Her timing was horrible, as usual. She acted too quickly on emotions and gut instincts rather than thinking things out. If she had been smart she would have left for this odd, new city the day after the previous full moon to give herself an entire month to get the lay of the land. Instead she ventured here too late and wasted the only full week she had with petty human things like finding a job, a place to sleep, and chatting away with people in a bar.

No, she couldn't think like that. It wasn't a matter of human versus the wolf, was it' Sure, they conflicted a lot, but they were both jumbled up together inside her. Would it always feel like this" She had only become aware of this side of her, how long was it now, three or four years ago' It felt like forever since she had been normal, yet far from enough time to know what she was supposed to do. It didn't help that she had no one to talk about it with. But that's why she was here, wasn't she"

She was getting distracted. She had to get through her first full moon in RhyDin and after that she could ponder hitting up the locals about werewolves anonymous. She could imagine it now. Hello, my name is Lita Hernandez and I've got a blood thirsty beast lurking inside of me. Yeah, they probably have something like that here. Who knows? Maybe he would even be there. A girl could only dream.

Lita unzipped the bag and began pulling out long, thick chains scattered with similarly intimidating locks and metal shackles. The person who sold these to her in that weird fetish shop in California had given her such a skeezy look when he rang her up. He probably assumed they were going to be used for many kinky nights with some big hunk that needed extra strength restraints. Nope, not even close, buddy.

It was another hour worth of work for her to correctly wrap and lock the chains around the base of the tree. The trick was to give enough slack to compensate for the change while keeping the wolf restrained. It had taken her longer than she ever would want to admit to figure this trick out on her own.

There had been far too many mornings of waking up in the middle of the woods with the faint metallic taste of blood in her mouth to not do something about it. She had convinced herself long ago that everything she had killed had been an animal. Bucks and does mostly, maybe a few stray rabbits as snacks. But it had made her positive she didn't want to wake up one morning with a dead person's blood on her lips. Something had to give and this was the best she could come up with. At least it worked....for now.

Later that day"

She was cutting it close. Way too close! What was she thinking" Well, she knew what she was thinking of when she was sitting at that bar nursing a beer with Cove. But it was silly and not worth the risk she was taking. Or maybe it was" What would he say' Gah! This was not the time to be thinking about this!

She didn't have time to shower, not that it would matter soon enough. She had switched out her sandals for a pair of tennis shoes since she knew she was going to have to haul butt back to the glen and tossed some extra clothes into a backpack. That complete she was slipping out of her room, tearing down the hallway, and taking off out the back entrance of the Inn.

It was moments like this when she was thankful for her speed. Majority of the time she went out of her way to suppress or ignore the quirks that came along with being a werewolf. Everything was always a little too loud, scents were always smacking at her nose for attention (both good and bad), and if she wasn't careful she could accidentally tear a door off the hinges if she got a little too excited. Where was the middle ground" Sometimes she missed her good old friend mediocrity.

By the time she reached her Tree, Sweet Tree of the evening she was left with only minutes until sunset. She could already feel the wolf prowling just beneath her skin, pacing like a hungry animal waiting to be released from its cage. That was all too accurate, but the wolf wouldn't roam free tonight.

The Next Morning"

In the early hours of dawn, the birds were softly singing their happy tunes. A few stray beams of morning light weaved through the thick of the forest to lap against her bare skin and warm her. At the same time, the grass beneath her cheek was cool and inviting with morning dew. It was such a deceptively calm way to wake up that barely gave anything away about the chaos that had occurred just a few short hours ago. The only remnants were the countless wild claw marks that marred the bark of the tree that Lita was curled beneath. That and the soft rattle of chains when she began to stir.

Lita pushed herself to sit up, taking a moment to find her bearings. There were no little bunny carcasses around her. No taste of warm metal in her mouth. The shackles were all still firmly in place on her wrists and ankles. In fact, there seemed to be soft circles of healing red skin where the restraints bit into her flesh after the transformation. It was probably for the best. Better for the shackles to be too tight than too loose. Besides, the welts would be gone by early evening.

She pushed herself to her feet, using the given slack of chains to grab the duffel bag and backpack that she had tucked away. Thankfully, the wolf had no interest in her change of clothes. A key was withdrawn from the side pocket of the duffel bag. She released the shackles, slipped on her change of clothing, then began removing the rest of the locks and chains from the tree and tucking them back into the bag. It was always quicker to put them away than setting them up. She made quick work of it, eager to get back to the Inn for a shower.

After twenty minutes the chains were all put away. The backpack was slung onto one shoulder, the duffel bag draped over the other. There was a final scan of the forest floor to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything. No, all that was left behind was the shredded remains of her outfit from last night. Another one bites the dust. Satisfied, Lita reached a hand out, giving a gentle pat to the clawed bark of the tree before she started the walk home.

"See you next month.?