Changes - Part 2
Story by bearwithin on SoFurry
Caleb is not sure whether he'll ever be able to change again. Meanwhile, maybe the situation with Brent is not as simple as it seems.
Caleb awoke in the bright morning light. His body ached and his head felt like it was full of cotton wool. Still, that was a minor price to pay for the change he'd experienced. Awoo!, he thought. I was a wolf! And a pretty good-looking one at that. But would he turn into a wolf every night? Could he learn to control it? Being a wolf felt awesome, but it might be inconvenient.
Caleb couldn't wait for night to come again, which of course meant the school day dragged on forever. Then there were chores, and dinner, and homework. Eventually everyone went to bed, and things got quiet. He lay in bed, fidgeting until he was sure the coast was clear. Finally he decided that it was safe to creep outside.
Moonlight once again lit the back lawn. Caleb felt a familiar tingly feeling move through his body, and he grinned in anticipation as he slipped off his clothes. But nothing happened. He lay down on the grass, arms and legs spread wide. He willed the change. He tried to visualize it. He tried relaxing. But nothing helped; he remained disappointingly human, and the warm feeling faded.
A terrible thought slipped into his mind: What if that was it, and he could never become a wolf again! Could life be so mean to him?
But when he looked up at the moon, he noticed that the huntress was no longer full; darkness hid a sliver of her silver face. So perhaps he could only change when the moon was completely full? That would be annoying, but he'd take it.
Caleb looked up the phases of the moon, and learned all about its cycles from Wikipedia. He researched werewolves, too, but most of what he read seemed like ancient myths and it was pretty negative. Werewolves were wild slavering beasts which slaughtered everything in their path. Being a wolf made Caleb feel excited and strong, but he was in control. He wouldn't go on a mad killing spree... Would he? He sure hoped he wouldn't.
Pictures of werewolves were disappointing, too. They usually showed some kind of tall scrawny monster, mostly naked apart from scraps of hairy fur. Caleb's wolf form had been muscular and covered in luxurious wolf fur. His face was canine, handsome and noble, but with a sense of human intelligence in the eyes. OK, he was imagining how his own wolf face looked since he hadn't actually seen it, but surely it would be better than the crazed mutants depicted in traditional werewolf art! He'd have to check in a mirror, next time...
"Hey, how's it hanging, nerd-boy!"
Caleb had been trying to look inconspicuous in the corner of the locker-room, but it didn't work. He turned as Brent closed in on him, tensing for a shove or some other physical humiliation. Caleb never felt brave enough to respond to the bullying, even with words. It was like he'd become habitually avoidant over the years. But now he thought of the wolf. He was strong and confident; nobody would mess with him!
Brent stepped in close, and Caleb saw something weird in the other boy's look, something he'd never noticed before and didn't understand. For an instant, Brent wanted something, something which made him vulnerable, something which he couldn't or wouldn't face, much less ask for. But then the look was gone again and Brent's usual sneer was back in place. Something had changed, though; he turned away again without any further insult or abuse.
Twenty-nine days: Caleb made a note on his calendar. Mid-way through the endless month of waiting, and he felt depressed and flat. The whole wolf-change episode seemed like a dream. Maybe it never really happened, and he was losing his mind. He didn't think he'd ever turn into a wolf again. He tried hard to forget about it and focus on normal things - school and homework and watching skateboarding on YouTube. Brent kept being annoying. Caleb thought he caught that weird look a couple of times, but mostly things were back to their boring old normal.
And then, three days before the full moon, the tingly feeling came back. Caleb's dull mood lifted immediately. He felt excited but restless. That night, he could see glimpses of the waxing moon through hurried clouds. The warm feeling grew stronger when he looked up at the huntress, but it didn't feel strong enough to bring out the wolf - not yet.
Caleb lay in bed in the darkness, restless, trying to sleep. Scenes from school played back in his head. He'd been sitting outside in the sun during the lunch break, just relaxing with a couple of other guys from his year - he didn't even remember who. He glanced out towards the playing fields and spotted Brent sauntering past. He wondered idly what kind of trouble Brent might be getting into.
He walked across the grass, following the stocky figure of the other boy. He broke into a run, and it felt like he could run faster than he'd ever run before, with almost no effort. He caught up with Brent in a few effortless bounds. Brent turned, cornered against the high wall at the edge of the yard. He was naked, his skin soft and vulnerable. Caleb pinned his bare shoulder to the wall with one paw, his claws hard against the softness. Brent looked up at him with that strange look again, now mostly filled with terror but also a hint of longing.
Caleb felt an insatiable hunger draw him in. Saliva dripped from his jaws as that bare neck enticed him. His teeth closed around soft flesh. A rush of panic gripped him and he woke up with a scream dying in his throat and his pillow damp with sweat.
Something felt different when he saw Brent the next day. He'd never been more than an annoying bully - kind of two-dimensional, like he didn't even exist outside the school grounds. But now Caleb had that other view of him from the dream: naked, vulnerable, afraid. The wolf regarded him with hunger, and could tear open his throat with a single bite. Was that really me, Caleb wondered? No, as much as he hated Brent, he didn't want to tear him apart. It was just a stupid dream; sometimes he hated his brain and its weird thoughts. Why couldn't he have such vivid dreams about something nice - like girls, for example? Caleb thought about girls quite a bit, but he was too shy to talk to them much.
The tingly feeling lingered. It wasn't strong but it was there in the background when he closed his eyes. He could feel it as he walked home from school. It faded during dinner when he had to listen to his parents talking about work and what their relations were up to. But later that night, when the suburbs grew quiet and the moonlight seeped in between the tree branches, the feeling came creeping back.
Caleb couldn't sleep. He got up and opened the curtains. The moon floated above the trees, nearly full. The tingly excitement surged through him. Surely now he could find the wolf again! He was about to sneak outside when he had an idea: He wanted to see what he looked like as a wolf. His room had a large mirror. So maybe...
He pulled off his clothes and threw them to one side. He could feel the tingle building, and he experimented by relaxing and taking slow breaths. He felt like he could control the feeling a bit. He looked at his naked body in the mirror. It was pale and a bit scrawny, and didn't have much hair. He stroked his cock, and the excitement came surging back. He turned towards the window and let the moonlight flood over and through him.
He felt a moment of burning pain, and then it was gone and he was a wolf. Elation swept through him. This time, he was ready for the change. He savored the sharpness of his wolf senses, and the energy of his canine body which felt like a coiled spring. He controlled the urge to run, and turned to the mirror.
He was pretty impressed by what he saw.
His legs were big and strong, and it looked like he could run all day on his large paws. He could see some nice muscles on his lean torso, and his hands were a bit like paws but with fingers and a thumb so he could still hold things - expect he had sturdy claws instead of fingernails.
Soft fur covered his whole body, mostly dark grey but lighter on his belly. A bushy tail curved gracefully up from his butt, and he could feel the shift in weight and balance as he wagged it smoothly from one side to the other. The tail felt very weird when he thought about it, but totally natural when he stopped thinking about it.
His face was quite wolf-like, expect maybe a bit broader. He opened his mouth and checked out his teeth, which were large and white. He could really bite things with those!
Then he looked into his golden wolf eyes in the mirror, and he had a moment of panic, like he was trapped inside a monster. He shook his head and blinked, and he felt his perspective shift, and he knew those were his eyes, and that was his (quite handsome) canine face in the mirror. Elation replaced his terror.
Then of course he had to reach down to see what his furry sheath felt like, and his balls. They felt really nice. You could see everything pretty clearly if the light was OK (or you had amazing werewolf night vision) but they were covered in fur, so he felt kind of naked but not naked. It was an exciting feeling.