"Such an eager wolf," Terri gave a teasing smirk.
"Well, this IS a fantasy of mine," I admitted, half nervous, half embarrassed.
"I know," Terri said simply, "to explain things though, you are already changing. Not into what will be your werewolf form... the present changes are mostly small ones that are visibly unseen by any eye. In fact, if I were farther away from you, and couldn't smell the wolf in you getting stronger, I'd probably assume you to be a normal human."
"My scent is a sign of this change?" I asked.
Terri sat up and nodded. I then noticed that she had not put anything on as the blankets fell off of her.
"Yes," Terri nodded, "your scent is one of them. Most of the rest are small things that will enable you to go through your first transformation into your werewolf form. It will come with the side affects of improved vision, better hearing, and as you've already discovered from smelling me... much better sense of smell."
"Oh."
"Your senses, however, in human form will still be mild in comparison to your werewolf form's abilities," Terri continued, "So if you think I smell good now... what until you actually take your werewolf form."
I found myself giving a rather dopey smile, "I was actually referring to that part. The movies tend to have different time-frames for the person bitten to become a werewolf. David in American Werewolf in London took a month to transform, while Andy from American Werewolf in Paris took only a day."
"That was such a sucky sequel," Terri gave a very dissatisfied grumble, "all that computer animation and they can only come up with a bunch of werewolf Nazis terrorizing Paris... and don't get me started on their whole "get out of being a werewolf thing"... that part drives me nuts."
"The whole "eat the heart of the werewolf that bit you" thing?" I wondered.
"There is no getting out of it," Terri answered, "once you become a werewolf, the only way to get out of it is to die."
There was a silence for a moment.
"Don't do that. All of this has been done to get you back, don't die."
"I don't intend to," I coughed out, "and I have no desire to eat your heart... a good part of me just wants to have sex all day with you."
Terri smiled again, "there will be plenty of time for THAT tonight... but anyway, we've got off your question, haven't we?"
"Yes," I nodded, sheepishly, "I asked if I will complete the transformation tonight?"
"To be short, yes," Terri answered, "I said you would be fine from all the coughing and such by moonrise. By then the virus in my saliva from the bite will have done it's work and your wolf will come out and play with my wolf."
She then leaned over and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, one of her breasts pressing into my arm. As much as I wanted to roll her onto her back and pick up where we left off last night, something she said got me curious about other things.
"You said virus?" I wondered, "I thought lycanthropy was considered a curse. Black magic and the like."
"No, it's very scientific," Terri leaned back on one arm, "it's year of origin is unknown, but some werewolf scientists have managed to pinpoint what it is..."
"What is it?"
"A very unique form of the Rabies virus," Terri answered, "the theory is that when wolves first began to be domesticated by early man, a rabid wolf... or at least a wolf with some earlier variation of the disease bit a human, but for reasons they can't fathom at this time, the virus mutated heavily when it crossed from wolf to human. Instead of being a virus that kills the victim through the swelling of the brain, the virus takes a mutagen affect on the host. It's attack alters the host's body to go through the transformations... as this goes on, certain glands begin collecting the virus in vast numbers..."
"The saliva glands I'd guess," I commented.
"For the purpose of spreading Lycanthropy, yes, but that actually has little to do with the transformations," Terri nodded, "that is actually connected to our lymph systems and are effected by the phases of the moon. For the three nights of the month that the moon is full, our lymph systems pump out large amounts of the virus laced hormone, triggering the transformation. Things like sex, stress, bursts of adrenaline, and even the force of will... if you're able to focus hard enough can also trigger the transformation... though all of them have their drawbacks. Sex, stress, and adrenaline are more likely to bring your wolf out in the days leading up to the full moon when your lymph glands are already in high production... but adrenaline can do it if you're not focused on keeping your inner wolf at bay, and with enough will power, you can keep sex and stress from bringing it out after the full moon."
"Will power?"
"The scientists have actually found that werewolves can control their transformations... essentially change at any time," Terri explained, "BUT this takes an inordinate amount of will power to force it, which is rather taxing. Forcing a change outside of the full moon or through sex will almost guarantee that you'd need red meat upon taking wolf form and could cause trouble."
"I take it these guys advise against changing at will then?" I commented.
Terri nodded, "and most werewolves have actually had trouble doing it that way... so for the most part we stick to letting the phases of the moon bring our inner wolf our inner beast out."
"And how do you know all this?" I wondered, "is one of Night's pack a geneticist or something?"
"No, she's a computer nerd actually," Terri shrugged, "she's traveled around the country and talked with representatives of every Pack she could find to try and compile a database of these things, which she's put on the Internet."
If I had anything in my mouth, I would have spit it out.
"The Internet?" I gasped.
"Yeah, essentially allowing new werewolves to get all the information they need for "training", for origins, basically a real reference guide for werewolves," Terri answered, "though you'd need to know which site it is, and she actually monitors the site with a series of questionnaires that confirm if the visitor is a werewolf or not. If they are, they automatically go to the real information... if they aren't they go to a basic forum page that largely repeats all the standard legends."
"And suppose a normal human gets to the real information page?" I questioned.
"More then likely, he'd assume it's just another "werewolf fan website"... and besides even if he did take it seriously, do you honestly think the police or the government would believe information on a dot com site?" Terri retorted.
"Not really," I shrugged, "but you never know."
"She says the rewards of the system outweigh the risks," Terri sighed, "and it's been up for about a year now. No problems... she's actually told me we can even use it to see who in an area wants to become a werewolf... and from there it's up to the local pack to decide on that subject."
"Wow," was all I could say.
"Yeah," Terri nodded, "anyway, we're getting sidetracked again. Where was I?"
"The virus," I reminded her, "you were saying it is easier to let the moon or sex do the work."
Terri nodded, "Yes. And as you guessed earlier, the virus is also present in our saliva glands to allow us to give others the virus, like Night did with me and I did with you."
"Thank you."
Terri nodded again, "but the scientists have also found somethings they are curious about. One thing is that the virus fluctuates in strength. There are three full moon nights every month, the actual full moon and the night before and after it. They've found that the virus is at full strength on the first night of the full moon and is able to rapidly change the bitten human. By the next moonrise, they're ready to transform. It plateaus and begins to decline a little bit on the actual night of the full moon, but remains strong enough to change the bitten human and they'd still transform by the next night. On the third and final night of the full moon, however, the virus weakens traumatically and it doesn't work as well. A bitten human will still become a werewolf, but it will take a month for them to even begin feeling the effects you are feeling now."
I coughed slightly, covering my mouth.
"And anyway, last night was the first night of the full moon this month," Terri finished, "so the virus in my saliva was at its strongest, and you'll be ready to change tonight."
That was somewhat of a relief to me, and I rolled to nuzzle her and breathe in her scent.
"You smell so good," I whispered.
"So do you," Terri answered and nuzzled me in return, "but for now, it's best to wait until your wolf is fully ready to play. And besides... if we don't ingest enough protein, we could end up being shot by police after eating someone."
"What about deer or something like that?" I asked.
"Preying on wild game?" Terri mused, "we'd need to get out of town for that, and this week I'm house sitting. Maybe next month we'll go hunting. Invite Night to visit... have a good threesome."
And with that, Terri got out of bed, and slowly made her way out of the bedroom, swaying her hips as she did so.
"You rest there," Terri answered, "I'll be back with a big bowl of beef broth for the both of us."