by DD Prince
Fuzz. A big tree is not far ahead of me. If I slide another six feet, I’m guessing my car will hit the tree.
Crunch!
The car doesn’t move but the crunch sound is a bad sign and came from the passenger side.
I see nothing, but I hear something hit the car again and my car moves back just a little but then lurches forward and there’s all sorts of noise out there as I slide further.
Have I angered a bear because I hit it and now it’s trying to enact vengeance on my poor little purple car? It could’ve been a massive cat like a panther with those reflective eyes, but I don’t know. Are there panthers around here? Or mountain lions?
I look at my phone. Still no signal.
Another noise tweaks me, but this time, it’s not coming from the front or the back. And it feels like I’m being watched.
Something is looking in the window at me. I gasp, holding my phone in my hand and taking in those reflective eyes, the long line of fur down to a big black nose. A wolf. A massively humungous wolf, bigger than any wolf I’ve ever seen in a zoo or even on television, is peering through the window. It sniffs and condensation forms on the glass around its face.
Shit! I think it wants to eat me.
I haul air into my lungs. And then… nothing. I’m frozen, in shock, as I see those eyes on me.
I can’t breathe.
I finally exhale with a “Shoo”.
I wave at it as if to add emphasis.
At least I’m inside the car, but I’m utterly trapped here for the night because no way in Hades am I climbing out if there’s the slightest chance a scary dire wolf waits for me. Okay, I know dire wolves are extinct, but that thing was huge. I’ll just have to stay put until morning so I can be sure it’s gone before I can leg it to look for a phone signal.
It drops back to all fours, I guess, as I no longer see it. I lean forward and then I gasp in shock as I now see a man. A man is unfolding from a bent position and stretching his back as he stares at me now from the same spot.
“What the fuuuck?” I whisper.
He’s huge. He has long, curly hair.
He’s naked.
He.
Is.
Naked!
I actually hear the shocked blinks I make, which sounds as loud to me as those dolls I had as a kid with the eyes that open and shut.
What in tarnation?
2
Tyson
When I knew her scent was directly in front of me, the urge was fierce. The urge to claim. This is urgency I’ve never felt.
Now that I’ve seen her face – I need past all this metal and glass … to get to her.
Yes, to claim her, but also so I can calm her, so I can then claim her.
I’ve never had the urge to calm or claim. The sensations in me are foreign.
I search for a way in. It takes a second to remember how these things open. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this form – man form. Fingers, thumbs. Standing so tall. Feeling the chill of the night air with the absence of my thick black coat.
I pull the handle and it fails to release the door, the door that prevents me from getting to her. Anger bubbles up and I want to use my cock to pierce a hole through it to get to her. My cock aches so much to be inside her it feels like it’s a possible solution to my problem. Fuck through anything in my way so I can find my way into that heat, that mouth-watering scent. She’s mine. I know it.
Finally.
I slow my reactions to offer myself a chance to think. Think of how to get to her. Think like my man form needs to think.
I lost logic as I tried to breach the machine in wolf form after it struck me. I was raging, I was reacting as wolf, trying to tear through the thing that kept me from what I want. The machine…car… slid and I then tried to halt it, but it took me with it. My feet sank deep into the wet earth before I backed off and came out of that state where I do things that I later decide made no sense. It occasionally happens when something is in front of me that falls outside my natural instincts. It’s usually to do with people.
And now I’ve peered through the glass and laid eyes on her.
She’s small, she’s frightened, she’s beautiful, and she needs me.
She. Is. Mine.
As soon as I knew the sight of my wolf frightened her, a strange sensation hit me, and I shifted spontaneously to man. I haven’t been a man in a long time and a spontaneous shift has not happened to me for much longer than that. It’s a time that I recall, though it’s foggy in my mind, when I couldn’t control which form I was in. I hated that loss of control. I don’t want it now.
Uncle... it had something to do with him. What?
It hits me. Uncle left. He left me with the supplies because he said he had things to do, errands he had to complete without me because I just couldn’t stop shifting. I raged as my body changed from wolf to man to wolf to man for days and days until I found a way to slow it and it kept getting stuck in between. He saw that and told me to practice doing it so I could stop in the middle on command like my father used to do. Before he was killed by his mutinous pack.
Memories wash over me. Memories of dried meat, dry bread, canned fruit and pain and loneliness as my body repeatedly and traitorously shifted without my control. Uncle shouting. Uncle swearing at me. Uncle leaving me for a long time while it continued over and over. Uncle shouting. Uncle and his whisky.
A growl rolls up from deep in me at the memories, but I have no time now for rage because this is her. This is her.
My one. My only. She does exist.
Her eyes have grown larger and the fragrance in the air is fear. She fears something. Me.
She’s holding her breath in and behaves like trapped prey. She is trapped, and I’ll free her. I’ll free her so that I can claim her. She’s no one’s prey; she’s mine. Or she will be when I mount, bite, and knot her.
When I caught her aroma in the air before the sky had completely darkened, I knew. I knew it was why I was here, why I’d felt so aware of everything around me, why I wandered so close to the town. Why my thinking had changed, part way to man.
I’ve stayed deep in the forest other than during winter when I sleep in the den. I woke just a few nights ago, late waking from hibernation, and for days I’ve been on the hunt, feasting, gathering strength after my long winter sleep, but staying closer than usual to my den. It was a long winter; I can tell by how weak I felt. And I felt like I woke too early. Yet, it was later than it should be. It made no sense, but I just followed my nose and hunted, feasted, and then today, it hit me.
Energy fizzled in me when I woke, and I couldn’t decipher my actions, couldn’t know why I remained near the town, why I was feeling so strange, until that scent hit. And I hunted for it like I’d never hunted for anything, but without my typical skills. It’s been disorienting. Everything was wrong. The sky, the air, the scents, me…
I was disoriented but I wouldn’t stop until I could see the female behind that aroma, could know for sure that she’s mine. And now I have, and I do.
I like how she looks. I like the way the sight of her shape makes my cock ache. I don’t like how frightened she is. I need to get at her so I can cover her with my body, let her inhale my scent so she’ll learn it, so she’ll know that when I’m near her she’s safe. So she’ll know the scent of her mate.
My small female has long and shiny hair the color of sunshine, with a few chunks the shade of blueberries. She has long eyelashes and long legs, though she’s not tall. She has pert breasts. She reminds me of how I imagined the sprites in the stories Uncle Cornelius would read me when I was a boy about little shapely fairies that would flit around at dusk. I never saw one, but painted one from my vision of what they might look like. If that painting is still in the house somewhere, I want to see it… see if it resembles her.
I remember that painting and remember wanting to have a sprite of my own but there’s a lot I don’t yet remember.
It takes time to adjust aft
er not shifting for a year, but I know it’s been more than two years, more than four I think. This is why my brain is hazy with confusion.
But there’s no time to adjust. I need her. I only hope it doesn’t take me so long to adjust that it puts her in peril.
This is what brought me close to the town today. This was why I was thinking halfway between wolf and man. Something changed. Her.
I’d woken far too early to hunt, though ravenous and restless until my nose twitched with interest like never before, sending me in aimless circles for what felt like an eternity until I was hit with the onslaught of her scent.
It slammed into me with such physical force that all my fur stood on end as I tried to process the sensations, sensations that were utterly foreign.
As I picked up other aromas with hers, I grew angrier and angrier as I tried to track her because I immediately knew… I knew she was mine. I also knew there was an unpleasant male scent near her. Furthermore, I now knew that any of my previous attempts to find the woman who would be mine was useless because this scent attacked me. I didn’t look for it. It found me as if meant to be.
I knew, intuitively what it was. Who she was. The one. My only one.
And the fragrance… the best scent to ever hit my nose, uniquely her was also infused with something wrong. Not quite fear from her but something like fear. I suspected it had to do with the male scent near her. And that made me dizzy with rage.
The moon wasn’t right tonight. Too large. Too close. Instinct told me it had been interfered with. Based on the proximity of her scent, it should’ve taken no time to find her. Uncle once told me that sometimes witches interfered with things. That sometimes they made the road lead to new places. That sometimes they trapped you where they needed you to stay so that they could complete some purpose either for you or in spite of you.
This night felt reminiscent of those things that Uncle talked about sometimes when he would get in one of his dark moods. The dark moods happened often throughout my life and were often fueled by whisky. I would listen, let him speak though his words often didn’t make sense, and then leave him be. Most times when I asked questions, his answers were non-answers, or he grew agitated and didn’t answer at all.
When her scent moved too far away, I was confused for a time but finally, the haze of confusion lifted enough for me to surmise that she got into a car and left. I hadn’t set eyes on her yet at that stage but knew the scent of cars and knew the scent of this particular car, already having had it imprint on me, but tracking that scent isn’t as easy as tracking a person or prey. I got dizzy from the onslaught of emotion I was feeling which meant I lost time and the car scent. When the scent got stronger as I scoured while tracking the car, my nose to the ground, finally, the fragrance picked up in intensity and got not only stronger, but the onslaught of the strength of her aroma was so powerful that it disoriented me and because of that, the car struck me.
This was my fault, not hers. If I’d been shifting each year as uncle told me we were meant to do, I’d have more clarity right now. I’d have gotten to her sooner. And now I’ve shifted to man and the overpowering aroma has me hard, ready, disoriented, and anxious because I need to get to her and yet this car she’s in prevents it. And I want her. I want to claim her. And it’s in the way. And my head feels…fuzzy.
It has always felt foreign to be in this body. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed it, not since that first time I shifted as a child and felt wolf was my true form. But I feel like I will enjoy this form more when I get her under me. The air is cold, and my nails have receded as have my teeth in a scenario that feels like I should be on alert. I feel defenseless out here like this in the chill. How will I adequately protect her if I’m like this?
I will my body to shift back, or attempt it, but it fails and I’m still man. This shift was not a conscious choice, instead a need. And despite how foreign it is, it occurs to me that it’s necessary. How can I help her if I’m wolf? Perhaps I’m man right now because my instinct tells me I need to be. For her. I need to listen to my instinct.
In my man form I’m peering in through the glass at my female who is startled and frightened at the sight of me. She was shocked a moment earlier when I was wolf and now she is both frightened and confused. I see it on her face and smell it in the air. Even more than when her car struck me. She fears me even more now, it seems, than when I was wolf. I’ll get to her, calm her, and then mount, mark, and claim her.
Uncle directed me to woo them at that bar, but I never felt like I was good at that. Successful always, but never comfortable doing it. I have no need of wooing this time, only claiming, because this one belongs with me.
I know she’s not a female of my kind, but that doesn’t matter. I know she’s mine and feel no disappointment. The opposite. Her fragrance called to me; it woke the dormant man in me.
My wolf waits. Intrigued.
I pound on the window and ponder how to get her out. Can she open the door from inside?
Even though I’ve shifted annually almost all my life other than this last few years, I speak very rarely. Only if I must. It looks like I must. She fears me; she doesn’t know she’s mine.
I’d rather show her she’s mine than speak the words of it to her. Metal and glass prevent that.
The haziness is dissipating too slowly. I need more clarity.
3
Ivy
I’m trying to work this out…
Seconds after the wolf disappears from my view, a man stands in the same place. The exact same place. A muscled, huge, naked man.
My forehead crinkles. Can’t be.
Was that this guy’s wolf? Where is it? And where did he come from?
The exact same place? No. No. My brain is racing at turbo-speed, trying to make sense of what my eyes have just seen; trying to tell me the explanation – an explanation that just… it
JUST
CAN’T
BE.
He pulls on the door handle and I gasp. It’s locked, thank God, so he doesn’t gain entry. A long moment passes while he stares at me thoughtfully before he speaks.
“Open this,” he demands in a rough, raspy voice.
I hear the sound first and then see rain as it begins to patter on my roof and trail down the windows of the car.
He pulls on the handle again and it doesn’t give.
“Open it. Now.”
Holy shit. What the heck? I’ve gone from the frying pan into the fire. I have never been so afraid in my life. The rain is picking up now and this guy is drenched. Where did he come from and where’s the wolf? I need to see the wolf, so I’ll know my initial reaction is wrong, that this guy isn’t – I shake the thought that’s circling my brain before it has a chance to fully form.
“Y-you better go.” I find my voice. “There’s a wolf out there. It was just here!”
“Is this door damaged?” he asks, ignoring my warning.
“What?”
“Can you open from there?”
“I – locked it.”
“Open it.”
“Wh-why?”
“I need … in.” His eyes implore me to open the door. But not in a sweet or kind way, as if it’s urgent.
No. No no no. This isn’t right.
“There’s a wolf out there! You better be careful, or it’ll get you. I hit it with my car by accident and I think it’s pissed at me. You better go!” I say. “It’s huge. Did you see it?”
Maybe I’ll see them both now and know it’s not true. My eyes try to scan the space behind him.
His expression changes.
God, those eyes are filled with something. Something…
“Let me in,” he cuts my thought short. “So I can be safe from the wolf.” His mouth twitches as he fights a smirk. His fight fails.
A smirk? What the heck?
I jolt. “Is that wolf yours?” I ask.
“Yes.” He jerks his chin at me. “Open.”
“I can’t.” I shake my h
ead vigorously.
This doesn’t make sense. He’s contradicting himself.
He stares a beat, like he’s searching my face for something.
“I’ll help,” he says.
“Help?” I inquire.
What is he after? I can well imagine. Same thing every other man I’ve come across tonight wants.
“The car will –” he pauses and looks down the hill. “Will slide down this valley with the soft earth and at the bottom there’s a river with…” he stops and considers something, “fast water. You need to open it so I can get you to safety.”
He speaks in a stilted and measured way. It’s as if English isn’t his first language, but he has no accent.
It’s got to be freezing out there, it’s cold enough in here, and yet he’s naked. It’s dim, but I can tell that the guy is just massive. He has long and curly hair, hair as long as mine. He has huge shoulders, defined biceps. I halt my measurement before my eyes dart down his torso to where I already know he’s got no clothes on.
I shake my head. “Sorry, but I gotta ask you to go. Someone is…um… coming back.”
“Back?” He straightens. “Here? A male?”
“Maybe if you wanna help me you can call me a tow truck. My… my boyfriend is gone for help and he should be back any time now. In case, um… he didn’t get far maybe you could call a tow truck to haul us out of here.”
He has no clothes on, so how can he make a call when he has no pockets? I guess I’m just stalling him.
“Boyfriend?” he snaps. And then he growls.
Yep… growls.
He’s just … growling for a long time, animosity rolling off him.
This guy is not a potential helper. I mean, duh, ‘cuz he’s naked so that’s my first clue, but he looks angry. This feels like it won’t end well and shit, I’m unarmed. I’m unarmed with no phone signal in the dark, in the rain and this car is definitely going nowhere without being hauled back up onto the main road unless it’s going down toward that fast-moving water.
“Open,” he snaps.
I shake my head. “Sorry, but no.”
I put my phone to my ear and there’s no signal, but I pretend there is anyway.