A glance at the calendar told him the fact that it was almost a full moon. Next Friday would be a full moon, and he was dreading it. Usually he could pass it off, make it like he was going to Gav's house, but he couldn't, because Gav was out of the country.
He had argued profusely with him about this, yelling, "I thought you knew! You always stay in the country when I'm gonna turn!"
The British boy responded, "I thought it was next week!"
"Well you thought wrong, Gavin!" Michael yelled, so angry.
What was he gonna do? How could he tell everyone that his werewolf form was a fucking Chihuahua compared to all the others? For Christ's sake, even Ray's werewolf form was an actual scary looking wolf! Ray's was a timberwolf, reddish-brown with curious brown eyes. It was a sight to behold. And Michael's? Michael's was a fucking puppy. Michael's was one of those wolves you find at the zoo, placid and lazy, lounging about in the sun for half the day, fangs and claws filed short, more likely to be seen pilfering through a garbage can than sinking teeth into flesh to turn another werewolf.
And don't even get him started on the others' forms. Geoff's was a dark, murky black, eyes cold and yellow, with a curled tail (that somehow coordinated with the mustache on his human face). Jack's was copper red and wiry, much like his beard, and had pale eyes. Ryan's was white as snow, with shockingly yellow eyes, and the only trace of color on his body was that of reddish-brown stockings on his front two paws that almost looked like blood.
Other people at his work were shifters too, though they could consciously choose between human and beast. The only full human was Gavin, and that was through an error in Geoff's judgement. Geoff thought that Gavin was either werewolf orversipellis, but was mistaken to find out he was human. But, Gavin proved to be a helpful asset to the team, without the limitations of shifting, and he could go out and get things for those who needed it but couldn't because they weren't, well, human.
Besides the point, even Lindsay, who was obsessed with kittens and giggling at bad jokes her friend and coworker Barbara makes, she still was a versipellis who could shift to any large scale feline she wanted. So, she could just be a normal tabby cat, or she could be a (now extinct) saber tooth tiger.
In other words, Michael looked like a fucking baby. And he wasn't excited for everyone to find out.
So, Michael didn't let them find out. He hid in his apartment that Friday. Normally, all the guys who turn to werewolves gather together at the safe room in the office and wait it out, usually biting and fighting each other rather than their coworkers, friends, or innocent civilians. But, Michael always avoided the safe room, or as the other guys called it, 'The Fray', and stayed at Gavin's house in his basement. Of course, he still couldn't do that. So he waited it out in his apartment. Around dusk, the moon was beginning to rise, and he knew it was soon. Michael had asked his other coworkers, specifically those older, what it was like shifting, when he was new to being a werewolf. Geoff told him it was scary, and all he remembers about it is a throbbing sense to kill. Jack said that he almost killed his wife the first time, she told him, and that he never wanted to do that again. Ray said he tore up his house, which is why he wanted to stay in The Fray, where he wouldn't ruin anything since the room was just an empty concrete room.
And Ryan… Ryan said that the only thing he really knows is that he doesn't remember his shiftings. Ryan had been a werewolf the longest, being one from his parent's genes, and he had been shifting since he was a baby. He said he's shifted 432 times, thirteen times a year, even as a newborn. Ryan's first shifting was when he was only fifteen days old, December 21st. He woke up the next morning in his crib, which was ripped to splinters, and all of his bedsheets shredded and covered in his own blood. He saw marks and scars all over his body every morning after he shifted, but he didn't know why it happened until his parents sat him down and said, "James, you're a werewolf."
And as the moon rose, Michael felt himself tense. He knew, it was now. He was shifting really really soon. He locked up his door, the windows, and closed the drapes. And he sat in the middle of his living room, between the couch and the TV console, and he waited. Then, his brain just went fuzzy and black, and he didn't remember anything.