I’m and idiot, and there was no doubt about that. A big, furry idiot, that was at that very moment, running through a forest as fast my paws could carry me. As I rushed towards the camp, I repeatedly kicked myself on the head, figuratively speaking, for being such a proud and arrogant idiot. I didn’t know where I had left my clothes, but there was no time for that. I needed to get back before everyone woke up.

Maybe I should start at the beginning. I’m Mirko Janković, a third year biology student and a werewolf. My class and I were brought to the Plitviće Lakes national park to hone our field research skills. To be honest, most of what we’ve been doing is look at plants, listen to boring lectures about differences between spruce and fir leaves, and identify animal droppings. But we were in a forest, and I had plenty of free time to be a wolf.

The previous day we happened to come across a huge deer, and I’d never seen something with such big antlers. It looked like a tree, branches an all. My whole body tensed, and my nostrils flared to inhaled that enticing musk. I was unable to look away, and I won’t deny I had a hard time holding back the urge to drop on all fours and cover myself in fur. It’d been a while since I’d hunted anything bigger than a rabbit, and the idea of running after that majestic, powerful creature was tempting.

“You’re such a freak,” had said my friend Ivanka as she elbowed me.

“Yeah, but you still love me,” I teased her with a playful growl and leaned against her shoulder.

“Keep dreaming, Janković,” she shoved me away, and I laughed.

Still, I was grateful that she brought me back to my senses, because I was really close to losing it. Look, I’m no monster or anything, I don’t turn into a vicious, bloodthirsty beast, and I can’t turn anyone into a werewolf by biting them. My mom’s a wolf, my dad’s a wolf, and that’s the reason I’m also a wolf. That’s it. There is nothing extraordinary about me, aside from the fact that I can smell you from across the room, but people are idiots and fear that which they don’t understand, so I have to keep this a secret. Changing in front of my whole class is like the worst idea I could have.

But hey, I’m still a twenty one years old male werewolf, and I wanted to test my prowess against that big boy. As I should have expected, the deer gave me a good thrashing before running off, lucky me that I heal really fast, but I managed to get my fangs on a smaller doe. With my belly full and my instincts sated, I found myself a nice, cozy corner and decided to take a nap, thinking that I’d be back to camp before dawn. I should have known that this would happen.

Girly giggles and the sound of splashing water brought me back to the real world. I stopped running and crouched behind some bushes to get my breath back. I was panting heavily, but that didn’t keep the scents out of my sensitive nose. The air was so saturated with them that it was starting to feel overwhelming, and not just those that belonged to the forest around me. I could smell burning wood, toasts and coffee, which meant that breakfast was going to be served soon. Shit, I was too late.

As soon as I had gathered my breath, I crawled towards the lake. It didn’t take me long to see its turquoise waters framed by one of the park’s many waterfalls. I wouldn’t deny that it was a breathtaking sight, but I had no time to indulge in its beauty. As silently as possible, I approached the giggles and sniffed the air to find out where they had left their things. It was a good thing they liked using so many perfumes and creams, because it didn’t take me long to find a heap of towels, bags and clothes. Yes, I was about to do something mischievous, but I couldn’t just approach the camp as a big, dark gray wolf, nor as my also very furry naked human guise. So I didn’t really have a choice.

“I’m going to kill you!” shrieked one of the girls.

I glanced over from between the bushes and saw a group of several girls bathing in the lake. One of them was swinging the top of a bikini, keeping it away from Ivanka, who was blushing furiously and kept trying to get a hold of it while also covering her rather generous attributes. The others were laughing, including Sanja, a timid little thing who had a lovely smile. For a few moments I just stood there, watching like the creep I am. Ivanka was beautiful, there was no denying that, but honestly, I was not a very visual guy. However, I was attracted to her scent. It was sweet, and enticing, and it was all over the place, feeling so much stronger than the other girls’.

Shit, snap out of it, you stupid wolf in heat. Ivanka is so out of your league you’d have a better chance putting a collar around your neck and offering yourself as her pet. I shook myself to get rid of the sudden tension in my body and approached the heap of stuff to grab a towel with my fangs. As I pulled, one of the bags fell, spreading all its contents on the ground.

“Hey! Who’s there?” Ivanka shouted with an angry voice.

Shit. It was going just too well, wasn’t it? Not caring anymore if they heard me, I ran back towards the forests and soon vanished among the thick vegetation. Using my keen hearing sense, I managed to sneak as close to camp and possible. It was like a tiny town, with small wood and stone cottages set in a circle, in the middle of which was the charred wood of a now dead fire and some logs to sit down. There was a larger cabin which was where our teachers gave the lectures, and another where we ate every day. Smoke was coming out of the chimney, and the scent of toasts, coffee and other foods filled the air. I would have been hungry if I wasn’t still feeling full after last night’s second dinner. Hey, I couldn’t pass the chance.

I managed to sneak behind my cabin and, when I was sure nobody was around, I changed back into my black haired, unremarkable, human self. I was, well, not a very attractive thing, skinny looking, long arms and legs, black hair and a smile so wide it looked like a mailbox. I was a far more handsome wolf than man, that was for sure. After covering myself with the towel I had stolen, I walked out from my hiding place and entered the cabin I shared with three other classmates. Fortunately it was almost empty, and unfortunately, the only other student there was my best friend Dragan.

“Hey, Mirko!” exclaimed Dragan, peeking out from the bathroom with his half shaven face covered in shaving foam. “Woah, mate, where do you come from? Were you out all night?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Nah, woke up early and went to the lake for a swim,” I answered, shrugging, and licked my lips nervously. Wolves and dogs do this when we’re nervous.

“What about your clothes?” he asked, looking up and down my nakedness.

“Why would I need clothes to go for a swim?”

“You’re completely insane. Get dressed already and lets go get breakfast,” my friend chuckled and shook his head.

I shrugged and, while my friend resumed his daily shaving routine, I hid the stolen towel under my mattress. I would think of a way to return it later. After getting dressed, both of us went to the large cabin and got some coffee, scrambled eggs and toasts. Then we sat down at one of the tables, next to Ivanka and a couple of her friends, including Sanja. I noticed that Ivanka was thoughtfully looking at her breakfast, but she had barely touched it. To be honest, I wasn’t touching my breakfast either.

Ivanka looked up from her plate, and the moment our eyes met, I cocked my head to one side and showed my most charming smile. I might not be attractive, but that’s something I know how to do. As expected, Ivanka shook her head, smiling.

“Idiot,” she said.

“I know,” I said, and crossed my arms over the table. “Not hungry?”

“Just thinking something, but it’s not important. What about you? You always wolf down half the class’ rations, but you haven’t even touched your breakfast,” she gestured at my food.

“I’m not hungry,” I shrugged, and pushed my plate away.

“You aren’t hungry after going swimming this morning? Swimming always gets me ravenous,” said Dragan all of a sudden, and I all but paled.

“You were out swimming? When? I was by the lake and I didn’t see anyone there,” asked Ivanka, her eyes uncomfortably focused on me.

Unable to hold that intense, dark eyed glare that seemed to be trying to rip the secrets right out of my head, I licked my lips and lowered my gaze. I was an adult male wolf, but even I can’t hold a determined female’s gaze when her whole body is screaming that she’ll bite me if I anger her. Shit, surely she was trying to figure out if I was the one lurking in the bushes, and she would have been right, but that’s not something I can freely admit. So I did what I always do and tried to play dumb to shrug it off.

“I went there pretty early, so maybe I left before you girls came.”

Ivanka opened her mouth to question me further, because she loved prying like a gossip magazine journalist. Fortunately for me, our teacher told us to hurry up and finish because the lessons were about to start. I drank my coffee in one long gulp and rushed to the other cabin in my usual lively manner. After a boring, hour long lesson about some fungi, our teacher, Mr. Radić, took us to the forest and instructed us to spread out and look for the tree-eating mushroom thingies we had been studying in class. Hey, I never said I studied biology to get into fungi.

“Hey, Dragan, look. These two are as big as Ivanka’s…” I said with a mischievous smile, pointing at two tiny, white things that grew under a birch’s shade.

“Oh, you’re right!” my friend said, his lips curling into a smile identical to mine.

“You two are a pair of immature morons! That’s why girls don’t even consider you dating material!” spat Ivanka as she tossed us a bunch of leaves and moss she picked from the ground. Dragan and I covered ourselves with our arms and laughed.

Playfully, I pounced onto her and grabbed her from the waist. Trapped in my hug, I softly growled against her neck and rejoiced when I felt her shudder.

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” I said with my voice lower and huskier.

“Is that so, Janković?” Ivanka pushed me away and looked me up and down with a playful smile and a defiant gaze. Damn, if she kept teasing me like that, one day I was going to kiss her for real.

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“Hey, guys!” one of our classmates came running. His face was flustered and his eyes were bright with excitement. “You have to come see this!”

We all looked at each other, inquisitively, but decided to follow, mostly out of curiosity. As we walked deeper into the forest, I started to discreetly sniff the air. There was something familiar about that part, but I couldn’t quite recall what it was. That was until I noticed the intense musk, now a subtle odor that still lingered in the air along with another scent that made the hair on the back of my head bristle. Meat, blood, oh fuck.

The blood all but drained from my face when I saw my dinner laying on the ground, her innards still sprawled all over and large chunks of flesh missing. The doe’s spilled blood had turned the moss and leaves a dark crimson color, and the scent was starting to awaken my wolf instincts. Shit, this was my kill, and these people were all over it. I noticed my lip starting to tense to bare my tiny fangs as my resource protection instincts kicked in. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to fight it back, so I knelt on the ground to pretend I was looking for prints, and allowed myself a moment to take several deep breaths as I held back the growl I felt creeping up throat.

“Woah! It’s a wolf kill! Isn’t it cool, Mirko?” Dragan said enthusiastically, kneeling down besides me.

“Yeah, it’s…” I cleared my throat, noticing how deep my voice had sounded. “It’s really cool, but don’t touch it. These things can have parasites,” and this wolf is about to snap at you for getting too close to his kill.

“I’m not sure it’s a wolf. What kind of wolf leaves a paw print like this one?” said Ivanka.

I looked at her. In front of her was a paw print, but it was not like anything a dog or a wolf would leave imprinted on the ground. We are not true wolves, we are anthropomorphic creatures who resemble wolves, foxes, dogs and other wild and domestic canid species. Our feet look like a wolf’s paws, but bigger, but our hands are human-like. When we move on all fours, we curl our fingers and rest the weight on them, and on the pad that we have on the front part of out palm. That’s the print Ivanka had in front of her.

“A bear, maybe?” commented Dragan, scratching his chin.

“No, I don’t think so. A bear is a plantigrade, it rests its weight on the whole palm, but this thing was walking on its fingertips. The way they seem to spread out tells me its fingers are longer than a wolf’s,” Ivanka mentioned, placing her hand next to my pawprint and trying to mimic the posture.

Her eyes moved towards me. My hair bristled. I hadn’t noticed, because it was something I always did without even thinking, but my hand was resting on the floor with my fingers slightly curved, and the weight resting on my fingertips. Swiftly, because I wasn’t being obvious enough, I pulled my arm back and averted my gaze, licking my lips as I did so.

Ivanka and I had been friends ever since high school, and I knew there was nothing she enjoyed more than a good mystery. If she started to suspect that there was something funny going on with me, she wouldn’t stop until she found out. I am such an idiot, and I am so fucked. No more hunting or wolfing out for me. Damn, this was going to be a long month, and the full moon was going to rise in just a few days.

Yes, I’m one of those. Whether I want to or not, the moment the full moon rises, I will change, no questions asked.

***

My problems were far from being over. Actually, they were about to get worse, so much worse. A couple of days later, we were having dinner when a small group of classmates approached us.

“Guys, we’re going to where the dead deer is, to try and catch a glimpse of the wolf. Who wants to come?”

I felt my throat tighten with a growl, and lowered my head to focus on that insipid legume stew I was eating. My deer. My prey. Damn, I’d love to get back out there and experience the thrill of the hunt again. The warm flesh filling my stomach and the blood dripping from my fangs had felt more satisfying than the ugly brown stuff with beans I had right in front of me.

“That sounds like a bloody good idea. You coming, Mirko?” said Dragan.

“Nah, I’ll pass. The wolf won’t be as dumb to come if he sees you lot making a ruckus there, and I have no wish to face a hungry bear scavenging on the kill,” I said shrugging.

“Well, aren’t you the responsible one all of a sudden,” mocked Ivanka, and I didn’t like the way she was looking at me one bit.

“Responsible? Nah, I’m still my immature old self, but that doesn’t mean I want to meet furry murder beast in the woods,” I said, shrugging. “Well, I’m off. Try not to get eaten while you’re out there.”

I got up from the table and walked out, and I felt Ivanka’s eyes following me the whole time. The autumn fresh air welcomed me, and I breathed it in, marveling at the many scents. The moon shone over my head, and its dim, silvery light was enough to allow me to see clearly in the dark. I hurried towards my cabin as fast as my long legs could carry me, but before I entered I looked around and walked past it to head to the forest right behind it. My keen hearing caught the sound of approaching footsteps. I was being followed. A smile crept up my lips. That sweet, familiar scent could only belong to one person. I knew you’d do that, Ivanka, but lets see if you can follow a wolf in his natural habitat.

Resisting the urge to change, I dropped on all fours and used all the strength in my muscles to run. I was not only faster that way, but I was also lower, so I could vanish into the bushes with ease. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take me more than a few minutes to leave her behind, and I chuckled when I heard her cursing in frustration. Oh, how I would have loved to tease her for a bit, but I needed to find my clothes. If these idiots were going to go into the woods looking for wolves, they would eventually run into my discarded T-shirt and shorts, and I couldn’t afford werewolf stories to pop up among my classmates. I was a freak, but they might start to consider that there was more to my weird behavior if they realized werewolves existed. I’m a jackass, but I feared rejection as much as any wolf. Hey, we are social animals, and we’re friendlier than the stories give us credit for.

Following my nose, it took me but a short while to find my clothes, still hidden under some bushes. I wore them right under the ones I was wearing at that very moment, because I wanted to avoid uncomfortable questions if I ran into Ivanka again, and hurried back to camp. I was tensing the string with her enough as it was, and I didn’t want to give her more material to pry on. I bared my fangs, larger thanks to the moon’s influence, and growled. Nosy girl. Lovely smelling nosy girl.

As I got closer to the camp I heard a ruckus of voices. My classmates were spread all over the place, gathered in several groups, and I heard Mr. Radić’s booming voice ordering everyone to go into their cabins. There was also something in the air, a lingering scent of spilled blood I knew all too well. As I walked among the students, all of which ignored me as they talked in urgent voices, I was able to catch several words, among which I noticed ‘wounded’, ‘attacked’ and ‘bleeding’. My hair bristled.

As I got closer to the lit fire at the camp’s center, Ivanka saw me and stormed towards me. The furious glare in her eyes made me stop dry on my tracks, and I whimpered like the stupid wolf I am. Either she didn’t notice, or she outright ignored me as she violently grabbed my hands to study them. They were covered in mud and dirt from running on all fours, and Ivanka breathed out a sight of relief and looked straight into my eyes. The intensity of her gaze made me so uncomfortable that I licked my lips and looked away.

“Where were you?” she asked, her voice tense and seething with anger.

“I was just out, walking. Why do you care?” I responded.

“Dragan was attacked. He’s been slashed pretty bad and is being taken to the hospital as we speak.”

“What?” I paled. “Is he ok?”

“The wounds are deep and need stitching, but he’ll make it. He says he heard a hiss and a growl, but he didn’t see what attacked him. So I ask you again, where were you?” she pointed at my muddy hands again.

“Wait a minute, you don’t really think I would attack my best friend!”

“I want to believe that you wouldn’t, but I don’t know how far you’re willing to go to keep your secret hidden,” she said, raising her head defiantly.

“Secret? Are you out of your mind?”

“Mirko, stop playing dumb! I saw the way you curl your fingers when you crouch, just like the creature that attacked that poor doe, and I saw the same paw prints by the lake when my towel got stolen. Also, I never said I was with other girls.”

“Yeah, you’ve definitely lost your mind,” my voice turned into a deep growl and I pulled away to walk back to my cabin. I was already struggling not to bare my fangs at her, and they were big enough to not pass as human, though I wasn’t sure that mattered anymore.

When I was far enough from her I whined. I was fucked, really fucked.