My Werewolf Guardian

The Past Pt 2: The Full Moon

“How shall I pass the time tonight?” I settled into my corner books, study material, and various things scattered around me. This was usual for a full moon. I needed to still be protected as my father’s orders, but Niven being incasitated created a few problems. I was held inside his cage towards the back of our basement. A large inner cage separated us and even though he tried to break it down a few times my father made sure it was strong enough to offer me enough of a sanctuary. One downside to this arrangement was that I had to watch Niven through the entire moon’s forced shift as well as deal with the effects afterward. Luckily he usually calmed down after a few hours of trying to escape and claw my face off, but once I got past that he was interesting company. 

I could see the tension in Niven’s posture as he paced around his side of the bars. His fists clenched tightly and his face bloodshot as the moon’s pull was getting higher in the night sky. “Do whatever you want.” Another thing I was used to, he was prone to bouts of rageful snapping. 

“My mother gave me something interesting to read tonight. It’s all about-”

“No offense Claudia.” He refrained from the snapping, but talking through clenched teeth his rage was building again for a doozy of a scream, “I don’t care.”

I ignored his little fit, he really didn’t mean it as I continued to try to distract him from the pain that was about to arise, “A big part about being an ambassador is learning more about werewolves, but it’s also important for me to know about vampire’s as well. So it’s all about the nest hierarchy.”

“Yeah, learn about the blood suckers.” He bent over wrapping himself in his arms, “Damn lucky bastards. AH!” He keeled over falling to the ground. 

My least favorite part. Between the snapping and popping of the bones and the truly repulsive growing of the body hair, I found it hard to hold down my dinner. Coincidentally not holding down food was another thing that displeased me about the transformation. Niven’s stomach contents were voided in a projectile fashion which thankfully was not aimed at me. 

I shielded my eyes from the next part where Niven ridded himself of his clothes. He always waited until the last minute for my benefit, but this time he may have waited too long as he found it difficult to free his arms enough to slip out of his shirt. I could hear the fabric ripping and hoped later this wouldn’t create any issues with the pack’s seamstress. She was always overloaded after the full moon and Niven always was so careful. 

With the growling now echoing through the basement I looked up as a pure white wolf with sparklingly golden eyes stared back. His fangs fully exposed as saliva coated them dripping to the floor. 

“Going to just jump right in then?” I smirked while picking up my notebook. It wasn’t actually my business to write down about werewolf changes and shifts during the full moon, but it was still exciting to me to experience first hand the raw power of a fully grown wolf. Few people were able to study it so frequently as I have and even fewer were completely safe. 

He sprang forward as I tok a few extra notes, it wasn’t very different from the previous shift last month, but something had to have been irritating him. He was acting very peculiar tonight. As he crashed against the bars he yelped as one hit him square in the eye.

“Acting that way you’ll only hurt yourself.” He couldn’t understand me, at least I didn’t think he could since he continued the assault. I flipped through the pages waiting out this first burst of anger. 

After he settled down he curled up in a corner huffing as he continued to eye me with frustration. “Interesting,” I took note of how quickly he ran out of energy tonight. Maybe it had something to do with what was bothering him? When he was in his wolf form it was just easier to talk to him. He was such a good listener and I didn’t have to worry about him silently judging me. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, my father’s worried about you.” I tapped my pen against the notebook swinging my feet rapidly, “You’re an alpha wolf apparently. I don’t quite get how he didn’t know until recently, but it’s cause enough for concern.” He raised his head, c*****g it to the side. I knew he wouldn’t remember anything I talked with him about, but the fear was deep in my gut over the thought of him remembering. “I’m sorry,” I said looking down, “Maybe you can work past it? I’m not really able to give you advice properly, but I wished things wouldn’t have to change. I like having you around, if my father thinks you’re a threat to him he’ll get rid of you.”

What came next was a rather surprise to me, the whimper from him as he approached the bars slowly. He had never reacted this way before. I quickly jotted down what was happening. Was this some form of sanity coming through against the rage? 

“Are you okay Niven?” I carefully climbed off my bed, I knew getting as low as possible to the ground was the way to approach a werewolf, but no way actually safe. Making sure he was always over top of me would ensure he knew he was the dominator, I was at his mercy and he was less likely to bite. Less likely, but the danger was very much present. I kept myself far enough from the bars to make sure he couldn’t reach me even if he tried. “Niven,” My head stayed down as I stopped moving forward.

The low rumbling in his throat meant he was testing me. It was the first time I’d approached him like this so maybe he’d think twice about attacking. I looked up testing my own ability to not run back to my bed. 

“Do you understand me right now?” 

His eyes narrowed and he lowered himself, resting his head on the floor.

I knew better than to reach out, touching a werewolf was out of the question, let alone during a full moon. That was just asking for trouble. I laid down on my stomach propping myself up on my elbows. “So this is new then.” When he was in this form he was a massive specimen. His head alone was the size of a bear’s. “Can we be more akin to a sleepover then? Honestly this whole princess and dragon bit we’ve been playing has gotten slightly old.” 

In all the time I had known him never once did I ever touch him. Come to think of it, he kind of stayed away from my touch. “It’s still a one sided conversation, but I guess I’ll make due.” I smiled politely watching his open and shut his eyes slowly, “You know father never let me get a cat because of you. I guess having a werewolf as enough of a pet. Though you are kind of a great pet.” A growl from him struck me as odd. “You can understand me.” Oh s**t, I thought. This means he understood what I said earlier. “About earlier.” forcing a fake laugh through the awkwardness that might very well have been one sided, “just forget about it. My father can get paranoid. He loves you and you’re a great member of the pack.”

I should have known I was getting too comfortable. He lunged forward causing me to jump backward. “Okay, so I’ll just stay up here then.” Picking up the vampire book, I flipped through the pages. I looked up at him squinting my eyes and sticking out my tongue, “You really ruined a great conversation.” 

I guess it was time for rage number two. They came and went sporadically throughout the night. I usually could get a few hours rest, so it was manageable. Thankfully this was a werewolf town, everyone just used the day after a full moon to rest and recover. 

The vampire book seemed relatively boring compared to how a pack was run. Vampires were more ritzy loving the finer things in life. Their matriarchal system was geared more toward serving their queen. They took their family ties more seriously than werewolves. Apparently when a vampire changed a human they viewed this as their child. I looked back at the white wolf, he wasn’t treated like a son. Niven was treated like a soldier, he followed my father’s orders, there was little love, but the respect that Niven showed my father was immense. I doubt NIven would do anything to disrespect him, but during the full moon everything changed. Vampires didn’t have this unfortunate curse, but they did hire humans to serve them blood. 

Vampire towns were set up strikingly different from a werewolf one. It was interesting to note the differences. Vampires relied on humans far more than werewolves who liked to keep to themselves. Both had to rely on the government to allow them to take new members and both were still in service to the crown. Soldiers and spies. Werewolves were the best fighters, vampires were the best at gathering intel. It would be interesting to see if there had ever been a town that had both vampires and werewolves. Unfortunately they seemed to despise each other so much they rarely allowed the opposite to live in the same city limits. 

“I wonder who started this feud.” I looked back to Niven who was settling back down. “If I was a betting person, I’d say werewolves may have been a key factor.” He didn’t take too kindly to my slight and growled bearing his massive teeth, “Relax, I was just joking.” I rolled my eyes and continued to read. 

I got halfway through when I settled down for a short nap. It was different trying to sleep with a grumbling rage monster in the next cage but I was used to it. Sleeping for a few hours was easy, that is until the moon started to descend. Then the snapping and shedding started. Howls and screams woke me up first. Seeing him turn into a wolf was one thing watching a wolf turn into a human was a whole other level of disgusting. 

I hid my eyes from him until he was well enough to open my cell. As I looked up I was met with a confirmation. He had lost his shirt, but at least his trousers were well intact. “Rise and shine little wolf.” He was covered in scratches, bruises and dirt, but that would be fixed within a few hours. His smile eased my fears about what I had said earlier. I was sure he didn’t remember, werewolves had terrible memory during lunacy. 

“Good morning Niven.” I stretched smiling back and walking past him, “Have a good night?”

“Preferable to yours.” His smirk was the signal for me to leave. 

“I doubt that. You were bothered by something last night.” We made out way upstairs. We were the first to come inside, the other pack members stayed in the jail house since the cages were able to hold them all easily, plus it acted as a deterrent for anyone to commit a crime. “What was going on?”

He shrugged, “Who knows what was going through my head last night.”

The maids were busy on our breakfast, they were prepared for a large gathering this morning every major member of the pack gathered here the morning after to settle down after the painful night. I was going to take my food before the busy crowd came through the door. It was a long night and since there weren’t any major threats Niven could enjoy a few hours of a break from me while I caught up on my sleep.