Vampire

Backstory
The Origins: Chapter Two
Continued from Orion's bio

Home was a comforting word for both her and Orion, and the burden of searching for one felt light. The woods were crowded with wolves, and the journey to find a piece of unmarked territory was a long one. It left plenty of time for talk.
"You never told me why you had to leave your old pack," Orion ventured, during a night that felt particularly long.
"Neither did you."
"Fair point."
Orion dropped it after that, but Vampire's fur was bristling with curiosity. She didn't want a pack built on secrets. Not between her and Orion, at least. "I'll tell you," she said, "but you have to tell me yours first."
"Oh?" Orion paused, and the pad of his paws on leaf litter went silent. She stopped as well and turned to face him. "I suppose it's for the best, if we're going to stay together."
"It is."
"I never had a pack in the first place," he said, his voice small. "Not like yours. I was raised by a human."
"Is that all?"
"What do you mean, 'is that all'?"
"It doesn't seem that deep and dark of a secret."
"Maybe not, but I thought if I told you you'd look down on me."
"Of course not. It's a wonder you survived as long as you did. Didn't he teach you anything useful?"
"He taught me how to live as a human. Not a wolf."
Vampire shook out her pelt. "He sounds like a nasty man," she said, but immediately regretted it as Orion's hackles raised.
"He was my father."
"Fathers can be the nastiest men of all," she pointed out.
Orion huffed, then went quiet for a moment. "You promised me you'd tell me yours."
Vampire had hoped Orion's secret would be worse, so hers wouldn't seem so terrible. This was her second pack, it couldn't break up before it started. Still, she'd promised.
"One time, my pack found a wolf wandering its boundaries. He started antagonising our leader, so we teamed up to defend him. My mother tried to stop me, but I didn't listen. I attacked. I was barely an adolescent, too young to take him on by myself, but I had backup. I managed to bite down on his leg, and I refused to let go, even when he kicked me right in the chest.
My pack killed him, but as the others let go, I still hung on. I had the taste of his blood in my mouth, and some instinct told me to lap it up until he ran dry. It made me feel stronger. There were whispers about me after that, but I was allowed to stay. Until another wolf died. I don't know what came over me, but I ripped out his heart, and I ate it. I wasn't starving. I just felt like I had to.
They chased me off after that. They said I'm dangerous. I think they're right."
Maybe she could've spared him the details, but if he was going to be scared of her, she wanted him scared enough that he'd run off now instead of letting it fester. She watched the moon instead of his reaction.
"So you drink blood? Wolf's blood?"
"Yes."
"Like a vampire," he mused.
"What?"
"It's... A human concept, I'm sorry. A vampire is a human who died and then came back to drink the blood of other people."
"I haven't died. Not to my knowledge, at least. I'm just—"
"You're not dangerous," he interrupted. "You wouldn't have saved my life if you were. You could have eaten me."
"Maybe I wanted to. You just didn't seem like much of a meal. Now you're fattening up I could snap at any time."
He tilted his head. "You don't believe that."
She hesitated. "I could."
"So snap."
"What?"
"Snap. Get it over with." He bowed his head and offered his leg towards her. "I trust you not to bite down too hard."
"You're putting your life between my jaws."
"I already have."
She eyed his leg, her mouth watering. Get it over with. Her muscles moved before her brain did, and she lashed out at his leg, biting down. He buckled onto the ground. He let out a low whine and she eased the pressure off. She licked at his wound, almost tenderly, feeling mixed up. Feeling closer to him, somehow. All wolf packs were built on blood, only most were built on the shared blood of family. But this was better, somehow, knowing it was a choice to bring themselves so closely together.
"Are you alright?" she asked, laying down next to him. The wound had already stopped bleeding.
"I trusted you for a reason." He tucked his leg back in. Then he raised his snout, nostrils flaring as he sniffed the air. "I haven't noticed any wolves about."
"Neither have I."
And so their home was chosen under the moon's watchful eye, on grass stained red.