Gone Wild

Chapter 1

"Hey, Leslie, I'm just going out for a bit, 'kay? I'll be back late." Stacy mumbled as she slipped on her shoes. I looked up from my laptop and nodded, though of course, she didn't see it. Pulling out her lipstick and reapplying yet another coat, she smacked her lips in the hall mirror and slammed the door.

I sighed, deflating.

It had only been a couple of weeks since we'd moved in together, and she was already tired of me. I pushed myself up from my chair to close my bedroom door, firmly clicking the lock in place. I grimaced, remembering last Saturday; Stacy had stumbled home in a drunken stupor, opened the first door she found in the flat and pulled the equally drunk boy in with her to start... occupying the bed I was in. To top that off, as soon as they'd fallen on me and woken me up, she'd puked everywhere. I made a face at my bed as I passed it. I'd only started sleeping in it again two nights ago, but it still stank.

Stacy was my mum's best friend's sister's daughter. Aunt Sheila had been stressing about where her niece would stay for college, since all the rooms on campus were full and apartments were too expensive for a student. Mum had tentatively mentioned that I was looking for a flatmate somewhere close, and that was the signed contract to them. She apologised, but I didn't really have much say in refusing, since she was the one paying for half my tuition and rent.

Stacy was clearly disappointed when she met me. It was obvious she'd wanted somebody more like herself in a roommate; somebody to go out partying with and become a best friend. I wonder, if my past hadn't gone they way it had, if I'd have become that kind of person... But instead, the hand she shook was of a skinny girl with big glasses and dark hair and an utterly subdued demeanour. I was an IT major student, and a polar opposite to what she'd hoped for. She'd tried for a day, but got fed up at me and we pretty much ignored each other around the flat. I was happy with that though. I had my own space, she had hers, and there was a mutual agreement to not trespass on the other's grounds.

I sighed in relief as the tension disappeared, and a tired smile broke through. I pulled at the hem of my shirt and tugged it over my head, shaking my arms out of the sleeves. Chucking the shirt on my bed, I went back to my desk in a tank top. I hated wearing long sleeves at home.

My elbows rested on the table as I typed. I glanced down from my assignment to look at my arms briefly. Bruises littered the pale skin. They no longer bothered me though - my arms would probably always have bruises. Nothing I could do about it.

Glancing up at the document, I tried to get back into it, but my mind was wandering. Codes never was my favourite pastime, and I was feeling restless. The apartment was empty; my mind was beyond homework, exploring the opportunities I had. I could go on a run, I could splurge and order a ton of meat, I could shift and roll around in the living room...

No. I shut my brain off. That was completely illogical; who knows who might see something from the window, or what if I couldn't shift back? What if I lost it?

Being a werewolf was scary.

I remember high school. I used to be obsessed with wolves, and everything about them. My page used to be littered with fanfiction, fan art, all the nerd stuff; I'd even drawn a manga once. All with the general mindsets, about beautiful people who lived in the wild and could grow ears and tails and had sharpened senses, and who find mates. All the sappy romance stuff the internet comes up with - it was stupid.

Being a werewolf is nothing like that.

It's scary, when you first find out you can shift. And you don't just grow a pair of cute ears - you wholly turn into an animal. It's painful. You barely have any consciousness when it happens, and you wake up with terrifying gaps in your memory. What did you do? Did anybody see you? You develop strange habits, like growling when you get angry, or fangs sliding out when you get excited, or acting like a dog at times and senses abruptly heightening at others. You need more food, more than an average person generally needs, and you have insane hormones that get possessive and territorial over the stupidest things. And the worst thing is, you have to shift every two weeks. It gets uncomfortable after a few days, and then you get restless, and if you don't let out the wolf then your body ends up forcing it on you. At least, if you voluntarily do it, you have some awareness of what's happening when the wolf side is in control. But shifting is really painful. Then there are things that should be normal but aren't - like I never got my period, and I don't know if that's a werewolf thing or just a personal thing. I don't know if I have diseases or if it's a werewolf thing, like how it hurts slightly when I have to get my hair cut, or when my gums occasionally bleed if it's because of my fangs or my teeth - or anything. I can't compare human things to wolf things because I don't know which is which, and I obviously can't go to a doctor. Or a vet. Even something as simple as my pulse is faster than a normal human's. I can't go to anyone for help and it's scary because I don't know if I'm doing things right or not.