I slammed the door behind me as I stormed out of the house and into the backyard. I sat in one of the patio chairs and tried to think of anything else but the fight over my joining the volleyball team. I was so furious I could scream.  I just wanted to be me. I just wanted to be left alone.

“You have been a cheerleader since junior high dear, try something new. Maybe if you were more like some of the other girls you wouldn’t stand out so much, you could have more experiences. Something more than just cheerleading. Being a cheerleader is not going to get you anywhere in life.”

My mother’s voice still rang in my ears. I loved being a cheerleader. I loved having all the guys, students, and faculty watching me. I worked hard to be the captain of the squad for the last three years running and I’d be damned if I would give that up to play volleyball just because my mother wanted to get to know the coach a little better. 

This was typical mom. Dad had died in an accident at work when I was six. Mom spent two years crying and in misery then just got over it one day. Now she would date a man for a few months, things would get serious and one or the other would break it off. She always seemed in search of a new boyfriend, as if Dad could ever be replaced.

I heard the door open and close. I decided to leave before my mother could start in on me again. I wouldn’t be the reason she started shacking up with Mr. Haney. He was not bad looking for an older man. He stayed active and for the most part in shape but he had to, right?

I jumped up and rushed out of the yard through the gate. I walked as fast as I could into the woods, leaving behind the sounds of my mother’s voice calling out to me. She was saying something about Brad, my boyfriend. Brad was another problem in my life.

We had been dating for the last two years, and he was the perfect gentleman. Too perfect. Honestly, I would leave him but he wasn’t bad in bed and my mother liked him. That meant she didn’t ask questions.  I couldn’t dump him anyway, what would everyone think? Even if I did there would be the inevitable division of friends and a lot of drama. No, I would wait until college and we would grow apart. Then there would be no back draft.

Brad was really good to me and very dutiful, he was just always there. I want something more, I thought, as I huffed in exasperation. Besides, I countered my thoughts, Brad always gets me flowers and works very hard at his parents’ hardware store. Plus, he's also on the city's rowing team.

We were the perfect couple. Everyone thought so. I shrugged pushing the mental war I was having with myself away to be dealt with another day.

I, on the other hand, was not the best girlfriend. I often lead other boys on to make him jealous and I have even cheated a few times, although never with anyone at school. There was something about the thrill of doing something wrong that was exhilarating and got me off. I guess I was kind of a bitch but we were in high school, and none of this was all that serious. It’s not like he would ever find out, I was very careful and he was way too trusting.

I stopped walking, looked around, and realized I had never been this far into the woods. The houses were all long gone behind me somewhere. How far had I walked? I was not normally this carless and the woods were definitely not my thing. I tried to force the panic down as I continued to look around.

Finally, just as I was beginning to think I had made a mistake, I saw something ahead, a house maybe. I thought I would just check it out and then maybe they could give me a ride to Brad’s house. I wasn’t going home that was for sure. I would tell them I got lost, it’s not like whoever lived there would actually turn me away.

I moved through the brush into a well-maintained lawn with a for sale sign on it. I couldn’t help but feel in awe. This house was bigger than the ones at Walnut Grove, with at least four bedrooms if not more. The walls had river stones that met with plastic siding in a dark brown that wasn’t the cheap typical stuff on my house. The windows were bigger than most any I had ever seen.

“I wonder who lives here,” I whispered as I crept closer to the house and peeked in the window.

“Probably nobody, Jen, being there is a for sale sign in the yard,” I said sarcastically answering my dipshit question.

Inside was barely furnished, except for the wall of moving boxes. The living room was a huge open space with a fireplace across a barren wooden floor. The kitchen was connected to the living room by a half-wall bartop counter. Resolved to knock on the door and hope for the charity of the new residents, I turned to go to the front.

At that perfect moment, my eye caught movement inside. I’m not sure why, but I ducked down and peeked back in.  I felt odd like I was some weirdo peeping at the neighbors. Truth be told, it was kind of exciting. I watched as a tall older man with salt and pepper hair and no shirt walked to the fridge and pulled out three bottles of water. He placed them on the counter and began downing them, one after another. His body was amazing.

A body our gym coach should have, I thought with a smirk.

I felt my body heat as I watched him through the window. I couldn’t help but feel hot seeing him. I am not really into older men, especially, not this much older. I do enjoy college guys though. They have expectations, ones I can and do fulfill, but high school boys are just too eager to please me, and guys this old were kind of creepy. I was seriously thinking of making an exception in his case but he was probably married. After he finished the water he came around the counter, only wearing a towel, his lower half was almost as naked as his upper.

I tried to get myself to move away but he had all my attention. The hairs on the back of my neck stood out as if warning me that what I was doing was wrong. I didn’t care though. I was excited as fuck. I continued to watch as his towel dropped revealing an ass I wish my boyfriend had. I felt as if I was an animal in heat. My breath was quickening my nipples were straining against my bra and the heat had spread to between my legs.

What the fuck was I thinking? I didn’t know what was coming over me, but I was honestly contemplating watching him through the window as I pleasured myself. God, what if he caught me? A bunch of cheesy porno lines popped into my head and I almost giggled.

The mystery man knelt and I saw the strength in his back and shoulders. For a lean man, he was all muscle. I wanted to break away and stop what I was doing but I couldn’t. My hand slipped under my skirt and I felt the source of all my heat.  I leaned closer to the window and my breath fogged the glass.

Then he screamed. He screamed so loud and long it drowned out my scream of surprise. Fear flooded my body, and I braced myself against the house. I watched as his tight muscles bulged and twisted. I watched in horror as this dream-like hunk of an older man writhed back and forth. Fur started to sprout out across his body.  His form began to reshape and I realized he was becoming more and more animal-like.

Just then, I knew in my heart all the things I had seen in scary movies, and things that went bump in the night were real. My feet found the resolve to finally move and pulled me from the window. I broke through into the woods and ran at breakneck speed. Branches and vines tried to snare me, but I was numb to the pain of their attacks. I dashed through the woods as fast as I could. Fear gave me strength and speed.

I felt my stomach tighten after what felt like seconds, but had to be much longer. The fear hadn’t left me though, I felt fueled by it and if anything, it has increased a thousandfold. That beast, that wolf, was going to kill me if I stopped. I broke through the edge of the woods into the light just shy of the neighborhood park, and just down the street from my house. I probably looked like a wild insane woman but I didn’t care. I ran all the way home.

As soon as I hit the door, I turned the knob and ran in. I could hear my mother asking if it was me.

“I’m back. Look I don’t want to talk,” I screamed and ran upstairs. Once in my room, I looked out the window, expecting to see a wolf with black and white hair prowling my yard, looking into my window, but the yard was empty.

I let out a long breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. That thing had not followed me. I still felt the terror within me, but I was home and safe.  I looked over to the mirror, and I was a mess. I stripped off my skirt and torn top and got in the shower.

I turned the water on hot, then moved the dial hotter as my skin reddened and adjusted to the heat. The room filled with steam. No matter how hot the water got, I couldn’t wash away what I had seen. I pictured his body over and over again walking into the room. His strength, his sheer dominance, and the brief glimpse of his manhood as he turned in pain. I was terrified, yet the terror was in direct confrontation with my animalistic arousal.

My nipples were still hard and ached from rubbing against my bra. The more I rubbed them to relieve the pressure, the more the dire need inside me built. I leaned back against the warming tiles of the shower and began to cry. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or need.

As if of their own volition, my hands began to rub lower and lower until my fingers played a rapid percussion on the swollen bud of my clitoris.  The tears washed away and I moaned. Something unnatural had just happened. I had just witnessed a monster and I was lost to the waves of lust running through my body. I pictured him over and over again in the towel, and then without it, then him pinning me against the wall and taking me. At that moment my fingers entered me, and I began to climax, but I didn’t stop. I continued faster and harder as orgasm after orgasm took me. Finally, I pulled my sore fingers out of my tender body and washed them off.

I wasn’t sure what the hell had come over me. I washed the twigs and leaves from my hair and soaped my body. There were minor cuts and scratches everywhere. The water stung every wound and made them feel as if they were bigger than they were.

I needed to call Brad, but I really didn’t feel like it. I decided instead, to hop on the computer and look up werewolf myths. After an hour, I had read just about everything of worth on the net. That was skipping all the Twilight and other bullshit. So if the internet was right, I was in trouble.

If that guy was a werewolf my scent was all over his property, but being new in town he wouldn’t want to start killing people right away. So all I had to do was tell on him.

“Okay, Jen who would believe that?” I said out loud scornfully.

“Umm, excuse me officer, but today while I was peeping in on some guy at his house in the woods, I noticed he was a werewolf. Oh yeah, did I mention I was trespassing?” I added, just to hear how stupid my plan was.

I finally decided to eat dinner and face my mother. I could think about this later. Maybe after school tomorrow.