Chapter 13 – Free running

The dark Werewolf made a low growl as if he was telling her to shut up. That only made Aniya lose it.
When he was bending his body to pick up a piece of flesh, Aniya kicked his groins from behind, hard. As he was bending forward over his body with pain, Aniya grabbed his tail and twisted it in different places. The sound of the tiny tail bones breaking echoed in the steel walls, and she then kicked his head hard, sending him flying against the nearest wall. When the dark Werewolf fell to the floor, Aniya was already on him, and she grabbed his feet.

Aniya tossed him to her left and her right, as if he was a mere rag doll, hitting his body against the steel floor while she was shouting in her head, “|… I told you not to eat me! I wasn’t joking, wolfy! You will learn to hear me when I speak to you! ...|”

The faint yellow light that was surrounding them increased at each hit on the floor, and by the fourth throw, Aniya heard a voice in her head, “|… An… Aniya! ...|“

She tossed the dark Werewolf against the wall and grabbed his head. She increased the pressure on the Werewolf’s skull and her mind shouted, “|… Are you there, Nick? I swear I will squash your head like a grape if you don’t speak up!...|”

The dark Werewolf had his eyes wide open thanks to the pressure on his skull that was making his eyes pop out, “|… Aniya… stop… My head… hurts! ...|”

Aniya stopped trying to explode the dark Werewolf’s head, grabbed the long snout by the lower jaw, and pulled the tongue out, “|… If I see you again eating your flesh or trying to eat mine, I will rip your tongue out, understood? ...|“

“|… Yes! I understand! Now… let me go… please! ...|”

Aniya released the tongue and sat on the floor in front of the dark Werewolf, crossing her legs. She then tilted her big white furry head left and asked in her mind, “|… This is weird. I can’t talk, but I can hear you in my head! Is this a Werewolf thing? ...|”

The dark Werewolf answered in Aniya’s mind while putting his tail bones in place for them to heal properly, “|… I don’t think so...I have never heard of anything like this before...And why can I even think? ...|“

The dark Werewolf moved his tail to check it, and he then opened and closed his hands while frowning at them. “|… I am in perfect control of my body! How did this happen? Darn, I am ugly!… You look rather cute with all that white fur, Aniya, but look at me! I look like a shadow! All dark, not even one spot with a different colour! ...|”

“|… I suppose your dark colour can be useful on a pitch-black night, but with a big moon glowing in the sky, you will need to run between the shadows. Do you think this has something to do with our bond? Because this mind talk and this weird body… You said I would not remember a thing! I stopped feeling any pain when I began to change, but it was so strange! ...|”

Nick slowly shook his long head. “|… I don’t know, but I heard you shouting at me as if I was sleeping and you woke me up! Maybe it has something to do with you being a Luna? ...|”

“|… No, I am the Alpha, remember? We talked about that before, and we agreed that you were the Luna and I was the Alpha. ...|“

“|… I didn’t agree with anything, I just laughed! For you to be the Alpha, we need a pack, and you need to beat me in a fair fight! ...|”

Aniya grimaced because her new lips were kind of difficult to use for a smile. “|… I just kicked your ass, and you still think I am not the Alpha here? Or are you playing the mindless beast card on me because I was the one with a functioning brain and you were just growling? Alright, we can go for one more round, but I will still beat you! ...|”

Nick waved his two furry hands as Aniya was getting up and going into a defensive stance. “|… No need! You can be the Alpha for tonight, but this isn’t over, young lady! There are other things we could do instead of fighting, you know? ...|”

Aniya frowned as she was putting one arm over her chest and one hand between her legs, “|… Yuck! Get lost, you pervert! Don’t you go horny-wolfy on me, unless you want to lose your balls! ...|”

“|… Hey! I wasn’t talking about that! Or thinking, I don’t know what we are doing right now! This mind talk is so weird! I was thinking that, considering we are not mindless beasts, it could be fun if we went for a run in the forest outside! ...|”

Aniya stood up straight and touched her chin with her index claw. “|… That could actually be fun. We still need to be careful so that no one sees us, but the forest at the back of this house goes on for kilometres. There are even some deer… Wait a minute! Don’t you dare eat the deer! ...|”

“|… No need to eat anything. Not a mindless beast anymore, remember? So, how about it? Shall we go for a run? We can return before sunrise before your farm neighbours wake up! ...|”

Aniya was already grabbing the big wheel that served as a lock for the door, and as she was turning it, she thought, “|… I know I can fit through the opening of the closet, but I am not sure if you will, considering you are now a bit fat! ...|”

That remark granted her a hug from behind and a low growl in her ear, as she heard Nick’s voice in her head, “|… Who are you calling fat, white wolfy? Your butt got bigger than it used to be, and you are mocking me? I bet I will need to kick it when you get stuck in that opening! ...|”

Aniya slowly turned and licked his left cheek, “|… Kissing like this is so weird! How do wolves kiss, anyway? ...|”

Nick rubbed his snout on her left cheek as his voice came to her mind, “|… I think this is how they kiss. It feels nice, actually. ...|“

“|… Yes, it does. Do you know what would feel even better? If you let me go so that we could go run! ...|”

As soon as the door opened, Aniya ran on her fours towards the ladder and touched it with one claw, pulling carefully on one steel step to test the strength. She carefully grabbed the ladder by the sides and climbed up, trying not to put one big foot on those thin metallic steps, because she doubted they could hold her increased weight. Aniya opened the sliding lid and went out, looking at the hole to see why Nick was taking so long. He finally appeared at the bottom of the stairs, carrying two huge dark trash bags. He threw one for her to grab, and then the other.

As Aniya was placing the bags on the floor of the room, Nick climbed and joined her near the bags, explaining in her head what those were for. “|...You didn’t eat it, and you didn’t let me eat it, so now we must dig a hole in the forest and bury your remains. Unless you want that pretty panic room of yours to get stinky with the smell of rotten meat! We can clean the blood in the morning, but we must get rid of this flesh. ...|“

Aniya stared at the bag next to her and thought, after touching her belly, “|… I think my belly button piercing is still there, along with my earrings. I should have taken those off before I… Oh yeah, I didn’t know I was going to change. Okay, let’s get going. Try not to make too much noise and don’t break anything on our way out! ...|”

As she was putting the bag on her back, she bumped her head against the chandelier on the ceiling, breaking a few lightbulbs that exploded over her head, covering her white fur with pieces of glass. Nick tilted his head as he asked, “|… Did you really break that after telling me to be careful? Really? Follow me, and be cautious, you menace! ...|”

Carefully and slowly, they went out of the house through the back door, and Aniya had some trouble closing the door with that tiny key and placing it under the rug.
They used the shadows nearby as hiding spots and entered the forest. Nick ran ahead on three limbs, while using one hand to hold the bag on his back. Aniya was right behind, making low growls because she was having fun, feeling the soil on her paws and the breeze caressing her snout.
After almost ten minutes, Nick turned to a rock near some trees, and he put the bag he was carrying on the floor. He made a low growl at Aniya and stood up, flexing his arms as if he was a bodybuilder, making her snort.
Nick grabbed the huge rock from the bottom and rolled it back. He dug a hole with his sharp claws, doing his best not to throw the soil too far from the rock, because he would need it to cover the hole in the end. When he thought it was deep enough, he put the two bags inside, and Aniya helped him cover them up. Aniya spread the leftover soil around as Nick rolled the rock back into place so that it could blend in with the rest of the soil, even if it was darker because of the moisture.

He then made a low growl and his voice reached the amused Aniya, happy with all that new adventure, “|… Now we run? ...|“

“|… Yeah, now we run! ...|”

For the rest of the night, they ran, made each other stumble, or tackled each other, enjoying their strangely big and new bodies to the fullest.
…

It was almost time for them to enter the house again, considering the sun was about to appear. Nick was seated on the floor at the edge of the forest, looking at Aniya’s house with his back against a tree, and Aniya was between his legs, leaning on his chest.

He sighed, and his thoughts reached Aniya’s mind, “|… You know, I could get used to this. It’s nice after all the changes I have gone through over the years, waking up in the morning, tied to a wall, not remembering a thing. I wish all Werewolves had the same level of conscience as us and could enjoy this as well. The peace, the feeling of the soil under our paws or feet, not sure what these big furry things are. ...|”

“|… I would call them paws because they surely are no feet! What about feeling the night breeze in your snout? That was also nice!...|”

Nick hugged Aniya tighter and rubbed his chin on her head. “|… Yes, but what I liked the most was feeling this body, feeling myself in control and smelling things. Even in pitch black, I could see our way. How cool is that? Maybe we could find more Werewolves, and your ability could make them gain consciousness as well. That would surely give us a pack! ...|”

“|… I am not so sure it was me. I think it was our bond that did it. But why that fixation with a pack? Do you want to be a wolfy that much, with a bunch of underlings at your command? ...|”

Nick laid his snout on her head. “|… Not underlings, but a big and happy family. Strength lies in numbers, remember? Hunters don’t go alone after Werewolves, they go in groups. Werewolves are killed when they are alone because they are dangerous when in a group. But instead of mindless beasts, what if a group of Hunters faced Werewolves with a conscience? Their advantage in numbers and weaponry would not help them. ...|”

“|… You want to kill them all, don’t you? I understand, because of what they did to you, but they are not all bad, you know? My parents are kind of cool, except for being Hunters, that is. ...|“

“|… On the day you see a Hunter stabbing the heart of your friend Lisa or me, you will understand my hate for the Hunters, Aniya. I just hope you never see that. ...|“

Aniya went silent, thinking about his words.