Packless Monsters

Chapter 13

Around five that afternoon you left the tower wearing the too big sweatpants and oversized t-shirt you had bought just for this purpose in one of Tony's too fast cars. You hadn't exactly told anyone you were leaving, but it was the night of the full moon. Of course you were leaving the tower.

You drove to the woods you haunted every full moon that you could, your anxiety to get there before the sun set urging you to drive faster than you should. You forced your wolf down and kept to the speed limit. You couldn't get pulled over tonight. You made it to the woods safely, and found a parking spot at the edge of the forest. You stripped off your clothes, leaving them safely in the car and shifted as fast as you could after you'd closed the car door behind you. You also didn't want to get arrested for indecent exposure. The shift was fast, taking less than a minute for your bones and body structure to rearrange, fur to sprout, and for you to take the wolf's form.

After one good stretch, you felt comfortable in your other skin and the wolf was elated to come out to play. The moon was just risen and bright in the sky. You sat and raised your head to it and howled your greetings. The sky was filled with wolf song as even dogs joined in the greetings. You had missed the simple joys of the woods. You couldn't make the journey out here every month, and those months you couldn't were hell finding somewhere to hide as a wolf until dawn. Tonight, though, tonight you could run and play and enjoy being a wolf.

Your greetings to the moon complete, you stood back up on all four feet and ran into the woods to enjoy your night of playing. You let the wolf take most of the control, keeping just enough for yourself to make sure you both stayed out of trouble. You ran through the woods at full speed, enjoying the feel of the pine needles and earth under your paws as you ran. You couldn't explain the joy of being able to run, being free to enjoy the night. It had been too many months since you had made it out here.

You found a tasty snack of a rabbit who made the mistake of trying to outrun you, startled some fishes while you played in the stream, chased some deer for awhile, and rolled around like a silly puppy in a bed of flowers. You followed a scent that intrigued you for awhile, just to find out what it was. You were delighted to find a wild pig at the end of the trail. You had never seen one before

There were a couple of hikers who caught a glimpse of you, but you ran the other direction from them. A wolf sighting in these woods wasn't uncommon. The pack used these woods too, but never the part that you had claimed as your own personal territory over the last four years. It was too far from the pack's home base to be good for their use.

You played and enjoyed the woods for hours under the light of the full moon. Even without your enhanced sense you wouldn't have needed to worry about seeing your way in the woods. The moon was bright enough to see by even by human standards. It was a perfectly clear night.

Everything was going wonderfully until you caught the familiar scent of wolf in your woods. You had strayed farther than usual, but this was still too far for this wolf to have come, unless he was looking for you. You heard a howl, repeated by the others. The whole pack was out in the woods tonight.

It was one voice among the song that almost had you making the horrible decision to go to the pack, to go to that wolf. Your mom was out in the woods tonight too. You hadn't seen her in four years and she was in the woods, so close to where you were. Even a glimpse.... would get you caught and subjected to a life you wouldn't be able to bear.

You couldn't go to her and it took all of control over your wolf to remind her that you couldn't go to her, you couldn't go see her, no matter how it hurt.

The howl sounded again and you clamped your jaws shut to keep from singing along to the song of the pack.

They were getting closer.