Moonlight

Moonlight, pale and yellow, filtered in through my bedroom window. Slowly I rose from my bed, feet silent on the soft, carpeted floor as I approached the window. Everything was shrouded in the dark cloaks of shadows, but the darkness was no longer intimidating and frightening in fact, now it was inviting. The black cloak of night washing over the suburban neighborhood held the key to freedom that man did not possess, the freedom of the untamed.
But it was not the darkness that drew me in, but the light – the moonlight. It was like an itch, a yearning, a hunger, and a thirst, all combined to make a longing; a longing so strong it was required for my very existence.
I placed a hand on the windowsill and peered out at the yard, bathed in the light of the full moon that was so close it looked as if the treetops could be brushin up against its luminous surface.
Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to get out of this room, out of this house. I wanted to let my instincts take over and let go of every human care and worry. I wanted to escape my human form for a body that was strong and swift. I’d never desired anything more than to be out there, in the moonlight, right now, freer than the wind.
Instinct overcame me even before I had made the transformation. It was as if a switch had been flipped, changing my mind to a new way of thinking. With a heave, I yanked open the window and pushed it up as high as it would go.
I closed my eyes and let the moon take me, and as soon as I did fire spurted from my heart, as if it had been waiting for me to make the choice, and filled my limbs with molten liquid steel. The fire inside me grew hotter and hotter until it was scorching. I ground my teeth together to keep from crying out and waking up my family who were sleeping, blissfully unaware, down the hall.
I dropped to my hands and knees, and I shook, trembling with the energy of the transformation that was buzzing through my veins like lightning and throbbing in rhythm with my racing heart.
The blaze retreated. I stood strong and unyielding. Four paws that did not tire and
In this form, the moon’s call was even more potent than before, and I longed for freedom that much more. I took a single step and launched myself out the window.
I landed softly on the ground, quieter than a cat as it hunts, and stalked into the shadowy darkness, without any concern of what was lurking in the unknown; I was the unknown now.
When I hit the pavement, I began to race. Already going at what must have been unnatural speed, I pressed all my energy to my limbs, so I was going so fast that it seemed that my paws hardly touched the ground. It was like flying.
I reached the highest point in the neighborhood and raised my head to howl at the luminous orb in the navy night sky, proclaiming my essence to the world of darkness.
The light of the full moon has always traditionally affected my kind. It brought out the predatory instincts stronger than on the other nights that we shifted, and as I passed into the light the underlying ferocity of the hunter was smoldering coals beneath the surface of my skin.
I didn’t think, just acted, my mind only the essence of the predator. I lifted my muzzle in the air and caught the warm scent of prey. It was warm, wet, and close. A blood-curdling howl ripped from my throat and tore through the nighttime air, proclaiming the start of the hunt.
I tracked the scent of my quarry, pelt bristling with anticipation. I struggled to keep myself going at a trot, not wanting to end the game too quickly. I turned down a dead end street that was completely swathed in shadows, and I could hear the footfalls of prey. They were hurried, like it was afraid and walking fast, but could not run because its night vision was not keen enough to make out the way. Blood was pounding in my ears; the coals in my chest were red hot.
I dropped low to my belly and slinked silently forward, tracing the dangerous sharp razors inside my mouth whose purpose was waiting to be fulfilled. I came toward a bend in the road the prey-scent was so strong it stung my nose and sent electric shocks to my brain. Now! Do it now!
No. I thought, not yet. Wait.
With anticipation tingling from every hair and a cold shiver down my back, I rounded the curve in the road and my senses reeled. There it was, walking quickly in the opposite direction. I could smell the beautiful scent of fear. A low growl escaped my throat as I sprung and bolted like a bullet, going for the kill. I was all instinct; now was the time of the hunter.
My senses were reeling and a red mist was surrounding the edges of my vision and mind. I could already imagine the sickly sweet smell of blood in my nose, the tingle of it on my tongue.
It just had time to twist its head around to take me in through wide green eyes as I closed the last few feet and pounced, landing heavily on its chest, knocking out its wind.
My quarry was acting on instinct now, just as I was. Predator verses prey in an endless dance of life and death. It struck me with balled fists in my face. I lashed out and gripped its arm in my powerful jaws and the blood trickled onto my tongue. I shook it instinctively, caught in the bloodlust. The creature’s agonized scream diverted me, and I dropped the limb in favor of the throat.
As I opened my jaws and pushed my fangs toward its neck, I caught my prey’s terrified eyes, and all the aggression, energy, and bloodlust, drained from me. I knew those eyes, those soft leaf-green eyes.
The switch in my brain flipped again and I recognized him, Lukas. Lukas, the one I loved and cherished, the one I almost killed.
So many emotions overcame me in that moment: pain, sorrow, grief, confusion, regret, such regret. I’d been so caught up in this new freedom that I had grown careless, and the influence of my second nature almost cost someone their life. But it was worse than that, worse than I ever could have thought; it was the life of someone I loved.
I pulled myself off of him as my blood cooled, like ice-cold water had been poured into my veins as I regained my human form, the form in which he could recognize me.
He stared at me from the ground, eyes wide in disbelief. “Alaina, is that you?” Of coarse he would recognize me. Before my being a werewolf we were inseparable, best friends, maybe we could have been more… I’d grown to love him, and it broke my heart to have to keep away from him for what I was and break his as well. I couldn’t stand his pain, the look on his face as I passed him in the hallways, trying to ignore him for his own good. It seemed that all my caution had been for nothing, and now, I’d caused him the worst pain yet; I’d turned him into a monster, something no one could understand.
I sighed. “Yes Lukas, it’s me.” The pain was overwhelming.
“But, but you… the-the wolf...,” he was stumbling in his shock and fright.
“I’m a werewolf, Lukas,” I took a deep breath before adding, “and now you are too.”
His eyes were frozen on me, immobilized by shock.
“I’m so sorry, Luke,” I said, sorrow overwhelming me and tears threatening to escape my eyes. “But I promise you this, I’m here for you, and I’ll be as loyal as a wolf to its pack.”
There was nothing I could do now but comfort him as he accepted this new fate. Or perhaps it was destiny, thought a quiet voice in the back of my head, because now there was a light in the darkness, not cold like the moon, but warm like the sun, like love, and I no longer had to stay away.