Sofia arrived home with her cheeks still flushed and his scent all over her sweater. She felt pretty silly, specially since she wasn't able to wipe that idiot's grin off her face, but she couldn't help it. Dave didn't know how special that afternoon had been, the sense of absolute freedom she had felt at being able to embrace her nature, at being able to be a wolf without having to hide her behavior. It was still a secret between them but for a moment she had been able to let herself go as if they were both aware of it.

Before going inside, she took several deep breaths to calm down a bit. When she opened the door, Kas ran to greet her with such joy that it seemed as if he hadn't seen her in months rather than hours. His little tail wagged so vigorously that his entire hindquarters swayed from side to side. Sofia knelt down to pet him, and Kas used the opportunity to give her a few wet licks on her face that made her giggle. At least one of them could afford to be a dog.

“Well, you seem to be in a good mood today,” said a cold and impassive voice that sent a chill down her back.

“¿Does it bother you?” said Sofia, twisting her lips into a sneer.

When she raised her head, she saw her mother standing in front of the hall’s mirror, and the chill she felt turned into a knot that clutched her chest and left her breathless. As was customary every full moon, she was dressed in the black tracksuit she wore whenever she went out hunting. The crossbow and the silver dagger that hanged from her belt were evidence enough of what she planned to do that night.

“Not at all,” answered Helena without changing her tone one bit, but Sofia felt those cold, gray eyes looking at her as if the wanted to penetrate her soul.

Unable to hold that calculating gaze, she licked her lips and lowered her head. Some of her good mood vanished, but not all of it. She wanted to continue to cling to the warmth because it was preferable to the fear she had grown up with. As she walked past her to get Kas's leash, she twisted her face into a grimace of disgust and allowed herself the luxury to release a low growl. That gesture surprised her, but she wasn’t going to deny that doing it felt good. ‘He’s changing me. Before I wouldn’t have dared to show what I am so openly in front of her’.

“Aren't you going out today?” asked the woman after a few minutes of tense silence.

“Later,” said Sofia while she grabbed the leash.

“Have you located him yet?”

“No. I'm working on it.”

“You're an efficient tracker. What's taking you so long?”

“I have other obligations. I have to study and I have to prepare for the Civil Guard exams. I can't devote as much time to it as I'd like to,” she explained as she leashed Kas.

“Undoubtedly this new friend of yours has nothing to do with your distractions,” said the woman as if it was nothing to do with her, but her tone was enough to awaken a burning rage in Sofia.

“Don't you dare go near him!” she roared, locking her eyes on her mother and baring her fangs.

The woman held the girl's burning gaze with her own, icy, impassive, devoid of any recognizable emotion beyond a steely, unwavering determination. Although Sofia was no longer a child and her meter seventy was no small height, the woman, accustomed to fighting beings armed with powerful claws and fangs, did not seem at all intimidated by a pup who had not even gone through her first change.

“Why would you think I have any interest in a mere human? What do you think I would get out of that boy that I could sell to my clients?”

The tension on the girl's lips eased a little. A mere human. There was a chance her mother hadn't realized it yet. If he hadn't changed still, his true nature would be harder to detect, and her mother had no interest in pups that couldn't change either. She wasn't stupid, Helena would eventually find out, but for the time being it was the best way she had to keep him safe. Sofia turned her head away sharply and licked her lips.

“Stay away from my friends.” She gave her a final warning growl and a sidelong glance that made it very clear that she would have no qualms about attacking if she forced her to.

As if that warning from a potential weredog had been nothing more than background noise, Helena resumed her task of getting ready to go out. She took the balaclava and put it on, putting great care in hiding her golden curls within the fabric. Without another word, and hoping she would be gone when she returned from walking the dog, Sofia went out.

As she walked with the Dobermann down an almost deserted street, Sofia stared at the nearby houses without paying them much attention. A whitish smoke emanated from the chimneys, and the warm, artificial lights from inside flowed out of the windows. It was cold and people were already at home, eating dinner, resting and getting ready for the next day. There was something else in Sofia’s warning, in the fear that prompted her to give in to her innate behaviors. She knew how dangerous hunters were, and she was afraid of losing him. Not that he would reject her like Angel did, but that she would lose him for real.

“The best thing for him would be to never change, but...” she hugged herself and the smile broke through her lips again. “I wouldn't mind doing what we did today again,” she said to Kas, who just wagged his little tail.

After the walk, Sofia left Kas in her house and hurried to the forest. From the way the energy in her chest stirred and started to push against her ribs, she knew that the moon was about to come out. It was a somewhat more intense sensation than usual and her instincts felt more awake. In other circumstances, Sofia would have fought against them to keep them buried and under control, but after having felt what it was like to be a wolf, she found it hard to resist.

With a huge smile on her lips, Sofia broke into a run towards the deepest part of the forest. Thanks to her nocturnal predator's eyes, she was able to move smoothly through the pale blue and gray world. As she ran, she let her lungs fill with the smells of nature and began to fantasize about the day of the spring. Images of the two of them chasing each other through the forest came back to her mind, and her lips parted in a wide smile that matched the blush on her cheeks. She had indulged her wolf nature that day too, and she wouldn't mind doing it again.

The full moon rose. Silver rays fell upon her and tugged at the energy in her chest, which awoke in such a sudden way that it took her breath away. Sofia staggered and stopped. Panting like a canid, she put a hand to her chest and looked up at the sky, at the huge, round sphere that was watching her from above. A pang of fear gripped her stomach and her whole body began to tremble as she realized that she could have changed. She wasn't going to deny that she was a little curious, but the consequences terrified her, especially how much her life was going to change.

“Shit, I can't get carried away by my nature like this. I have to control myself, it's the only way to live a human life and avoid the hunters,” she said to herself, and a growl of frustration crept into her voice, making it clear that it wasn't going to be that easy.

After a last glance at the full moon, she lowered her gaze to the ground and began to walk through the forest. Things were changing but that didn’t mean it was for the worse. If everything went well, in less than a year she would be starting her training at the Civil Guard academy in Baeza. She would leave her home and all that life full of secrets, lies and supernatural creatures behind. With a little luck she could forge a normal life, a human life, although her blood would always be that of a cinanthrope. There were some who never changed, and maybe Sofia was one of them.

“What if he changes?”

Sofia hugged herself and bit her lip. She would prefer he didn’t change, not because she cared in the least, but because nights like that one were too dangerous. Yet she couldn't deny that howling with him, that running beside him and enjoying the forest with him was very exciting. A smile began to tug at the corners of her lips and she snuggled deeper into her clothes. As she breathed in his scent, still permeating her jumper like a perfume, a pleasant warmth began to flow through her and fueled the blush on her cheeks.

Overwhelmed by the intensity of her emotions, Sofia whimpered like an anguished puppy and the smile disappeared from her lips. Things had been so clear a few weeks ago, and now she was so confused. She wanted her normal life, she wanted her life without supernatural beings, but her best friend was a cinanthrope. Maybe he never changed but that risk would always exist.

“Why do things always get so complicated?” she whimpered.

Something jumped out of the bushes a few meters from her and snapped her out of her thoughts. Sofia jumped and tensed all her muscles to flee, but when she saw what it was, her predatory instincts kicked in and it took all her willpower to stop herself from chasing it. It was a roe deer that had been bedded down, and had probably been startled by her voice. Sofia stood very still, every muscle trembling with tension, and followed it with her eyes as it disappeared into the undergrowth. When the sound of its footsteps faded, the girl put a hand to her chest and started to pant. The urge to shake was so strong that she gave in to it, and soon after she began to feel more relaxed.

“Fuck...” she whispered. Something told her that, had she been in her natural form, that roe deer would have become her dinner. “You're going to make me lose control completely.…”

However, the encounter with the roe deer had reminded her why she had come to that part of the forest, so she pushed all those thoughts aside and looked around. The vegetation was very dense, with many trees and bushes, as well as marked depressions in the ground that made visibility difficult. From the looks of it, there seemed to be plenty of food too and it was far enough from the paths to avoid running into humans. It was the perfect place for a wild cinanthrope.

“I don't know how I'm going to find you, but I have to try.”

Sofia looked at the place where the roe deer had been hidden and bit her lip. If that lout Rodrigo had been able to find his tracks, she shouldn’t have any problem. The first thing to do was to locate an animal trail or a stream. With that idea in mind, she began to walk through the night forest. It didn’t take her long to find boot prints, probably those belonging to Rodrigo and his father, and she followed them for a while in the hope of finding some evidence of the cinanthrope.

Not far she found an area of flattened ferns, and Sofia crouched down to get a better look at the details. The first thing that reached her nose was a strong deer musk that aroused her interest, but it was too faint to be a fresh scent. There were also some dried bloodstains and grooves in the ground as if something large and heavy had been dragged over it.

“Shooting at a bedded animal, they have no respect for their prey,” she spat, and a growl crept into her voice.

There was nothing there, and Sofia didn't think the cinanthrope had come very close to an area where a deer had recently been shot. She decided to retrace her steps as she considered her options. The main problem was that she didn't know that area, it was far from the low forest where she usually roamed. She had no idea where the watering holes might be, or where prey roamed, or anything that might help her find a lead. Had it not been for what Rodrigo had said, she would have been sure that the cinanthrope was not there.

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While she walked without taking her eyes off her surroundings, something called her attention and she stopped. On a patch of soft earth and moss on the ground was a set of footprints. Some were hers as she had just walked by. However there was another one that belonged to a humanoid, padded hand. Sofia bent down to get a better look at it. The small wisps of the moss he had stepped on were still trying to rise after having been crushed. It was fresh.

“You're following me,” she whispered.

Sofia looked around, trying to figure out where the creature was hiding, if he even was still around. For any other person, knowing they were being stalked by a predator would have been a terrifying experience, but she knew that he meant her no harm. Cinanthropes were not dangerous. Attacks on humans were almost non-existent and most of them were in self defense. That weredog was just trying to figure out her intentions, and after what had happened to him, she wasn't surprised either. He was probably sick of seeing people walking through his territory as if they owned it.

“How can I show you that I'm only trying to help you?” she said into the night. If he was still close, he would have no problem to hear her.

“Fuck, man! We've been walking for an hour and we haven't found a single footprint. Are you sure that mutt is around here?”

The hair from the back of Sofia’s neck bristled. That voice that broke through the silence of the forest belonged to Luis. ‘Shit, what is he doing here?’.

“I swear I saw white fur in this area. If you don't believe me, ask my old man, he saw it too,” said Rodrigo.

“Yeah, then the mutt found out you were coming and came back to erase his own trail, didn't he?” said Luis in a mocking voice.

Sofia looked in the direction the voices were coming from and tried to get a glimpse of the two hunters in the dense vegetation. It didn’t take her long to see the two boys, who were a good distance away from her. Rodrigo stopped rather abruptly and motioned at Luis to do the same. Very slowly, as if he was trying to avoid startling his prey, he moved his hand towards his weapon, which was pointing at the ground. It wasn't the sudden silence what made the hair on the back of her neck bristle and all her muscles tense. It was the brief click of the rifle’s bolt breaking into the night. Shit, that armed incompetent again.

“What the fuck are you doing, Rodrigo? Put that down!”

“It's right there in front of us. Didn't you see its eyes?”

“Rodrigo, for fuck's sake, wait until you've identified it properly before you shoot!”

“What else do you want to identify? The height of a dog, its eyes are shining. What's it going to be? A person?” said Rodrigo.

Yes, it could very well be a person, because cinanthropes like her were people. Careful to make as little noise as possible, Sofia looked around to try to locate the weredog. If those two louts had seen him, he couldn't be far away, and if they had seen his eyes glow that meant he had seen them too. He wouldn't be so foolish to get shot but she didn't know how to help him without showing herself to those two. Dave was right, it was better if they didn't know what they were doing or they would be more cautious about their misdeeds and the things they said in class. If there was one good thing about them being so blabbermouthed, it was that the two of them were getting wind of all their plans.

“One day you're going to kill someone,” Luis spat.

“Shut up already.”

Rodrigo knelt down on the ground to steady the rifle. When Sofia saw the glint of the moon reflecting on the cold iron of the muzzle, her blood froze. Eyes in the darkness. The eyes of a nocturnal predator. Her eyes. Fuck! He was aiming at her!

Sofia tensed her muscles with the intention of throwing herself to the ground. The underbrush to her left burst into a shower of leaves when something white and huge rammed her and knocked her down. Rodrigo fired, and the next thing that broke the silence of the forest was a bloodcurdling yelp of pain. Sofia fell face down, and ended up eating dirt and moss, but the cinanthrope didn't stop. He leapt away from her and began to run through the forest, barking with an almost desperate cadence.

“See? I told you it was the dog. Come on, it's getting away!”

“I'm really fed up with you, Rodri!”

With her heart in her throat, Sofia raised her head and spat out the mud and moss that had gotten into her mouth. The smell of dirt filled her nose, but that didn't stop her from perceiving the metallic scent of blood.

“Shit!” she exclaimed with a trembling voice.

With her sweater’s sleeve, Sofia wiped the mud and moss from her face and eyes just enough so she could scrutinized the forest depths. She was barely able to see anything among so much undergrowth, rocks and trees, but following the sound of footsteps, she was able to see flashes of white in the darkness. The cinanthrope weaved through the vegetation, using logs and rocks to confuse the hunters who were still running after him. He was fast and agile, and his night vision gave him an advantage over those two louts, but he was limping.

“Damned asshole! Why did you do that?” she exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and ran after the hunters.

Because if he hadn't, Rodrigo would have hit her in the chest. She had an extraordinary healing capacity but she could not heal if the projectile remained lodged inside. Besides, the hydrostatic shock of a caliber meant for deer would shatter her beyond any chance of salvation. He had just saved her life and he could end up paying for it with his own. Sofia bared her fangs and growled. No, she wasn't going to allow it.

The girl ran after the two hunters, but she kept a safe distance and her pace as quiet as she could. She hadn't heard the cinanthrope for a while but she knew he was still running because she could smell his blood. He had been leaving a trail of drops in his wake, which was what those two cretins were using to follow him after having lost him in the undergrowth. After a long time, they came to a shallow mountain river which was wide enough so that it could not be crossed in one jump. Rodrigo and Luis stopped on the bank and looked around. From a bush, where she remained crouched, Sofia spied on them while she considered her options.

“Look, there are drops of blood here. Do you think it crossed the river?” Rodrigo commented.

“If it crossed the river, I'm out. I'm not going into that,” commented Luis.

“Come on, man, we've almost got him,” Rodrigo protested, raising his arms.

“No, we don't have him. He's escaped and I'm not going to get wet in this cold for a fucking mutt. You do what you want, I'm leaving.” Luis turned around and started walking down the forest.

“Fuck, man, don't be like that,” said Rodrigo while he followed him.

“You should have hit it right instead of shooting blindly as you always do. It’s always the same shit with you. I have to go after your botches to give the finishing shot to the poor animals that you leave wounded.”

Immersed in that heated discussion, the two teenagers walked away and silence returned to the forest. As soon as she stopped hearing them, Sofia emerged from the undergrowth and went to the river bank, where she dropped to the ground on all fours and began to sniff desperately. It didn't take her long to detect the smell that those two assholes had left everywhere, and also the scent of blood, but she didn't recognize any other distinctive odor than her own and the one she was still wearing impregnated in her sweater.

“I have to find him. If he can't get the bullet out himself, he won't be able to heal,” she whimpered.

She knew enough about hunting to guess that he hadn't been hit in one of the vital points, as prey usually dropped pretty quickly with a shot to the heart or lungs. However, the bullet could have hit any other organ, such as the stomach, and that meant a slow, agonizing death.

Winter full moons tended to be very long, lasting more than twelve hours. It hadn’t been long since it had risen, so it would be a good while before it set again. During all that time he would not be able to change back to human form, and he would not be able to ask for help or go to a hospital. That was why those nights were so dangerous, because alone they were vulnerable to any kind of danger.

Following her nose, she managed to find the trail of blood that those two had followed. It was not much, just a few splashes on some rocks along the shore, and that reassured her somewhat. The projectile was inside, but there was no dangerous bleeding, at least not externally. With her fingertips she touched the blood and sniffed it. Then let out a long huff, and she was able to breathe calmly again. Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it thudding in her chest, and her hand was shaking so much that it looked as if she was freezing.

“Damn...” she gasped, and the pressure in her ribs lifted to let her breathe again. “There are no bodily fluids. It just touched muscle. You are so lucky.”

However, that didn't mean he was completely out of danger, it just gave her some leeway to find him. Biting her lip, Sofia approached the river. It was shallow, and the moonlight was bright enough that she had no trouble to see the bottom. That allowed her to notice strands of murkiness being washed away by the current. The cinanthrope had not crossed the river, he had used it to throw the two hunters off his trail.

“Shit, how am I going to find him?”

It would be easier if she knew his scent, but she did not. Besides, she felt her nose overwhelmed by the forest smells that permeated everything, and by that of blood, which was strong enough to overpower the others. She recalled the moment when the cinanthrope pounced on her. In one fluid motion, she removed her sweater and reached for the left shoulder area, where she located a couple of white hairs that had gotten caught in the fabric.

Sofia brought the garment to her face and sniffed as closely as she could. A whole world of aromas entered her nose, and among them she recognized the smell of pine, so persistent that it had settled on her clothes, that of Kas, warm as melted cheese, and that of her best friend, masculine, intense, alluring.

A shiver ran down her back.

“No...” she whimpered.

She sniffed harder while she desperately searched for some place on her sweater where his scent wasn't prevalent. No luck, it was as if it was everywhere, mixed with the scent of pine, bush, damp earth and vegetation. A terrible hunch began to dawn on her mind, one she had already suspected but which she had preferred to ignore because the idea terrified her.

“No, no, no…”

From her trousers pocket she took out her mobile phone and looked at the time. Two o'clock in the morning. Her hand was shaking so much that she struggled to open the text messages. She scrolled past the icon several times while clicking the arrows in the menu, and then she stared at the throbbing cursor on the green screen, not knowing what to type. Should she ask him where he was? Should she ask him to call her? Should she tell him her sudden suspicions and tell him she'd known for days that he was a weredog because her father was a werewolf and her mother was a huntress? She sighed, dejected.

“The best thing would be to tell him what had happened. I only want to make sure.”

‘Rdrgo & Luis shot im hes wnded but cnt find im’

Then she hit send. Seconds and minutes went by. Sofia kept looking at the phone, which was radiating its ghostly green light on her face. ‘Come on’ she thought, and shook the device a little, as if that would get her the answer she longed for sooner. 'Come on!' she insisted with a high-pitched whimper. In her chest, the energy stirred and turned into a knot of anxiety that made her pant. How long had it been? She had no idea, at least ten, or fifteen minutes, but her phone remained as silent as ever.

“Shit, Dave, I'm going to kill you for playing the fucking hero again!” she roared to the air, to the moon, to the forest.

With a swift motion, she pocketed her phone and ran upstream. Desperate, she searched the banks for any footprints, hair or drops of blood that would tell her where the cinanthrope had gone, but after an hour she couldn't even find a scent to follow. It was as if he had merged with the forest itself, as if he had become a spirit of nature. However, she did not stop, for she was afraid that her friend was injured and unable to receive any help. Just as she was about to cross the river to try her luck on the other bank, the phone vibrated in her pocket.

‘Ws slepin. Wher r u?’

“Dave...” she looked up at the sky. The full moon was still looking down at her. “If it's not you, who's that cinanthrope?”