The Lonely Wolf

Maximillion wandered the woods one overcast night, patiently waiting for the full moon to peek from behind the clouds and turn him into a werewolf, as he had done every month since he was a boy. The experience was always painful and filled him with immense self-loathing and embarrassment. He was frustrated by the inclement weather delaying his transformation, so he sat on a stump in an open clearing and waited to get it over with.

Max had his nearly 25-year routine down to a science, trekking deep into the woods before his transformation started to save his neighbors from his hideous, beastly form. And by neighbors, he mostly meant Sarah, whom he had a crush on since she moved to their town in the eighth grade but barely knew of his existence.

After all, who could love someone afflicted with such a curse? He remained hidden for both their safety, even when there wasn’t a full moon. In some ways, it was good because, as his parents had always told him, only someone who truly loved a werewolf could kill it. Max was so lonely that he figured it practically made him immortal.

The first scant glimmers of the full moon seeped through the cloud coverage, and Max started to feel the transformation begin its infernal machinations inside him. He took a deep breath and stood, ready to change, when he heard a beautiful, lilting voice beckon from behind him.

“Hello? Is someone out there?” Sarah called.

By now, his body had already begun to morph, with his arms covered in thick, stringy hair and face painfully stretching into a snout with sharp fangs that hung down menacingly. He bounded off behind some brambles near the treeline and inadvertently let out a howl that registered awkwardly between that of a man and a beast.

Sarah had just entered the clearing as Max ran off, barely glimpsing his silhouette. Curious by nature, Sarah approached the blueberry bushes where Max lay hiding.

“Is someone out there?” Sarah said. “I — I’m lost and trying to find my way back to town.”

Max wanted to wait for her to leave, but the sadness in her voice reached into his heart. She needed his help, and this was as good of a time as any to be brave and reveal his ghastly form to the first non-family member. It’d be better she’d run into him than another werewolf or, God forbid, one of the vampires or ghouls that lurked around at night.

The bushes shook as Max trotted out to Sarah, revealing his werewolf form to be that of a little shabby mutt with stringy hair and an adorable scruffy face. Max was a rare werewolf with the genetic trait that turned him into what mostly resembled an average dog. He had no desire to murder or kill those around him like his kind usually did, and most people found him pleasant and mild-tempered.

“Aww, come here, little buddy!” Sarah called to the charming little dog. “What’s your name?”

She petted Max and scratched behind his ears, which he usually couldn’t reach. Her hands felt soft and lovely, but he quickly wrenched himself away and let out a gentle bark, beckoning her to follow him down the narrow, worn pathway he’d beaten during his lonely nights under the moon.

As they walked out of the forest, Sarah noticed that the little dog’s paws landed over the footprints of a man that led back into the forest where they’d come from. She wondered who the owner of such an intelligent, sweet dog was and hoped to meet them soon.

Max led Sarah back to her house and sat on the stoop, wagging his tail.

“How did you know this was my…” Sarah trailed off, confused but grateful for the dog who had saved her from the woods. She squatted down and met Max at eye level.

“Thank you very much for saving me, you brave little man,” she said. She held his face and kissed him on the forehead. Max blushed underneath his stringy, brown fur and rushed behind his house, too embarrassed to face his crush any longer.

His timing could not be better as the night was almost over, and he transformed back into a man, stark naked and shivering, as he rounded the corner to his backyard.

Over the next three months, Max kept running into Sarah in the same clearing in the woods on the night of the full moon. At first, he thought it was a coincidence, but when it happened again the following month, he figured she must be returning for some reason. Instead of walking back immediately, he and Sarah would sit on the giant oak tree stump, look up at the stars, and enjoy the summer air together.

Sarah regaled Max, who was still under the illusion that he was a stray dog and not a man, with stories about her life, hopes, wants, and petty complaints. Despite being pretty and popular, Sarah was lonely too, but in a much more fundamental way.

Max was lonely because of his distance from others—an essential fear of connection—while Sarah was hyper-social and beautiful, thus bombarded with attention and affection. However, she was too bright to accept these empty compliments blindly. After years of being valued only for her looks, each new comment about her hair or body fundamentally undermined her self-perception as an intelligent, capable person who deserved to be listened to.

She also seemed to have problems with her Dad but never went into much detail. Max couldn’t speak, but even if he could, he knew better than to pry.

As their special nights together in the woods continued over the following months, Max’s distant crush became a real person, beautifully complex and honest. He’d fallen in love.

All the while, Max was still too afraid to reveal his true self. Sure, he was an attentive listener who provided Sarah with an outlet for her feelings and a silent companion, but ultimately, that was not enough for him to rationalize his deception. The black brick of guilt within his gut weighed heavy.

Six months after their first meeting, he finally mustered the courage to reveal his true self. That night, Max took a slower pace on the way home, and Sarah explained the differences between rye and pumpernickel. They arrived at Sarah’s front door as she was comparing and contrasting the germ and endosperm of a rye plant. The sun crested over the horizon as she knelt to pat Max on the head.

“Good night, my little prince,” she said. “Thank you again for the lovely evening.”

Max barked twice, startling her.

“What is it?” she asked.

He ran around the corner to his backyard, and the sun’s rays struck him, turning him into a man.

From around the corner, Sarah heard Max hiss, “Oh, fuck!”

Sarah called out, “Is someone there?”

“Uhh, yea, sorry, one second — fuck!” Max responded. Moments later, he came from around the corner of the building with nothing but a metal trashcan lid covering his waist.

“Max?!” Sarah asked.

“Sorry, sorry!” he said. “I could have planned this better. I normally go back inside right after I transform, so I didn’t think to leave a pair of pants outside. But let me be clear. I did plan on doing this, like revealing myself to you and telling you I’m a werewolf. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I spent so much time thinking about what I would say that I forgot about the logistics. Wait, you know my name?”

“What the fuck?!” Sarah yelled.

“I’m sorry, let me explain. I’m a werewolf, but my wolf form is a little more… dog-like? It still hurts like a motherfucker, but I end up basically the size of a springer-spaniel, which is weird because it’s smaller than I am as a human, but –“

“Yeah, no, I get that part,” she said. “I mean, it’s weird, but after that family of vampires got killed last October, I’ve come to accept our town is different.”

“I just wanted to — Sarah, I’ve developed feelings for you, and I want us to be more than friends –“

“More than friends?!” Sarah roared. “We’re not even friends to begin with! You’re my neighbor that’s said maybe ten words to me and fucking lied to me for months, pretending to be something you’re not! That’s fucking creepy!”

“Sarah, please, I –” he pleaded.

“Don’t ever talk to me again,” she said. “Oh wait — I guess you never did in the first place!”

Sarah stormed up the steps to her house sobbing and slammed the door behind her.

“What’s the matter, honey?” her mother, Katrina, asked. She had heard the commotion and was sitting in her bathrobe on a chair in the foyer.

“A — a — a boy,” Sarah said, choking between sobs. “L — L– lied to me.”

“Oh, baby, I’m sorry,” Katrina said, rubbing her daughter’s back.

“And the worst part is that he’s –” Sarah started, then caught herself.

“What?” her mom asked.

“Nothing. Never mind,” Sarah said, turning away as her father, Abe, entered the room. He furrowed his brow and scowled at her.

“Abraham, don’t –” Katrina said.

“He’s what?” he demanded. “Speak. Now.”

“He’s a… a werewolf,” Sarah sobbed.

“Oh, good lord…” Katrina gasped, clasping her hands to her mouth.

“God dammit, another one,” Abe cursed. He walked over to an antique cabinet and pulled a lever on the side, flipping the top open and revealing a meticulous array of sharpened crucifixes, bottles of holy water, a revolver loaded with shiny silver bullets, and all other manner of monster-killing devices.

“Dad, please, no! He’s harmless! He never hurt me or tried anything! He just listened to me. I thought he was just a regular dog!”

Abe stopped assembling his weapons and approached Sarah.

“Now dear…” he articulated carefully and gently gathered her hand in his palm. “We’ve been over this. What do monsters do?”

Sarah sniffled, “They kill.”

“And what do monster hunters do?” he asked.

“…They kill monsters,” She mumbled.

“That’s my girl,” her father said, kissing her forehead. “Don’t be sad. Wasn’t that why you were in the woods in the first place? Don’t get mad when you go fishing and catch fish.”

“I guess,” she said.

“Now,” he said and clapped his hands. “Go get the monster-hunting outfit your mom got you for Christmas; we must kill this boy who wronged you.”

Despite Sarah’s father’s gung-ho determination to murder Max that night, Katrina, the cooler head of the two, prevailed, opting to hatch a more pernicious plan instead. They waited until the next full moon to reveal their prey. Sarah led her parents to her and Max’s rendezvous spot, and the monster-hunting trio hid behind the blueberry bush.

Max emerged shortly after that and stumbled towards the tree stump. He’d been in a daze ever since Sarah rebuffed him. The trio watched as he briefly shifted from an ordinary man to a grotesque, human-dog hybrid before settling into his delightful dog form.

“Are you sure that’s him?” Katrina whispered.

“Hold it right there!” Sarah’s father shouted as he sprung from the bushes, brandishing the gleaming revolver loaded with silver bullets.

Max started to run, but Katrina cast a thick corded net, pinning him to the ground. Max whimpered, sensing his impending doom.

Sarah felt Max’s desperation from the bushes as she reminisced on all the emotional nights they shared, how he had listened patiently and adored her with those big, brown eyes. He indeed made a mistake, but she knew he didn’t deserve to die for it.

Sarah emerged shouting, “No!”

“Sarah, what are you doing?” her father roared. “He has to die!”

“Please don’t! I don’t think all the monsters you’ve been killing are evil,” She cried. “Just give him a chance!”

Abe raised the revolver, aimed it at Max, and was about to pull the trigger when Sarah pounced on her father, trying to wrest the weapon from his grasp. They wrestled briefly before a deafening crack rang out into the night.

Sarah lay slumped, blood seeping out of a grotesque bullet wound in her chest.

“My baby!” her mother shrieked. “Abe, what have you done!”

“I — I didn’t mean to — Oh God!” Abe wailed.

While the parents sobbed and argued, Max was busy chewing through the dense netting with his small but powerful canine jaws. He broke free and momentarily contemplated fleeing but knew he couldn’t leave Sarah. While her parents were distracted, he snuck up behind her and gingerly nipped at her ankle.

Abe sensed the werewolf nearby and grabbed him by the scruff, shoving the revolver in his face.

“This is all your fault, you stupid fucking monster!” the bloodthirsty monster slayer screamed. “You’ll pay!”

“D — dad? M — mom?” Sarah called weakly. The bullet wound in her chest had miraculously sealed itself as she sat up, confused. Her parents swarmed her, holding her closely and kissing their revived child’s face.

“I — I don’t feel so good,” Sarah groaned. Suddenly, her fingers turned to claws, her eyes shifted from blue to a fierce yellow, and her face elongated into a snout. Her body became blanketed in fur as she stood tall, a full-blown werewolf, and let out a soul-shaking howl.

Her parents shrieked and fled to their house. For a moment, Sarah remained a hideous monster as she peered down at Max, who sat wagging his tail and panting as he looked at her with his typical adoring eyes.

Then, Sarah transformed again into a new beast form, resembling a yellow labrador. She approached Max, and the two set off for one of their classic romps in the woods, this time both as creatures. As the night wound down and they turned back into humans, they found adjoining bushes to hide their naked bodies and have their first full conversation.

“Thank you for saving me, Max,” Sarah said.

“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Max said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my family were monster hunters,” Sarah said.

“It’s okay. My thing was probably worse,” Max said. “So what do you say? We live happily ever after in the woods, together as beasts?”

“Haha, no,” Sarah laughed.

“Oh,” Max said.

“Oh, wait, sorry, I can’t see your face in the dark. I thought that was a joke,” Sarah said. “But, seriously, no. I have to go home. Like, I know my parents tried to kill you, and they did actually kill me, but they’ll come around to the whole werewolf thing. They’re pretty socially liberal despite all the monster-killing stuff.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Max said.

“But I will let you take me out on a date sometime,” she said. “As long as you do all the talking.”

“So this doesn’t count as a first date?” Max asked. “I promise I’m not usually this quick to get naked.”

“Haha, shut up, and you start walking home first,” Sarah said. “And no peeking at me. My parents were right about one thing: all men are dogs.”