‘This is crazy!’ thought Sofia as they tread through the snowy forest. When she looked at her friend, with as much discretion as she could muster, a soft blush began to surface on her cheeks and she bit her lip. The boy walked with his eyes focused straight ahead, and he displayed a confidence in his movements that she found reassuring and quite attractive. It was obvious that he knew his way around very well. Despite the apparent seriousness of his expression, there was a shadow of a shy smile on his lips, and the fabric of his pants twitched with each nervous flick of his tail. A pleasant warmth began to flow inside Sofia, who hugged herself to enjoy that sensation. ‘It is crazy, one more crazy thing for the long list of crazy things we've done, and I've never had as much fun as when I'm with you’.

  “It's strange,” said Dave when they reached the mouth of the small cavern he had turned into his shelter. “I've been changing every full moon for over a year now, and I don't think I've ever been so nervous as I am today.”

  “Relax. You're my best friend. I don't think I'll see anything that will make me change my mind about you,” Sofia said with a reassuring smile.

  “I know, but I can't help but worry. I've been judged my whole life for what I am and I wouldn't want anything to change between us. I'm... a lot wilder than I look.” Dave twisted his lips into a small, apologetic smile.

  “I believe you. I still remember that deer you tried to hunt in the middle of the rut. I don't know why you thought that was a good idea.” Sofia shook her head and looked at him with a ‘you have to be insane to do what you did’ look on her face.

  “You...you saw it?” The boy licked his lips and turned his gaze away a little.

  “That's how I found you. I followed your trail to the stream,” Sofia said.

  “Oh...” Dave looked up at the sky and let out a deep sigh. The same shadow of sadness Sofia had seen in his eyes so many months ago appeared in his gaze again. “It... it wasn't my brightest idea. I was angry and frustrated. I wanted to vent off steam by hunting and I chose the worst possible prey.”

  “You miss your friends, your family.” Sofia rested her shoulder on the boy's arm and he nodded.

  “They were my main support when I was a kid. They... accepted me, accepted my quirks and didn't judge me. I tried to show it as little as possible but you've seen me, when I relax, my dog behavior comes out without thinking.”

  When he looked down at Sofia, a sheepish smile broke across his lips and his cheeks flushed so red that it was visible even in the growing gloom of the evening. The shadow of sadness was still there, but the sudden sparkle in his eyes mitigated it to the point of almost making it disappear.

  “And then you incite me.” Sofia nudged him with her shoulder, and Dave laughed.

  “I'm sorry!”

  To show that he wasn't sorry at all, Dave let out a playful growl and jumped on her to nibble on her neck. Sofia started laughing and tried to pull away from him, but the boy's arms around her waist wouldn't let her. Being honest with herself, she wasn't trying very hard either. She liked feeling his fangs against her skin and his scent flooding her nose. ‘I've never smiled so much as when I'm with you’.

  Dave pulled away from her just enough for their eyes to meet and took a deep breath. Under the heavy shade created by the pine trees' dense canopies, his pupils glowed like those of a nocturnal predator.

  “God, it's... liberating to be able to be myself when I'm with you,” he said in a voice that was almost a gasp, as if he'd ran out of breath.

  “For me too.” Sofia tucked a lock of hair behind her ear because she didn't know what else to do with her hands. She was well aware of how much her cheeks were burning and of the idiot's grin on her face. “How old were you when...?”

  “When I changed for the first time?”

  Dave pulled away from her and looked up at the sky again. Sofia felt a shiver as she stopped feeling the warmth of his body enveloping hers, as if she had been stripped of a warm blanket.

  “You don't have to answer if you don't want to. Maybe you don't feel like talking about it.” She licked her lips and looked away, but raised her gaze again when the boy grabbed her hand to give it a gentle squeeze.

  “Don't worry, I don't mind you asking me. It's normal for you to be curious.” Dave twisted his lips into a smile so cute and warm that Sofia shuddered. “It was a year and a half ago, in the summer. I was sixteen and I was lucky I didn't change in front of my entire high school.” he shook his head and let out a small laugh that contained a note of nostalgia.

  “You didn't know what you were? Your father didn't tell you anything?”

  “Yes, I knew. I've known since I was little. It was my fault.” Dave scratched his head and grinned sheepishly. His ears were so red that it was visible even in the dim light. “My mother is a cinanthrope.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, and not only her. My grandparents, my uncles, and I have a few cousins who have already gone through the first change. My whole family on my mother's side are cinanthropes.”

  “I'm so jealous. It must be great to be able to be yourself without having to hide or control your behavior in front of your family.” Sofia bit her lip and looked down at the ground, where her feet were making furrows in the snow with the tips of her boots.

  “I won't deny it, it's nice to be among your own people.” Dave let out a quiet sigh full of nostalgia. “They understand you in a way that humans can't, and they help you manage your own nature and the processes we go through. Besides, family parties can be... interesting.”

  Dave looked up at the sky, where the first stars were beginning to twinkle against a veil of dark blue, and licked his lips. A high-pitched, restrained whimper echoed in his throat, and his eyes glistened with tears he was holding back. He didn't like to cry in front of people and always fought back the urge. What Sofia didn't know was if he let go of his emotions when alone.

  “Hey...” Sofia laced her fingers with her friend's to try to get his attention. “You don't need to talk about this if it affects you.”

  “No... no... it's okay. They're...” He swallowed several times until his voice stopped sounding cracked and smiled, if that weak, nostalgia-laden grimace could be called a smile. The fabric of his pants moved because of the twitching of his tail, which was still hidden inside them. “They are good memories.”

  “You were happy.”

  “I was, that's why it hurts so much.” Dave took a deep breath to regain his composure, and the light returned to his gaze. “I have two older siblings, Ivan and Miriam. My brother is a mage, like my father, and Miriam is latent. We've always gotten along well, although the one I'm closest to is my sister. She kept all my secrets, and you don't know how grateful I am for that because sometimes I needed to be able to get away from my mother.”

  “Is she strict?” Sofia asked.

  “No... not exactly, but she's a mother wolf and I'm her only pup, so she focused a lot on me. She taught me everything I know, from how to manage the changes, how to understand my body and also how to be discreet and hide my natural behavior. The problem was when I started to sleep badly during full moon nights. It is a typical first symptom that your body is getting ready for the change, but it can take months or years before it happens.”

  “I know what you mean. I have not been able to sleep during full moon nights for over a year now. Sometimes I'd like to go through it already so I can get a good night's sleep again.” A quiet growl of protest rumbled in her throat, and Dave laughed. At least that laugh sounded more cheerful and crystalline, and not so full of sorrow.

  “It gets better, I promise. But whether you want to sleep through the full moon or not is a different matter.” There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes that made her blush. “My mother erred on the side of caution and began to force me to stay home, not only on the full moon, but also the day before and after,” Dave continued. “It may seem silly, but there are days when the moon rises at five in the afternoon or comes out on the weekend. I wanted to go out with my friends and do the normal things they all did, and I didn't understand why I couldn't if I hadn't changed yet.”

  “She just wanted what was best for you. Changing in front of humans, even by accident, is not a good idea. You know we don't hide because we're dangerous, but because people don't understand.”

  Sofia bit her lip as a shudder ran down the entire line of her back. She almost gave in to the urge to shake but held back because she didn't want her friend to ask her any questions she wasn't ready to answer yet. It was a memory that still hurt and she didn't feel like talking about it.

  “I know she was doing it for my own good but...” He looked at his hands, still human, and let out a long sigh. “I'm a wild animal and I can't stand being locked up. My mother knew that and she gave me the freedom to come and go whenever I wanted, although I know she didn't like it very much, but on the full moon she forced me to stay at home. I was a pup about to go through the first change. I felt full of energy and the only way to give vent to it was by running. Staying cooped up in a small room was torture and I sneaked out many times. I'm not proud, but it was either that or going crazy.” Dave licked his lips and twisted them into a small apologetic smile.

  “You don't have to explain yourself to me. I'm not going to scold you for wanting to go to the forest when I do it myself every full moon. It's true that I do it to avoid being near humans, but also because I like it here.” Sofia raised her head and took a deep breath. The scents of the forest entered her nose, and among them stood out that masculine musk that she was unable to ignore.

  “You are a far more prudent than I am. I... ignored my body and almost got into serious trouble, and not only on that occasion,” he commented. There was a deep blush on his cheeks that, for some reason, didn't look like embarrassment. “There was a party by the river, a sort of summer event with food, music and drinks. I don't like crowds, you know that, but I wanted to go out with my friends and... there was a girl I liked and...” Dave, who was as red as a tomato, cleared his throat before continuing. “It's... it was a dumb idea. She was human and I was an idiot for thinking it could work.”

  “Did she find out what you are?” Sofia asked as she swallowed the pang of jealousy that twisted her gut.

  Dave nodded and let his gaze wander among the tree trunks. A small shadow that Sofia had seen before dulled the glint in his eyes, and from his lips escaped a sigh that was one of resignation.

  “Yes, and she accepted it at fist but she eventually broke up with me when she got tired of my erratic behavior. It was to be expected. We belonged to very different worlds. She was a feminine girl who wanted to go to the movies and walk through the park holding hands, and I'm a wild animal who prefers to sleep on the grass under the open sky rather than in a bed.”

  “She wasn't the girl for you, but that doesn't mean there aren't other girls who would accept you just the way you are,” Sofia said as she let her fingers brush her friend's hand in a shy caress. ‘Me for example.’ A soft blush began to surface on her cheeks.

  “I'd like to believe so, but sometimes I think I'm too wild even for other cinanthropes. Most of our people manage to adapt to a human life, and I don't think there are many females willing to share their life with someone like me.” After giving Sofia a small apologetic smile, he licked his lips and turned his head to avoid her eyes.

  “You don't have to find many females, you just have to find the right one.”

  Sofia playfully tapped him on the arm in an attempt to encourage him and let out a high-pitched growl. Perhaps it had been too blatant, but at least it worked. The boy's blue eyes lit up again and a wide smile, matching the soft blush on his cheeks, broke through his lips and exposed his four fangs. Sofia couldn't help it. As soon as she saw that wild smile she liked so much, she turned as red as a tomato and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

  “Yes, I guess you're right. I'm not looking for an impossible, just a girl who accepts me as I am and who, whenever I’m in my real form, will still be able to see me. Although I wouldn't want to drag anyone into my life. I'm... aware that it's not very normal.” Dave scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.

  “I don't think any cinanthrope can say they live a normal life,” Sofia said with a chuckle.

  “No, that is true.” Dave joined in with a fresh, crystalline laugh. “So... getting back to the topic, I wanted to go to the party. I... I'm not going to lie, I wanted to see her, but I knew my mother wouldn't let me go, and I can't deny that she had a very good reason. However, with some luck she wouldn’t be home that night so I could get away for a while without her noticing.”

  “Your mother didn't suspect you were trying to sneak out? Mine always seems to be two steps ahead of me, even when I think I've managed to fool her.”

  A shiver ran down her spine, but she was able to suppress it so as not to give in to the urge to shake. Dave could read her body language like an open book, and she didn't want to have to answer questions she wasn't yet prepared for. At some point she was going to have to tell him the truth, especially so he knew how important it was to stay away from her mother, but that night she wanted it to be just for them.

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  “Yes, she knew me well enough to know I wasn’t just going to obey, so she decided to stay home to make sure I didn’t try anything stupid. I won’t lie, I wasn’t happy about it, and after a rather heated argument where my mother made it very clear she wasn’t going to budge, I locked myself in my room and sat down to play a video game.”

  “I find it hard to believe that you would disobey your mother like that. You've always seemed so calm and obedient,” Sofia commented with a little giggle.

  “I control myself a lot because, if I didn't, I'd get into a lot more trouble, but I'm more impulsive than you think.” A mischievous grin broke across his lips. “That day I should have listened tho, but I really wanted to go to the party.”

  “Did you manage to sneak out?”

  “No, and I wouldn't have dared to. My mother is an amazing tracker and I wouldn’t have gotten away more than a hundred meters before she found me. It was Miriam who interceded for me. She told my mother to wait for the full moon to rise and, if I didn't change, then it was safe to go. My mother was not convinced because first changes are weird and can happen at any time of the night, not just when the moon rises, but they are usually preceded by clear symptoms.” Dave licked his lips and looked away.

  “You lied,” Sophia guessed, and Dave nodded.

  “I... I'm not proud, and I could have gotten my sister in a lot of trouble, but I was so eager to get out that I didn't think about the consequences.” A whimper clouded his voice. “We all feel the moon since we're pups and we feel more restless in the days leading up to the full moon, but when you're about to go through the first change it's much stronger. Besides, your senses sharpen. A lot.”

  “It had been happening for days, and that night, as soon as the moon came up, my senses became so sharp that I was overwhelmed. I... I hid it. In fact, I convinced myself it didn't have to mean anything. I'm an idiot.” Dave twisted his lips into a grimace and shook his head.

  “Hey, it was your first time. For all you knew, there was no reason for anything to happen.” Sofia tapped him on the arm to try to cheer him up, and Dave smiled grateful.

  “It was a full moon night and I knew the symptoms. I shouldn’t have gone.” The boy licked his lips and looked into the forest depths, as if he could still see that night's events displaying through those logs. “We went to the party, and I'm not going to lie, soon after we got there I couldn't take it anymore. The noise, the music, the lights, the smells, everything was too intense, much more than usual. I thought about leaving but I was having a good time with my friends. Besides, I saw Laura, the....”

  “The girl you liked,” Sofia commented with a knowing little smile that awakened the butterflies in her belly. She had also decided to stay in the park to play with the snow, even though she wasn't in the mood, only because he was going to be there. It was so obvious that she already had a crush on him that she didn't know how she hadn't noticed.

  “Yes,” Dave smiled, embarrassed, and his cheeks lit up with an obvious blush. “She was with her friends, dancing near the speakers, but as soon as she saw me, she smiled and came running to me. I knew I should leave, but when I saw her smile, I was unable to.”

  “It looks like she liked you too.” Sofia gave him a playful nudge on the arm.

  “If I'm honest, I hadn't even noticed. I'm not popular with girls, never have been. I'm too different and I didn't expect a girl like Laura to be interested in me,” Dave said with a small apologetic smile. “We stayed at the party for a bit and then we went for a walk downstream. Laura was smiling and laughing all the time, and she seemed to be having a good time so, when we were alone I… I kissed her and… God, I don't know how she wanted to be with me after that.” A nervous chuckle escaped his lips and he turned red as a tomato.

  “Wait. You changed in front of her? Is that how she found out?”

  “No, not that day at least, but I did lose control once in front of her. That day I just made a fool of myself.” Dave scratched the back of his neck, and from the way he twisted his lips into a small smile, it was obvious that the redness in his ears was out of embarrassment. “We were by the stream so Laura splashed me. I knew it was only play and I wanted to get back at her, but she ran from me and… I… I’m a dog so I fell into my dog behavior.”

  “Like that day at the park,” commented Sofia, aware of the bright red blush that had appear on her cheeks at the thought. She still remembered how close they had come to kissing, and a part of her was disappointed that they hadn’t.

  “Yeah, but she didn’t growl back when I caught her and growled at her.” His voice sounded a little weaker when he said that, but there was such a gentle, grateful smile on his lips when he gazed at her, there was so much warmth in his eyes, that Sofia blushed even more. “Laura was weirded out and I… I was hurt. Maybe that’s how I triggered the change.”

  “Does it hurt?” Sofia asked with a slight tremor in her voice.

  “No.” Dave smiled and gave her hand a gentle squeeze to soothe her. “It hurts when you try to hold it back because your body is trying to assume its real form. When you exercise hard or when you feel a very strong emotion, your body may try to change. If you don't let it, if you hold it back even if unconsciously, it hurts. You have probably felt it sometimes after an argument or if you were very worried about something.”

  “Yes, it happened to me once after an argument with my mother. It was... pretty scary.”

  Sofia licked her lips and looked away. A shudder shook her as she remembered the confusion and fear she felt when the energy in her chest rebelled and tried to break down the barriers that held it back. By now it was obvious to her that this was what drove the change, but she didn't know how to feel about the fact that her body had tried. She had always lived in fear of that moment, but now... Sofia looked at the boy in front of her and a blush lit up her cheeks.

  “Short before the first change it’s normal. Your body is starting to explore the possibility of changing, but because it's a different sensation, you hold it back without thinking. That's why it hurts. It's scary the first few times but you get used to it eventually, I promise.”

  Dave gave her a reassuring smile that revealed his four fangs, although that, far from calming her, made her heart race, and not just because she found him attractive. Sofia bit her lip and tried not to let the uneasiness she felt show in the expression on her face. She knew that at some point she was going to change, and her symptoms had been increasing over the last year, but hearing from her friend that it was very possible it wouldn’t be long made a knot of anxiety tighten in her stomach. The worst thing was that she wasn't quite sure how she felt, because a part of her wasn't as afraid as she used to be.

  “During the full moon it's... very different,” Dave continued. “It's very fast and fluid. I was... hurt and disappointed. I thought she was different, I thought she accepted me, but to her I was the same freak I was to everyone else, the different one.” A growl rumbled in his throat and he pressed his lips together until it subsided. “I pulled away from her and ran into the forest. Laura tried to stop me but I was too disappointed and I needed to be alone, I needed to run, to be a dog. That’s when I felt it. It was like something in my chest opened, and the energy flowed through my body. Before I knew it, I was on all fours on the ground and I no longer looked human.”

  “It sounds a little scary, especially if you don't know what's happening to you.”

  Sofia hugged herself and shivered a little as a shudder ran down the line of her back. She had seen many cinanthropes who looked confused and frightened. ‘I'm sure many of those cinanthropes changed without knowing what was happening to them. They were alone, confused and scared, and they ran into my mother.’ A growl ascended up her throat and her lips tightened with the intention of baring her fangs, but she restrained herself so her friend wouldn't notice.

  “For someone who knows nothing of the supernatural world, suddenly turning into a dog must be a terrifying experience. In my case it felt… liberating.” he sighed. “I was a weredog, and I was proud to be one, and I was finally in my real appearance. I could finally use the full strength of my body, I could use my fangs, my claws, and I could hunt.”

  “To show that I was not ashamed of being a dog, that there was nothing wrong with being different, I raised my head and howled as loud as I could,” he said with a little laugh. The mischievous glint in his eyes was evidence that he regretted nothing.

  “Wait, ?how far were you from the party site?” Sofia asked, horrified.

  “Not far enough. Everyone heard me, and as you can imagine, the rumors about a wolf in the forest ran rampant for months.” Dave laughed even harder, making it obvious that he found the whole ordeal amusing. “My sister, well… lets say she wasn’t happy. The moment she heard me howl she knew what had happened, and being a latent it didn’t take her long to find me. God, what a scolding she gave me when she saw me!”

  “I don't think you can blame her,” Sofia commented.

  “I don't. I lied to go to a party knowing the risk, and I almost changed in front of a human. I could have gotten my whole family in a lot of trouble. Despite everything...” Dave let out a sigh and looked up at the sky. A glimmer of nostalgia that resembled tears flashed in his eyes. “I'm very lucky to have had my sister. Miriam stayed with me all night and didn't tell my mother anything about what had happened, although she made me promise to find a way to tell her as soon as possible. I... I didn't want my mother to know, but I knew Miriam was right. I needed to learn to control the changes and I had already caused enough trouble.”

  “I don't understand. Why didn't you want to tell your mother? I would have paid to have my father with me to teach me how to be a wolf,” Sofia tilted her head to the side.

  She wasn't going to deny that she felt a little envious because she had never had a family who could help her understand herself better. The closest thing had been her mother, and although she had taught her how to control her behavior and keep a low profile, what little she knew about her own nature she had learned on her own.

  “Maybe I seem like an idiot but I was convinced my mother wasn't going to let me out of the house until I learned to control the changes, and it takes months to get a good grip. The thought of not being able to go out into the forest terrified me,” he explained with an apologetic smile. “Learning to change at will is easy, it's almost innate to us. The hard part is to avoid changing. The dog appearance is our real form so our body is constantly trying to return to it, but at first it's hard to maintain it because you unconsciously seek the normality you're used to. It's... complicated, especially since sometimes you feel the change coming for no apparent reason, just because your body decides it should be in its real appearance.”

  “I didn't know it was like that. How do we manage to live as humans?” Sofia asked as she hugged herself to mitigate the shiver that shook her insides.

  One of the things that always worried her about changing was not being able to hide her nature, so the idea of spending the rest of her life fighting against her body to go unnoticed was not something she found appealing. Although her friend didn't seem to mind it too much. If anything, it seemed to amuse him.

  “Over time you reach a balance, or so they say.” Dave scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. The fabric of his pants twitched due to his wagging tail, as if he needed to make clear that he hadn't reached that point. “I... you've already seen that I don't have much control, but besides....”

  The boy took a deep breath and his lips curved into a smile of enthusiasm that reflected in the gleam that had appeared in his eyes.

  “I... I like it,” he continued. “Whenever I go into the forest and let my dog nature take over, I feel... free. After I changed, I started spending more and more time in my real form and it got to the point where I was away from home for nights at a time. That… that’s why I started having problems with Laura, but the call of the forest was too strong. It still is too strong.”

  Dave let out a quiet sigh and, after giving Sofia a brief glance, he licked his lips and turned his head to sniff the air to his right. Something of what he perceived floating in the air must have seemed interesting to him because he blushed so much that even his ears turned red.

  “You never rejected what you were?” Sofia asked.

  “No, I just wanted to be accepted, but I never believed that being different was a bad thing. I'm a dog and I was raised as one, why would I want to be anything else?” he commented with one eyebrow raised in a quizzical expression.

  Sofia bit her lip and looked down at her boots, which were half sunk in the snow. Right next to them were some dog footprints, the ones her friend had left behind during their flight the night before. ‘He's a wild cinanthrope who grew up in a family of cinanthropes. What a stupid question I just asked him’ she thought with a knot of anxiety in her stomach.

  “Sofia...” Dave brushed her chin with his fingertips and Sofia looked up. The boy's blue eyes looked at her with such concern that she couldn't help but lick her lips. “Have you ever felt like that?”

  A high-pitched whimper echoed in her throat and she nodded. She didn't feel tears welling up in her eyes like other times, perhaps because she was giving in more to her canine behavior, but her reaction was enough for a doubt-filled expression to appear on her friend's face.

  “For a long time all I wanted was to have a normal life. I know it's not possible but... I couldn't help but feel that way,” she said, her voice broken and high-pitched from the whimper that had seeped into it. “There was this one boy, Angel. He realized I wasn't human and he rejected me.” She looked at the white scar on her wrist and bit her lip.

  A gasp escaped her lips when Dave's hand closed around hers. It trembled a little, though it didn't seem to be because of the influence of the full moon, and a muffled growl rumbled deep in his chest. His fingertips caressed the scar lovingly, as if it was something precious to him, and with each touch Sofia felt a gentle tingle on her skin that fed the blush that was beginning to burn in her cheeks.

  “Did he do this to you?” Dave asked with a ferocity uncharacteristic of him.

  “He didn't mean to. He didn't know silver burned me, but yes, he did,” she said, her voice trembling, though she didn't know if it was because of the mixture of emotions inside her, or because of what he was making her feel with his caress. “He rejected me in the worst way. We had been friends since we were kids, but when he found out I’m a werewolf, he looked at me with disgust and turned away from me. Our friendship meant nothing to him.” A high-pitched growl, mixed with the whine she still felt vibrating in her voice, escaped from between her useless little puppy fangs. That rage was a new emotion, but she preferred it to the fear of rejection she used to feel.

  “God, Sofia... this is why you don't let people get close to you,” he guessed.

  Sofia bit her lip to control the whine she felt vibrating in her throat and nodded. The tears still didn't want to surface, but the crying and pain were still tangled between her ribs, as they always were when she thought about what Angel had done to her. Now, however, there were new emotions that overshadowed her pain, emotions she preferred to cling to because they made her feel more alive. Anger, frustration, indignation, disappointment.

  “I was the same as always...” she said with a faint voice that turned into a hoarse growl. “I was the same as always and he didn't care! Ten years. He was my friend for over ten years, and when he found out I’m a wolf he walked away from me as if I were something… something dirty.” Sofia wrinkled her lip to bare her little fangs and growled with such rage and frustration that even she was surprised at how deep and powerful her voice sounded.

  “Hey,” Dave covered her cheek with his hand and looked into her eyes. There was so much conviction in his gaze that Sofia felt the anger subside and the growl died down between her fangs. “There is nothing wrong with you. You're an amazing creature capable of mind-blowing things, and you're also an extraordinary person. Look at what you were willing to do for a feral cinanthrope you didn't even know.” A warm smile broke across his lips, and Sofia blushed.

  “I didn't do anything special. I was just trying to keep him... you from getting hurt,” Sofia said as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her cheeks burned and the butterflies in her belly fluttered, but she was unable to look away from those eyes that were locked on her.

  “It was special for me. It was the first time someone outside my family was willing to risk her life to protect me.” Dave lowered his voice until it sounded like a gasp and let his fingers slide down the skin of her face toward her chin. “God, you don't know how many times I thought about telling you and didn't have the courage. I was terrified of losing you but I wanted to show you how amazing it is to be a cinanthrope. How amazing you are...”

  Over a wide smile that revealed all four of his fangs, his blue eyes lit up with such enthusiasm that something woke up inside Sofia and took her breath away. Dave was looking at her as if she were one of those animals he found so fascinating, as if there was no creature in the world more amazing than her. A whimper riddled with emotion ascended to her throat and faded between her smiling lips. She was well aware that she had the telltale expression of a lovesick idiot on her face, blush included, but she couldn't help it. This was the first time someone made her feel special for not being human, and a familiar pride she had long since forgone began to stir within her.

  ‘I'm not a dog, I'm a she-wolf.’ Those words, spoken with pride, echoed in her mind like a long-forgotten echo, an echo that mingled with the chords of a distant howl. She knew they were part of a recurring dream, but for some reason they evoked scents and images that remained hidden behind the fog of her mind where childhood memories lay, those that were so far away that she no longer remembered them. A knot of unease tightened in her stomach, as if there was something else she wasn't taking into account, but it was a small annoyance in the face of the amalgam of emotions that flowed through her body as she remembered what she thought of herself when she was a little girl.

  ‘I've always known I’m not human but that didn't bother me. Why should it? I can see in the dark, I have an amazing sense of smell, and I can hear things that others can't. It was really cool, as if I had superpowers, and having to keep it a secret from the other kids was a really fun game that made me feel special’. The smile on her lips became much wider and an expression of excitement, identical to her friend's, spread across her face. Before her was a cinanthrope who was not only proud to be one, he also liked it, and Sofia was looking forward to learning about his world because she belonged to it as well. ‘I wasn't always afraid. When I was little, I was proud to be a wolf too. At what point did I forget who I was?’.

  Dear reader; thank you very much for reading. I hope you are liking it, and as always, likes and comments are greatly appreciated. ^_^