Chapter 42: Elodie

I woke up human with visions of blood and death still etched in my mind. I was prevented from shooting up by the warm, furry bodies draped over mine. The pack had stayed. Some of the blood lust eased as I came fully to consciousness. My body was filthy, covered in blood and scrapes and bruises. But it was mine. My arms. My legs. My aches. The fever, it seemed, had passed for now. I felt raw, inside and out, as if a great claw had reached in and scraped out anything of substance, leaving behind an empty shell.

When I opened my eyes, my entourage was rising, stretching in the dark. The forest around us was cloaked in the relative silence of deep night. I rose with a series of pops and creaks as joints realigned. The pack watched me, but my pseudo-transformation during sleep hadn't phased them. The large male I had seen first gave a yip and the others began to mill around him, restless, making small yaps and growls.

My friends were readying for the hunt.