Chapter 111

I wake up alone and although it's late summer and I'm tucked in I can't help but feel cold.

I drag myself out of bed although it's pretty early, I couldn't fall asleep again and I check my phone out of reflex.

I didn't have many friends and that was fine but it gave me something to do other than miss Virgil, there's a text from him saying that he might be gone all day but he'll be by for dinner, most likely a result of my mom chewing him out.

Dale says he'll come by this morning and I perk up, going to brush my teeth and wash my face before hurrying to go bother Shana.

Her room is quiet which is unsurprising, there's no way she would be up this early and I'm feeling particularly happy this morning which by the way has no connection to making up with Virgil, or so I tell myself.

I quietly push open her door after giggling to myself in front of the closed door, I would hop on her then push her off the bed.

I'm the perfect alarm clock.

I take a step in and my smile grows wider when I see her lying under her blankets, only her bright blue hair sticking out wildly.

I snicker again, taking another step in, I have to be quiet or I would run the risk of waking Shana up before I could accomplish my mission.

I beeline for the bed, not bothering to look around the room.

A loud roar comes from my side, startling a loud scream from me which only gets louder when a huge wolf jumps on me, pinning me to the ground with huge fluffy paws.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" I keep screaming closing my eyes with my hands held out protectively in front of me.

The wolf doesn't do anything else and when I finally notice this I carefully take my hands away, peeking over my hands.

The wolf just sits beside me, watching me with something that looks like curiosity, it's a beautiful shade of red that reminds me so much of someone I know.

"S-Shana?" I call shakily, my heart thumping madly.

The wolf… no, Werewolf, actually wait… Shana gives me a wide smile, her tongue rolling out and I try hard to not look at her long fangs.

I scramble up and push her slightly. "Hey, that was mean of you." I pout, folding my arms.

She just goes over on her back, twisting around like she's laughing and I pout harder, marveling at how easy it is to get used to this side of her.

It's really not that hard, Shana in her wolf form is still Shana, just bigger and furrier. She's still considerably smaller than Virgil's wolf but she is huge.

She springs up and I startle a little. "Eek!" I exclaim, trying to scramble away when she licks me, her big tongue covering me in slobber.

I'm terrified of big animals but it helps that Shana still has her human consciousness so I didn't even remember to be scared.

I try to roll away from her wet tongue but she just scrambles after me, knocking things over with her size.

We both freeze at the sound of things crashing to the ground and the terrified look on her wolf's face makes me burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears run down my face and my stomach hurts.

She just huffs a breath out of her nose, sitting with her face angled away from me. Like she's saying, why are you laughing? We'd be dead if Renee found me out.

And this just tickles me more until she gives me a sneaky look and bounds after me, her wet tongue hanging out.

"Ah! No!" I scream, picking myself off the ground to run away but she's much faster, and somehow she manages to move around the room without knocking anything over, well it helps that no one really uses the room so it's very scanty which means more space to move around.

The first lick from her tongue brings me down and I'm laughing hard, my now wet shirt sticking to my body as she licks over my exposed tummy.

A knock sounds on the door and Shana freezes again mid lick, her eyes widening dramatically and I slap a hand over my mouth.

"Is everything okay?" My mom's sleepy voice calls from the other side. "And I'm looking for Hayden, is he here?"

"Yes mom, I am and everything is okay!" I call back to her. "We're just having a pillow fight."

"Oh." She mumbles. "Have fun." She yawns out, her pattering footsteps fading away.

Shana deflates to the ground when she's gone, rolling to her back with her eyes closed and her tongue lolling out.

It's fascinating how easy it is to read her expressions while inner wolf form, like right now she's really relieved that my mom hadn't caught her.

"Ugh! Shana? I'm all wet." I whine, pulling my sticky shirt away from my body.

She sits up at this and gives me a wolfy grin, a smug expression on her face.

I just roll my eyes, picking myself up from the ground, she turns around and there's that flash of bright light and then Shana is staring at me with a ginormous smile, her hands on her waist.

She's wearing a small piece of nightdress, the satiny white material riding up as she puffs up. "I've always wanted to do that."

I take my shirt off and roll my eyes again, it was getting grosser as it started to get cold. "Scare me to death and then lick me wet?" I prompt with an eyebrow, glancing at the bed. "And what's on the bed anyway?"

She skips over to the bed and yanks the covers away to reveal a mannequin and a furry blue shawl, arranged to look like her hair.

"Aaaaaaargh!" I scream shortly, stumbling back. "Why the fuck would you use a mannequin?" I ask in horror, expecting to see artistically arranged pillows.

She pouts looking affronted. "To sell my disguise."

I just give her a strange look. "Where did you even find a mannequin?"

"Your mom has a lot in her attic." She shrugs, looking unbothered by this disturbing fact.

I didn't like the attic, it gave me the creeps so I stayed away from it and I didn't even want to know what she used the mannequins for.

Shana just rolls the mannequin under the bed and looks up at me. "You should go shower."

A large spitball drops from my hair and plops to the ground. "You think?" I ask sarcastically, an eyebrow up at her.

She rubs her neck sheepishly, her canines peeking out of the sides of her mouth. "Sorry, I got carried away."

I just shake my head fondly. "I'll meet you in the kitchen in ten." 

"Okay!" She agrees, already walking towards the bathroom.

I sludge my way back to my room, feeling sticky and realizing how hard it must have been on them to keep their natures hidden from me, Shana looked so free and happy this morning and it was a look I wanted to see often.