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Sunday, Nov. 5th, 2011

Moon Phase - Waxing Gibbous

Time Until The Shift - 4 Days, 12 Hours

After Shane's father left, Alex waited a few minutes before following suit. He could already see Shane asking what his father was doing meeting him, if any scents or something else gave it away, leaving him to hope Michael would keep what was asked of him to himself.

Just before noon the following day, while he was jumping between texting Nathan and Catherine, he saw a prompt appear with a text from Michael and switched over to it.

Michael B.: Alex, I forgot to tell you.

Since you'll be with us until you change back,

you'll need a change of clothes and some kind

of time-passer.

A text from Nathan came in while Alex typed a response. He didn't finish it before the second part came in.

Michael B.: You can bring them to the house, or

Shane can pick them up. Whichever works for you.

Alex soon decided on the latter before getting to work putting aside what he would need. When two-o-clock came on Sunday, he left the house with Bailey in tow, leading him to the area where he was supposed to hand the stuff over to Shane.

The local park was more crowded than he expected, and the east-bound breezes left him glancing around for a sign of Shane. As it happened, he arrived via the same creek route Alex had used his first night as a werewolf.

The sight of Shane got Bailey's tail to wag, even after Alex made him sit and stay. Privately, Alex hoped Shane's scent wouldn't unnerve Bailey.

What did happen was his dog stopped wagging his tail after trying to sniff at the stranger but didn't make any noise. "You're okay, boy," Shane told him, to which Alex shuddered a bit. "You got them?" Shane then asked.

Alex glanced around for a moment.

"You're not dealing drugs. Stop being so paranoid."

"Yeah, yeah," Alex replied before slipping his backpack off and unzipping the back pocket. He'd stuffed his clothing and a few books and comics into a thin trash bag, which Shane waited for him to hand over. "Nothing special in there, but if you mark them, I'll know."

Shane gave Alex a scowl at that remark.

"Speaking of marking," he said after a second, "what's going on with your friends?"

Alex took a moment to think of an answer. "They're fine."

"You sure about that?" Shane continued when Alex stalled. "You remember me saying they'll try not to act scared of you?"

Alex nodded.

"Don't let them drift away from you. If that happens, what reason would they have to safeguard what they know about you?"

Although Alex's thoughts immediately went to Catherine, he responded with, "That sounds a bit controlling."

"If they weren't your friends, sure."

"I'll see what I can do, then."

"Good. You've still got a few days. Put them to use."

Shane departed before Alex could respond, though during the walk home, Shane's words eventually pushed him into texting Marcus, and asking if another get-together might be possible.

Before the day was through, a date and time had been decided upon.

Thursday, Nov. 9th, 2011

Moon Phase - Waxing Gibbous

Time Until The Shift - 8 Hours

In the lead-up to Thursday evening, Alex was left dreading the moment when he would have to reveal his choice of meat supplier. While his friends didn't prod him for an answer, he stayed ready for the question if they meant to ask him.

As late afternoon came, he headed for Catherine's place of work to meet up with her and Marcus. The store was mostly empty when he arrived, though after catching Marcus's scent, he found both of them within the Sci-Fi section.

Catherine was already looking his direction when he rounded the corner and greeted them. "Anything good come in?" Alex asked, hoping to break any poor mood set between them.

"Yeah," Catherine began. "We got some good ones, I think."

"Already found a few DOOM novels," Marcus said, showing off two in his hands.

"Those aren't bad, strangely enough." Alex said before digging through the book pile himself. His friends stayed silent after that, but having not heard anything strange in their tones, he let them be until Nathan arrived.

"Still got half-an-hour, then I'm done," Catherine eventually said. Alex stuck around the Fantasy shelves after that, while Nathan headed for the nearby Mystery shelves and Marcus the gaming section. Nothing but footsteps, intercom announcements and light music sounded for the half-hour length, but once all four of them were outside and Catherine's uniform was replaced with a T-shirt, things slowly went back to feeling like this was a normal meet-up.

At a nearby sub shop, Alex tried to get more absorbed in the scents of the place, and to ease his concerns over what his friends were thinking. Something that proved difficult as the chatter between the four of them seemed to wane once their orders were placed.

_Marcus already asked... If he hasn't told Catherine...but why wouldn't he?_When Alex's attention was pulled towards the rising moon outside, he stared at it for a time, then sighed quietly to himself.

"So," Marcus began after what felt like minutes of silence, "what's the plan this time?"

Alex glanced at him, then noticed the interest in Nathan and Catherine's expressions. "I'm not hunting any loose animals," he soon said.

"You found a meat supplier?" Catherine asked.

The hint of pleasure in her voice made Alex question his next words briefly. "Yeah. There was a company in Houston I had my eye on...but Shane's family made a better offer, so I'm going with them."

"For how long?"

"As long as it takes for things to die down, or me to find a supplier like theirs."

"'Things to die down?' How long could that take?"

"Months, I'm sure."

"Well, at least they're willing to help you out." Nathan said.

"Yeah. I think they're doing it to keep themselves safe too, though," Alex replied. "If animals keep dying, the police will keep looking, and if those canines catch the scent of us..."

"Have you seen them doing that?"

"Once, when I confronted Shane last month."

"They weren't scared? Of him or you?" Marcus asked.

Alex shook his head, though now he wished such a reaction had occurred. "Unnerved, at best. They're too well trained to be scared, at least I think." When his friends kept quiet, Alex continued. "Won't matter this time, though. Dad's giving me a lift to their place Saturday morning."

Nathan's response, one which Alex could almost anticipate, came first after some more seconds of quiet. "In the paddy-wagon, I suppose?"

Alex let a tiny smirk appear. "Yep."

"That'll be weird."

"Yeah, but I'll take it. Safer than sneaking though the neighborhood, even in the dead of night."

Catherine noticeably exhaled after that, as though she was letting some tension out. "Glad to know you're not doing anything crazy," she said.

"It was more Dad's idea than mine, to be honest. Shane wanted to escort me to his house originally, at three in the morning."

"You think that would've been safe?"

"More or less. There's barely anyone driving around that early in the morning, and the police wouldn't have the canine units at the ready."

"Regardless, I think your dad had the right idea."

"Same here," Marcus said. "No sense in taking risks at this point."

Alex tucked away the question he thought to ask in response.

"You want me to text you every so often again?" Nathan asked.

"If you want to. It'll be mid-afternoon when I change back, though."

"Then, Marcus, Catherine, can you both help me with that? Just send a text every few hours or so?"

The sight of his friends nodding at the request stuffed a lump into Alex's throat. As much as he wanted to tell them he'd be fine, that it wasn't necessary, for what it was worth, he'd take the support for however long he needed to be at Shane's house.