Abandoned Werewolf Story: Her First Moon

I started this a few months back, but it never went anywhere.  Rather than completely abandon it, I figured I'd share what I had for y'all.  Some parts of it made their way into Red Cloak!

"... right, Denise?" Jessica asks and I snap up, startled out of my distracted reverie.

"I'm sorry, what?" I ask back while trying to replay what little I can remember of the conversation taking place around me.  Emma and Makayla are both staring at me and I shrink back, pulling the pillow up from my lap against my stomach with my arms wrapped tightly around it.

They're here for my birthday.  I turned eighteen and Jessica thinks I should party, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  So, instead, she brought her friends and some alcohol and we're just hanging out.  Her parents let her host a party at her house for her eighteenth birthday.

"Where's your head at today?"

"I- I don't know," I confess.

My back is sore.  Worse, I keep feeling occasional waves of- of- It's like that feeling you get right before you shiver.  Like your body is- it's difficult to express.  Actually, it's all of them.  Right before you shiver, right before you sneeze - all of those sensations where you're suddenly intensely aware of your own body and it's awake and- and- on edge.  Just before the tipping point where you do whatever needs to be done and it all releases at once.

Only it's not releasing.  It's- whatever it is- is just sitting there.  Cycling through my body on a slow pulse that makes my skin feel raw and sensitive.

The pillow helps, I find.  I pull it tighter, digging my nails into the cover and it saws back and forth, scratching a ghostly itch.

"I'm sorry," I tell her finally.  I also don't know her two friends.  I'm trying to do better around other people, but it's difficult.  "What were you asking?"

"The men's track team," she says.  "How fine they are.  You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Ahhhhhh.  The football field is right next to our dorm.  We pass it every day on the way to classes and it feels like the track team is always out there practicing.  Jessica caught me looking a few times and that's embarrassing.

"They have nice legs," I admit.

Shirtless in those thin, short jogging shorts they all wear with strong legs and lean bodies.  I guess I have a type because I can't help but stop to stare.  Makes my heart race.

"Nice legs," Makayla says with a grin while rolling her eyes.

I can feel my cheeks burning.  The attention bothers me so I roll up like an armadillo, face down into the pillow I'm trying to strangle.  Doing my best to shrink into my own body and fade away.

Jessica either senses the mood or just moves on naturally, talking about her classes and who she likes and who she hates while her friends chime in with their own opinions.  I'm envious of them and their ability to just sit around together and say whatever's on their mind.  Or going out to parties with others or going out to eat with everyone.  Jessica's asked me to go sometimes, but I just can't.  It's not even the lack of money - it's just, the idea of being around so many other people makes me squirm.  What if I messed up?  What if someone wanted to talk to me?  The thought of all those eyes focused on me really just makes my skin crawl.

I shiver finally and yet, it does nothing to ease the strange feeling within.  Like a weird, warm ache settling in my joints.

Maybe I'm getting sick? I wonder while clawing at the pillow.  Nuzzling my face into it.  Dragging my lips back and forth while my hot breath puffs, on the edge of panting and I open my mouth to grab the pillowcase and a chunk of stuffing between my teeth to bite, rolling it back and forth while grinding and clenching, starting from my molars and forward to my incisors.

My gums itch.

Only after nearly a minute do I realize I'm still huddled into my pillow so I unfold myself in order to not draw attention.  The other three are thankfully still just chatting away, drinks in hand.  That reminds me of my own drink.  I'm not great with alcohol - I've just been sipping it slowly.  I think they're on their third glasses.  Now that I realize that, the smell hits me hard, along with the scent of their perfumes and hair products and a faint metallic aroma that I can't quite identify.

And food.  One of them - I inhale, short and sharp - Makayla had a burger with fries.  Sweet potato fries.  Emma smells like tomatoes and cesar dressing and chicken while Jessica is practically swaddled in the heavenly smell of street tacos.

My stomach growls and I claw harder at the pillow in return before reaching up to scratch a few errant blonde hairs on the side of my neck.

I'm hungry.

And, goodness, they talk so much.  Emma laughs and it rankles me.  Soft golden fur lifts from the nape of my neck.  A small patch hidden beneath my curly blonde hair.

They all look at me when I stand suddenly and drop my pillow.  Clawing at my stomach, hand beneath my t-shirt as I walk towards the back of our room where we have a little fridge.  My skin crawls.  I can feel them staring and my lips jerk, lifting over my canines.

The pain in my gums is a hot, dull needle piercing my brain every few seconds.  I run my tongue over my top teeth while snatching things from the fridge.  Swallowing excess spit as my tongue makes a circuit, bumping over my cuspids when they lengthen.  They curve outward as they grow and I lap at the faint trickle of blood when they split my gums apart.

Sandwich ingredients are laid out on the counter before me.  Cheap packaged ham and value brand white bread with some mayo but I just slap slices of ham between two pieces of bread and tear into it, devouring the whole thing with barely time to taste what I'm eating.  There's pain in my fingers when I accidentally scrape against my protruding canines.  The blunt tips are razor sharp and I nearly slice through skin until I snatch my hand away while swallowing the last piece of bread.

I lick my hand clean, palm against my nose and chin with my tongue lashing out, curling, flattening, broad rounded tip stretching with ever pass until it folds between my fingers

My ears twitch, jumping against the side of my head when wispy white hairs grow around the canal, just beneath the jutting tragus and around.  The folds flatten beneath the creeping hair.  It tickles, but I'm suddenly even hungrier and a second sandwich is needed.

This time, the ham is a thick block beneath the bread and I growl slightly as I bite in.  The salty meat fills my mouth and I groan and nearly inhale the entire thing at once.

A third sandwich follows, just as thick as the second and the ham is gone.  When I finish eating, I grip the bag which held the ham and I rip it apart before bending to shove my face into it.  My long tongue swirls around the plastic, cleaning bits of meat while licking up the juices.

Lines of black appear in my lips.  Holes open in the swathe of skin beneath my nose.  Whiskers emerge, dragging against the packaging until I pull my head back and clean my mouth.  My tongue twists and curves, flopping against my nose and down to my chin until I swallow spit

Makayla roars with laughter.  I snarl, jerking my head to stare towards them and my ears twist back.  As the white hairs creep up to the edges, the skin is pulled up to sharp tips and white fades to blonde when they spread over the backs of my ears.  My nails scratch against the hairs and I groan with my eyes rolling up to show white.

They're too fucking loud.

And the room is too small.

Too bright.

Too hot.

I bow my head, panting with both hands against the counter.  My nails drag back and forth as I stare, unfocused, at the wall.  Flesh swells around the tips of my fingers.  There's pain, but it's dull and distant.  Still, I bring my hand up to gnaw at my fingertips, coating them in slobber while my teeth scrape the thick nails.  They grow dark in my mouth while pinching towards the center and expanding outward into deadly, broad claws that cut the inside of my mouth.  Sweat drips from the tip of my nose.

I can't stay here.  I can't deal with my dorm room for another second.  My skin is crawling.  I shake my head and my hair settles over my ears, hiding them from view.

They all turn to me when I walk past.  Jessica opens her mouth, squints at me, closes her mouth and then opens it once more.

"Where- hey, Denise, where are you going?" she asks finally.

"Out," I say, gruffly, my voice dropping into something close to a rumbling growl.

My hand slips against the metal doorknob.  A thin, dark callus covers the top of my palm, from my pointer to pinky finger on both hands.  My fingers grip for a second until the skin bubbles outward in sporadic jumps.

Muscles flare on my bare forearm when I clench my fingers.  The doorknob squeals with a metallic whine that makes my ears ring, but it holds when I twist and the door opens.

A blast of cold wind surrounds my body and I close my eyes to it, relishing the way it soothes the heat beginning to course throughout my core.  Blonde hairs wave on my arms and the back of my hands.

"Close the door!  Close the door!" Emma shouts behind me.

"You forgot your shoes!" Jessica yells as I let the door close behind me.  "And a jacket!"

"Your roommate's weird," Makayla mutters.  My ears twist, swiveling nearly backwards to catch her muffled words.

"She's nice," Jessica says.  "Just shy.  Maybe I should bring a jacket to her.  Do you think she's mad at me?  She sounded-"

The howling wind twists the words away from me as I walk.  My shirt ripples on my body and my hair flutters behind me, tugging and pulling against my scalp.  A thick ruff of dirty blonde fur covers my neck and single hairs slowly spread outward from it, one at a time.

My toenails scrape against the concrete, cutting through the tips of my socks.  The first step leaves white dots where I've scored the concrete, but each step leaves longer and longer marks when my nails lengthen.  Candy red nail polish, courtesy of a bonding night with Jessica, flakes away to show obsidian dotted with gray.

The tears in the tips of my socks open wide.  Bones scrapes and break and heal, forcing my toes to expand outward through the holes my claws made.  My big toes lag behind, atrophying as they curl to the sides of my feet.

I drop to my knees three blocks away, barely catching myself.  My spine breaks and I howl in pain while bowing my back.  The shirt rips to show my back, matted with a thick line of  sweat-soaked fur that grows narrow until it reaches a lump above my ass.  Muscles bulge, pulling at my shoulder blades and forcing my body down.  Spittle flings from my open mouth.

The metal catch on the narrow band of my bra bends unwillingly, forced apart as my ribcage expands.  My bra slides down over my small breasts and the band breaks.  I shake, rocking back and forth until my upper body is bare.

Pain explodes within my body as it tears itself apart.  Tendons strain while my muscles continue to grow.  I stretch back on all fours while my pajamas tighten around my ass and legs.  As loose as they are, the seams tremble and strain and pop to show thick blonde fur.  The seat rips and the tear widens to show my panties pulled tight over my swollen pussy.

I raise my head to howl again, black lips pulled back over rows of fangs.  Streaks of gold cover my grey eyes and my pupils shrink as I stare at the full moon directly in front of me.  I moan in ecstasy at the sight of it.  It's the purest thing I've ever seen and I swear I can feel the reflected light washing over my body.  Purifying me.  Soaking into me.  Reshaping me.

Time is slipping.  I'm between buildings.  Sniffing.  Scenting.  And then racing through an empty parking lot.  Shorter gaps.  In the woods.  Somewhere.  I-  Bending over prey.  A large rabbit, torn apart.  The blonde fur covering my hands is red.  Steam rises from its body - a recent kill.  Chewing on-

Cold.  I gasp awake in darkness.  Groaning.  My body is heavy.  I feel drunk.  Disoriented.  Fur litters the ground around me and more falls away from my body when I try to move.  The holes close around the empty shafts and I shiver, pulling more follicles free.

"Ah!  Ah!  It- Ah!  GOD!" pain rippling over my body.  I grip the dirt beneath me with a snarl, grinding my teeth as they pull back and my nose breaks when my muzzle shortens.

My body is on fire- which I'm grateful for because it's freezing.  A few flakes of snow circle above me as I thrash and tear at the ground.  My legs are numb as pressure builds on my spine as nerves wither in my tailbone.

Six pink teats, hardened in the cold now that they're no longer covered in fur, become relaxed.  They bend and shrink and I scratch my belly and breasts and face while spasming against the ground, smearing mud and snow over my skin.

And then it's gone and I'm left there, in the dark.  My panties are stretched out.  They still cover me but loosely.

The night is a blur.  I remember Jessica texting her friends.  I remember her talking about them and then, nothing.  My teeth chatter and I force myself up to try to reorient myself.

I'm in a forest.  I didn't even know there was a forest nearby.

"Was I drugged?" I asked while touching my head.  "I don't- I don't remember anything."

There are lights in the distance. I follow them, wincing as I step on the frozen, snow-covered dirt.  Ten minutes later, when my toes begin to burn, I start to worry and move faster.

The lights are street lamps and I nearly cry when I see the campus in the distance.  I run, forgetting that I'm almost completely nude as my breath puffs behind me.  My whole body is freezing but running helps keep my blood flowing.

It's too early for anyone to be out and, for that, I'm extremely grateful.  I can't even imagine what I would say or do if anyone saw me.

It takes an extra fifteen minutes for me to reach my dorm.  There are cameras inside the building but I'm praying they don't find an excuse to look at the footage as I punch in the door code to get inside.  The relief of being inside is immediate but I don't give myself time to relax.  I race through the hallways and up the stairs to my room.

A spike of pure panic hits me when I can't feel the spare key we keep under the gap of the doorframe.  I fumble frantically, cursing with every passing second with the knees touching the cold floor and I nearly shout out loud with joy when I finally hear it scrape the ground.  My numb fingers miss the keyhole several times until I hold my wrist steady with my left hand and focus.

Once I'm inside, I lock the door and run to the bathroom.

I'm a mess.  My hair is twisted around twigs and my body is covered in dirt and- and-

"What is-?  Is that-?" I ask, leaning in to look at the red coloring covering my face and chest.  I wipe at it and then run water over my hands to try again.  Now it runs down my body, translucent pink droplets.

It's not my blood and that freaks me out.  A lot.  A lot.

Now I start shivering.  And shaking.  And crying.  I start a shower but adjust the temperature when the lukewarm water burns me.  And slowly, I warm up until I'm able to sit beneath a stream of hot water running over my body.

I don't feel hurt.  I don't feel pain anywhere.

Where did the blood come from? I ask myself.  It's something of a chant.  Where did the blood come from?