Sitting in the biology lab was a boy who could full well talk to dogs, though the term boy was probably pushing it.

I was bored. The wolf had gone off in a sulk after lunch and my biology teacher was droning on about dangerous chemicals and their affects on the body. Since I had recently drunk a bottle of bleach, I wasn't paying much attention, and nodded off.

In my dream, I was sitting on the crown a hill with the wolf, starring at an impossibly large full moon. The wolf was just sitting there as if waiting for something; then by some unseen command it started howling, then I joined in, joining in the song of the moon. More wolves joined in the song all singing of their sorrows and joys; I felt the weight of months of suppression fall off me as I sang out my soul to the Luna Choir.

Matt! A discord shattering the song as it went.

Matt! It rang out shattering my dream.

Matt! I woke in the classroom, the entire class staring at me; everything seemed to have had the colour leached out of it. I realised what had happened, I had started shifting in my sleep. I fought the wolf out and changed back to human, hoping like hell no one had noticed.

"Matt, you were asleep again," said my aggravated biology teacher who didn't seem to have noticed my change. "You are missing vital information on human anatomy."

I could teach him something about human anatomy first hand, I thought angrily. I wasn't happy, in case you hadn't guessed, about being wakened from my dream. The fact that my fingernails were itching to try out some new things they had discovered called claws and the wolf was back, describing the tastier bits of the human anatomy didn't help my mood.

Somehow I struggled through that lesson, I wanted to get back to the dream but my teacher kept looking around to see if I was awake. The colours were all wrong. It was all too bright; too red; sound was messed up as well, the squeak of the chalk was piercing, the boy with the cough in the back row sounded like he was right next to me. It was stifling, the wolf yearned to get out, to hunt and kill these human sheep. I wanted to join it but couldn't. It had already destroyed my life, I couldn't let it take the lives of these children.

Finally school ended. I dashed out, getting away from the living tomb pausing only to bin my homework. My teachers had long ago accepted that they were never getting any homework back and had stopped asking. People often wondered why I didn't drop out when I obviously wanted to. I actually couldn't look at my mothers disappointed face when I got a D, I couldn't imagine what would happen if I left.

I got to the bus, storming past the driver and sitting down in my seat. Safe. Calm. I looked at my reflection in the window and recoiled. Was that me? It looked too primal, my hair was thick and matted, my face pointed and angular, my ears were soft to the touch and definitely pointed; I bared my teeth showing small but prominent fangs. Even my molars were sharp; but it was still me. I looked down at my hands. The nails were dark and pointed. I was losing control, and the wolf was taking over one part at a time.

People started filing onto the bus. I couldn't see them as I stared at my reflection but I could smell them; 'please God don't let one sit next to me, I'll lose it for sure.' People walked past my row without pausing, going to their own usual seats. Then the kid from this morning stepped onto the bus. 'Don't try it, Don't try it, Don't try it.' I thought desperately as he reached my row, but he walked on taking a seat at the back.

I relaxed, my fingers stopped gripping the seat, I looked down and saw the fabric ripped and ragged, the thin cushion peeking through the hole. My senses were going haywire, sound fluctuated between deafening noise and a crushing silence, colour clouded then came back, painting everything a deep red; my sense of smell skyrocketed. I could guess what everyone's shampoo was, what they had for breakfast and whether they had a lot of homework that night. I kept glancing in the window watching in fascination as my features slid down the evolutionary scale, the wolf was howling with the release, urging me to join in.

The bus slowed and stopped, and I fled, desperate to get away from the sensory overload, reminding my self to keep running on two legs as I raced down the aisle. My house would be safe, one of the few rational thoughts I had, in my desperate dash home. Two legs felt clumsy, slow. Much faster on four. 'No! Think bipedal.' I got to the door but couldn't turn the knob. My thumb felt like it was glued to my hand. I pulled, wrenched the door out of the frame and flung it away, running upstairs to the promised safety of my den. 'Room!' I opened the door with a kick and ran inside before the smell hit me. Horrible as a human, it was totally overwhelming to my unprepared nose. I collapsed in shock and the wolf took over. With nothing to resist the changes, it moved me straight into its form, and started to run away from my house, answering to the irresistible lure of the wild.

A man and a woman looked mournfully down at the wreckage of the door, they were obviously related. The same nose, eyes, the same sharp pointed jaw, the only difference was between the mans dark brown hair, and his sisters, which was bone white.

"We should have gotten to him sooner." The girl said.

"When?" The man replied.

"Any time. The school, this morning."

"It was too risky. What if he had lost it when he saw us?"

"Worse than now?"

"Fair point," the man replied. There was a pause. "We need to go after him; can you ask the spirits to look after the territory for awhile."

"They are pushed to the limit and I'm running out of favours."

"Doesn't matter, if this works we won't need them anymore."