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The creature trying to get into Auntie Amelia's chicken coop was massive.
It must've come up to Ann's waist, with a sleek pelt of chestnut brown, pointy furred ears, and massive paws.
And teeth.
Can't forget the teeth.
Ann raised her broom a little higher and said, "Alright, you big— big mutt. You'll get to those chickens over my dead... body?"
The wolf-thing turned to her in the light of the full moon, and its eyes were red.
Ann had the distinct feeling that the patch of mud she'd thought she'd stepped in was something closer to a bog.
It advanced on her, snarling, backing her up several steps, and then—
Crack!
She hit its muzzle with her broom, which was a good broom that had a bit more weight than the flimsy one she'd passed up outside of the back door, but was still just a broom, and the wolf-thing seemed more irritated than hurt. It looked at her with those disconcertingly red eyes and snarled harder, revving up for something—
"Ohhh shoot," Ann muttered to herself, and then the wolf-thing lunged.
The next several seconds were something of a blur, because one moment she was standing next to the chicken coop in her pajama pants with a broom in her hand, the next she was on the ground, her shoulder in screaming pain, and first there was a wolf-thing on top of her, and then there was a strangled shriek, and then it was a naked girl on top of her.
She would... try to figure that out when she wasn't in so much pain she thought she was about to pass out.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no—" the naked girl was whispering feverishly, and then she was scrambling up, and then she was moving Ann in a super wooshy kind of way that seemed to be 'upright' while stars and black dots flashed in Ann's vision, and then she was lugging Ann's semi-responsive body back towards the house.
The naked girl's name was Makoto, Ann learned as her shoulder was dabbed clean and treated with antiseptic and then bandaged. She was a werewolf who had made the mistake of letting herself get doused in the light of the full moon and then had 'gone feral'—which Ann gathered meant something like 'lost her mind and ran off into the woods to eat innocent chickens'.
Aside from the pain, Makoto seemed to be taking this harder than Ann was, actually.
"No—oh god, I'm so sorry—I just..." Sitting on the edge of Ann's borrowed bed in Auntie Amelia's spare room, Makoto buried her face in her hands. It wasn't a model's face, but it was an honest face, with really pretty red eyes and a chestnut bob. Her whole body seemed to be made of lean, wiry muscle, peppered with scars. It wasn't anything like the kinds of bodies Ann saw in changing rooms, and it was interesting. "I-I can't believe it, I-I really can't, oh god, I went feral!"
Ann, sitting next to her, patted the girl's shoulder a little awkwardly—her right side was kinda out of commission, so she had to do it left-handed—and said, "Uh... cheer... up...? We all go a little feral sometimes!" Then, because it was a pressing question, "Do I, uh, need to go to the hospital?"
Makoto curled into herself like Ann had caused her physical pain somehow, then mumbled, "No; it's a werewolf bite. It'll be gone by tomorrow."
"Oh, sweet," said Ann, because hospitals sucked. "Does this mean I'm a werewolf now?"
Makoto buried her face even deeper in her hands, paused, then nodded.
"Then... woof, I guess!" she said cheerfully, then paused as the actual werewolf in the room looked at her with an expression of serious disbelief. "...Sorry. Was that insensitive?"
Makoto kept staring for a few more seconds, then glanced away with a pink-cheeked despair. "No, no, it's fine. You're fine. Uh..." Her pink cheeks blushed a little darker, and in a small voice, she said, "Have I asked your name yet?"
"I'm Ann—Ann Takamaki!" She grinned and gave the other girl a left-handed peace sign. "Seventeen years old and professional model."
"Oh, a model," Makoto muttered to herself, then scrubbed her face. "Look, I'm really sorry, but..."
She seemed to blank on whatever her apologetic news was, and Ann, who was looking her over again, said, "Hey, uh... do you want, like... clothes?"
Makoto meep'd and clamped both arms over her chest (wasn't it kinda late for that?), her face going from 'rosy' to 'fire engine'. "Yes! Yes, please, oh... geez..." She stared hollowly at the opposite wall. "I went feral."
Ann patted her shoulder again (she was getting the hang of this left-handed thing already!), then got up and went to her drawers to find her werewolf guest some clothes.
Once Makoto had calmed down enough to explain some things, Ann learned that there was a 'siring' process (that apparently happened with vampires, too?), where the werewolf who bit her (Makoto, in this case) had to stick around and teach her the ropes before introducing her to the local supernatural authorities (they had those) and letting her choose what path she'd like to take.
"'Path'?" Ann echoed, inspecting her shoulder in the bathroom mirror the next day. Makoto was right—all she had were some shiny scars where there had been some serious blood the night before. They'd need some concealer when she went to model, like, bathing suits and stuff, but they'd be pretty easy to cover with her outfits most of the time.
The other girl fidgeted in the doorway. Her shame didn't seem to have left after a night spent on the Takamaki couch, but at least she seemed a little less panicky. "Well... you can stick with being human, and I can teach you how to keep the wolf under wraps, so to speak, or you could join one of the local packs for support—there are a few good ones in the area—or... you could come with me, back to my pack, and... stay under our care." For some reason, she seemed more embarrassed than anything by the last offer.
"Ooh," said Ann. "Well, that seems like a pretty big decision! I was planning to study internationally in the fall..."
"Oh," said Makoto strangely. When Ann glanced at her, she looked conflicted. "Well... I suppose I can't stop you. We'll... We can talk to the local Hunter group about how to get you registered to leave the country."
Ann was left with the weirdest impression that the girl might not want her to do that. Which was kinda funny, because Ann was pretty sure she was the one putting a crimp in Makoto's style, what with being the whole 'unplanned baby' sans 'baby' thing. "It's not decided yet, I guess. Auntie Amelia—the one who I, now we, I guess, are staying with—really wants me to go, but she really wants me to get into serious modeling, like, really." Ann sighed. "No idea why she's so intense about it."
"I... see. It is your choice in the end. Just remember that." Makoto drew herself up ramrod-straight and turned away, even more conflicted now. "I'm going to the sitting room. Let me know when you're ready to start. We should get in some practice with shifting before the moon comes out again."
"Sure thing!"
Auntie Amelia, who was supposed to have been back after the weekend, instead called to say that she had big business in London, and likely wouldn't be back for a few weeks—so sorry, darling, but you'll be just fine on your own, yes? I'll be sure to bring you lots of souvenirs. Ta!
This meant that there was nothing stopping Ann from parking Makoto's cute furry little butt in Auntie Amelia's other spare bedroom without worrying about what Auntie Amelia would think about a girl who seemed to wolfify at semi-random.
For as embarrassed as Makoto got about it, it was actually pretty cute to discover a hulking apex predator hiding her muzzle in the bank of pillows, ears laid flat back on her head and her haunches high.
"Look at it this way," Ann said as she sprawled out beside the werewolf in solidarity, "you're absolutely adorable!" Makoto groaned deep in her throat.
"Who's a big fuzzy-wuzzy puppy?" Ann cooed, flopping over so she could give Makoto's fluff the scritches it totally deserved. "You are! You are! Yes, you are! Such a good girl! What a good girl! —eep!"
Ann's big fuzzy-wuzzy puppy had decided to become much less fuzzy, much less wuzzy, and much less puppy. Suddenly, Ann was sprawled over a lot of muscle and soft bare skin instead.
It was Makoto under her then, her blushing cheek on the pillow as her hypnotic red eyes glanced at her over her shoulder.
It occurred to Ann then that this was actually kind of an awkward position, but the slope from the corner of Makoro's shoulder to where her skin tugged into rolls at the base of her neck was weirdly fascinating. Something stirred in the pit of Ann's stomach at the sight.
"Look," said the werewolf, strained, "it's... really, um, embarrassing when you do that." Her cheeks darkened, her gaze skittering down Ann's body and then away. "Please don't?"
There was something in the way those last two words had crooked into a question that Ann probably should catch, but the raspy way she said it felt like crinkly velvet against her insides, and it took her a minute to figure out what the words even were, much less any special hidden meanings there might have been in them.
Ann lurched up, blushing herself and wondering why. "O-oh, but—you're so cute! How am I supposed to resist all that fluff?"
"Willpower," Makoto muttered without sympathy, her tight stomach showing hints of abs when she crunched.
"Okay, okay, okay," Ann promised, stretching and squirming away the weird feeling in the pit of her belly. "I'll resist, I promise. I'll look away from aaaall the adorable fluff and I won't scritch or hug it even one bit."
"'It' is me, you know," said Makoto, hugging her chest with a sigh. Her cheeks were still red, and it really complimented her eyes.
"I know," said Ann—who else would it be?—then asked, "What do you want for lunch?"
Makoto gave her another one of her long Makoto stares, then groaned under her breath and rubbed her nose and said, "We bought the fixings for sandwiches, I believe...?"
"Oh yeah!" said Ann. She'd forgotten about the sandwiches. "Let's do it!"
Makoto had said that the best time for Ann to learn to shift on her own was during the new moon—when there wouldn't be any moonlight influencing her mind when she tried to wolf-ify—and Ann found herself eagerly checking the sky as the day (well, night) got closer and closer.
About two weeks after that fateful night when she'd first met Makoto, she was just finishing up drying off from her shower when her new friend called out, "You should probably dress in clothes you don't care too much about—the moon feels about right for it tonight."
Ann perked up, tossing her towel over her shoulder as she walked over to the window to see for herself.
Makoto squeaked. "U-u-u-um! Clothes! Where are your clo-othes?!"
Ann flapped her hand at her, ducking to check and finding the night just as inky black as promised. "We're both girls; it's fine!"
"It's not fine—!"
"So how are we gonna do this?" said Ann, ignoring that. "Is there some, like, big wide open plain where I gotta go howl at the moon, or—wait, there's no moon."
Makoto whined deep in her throat, the sound human, then peeked through her fingers—only to hide behind them again almost immediately. "No, the... backyard... th-the backyard will be... fine." She squirmed in her seat and found somewhere else to look, her flush glowing on her face. "Or... anywhere we won't be seen, I guess...?"
"Y'know, you're pretty cute when you blush," Ann noted, distracted by it, then ignored her new friend's choked spluttering. She should learn to take a compliment! "But yeah! It's a little boring, I guess, but it's what we have."
"Right," said Makoto, her voice weak.
Ann went and found one of her really old nightdresses that she really should have thrown out by now—except not, because they were coming in handy!—and then led her tutor in all things wolfy into the yard.
"Okay," said Makoto when they were standing somewhere towards the back of Auntie Amelia's open yard. "So first, you need to just take a deep breath, and focus on the moon."
Ann looked up; predictably, all she could see were stars.
"It's... still up there," Makoto assured her. "Just focus on what it should be—like a void. And then, once you have that—eep!"
Her last noise hit Ann's ears kinda funny, because suddenly, they were furry. Her ears, that is.
Furry, and really, really sharp. She could hear Makoto's heart from here, plus all the wiggly wildlife in the bushes, and she could smell it all too. All... earthy and interesting.
Fascinated, Ann buried her nose in the scent and chased where it led—which led her smack-dab into a fence.
"...Well," said Makoto, seemingly to herself, though Ann could hear it as easily as if she's said it right in her ear, "looks like you're a natural... I guess."
The delight in Ann's body all concentrated into her tail, which was swinging her whole back end with the force of its wagging, and she just couldn't help herself—she scampered over to give Makoto a big giant hug.
Her friend squeaked in a really nice way when she went down, and instinct had Ann washing her face all over with broad licks. She couldn't really feel anything through it—at least, not other than the way her heart felt like it was going to pop with how happy she was. Being a wolf made everything feel a lot bigger, huh.
"Ow! Ow! Hey! St—ahahaha!—stop!" Makoto yelped, shoving at Ann's muzzle until she got herself under control—except exerting her human will made something snap in her head, and suddenly she was crouching over Makoto all over again, except this time she was the one naked and Makoto was the one clothed.
"Oops," Ann whispered, sheepish. Without fur, she found that the night air was cold. Like, all over. All over. Also her boobs felt heavy and weird without a bra to keep the gravity at bay.
Makoto still had a hand on her face, and it was cool against Ann's suddenly burning skin. She couldn't see the red of Makoto's eyes in the dark like this, but she was so close that it almost didn't matter. She could feel Makoto's breathing stutter, the reflected light from the back windows gracing shadows on her features and the dips and ridges of her pale throat and chest.
Even if she couldn't see the color of her eyes, she could still see—feel—Makoto's gaze fall to her lips.
Suddenly, it didn't feel so cold out.
"Hey, Ann?" Makoto breathed, an indecipherable look on her face. "Don't go to America. Stay."
Ann's heart tripped. It was weird to try to inhale and find that she almost couldn't, but somehow, she managed to ask, "With... with you?" and found that her mouth was dry.
Makoto cradled the other side of her face too, then gently drew her down into a kiss.
As far as first kisses went, Ann hadn't expected one like this. She'd imagined a romantic outing, and maybe a boy kissing her goodbye at the door, tasting of honey and love, leaving her feeling nebulous 'fireworks'.
Instead, it didn't taste like anything. She was feeling the chill where no girl was meant to feel it. She had just been a wolf, and all her senses were still reeling from it.
Makoto tasted sweet. Not in any physical way, but the way it coursed through Ann felt like the sweetest dessert she'd ever tasted. For as much as she was feeling the chill, there was a feverish heat in the pit of her belly, tingles racing through her body and leaving her breasts and thighs filled with the same feeling. For as dull as her hearing and sense of smell suddenly were, she didn't need them to hear the softest of sighs that left Makoto's lungs, nor smell the scent of her borrowed lip balm and soap-and-skin blend that was so... earthy and girly, somehow.
When they parted, Ann was flushed hot all over and reeling from how soft lips could be. She'd never known that. Why hadn't she ever even guessed that?
"With me," Makoto said after a long moment of catching their breaths. It sounded like a confirmation, though for the life of her, Ann couldn't remember what they had been talking about. "Stay... stay with me."
"Okay," said Ann, hardly knowing what she was agreeing to but feeling the rightness down to her bones anyway,
Makoto accepted that answer with a firm kiss.
A few weeks later, once Ann had a handle on shifting and had gotten through the night of a full moon without 'going feral', she left a note for her aunt and Makoto took her home and introduced her to her family.
Her official alpha, a tall, stern woman by the name of Sae, gave Ann a once-over, a firm hug, a perfunctory scenting head-rub, and then told Makoto not to get too distracted and remember her grades.
Her unofficial alpha, a pretty, remote boy by the name of Ren, cocked his head at her, then nodded to the rest of Makoto's friend-group-slash-real-pack, and Ann promptly found herself wolf-piled.
"Um!" said Makoto from somewhere outside the sudden blend of canines and humans Ann had been assailed with—and then, abruptly, it was Makoto's face in her throat and her familiar hands locking behind her back. Her voice was breathless and squeaky and hot against Ann's skin. "Wel-welcome to the Phantom Thieves!"
Ann laughed. "Glad to be here!"