"Between homes?" Lucas repeated, eyebrows shooting up as he leveled a sidelong glance her way.

"Yeah, we moved around a lot when I was growing up," Rue admitted. "I didn't spend more than one semester at any school until my senior year of high school, and even that was just because I begged and threatened to get to have that experience. That was around when we got involved with the S.P.A. and they helped find a safe high school for me to attend, and a safe place for my mom to live during that time."

"Safe? You weren't safe growing up?" Lucas asked, the concern in his voice obvious.

"My mom didn't think so," Rue replied. She didn't elaborate, and Lucas decided it wasn't a good idea to pry right then. He simply hummed and let the topic drop.

"My dad took the family camping every summer," Lucas said, hoping to return to a safer topic. "For us it was just an annual vacation. He always like to 'rough it' a bit, so we were supposed to catch fish and forage for wild berries and greens. His father grew up in the Dominican Republic and they didn't have a lot, so he learned how to make ends meet with what they could catch or find. But he made it to the States at the start of high school, and he did really well in school. He played baseball and graduated top of his class and went to an ivy league school on scholarship."

"That's really impressive," Rue said, shifting to look at Lucas.

"Yeah," he smiled. "He actually ended up working for NASA for a while, helped with the programming for the moon landing. When he left, he started his own software company and made some pretty important programs still used in corporate backend stuff today. He sold that company to a bigger software company for big, big money in his fifties and has been retired since."

"Wow, that's a pretty major change of fate for your family," Rue remarked, feeling genuinely impressed. That also explained the car and shoes.

"He's a real down-to-earth guy. Never forgot his roots and raised his two sons to be self-sufficient and respect hard work. He didn't let them raise his grandkids as rich kids, either. I mean, we never wanted for anything and whatever we got was high quality, but he never bought into the idea that high cost is the same as high quality."

"That's a really great attitude. It shows in how you act, too," Rue said.

"You think so?" Lucas asked, glancing over at her again.

"Yeah, the expensive shoes and expensive, though kind of old, sportscar were the only hints I had that you might come from money."

Lucas chuckled.
"Thanks. I'm glad to hear that, because I've never had the patience for rich snobs myself. Especially since my maternal family is very much the class of people those snobs would turn their noses up at."

"Ah? Just working class, or...?" Rue questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, my maternal grandmother is half Native American," he said. "The rich snobs that went to my schools growing up didn't exactly look kindly on that."

"Oh. That's dumb. Though I think they would've taken issue with you without that anyway."

Lucas laughed, sounding genuinely amused, but still a bit wry.
"You're not wrong. They probably didn't like the color of my skin either way."

"Humans are dumb," Rue muttered under her breath, looking out the window. Lucas' sharp werebeast ears heard her anyway, and he let out another soft laugh.

"I guess I can't afford to be offended by that now, since I'm not human anymore," he said, trying to keep his tone light and not quite succeeding. Rue glanced at him quickly and frowned.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to include you in that. Or Claude. I guess it's easy to forget you two are kinda new to this world, since I've only ever known you as supernaturals."

"I know. I'm not offended, really. It just feels weird to talk about humans as a separate group from myself."

"I'm sure you'll eventually reach a point where you don't remember much about being human," Rue said thoughtfully. "You're still mortal, but werebeasts still live quite a bit longer than humans."

"I don't want that," Lucas said quietly.

Rue let the subject drop and just watched the sun creep lower on the horizon as the twisty road led them deeper into the mountains.

The arrived at the campsite not long before the sun fully disappeared. It was already fairly dark with the mountain casting a shadow over them, plus the dense forest. Neither Rue nor Lucas had any issues seeing in the dark though, so it wasn't a problem to unpack the car and set up the campsite. Rue helped Lucas with the tasks, even though she didn't intend to make use of any of it herself.

When everything was set, Rue allowed herself to relax. She took her phone out of her pocket and stashed it in Lucas' tent. If she didn't, it wouldn't be accessible while she was shifted, and she at least wanted to be able to hear if she got a call or text. Admittedly, signal up here was pretty poor and it could be a moot point, but she left it anyway.

Finally, she released her human form. Whisps of dark smoke encompassed her and her form stretched and changed. The smoke cleared as she stepped forward, revealing a large canine with shaggy green fur the color of moss, with brick red ears and eyes the color of burning embers. She was the size of a small horse or cow, with big paws the size of small dinner plates.

Lucas stared at her, visibly shocked.
"Well damn, I'm jealous of that transformation," he breathed, shaking his head. He looked up as moonlight began to filter through the leaves. He took a deep breath to steady himself as he braced for the change. He quickly stripped out of his clothes and tossed them in the tent.

With the crackle and pop of shifting bones and muscle, he collapsed to his hands and knees. Fur overtook his body as he shifted into a large wolf.

Rue observed that the change was faster than in any movie she'd seen, but still looked quite painful. She also noted his wolf form was quite beautiful. He was larger than any existing species of wolf, but the top of his ears were barely level with her withers, which wasn't far off from what she expected. His fur was brown with black tips, his face and paws were black, and he had a bit of white on his chin, throat and underbelly. His eyes were the same gold as before.

She hesitantly wagged her tail at him, her ears pricked forward and nose pointed slightly downward as she looked at him. She kept pretty still while she watched him, waiting to be sure he was still himself.