Dawn of the Sun Wolf

Chapter Seventeen

When I woke up in the dream was still clear, like a movie on rewind in my brain. Although on the plus side I had slept through the rest of the night, so small victories. But today was the day....the day of the full moon. I did my morning routine as always, trying to make everything feel normal, or as normal as possible. I went downstairs and Austin was already eating breakfast.

"How are you feeling?" Austin asked as I entered the room.

"Nervous—really, really nervous".

"You'll be fine," Austin said calmly.

"But what if I tear some guy limb from limb?" I shot back, worried knowing the first full moon was the worst. The one where I would have the least amount of control over myself, where I could lose control and hurt someone. That thought alone made me shiver.

"Well, then it would suck to be that guy," Austin answered easily.

I gave him a look that made it clear he could very easily be that guy.

"We'll all be there; you won't hurt anybody, I promise," Austin said. That made me feel a little better, knowing everyone was going to be there to help me through it.

"Are you planning on joining the pack?" I asked Austin as we eat breakfast

"Yeah," Austin replied

I was surprised by this, considering Austin was never really a pack person. "What changed your mind?"

"Well, it feels right now, and Logan is a pretty decent guy, not the asshole I thought he was," Austin responded.

"Cool" I responded, legitimately happy.

At some point in the morning Logan joined Austin and me. He thought it might calm me down if he was there with me during the day. And he was right, I felt a little more relaxed as the day passed. Although the closer to the evening it got the weirder and weirder I felt. Logan said this was because of the pull of the moon. When evening began to roll around, we all went into the forest. The five of them shifted easily; I had a much harder time of it. My whole body hurt through it; I might have yelled from the pain a couple of times. It felt like someone was stretching out my limbs and stretching my body to ungodly limits.

"Conner, don't fight it--embrace it," Logan said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

Then, as soon as the moonlight hit me, my body transformed and the shift was over. Quickly, we were off running through the woods, enjoying the full moon. Part of joining a pack is running with them on the full moon; the other is having the pack alpha formally accept you, which Logan had done without even knowing earlier in the week. I surprisingly loved it; I loved running through the forest, running as a pack. It made me feel stronger and more connected to the pack. While we ran, I kept feeling a strange pull towards Logan. I wonder if it was because we were dating. It was so strong that I kept by his side nearly the entire time; it just felt powerful to be next to him.

As we continued our run, a sweet smell invaded my nose and I saw a deer on the other end of this clearing. I stopped and stared at it, feeling an animal instinct inside of me come alive. It must have sensed something was wrong and it took off running, causing me to chase after it. I felt so alive, like I needed the chase, I just had to have it. I kept pushing myself faster and faster, trying to catch up the deer, and it was working. I was starting to close in on it. I was nearly on it, so close, almost there, then I lunged and hit the ground, feeling something stronger on me pinning me, effectively stopping me from moving.

"Conner, stop," Logan commanded.

I just growled in response and fought to try to move him, which was ineffective, to say the least.