Travis reached the bottom step with Jesse just feet behind him. He sprinted up the stairs and felt a rush of air and something wet hit his leg. Looking down madly, she saw a shred of his jeans were gone and some of Jesse's salvia had gotten onto his leg. He had just narrowly avoided being bitten. He heard a whine and a tumbling noise. Looking round, he saw Jesse, not fully accustomed to his new wolf body yet, had slipped and tumbled down a few steps. Not wasting his lead, Travis ran the rest of the way up the stairs, but heard Jesse quickly recover and come bounding after him. Travis reached the final step, flung open the door, and closed it as the white wolf flung itself against the door. It hit it with a loud thud and Travis heard Jesse whimpering in pain on the other side. Gasping and moaning, Travis backed away down the hallway from the basement door, which rattled frequently from Jesse's repeated attempts to finish the kill.
He bumped into something. Screaming in surprise, he flung himself around to be greeted face-to-face by Cassidy. "Travis? Are you ok? Where's Jess?" she asked. Before he could answer, the door rattled again as Jesse hit it hard again. "Wh...what's in there?" Cassidy asked, sounding frightened. "Jesse... wolf... stairs..." Travis panted, still out of breath and gagging. "Stay out!" he screamed. With that, he turned tail and, shrieking, flew out of the hallway and towards the stairs.
Cassidy watched him go, then turned around slowly. The door rattled again. What had happened in that basement? Gulping, she turned towards the kitchen, entered, and pulled a kitchen knife out of the drawer, and tiptoed silently towards the basement door. She rattled the knob, so see what would happen. For a few moments, everything was silent. Then she door rattled again and she heard snarls of rage coming from the other side. Against her better judgment, she put her hand on the knob. Throwing caution into the wind, she flung the door open.
Almost instantly, a white shape flew out of the dark, paws outstretched. It hit her on the shoulders, knocking her down. Jesse overshot, though, and tumbled head over heels into the hallway behind Cassidy. She jumped to her feet and turned around, panting. Standing there, in the hallway, was a wolf covered in thick white fur, at least six feet long and weighing about 200 pounds. "Come on, then!" Cassidy yelled, stepping backwards towards the basement door. Snarling, the wolf got back on it's haunches and sprung forward, lunging. She sidestepped it and it went flying down the basement steps. Screaming, she raised the knife over her head and charged down the basement stairs.
The wolf was writhing on the concrete floor, still recovering from the fall. Cassidy raised the knife over her head to stab it in the heart, and brought it down, but the wolf jostled her at the last moment and the knife dug into it's shoulder. Snarling in pain, the wolf crawled to a nearby wall and laid down against it.
Suddenly, it started to writhe again. Cassidy dropped the knife in shock. The wolf was whimpering as it's body seemed to be contorting. She watched as it's back paws pushed outward, fur getting sucked in, three toes separating into five. The same thing was happening to it's front paws, which had flattened out and were growing outward, claws retracting into fingernails. It's front legs thickened with muscle and splayed out to it's sides. It's back legs snapped into place, becoming parallel with it's torso. It's pelvis swelled and the long, busy tail was sucked back into it's body. It's chest broadened and flattened out, it's neck becoming thinner and shorter. Cassidy expected the changes to continue on the head, but they did not. All the fur retracted (except on the head, which was still a wolf's) and the body increased in muscle and size. The thing got up and stood in front of Cassidy, who was sitting on the floor. Blood was dripping from the wound Cassidy's knife had made on it's shoulder. From the head down, the wolf-thing had a man's body. But it still had the head of a wolf.