The Secret Wolf

        I’m Janet and this is a story of how I had a secret that changed my life. Or some can say that it turned my world up-side down.

        It was dark outside as the creature loomed through the night. The pack of creatures were roaming in the night. They were on their hunting trip. One ventured off and lost its pack.  We were on its tail! It’s a chase!  We surrounded the beast! I took an arrow and loaded it up into my bow. I waited there silently till I was given the ok.

        I waited in the cold darkness.  Shimmers of moonlight showed onto the beast as I hid in the darkness.  I never understood why we needed to kill such a beautiful creature. A creature with such beautiful eyes. The color of their fur is so unusual in a great way. Their beauty cannot get in my way though for they also bring harm to others if not. 

        This is my first hunt. I was given the ok and hesitated. I was shaking so badly that I suddenly dropped my bow. I then saw the creature’s eyes look towards me for it had heard me. My cover was blown. I saw it slowly approach me. I couldn’t move a muscle. I was stuck there as if I was ice. I didn’t know what to do. They kept calling me to run. But I couldn’t. The beast ran at me, I saw it move through and in between the trees. It was more beautiful than I thought.  The creature started to growl, showing its pearly white teeth. Its mangy fur was clear as night as a beam of moon lit up its face. It attacked! It jumped on me with a brutal pounce before everything turned to darkness.

        I woke up with the blazing white light of a hospital. I must of gotten hit pretty hard, for my head was pounding with pain. I attempted to sit up as shadows of unwariness loomed over me like a thunder cloud rolling over in the sky. So I laid back down hoping the dizziness and pain would soon, slowly go away. This sure wasn’t like any bruise or scar I have been through. For I felt, unusually different.

        I was out of the hospital bed by the next day. I was back to school. I forgot to do my homework and study for my test. *sighs* ‘What I am going to do?’ I thought. Luckily my best friend was there to help me study before class started. I tried to get done with the homework, but I still felt funny and unusual since the blackout. It was strange, but I just ignored it and decided it wasn’t a big deal.

        “Where did you get the stitches from?” asked Margret. 

        “Must have gotten them when I tripped and fell in the woods a few days ago. I even blacked out and woke up in the hospital the next day” I said.

        “Must have been a brutal fall. Well, I am glad you're ok” replied Margret.

        “So am I” I said in a definite tone.

        The more I think about it, I don’t think that my skin busted open from the fall. I just hope I didn’t get scratched by the werewolf I was hunting last night. Even though they are beautiful when they change into their fur, I don’t want to turn into one of them. 

        That night when I got home I decide not to tell my parents and family. Instead of going hunting with them, like the night of my first hunt. I told them that I didn’t feel well because of the fall. I told them I was still having aches, so they didn’t make me go. It was a full moon tonight so it was kind of soon for me to go hunting with them for my second hunt, especially on a full moon. 

        Later that night, when they were off hunting, I felt even worse than before. My whole body ached, as if it was about to burst. I was worried, for I have never felt this way before. Even when I was sick for weeks, it was never this bad. 

        As I lay on my bed, I look across the room at the mirror. The strange thing is that I swore I saw my eyes flicker. I got up to get a closer look at my eyes, when it happened again. When I was close enough to see myself, they changed and stayed that way. That was when pain started coursing through my body, and I felt my teeth being replaced with other teeth that I am not familiar with. My whole body was transforming before my very own eyes. My bones made crackling noises as they changed their shape. My skin was being replaced with fur. I feel so uncomfortable as I land on all four. 

        I observed myself in the mirror at my new form. I was so beautiful, but this isn’t a good creature to be. Especially when your own family hunts them. Now, I am one of them. I am afraid of what might happen when my family finds out that I was scratched, and now I am the same creature that they hunt almost every night. I don’t think I ever fit into the hunting thing. 

        I should go look for other wolves, maybe they would know what to do. *sighs* I need to tell somebody.

        My window was open a crack, for I leave it that way because I like the fresh breeze blowing throughout my bedroom. I used my paws and my muzzle to open it enough for me to get out. I had so much speed with this new form. Before I knew it I was at the place where I last found the other wolves. I could smell so many new scents that I could never smell before. And I could hear so much more. I had come to the area of the woods only to find that I was being hunted. Even worse, by my own family. How embarrassing! I didn’t know anything other to do than to run for my life.  

        I don’t look back as I race through the trees. I struggle to avoid any obstacles of fallen branches and bushes as they cross my path. I run so fast I can feel my heart beating from my chest. 

        I look back to see that I had lost them. I slow down, making sure that they aren’t around. 

        Before I know it, I am cornered with an arrow whizzing by me that barely missed me.  I find an opening and run towards it only to get caught into one of their traps. A net covers me and I struggle to get out for I am already tired from the chase.  The last thing I know is being held down before being given a sleeping shot and blacking out. 

        I wake up not long afterwards in a small metal cage. I was still in wolf form and all I know is that I am in a dark room, for I couldn’t see a thing. I was frightened on what might happen to me. 

        They have probably noticed that I wasn’t home by now and maybe even found my fur on the floor.

        Before I knew it I started transforming back. My teeth were dulling out and my fur was changing to skin. I could hear the crackling of my bones as they took their new form. I was finally turned back into my old self. 

        I saw the lights turn on in the room as I sit in the cold metal cage. I began to see torturing tools as the room lights up. My father comes around the corner to be shocked to see me sitting in the cage. He just stood there, staring at me. Tears start to form in my eyes wondering what might happen to me and if I was even accepted by my family anymore. 

        My father finally came to say, “It can’t be…! You’re Alive!”

        He quickly came up to the cage to unlock it and let me out. I crawled out to him as he is giving me a big hug. I was surprised by his reaction.

        “You don’t hate me?” I questioned.

        “We all thought that you were captured by the other wolves. We didn’t know if you were even ok!”

        “I’m sorry! I didn’t know…” I said as I tried to explain before being cut off by my father.

        “Shh shh… I am just happy that you’re okay, no matter if you’re a wolf or not. You will probably find the other two feeling the same way about you.”

        “T-Thank you …” I said as I was about to cry. 

        We hugged and cried together that morning. From that day forward, we laid our gear down, for it to never be used again.