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                That

evening, after I halfheartedly ate supper, we went out to the park. I would

have been more enthusiastic during my meal but both females ate nothing. It was

sort of weird stuffing your face in front of people. The funny thing was that I

still had an appetite for normal food. I appreciated that. I had developed a

taste for a few things and I think I'd miss them.                We all

dressed like a family going out for the evening, whatever they might look like.

Verona laughed. "This is New York! The more normal you try to dress, the more

weird you probably are. So don't try too hard. Heck, I've seen people walking

down the street naked."                Maggie

giggled. "Have you ever tried it?"                "Yes

dear. At night. In feral form. It's a wonderful feeling. You should try it some

time."                "I

have. But then, there are fewer people were I come from. I did it like this a

few times. I mean, how else am I going to attract rapists?"                "I

think that a young girl running around the streets at night should have no

problem with that, clothed or unclothed." Her tone was full of reproach.                "True.

Men are pigs after all."                "No my

dear, that's not completely true and I think you know it. There are many fine

humans in the world. What about your mother? Would you say she married a pig?"                Maggie

had to think for a moment. "Well, no, but he did kill her. If he had been less

normal and a bit stranger he might not have reacted so badly."                "It

happens. Maybe she should have told him before your coming of age. Hiding the

truth rarely leads to good results. "                "Hiding

the truth is what we do, isn't it?"                Verona's

expression soured. "You're awfully perceptive for a kid. Yes, I guess our lives

are mostly lies. But can you imagine the trouble we would be having right now

if I had lied to you?"                "Maybe.

I smelled you out with no problem whatsoever. But I get your point. Lie when

you need to, tell the truth when you can."                "Exactly!"                I was

listening, mostly because I didn't have a thing to offer the conversation. My

shoulder was feeling weird, and my head was still spinning from the whirlwind

of changes that had happened to me in just a few short hours. It wasn't that

long ago that I knew nothing of werewolves, and now I had bedded two of them,

and found out my ancestry might very well be based in the same heritage as the

ladies. It was a lot to take in.                It was

a cloudless night, and the moon shone brightly, though it wasn't a full one

yet. I followed the girls as they made their way through the park. When we got

to our destination, it turned out to be some place called Rumsey Park. Verona

sat down on the grass and kicked off her shoes.                "You

know, my first real experience here in Central Park was back in the summer of

1970."                I about

choked. She couldn't be that old!                "It was

an outdoor concert that featured The Byrds and Van Morrison. I still can't get

the song Moondance out of my head. It became my theme song after that day, and

until I changed, I never knew why. The moon is just a rock, and I know that in

my mind, and yet it calls out to me as it calls out to the tides of the ocean. "                She

turned to me. "Have you ever just sat outside and looked at a full moon? When

it's big and round and you feel like you could almost reach up and touch it."                "A few

times. It does seem to have an irresistible draw to it."                "Do you

know where the term lunatic comes from? It's from people affected, or believed

to be affected by the moon. Half bloods, quarter bloods and even more dilute

descendants feel its pull. No one knows why, for it makes no sense, but it

happens. The effect varies, from appreciation of the beauty of the moon to a

draw that drives people insane. It takes a true werewolf to feel its full

power."                "Then I

guess that counts me out. I like the moon well enough. But I have never felt

the urge to howl at it, or has it ever unhinged me."                "Yes,

so it would seem. And yet, here you are. So there must be something going on."                Maggie

was quietly listening to our conversation. As it was, the area around the stage

was lit, both from street lights as well as the moonlight. There were movements

around the park, which never seemed to be totally devoid of life, but no one

came into the portion we had claimed for the night.                "I

really don't know. I think I might have been content to live a normal life. I was living a normal life until I followed

Maggie. Now it has been turned upside down."                "That

seems like a harsh assessment. What has happened to you that you think you'll ever

regret? No longer being a normal human male? I can tell you that you have lived

a lie. You are not normal. What you are, I cannot say. But that you have the

"were" in you is evident. How much is there I cannot say."                I shut

up. She was right. If I were to go on the sex alone, I could die happy tonight.

But if I wasn't who I thought I was, then who was I? A monster waiting to be

released? A freak of nature? I understood the genetics point of view very well.

I had heard of diseases that didn't manifest until something happened to

disrupt the body's normal routine.  The

one that came to mind was Huntington's disease. But the effects of that disease

were debilitating. I tried to drive that thought from my head.                 So if I

had a disease, could it be treated? I mentally slapped myself. What was I going

to do, walk into a hospital and tell them I was afraid I might turn into a

wolf? That would get me into the mental hospital, if nowhere else. The real

question was, if I did end up changing, would I care? It was sort of like the

adage of the fellow about to die. He suddenly realizes that everything he ever

worried about while he was alive meant nothing in his last moments alive. Once

he was dead, there would be no more troubles for him. Yeah, I know the

distinction of heaven and hell, but that changes from religion to religion. I

mean, if you think about it, were did the dinosaur's souls go? Answer that and

you have the answers to life itself.                "Look

Verona, I think you're beautiful, and smart, and I can't deny that you're a

real werewolf. The same goes for my little Maggie." Her ears perked up. "But I

just don't think I have it in me. If my parents were around, then maybe we

could ask them. I still like to believe that they're out there somewhere, but if

they haven't tried to contact me, then I have no idea where to look."                 "You're

a good soul, Edward Peterson. And I won't give up on you so easily. You may be

right. Maybe I'm just on the wrong track. But I doubt that with all of my

being."                I laid

back and stared at the stars. I felt that I had lost all control over what would

happen to me now. I felt the pull of the moon, but it didn't seem to be causing

me to change. My shoulder was throbbing, which was weird, because earlier it

had felt fine. I felt twinges elsewhere, but they didn't seem to amount to

anything.                We all

fell to silence. After a while, I heard Verona whisper. "We have company."                I

looked around and sensed, rather than saw them. Probably a couple of young

punks looking for some quick cash. Sure enough, I heard a voice call out.

"Well, well, well. What have we here? A family of out-of-towners occupying our

park. I think that deserves some rent money, don't you Jake?"                Jake

was a skinny teen who reeked of smoke and cheap booze. It made my nose hurt.

The speaker was about the same age, with dark hair under a grey hoodie.                 "Yeah.

Rent money." Both were holding knives. Maggie was sitting up, in no way

frightened, but arranging herself for possible action. Verona went into a

crouch. I just lay there like a lump on a log. For one thing, I knew the girls

could handle themselves. Secondly, I knew I could not.                 For

some reason, my lack of interest in their robbery attempt pissed them off. The one

kid kicked me in the head. It made me a little angry. "Get up!" he yelled at

me.                I lay

there, looking skyward. He kicked me again. "I told you to get up!"                In the

next instant I snapped. I don't know how I did it, for even thinking about it

makes me hurt, but my elbows and knees suddenly became double jointed. From my

position flat on the ground I was suddenly standing behind the two idiots. I

had sprung from the ground and flew over their heads like some kind of freakish

child's toy.                It was

as if some invisible deity was controlling me like a marionette. My limbs were

akimbo, but they managed to still function well. It was a macabre dance in the

moonlight, and it was so fast it was nearly impossible to see. But in my eyes I

could see everything as if in slow motion.                I

sucker punched the one, and as the other turned, I savagely kicked him in the

groin. They both went down. I picked up their knives and only by shear willpower

did I stop myself from slitting their throats. As it was, in my rage, I picked

both boys off the grass and flung them a good twenty feet. They skidded and

came to a stop.                "If you

little mother fuckers come near me again, I will so rip you wide open!"                The two

slowly recovered and limped off, wiser, sorer, and missing one knife apiece. I

sat back down, aware of the two sets of eyes staring at me. I keep mine on the

departing punks.                Maggie

crawled up and sat in my lap. "Well Daddy-O, what the hell was that?"                I could

barely hear her for the blood pumping through my ears. I turned and glared at her.

 Maggie let out a low whistle.                "Father

dearest. You might want to calm down."                I

couldn't see was she was seeing. I was still me, outwardly, but my face was

contorted into a mask of pure fury. My eyes were glowing; not reflecting light

like a cat or a dog, but generating their own glow. All I knew was that the

entire park now rose up in stark tones. Everybody that ran, sat or hid was

visible to me. It was like those thermal cameras they use on television, where

the different gradients of heat show up as different colors. Only for me, it

was just red; blood red. The thumping in my head grew as I watched the shapes

moving across the nighttime landscape. I shuddered once and fell back against

the ground.                Verona

ran to me. Maggie, that staunch trooper of the dark, paled at the sight of my

body. I wasn't turning into a werewolf. That she could have handled. No, my

joints had seemingly disappeared. I suppose that's not the right way of

describing it. There were contorting in a way that was against the nature of

the human body. After a little time it settled down and when I awoke, I was

feeling worn but in one piece. All that excitement and me without a clear

memory of what had happened.                Being

awake was no great thing, for the moment I was, my mind was running at

supersonic speed. It was as if everything that was in it was being rebooted.

Suddenly, old memories long forgotten rose to the surface, crashing upon me in

wave after wave of vivid flashbacks. I suppose it was a matter of seeing my

life flash before my eyes.                Verona

wasn't helping matters any, because in her concern for me, she had let down her

guard in keeping her scent under wraps. It was driving my nose crazy. It itched

and ran, and drool started coming out of my mouth. I got a massive hard-on that

was the only thing they couldn't see of me at the moment. I probably looked

like a zombie at worst, and a fully fledged epileptic at the best.                I heard

Maggie actually crying, a first for her. "Dammit Verona, what have you done to

him?"                Verona

actually sounded appalled. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like

this. By all rights, he should just change and be done with it!"                I tore

loose from them and stumbled away, fire in my veins and blood on my mind.

Maggie ran and grabbed my leg, hoping to halt my progress. I snatched her up,

and for the first time in her life, she felt fear. I could see it in her eyes.

I don't think she was afraid of me, only afraid of losing me. I could barely

speak. It was guttural at best. "Come."                I dropped

her on her feet, and she turned and frantically waved Verona to follow. I

limped off, feeling like a freshly dug corpse. Now and again I shuddered as the

moonlight fell fully upon my back. If this was part of being a werewolf, I

wanted nothing to do with it. I felt like I was being torn in two directions.  There was a sharp pain somewhere in my hip.                I

wandered around for hours. Each time the girls tried to turn me around I got

violent. It was as if I was searching for something, but I knew not what. If I

was out in the moonlight too long, I grew irrational, and I clutched my hip in

pain. It hurt so bad at times that I nearly fell. In my bewildered mind I

couldn't think of a reason for it to hurt. It hadn't hurt this bad since I was

hit by a car back when I was a kid. Back then the doctor had stitched me up and

that was the end of it.                I'll

spare you a lot of time by telling you that the girls did manage to finally get

me back to the hotel. I looked so bad the doorman offered to call an ambulance.

His voice sounded like gurgling in my ears, and his smell was that of fresh

meat. I shuddered and waved him off. We went back upstairs and called it a day.

It was almost six in the morning.                Hours

later I returned to consciousness, remembering little of the night before. The

girls had to fill me in on the details.  I was still shaky, sort of that feeling you

getting when you're weak after being ill, or having just had a close brush with

death. It was a fine tremor that ran the length and breadth of my body. But

whereas my body was in flux, my mind was now as sharp and as clear as glass.

Except for last night, I could recall every detail of my life since the day I

was born. It was weird.                 Verona

was dressed in one of the hotel robes. Maggie was in a long t shirt that

covered most of her torso, except when she was sitting. I tried not to let my

eyes wander, but they were making it difficult. 

Verona was watching me carefully, and I could see the concern in her

eyes.                "I'm

sorry I've caused you so much distress. I have no idea why you didn't change

last night."                I

stretched my shoulders, feeling them pop a little as they settled into place.

My hip was still achy too.  "I don't

remember much of what happened. Did I hurt anyone?"                Maggie

giggled. "Not as bad as we were going to. You just lay there, and the punks

kept kicking you in the head. You snapped and threw them into a heap. I didn't

know you had it in you." She handed me two jack knives. "Here's your

souvenirs."                I held

one of them up and I could smell all sorts of odors on it. I dropped it on the

table with a snort. "I have no use for this kind of thing." I turned to Verona.

"So tell me, what happens now?"                She

looked so apologetic that she almost made me cry. "I don't know. I was going

off of the old lore. If you were a human and a human only, nothing should have

happened from my bite. But something did happen. I don't know what to call it

precisely, but you reacted in some, muted way. Your strength, for a brief

moment, was enormous. You threw two one hundred and eighty pound guys like they

were baseballs."                "I'll

believe you. So what do I do from here? I can't go back home knowing full well

that I may let loose on my town something that I can't control."                She

actually started crying. I didn't know werewolves had that sort of emotion in

them. "I don't know..." Then she brightened. "Unless you want to move in with me

here. Then you'll have someone to look after you when the feeling comes over

you again."                Maggie

jumped and put her arms around my neck. "Can we? Can we move here? It's totally

cool and I'm sure we wouldn't be a problem!"                My mind

grappled with the idea. I would have to find a job here, assuming I could hold

one down now. Money was going to be the issue. Even if Verona had room for us,

I didn't want to be a burden. I told them as much.                Maggie

just grinned from ear to ear. "Money. I have money, remember?"                "Yes

dear, I remember. But I assumed we were blowing most of it on this trip."                "Nah. I

think I have somewhere around two million hidden away back home. I told you I

cleaned the bastard out."                I

choked, partially because I was still salivating heavily. "TWO MILLION

DOLLARS!"                "Well,

I didn't count it to the last penny, but at least that much." She said it so

nonchalantly.                 Verona

smiled. "Even in New York City, you can live well on that much money. I say you

figure out what you want from your home and move it here, or else have someone

lock your house up tight and forget about it for a while."                I

debated it. I had no family back there, but I did have friends. Somehow, I

don't think they were likely to remain close once I started changing, and I

don't mean physically. I knew full well that my mind was working on a whole

other level than before. It didn't take me long to assess that I was better off

here than there.                 "I'll

do it!"