Two Hearts: The Hunt [Slowly Editing]

Chapter Eighteen

Caleb's POV

That night was the night of the Full Moon.

For a while there I had actually completely forgotten about those monthly moon phases that were responsible for several hours' worth of blackouts. I had been so caught up with school, my friends, and a certain blonde who thought she owned both that the thought of it hadn't even crossed my mind.

However, the wolf part of me never forgot. When I shifted to hunt after practice, something inside me had urged me to tilt my head upwards at the darkness of the sky. Sure enough I could see a full moon glowing softly against a black, star-filled backdrop, its yellow-white brilliance shining against the wetness of my nose. It had taken on more of a yellowish hue tonight, looking a bit eerie as its presence gave off a sense of mystery and foreboding. I whined softly as part of me felt excited for the arrival of its friend the Moon while the other part of me countered the emotion, feeling the complete opposite.

It would be a few hours before the moon rose up to the exact position it needed to be in order for its magic to take effect, so I knew I had some time to spare. Some time to get ready.

When I got home I rummaged through the clothes I hadn't bothered to unpack out of my large suitcase, my hands meeting cool, hard metal as they found what they were searching for. A long string of chains, a heavy lock, and a plastic bag of unnaturally long metal nails. These were the objects that would help keep some of myself in tact while the wolf in me attempted to take over my being. Wolves were weary of metal due to its close association with silver.

I stood up from my crouched position by my suitcase and stared out my bedroom window, eyeing the moon warily. I could already feel the wolf in me getting restless, aching to take control of me and unleash its full power. My stomach felt queasy with knots, my skin was getting itchy with nerves as my body temperature began to rise, exceeding its already-high temperature. These were the nights that I hated this side of me the most.

It seemed like I was waiting forever for the Moon to rise along with the tension within me that began to build up higher and higher. Tremors threatened to shake beneath my skin, accompanied with occasional waves of nausea. And then, finally, the build-up reached its peak and I rushed into the bathroom, puking into the toilet before I closed the door shut with a lock and sat against the wall.

The first thing I did was clamp tight shackles around my wrists and ankles. When I shifted I became two times my size, so there was no way my paws around be slipping out of them. The binding material was the strongest of its kind for that reason, and because of the extra strength I harbored in comparison to your average wolf, I required more of them.

Plus, I had my steel bathroom door. Before dumping me here by father had someone install the steel door for my bathroom so that this tiny room would be where I resided on these nights. It would be painted like a normal door so that nobody would see it and think I had a secret laboratory behind it or something, and then re-painted if I were to scratch at it during my unconscious state. Back at Moonlight Shadows we usually just hid inside a metal crate sort of thing with locks on them to keep us from getting out. My parents and I kept ours in the basement of our log cabin. The basement's depth made it harder for the magic of the moon to influence us and the fact that we were underground allowed our wolf forms to be more noisy. We'd be able to howl or growl without having anyone with dull, human ears hear it.

I always found it better to do this part when the feeling to shift was at its worst because I wouldn't think about the pain of driving the nails into my skin too much. With a jumbled mind and an aching body, I simply pierced my skin with the long, extremely thick nails without any hesitation, placing one on the side of my neck, on my arms, around my head and on my legs. The constant pain from the nails would keep me a bit more human, and thanks to my rapid healing they wouldn't leave a scar once removed. Then with bloody, shaking hands I tied myself up with the chain and lock and key, wrapping it around me with the practiced fingers I had acquired after years of doing the exact same thing every month.