I woke up, hanging briefly in that space where you're not aware of the world but know you're awake. This couldn't have happened; a werewolf had come in and I'd fought it. Impossible. I would open my eyes and see the concerned faces of my friends telling me I had fainted, and everything would be okay.

I opened my eyes. I was lying in an alley with no idea how I got there, wearing only a tablecloth, and my shoulder felt like it was on fire. Definitely, not good.

I sat up, the world swimming as the pain from my shoulder threatened to overwhelm me. It looked bad, a large piece of flesh from my shoulder had been ripped off and I could see the bone glinting white in the mass of red. There was a boy sitting on a trash can, the boy. There were angry red lines across his face and the front of his shirt was wet with blood.

She woke up after a few minutes, long before the pack arrived and looked groggily around. I shifted back into human before she spotted me. She looked more fragile now, lying on the concrete covered only by a blood soaked tablecloth. Nothing of the werewolf showed, and it was hard to imagine her as the monster that had attacked me.

"Who? Who are you? What happened? Why am I here?" she asked her voice faltering. Ed would have been so much better at it, he was naturally a negotiator, but he wasn't there so I had to do it.

"I am Matt the-youth-who-commands," 'might as well be formal' I thought. "And I am your official welcome to the world of lycanthropy."

"What are you talking about?" she said. "What do you mean welcome?"

I sighed. This was going to be tricky.

"To put it bluntly, very bluntly, you're a werewolf." I saw the disbelief rise in her face as I said this.

"I don't believe you. Why have you brought me here?" She was getting hysterical and it wouldn't do to have some public minded person come and see what was happening.

"Calm down I'm not going to hurt you." I said trying to get her to shut up.

"Why is there blood on you shirt then?" she pointed at me triumphantly.

"That's mine, now please listen if you just…" I was cut off

"Besides there's no such thing as werewolves, they're just children's stories." She said dismissively, I lost my temper. Not only had she attacked me but now was denying it and calling me crazy. I changed into a wolf to prove it, and was rewarded with a gasp of amazement. I changed back.

"Now do you believe me?"

"But. But. It isn't full moon and I haven't been bitten by a werewolf." She was clutching at straws now still trying to deny what she knew at heart.

"Both made up by Hollywood I think you'll find."

"Does that mean I can still wear silver earrings?" She asked smiling, and was definitely joking with me.

"You're not taking this seriously are you?" I replied annoyed.

"Why should I? I can't possibly be a werewolf; I'm just a normal girl. I can't change into a wolf."

"Have you tried?"

"No but…"

"Then you don't know you can't!" I snapped back 'Where are Ed and Lucy?' I thought. 'They could handle this much better than me.'

"How do I try?" She said softly, startling me.

"What?"

"How do I try?" She repeated calmly. Great, one of the difficult questions.

"Err well…" he looked flustered. "Okay, look inside of yourself, there will be a part of you that's a wolf, just, well, let it out."

"You don't sound very confident." I pointed out.

"Look it gets easier with practice and it's kind of difficult to describe."

I obliged, looking inside my own mind, glancing over my memories in the club. had I really done that. Flicking quickly over the dog attack I went deeper, the old half forgotten memories of my childhood floating past. The day I found out my dad had died. The night he had come home covered in blood. When I was convinced the big bad wolf was after me… I paused, there was something strange but familiar in that memory, I reached out to touch it, to look and see what it was that was part of me and not. It looked back and engulfed me

I reopened my eyes, everything was in black and white, I tried to look down but all I saw was a muzzle. I looked behind me. Saw a wolf's body and tail. I tried to move it. It, my tail, wagged slightly. I looked up at the boy, now a giant sitting on top of the trash can. I tried to speak but couldn't my mouth was the wrong shape.

"Don't think about speaking, just talk." He said looking down at me

'That doesn't make sense.' I tried to say.

"So how come you just did it." He pointed out

'How had he understood that?' my head reeled. 'Am I speaking without realising?'

"Yes you are," I pointed out smugly

She was doing remarkably well. She had already figured out how to change and was picking up wolf speak remarkably quickly, though she needed some help with control. I guessed I should find out where Ed and Lucy had got to.

He stepped of the can shifting smoothly into the form of a wolf as he fell.

"Follow me," it wasn't words, just actions, but I could understand him. "We need to find some people."

"How are we talking?" I asked curiously.

"In the same way wolves do. Now come on." He started to walk to the end of the alley and I followed him my shoulder miraculously better, though this registered pretty low on my recent scale of strange things. Before we reached the end though, two humans entered the ally.

"Matt," one of them said, female with bone white hair. "We have been looking all over for you."

The other, a man with brown hair, noticed me.

"I think, I can guess what happened." He said still looking at me. "I brought this just in case and I guess you'll need it." He held out a collar in red leather. "Put it on, then we can go to our hideout and we can explain everything properly." He placed it on me, the leather felt strange around my neck, oppressive; I tried to take it off but didn't have a thumb to loosen the buckle and just pawed it uselessly. 'This must be what dog feels like' I thought as Matt shifted back into a human. They started to walk off but I hesitated uneasy, if I did this, I would be accepting everything that couldn't have happened.

"Come on Jacky, Matt said seeing my reluctance. "It can't get any stranger."

He lied.