Of Wolves and Wings

Chapter Three

Tonight is the night of the full moon and I can feel it. It feels like adrenaline running through my blood, spiking my heart rate, and bringing everything into laser like focus. The feeling increases throughout the day as the time draws near. It makes me restless and Sadie definitely gets irritated with me. Then, the pain comes later.

"If you don't stop pacing I'm going to call Landon to come get you early," she says from behind the book she's currently using as an excuse to get out of unpacking boxes.

"How can you even tell I'm pacing when your nose is stuck in a book?"

"Um, pot, say hello to kettle," she poked. "I seem to remember you doing the exact same thing when we were unloading the rest of the boxes yesterday."

"Yeah, well, it's not my fault one of my favorite authors released the next book in her cowboy romance series yesterday. What did you expect me to do?"

Sadie snorted but didn't otherwise comment as she turned a page and did the shimmy. You know, the shimmy that happens where you're at a really good part in a book and you kind of scoot back and forth in your chair to achieve the maximum level of comfort? That's the one. I knew I wasn't getting anything out of her now, probably not for the remainder of the time here.

"Maybe I will go to Landon's early," I said, throwing my hands up in the air in defeat and reaching for the phone in my pocket.

Sadie cast me a sympathetic look over the top of her book. Maybe she wasn't as absorbed as I thought she was. "I'm almost done with the next trial," she said.

"As long as it doesn't give me a repeat of last time. Spending days hunkered over the toilet in addition to the shift was not a walk in the park. Never again."

"Hey, you have to give me some credit! You said you did feel a little delay in your shift. I'm only a teenager. I'm still learning," she protested.

She was right. Sadie was currently working on finding a combination of herbs that could help us have more control over our full moon shifts, maybe even be able to stop them altogether. If nothing else, at least control the pain. It was something, as a pixie, that she should be able to do. But, as she said, she was still young, still learning. And, this wasn't something that was a generally accepted use of her time.

"I know, I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just thankful you're looking into it at all. I know you could be facing mega trouble if they find out."

"Yeah, well, they can take a hike. It's not your fault that your ancestors chose to mix the bloodlines. It hardly seems fair that you bear the curse of that decision."

Sadie was referring to the old stories, the ones that first told of the split in the bloodlines. Initially, there were only werewolves in the canine variety of shifters. They were completely tied to the cycle of the moon. Every full moon, they would shed their human skin for the fur of a wolf until the sun came up. They had no control over their shifts and struggled with control of their minds when in wolf form. They were also forbidden to intermingle romantically with any other form of paranormal. To defy this law would mean certain and instantaneous death for the wolf and the object of their affection.

As you can probably guess, there was a wolf who broke this law. A wolf fell in love with a human. Only, it wasn't just your normal, run of the mill, love. The human was his mate. The other half of his soul, the one made especially for him. Mates don't always find each other; but, when they do, there's no separating that bond if both parties are accepting of it.

The Moon Council, however, did not care. Word of the union was leaked, and the couple were forced into hiding. The wolf, sure that it was only a matter of time before they were located, sent her away to a place he believed she would be safe. What he didn't know was that she was pregnant.

The Council found the wolf and exacted justice, putting him to death. The wolf had put his trust in the wrong ally when hiding away his beloved, and she, too, was located. By the time they found her and eliminated her, the child had been born. No one knew what had become of the chills, but rumors of wolves able to control their shifts and their minds outside of the full moon began to circulate. Rumors that proved to be true.

And so, the race of the "shifters" were born. They grew and spread over the world to such an extent that the small Moon Council knew they would never be able to eradicate them. We are still of lesser value in their eyes, but they feel our curse is enough to mitigate our existence. At least, as long as we also play by their rules.

What might our curse be? Well, you see, we are stuck. We are stuck between the two worlds, human and not so human, never belonging in either. We can shift to our wolf forms at will, except under the full moon. What is an easy matter for them, switching between their human appearance and their wolf, is an arduously painful transition for us.

Oh, every shift has an element of pain for us, given that the wolf can never fully take over our human DNA. But, it happens relatively quickly and the freedom of letting the wolf emerge quickly erases the pain. The switch under the full moon, however, is the worst. It is slow like molasses and a pain I can't even describe accurately. The closest I can come to it would maybe be feeling as if you are being boiled alive, skin peeling from bone, joints popping in and out of socket, and needles sticking up through your pores as your fur grows in. The change back at the end of the night is like all of that in reverse, but at least there is relief at the end of it.

As if that weren't unpleasant enough, the moon calls to the baser instincts of a wolf. While we are able to keep ourselves, our conscious awareness, in non-moon shifts, we lose that ability under the moon. There are records of entire towns being decimated by a rogue shifter on a full moon night. Personally, I think those records are really of true werewolves and just blamed on us, but do with it what you will.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

My phone vibrates from the counter, startling me from my unpleasant train of thought. I glance at Sadie, noticing her back in her book. She probably didn't even realize I had been quiet for so long. I glance out the window of the shop and note with dread the growing darkness. I was lost in thought longer than I realized. Another sign of the approaching moon.

"You gonna get that," Sadie asks, slurping her soda noisily through her straw.

I roll my eyes at her, which of course she doesn't see, and pick up the phone as it starts its second round of buzzing.  I don't have to check the caller identification. From the aching in my joints, I know it has to be Landon.

"I'm on my way," I say, grabbing my purse from the drawer where I stashed it and handing it over to Sadie. She will drop it off at my house for me when she takes my car home. Thankfully her driving skills are improving. Last moon I didn't even have any dings in the door.

"You're cutting it close Andi," Landon's voice, rough with pain, warns. "Hurry up."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the reprimand dad," I say, earning a strained chuckle from him. I hang up the phone and race to my car.

"I'll come check on you and make breakfast in the morning," Sadie calls out.

I really don't know what I would do without her. I wave over my shoulder and am begin running in the next minute. Thankfully, shifters have the same extra abilities, like super speed, as werewolves. Before I know it I'm down in Landon's basement, locking the chains around my ankles and hands. We share a look before the pain of the change is upon me and I am no more.