We drove through the Virginia countryside, following the road as I kept my left hand on the steering wheel, struggling to keep my eyes, well, eye, on the road. My right eye was missing, I couldn’t see the seat beside me, and I couldn’t enjoy some of my last moments with her. She’d needed to take my right hand in hers, seemingly sensing my distress, and even that didn’t feel like it was enough.

  It needed to be enough.

  A slow drive I had a constant worry about my depth perception that I tried to keep to the back of my mind. I’d still not done anything to get used to the one eye, I’d barely been walking around with it one day. It was probably a bit of a risk to drive at night like this, and the only good news was it being late at night meant barely anyone was on the roads.

  I wasn’t going to kill any passengers was a morbid thought, and brought me a small snort before it made me feel like shit.

  Barbie squeezed my hand, and with a sigh she asked, “so, what made you want to do this?”

  “I just…it felt right,” I brushed off, sighing as I shifted in my spot, “I told you something I shouldn’t have this soon, and I’m glad I did, but I figured why not be a little more reckless?”

  There was a small pause, and slowly Barbie told me, “you know, I love the mountains. They look beautiful.”

  “They do,” I agreed slowly, frowning as I admitted, “I used to live out here. I…I don’t like what I did out here, but the sights are beautiful.”

  “You’re pretty beautiful yourself,” she said, holding her grip on my hand as we kept the drive up.

  Not long later we reached the Blue Ridge Mountains, a black mass in the late night, and we drove along them for a long while. No one else seemingly out there except a few semis, no one else with us, I drove until we stopped on the side of the road at a small spot on the mountain edge overlooking the horizon. A scenic outlook more than any sort of rest area, it had room for a dozen or so cars to park and a few benches, but nothing else.

  It still had to do, and while at this time of night the moon’s view of the mountains was limited it was still there. Stopping the car, turning it off, I asked her, “Does this seem like a good place?”

  “If you’re gonna murder me maybe,” Barbie admitted, letting out a small laugh as she leaned against the window. She sighed, shaking her head slightly, and chuckling asked, “think it might have been better if we waited until the morning?”

  “No, I…it’s been a long few days,” I admitted, not wanting to tell her the truth, “besides, we waited until the morning I couldn’t show you what a werewolf looked like.”

  “Oh, I finally get that privilege?” Barbie asked, leaning in to kiss my cheek as she asked, “are you sure you want to? I understand if that’s like, a big thing for y’all to show someone.”

  “Honestly, it’s fine,” I said, sliding out of the truck as Barbie did the same. Looking through the back of the truck for a moment, I saw a folded quilt Percy kept and tossed it to Barbie as I told her, “find somewhere comfortable for us to lay down.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Barbie said, walking over to a so grassy patch as she tossed the blanket out and I began to strip.

  Not wearing many clothes, I tossed them into a pile on Percy’s hood and explained to Barbie, “set these aside, if I need to get dressed quickly it’s best to have them on hand.”

  “Clothes don’t disappear?” Barbie asked, before seeming to think on it a moment and admitting, “actually no that makes sense.”

  “Also be warned, it’s not a pretty process,” I admitted, tossing the clothes to her and setting my boots by the truck as I shifted hesitantly in place, “it’s painful, but it looks more painful than it is.”

  “Thanks for the warning,” she agreed, sitting on the blanket as she watched me intently in the moonlight.

  Finally removing my bandage I tossed the item aside, knowing it wouldn’t help me all that much here and started the change along.

  My skin burned, muscles melted and twisted and turned, bones snapped, and I fell forward onto the ground. Joints snapped out of place and rejoined in new places and twisted around on themselves. Hair grew, turned to thick fur, my jaw stretching and burning into a muzzle as my spine extended into a tail. My eyes turned towards the end, unusual for me, my left eye seeing the world as normal and my right eye hurting much more than it should have as it took its new shape.

  Falling to the ground my hands finished becoming padded paws, and I let out a small howl as I finished the transformation. A little dramatic, but I had to put on a show here.

  Barbie watched on with a curious smile, tilting her hand as I padded over to me and she pat the blanket beside her. Laying there, I felt her hands gently run through my fur, her nails scratch my skin, her weight lean into me. Not the reaction I’d ever expected out of someone seeing me, it was rather…comforting, even knowing the truth.

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  “You know, I could get used to this,” Barbie admitted, her fingers playing with my ear, “is that weird to say? I mean, you asked me to move in with you, I guess you kinda want me to get used to it.”

  I let out a noise for her, trying to make it sound as much a confirmation as I could under the circumstances. Not exactly trained in wolf vocabulary, I wasn’t sure how it turned out.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she agreed all the same as she fell back on the quilt. Turning around a few times in place, I laid back down facing her, my head resting on her stomach as she continued to pet me. Her scent was overwhelming, the smell of paint and apples on her as always, I did my best to enjoy it as long as I could. I let out a pleased noise, and she told me, “I’m glad I met you. I…I used to hate waking up in the morning, I felt like I was just surviving on the off chance something was better one day. You’re fun though, there’s something about you where I just want to keep getting to talk to you, wake up and see you next to me.”

  I nodded, realized that wouldn’t look right as a wolf, and licked her hand as a small gesture of conversation. She giggled, shaking her head at the action, and for a moment I wondered if I did something wrong.

  “I’m a fucking idiot, aren’t I?” she asked, letting out a small sigh, “went an hour out into the mountains, dead of night, werewolf girl, what do I have, a death wish?”

  I tilted my head away, feeling myself trying to cry as I tried stopping Barbie from seeing that.

  She seemed to catch on, and her arms wrapped around me with her tender touch, resting her face against my fur. Holding onto me like a vise, she let out a pleased noise and told me, “I always wanted a big dog, and you know what, this is pretty good. I ever tell you about that? Only child, got lonely easily, always got jealous of people who had dogs and stuff. They could pet them, play with them, fall asleep with them, you know? Sorry, just kinda rambling, wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to do with only a wolf for conversation.”

  I let out a noise that might have been a sigh, stumbling to my paws as I trodded off to search the ground. Barbie sat up to watch me, and before she could question it too far I found a stick I took off the ground and brought back to her. The wood had a disgusting flavor in my mouth, I withstood it all the same as I sat down and held it out.

  Barbie laughed, giggling a moment as she shook her head and asked me, “are you sure?” even as she took the stick from my muzzle and rose to her feet.

  Tossing the stick across the grassy area, I ran after it at full sprint, needing to skid to a stop in a move I thought was rather sloppy for me. Letting out a noise meant to be a grumble while I took the stick off the grass, trodding it back to her and bracing myself for the next throw.

  Suffering the same problem, the moonlit night not helping even with my wolf eye, it became more of a challenge than intended. At first trying to gauge when to stop myself and then trying to gauge how to catch it. A slow process, I got the first part over before I was able to settle into a pace of it. Not a true hunt, it nonetheless had the same sort of primal joy behind it that I could settle into.

  At least, that was the plan before I almost slid myself off the rest area, down a steep cliff, and had to scramble back up. Barbie quickly getting over the initial fright of seeing me go off the edge and getting a good laughing fit at that as she announced, “fetch is over, come on let’s have a little peace and quiet together.”

  I turned back to human, my body cracking and splitting and remolding into that form, my right eye killing me, and quickly dressed again. Sitting on the blanket with her, human once more, I barely had time to settle before she moved to sit in my lap. My arms creeping about her waist, her head against my chest, and with a small sigh she asked, “how long do you think it is until sunrise?”

  I felt my heart drop, checking my phone for the answer as I told her, “at least three hours.”

  “We’re absolutely terrible at planning last minute trips,” she muttered with a shake of her head.

  “You want to do something else? Could try and get somewhere else, get some coffee and come back we could-”

  “I like this,” she interrupted, sounding almost sad as she pulled herself tighter against me, “would you mind if we just…tried and waited until sunrise? I’ve never seen the mountains in the early morning. I don't think I want to risk us missing anything more than we need to.”

  “I can do that,” I muttered, and I held her so hard I thought her ribs would break under me as we fell into silence.

  Neither of us moved, the only time we spoke was when the only one of two cars which passed through stopped to ask if we needed help. Sat like a pair of statues while we held onto each other, our grips never loosening as the night passed around us. Her scent all I could smell, her breath all I could hear, her body all that I could feel.

  For a time feeling like she’d fallen asleep in my arms, her breath slow and steady against me, and that thought only dashed as the night started its slow glow to a pink skyline.

  Barbie raised her head off me without my prompting, twisting in my arms so she could look out towards the sun, her back pressed into me. My chin resting on the crown of her head, we watched the slowly forming morning fog and blue tinted mountains come into proper view for us. Tears running down my cheeks, my grip tightened on her, and I tried to hold myself back from a full sob.

  Barbie made it harder, shaking her head as she said the same thing I had been thinking as she admitted, “I was worried we wouldn’t get to see it.”

  “I can be patient when I want to be,” I muttered, knowing it sounded like I was crying.

  Barbie nodded, and I felt her skin grow cold in my grip, the warmth she gave off slowly turning to like ice under my fingertips. A sob finally breaking free from my throat, and my eyes never left her as she started to change, flickering between as she always did and a white figure, a red band around her neck. She turned around to face me, an aloof smile on her face, and the woman seemed to not even notice me crying as her frozen hand cupped my cheek.

  We held each other like that for a long time, and with a shake of her head, white tears flowing down white skin, she choked out with a smile on her face, “oh, don’t start crying or I will too. This was the best I could have asked for, Mary. I was afraid I was going to have to be alone for this.”

  She kissed me a final time, and I returned the gesture as we held each other close as we could manage, my eye closing even as I wished to never look away. Cold enough it felt like it burned my lips, like my lips would freeze against her to never leave, a knife of ice skinning me with every touch.

  I still refused to pull away, and only wished I could make the moment last forever.

  The weight left me.

  All at once it was gone, no cloth under my fingers, no flesh on my lips, no weight in my lap. My eye opened, and I looked forward onto an empty horizon, the distant sounds of nature my only companion on the mountain side.

  All that remained my slowly warming lips and the scent of paint and apples.