Page 1/2: New Beginnings

“Got your toothbrush? Underwear? Passport?” June repeated her checklist. Lilac smiled wryly, confidence wavering with each reassurance. June’s seriousness softened; pointed, tan ears lowered slightly. “It’s not every day your firstborn goes to college.”

Her brother butted in, "Um, excuse me! It's me, Arlo, and then Lilac!"

“She’s my firstborn today, Max—when it suits me.” June nudged her son with an air of haughtiness. Arlo rolled his eyes fondly and folded his arms. He rarely joined their antics, but found them amusing. The two shibas were nearly identical: emerald eyes, cinnamon tails, soft tawny fur. It was like watching him argue with a future self with a blonde bob and floral blouses. Lilac watched the way Max’s hands accentuated his faux argument and considered the chance he might end up like that anyway.

As her family chatted beside her, Lilac was looking down at her forearms. Her hand glided up and down the fur on her wrist. It was coarse, like her fur was made of boar bristle. Her fur was raised ever so gently, as though compelled by static or nerves. Her hand swiped it downward once, twice, five times. It was getting on her nerves, both the way it felt and that she couldn't help but feel it anyway.

“Nothing but spring humidity,” her mother soothed that morning. Lilac looked up through the pines at thin clouds overhead; not quite clouds at all. But Lilac had been deep conditioning for weeks at that point, but the roughness wouldn’t relent. She sighed, supposing there were worse things to happen. She had things to look forward to today. She closed her eyes.

Everything smelled brighter today. Richer. The mountain gave her a parting gift: flowers more fragrant, air filled with scent. Lilac looked up through the pines at thin clouds overhead; not quite clouds at all. Forest sounds became a symphony. Lilac lifted her nose to the smell of smoke and soot. Time was running short.

A nudge on her shoulder brought Lilac back to the present, pulling her focus from her thoughts.

“Here,” Arlo muttered, placing a paper in her hand.

“You’re kidding,” Lilac whispered out of earshot of Max and June’s conversation as she looked down at the paper. It was her train ticket. Of course it was.

She managed an exhausted smile. Arlo’s was forgiving. “Just don’t do that at college. I can’t walk your lunch to you anymore.”

“That was only like, twice.” Lilac rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Twice a week, maybe,” Arlo retorted matter-of-factly. Even though he joked, Lilac knew if she truly needed him to, he would find a way to get it to her. That's just the kind of brothers she had.

The four rose from the bench, exchanging watery smiles. Max strode over, grinned, lifted Lilac in a bear hug, spinning her until her breathless laugh signaled him to let go. Lilac straightened, turned, and bent to embrace her mother, who held her tightly.

“Promise you’ll stay safe? I need some grand-puppies. I'm not getting any younger, you know." June’s voice dropped in exaggerated seriousness.

"Hey, there's still hope for Max and Arlo, why's all the pressure on me?" Lilac laughed with mock offense.

June gave a bemused look. “Are you serious?” Neither boy objected. “I can’t get someone to remember to close cabinet doors half the time.”

“Hey!” Max laughed, but made no move to dispel the jab.

Everyone hugged, exchanged promises to call, and the train stopped right in time. Her brothers handled the luggage, while her mother tried to soothe Lilac’s nerves.

Her smile was bright and full of teeth as she looked down at them through the window. It made their sad smiles just a bit wider, and ones she would feel slightly less guilty about having to leave behind.

Lilac ran her fingers over the train ticket in her palm and smiled. Knowing no matter what, she was going to be okay.

That was three months ago.

Lilac caught a glimpse of the morning sun through the ambulance window.

A grating pain dug into her limbs, sharp and sudden. It felt like hundreds of teeth crushing and grinding the ends of her arms and legs. Suddenly, a needle stabbed deep into her shoulder. Cold flooded her veins like ice. The air around her grew colder. A gust of wind ripped through her fur. Sluggish thoughts swam in the darkness. They fought for purchase amid panic.

Screams and shouts rang out all around her. They sounded muffled, as though she were a thousand miles away from their sources. The bed she was on was moving fast. Her eyes dipped in and out of focus. The soundscape was abrasive. Hostile. She heard her pounding heartbeat. Metal against metal. Racing footsteps echoed against the hallway walls.

Scenery and faces smeared together. Sterile white walls flashed by. Horrified looks. A muddled mind fought to ask itself a question as her eyes pried themselves open.

Where am I?

A monstrous growl ripped out of her throat, dying behind clenched teeth. The sound of metal bars creaking followed it, her arms flexed tight against their confines, acting of their own accord. She couldn't open her mouth wide enough to scream.

“40 milliliters, now!”

Her body writhed in pain without her—searing, brief, heart-wrenching agony. Then numbness. Then panic. Her racing heart tripped into a sonorous pounding. Like a fist slamming into a wall: steady, powerful, filling her ears. Squealing wheels against linoleum. Nurses shouting words she couldn't understand. Through the agony, a half-conscious brain asks: Why does the bed have chains?

The panic came in rolling waves. Another injection. Another muffled scream. She knew it was her own from the feeling of her throat clenching, as if she was being choked. How many shots had they stabbed her with? Her midnight-colored fur stood on end. Her jaw clenched and unclenched, testing its leather bindings. Let it out. A voice growled from deep within. Let it out.

“She won’t stay under!” A nurse shouted nearby. Lilac’s breath whistled through her razor-sharp fangs. Her golden eyes shot wide open as she jerked her gaze between the blinding lights and moving figures. They flitted rapidly, unable to take in anything of value. As they focused and unfocused, her pupils alternated between sharp slits and black voids. Her gaze darted around as she was moved into a room full of beeps and bright lights.

The bed's metal frame creaked under her vice grip. It was cold enough to sear, as if branding her hands. It grounded her. A final, frostbitten injection forced her back down against the bed with a snarl. The sounds of leather snapping ricocheted against her ears. Suddenly, she was screaming bloody murder. She stopped only to choke on air. Violent hysteria from within her cried out from every inch of her skin. Every strand of fur on her body stood on end. Begging, crying, pleading: Let it out. Let it out! LET IT OUT-

“Hey.” A soft voice cut through the roaring static. Lilac’s jaw hung wide open as her howling came to an abrupt stop. Slowly, gentle, baby-blue eyes entered her view, looking down at her softly.

“I need you to rest now.” A hand ran gently along the side of her face and through her fur, applying a soft pressure to the back of her neck. “It’s going to be okay.”

Inch by inch, a thousand pinpricks rippled through her body. The darkness at the edge of her vision engulfed her. Then nothing, except the sound of her slowing heart.

Consciousness returned all at once. Her eyes snapped open. She bolted upright, instantly aware of a burning soreness everywhere in her body. The ache became sharp when she moved. Her muscles quivered when she was still.

Where am I? This isn't my bed.

She dragged a trembling hand to her face, only to find it weighed down by heavy leather and metal shackles. The large cuffs clanked against her forearms as she struggled. When her hand finally reached her face, all the air was ripped from her lungs. It was a muzzle.

It was several sizes too big for her and fit loosely. She figured she could open her mouth all the way if she needed to scream, and oh, she just might. Her teeth began to chatter, panic washing over her. The bed she lay in was massive, stretching a foot out on either side.

I'm in prison. I hurt someone…?

An unnerving realization set in as she glanced around the room. She noticed the IV tube piercing her arm, the heart monitor clipping her finger. She was in a hospital, or at least something adjacent to one. But hospitals, as far as she knew, didn't have barred windows. Or chains hanging from the beds. She squirmed. As she gripped the cold railing with her paw pads, a sharp sting shot through her forearms. She jerked back. Examining her arm, she saw a red mark burned into her flesh.

Her attention was stolen by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“You’re awake." The voice belonged to a cross-armed wolf sitting near the doorway. Her amber eyes burned above her square jaw. Her body was rigid. Her imposing frame threatened to crush the hospital chair beneath her. She was old, with healed scars littering every visible inch of her body. Her face was framed with delicate silver hair. "I’m Henna. You must be Lilac…?”

Even as Lilac lay there, trembling and chained to the cot, unsure of how she got here or why, the sharp look in the wolf woman's eyes made her shrink with shame. Henna's brawny body was tense with agitation, her claws tapping against her arms, or perhaps it was annoyance. Lilac couldn't decide which would be worse.

Lilac's gaze shifted to the barred windows. A sardonic laugh escaped the large woman to her right. "What? Never been in the Feral Unit before?"

Unsure if she could speak, Lilac shook her head at the question. The oversized muzzle moved awkwardly along with her shake, and her eyes darted between Henna and the barred window. Henna watched Lilac's silent response, her expression unreadable, with an air Lilac hoped was bemusement.

The question replayed in Lilac's mind: Feral Units were only for dangerous canines. Individuals who had lost control of their bodies and were deemed a danger to themselves and others. Distemper, rabies, rage syndrome... this room was open only to the seriously afflicted. Of all the canines that entered, few left alive, and even fewer left able to live well. Her breath wheezed from underneath her muzzle.

"You're not dying," Henna stated as Lilac’s distress grew. Henna's mouth quirked at the edges to reveal her bright white fangs. A knock at the door made both their ears flick.

The door opened to reveal a slender, caramel-painted border collie. Her fur was lustrous, even under the harsh white light of the hospital room. The soft, snowy fur of her bangs kissed her brow and curved along her face before falling like a curtain of silk thread. She was wrapped in a light gray jacket and form-fitting jeans that tightly hugged her delicate frame. Her long, perfectly groomed tail nearly touched the floor with the length of her fur.

When their eyes met, Lilac felt her entire body go stiff. She'd seen those blue eyes before. Despite her slight smile, her gaze was nothing short of intense. A wave of self-consciousness made Lilac shrink into herself.

"Oh." The collie breathed quietly.

Something in her tone sent a pang of dread down Lilac's spine. Looking at her body, even with her overwhelming soreness, she looked the way she always had. After what felt like decades of quiet discernment, the collie spoke again. "She is… as described."

Piece by piece, the collie woman broke down Lilac's appearance aloud. "Short, triangular ears. Round face, double coat," She tilted her head to the side. "Curled tail." Lilac's legs pulled closer to herself at the clinical tone of the observation. "You must be a type of Inu. Fascinating."

The bewildered laugh that bubbled out of Henna felt like it shook the room.“Certainly a far cry from the version that arrived." She glanced back at Lilac, who visibly tensed. "Say the word, and we'll request some morphine or something. Your bones must ache something fierce."

The collie only hummed in agreement before striding towards the hospital bed with confidence. Her hands grazed over Lilac’s leather-bound wrists with feather-light consideration. There was a deep intensity in her composure, one that would make anyone have to fight to maintain eye contact.

The sounds of leather unbuckling echoed in the room's quiet.

“My name is Teddy. I'm told your name is Lilac?” The border collie - Teddy - asked. Her voice flowed over Lilac’s disheveled maw as the restraints fell against the floor. Snowy white hands glided further down to her feet, undoing their shackles. Lilac's voice came as a hollowed grunt from the back of her throat, still too overtaken by her full-body paranoia to form proper words, instead transfixed on the hands moving down the length of her imprisoned arm. Teddy hummed as she considered the cuff's necessity before deciding to unbuckle them, too. The touch sent a shiver up Lilac’s spine, though the motion was far from intimate. "Can you speak?"

“…I-.” Lilac's voice came out as little more than a dry moan, still garbled with terror and an ache as though she had spent the night swallowing glass. “Yes.”

Once freed, Lilac rubbed her irritated wrists as a knot of embarrassment grew where the initial hysteria had sat. She realized dark bruises had formed under the shackles. Her skin itched terribly.

"Silver,” Teddy supplied. "You are likely allergic, given your condition. We can request burn cream, if you would like." Lilac shook her head and begged silently for one of them to explain why she was here.

Teddy backed up to give her space as Henna finally rose from her seat, easily dwarfing the collie by a foot. Despite the threatening height difference, Teddy seemed unbothered by Henna's imposing size and predatory appearance. Lilac shifted to sit more comfortably in the bed, attempting to mirror the unconcern.

She desperately needed any explanation for why she was strapped to a hospital bed, any explanation for why the two pairs of eyes locked onto her were looking at her as though she had grown a second head. A heart attack, a freak accident, an arrest for a crime she didn’t commit - she would sooner take any absurd explanation for why she was there than accept what they were suggesting. Despite Teddy's seeming indifference and Henna's loud attempts at joviality, it was clear there was a confusion that sat between all three of them as Teddy announced to the room.

“Ms. Kimberlite, you tested positive for the Lycanthropy mutation. You’re a werewolf.”

---

         Page 3-4  

[See Chapter Art]

Comment section below, feel free to let us know what you think!