Adriana
It was the second moon she’d spent in her little yard in Cambric Creek, and she was furious that he’d even ruined that for her.
The turn itself was always the same. Breaking bones, shattering, splintering, new growth sprouting from the shards, longer, leaner, her organs displacing as the new shape grew around them.
Her nails split, black claws pushing up like weeds, her curtain of dark hair replaced with short fur of mottled grey.
Amber would subsume the hazel of her eyes, leaving her blinking and disoriented at first. Her jaw extended with a sickening crunch, her teeth sharpening and growing long, crowding her mouth until her gums bled.
She had grown up learning to fear the moon.
Its bright white light promised danger if she did not stay hidden, if she did not stay low and invisible.
The wolves would run, wind in their ears, dirt moving beneath their feet, but the wolves moved in packs, were large and aggressive, and viciously territorial.
Unlike every moon of her childhood and beyond, her little yard promised safety, a private space of her own, and she was free to exist beneath the moon’s brilliant rays in peace.
The first moon, shortly after she moved in, had been a novelty.
A secluded space, safety, like nothing she had ever known before.
She had prowled around every square foot of the small enclosure, back and forth, digging, rolling, snuffling through the bushes.
At one point she’d curled up atop the little patio table she’d purchased, and took a nap.
The twelve-foot square of patchy grass was hemmed in by a high wooden privacy fence, backed up by a tidy row of tiny, round shrubs. To a normal human, it was a cozy patio.
For her, that night, at least, it was a cage.
There was a gnawing in her belly, a premonition of danger, one only made worse by the weather.
It had been a brilliantly sunny morning, flat white clouds moving in by late afternoon, dulling the sun’s rays, and by late evening, those clouds had turned gray and ominous.
Now the sky was the color of a bruised plum, the thick cloud cover almost hiding the moon completely, and she cowered in her little bushes, feeling oddly exposed.
The storm rolled in shortly after. Thunder began to rumble from the horizon, long rolls that echoed through the hills.
Wherever the lightning strikes were, they were too far away to see, but the air was filled with the smell of ozone.
She tucked into the wall behind the shrubs, hoping to be buffeted from the rain that would be starting soon when a gust of cold wind blew in another scent, one that was not unfamiliar to her nose.
Black pine pitch, earthy and strong. Black pepper, spicy on the back of her tongue, burning her gullet, and through the middle of it, a sparkling streak of something bright, like a juicy clementine.
The familiarity of it should have been comforting, but it only made her clench in fear.
Her hackles went rigid and she crouched low, belly to the ground, trying to disappear into the landscaping of the tiny yard as another roll of thunder shook the windows in their casements.
That was how he found her.
The sound of the wooden gate creaking open was lost to another crack of thunder, and a dark shadow fell over the yard. The hole of the open gate was like a gaping maw in the darkness, and through it stepped a monster.
Overhead, the moon had fled, and she was alone.
Trapp’s wolf didn’t belong in this tidy suburban neighborhood of narrow rowhouses.
He was colossal, a terrifying mountain of midnight-black fur that seemed to absorb every bit of light the night possessed, his glinting white canines several inches long.
His molten gold eyes still held the unyielding fury of the argument they’d had in their upright bones, one she could barely make out the memory of in this form.
Rage and betrayal. Heartache and despair.
Her coyote didn’t know the details; only the smell of what lingered.
She cowered, flattening herself further, but she would not go down without a fight. The lightning struck at last, splitting the sky as a high-pitched warning snarl ripped from her throat. Don’t even fucking try it.
As he began to circle her, her yard, her perfect little sanctuary, became an inescapable trap. A cage of his making.
Trapp’s wolf moved with a terrifying, fluid grace, huge paws leaving craters in the wet ground.
His eyes were locked on her, telegraphing without words how easy it would be to overpower her.
His ears were pinned back, a rumbling vibration building in his chest, a warning to her.
He wanted her to tuck tail and submit. She would rather die.
You don’t belong here, her jaws snapped, moving to the center of the yard. He had brute strength, but she was faster. As he circled her, she pivoted with him, never looking away, her teeth exposed in a snarl.
Another lightning strike, and he lunged. His jaws snapped inches from her ear, the sound cracking like a whip; a warning of what he could do to her. It was a mistake to threaten her, for she wasn’t going to give him the opportunity.
What she lacked in mass, she made up for in blinding speed.
Ducking beneath his massive chest, her small, lithe body slipped through the mud like an eel, her teeth sinking into the thick, coarse fur of his foreleg.
He let out a furious snarl, one massive paw striking her, sending her skidding into the mud.
That was the end of the warnings.
For the next several minutes, they lunged and snapped, him rolling her easily, using his weight and size to overpower her, but never going in for a true bite.
By contrast, she fought dirty. Her low center of gravity helped her weave through his legs, slashing at his hocks, biting whenever she could.
When her teeth made contact with his heavy sac, the big wolf yelped, batting her away like a gnat, sending her crashing into the wooden fence.
She lunged again and again, using her speed to wear him down, until Trapp had enough. She dove for his throat, but he didn’t move, letting her sink her teeth into the muscle and sinew of his shoulder, using her closeness to pin her at last.
The sheer weight of him crushed her into the earth. Adriana yelped, gasped, struggled to break free, but it was no use. A huge paw came down beside her head as she thrashed, long hooked claws raking the earth, teeth snapping before her neck.
Yield. Submit to me.
She twisted, still fighting, jaws still snapping, refusing to give in. Never.
She would have continued to fight and thrash forever, or at least, until the sun resumed its place in the sky, but she never got the chance.
Lightning split the sky with a furious crack that seemed to shift the foundation of her townhouse, followed almost immediately by the agonized split of a tree.
They heard the slow crack of the branch as it fell somewhere behind the yard; smelled the burnt wood and ozone in the air.
She yelped when the sky opened, and the rain began sheeting down.
Adriana slipped from him with ease, realizing he had let her go.
Back to her place in the bushes, pressed to the wall of the house, but it was no good.
The rain was blowing sideways, gusting with a sharp wind as thunder rumbled overhead.
She was trembling, darting beneath the little table.
It did nothing to block the wind or the rain.
The wolf had retreated, already on the other side of the small yard, just before the open gate, when he stopped.
Their eyes locked for an interminable moment.
Resentment and anger, an argument that had taken place in a different life, in a different form, still echoed in their bones.
Another lightning crack, the wind whistled, sending the rain sideways like daggers.
The little coyote whimpered again, her ears pinned flat.
Suddenly, the big wolf was before her, slinking down beneath the table, circling her, enfolding her in his body, bushy tail covering her shivering flanks, his thick, corded neck shielding her small head.
Above them, the storm raged on, lightning painting the night sky.
Tomorrow they would belong to those different forms, but right then they belonged to nothing but the wind and the storm overhead.
The moon was nowhere to be found, and she had never felt quite so safe.