The new moon was barely visible in the sky as he dropped his bags unceremoniously to the ground and thrust his hands into the pockets of his jeans, looking for his house keys. It would be a nice night for a run and he was anxious to release some of the stress that had managed to accumulate over the past few weeks of his mission. It had been hard being away from his family but travel had been necessary and he was just genuinely glad he was back.
"Ah, finally," he whispered as he found the keys in one of his back pockets.
He smoothly slid the key into the lock and opened the door quietly, stopping it before it gave that particularly annoying creak when opened too wide. It was almost 3am and he did not want to wake his mate, she was sleeping and in the late stages of her pregnancy; she needed all the rest she could get. He was loathe to leave her in the first place but there had been some disturbing rumors coming from their cousins in the North and he'd been tasked to find out what the problem was. The safety of the pack came before his own needs.
Placing the bags on the carpet at the bottom of the stairs, he walked to the kitchen, absentmindedly pouring himself a glass of juice and placing it in the sink after he was done drinking, before walking back to close the front door. The news he'd found out from the Morgan Pack in the North had him unsettled and he was anxious to inform Jonathan, but that would have to wait until morning and he hoped letting his beast run free for a while would release some of that anxiety.
He started stripping, removing every single article of clothing until he was stark naked. Walking back to the kitchen, he slid open the large window and smiled at the thought of what he was about to do. His mate always preferred that he use the door but a good leap just before a run was always what he'd preferred, even as a pup. He did not need to do anything more than concede control to the animal within him and in seconds, the form of the man disappeared, being replaced by one of a large brown wolf which quickly and gracefully leaped and sailed through the kitchen window to land in the compound outside.
Quickly and silently, the wolf ran through the estate and into the woods surrounding it. It had been a while since it'd had the chance to run through the forest and the freedom that came with it was exhilarating. The man did not hold back and gave the reins over to his inner beast, weaving in and out of the trees sharply and letting out small howls of excitement as he left the pack estate far behind. He had not been able to do so for weeks, having been with the Morgan Pack. Changing in the territory of another pack without explicit permission from their Alpha was considered an act of aggression and Were wars had been fought over lesser reasons. He'd had to keep his wolf in check.
He was free now however and the fresh wind rushing past his face along with the silence of the forest at night was exactly what he needed to release some of his pent up tension.
That was when the acrid scent of fear mixed with that of blood hit his nose. It saturated the area he was in so heavily, he wondered how he hadn't noticed it as he was approaching. He slowed to a halt and listened for movement, all senses alert, ready to attack. Moving fluidly through the dark as only a wolf can, he headed towards the source of the scents. The closer he got, the more his hackles rose and he got a sense of wrongness. Moving closer still, he could detect a distinctly feminine scent and the occasional whiffs of faint wolf scents. Non-pack wolves had been on their territory in full Were form and had had a small scuffle from the smell of it. He felt anger begin to rise, and the wolf snarled; this was an outrage, an act that hadn't been done in decades. He would organize a group and hunt down the wolves the next day, a lesson needed to be taught lest some of the younger wolves got similar ideas and wars broke out again. Their numbers had dwindled enough as it was. Moving closer still, he sought out the source of the fear.
He spotted her after a few minutes and approached as quietly as he could. She was lying naked a few paces away, her body still but he could sense the warmth of life coming from her. She was young, no more than 30 at the very least and was lying with her right leg at an odd angle, no doubt broken. Her dark skin was covered in abrasions and clotted blood stuck to the cuts he could see. This wasn't the problem however and he grew restless as the sense of wrongness rose in intensity and he bent his snout closer to her, sniffing around her dark hair only to step back in surprise, a deep growl emitting from him as he inadvertently bared his fangs.
This woman was a wolf too, but not pure. She was a turned wolf; the very thought filled him with dread and another growl came out of him. The woman stirred and her fear rose sharply. Her eyes opened and he could read the confusion in them before they focused on his wolf form and terror flitted through them before she passed out again.
He suddenly realized that any hopes of stress relief had died the moment he'd found her. Late night or not, it was time to wake Jonathan up.
*****
Valery walked quickly as a sense of urgency slowly started to engulf her. The daylight was fading quickly and she had to be back on pack lands before nightfall or else she'd have a repeat of the incident that occurred the night Richard found her.
She was a turned wolf and knew the implications of that. 30 years ago, she would have scoffed at the idea that were-wolves existed but there she was, living in their world daily and adhering to their rules. It had been an unfortunate evening the night she'd been turned.
Along with 4 of her closest friends, she'd gone for a camping trip in the some of the woods that surrounded the city they'd lived in. They were all soon approaching their 30s and at 27, she wanted to do something new before she settled down into the life of a respectable, married woman like she'd always dreamed. Right off the bat on the first night however, a wolf had walked into their campsite as they were preparing to have supper. It hadn't looked rabid and for a second, Valery had believed it was the most beautiful and graceful thing she'd ever seen. That was before it leaped at Luke and in seconds ripped out his throat. Things had been a blur after that, there'd been chaos as the rest of them tried to get away and she'd gotten bitten. She vaguely remembered hearing howls in the background and the murderous wolf had leapt over her, running off into the darkness.
The realization of what had actually happened came a few days later as she lay in the hospital. Luke and Sheila were dead but Sarah and Claire had managed to get away with just a few scrapes and she'd gotten bitten on her left arm. She'd been told that the rangers were looking for the wild animal and reassured that she was out of danger. The trauma of the event was subdued as she couldn't remember much of what had happened, plus she'd healed quickly and was allowed to go home, back to her small apartment and job as a librarian.
Or so she had thought.
It had started harmlessly enough, sometimes she'd wake up in her bed naked, finding her pajamas ripped to shreds somewhere in the house with no memory of what had happened in the night. After that had happened enough times, she started going to bed in the nude only to wake up in various rooms in her house on different days. She'd tried to look up sleep walking and its treatment but everything she found in books or on the internet suggested that it was passing and probably caused by stress, so she'd let it go. It was when she woke up naked on the stairs leading to her apartment that she'd panicked and sought the advice of a doctor who in turn reassured her that it was nothing to worry about and gave her some sedatives which didn't help much.
About a week later, she'd suddenly came to and found herself in wolf form. She'd panicked and tried to run, not knowing what was happening but just finding herself practically flying over fences and bounding up and down parked cars in her neighborhood. She'd finally managed to shift back to human form, cold, naked and terrified. That it kept happening every night did not help matters and she'd barely found anything on the internet about shape shifting that wasn't written by someone high off their asses.
