Animal Nature

Chapter 24

Shy ran through the trees, calling for David.

The moon hung in the sky, huge and full and seemingly within arm's reach of the branches. The forest was silent except for a low, thin howling that wound around the tree trunks and pulled her forward. She knew it was David, he was calling to her, and she returned the call, only when the sound which emerged from her throat was a higher-pitched version of David's howl, and her legs began to wobble beneath her, until she fell.

When she looked down upon her naked body, she found that her legs had turned to the paws of a wolf. Her breasts were covered in fur... and there were six of them.

Cold sweat covered Shy's face in a film when she awoke from this nightmare, and she had to feel herself to be sure that she had the correct number of body parts.

Just a dream, she sighed.

Then she heard the howling.

Despite the chill of the air outside, Shy went to the window and opened it. She wasn't dreaming now. She could feel the night air on her skin, carrying with it the scent of pines and smoke from the leaves the neighbors had burned earlier.

The howl was close, closer than she had expected. Once it trailed off, the crickets resumed their chorus. Then the howl came again, the crickets went silent in its wake.

A part of her wanted to howl back just as in her dream, but she knew she would only wake her parents. She wanted to call David's name.

After the howl trailed off, Shyanne went to close the window, then stopped. The crickets remained quiet. Which meant something was coming. She could see nothing, despite the moon's near-fullness.

"Shyanne!" The whisper under her window was husky, but she knew that voice.

"David," she whispered back.

He stood under her window, the moonlight gleaming on his bare shoulders. She couldn't see from this angle if he wore pants, and she would be lying to herself if the idea of his nakedness didn't make her feel warm all over.

"I'll let you in—" she started to whisper.

He had already climbed the drainpipe on the side of the house to the garage roof, and his face outside the other window in her room pressed close to the grass.

She ran over and opened the window to let him in.

"You must be freezing," she murmured, turning away from him to get a blanket, because he was completely naked and she didn't know what else to do. She wanted to stare at him. She wanted to kiss him. Yet she couldn't even make herself look at him.

He accepted the blanket, holding it vaguely in front of himself. His fingers, when she had made contact with them, were hot.

Rather than looking like he was hiding himself, he stood tall and his eyes were focused sharply on her.

"Um," she said, and sat down on her bed, hard. She swallowed. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I needed to see you." He took a step toward her.

"Stop," she said. Finally she looked at him. His eyes were full dark and he was breathing hard. "Look, David, I know what's going on."

He inhaled sharply.

"I know you're a werewolf." She felt stupid, saying the words out loud.

Now, as she waited for his reaction, she knew she had wanted him to laugh at her. She had wanted him to shake his head and say, What? That's ridiculous!