Hours later, long after the day had ended and the sun had risen again, Hunter was still contemplating what Grayson had said. He stirred his off-brand cereal with a spoon, courtesy of the cafeteria and watched the puffed pieces of grain float around in his milk. He didn't go in with pure intentions. What did that mean? Their previous meeting contained weird flirting courtesy of his lupine side, but had it not been mutual? Hunter looked at his warped reflection in his spoon. Short guys with fangs who wore sunglasses indoors and hobbled around on crutches were rarely thought of as 'hot'. Perhaps Grayson had been being nice. That made more sense, but it didn't explain his less than pure intentions.

A familiar set of scents wafted through his nostrils--soda, breakfast meats, the wild scent of a wolf.

"Havin' fun with your food?"

Hunter looked up from his mushy cereal to see Malcolm Dupereon with a plate of mostly breakfast meats. He tried not to drool. "I'm having a blast. How've you been?"

"Doin' good, doin' good." He sat down across from Hunter. "Been talkin' to Serena Song."

Hunter vaguely remembered her from the previous week--short like him, long straight black hair, pale complexion. Like Malcolm, the waning moon didn't seem to affect her at all. "Oh yeah? Talking, huh?" He wasn't sure if something was being implied there.

"Yeah." Malcolm proceeded to stuff his face.

Hunter still wasn't sure what they were actually talking about. His reasoning and deduction skills were still tied up with Grayson's impure intentions. Here he was at a time when the moon was reduced to the tiniest sliver, struggling to think straight.

"She seems kind of...cold." Was the best he could come up with

Malcolm smiled at that. "Yeah, but I like it."

"Oh." Hunter looked to the side. "Great?" He didn't know how to respond to that.

Malcolm laughed. "It takes some time to get used to I guess, but once you get to know her the whole act makes more sense."

"You know her well?" Hunter was skeptical. The semester had only begun two weeks ago.

"We actually met before school started on one of the tours. I sniffed her out, you know that feeling."

"Yeah." Hunter understood. Their kind seemed to give off a scent, easily distinguished from normal people. It was second nature to seek each other out in a crowd. "Was she the only one?"

Malcolm shrugged. "Not sure. I thought there was another person around, but I didn't sniff anybody out. Garou said we aren't the only ones on campus, so it musta been one of 'em."

"I haven't met any of them yet, but I do sense them from time to time."

"I wonder how the normies would react." A lazy grin spread across Malcolm's face. "Knowin' there're a bunch of monsters on campus."

"Massive panic, no question." Hunter swallowed more soggy cereal. "But hey, let's keep the ruse going, shall we? I'd like to avoid being tranq'd or shot."

"Lord, yes. This kid I know went wild a few moons ago, broke into a studio lot in Atlanta. They don't play that mess. They shot him, thinking he was a wild animal. Cops found him whining an' bleedin' out. Pack had to bust him out of the hospital the next day, and it wasn't easy. They had him handcuffed to one of the cots in the emergency room. Long story short we had to run off with the whole bed. Good thing Brother Michael had that moving van."

"Yeesh. All that because he ran across a lot? That's nuts."

"They're still lookin' for him. Has his own creepypasta on the internet now."

"Cool. Not so cool how he got it. Does he remember anything at all?"

"Nah. His mind goes completely blank during the shift, he isn't in his right mind until the next morning. Mine are kinda the same. I don't really remember much, maybe smells or tastes but that's it. What about you?"

Hunter looked up at the ceiling. There were no answers there, just paint and plaster. "Feelings." It was the simplest response he could come up with. "Usually I'm mad from being tied up, or just upset about not being able to move."

"It's almost like bein' asleep." Malcolm mused before devouring the rest of his food. "Well, I better get going. See you around."

Hunter gave a half-hearted wave as Malcolm left, and looked at the remains of his breakfast.

He thought about what Malcolm said. Shifting was like being asleep. Except the real nightmare didn't occur until he was awake.