What Has Become Of Me?

Back at the spot, Nathan places me on the ground. It was awkward to be carried since werewolves are actually slightly larger than normal everyday wolves. After the jog, while carrying me, Nathan seems only slightly out of breath. All pain I had experienced has now vanished. Nathan kneels down beside me as I sit down trying hard to find a comfortable way to sit with four paws.

“Alright, Anika” Nathan says to gain my attention, “I need you to picture yourself turning from your wolf back to your human self. Visualising is the easiest way for pups to gain control of the change.”

I don’t show him acknowledgement but rather I get straight into the task at hand. Visualise my wolf becoming human? I don’t even know what I look like as a wolf. After minutes tick by of firm concentration nothing happens. This is useless.

“Anika, I know you can do this” Nathan reassures.

It’s utterly useless. I sprawl out on the ground with my front paws straight in front of me and my hind legs out behind me. There is no stating how uncomfortable it is.

“Don’t give up” Nathan groans.

I give a half-hearted growl as I close my eyes. Picture myself human; this is so stupid. A prod to my side forces me to crack one eye open and look at Nathan. The naked man is now sitting beside me poking my side. I give another half-hearted growl.

“Hurry up,” Nathan says then pokes me again, “Come on.”

There’s no ignoring him unless I concentrate really hard to shut him out. That’s it, I’ll ignore him until by some miracle I magically shift back to my human self. With more ferocity than earlier, I concentrate on blocking everything out. Maybe I could use this new found focus to change. It feels like some sort of out of body experience as I see myself laying beside a naked man but I’m not myself, I’m a wolf. Next I picture that wolf’s outstretched paws becoming fingers then wrists now arms. Human shoulders start to take shape now. I see the wolf creature with human arms and shoulders suddenly lean up on it’s elbows as it’s back bows. Skin shrinks over bones quickly shifting and snapping. I only distaintly feel each snap and shift. My visualisation continues down the entirety of my being until I now see a girl laying on her stomach stretched out naked in the dirt. I open my eyes only to meet Nathan’s deep brown eyes but from this close I can see small specks of orange.

“I hate you” I groan as I curl up still pressed down in the dirt.

“Good, well I’m glad to see you are back to yourself now let’s get you home before you jump in front of anymore traffic” Nathan says trying to keep his tone light but I can see in his eyes how utterly freaked out he is about my speedy recovering he witnessed.

I reluctantly get up and blush as I catch Nathan’s eyes flick down away from my face.

“Perve” I mutter as I try to cover myself to the best of my ability.

“Sorry” Nathan grins, ofcourse he isn’t.

We walked together side by side back to my house. In the backyard we find two sets of cloths neatly folded and waiting on the grass.

“Mum” I smile as I reach for my pile of clothes.

The clothes obviously set out for Nathan are some of my brother’s; isn’t he just so generous letting my pack steal most of his wardrobe? Once I’m thankfully covered again in just a simple plain blue shirt and old sweats, I trudge towards the house utterly exhausted. Markus, Louise and Dan are all sat around the kitchen table staring at each other concerned as I walk in.

“Thanks for the clothes” I say then suddenly I’m tackled into a hug from my mum.

“Can’t breathe” I choke out as I have the life squeezed out of me.

My mother releases me and smiles.

“Sorry darling, we were just so worried” she says resting her hand on my cheek.

I smile at my mother.

“Any problems while you were out?” My father asks Nathan studying him carefully.

“No sir, you’re daughter is a natural” Nathan responds, “Except maybe when changing back.”

My father nods in understanding.

“Well I must be off sorry, thank you for the clothing” Nathan says after a moment of silence.

“Thank you for tonight” my mother tells him as my whole family guides him to the front door.

“Thanks Nathan” I say as I follow everyone.

“Get some rest, I think the boys will be eager to see you in the morning after they’ve linked my thoughts from last night” Nathan tells me before walking out the front door and jogging off into the night.

Before Dan can ask me all about what happened or my mother suffocate me in another hug, I jog upstairs while saying a quick goodnight over my shoulder.

I shut my door behind me then collapse face first into my bed, too tired to be bothered finding pyjamas. My mind can’t seem to comprehend what’s happened, I was a wolf. I felt my claws dig into the dirt on all four paws. My snout picked up smells I never thought were bold enough to be smelt. A smile graces my lips as I drop asleep.

A thud makes me jolt awake but I don’t want to open my eyes or move. I snuggle back into my pillow assuming it was just Dan falling out of bed again. A second thud occurs, that’s when I notice the snickering and whispers. Thud.

“Shh, quiet” I hear a man whisper.

“Shut up” another whispers.

More snickering is attempted to be smothered.

“Do you want to wake her early?” someone hisses and it’s quiet again.

Now I can start to recognise who belongs to the voices. Seb seems to be snickering while Chase and Jett are trying to get him to shut up. Brian is asking everyone whether they want to wake me up yet. What in blazes are they doing in my room? I doubt dad would have let them in; they must have used the window again.

“Okay, did you bring it?” Chase asks.

“Me?” Brian demands in a whisper, “You were supposed to carry it up.”

“No, you were!” Chase argues.

“Ladies, shut it” Jett hisses, “I carried it.”

A weight makes the bed shift as someone climbs on. Do I want to let them know I’m awake yet? I really want to know what they brought though. Suddenly someone is sitting on me.

“Get off” I groan and try to roll over.

“Nope, get up” Seb says from above me.

“No, get off” I argue frowning.

“Seb, I’ll fix it” Chase says confidently and I feel Seb get off me.

I open one eye but Chase is already pinning me to the bed by sitting on me and is tickling me.

“N-no!” I giggle out as I try to grab his hands.

“S-save me!” I look to the other guys and they just grin.

Chase grins as the maniac keeps tickling me.

“I’m awake!” I announce as more laughter spills from my lips.

Chase thankfully stops but doesn’t get off me. I try to push him off but he’s heavy. All the other guys have by now crawled onto my bed to sit around me.

“Could someone get tubby off me?” I ask.

Chase frowns at me.

“I’m not fat” he declares.

“Shove off” Brian says then pushes Chase off me sending him tumbling to the floor.

“You know” Seb pipes up studying Chase as he scrambles up off the floor after landing face first, “If Chase had been a cat, that wouldn’t have happened. That’s it, Chase turn into a kitty.”

“No, I don’t want to be a cat” Chase argues.

“But you have to be” Seb says dragging out the word have, “then I would get a kitty and I would name you Pablo.”

Seb nods with a satisfied smile as his plan comes together.

“But I’m Chase, I chase the kitties.”

Seb gasps.

“How could you?”

“Because I bark and those cats don’t like things that go woof.”

Seb suddenly giggles.

“So you’re saying you go woof not grr?” Seb asks still giggling.

What sort of eighteen year old man giggles? Although it is cute.

“Well maybe” Chase says now unsure.

“Chase isn’t a wolf, he’s just a puppy!” Seb declares then goes into a fit of giggles.

Everyone just looks at the giggling man with confused expressions.

“Who gave him sugar?” Brian sighs finally.

Sheepishly Jett raises his hand. Chase and Brian punch him on either shoulder.

“Ow! I didn’t mean to” Jett defends.

Seb suddenly tumbles off the bed from his giggling fit and lays there, still giggling.

“I got Jett-Jett in trouble” Seb smiles triumphantly as he lies on his back on my bedroom floor.

“Sorry to interrupt, but why are you here?” I ask.

“Oh yeah!” Brian says then snaps his fingers, “nearly forgot.”

Jett gets off my bed and walks over to my desk. It’s then I notice a white box on my desk that wasn’t there when I went to bed.

Seb goes silent and scrambles to sit up. At the same time all four men start singing to the tune ‘Happy Birthday’ but they’ve changed the words.

“Welcome to wolfhood. Welcome to wolfhood. Welcome dear Anika. Welcome to wolfhood”

While they were singing, Jett carries over the now open white box. I peek inside to find a cake with a messy welcome scrawled across it in icing gel.

“Thanks” I say with a laugh once they’ve finished.

Dan bursts into my room since the guys were being way too loud. He stops suddenly when he sees me surrounded by four grown men. Everyone stares at him without blinking.

“Hi Dan” I say sheepishly, “would you like some cake?”

Dan glares at all the men for a moment before he notices the cake.

“Yes! Cake for breakfast” Dan suddenly declares and comes barrelling into the room.

“Who made it?” I ask as the cake is cut into slices with a butter knife; apparently they couldn’t bring a proper knife because Seb would be around.

“I did” Brian grins.

Silence finally falls over the room as we each take a bite of the cake. I was wary at first but Brian certainly is a good cook.