I hopped through the dog door Samuel had installed in my back door and out into the night.
Outside smelled different, better, clearer to me.
In my coyote skin, I took in more information than the human me.
I could scent the marmot in her nearby den and the bats who nested in the rafters of my garage.
The month was half-gone, and the moon was a wide slice that was orange--even to my coyote color-impaired eyes.
The dust of the last of harvest was in the air.
And a werewolf in lupine form was approaching.
It was Ben, I thought, which was good.
Darryl would have sensed my coyote, but Ben had been raised in London and had lived there until a year and a half ago.
He would be easier to fool.
I froze where I stood, resisting the temptation to drop flat or hide.
Motion attracts attention, and my fur is colored to blend in with the desert.
Ben didn't even glance my way, and as soon as he rounded the corner--obviously heading toward my front porch--I took off through the sagebrush and dry grass, off into the desert night.
I was on my way to the river, to a rock beach where I could be alone, when a rabbit broke out of the brush in front of me.
And it was only then I realized how hungry I was.
I'd eaten a lot at dinner--there was no reason for me to be hungry.
Not just a little hungry.
Starving.
Something was wrong.
I set that thought aside as I gave chase.
I missed that rabbit, but not the next, and I ate him down to the bones.
It wasn't nearly enough.
I hunted for another half hour before I found a quail.
I don't like to kill quail.
The way the lone feather sticking up on top bobs in opposition to their heads when they walk makes me smile.
And they are silly, without a sporting chance against a coyote, at least not against me.
I suppose they can't be that vulnerable because I'm not the only coyote around, and there are a lot of quail.
But I always feel guilty about hunting them.
As I finished my second kill, I planned what I'd do to the person who made me so hungry I had to eat quail.
A werewolf pack can feed off of any of its members, borrowing energy.