“What’s taking them so long?” Tessa glances at her phone, fifteen minutes until the moon will be fully in the sky. Licking her lips, she paces in front of the barn doors. The cold is starting to lick it way under her hoodie, her fingers, toes and even ears are starting to buzz. It’s like someone is sticking pins in her gums. She massages her jaw, anything to release the energy.

“Relax,” Drawled Walter leaning against the stone wall of the barn. Except he isn’t relaxed. His fingers drum against the stone, his toes tap against the ground, and his mouth makes a hissing sound as he sucks on his teeth. “They would never transform outside of the den, and they certainly would not let Rye do it. They would not risk anyone, even a raven, seeing them.”

“How can they resist this though? Can’t you feel the moon,” She runs her hands through her hair, tipping her head to look at the great speckled orb as it emerges from the trees. “It’s…I can feel it in every cell of my body.”

“Of course, I can feel it.” Walter kicked off the wall, grabbing her by the shoulders. “But I know in fifteen minutes we will be in the den burning off all our energy. We will be one with the moon. One with the pack. For one night of the month, we don’t have to pretend to be human, but we can embrace our true wolf selves. It is the best feeling in the world, and it will come to us in fifteen minutes.”

Tessa laughs, the kind of nervous hyperactive laugh which hurts her own ears.

“You should be a door-to-door salesman for the bite. I bet you could turn half the humans with a pitch like that.” Says Serena. She walks towards them slowly Solis, Demi’s son, swaddled in her arms. Serena was a larger woman, ten years older than her wife Deliah, with sienna skin which crinkled around her eyes. Despite her age she walked with the grace of a teenage girl in a beauty pageant, the slow sway of her hips gathered plenty of attention whenever she went into town.

Mentioning the bite draws Tessa’s mind to Rye. He’d warned them all despite his control his transformation could be severe, but aren’t all their transformation bone cracking minutes of agony? In return Sally warned him his first transformation indoor, in the den, would be a crueller torture than she could ever inflict. The wolf would fight him to get free every minute. But if he wanted to be a part of her pack then he had to transform indoors. They would not risk the humans seeing them - not again at least.

Her wolf is vibrating at this point, and she smells them before she sees them. The four of them run round the path. Yellow eyes, pointy teeth and jagged claws. Rye’s hands are shaking, his head snapping at every sound, nose twitching with the breeze, eyes searching the darkness of the trees. Delilah has to prop Rye up, to stop him from collapsing into his wolf form. It’s natural and unnatural at the same time. He should be able to hold out a few more minutes until the moon has risen. If the full moon is doing this to him already, what will a full transformation do?

“Open the doors quickly! He’s about to transform.” Snapped Sally, grabbing Rye’s other side and they haul him into the barn. His chest is heaving with shallow breaths. He wrestles against them the instinct to be free greater than anything for the wolf. However, the human brain is too muddled with the wolf to make any impact. They force him in.

Everyone follows, Tessa and Walter closing the door. By the time they finish sliding the bolts across, Rye's heavy breathing has turned into pants. Slowly, Tessa turns. Yellow eyes look up at her from the floor. Rye’s sandy fur shines in the moonlight.

Tessa closes her eyes.

The cracking of bone accompanied by low growls fills the barn. She opens her eyes and looks down.

Two paws greet her.