince as she dug the bullet out from the male's flank. She decided to only use that in emergencies because it hurt like hell.

Next she ran out of the room to find some antiseptic stuff to pore over the wound to clean it along with some bandages so she could just stay in the room while she worked. She knew the male was vulnerable and she didn't want any more harm to come to the poor guy.

Finally, she bandaged the wound as well as she could, that would keep dirt and everything else out. She had done all she could, it was up to the wolf's body to heal it's self. She did however go find some meat to give to the male once he woke up. She doubted that he liked it cooked she'd just have to make sure it wasn't frozen or anything like that. After making sure she could give it to him as soon as possible after he woke up without leaving it out she layed down on the couch to make sure he had someone at least somewhat watching him even if she dozed off as she was waiting on him to wake up.

[Kiba]

Kiba felt he had plunged into a world of darkness. He had lost all sense of time and feeling. The longer he drifted in this cold black world the less he became aware of his body. What had happened to him? Had he died? He could barely feel anything or think straight anymore. Perhaps he really had died. What a pathetic end. Kiba had fought so hard for so long just to keep breathing, even when he felt he had little reason to keep going, and all of that was for nothing. In the end he was done in by some human all over scraps of food that the damn human didn't even want. It wasn't fair. Life had never been kind to Kiba but to die like this just wasn't right. He couldn't end things like this. The wolf struggled to fight against the darkness, as he struggled the feeling of his physical body returned. It started off as a dull ache at first but gradually the feeling grew. Then came the pain. I guess I am alive after all he thought. There wouldn't be so much pain if he really did die.

Kiba's eyes finally slid open. He let out a soft groan as he lifted his head up to assess his situation. What had happened to him? He tried to sit up and winced the second he tried to move his injured leg. Kiba turned his head to look over the injury. Strange, he didn't remember getting the bullet wound bandaged up. There was no way he could bandage it up on his own. Someone must have done it. If someone else was responsible for this did that mean...Kiba turned his attention towards his surroundings. Brilliant blue eyes scanned over the living room in confusion as flashes of the previous events flooded his mind. This was not the place he had last been in. The last thing he remembered was being cornered around some backyard by that werewolf in human form.

Speaking of the werewolf, it didn't take him long to find the female laying on the couch near him. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. He must have passed out sometime during their confrontation. While he had passed out she must've taken him to her den and bandaged him up. But why? He couldn't understand why she had gone that far for him. Kiba had snapped at her on more than one occasion, he had given her more reasons to hate him than like him. So why would she do this? Did she plan to do something worse to him later? Or did she want something from him? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Luckily for him she looked to be asleep, there was a chance that he could slip out of here before she woke up. Kiba tried to get back up on his feet but he didn't even have the energy to sit up. He might be alive but he had lost too much blood and energy to be able to move. The most he could do was crawl further away from the female and keep his eyes on her in case she woke up and tried to do something to him.

[Deleted]

Izzy was a somewhat light sleeper, even after a full moon and especially if she was taking care of someone else. She stretched as she heard the male move and looked around the room. Memories from earlier became more and more clear as the fog of sleep cleared from her mind and eyes.

"Hey, glad to see your alive," She said with a kind smile as she stood up. "I'll go get something for you to eat, I'll be right back," She said with a stifled yawn as she began to walk out of the room. She was still planning to be kind, yes the male has snapped at her but she understood that he hadn't had the best life. She walked over to where she had the food stored and retrieved it, putting it in a bowl so that it wouldn't get all over her floor. She sat it down as close to the male as she dared get, which was pretty close in his weakened state, then retreated to the couch.

[Kiba]

As Kiba grew more aware of his situation the more paranoid he started to become. This wasn't where he remembered being last. This had to be the werewolf's lair. Looking around it was hard to tell that someone that was only partially human lived here. Kiba had not been inside many human homes by choice but he had been in enough to know how they liked to keep their homes. There was nothing special about this den than any other human den. As far as he could see she didn't have any weapons laid out to use against him, or anything that she could use to restrain him if she wanted to. She probably would have used them already if she did. It was amazing that she didn't at least tried to tie him up before she had fallen asleep. Though did she really needed to do so when he was in his current state? Kiba could hardly move on his own as he was now. He couldn't escape if he tried and she would know that.

He had to be careful. She might have saved his life but he didn't know why she had done it. There were plenty of reasons that someone would want to keep him alive while still meaning him harm. He had been held captive before by some human that turned him into what he was now. What was to stop her from doing something to him to? Kiba shied away from the humanoid, keeping a close eye on her as she began to stir. For a moment their eyes met. Silence had fallen between them before the woman smiled. He didn't return the female's cheerful demeanor. He remained silent, there was no growling, or snarling, not even a whimper. He just laid where he was watching her with eyes filled with confusion and suspicion. Whether she took offense to that or not he couldn't say. She got up and left, promising to come back with food. Kiba watched her go unsure about what to think about all of this.

This was definitely strange. Out of all the possible scenarios he could think of when dealing with this werewolf the situation now was the last thing he had expected. He never thought that he would be in a position that he would need her care, or that she would even give it to him. Was he wrong about her? Doubt started to fill his mind but he tried to brush it off. Maybe he was wrong about her but he couldn't just make assumptions without proof. He needed to see for himself what this female was up to before he made his judgment. No matter what he decided the moment that he had the strength to move he would leave. While Kiba was debating what was going on the werewolf returned with food. Kiba watched her as she approached. He tried to shuffle away from her once she started getting too close but the moment he smelled the meat he stopped. He should have been weary of the food she was giving him. It could have been poisoned or laced with something to keep him subdued. But the moment that the scent wafted over him his stomach growled. He couldn't help it. He was so damn hungry that he didn't even hesitate to take a bite.

[Deleted]

Of course the food was free of anything but what naturally came in it, she had made sure to leave it raw for this reason. The male may not trust her but she was still going to offer everything she could to help him get better. Her home was his, at least till he could stand without limping and hunt his own food even longer if he wanted it.

"I have a feeling this will be extremely one sided but I meant what I said right before we parted last time, every offer I made, nonthreatening I mean, was completely true," She said as she watched the wolf, he was definitely starving. "By the way, I never got your name, if you care to give it. Mine's Isabelle, Izzy for short," She said kindly, at least the wolf had her actual name now. She was keeping her face calm and kind, she wasn't going to force this wolf to do anything he didn't want to.

[Kiba]

As suspicious as Kiba was of this female the second he caught the scent of food his normally cautious nature wavered. Now that he was more awake and aware of his surroundings he could feel the emptiness of his stomach once more. He was starving. He had been so hungry earlier that he had risked his life just at the hope of a few scraps of meat and had been shot for that. Was it any surprise that the moment he was given something from someone who he suspected might mean him harm that he scarfed it down? Not at all. It might have been bad. It could have been poisoned, or laced with something to keep him weak so she could take advantage over him. All those thoughts flew out of the window the moment he started eating. It wasn't enough to give him back his strength but it was satisfying enough for him, way better than the meager scraps he had been aiming for.

Kiba laid back down once he finished eating and licked his lips as the female spoke to him. He remained silent as he contemplated her words. Time and time again she had told him that she only wanted to help, and every time she did he rejected it. He just couldn't believe that what she was saying was true. There had been too many times in his life that others had tried to do him harm that over time he learned not to trust anyone. Just because someone claimed that the were harmless didn't mean that they were. He was not like any of the creatures, nonhuman or not. In the mind of others that meant that they were free to do with him what they pleased. That assumption was even more so true amongst humans. When others saw him as a lesser they felt no reason to do anything nice for him. So why should he believe this werewolf when she said the things she said? Before now he would have been quick to reject her.

But actions spoke louder than words. Anyone could say anything that they wanted about their intentions, but it was their actions that spoke the truth. This werewolf had plenty of chances to do him harm, he had openly given her chances to attack him, and she definitely had a chance now to do whatever she wanted with him now that he was so weak. But she didn't do anything to him. She had fixed his wound and even gave her food. Was this some kind of trick or was the things she said about her intentions true? Kiba remained silent for a time when the werewolf introduced herself. Isabelle...that was her name. It sounded a little strange in his mind, the nickname she had given him sounded even stranger but he wouldn't comment on that. “...Kiba.” the white wolf spoke softly, turning his gaze away from Isabelle. “My name is Kiba.” There was little reason for him to keep his name a secret. It wasn't like she could do anything with it beyond calling him it. Yet it felt so awkward just to say it. That wasn't the only thing that bothered him. “...Why....are you helping me?” Kiba finally asked the question that really was on his mind. He just couldn't understand why someone, anyone, would put so much effort into helping him without expecting something in return.