She followed the scent for a few yards and found the source. A large pine tree had a slightly darker stain on the base of the trunk. She looked around her again, but nothing changed in the sounds, and so she knelt down and sniffed the stain. Yes, it was Damien's scent, and it was newer than the ones inside the cabin. So, he had been here since we left that night. She felt something click inside her head and she knew this was a territorial marking.Something else came over her; she had the sudden urge to pee. Without really thinking about it, she loosened the holster and her pants and she squatted over that spot and squirted two pulses of urine over his mark. Then the urge was over and she was just squatting next to the tree. She shook her head at what she had just done and pushed aside the strange feelings. She pulled her pants back up and reattached the holster to her thigh.She looked around and sniffed the air, trying to pick up another marking scent. Nothing. She tried to think ab

She managed to cover another twelve miles, stopping and checking the breeze every mile mark on the odometer. The scent became stronger as she traveled along the upper ridge of the valley. When it was too dark to go on safely without lights, she found a spot where she could get off the fire trail and parked.She got out and listened, but there was nothing but the breeze through the pines. She sniffed the air again and found that the scent was rather strong. She pulled out a flashlight and flipped its red lens down in place. She also pulled out the pistol and threaded the silencer onto it. She clicked on the flashlight and started walking slowly towards the scent. She carefully walked about a hundred yards when she found the tree he had marked. It was a huge pine, easily four feet across at the base. She looked around on the ground but there were no tracks, the thick layer of pine needles prevented it. She walked around the tree first, looking outwards. There was nothing that registered

"No, that's the change coming on, and if you are feeling that right now, you are close. The full moon is still a few days away, and you are already fighting off the urge to shift. That's not a good sign, Elena. When did these feelings start?""Well, the other day when I was really angry with someone was the first time, but I was able to fight it off with the help of my friend. I felt it again while I was dreaming just a few minutes ago, just before I woke up and heard you out here calling my name.""Yes, anger will cause you to shift if you can't calm down soon enough. What were you dreaming of?""Blood, monsters, and torn bodies.""Okay, blood and violence will cause you to shift early as well. However, I have never known dreams to cause it. It's the smell of the blood and the feel of the violence that stimulates the change. Have you been involved in anything today that had blood or violence?""Yeah, I was shot twice."He looked at her sharply and then shook his head."I see no wound

She tossed what was left of the bad human on the ground and went to find a place to rest. She walked slowly back to where she had woken up before her meal and looked around. There were scraps of clothing lying all over the ground. She spotted the tent, ooh, that looks good. She crawled over to it and opened the flap. There was fluffy bedding on the floor. Perfect! She slid in and curled up, wrapping her muscular arms around herself and pulling her legs up, she went to sleep.Elena opened her eyes; she could hear someone outside her tent. She panicked, and reached for the gun. It wasn't there! Then she looked at her hand and saw it was covered in blood. Oh God! What's going on? Then she looked down at herself and saw that she was naked and there was blood all over her and it had rubbed off onto her sleeping bag. She was shaking and trying hard to think about what could have happened. She couldn't remember! No wait, I woke up earlier, and I had to pee. Then nothing. Scott beating me? Oh

She got out her campstool and sat down, emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Her face went slack and her eyes lost focus as she reviewed what she had just done. The ruined piece of humanity that had been lying on the ground numbed her sense of reality. Her mind kept trying to come to grips with the fact that the white ragged sticks were bones, that the red mass of tissue had once been a human being. The sickly pallor of the skin that no longer had blood flowing to it to give it that peach colored hue, the blood turning black as it dried in the cool mountain air. The sickening slurp that sounded so loud in her ears as she picked it up and drug it across the ground to the hole she had dug.She came out of her disturbing reverie to find her hands shaking and her skin cold and clammy. A fine sheen of sweat covered her face, her stomach felt like it had turned to stone. There was a strange sensation of floating in her head, like she was inside this giant indoor stadium and her bod