He was going to kiss me. I knew it; I could feel it deep in my bones, could see it from the expression on his face, the warmth and longing in his eyes that seemed to draw me ever closer to him. And I was more than prepared to kiss him back. But he never got the chance to.

Before Kris could lean down and press his lips against mine, something very large, something that must have been silent in its approach, came streaking like a blur and bowled right into us, knocking the both of us to the ground. Kris managed to twist around and place himself under me so that I wouldn't have a hard impact with the earth, but only a moment later he was on his feet again, facing the thing that had clearly attacked us.

I regained my senses quickly as I was still seated haphazardly on the the ground, and I spotted what had nearly run us down. It was something very similar to the boys, obviously, but with one distinct difference: the creature baring its fangs and snarling at us was quite obviously a maned wolf, an animal that I only knew to inhabit South America. Then again, I didn't think wolves could be found around my hometown either, so I had a feeling this creature wasn't simply an animal that had lost sense of where it belonged.

Kris was tense in front of me, staring down the animal in front of him while its eyes glowed ominously in the eerie light. Kris's fists were clenched at his sides, and he looked as if he might explode in a fit of rage at any moment, so I knew he would probably shift to his lupine form soon.

Without turning to look at me, he seemed to growl under his breath, "Elle. Run. Back to the house."

I hesitated a moment, still in shock by the appearance of the maned wolf, but then I was able to make sense of his words. And as soon as I glanced down to get my feet under me, the Kris I knew was gone and a large, bristling black wolf stood in his place, the clothes he had been wearing just a moment before lying in shreds on the ground. I had never seen his lupine form before, so I was momentarily stunned by the sight. But his sudden snap and growl in my direction reminded me of what he had said. Stumbling over my own feet and the terrain beneath them, I scrambled away from the clearing as snarls and the sound of ripping flesh filled my ears.

Tears were already in my eyes as I tried my best to run, as I could only imagine what was happening in the clearing I had left behind. Sure, Kris was easily larger and more built than his opponent, but the maned wolf had long legs and a certain viciousness that  would be difficult to rival. But as all of this was running through my mind, I didn't pay attention to anything going on around me besides keeping myself from tripping over something as silly as a root.

Because of this, I failed to see the two creatures paralleling my path on either side of me, just out of sight among the trees. If I had been paying attention, I might have seen them, but I was too distracted with controlling my own body until a sharp pain shot up from my right calf, quickly followed by another in my left. Both of these caused me to lose my balance and concentration, and in a moment, I was sprawled out in the grass and dirt.

I flipped myself onto my back quickly, only to see the blood already welling up all over both of my calves, made obvious by the clear bite mark patterns. The wounds were burning like fire, but I didn't have a chance to worry about them before one of the creatures, a rather large coyote, was on top of me, its front paws planted against my shoulders as it snarled, bared fangs only inches from my face.

Had this been a normal coyote, I would've been able to force it off of me; but with it's abnormally large size, I knew it had to be a shapeshifter. What I couldn't understand was why it was attacking me.

Suddenly, more pain shot up from my calves, and I could feel the second coyote biting into my legs over and over, worrying at them, almost like...

As soon as the wolf from my visions slipped into my thoughts, an inexplicable heat rose up through my body, and when I closed my eyes, I quickly found that I was unable to open the again. I could still feel the coyotes on top of me, but after a brief and painless ripping sensation, I felt strangely disjointed from my body. Then, I found I could open my eyes again, but there was a red mist clouding my vision, and I felt as if I wasn't in control of my movements. At the same time, I was filled with a violent rage, and before I knew what was happening, the two coyotes were lying dead at my feet, nearly unrecognizable under all of the blood. I couldn't tell if it was my blood or theirs, but I didn't get a chance to ponder this further before I felt myself falling over, though I out before I ever hit the ground.

~

Coming back to consciousness was slow and dragging, as if I had passed out from a heavy dose of some drug that I wasn't used to. I became aware of my body a little at a time, but my legs sparked into my awareness, and I couldn't keep myself from crying out in pain. As soon as the scream left my lungs, there was a gentle pressure on my arms, and I managed to open my eyes as tears streamed down my cheeks and I continued to whimper in pain.

"Oh god, Elle, shhh, it's okay," Kris said, his face creased with anxiety. He was sitting over me, with my head in his lap as he was trying to take stock of what had happened and what kind of injuries I had sustained.

He kept smoothing back my hair away from my face, trying to calm me down. "The boys'll be here any minute, they'll have stuff to fix your legs. I promise, Elle. It's gonna be okay." I could tell he was nervous, but I wasn't able to respond to comfort him because I was in so much pain. I could feel myself subconsciously tensing my muscles and joints, and my fingers were clawing into the dirt as I tried to ignore the pain in my legs.

"Please-- don't... leave me," I managed to choke out between quiet sobs. I shakily moved my right hand up toward my face, and, knowing what I wanted, Kris immediately grabbed it with his own. I squeezed it, hard, and I saw him wince, but he managed a small smile anyway, for my sake.

"I'm not going anywhere," he whispered before pressing his lips against my forehead.

The boys showed up soon after that, and Lay, apparently pretty skilled in first aid, doctored and bandaged both of my calves. The pain immediately began to ease off, but it was still a lot to bear, and I almost missed Lay whispering something in Kris's ear. After that, Kris lifted me off the ground and turned so that I was unable to see the rest of the clearing, before walking back in the direction of the house.

My face was buried in his chest as he walked, and I almost didn't even realize that he was without a shirt. I wasn't particularly concerned with that though as the pain in my legs hadn't subsided entirely, which was more than enough distraction for me.

~

Her cries of pain had nearly killed me to listen to, and I had chased away the damn intruder instead of finishing him off like he deserved, just so I could get to her that much faster. The sight that met my eyes when I reached her nearly made me vomit, which was saying something since I regularly hunted animals myself. Then again, those coyotes hadn't been hunted; something had nearly mauled them to death, but somehow they were still breathing.

But my focus moved to Elle in a matter of seconds, and I moved to comfort her as she began to awaken from what must have been unconsciousness. She was in terrible pain, crying out often, and I could see why; her legs had been all but ripped open, either by the coyotes or whatever had attacked them. I thought I caught a glimpse of her bone through the wounds, but I forced myself to look away and focus on her face so I wouldn't think about the injuries.

The boys showed up a few moments later, just as I had expected, and Lay doctored her legs as best as he knew how. When he finished, he leaned toward me and whispered a short statement.

"They bit to the bone. She won't walk for a while."

The words hit me hard, and I was almost unable to even comprehend what they meant. All I knew in that moment was that I needed to get her back to the house, back to safety, because clearly I wasn't capable of protecting her.

As I walked back through the woods, Elle huddled in my arms, I kept thinking that I shouldn't have told her to run. I should have known that there would be others, rather than just the one intruder, but I had panicked. My only thought had been to get her away from that damned maned wolf; I hadn't wanted to imagine what he might do to her if he got past me. Clearly, he hadn't needed to get past me in order for her to have pain inflicted upon her.

She wasn't even awake when I got to the house and made it up to her room; Lay had given her something to help with the pain and induce a sound, dreamless sleep. Pulling the covers back, I was about to tuck her in just like that, but then I really saw all of the blood on her, and I knew I couldn't just leave her to wake up to that. I jogged down the hallway and grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts from my own room before returning to her room with them.

Her hair was matted with blood, so I carried her into the bathroom and placed her in the tub. Her clothes, including my jacket and Luhan's sweater, were completely shredded, so they were relatively easy to remove with the help of a pair of scissors.

I felt myself blushing when she was left in nothing but her undergarments and the bandages Lay had applied to her calves, but I grabbed a washcloth and began gently cleaning her up. I managed to get all the blood out of her hair and off her skin before drying her off and dressing her in my clean shirt and shorts. When I placed her back in the bed, she looked completely normal besides her legs. For a moment, I could picture a night where it was completely normal for her to be dressed like that, but having fallen asleep naturally instead of being forced into a drug-induced slumber.

I sat on the edge of her bed for a while, not unlike the way I had the night before, simply watching her breathe. But before very much time passed, I sensed a presence and turned to see Luhan and Lay standing in the doorway.

"Kris, we need to, ah, talk to you," Lay said, his voice somber and sullen.

"It can't wait until morning?" I sighed, exhausted, as I glanced back at her sleeping form.

The two of them glanced at each other for a moment before Lay shook his head, and I knew it would have to be something relatively serious for them to act like this. Not that this entire situation wasn't serious; so it must have been something I was unaware of.

When I got out to the hallway, leaving the door cracked enough to where I could still hear Elle's breathing, I noticed just how serious both Lay and Luhan looked. Luhan was also nervously wringing his hands out, as if whatever they had to say was too much for him to even think about.

"Well, I patched up the two coyotes, and, unfortunately, they'll live," Lay said, his voice almost a growl as he spoke of the trespassers. "Abeoji has them in his quarters so he can question them when they wake up."

He paused there, but as I looked at the two of them, I knew there was something else.

"I'm getting the feeling that wasn't the main thing you came to tell me," I whispered, narrowing my eyes slowly as I concentrated on Lay's face.

Lay closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he spoke again. "Chen and Tao went through the entire clearing where we found, uh, you know..."

"And...?" I urged as his voice trailed off anxiously.

"There was wolf scent everywhere," Luhan blurted out before shutting his mouth tight, his face blushing a deep red in embarrassment.

Before I could dismiss what he said, Lay began backing him up. "It was all over the clearing, even on the coyotes. It wasn't from any of us, but it didn't lead anywhere. It just stopped."

I would have passed it off as one of is, but they had dismissed it, and it wasn't the maned wolf because I had personally chased him from our territory, in the opposite direction from where I had found Elle.

"Kris, there's only one possibility we can come up with, but you're not going to like it." When I didn't say anything to stop his next statement, he continued in a more hushed tone. "We think Elle somehow shifted into a wolf. Kris, we think she's a werewolf."