It was early November, but the town workers were already setting the garlands of Christmas lights. They called it a town because it had originally been so, but the real estate boom had made it grow to the not inconsiderable figure of forty thousand inhabitants. It was much larger than El Cerro, which had a couple of thousand inhabitants, mostly humble people who worked the land, but it had been one of the few postings they could both ask for and which met the requirements they were looking for. In fact, the strong point was its old town, in which there was a convent, a church and a palace that once belonged to a prince, and of which some stories were told that may or may not be true. Just behind the palace, wrapping the village in an embrace, there was an oak forest that belonged to the regional park of the middle course of the Guadarrama River. It was not the pine forest of the Segovian sierra, but the times they had walked through it they had enjoyed it just the same.

That early November afternoon the two officers had gone out for a normal patrol, accompanied by Ginger, the German shepherd puppy that Sofia was training to search for traces. They were walking along one of the town’s main streets. There were many bars, restaurants, and stores of all kinds, from haberdasheries, hairdressers and hardware stores to places that sold home decorations. Of course, there was also a traditional Seven Eleven. It was cold, as expected, since the peaks of the distant Madrid sierra were covered with snow, but that did not seem to be a problem for people to go out. In El Cerro they tended to avoid very cold weather except out of necessity, but life here was chaotic and fast-paced, and the streets were always bustling with people coming and going in a hurry. To Sofia it was a bit stressful, and although her friend hadn't said anything, she knew he felt the same way.

“Are you happy with the decision you made to go ahead with the process?” Sofia asked, looking at him.

Dave let out a quiet sigh and smiled softly.

“I would have liked a place that was a little quieter, more like El Cerro, but yes,” he said, looking directly into her eyes, “I'm happy with the decision I made.”

Something tingled in Sofia's belly, a distant memory that brought a blush to her cheeks and a smile to her face. It seemed unbelievable that a year and a half had gone by since that moment when she fell asleep in his arms, listening to his heartbeat, and felt his lips brush her forehead in an affectionate kiss. The morning lights and the songs of the birds had been the first thing to greet them, and at first they had felt quite embarrassed but didn’t think much about it. It hadn’t been the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“How about you? Are you happy?” Dave asked.

“Yes, yes I am,” she said with a broad smile, “I've managed to get away from my mother's guild and that world. I just wanted this, a normal job, a normal life, to be able to go out for a walk or a drink with my friends, to be able to invite someone over to my house to watch a movie without thinking about the things she does. My mother denied me that my whole life.”

“I guess what we did in El Cerro wasn't very normal,” Dave said with a little laugh, scratching the back of his head.

“I don't know if it was normal, but they were the happiest months of my life, even with everything that happened with… with you and those three assholes. To tell you the truth, though, I wouldn't want to repeat the experience. In the end I couldn't help you, and I need to get away from that whole world of hunters and trappers. That was my mother's world and I don't want it.”

Dave let out a quiet sigh and looked at her with so much affection that her belly shuddered.

“You helped me more than you know.”

“I could have helped you more if you had told me, but I understand why you didn’t.”

“It’s not something I can freely tell,” he said, his gaze looking straight ahead.

“No, it’s not, but I’m glad I know it,” she commented, feeling her cheeks burn with a noticeable blush.

Biting her lip Sofia looked down at the dog walking awkwardly beside her. Ginger was five months old, and was all paws and a pair of ears that danced on her head with every step she took. Discreetly she turned her attention back to her friend. The pale winter sun fell on him, bringing out the sky-blue of his eyes, eyes that glowed when it got dark and the light was scarce. In the last year and a half their relationship had grown closer, and the fact that his supernatural nature was no longer a secret had made things much easier.

When they went for a run in the woods, sometimes they would get completely carried away, and end up lying on the grass, staring at the stars in silence. If it was cold, Dave would cuddle her to cover her with his thick white fur, and more than once she had joined him on full moon nights so he wouldn't feel lonely. What a strange contradiction. All her life, what she had longed for was a normal life, and now she was delighted at the thought of her best friend being a cinanthrope.

“What are you thinking about?” Dave asked.

So distracted had she been that she didn't even notice him looking at her, his head tilted to one side in that confused puppy gesture. Blushing, Sofia twisted her lips into a small smile and tried to look somewhat normal.

“Nothing in particular. That I’m glad I met you.”

“Oh...” Dave blushed and a shy smile appeared on his lips. “Me… me too.”

“Excuse me, officers, could I ask you a question?” said a lady who was approaching the two civil guards.

“Of course. What do you need?” asked the officer professionally.

“I'm not from here. I'm looking for a street but I've been walking around for half an hour and I can't find it. Would you be so kind as to help me?”

“Of course.”

While the lady went into an array of explanations, many of them unnecessary, and her friend listened patiently, Sofia watched him in silence. He had changed, they both had. The passage through the Baeza academy had finished toning his body, and although he still had the face of a handsome boy, his features were somewhat sharper, somewhat more mature. He looked more and more like a man than a teenage boy, and the uniform contributed to that. It looked good on him, Sofia thought, biting her lip and noticing how the blush rose again to her cheeks. The pants hugged his legs, and the shirt and jacket emphasized the shape of his back. It didn't help that this was the boy she liked, and that she had a fetish for men in uniform.

The energy inside her suddenly stirred. Right at that moment, Dave took a deep breath and put a hand to his chest, but there was no further gesture. Sofia looked up at the sky. The moon was rising and the full moon was very close. Again she turned to her friend, who gesticulated pointing out directions to the lady. On his lips was that controlled smile, the one that had unsettled Sofia when she first met him, and which she now knew was to hide his fangs. His professionalism and composure was immaculate, despite the discomfort she knew he was feeling. Dave had told her that in the days before and after the full moon, he still suffered partial changes; his fangs got larger and his tail grew. He could control it, but it was painful and not worth it. Discreetly she looked down at his trousers where, indeed, the outline of his furry tail was subtly visible. Sofia bit her lip and blushed. She found his wild looks very attractive.

The woman thanked the officer, and he responded politely before taking his leave to continue his patrol with her friend.

“Are you all right?” Sofia asked.

“Uncomfortable, you know that, but that's preferable to the pain of trying to contain it,” he commented, and twisted his lips into an embarrassed grimace as he scratched the back of his head.

Once the patrol was over, the two officers and the dog arrived at the barracks where they worked and gave their superior, Lieutenant Fernando Martinez, the report. The man listened to what they had to report, which was mostly nothing since the patrol had been quiet, and he gave them permission to leave. When they left the building the sky was already dark enough that the moon’s presence would hardly go unnoticed. It was an almost perfect, huge, platinum-white sphere floating in a dark blue sky.

“The moon is beautiful tonight,” said Sofia, as they stopped in front of the entrance.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Yes, it is,” he replied, raising his eyes to the sky.

As he did, his eyes glowed a fleeting greenish colour. His lips curved into a slight smile, a smile that grew wider as his gaze descended to meet his friend’s. With his head tilted slightly to one side in a thoughtful expression, he watched her closely causing her belly to quiver and a noticeable blush to ascend to her cheeks. Behind the small opening between his lips Sofia could see the tip of fangs that were not human, a trait that was especially noticeable on nights like that one.

“Sofia,” he took a deep breath and ran his tongue over his lips, “Do you have something to do tonight? I thought we could take a walk through the woods, if you'd like, of course.” His voice shook a little and he avoided her gaze to stare at the tiled floor as if he found it interesting.

“Well...”

“Ah, there you are, Princess.”

The barrack’s door opened and out came a man who was about twenty-six years old. His hair was black and always disheveled, very much in harmony with the three-day beard he liked to wear. His eyes were green and he spoke with a strong Catalan accent. He was Officer Sergi Moix, a forensic police officer who had started working at the barracks a year before the two of them.

“Ready for me to show you some of the most exclusive beers in town?”

Dave raised an eyebrow and looked at his friend questioningly. Sofia only managed to twist her lips into an apologetic smile, lips that she also licked with the same nervous gesture that her friend had.

“This morning I told Sergi that I hardly knew any bars and places to have a drink here. He offered to show me some.”

“You can come too. I'm afraid that as exclusive as I'd like the beverages to be, we're really only going to taste a few tap beers in a couple of bars. You don't need a VIP card or anything,” said Sergi with a little laugh.

Sergi was like that, he used to make jokes about practically everything, something that seemed to disconcert the young officer who didn't really find them funny at all.

“No, but thanks for the invitation,” he said with faint voice.

“Come on. We're just going to have a few beers. Afterwards we can take that walk,” Sofia said, taking his hand to entice him into going with them.

Dave smiled and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. However, this was not his usual spontaneous, sweet and open smile. It was that controlled, restrained smile again, and it even seemed a little sad.

“All right, I'll have a drink with you, but I won't stay long.”

After taking Kas and Ginger out and feeding them their dinner, Sofia and Dave met Sergi at a bar’s entrance. It was an Irish tavern with a sign that had a huge black raven drawn on it. The place’s interior was wide and dark, with a large wooden counter on one side, and heavy tables and benches. The walls were covered with boards varnished with a shade so dark it was almost black, and there were colorful posters of Guinness and other brands, as well as some wine. After ordering two beers and a Coke for Dave, the three officers went downstairs to a room in the basement that contained a battered pool table.

“Do you guys like pool? I thought we could have a few games. There are three of us but we can do the typical winner plays against the one who hasn't played that turn,” said Sergi, taking one of the cue sticks from the wall.

“I've never played before, but okay. It can't be that hard,” said Sofia, looking at her partner.

Dave just shrugged and took a long drink of his cola. He wasn't comfortable, she could see it in the tension in his facial muscles, and she knew exactly why. Dave disliked those places because the music bothered him a lot, something that was a consequence of his fine cinanthrope hearing. Fortunately, it wasn’t too loud, but it was still enough to make them uncomfortable.

“The music might be a little loud, but the atmosphere is cool and the tap beer is good. They also have a lot of variety for the beer lovers,” said Sergi, while arranging the colored balls using the plastic triangle.

Raising one of his eyebrows Dave looked at the coroner and tilted his head to one side. For an instant Sofia thought she saw him move his nose flaps, but the boy turned away and went to look for a table where he could leave the glass. Sofia left her beer on the same table, crossing a brief glance with her friend as she walked past him, and went to the cue rack hanging on the wall to get a cue stick. Looking at it, she wondered how she was supposed to do that. She knew the theory, she had to hit the colored balls with the white ball, but she had no idea how to hold the thing.

“How am I supposed to use this?” she asked, approaching the pool table to make a clumsy attempt to hit the ball.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dave make a move towards her, but Sergi beat him to it. The officer then stopped, his attempt remaining an attempt, and running his tongue over his lips he looked away, finding the wall next to him tremendously interesting.

“I'm no expert, but holding things with sticks is my specialty. Look, this is how it's done.”

Sergi leaned over her, passing his arms behind her back to put his hands over hers in the right position. Sofia could smell his scent, a masculine musk different from her friend's, but also pleasant, nuanced with the products he used in the morgue and which she liked quite less than the smell of forest. She had noticed it before, finding it interesting, but had never had him close enough to be able to unravel its subtleties. She also felt his warmth against her body, against her back in that evocative way that made her blush, and the brush of his fingers against her skin.

“Like this?” Sofia asked with a slight tremor in her voice, just as she turned to the coroner.

At that moment she realized how close he was, how close their faces were, their lips. Sofia blushed and looked away quickly, but not before noticing the small smile that had appeared on Sergi's lips, and the tense expression on Dave's face. She had known Sergi for months and in that time they had hit it off quite well, but that was the first time she had begun to wonder if she liked him. That she liked Dave was no secret, but he didn't feel the same way about her and there was no point in waiting for him forever. At some point her own heart would start to realize other people existed.

“Perfect. Try it,” Sergi said, pulling away from her to give her space.

Sofia inhaled a long breath of air, leaned over the table, calculated, and hit the cue ball. It came out quite deflected by her sloppy motion and hit the triangle of colors obliquely, barely moving some of the other balls. Sergi laughed, and Sofia pouted, but jokingly. It was her first time playing, she wasn't going to get mad because she wasn't a pro.

“It wasn't so bad. I managed to hit the ball,” she said, leaning back against the table and twisting her lips into a smile.

“No laughing matter. Some people make a groove in the mat, or turn the cue ball into a flying projectile. You don't know how dangerous the cue ball can be in the hands of an amateur,” said Sergi, laughing.

Then he leaned over the table and, after quickly calculating the trajectory, moved the cue stick several times back and forth and hit the white ball. The cue ball hit the handful of colored ones and scattered them all over the table. Some were quite close to entering the holes, but did not fall in completely. To celebrate his success, Sergi smiled in Sofia's direction and winked mischievously. Blushing, she shyly lowered her gaze and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. He was very different from her friend. In a similar situation where their lips had almost touched Dave had gotten nervous and hadn’t known what to do. Sergi was being more mature, more mischievous.

“Do you want to try?” Sergi asked Dave, offering him the cue.

Dave shrugged. Without a word he grabbed the stick, leaned over the table and hit the cue ball, proving that he had played pool before and at least knew the basic mechanics. One of the colored balls went into the hole, but the cue ball followed. With a half-smile he handed the cue back to Sergi before turning to his friend.

“The white ball makes you lose your turn and the other player gets two moves instead of one. It's your turn. You're playing solid.”

Sofia used her two turns to shuffle the balls around the mat while Sergi chatted animatedly with Dave. While Sofia pretended to calculate the ball’s trajectory, she studied them discreetly. They were equally tall, but they couldn't have been more different. Dave, besides being visibly tense, was much more serious and seemed even confused by some of the things the Catalan was saying. Sergi was cheerful and spontaneous, a bit of a joker, but he also knew how to take a situation seriously. His bad jokes were a way to lower the tension and break the ice, even if it wasn’t always the right approach. What struck her was that the young man was making an active effort to befriend Dave, but he was being cordial and nothing more.

“It's your turn, Sergi,” Sofia said, approaching the two men.

“I'm coming.”

Sergi ran to the pool table, and while he played, Sofia focused on her best friend. He was still uncomfortable, there was no doubt about that, and he ran his tongue over his lips in that nervous gesture. However, when he looked down at her, he smiled. It was a small, weak, almost forced smile, a smile that far from making her shudder like other times, made something inside her break.

“Are you having a good time?” he asked.

“Pretty much, yes, though I can see you're not,” she replied.

Dave shrugged as if it didn't matter.

“You know I'm not too fond of these places, but I came here for you. Is this the normal life you want?”

Sofia looked at her other companion. He was leaning over the table, moving the cue with the dexterity of someone who had done it many times before. His body was not as toned as her friend's, nor did he smell of forest like him, but he was a nice guy, and why deny it, she also found him attractive. Sergi hit the cue ball and it shuffled the colored balls across the mat. One of them went into a hole and the boy looked at her again with sass and a smile. Once more, she felt the blush rise to her cheeks.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said, turning her attention back to her friend. “I was looking forward to this, going out for a drink, playing pool and not having to worry about anything but normal, mundane things, like taking my dogs out and getting to work on time.”

Dave let out a quiet sigh and smiled again, and for some reason that smile felt like a goodbye.

“I understand. It's not the life for me, but I understand that you'd rather have this than nights in the forest.” Before she could respond, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Have fun. See you on Monday.”

“Dave, wait. I didn't say...”

The boy just smiled sadly, and shook his head, pleading with his eyes to let it go. Then he went to Sergi and shook his hand goodbye while he said that he was tired and wanted to go home. Sofia watched him as he left, her fingers caressing the spot on her cheek where his lips had landed. He seemed so normal, but she knew him and could see the tension in his breathing, in his slightly raised shoulders and on the bristled hair at the back of his head. He didn't leave, he didn't leave his job or the barracks, but it was a goodbye kiss in a sense. In the following weeks he continued to accompany her on walks with Kas and Ginger, and they would meet for a drink at home or at a bar.

However, although they continued to go jogging through the paths that crossed the oak grove, he never again allowed himself to get carried away to the point of changing. Nor did he allow her to accompany him any more during full moon nights, and she rarely saw him again in his natural form. He was a cinanthrope with no humanity, a wild animal who needed the freedom of living in a forest, and she was a pup who had never changed and perhaps never would. For all intents and purposes, she was human. By breaking away from all those things he was offering her just what she had craved, a normal, mundane human life.