“You’re going to want to lean into a crouch,” I tell her. “That makes it easier when you go from two legs to four.”

“This is so fucking weird,” she mutters.

“Just wait till you eat your first rabbit.”

She audibly gasps. “I will not be eating a rabbit.”

“You get caught out in the snow one good time? You’ll eat a rabbit.”

She makes a disgruntled sound, and I chuckle under my breath. She’s kind of easy to rile up.

“But how do I…you know?” she says. “Is there some sort of magic word to change?”

I bark out a laugh. “No, there’s no magic word. Your body is meant to do this, and once it realizes that, it will be as easy as breathing.”

“Breathing doesn’t require me to eat poor innocent rabbits,” she grumbles.

“That restlessness you’re feeling in your skin? That’s because your body wants you to change forms. The wolf is a part of us, you know? You have to let it out sometimes, or else it will get…cooped up.”

“You talk about it like it’s a separate person.”

“I suppose in a way…it is? There’s the human part of my brain, and then there’s the wolf. After so long…I can recognize who has hold of the reins.”

“This is…so fucking weird.”

“It’ll get easier,” I tell her. “I promise.”

“So how does it work?”

“You have to imagine your wolf like an actual entity,” I tell her. “It’s a part of you, but it’s also its own being.”

“Because that isn’t cryptic.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’ve ever had to explain this to someone.”

“You’re right,” she sighs. “I’m sorry. Go on.”

“You need to focus on that restlessness you’re feeling. Tap into it. You need to imagine it like a string you can pull. Don’t fight it, but instead seek it out, yeah?”

“That still seems cryptic as hell.”

“You’ll just have to try, and we’ll go from there, okay?”

“Maybe you should go first,” she says. “So I can see it happening.”

My jaw works, dreading the next part that still hasn’t occurred to her. “Well…I’ll need to get naked.”

“Naked?”

“Yeah. This isn’t news. You remember when you came across me when I’d shifted the other day? It’s just something you have to do. Unless you want to tear through your clothes. I’ve done it before, and it’s a bitch.”

Her mouth hangs agape, her eyes narrowing like she’s suspicious of me.

I roll my eyes. “I’m not trying to get you naked, but you will have to be to do this. Even if you want to try it by yourself.”

“Ugh, fine,” she concedes. “Take your damn clothes off. Can you at least hide your…you know?”

“I’ll do my best not to flash you.”

She angles her body, no doubt watching from her peripherals while I start to shed my clothes. It’s fucking freezing out, but thankfully, I run just a little hotter than a beta. I save my boots for last so I don’t accidentally freeze my toes, shoving it all into the nylon bag I brought for us before I stand up straight. I turn to the side with one hand covering my dick, doing my best to maintain some modesty.

“Okay,” I tell her. “Ready when you are.”

She peeks over at me, and I can tell by the slight widening of her eyes and the more than slight bloom of her scent that she likes what she sees. A part of me wants to preen under her attention, but I shove it down. That’s not what we’re doing here.

I close my eyes and draw on that feeling inside that’s a bit more animal than I am—almost like calling out to an actual wolf and bidding it to come closer. It’s like breathing now, the change, but as my limbs shift and my fur sprouts, I can only imagine how shocking it must be for Tess, who has no prior experience.

When I’m down on all fours, I settle on my haunches, staring back at a now wide-eyed Tess, who is looking at me like I’m some sort of alien. She waves at me like she’s testing to see if it’s actually me, and I yip at her while throwing my head back in answer.

“Fucking freaky,” she mutters.

I trot over to her side, tugging at her coat sleeve with my teeth to try to pull it from her shoulder. I know that without some sort of nudge, she’ll put this off for as long as she can until she spontaneously shifts in the middle of a grocery store or something.

“I get it, I get it,” she huffs. “Get naked.” She points down at me. “But you turn around.”

I dutifully do as she says, circling in place and settling again to face the opposite direction. I can hear the rustling of her clothes as she slowly sheds them behind me, and even as a wolf, I shudder at the thought of her without them. It’s something I didn’t get to see before, and I can’t pretend that this isn’t a little disappointing. I’m only human, after all.

Well, mostly.

“All I’m doing is freezing to death,” I hear her grousing behind me, the chatter of her teeth clicking in the stillness. “How the hell am I supposed to pull at some invisible string?”

I yip again, pawing at the snow and bending the front half of my body as if readying to pounce. Thankfully, she gets my meaning.

“Yeah, yeah, lean into it, I got it.”

If I could, I would smile. She might be pricklier than I am sometimes.

I hear her feet shuffling in the snow, her muttered curses and deep breaths, and I don’t know if it’s her own body’s need to do so or just a stroke of luck, but after a few minutes, I hear something plop down into the snow, followed by the soft whimpering of another wolf.

And when I finally turn…I find the most stunning creature on four legs I’ve ever seen.

Holy Twilight knockoff, Batman.

I stumble around on four legs—repeat, four legs—letting out little sounds that only further my panic because they’re not shouts and curses; they’re howls and barks. I stare down at my feet—or rather, paws—flexing my toes in the snow and marveling at how much warmer I feel already. I idly think, I guess fur will do that for you.

“How do you feel?”

My eyes snap up to meet those of Hunter’s wolf, and I’m stunned all over again, because I’m aware that he just made a sound that wasn’t at all human, and yet I understood it perfectly.

“This is so fucking weird.”

Jesus Christ. Apparently, not only do I understand wolf, I speak it too.

Hunter trots over to me, sniffing at my ear, and I wince away self-consciously.

“What are you doing?”

“Just getting your scent,” he tells me. “It’s slightly different in this form.”

If I had a nose still and not a fur-covered snout, I would wrinkle it with distaste. “Does it smell…bad?”

Hunter makes a low sound in his chest, one that is both human and very much not human all at once. “It’s definitely not bad.”

I try to steady myself—it’s much harder to stand on four legs than you might think if you’ve never done it before—taking in my surroundings with a sort of clarity that makes me realize my eyes are better now. I can see the tiny flurries of snow as they’re unsettled by the wind. I catch sight of the leaves trembling in the breeze from my peripherals. I can even see the slight flick of Hunter’s tail as he studies me quietly.

“Well,” I warble. “How do I look?”

His eyes are still the same dark brown that’s almost black, even like this, but they seem sharper somehow, and I guess given what I just observed, that makes sense too. He snuffles at me, making another a low sound, and I understand his words so well he might as well have spoken them.

“Gorgeous.”

I don’t think wolves can actually blush, but if they could, my face would be on fire.

God. This is so fucking weird.

“What do we do now?” I ask.

He gestures with his head over his shoulder, drawing my eyes to the clearing beyond. “Let’s get you used to four legs.”