Wolf Like Me — The Icarus Writing Collective

by Billie-Leigh Burns

Content Warnings: Implied Sexual & Violent Acts

I’m the quick-pawed pack leader, the shadow in the clearing. The lupine veined villain. The Wolf.

You’re the flame-haired voyager, clinging onto maidenhood, a dream chaser, troublemaker. A Vixen of sorts, but you’ve held on so far.

Does a wolf like me loosen your grip?

Others have felt the wrath of The Wolf—their corpses rot in forgotten dens. But you’re not afraid. You pat my head, stroke my coat, and tell me what a good boy I am.

Do you want to be a wolf like me? Roll back your head, shift scarlet locks, and free your pretty neck for me. Bite your lip as I sink my teeth and taste the wave of embers flowing free.

You're the moon in its full beam, a temptress, an enchantress. A huntress tempered by the tide, you taste your prey at the first rustled leaf; the smallest shuffle and you snap your jaw. There was always something of the wolf about you. Did you always know just what you could be?

As the dirt makes home under your nails, the blood of every victory mats your fur. How long til snapping bones shred your gums mid-bite, til your spine’s a waning crescent and you leave yourself behind? When every eye’s an enemy, every bellowing call, a trap, will you ever wish you could take it all back? Is the hunter’s life all you hoped? Is it a godless heaven or an empty hell? Is this purgatory end enough for you, when every sunset brings a moon that takes your soul in its wake?

You’ll know the curse. You’ll know it hurts to be a wolf like me.

Billie-Leigh Burns (she/her) is a writer from Liverpool. Her work has been featured by 50 Word Stories, 101 Words, Funny Pearls, and The Mersey Review. She is also a bookkeeper, making her the only writer she knows who owns an ‘I Heart Spreadsheet’ mug.