In the background, I heard Gabe talking on a phone. The words were meaningless, but he sounded livid. Men as powerful as they were didn't get mad all that often, I thought. They always seemed to have their hand on their lives. They had everything handed to them on a silver platter, exactly how they wanted to see it and when they wanted it.
They weren't used to getting the short end of the stick or getting screwed around; not like I was. I cried out, a weird howl-yelp noise, as my hands shrank before my eyes. Petite paws replaced them, furry white to the elbows and then sleek, wood bark brown. My sweater lay on the floor, lost in the madness I was witnessing. Terror swamped me and I fell to the bed, overwhelmed and not entirely aware of what was happening to my body.
A period of confusion passed. The world seemed a little dimmer, the red faded and weak in the curtains and the blanket. I stared at Xavion, my chest heaving as he stroked my cheek. It was a comforting gesture, but not as kind as other, unknown sensations would have been. I didn't know what I wanted, but I knew that it wasn't just to be petted.
Under the campfire-and-snow scent, there was another in the air. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, trying to find the source. This one was honey and marshmallows, toasty and rich. Gabe walked over and the scent intensified until I was bathed in it, licking my lips.
Yet there were no lips as I recognized them. My tongue met a muzzle, flapping against the side of a furry lip that I couldn't see. There was dark fur along the snout that lay beyond my eyes, but the rest of me was too tired to examine what I had become. It was something to do with those pills. Whoever these men were, they had formulated some manner in which to become animals.
That technology would sell for billions of dollars to the right people. According to every conspiracy theorist I'd ever had the pleasure of speaking with, every military in the world was trying to create the perfect weapon. A shapeshifting animal that could pretend to be human when it needed to? That sounded like it might make the mark.
"You in any pain, sweetheart?" Xavion asked.
I tried to respond, but all that came out was a mixture of whines and yawns, each sounding more like a dog than the one before it. I finally shut my chops and looked up at him, willing him to know that, while nothing really hurt, I was completely exhausted again. And it was very likely that I was going to hurt before too much longer.
Honestly, if not for the exhaustion? I probably would have run out of the room and taken shelter somewhere. My instincts were already poking me to find a den, drag some soft nesting materials in there, and to hide from the rest of the world. And, unlike my human body, these instincts were strong. A few of them were so strong that I was surprised I wasn't dragging myself off regardless of the discomfort.
Gabe shoved his phone in his pocket and came over to sit with Xavion. "I'm sorry. They mixed up their medication, Sadie. This should have taken care of your transformations permanently, never allowing you to become one of us. Instead, they forced your transformation. And I don't know if there's a way to go back after you're a wolf the first time."
I whined. I'd never be human again? Again, I willed so hard for him to understand me.
"To a normal human life," Gabe corrected himself. "You'll still be a person when you need to be. We'll instruct you in that. But it isn't... typical. You'll be under the moon's eye. That means cycling with the rest of us. There will be changes."
He paused, cleared his throat, and then added, "There will be urges."
I didn't understand. It was though there were some small connection between us, as if it were just out of my reach to use to help him comprehend what I was trying to get across. As I worked to reach for it, the door smashed open and adrenaline flooded my veins. I was up and off like a shot, diving between the men and out the door as fast as my legs would carry me. There was an intruder, a danger, and I had to get away from it.
I ran for the room that smelled like springtime, like the first flower in May and the fresh buds sitting in the new, bright sun. The part of my mind that was still desperately holding on to my humanity noted that it was a child's room with a gorgeous mural painted on one wall. I saw wolves howling up at the moon, four of them in a semi-circle around a fallen deer. The animal wasn't profusely wounded or anything like that, but it certainly looked dead enough for me to lick my lips at it.
There was a crib in a nook of the wall. That was the source of the springtime promises and I crept toward it, my tail tucked between legs that had spent so long in the same pair of pants.
A lid kept the crib closed, which wasn't entirely unheard of for some kids. Those were the ones
