Excerpt of The Howl.

The moon tonight.

Could Julian literally hear the moon rise?  By the scuffling, it sounded like the mere rising of the moon was as haunting as nails on a chalkboard.  I heard groans, like he already wanted to howl, but, for some reason, he pushed it down to the pit of his stomach.  I thought I made out him biting his thinning, elongating tongue.  I saw threads of dark blood that he was helpless to catch as it drooled from both sides of his mouth.  The condensation that seemed to come from nowhere was maddening, but I could tell the change had begun.

He started to lie down, until his ankles snapped with a wet fire kindle pop, and he would have fallen on his face if his front limbs had not caught him as his wrists cracked, and his hands compacted into paws, claws grinding out of his nails, sending shards of calcium pinging in all directions.

I instinctively ducked as I heard ten cracks as wood splintered from inside, one of which spider-webbed the window, making it harder for me to see.  Still, I strained to watch.  I inhaled and held my breath.

Screams continued inside as Julian's scalp looked like it was being pulled away from his eye sockets, momentarily showing muscle, tendon, and bone underneath as the top half of his face seemed to crush back as his nose and mouth elongated, most likely, breaking the tiny bones around his nasal cavity, jawbone and the surrounding skin.  It sounded like stretched leather from a slaughtered animal...except this animal was not dead.  "God, kill meee!" the sentence almost got lost in a mix of voice and growl/wail as Julian's vocal cords stretched and thinned.

Not a sound went unnoticed by my ears as Julian's splitting nail shards hit the shed walls with such force that the wood had been weakened to the extent of leaving tiny holes where they had actually gone through, one of which went through a flap in my jacket, just missing my heart by mere millimeters.  For a few seconds, I lost my breath.

Clack, clack, clack sounded thirty-three times as Julian's spine stretched and split for the animalistic agility.  He howled, wailed, screamed as that happed, no longer able to stifle the pain, even knowing I was just on the other side of the window.

Damn you, Logan, I told you to stay away, I heard in my head in Julian’s voice.  Am I getting his thoughts telepathically, or did I just know that’s what he’d scold?  But what’s done is done, and whatever I saw through that tiny, shredded window is mine to own… I was one of them, for better or worse.  Still, I felt the fury, welling up inside him, at me, for not listening to the one, simple demand.

Suddenly, he looked like he had to take a massive shit, one that began forming in the middle of his spine, as a tail started protruding like a misplaced hemorrhoid.  Did my eyes deceive me; I thought I saw blood trickle down his ass crack.

I literally quaked in my boots when I heard that initial unadulterated howl; yet, I was planted in place by fear and awe.  I felt the pee literally at the tip of my penis; I cowered.

Afterwards, Julian looked like a scrawny half-breed human/dog thing without fur.  Then, his animal teeth and canines broke through sending his human teeth exploding from his mouth in a spray of blood with the sound of machine gun fire as tooth after tooth shot in every direction, shredding the shed even more, letting daylight in and animal stench out.  And I only thought I perfected the shed’s soundproof, sturdy walls.

How much more can his body take?  I’m not the one going through anything, but this is torture!

I was bowled over by the pungent, animal smell that shot out of the holes made by Julian's teeth.  Although trying not to, I wretched and dry heaved, but stood my ground.

Fur sprouted from Julian's pores, adding more as fur pushed through his flesh, bringing more blood, leaving a sweaty, blood red sheen to his new fur.  He promptly shook it out in a magnificent spray of blood splatter that coated everything in the shed in fine droplets that quickly coagulated.

I flinched as the red sideways rain hit the window.

There was so much blood-I knew Julian smelled the blood, albeit, his own.  Nonetheless, it drove him.  My research taught me the smell of blood is intoxicating to wolves.  Did he just look at me?  Oh, my God.  Can he smell my fear?  He launched himself at the window as muscles bulged and protruded under his skin, doubling, tripling his size.  His snout easily shattered the small window in an open-mouthed snarl.

I froze in a pool of piss and shit and had no clue what to do.

Julian raced to me with amazing speed.  He bore his teeth as if he didn’t recognize me… As if I was his next kill.