"Let's do this," Demarco said confidently.
Rory took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. "Feel your Power... your Fury. It's like an ocean, surging inside you. Some werewolves are afraid of it. They try to stay out of the water... until the full moon's tide drags them down. Some werewolves - like Greg - are drowning in it. I'm teaching you how to swim!" 
Rory shifted and Demarco shifted with her. The Fury of the wolf flowed through her, twisting her limbs, reshaping her body into an expression of that power.
With a wild howl, she hurled herself at the Wolf-that-was-Rory, testing her strength against another. It was play. It was sport. It was battle. This was what it felt like, to be alive!
There were no words... the Wolf did not have words... but Rory's approval was clear.
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"You're doing really well," Rory said later at Grimtooth's. "You've got control of the Change already. A lot of whelps struggle with that."
"I'm naturally gifted," Demarco grinned. "Plus, I've got a good teacher."
"Damn straight," Rory grinned back, "but you're right about being a natural. You're not fighting it... you accept it and work with it. I've seen others struggle with that."
"Did you?" Demarco asked. 
In the couple of weeks since leaving the Harbor, Demarco had lived and trained with Rory and the others - the Wildfangs, Rory called them. Her pack. Demarco's pack now. In those weeks Rory hadn't shown her introspective side often, and Demarco was curious about this fierce, powerful woman who had so effortlessly become her mentor, big sister and friend.
"You want to know my story, huh?" Rory said, with her usual insight. "I was an ordinary kid, in an ordinary family... until I wasn't. Most of us are bitten, like you... but the Fury is in your blood now. You can pass it on and not just in the bite. The Fury passes through families... to kids. Sometimes it skips a generation or two. If you thought puberty was bad, imagine getting hit with hormones, your period and lycanthropy."
"Pass," Demarco said earnestly.
"Anyway, I couldn't really explain to my folks how the living room got trashed," Rory continued. "They couldn't deal... so I split. Headed out into the woods. It just felt right. Managed it for a little while too... I always liked camping. That's where Kristopher found me."
"Kristopher?' Demarco mused. "I think I met him, that first night... but it's all a little fuzzy... no pun intended."
"Heh, yeah if Lily found you, she would have introduced you," Rory said, then bitterly added, half to herself, "Assuming he was around. He hasn't been lately...
"Anyway, Kristopher is the big deal around here," Rory continued. "He's the leader of the Collective - the largest pack in the Moonwood Mill. In a real way, he's the leader of us all... the biggest, baddest werewolf, except maybe Greg."
"I wondered about other packs," Demarco admitted.
"Most are small, especially outside Moonwood Mill," Rory said. "Usually just mates and their kids... like my brother, Jake, and his wife."
"You have a brother?"
"Adopted," Rory said. "Kristopher found him and took him in, a few years after he took me in. He taught us, like I'm teaching you. Makes us family."
Demarco considered the look on Rory's face for a moment. "I don't get along with my dad either."
Rory laughed, "What I was saying before, about werewolves who are afraid of their power... Kristopher is like that. He has so much strength... so much... and he won't touch it. We shouldn't spend our lives being afraid of who we are."
"No, we shouldn't," Demarco agreed.
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"So, can I ask you guys what your story is?" Demarco asked.
In the beat-up old double-wide trailer in the woods that had become her home with the Wildfangs, Demarco sat with Kiril and Bianca. After she'd talked to Rory the other day, Lou had told her about how he'd gotten bitten by Greg while trying to impress a girl who, he said, had been really into werewolves. It had made her wonder about her other two fellow pack members...
"Of course," Kiril replied in his broad, Slavic accent. "I love telling this story."
"He really does," Bianca drawled, her own accent pure Willow Creek.
"So, I am a visiting a friend in Willow Creek and there I meet the love of my life," Kiril started.
"I think she wants to hear about how we became werewolves," Bianca put in.
"I am getting to that," Kiril smiled. "A good story needs context, background, to understand the people... Where was I?"
"Meeting the love of your life," Demarco smiled.
"Yes!" Kiril said passionately. "Our eyes meet and, in that moment, we both know there is no one else for us in the world. Nothing could keep us apart..."
"Except the cops," Bianca put in.
"If that bastard hadn't rolled on me, they never could have convicted. Car theft, pah," Kiril said. "But true love endures... Two years later I am paroled. She is waiting for me."
"Forever, baby," Bianca smiled.
"So, is nothing for us in Willow Creek. We hit the road!" Kiril continued. "Was going good too... until... We are on the highway, just outside of Evergreen Harbor. We are almost out of gas, of food, of drink... and completely out of cash. So, we find a service station... ummm, what was it?"
"Gas N' Gulp," Bianca said. "We go in... Kiril tells the cashier to empty the register while I pick up some food for the road."
"Wait... you knocked over the Gas N' Gulp?!" Demarco gasped.
"What, you think we rob banks?" Kiril said. "Service station is easier. No guards."
"I shop at that Gas N' Gulp," Demarco muttered.
"Is nice place," Kiril smiled. 
"So," Kiril continued, "I am getting money from register. Bianca is getting food... and there is this old wino, talking to himself. Off his head. Won't get down like everyone else. My beautiful Bianca, she goes to tell him to shut up... then all Hell break loose. Instead of crazy wino, there is huge monster! My Bianca, she is screaming. I run to help but I cannot get a clear shot... then monster is attacking me. Bang, Bang, Bang. I shoot him... and he runs off!
"We're all beat up and bloody and the sirens are coming... bastard cashier hit the alarm... so we run," Kiril shrugged. "We go to this old cabin I know, up on the mountains. Safe place... Rory, she finds us there. Now we are werewolf.
"It is good, being werewolf," Kiril concluded. "We are strong. We are fierce. We can feared. Only problem, Rory will not let us become wolf to knock over any more service stations. Attracts wrong kind of attention, she says."
"Well, there were those guys in the black suits and dark glasses," Bianca said.
"That was one time," Kiril insisted.
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Alright, Demarco thought, maybe Kiril and Bianca wouldn't have been her first choice for roommates back in Evergreen Harbor. Still, everyone had a past and it wasn't like they were robbing service stations anymore... that she knew of.
On the whole, life with the Wildfangs was pretty good. In a lot of ways, it wasn't that different from her old life. Mostly they'd hang out and listen to music... there was no TV in the double-wide. Rory said it had gotten smashed after Lou got "overstimulated" watching a footie match and she refused to replace it.
Still, Demarco knew she had a lot to learn about her new life. It wasn't like there was a manual about how to be a werewolf.
"An Insider's Guide to Being a Werewolf," she chuckled. "Yeah, right... this is... surprisingly accurate. Wait, someone wrote a manual about how to be a werewolf? Hey, Rory..."
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