By the late afternoon we decided to hike down again. I was dicking around with Creek when he abruptly stopped, the pupils in his eyes became the size of pinheads, and they paled. He turned more grey than rich brown. Their whole expression became very catatonic to look at and I was so confused. What was happening here?

“Creek?” I tried, making the others who had been walking ahead of us stop and turn around. I gently touched his hand, but they didn’t even flinch.

“Oh fuck, cover-” Abel started but was interrupted by the absolute worst sound I had ever heard.

Creek’s mouth was wide open, the sound coming from him almost bursting my ear drums. Scratch that, one burst, I was sure. I could feel something sticky run down my throat from my ear.

I fell to my knees and tried covering my ears, but it was impossible to keep the sound out. And then the tips of my fingers felt as if they had been dipped in molten lava. My nails turned several shades darker and then started growing. It moved on to my teeth as well.

I was nowhere near the full moon here and it was in the middle of the day, but I was shifting. The wolf was tossing and turning in my chest, trying to break free. Then the horrific noise finally stopped.

Abel was by my side immediately, grabbing me and pressing me to his chest. I was heaving, trying to breathe through it but everything was pain.

He took my hands in his and gently kissed my fingers as I whimpered and pressed my face to his chest.

“What happened?” Cal asked and gently got Creek up from the ground. They must’ve collapsed.

“Body,” Creek said with a slurred voice and raised his arm, pointing at some bushes.

“Hold on,” Abel said and placed a quick kiss on my cheek before going to investigate. He flinched and looked back. “We gotta call the cops. There’s a body here. And don’t go looking at it either. Just stay there.”

Fred had been on her way over but stopped and nodded. If the vampire said we should stay away, it was probably wise to heed his command.

Abel came back to where I was sitting and squatted down, letting me lean against him, while he called the authorities. He put his phone away after a brief conversation and sat down properly next to me.

“They’re tracking my phone so we gotta stay here. You alright?”

I shook my head, still looking down at my nails. They were back to normal, but my fingers felt as if I had just shoved them down into a pot of boiling water. I didn’t even really notice how much my ear hurt nor that my teeth were aching. There was just so much pain in my fingers.

“We should get you cleaned up a little, Gael,” Abel said softly.

Fred rummaged through her backpack and handed Abel some wet wipes. Abel was careful when he wiped the blood off my throat. He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw.

“You know this is hard, right?” he murmured with a low voice so the others couldn’t hear.

I looked up at him with a question mark basically painted on my face.

“Like putting away cake and not being able to even have a single slice.”

I snorted and looked back down again. “One track mind much?”

“Can you blame me?” His voice was thick, and he pressed me back against him. “Besides, please help me keep my mind off the body. There was a lot of blood and I’m not proud of it, but my first thought was diving right in there.”

I could smell it too. The metallic smell of blood. I could also smell rot or decay, so the person must’ve been dead for a while. I didn’t wanna focus on it. I wanted to focus on just breathing through the pain and Abel’s dumb jokes.

“Should we move further away?” I asked then.

“We need to stay put. I don’t wanna move if they’ve geo-locked my phone to here now.”

“Right.”

“Did they say how long it would take?” Cal asked as she was getting some water in poor Creek who was still looking very pale.

“Not really no. Just told me to hang tight. Like I’m expecting them to hurry?” Abel grimaced.

“I need to go home,” Creek said with a tiny voice. I wouldn’t have been able to hear them if it they hadn’t been sitting so close to us. I also couldn’t hear anything in my left ear. The one that had bled.

“We’ll get you home soon, alright?” Fred said so softly and took Creek’s hand in hers. “Just gonna wait for the cops and then we’ll go home.”

They nodded and then looked over at me. “I’m so sorry about your ear.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” I tried to smile but I was in so much pain. “It’s not my ear that’s bothering me.” I tried to be reassuring at least. I didn’t want him to feel guilty over something that wasn’t at all their fault.

“Did you shift a little?” Cal asked and handed Creek the water bottle again, urging them to drink more.

“Yeah, it was weird…”

Cal frowned. “No, it’s not weird. My first urge is to shift too whenever Creek screams. Or any banshee. It’s a warning call after all, and humans or anyone without animal affiliation won’t react like we will. We’ve got a whole other set of instincts, and no animal likes danger. I also suspect frequencies are different that we pick up on.”

I nodded a bit. “Makes sense. But I usually only shift during the full moon. Kind of part of the whole deal.”

“Probably because of an age-old affiliation with the moon. Not necessarily because you can’t shift outside of it. But that’s when you’re the weakest and the wolf is the strongest.” Cal shrugged a shoulder and refused to take the water bottle back from Creek, sending him a look that was very strict. They took another sip almost dutifully. “Or it’s when you’re both the strongest. I mean, I don’t think there’s a big divide between our animal selves and our human selves. Just like when you act one way in front of family and another in front of friends, like both are you, but two different sides. Does that make sense?”

I nodded again. “I have no control though.”

“You could learn. I could help you.”

I smiled gratefully. “That’d be nice.”