The sun finally slipped behind the mountains and then she could feel it, the moon. It was calling to her. A soft insistent surge of longing. She felt on fire and stripped out of her clothing to try and cool off. Her skin crawled like she was covered in ants and worms. The white disc peeked above the rim of the valley and she fell to the ground as her bones popped and her muscles slithered beneath her skin. She howled. Her massive form stood and she pointed her muzzle at the moon and howled her pleasure at seeing its beautiful face. She felt so alive! She wanted to run, so she did.She reveled in her strength and agility, grabbing trees and sinking her claws into the bark and climbing up the trunks. Reaching the tops she would sway back and forth and howl at the moon, Thank you!! I love you so much! Thank you for this power! She sniffed the air and she smelled the other. The old one. She leapt to the ground and ran at that scent. She followed it to the edge of the valley.She found his

"Yes, you could, but you won't. I'll say this only once, rhoda. You fuck with me again and I'll bury you. Now, call your friends back and tell them it was all a great big misunderstanding and a practical joke that went too far. Oh, and rhoda, if you test me on this, you'll find out I'm not the little quiet mouse you thought I was. Do you understand me?"Elena's expression went cold and she stared into Rhoda's eyes with an intensity that smoldered with menace. Rhoda started to say something in response, but when she saw the look in Elena's eyes, she stopped. She swallowed and nodded."Yes.""Good. Let's keep it that way, shall we?"Elena turned and walked back to her truck. She drove off down the street smiling. She still couldn't really believe that she had done that. Two weeks ago, and she wouldn't have dared, but now she was more assertive. She knew that some of it had come from her new condition but after seeing Rhoda's face and her reaction; Elena didn't mind the change so much.S

Wendy laughed and nodded."Thank you, Elena. So, what do I tell mark? He's up there right now wondering if we are killing each other.""I have an idea. Why not let me go up there and finish reading the story to the girls? While I'm doing that, you can talk to mark. Trust me, Wendy, he'll understand.""Okay. Aunt Elena, huh?" Wendy smiled."Yeah, uh, it was the only thing I could think of when I walked in.""Well, Aunt Elena, go upstairs and read to my girls while I talk to my husband.""Yeah, why don't I do just that? What a great idea! Too bad I didn't think of it first."Elena gave Wendy a grin and walked up the stairs. She heard mark's voice and followed it to the bedroom door. She looked around the doorframe and watched for a minute.The girls were in their beds and mark was sitting in between them on a chair with a book on his lap. He was looking from one daughter to the other as he read the story. It was obvious from watching him that this was the same story he told them every

"Good morning, Elena. How are you feeling? Ready to get back to the grind?""Yeah, and thanks for being there for me, mark. You don't know how much all of this means to me. Thank you.""You're welcome. I'm glad I could be there for you. I've always liked you, and, well, I've thought of you as my long lost cousin, sort of. Anyway, I'm glad I could help out.""Cousin, huh? Well, it looks like I'm going to be your sister-in-law, even if it isn't legal yet. Speaking of sisters, Marie is coming up to dinner tomorrow night and I would greatly appreciate it if you and your family would join us. I want to surprise Marie and I can't think of a better way to do it other than dinner with everybody.""Wow! Yeah, I would love to have dinner with you and Lena. I think the girls would enjoy it as well. Yes, I'll tell Wendy. What time?""I think six o'clock would be fine. Any requests? I'm cooking.""No broccoli, other than that, whatever you want to fix would be fine.""No broccoli? Allergies?""Yea

Elena hadn't planned on revealing this much about her private life to anyone, but when she thought about it, she was telling the absolute truth and she was glad she could share it with Charlenne.Charlenne smiled and looked at elena in awe. There was a dreamy wistful look in her eyes as she listened to Elena tell her about her girlfriend."Wow! You really are in love with her. I hope one day I will find someone like that for myself. You look so happy when you talk about her. I'm jealous of her. Yeah, I know. We can't be like that, but I'm not upset about it anymore. Not now. We can be friends, Elena. I'd like that a lot.""I would too, Charlenne. Really. One of these days soon, you will have to come over to my house and meet her. I think you'll like her too. I know she'll like you. Oh, and one piece of advice, Charlenne; don't ever let Rhoda catch you looking at my ass like that, she won't have an ounce of mercy, she'll go for the jugular."Charlenne blushed furiously and snickered."