25 Shift

"Can anyone tell me when both factions are at their strongest?" The professor asks.

"During a full moon," a female voice answers. I follow the voice to see strawberry blonde hair that I have seen before. I didn't catch her name previously, but I remember her in my Fundamentals course.

"Right. So out of the nearly month long lunar cycle, during the week of the full moon and the new moon, both factions are equal in strength. Whereas during the week before the full moon while in the waxing moon phases, Vosak will be slightly stronger than Nestati. And during the week after the full moon, the vice versa will be true. Within nature, there is always a balance, and this is the way the moon exacts equality amongst the factions."

"Are those the only options - you are either a Nestati or Vosak werewolf?" I ask curiously. The girl from my Fundamentals course scoffs at my question and rolls her eyes, but Genevieve doesn't find it as ridiculous.

"There is only one wolf who is neither Vosak nor Nestati. Fenrys, our creator, only known through legends." She answers, and my mind reels from the possibilities. The original werewolf? I have so many questions. I have all the questions, but I decide to wait until a better time.

"What else is unique about the full moon?" Genevieve asks, going back to the lesson.

This time no one raises their hand so Genevieve decides to answer.

"Well, with both factions at their strongest and the moon's influence at its highest, werewolves often succumb to their instincts and baser urges. Lore has been passed down by humans sharing stories of the werewolves that come out during a full moon, and there is truth to these stories. Each full moon we need to fight to stay in control so we don't wreak havoc and destroy the most important law we strive to uphold - for our existence to remain unknown by humans."

She has the three students shift back to their human forms, and I avert my eyes when I realize that they are now nude. They leisurely put their clothes back on that are on the ground near them, and I look around to see that they are clearly just as comfortable out of clothes then they are in them.

With shifting, nakedness is probably rather common amongst werewolves. Yet another thing I will need to adjust to, I think with an internal groan.

"How do you shift?" Genevieve directs her question to the three students who are now fully clothed once more.

"I focus on my senses and my link to my wolf," answered the blonde werewolf.

"Exactly, you will need to feel the connection to your wolf, and to the moon. When you have centered yourself to it, you will pull on it in order to stimulate your change to your wolf form. Then when you need to change back to your human form, you will do this again but will focus on your human relationship to the world around you in order to transform back."

With that, she has the three students who have already learned to shift to continue to practice. They shift back and forth as much as their energy affords them to. The rest of us, however, are trying to grab the connection to our wolves and 'pull' on it. I close my eyes and feel my connection to see what she was talking about. It takes me a while to find the silver threads since I haven't concentrated on it since I was bitten.

It comes back to me like flashes from a dream -- I recall a silver thread that connected my heart to the woods, a stream of water and to the moon. The relationship between all of us is interwoven and as intricate as a spider's web.

I try to find this thread, and my eyebrows draw down in concentration. When I find it, it feels frayed and much more delicate than I remembered it to be. In my mind's eye, I see that the silver thread is interspersed with both blue and gold, like ice and fire are at war and are vying for control. The more I look, the more I am confused about what is going on inside of me. I feel something else weighing down on the thread, causing it to be pulled so tight that I am worried it will snap.

It is over two hours later and I am still trying to pull on this thread, but it is so thin that it slips through my fingers like sand. I am the only human left standing - the last student shifted into their wolf for the first time about thirty minutes ago and is now trying to shift for their second time. I thought she was my partner and we were going to be the class failures together. I glare in her direction, irritated that I am left by myself.

I hear footsteps stop in front of me, and I see Genevieve staring down at me with a soft smile.

"How are you doing?" She asks, and I stop myself from rolling my eyes since she is just trying to help.

"My connection is too weak for me to pull," I tell her. "I can't grab it."

"What's your name?"

"Layla," I huff.

"Layla, that's a beautiful name. Layla...I'm going to help you out." Genevieve says, and I freeze when I see the seriousness that crosses her features. Her eyes show her concern, but her determination overshadows it when she announces one word that has my breath catching in my throat.

"Shift," she says, with the full weight of an alpha command behind it.