Nate woke up early Sunday morning to the sound of birds chirping. He was curled up next to Alex, both now having reverted back to human form. He slowly got up to his knees and looked down to see Alex was awake too.
"Hi," said Alex weakly, still a bit tired from the night before.
"Hi." Nate looked around. "Where is everyone?"
"Probably paired off throughout the woods or they woke up and went home. It happens," replied Alex.
Nate looked around again, trying to get his bearings. "I should probably find my clothes."
"Why? I'm loving what I'm seeing right now." Alex gave Nate a devious smirk. Nate looked confused and then looked down at his chest, shocked to find his paunchy tummy replaced by a firm six pack and pectoral and bicep muscles to match.
"Oh my...lycanthropy...gave me abs?" asked Nate, with an enthusiastic grin coming across his face.
"Indeed it did." Alex sat up and pulled Nate closer, giving him a kiss. "But you're right, we should probably get dressed.
They both got up and walked back to the clearing, spotting the smoldering remains of the previous night's campfire. Nate gathered up the tattered remains of his old clothes and walked over to his backpack he brought with, pulling out his clean pair of pants and shirt. He quickly slipped them on as Alex got dressed in the change of clothes he bought. Alex handed him a slip of paper with his number written on it.
"Give me a call later today, we can hang out and get to know each other some more," said Alex.
"Definitely." Nate slipped the piece of paper in his pants pocket. He watched as Alex walked down the path and to his car as Nate walked down the hill, spotting Samantha and Ben waiting for him. He walked over to them and waved hello.
"Well, well, well. Look at you. I think you are actually glowing," said Ben.
"Yeah." Nate couldn't help but blush a little.
"How do you feel?" asked Samantha.
"Good. Like, really good."
"Glad to hear it. Come on, let's go." Samantha waved for them to all get in the car. "We'll stop off for breakfast."
* * *
Nate handed the three menus to the waitress after taking their orders and Samantha, Ben and Nate patiently waited for their order to arrive.
"So, how did it go last night?" asked Ben.
Nate couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. "It was amazing. I mean, it felt so...good."
Ben nodded. "It really does, doesn't it?"
"I just can't believe this really happened." Nate was so happy in that moment he swore he might start giggling.
"And to think, you'll be able to do it any time you want," said Samantha. "As long as you adhere to the town rules, which I'm sure you read in the booklets I gave you."
"Cover to cover," replied Nate.
"Good. You know, I have to admit I love how you and your mom have both taken to this so willingly and even your dad is accepting his changes."
Nate nodded as he silently reflected on how much had changed over the past couple weeks.
"There's something else we need to tell you," said Ben, looking to his mother.
"Yeah, last night Yvette escaped from police custody." Samantha looked concerned. "The police are out looking for her. There is an officer stationed at your house. We doubt she'll try anything, but just in case you need to be on guard."
"And we need to keep an eye on Eric when we're at school. Since he's not a were like us..."
Nate felt his heart leap at the sound of us. He was one of them now. He had to start getting used to that. But Ben was right, Eric was more vulnerable than the rest.
"I dare her to try anything. I'll rip her goddamn head off," interrupted Nate.
"Well, let's try to avoid that," replied Samantha.
Nate nodded as he spotted their food coming out of the kitchen. He was happy to see it, being quite hungry. But his mind still kept going back to Yvette. She wouldn't be crazy enough to try something against his family, would she?
The server set each of their breakfasts in front of the three of them and then departed as all three began devouring.