Prologue:

Running. That's all we ever do. No complaints, though. Running is all we want to do. Run. Sleep. Run. Sleep. And of course eat. We limit ourselves. No one notices, and if ever they do, it's always 'an animal problem'. Though they aren't far off. By the time they notice, we are long gone,
or at least in our human form. Occasionally we stick around town, but never too long. Always as the avid hiker. No one of any importance. Then we move on to the next area. Strange as it seems, this is how we live. This is our life. Our life as wolves.

Chapter 1:

One Bite. That's all it took. One bite to change my life forever. On a warm summer evening, he came to me.

“Come,” He said. “join me.”

And I did. He took my wrist and tenderly brought it to his lips.

“I'm sorry.” He whispered, and bit. Not too hard of course. His razor sharp teeth sliced easily through my skin. He drank, only for a moment, and stopped. Without letting me go he pierced his own hand and pressed it to my wound. I could feel the transfer immediately; His blood, so much stronger than my own, took my body over. I could feel myself changing; Every cell in my body becoming more durable. It didn't hurt as I thought it would, but it wasn't pleasant either, until his blood reached my heart.

The pain, more excruciating than I've ever felt before, made me collapse. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, at least not about anything but the pain. I could feel myself sinking, but I refused to let go.

“Sleep,” he told me. “don't make this harder on yourself.”

I listened and I quietly slipped into unconsciousness. I slept and I dreamed of mostly pain, but other things as well. Life, slowly slipping away, yet coming closer at the same time, masked into something beyond my imagination. Then nothing.

I awoke in some sort of cave, my senses more alert than ever. I knew there was a reason for this, an overwhelming reality that I wasn't quite sure of, but it wouldn't come to me. Slowly, I rose to my feet, but something wasn't right. I was closer to the ground than I should have been. I looked down at my feet.

“Paws?” I said, but it came out as a whimper. “Wha- what is going on?” That sounded wrong too.

“I know it's weird,” came his voice, “It will be for a couple hours.”

I didn't know what to do. Why was I like this? Why did I have paws?I was looking frantically around myself for some clue as to what was happening, but there was none.

“Lilly, you need to relax.” He took a tentative step toward me. I took several deep breaths, and tried to relax my tensed muscles. My entire body quivered, I got hot all over, then fell naked as a human on the cool stone floor of the cave.

“What's going on?!” I yelled at him. Rising to my feet.

“I know you don't remember. My name is Nathaniel, please try to remember me.”

'Nathaniel? Why does that sound familiar?' I thought about him for a moment, trying to remember where I've seen his face. His Identity snapped back to me like a rubber band, then I ran. As fast as my weakened legs could manage, directly towards Nathaniel, my Nathaniel. I crashed into his chest as his arms wrapped around my shoulders. “It worked! It actually worked!”

“Of course it did,” He replied, “How are you feeling?”

“Weird,” It was the only word that I could think of that could describe this feeling in my bones.

“You'll feel this way for a few hours, just until the initial change wears off.”

“I don't understand one thing...” I hesitated. He gave me a quizzical look. “Why are we naked?” He just laughed.

“Lilly, Sweetheart, our clothes don't just pop in and out of existence with us. Yours are destroyed from the change, but usually we take them off and stash them in a spot we will remember once we change back.”

I just stared. This was a lot to take in all at once. “So, I'm like you now?”

“Yes.” was all he said.

“Will we be like this forever?”

“No, not forever.” He looked slightly displeased by this fact.

I hesitated. “Well, how long do we have?”

“Naturally we live to be around 40 human years old. All of us make it that far, though accidents happen,” This time he hesitated. “Some humans are more... greedy when it comes to hunting.”

“Oh,” Was all I could mange, but I let that possibility sink into my head for future reference.
I decided it was time to change the topic to a happier subject.

“How do I make myself change?” I asked.

“Will it to happen,” He replied. “Want to become a wolf and a wolf you will become.”
So I tried; I thought with all of my heart, 'I want to be a wolf” then I fell. Instinctively I tried to catch myself with my hands, but there was no need, I was already on my paws. 'wow' I thought. I looked up to see a pure black wolf staring at me he beckoned me with his head. As I followed him out of the cave I noticed he wasn't just black, he had one white stripe running from his neck to his chest, like a long scar. We trotted out of the cave into the brilliant night sky the light summer breeze carried hours worth of scents to my nose. I could smell the herd of deer that had passed by this morning, the chipmunks gathering their acorns for storage. I could smell the musky mossy dirt mixed with the sunshine of a warm day. I couldn't understand how it was possible to smell sunshine, but that's the only way I could think to describe it. All of a sudden I was seeing a landscape through my eyes that wasn't in front of me; I saw a red house surrounded by a field and beyond that was a forest. The house looked rickety, but somehow homey, then Nathaniel changed direction. He started leading me east rather than north. I wanted to ask where we were going, but didn't know how to communicate in this form so I decided it was best to just follow him. After a good half hour the trees were starting to thin. I could just make out a hint of red in the distance, I started moving a little faster. Pretty soon I was running, but I didn't have to run far, the trees were getting thinner, turning into shrubs and brush. I broke through the last of the woods to face the exact image of the red house in the meadow that was in my head earlier, But how did I know this is where I was going if I had never been here before? I turned to Nathaniel and gave him the best puzzled look I could muster, but he just continued across the small lawn and into the house.