Chapter 14: On the Wild Side *Aliana*

Here I was, on the South side, with Asher, and there he stood right in front of me, waiting for me to become a wolf. I did not understand why it was so hard for me, but it just was, like I could not find the wolf that was inside of me.

Then Asher started howling. I peeked my eyes open, and he was looking at me, and then howled again. Maybe he was trying to find a way to help me. I tried howling, but as human it sounded like a dying bird; so, it had seemed to me. Asher just kept howling, and so did I.

Then it all began to come together, like the first night I changed, when everyone else was howling. My vocals started becoming more feral and my body shape was shifting. I kept howling and it got louder and louder. A sudden wave of heat ran through my body and as I opened my eyes, I had a white snout in front of me. I looked down and saw my paws, covered with white fur. The fur made the air feel not as cold as it was to my human skin. My howl was now real, as real as a wolf's howl could be except, I thought it was at an odd high pitch. This time as I changed, it was not as dramatic; did not seem to hurt as much as it did before. I thought it was odd since it was only my second time changing.

Asher still sat a few feet in front of me, just staring at my feral form with his eyes at an intense focus, glistening. I decided to walk up to him and nudge his shoulder with my snout. He shook his head and proceeded forward as I followed behind.

He stopped suddenly and lifted his nose high in the air and inhaled slowly, taking in every scent in the South. As he finished, he looked at me as if he wanted me to copy him. I stuck my nose up and inhaled, letting the scents flow through my sinus'. I smelled a different scent other than the cool freshness of the air. It was warm and had a juicy scent of blood to it. I looked at Asher excitedly; he was looking straight ahead of us. About fifty feet ahead was a white rabbit that I had barely spotted, he then took a twig that was on the ground and placed it in a clear space between the trees. He backed up quite a distance and then looked at me to make sure I was watching. He glided his paws lightly in through the air and set them down like he was stepping on plush grass, not a sound. It was hard to understand how he did not make any noise, it would seem hard to manage to control the sound you make with his size and his paws looked so large, like three times the size of a normal human hand. I set my paw in his print that was left in the white powder; it was half the size of his. I realized that I was smaller than most werewolves. I wondered to myself if I would ever grow at least to a normal female size; I had to.

I set my attention back to Asher; halfway to the twig he crouched and dug his claws into the ground, like he was slowly pulling himself forward. He crept closer and closer and then he dove and planted a paw on one end of the twig, gripping the other end between his teeth and snapped it. He got out of his crouch and looked back to me and signaled to try going for the rabbit.

I let out a small sigh but aligned myself towards the rabbit anyway. I reviewed in my head how I was going to do this, reassessing what Asher had just shown me and then I began.

Slowly I crept forward, using my new sense of hearing with my highly developed ears; trying to focus in on each of my steps and the rabbit's movement. As soon as I got close to the rabbit I looked back at Asher nervously, he just raised his eyebrow, held up a paw with his claws sticking out in a grip and urged me forward. So, I proceeded and dug my back claws into the ground ready to leap onto my prey. I launched myself at it, aiming my claws at its body. I felt my paw skid against its fur, but I had jumped to far; the rabbit startled, but I thought quickly and used my back claws and planted one into its stomach. The rabbit let out a cry and wiggled under the weight of my paw, then it went limp with blood leaking out, turning the white powder a soft red. I had caught my first prey as a werewolf.

"Nice thinking Princess. A little messy, but at least you caught it." Asher was smirking at me, but his eyes were satisfied. I just gave him a grin and looked at the white and red bundle of fur underneath my claws; it felt warm and slimy between my toes. The scent of its blood traveled into my snout and my senses were blurred with a lust for blood that I had never experienced. It was an exhilarating sensation and I bit into the rabbit as its blood filled my mouth with an electrifying energy. When I ate meat as a human it was just food to me, but this was like an energy source for my body.

"Slow down there Aliana. I remember my first taste of fresh blood, but do not let it conquer your mind. It can be blinding." Asher's words only filtered through my ears slowly because I loved to hear his voice, if it were anyone else, I would have probably lost myself. I squeezed my eyes shut, realizing how crazed I had become in that brief moment. I really had felt like a wild animal.

I wanted to be human again, but I could not help embracing the advantages of my feral form. The strength, endurance, energy, and so many advantages that being human did not give me, but I needed to learn how to switch between the two, something that was exceedingly difficult for me to do.

I looked back at Asher; he was in his human skin. It was so crazy how attracted I was to this guy; he was intoxicating to me in every way possible. Then it happened when I did not expect it to; my fur went away, and my face went back into the skull of a human. I looked at my hands, "It's so weird how I can't really control it." Asher crossed his arms and looked at me. "It is strange but, I'm pretty sure you'll get it." He looked away and then back to me with a smirk on his face. "Well then, shall we continue?" He shifted back into his feral form and stepped closer to me, then just planted his butt on the ground; once again waiting for me to change. I heaved a sigh and concentrated once more.

I tried thinking what triggered my first two changes and how I can use that to help me. I turned around and faced towards the mountains; I howled for a few seconds and then I started running as fast as I could through the white powder. It seemed hard to run with the white sinking me down with each step, and then I fell on my hands; tightening the muscles in my hands and imagining them as paws with claws extending out of them; pain shot through my hands, and I saw my bones begin to morph.

Each time I changed, it seemed to get easier, and less painful than before. I wasn't impatient with changing anymore. My fur that grew thick, welcomed warmth from the cold. I stuck my nose in the air and scented for anything that was alive. Nothing came to my nose but the scent of trees and water.

Asher sat beside me with a wolf grin. Then he proceeded deeper into the south. I noticed that he was heading towards the river that was in the middle of the south territory, close to the mountains.