A pile of dirty dishes sat in the sink. I sighed. In some ways, Eric was a great roommate but sorely lacking in others. Not letting it get to me, I grabbed the ingredients for a meaty sandwich from the fridge. It was already well past noon, so breakfast was out of the question.

I sniffed the lunch meat and nearly gagged. But, after checking the expiration date, I was sure it wasn't bad, so what was wrong? I ate packaged roast beef almost daily, but it was nearly revolting today.

I tossed the tub in the garbage and poured a glass of orange juice. That would have to do.

I took a seat at our beat-up old round kitchen table and studied my HUD. Anyone walking into the room would've thought I was crazy the way I was staring at the air in front of me.

From what I'd gathered, I still had a few choices to make. I didn't understand it all yet, but according to the HUD, I could decide between one of four specialties for my first five cub Levels. Then, after I joined a pack—if I joined one—I would gain even more abilities.

I pored over the list: Might, Intellect, Spirit, or Stealth. While [Might] would be nice if I got into a fight, I'd never been much of a brawler and didn't see myself becoming one now.

Then again, maybe I'd be a super-strong lycanthrope. I'd heard about werewolves who could bench press cars, though I didn't know if that was true. I could also use a bit of quickness if I ever had to run from angry humans.

My biggest problem was the fact that I was in college. I needed to keep my grades up if I wanted to get a decent job and make good money—the American Dream.

No, Jude, your biggest problem is you're suddenly a freaking werewolf, stupid.

Right.

Maybe I was in a coma? Maybe whatever happened to me near the Divinity Chapel was so severe I was lying in a hospital bed at Saint Theresa's?

The reality is that didn't change my current circumstances. I was still sitting at the kitchen table, staring at orange, floating words.

Wild.

Okay...

[Intellect] seemed like a wise choice. It could give me a boost in my classes and help me learn faster. Then again, were classes even important if I was becoming a werewolf?

I paused, the craziness of my situation finally settling in. Then I laughed and took a sip of orange juice. If I was going crazy, I might as well enjoy the ride.

I decided to leave Spirit, Stealth, and Might for another time and settled on [Intellect]. I figured it would help me learn the basics of my new world.

Hoping I wasn't making a big mistake, I selected [Intellect] as my focus for my cub Levels. After choosing it, a new screen opened with even more options.

Video games had never been my forte, but I knew enough to make sense of what I saw. What I didn't know was whether I would instantly gain knowledge of the skills once selected.

My choices for Level 1 cub with [Intellect] focus were Crafting, Healing, Knowledge, Research, Sense Motive, and Search. Learning Crafting and then the sub-focus, Spiritcrafting, would eventually lead to Spellcrafting, which sounded remarkably interesting to me. With ten skill points to distribute at Level 1 and no real idea of how it would affect me, I placed one point each in everything except Craft which got five points.

From what I could gather, the skill system assigned each skill a number from 0 to 20. One point each gave me a 5% bonus to the task, while the five points in [Crafting] gave me a 25% bonus. How many skill points would I get when I leveled up? I wondered as I drank the last of my orange juice.

I snickered again, pondering how my life had become a video game. I had no idea what the future would hold. Still, at least I had a few things going for me: being a werewolf with extraordinary powers couldn't be all that bad. Right? My entire life was changing, and I didn't have anyone to talk to about it.

Eric was my roommate, and we were friendly, but we had never really been close. Not close enough to tell him I'm a werewolf.

My parents were a few hours south, and I didn't have a car. I could call them, but what would I say? I couldn't tell anyone about my situation. I'd gone from being an ordinary college student to a werewolf. What exactly did that mean?

I piled the dishes in the sink with the rest of them. As I stared down, wondering if I should just wash them all to get it over with, a noise outside the window caught my attention. The garbage truck. And it was getting dark out. I guess the time had really gotten away from me.

"Crap," I muttered. "Late for class..."

Professor Quimbly always gave me a tough time for always being late, so I took off running across campus. Even though I hadn't selected [Might], I found myself able to run faster than ever.

I picked up even more speed as I passed the quad and library. The sound of my feet pounding pavement and the rush of adrenaline through my veins almost made me forget where I was going. The wind blew my chestnut brown hair all around, and I probably looked like a freak as I ran at full speed, but I didn't care.

I finally came to a stop in front of the Science building on the north side of campus. I wasn't even winded. I checked the clock on my phone.

Crap, still five minutes late.

I smoothed my hair and clothes before entering the class. As I walked into the room, the professor glared at me from the front of the room. I smiled and tried to keep my head down.

"Well, look who decided to join us." It's like teachers all share the same playbook. "I'm glad to see you're finally here, Mr. Harper. I understand you're having a challenging time keeping up." He paused for comic effect, then continued. "If you're looking for an easy class, you might want to consider dropping out now. I would hate to see you fail."

"No worries there, professor," I said, taking a seat.

I wanted to tell him that I'd suddenly developed super-speed and had just run across campus faster than humanly possible but decided against it.

"Good," he said. "We'll continue..."

I tuned him out as he continued his lecture. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a dark-haired girl checking me out. I tried to ignore the obvious eye candy, but I'll admit, it was difficult. She had a gorgeous face with delicate features and a soft jawline, framed by her long raven-black hair.

Finally, she turned away.

God, who was that?

When class was over, I made my way toward the door as quickly as possible. I needed to get home, review the rest of my options, and see what else I could figure out. As I worked my way through the throng of, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, handsome. I got something of yours."

I turned to see the dark-haired girl.

"Yeah?" I replied. "Um... I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"No," she said, shaking her head and giving a coy smile. "Well, not yet anyway. I'm Layla. You dropped your phone."

She extended her hand toward me.

"Oh, wow. Thanks," I responded. I took the phone from her, wondering how it had possibly slipped from my pocket.

She had stunning eyes, brilliant brown, like nutrient-rich soil.

"I haven't seen you around," I said when she still hadn't walked away.

"I don't attend here," she said. "I'm just observing how the assistants here manage their workload."

"Really?" I asked, trying to not sound too interested. "So, what do you think?"

"Honestly? They have their work cut out for them."

"What do you mean?"

She lowered her voice. "Well, Professor Quimbly is obviously lazy. Were it not for my boss, he'd still be living with his parents on welfare."

I laughed, mainly to be polite. "That's... interesting..."

She smiled and brushed her bangs out of her face.

"But... you..." she continued. "I could tell the moment you walked in that you were different."

I wasn't sure how to respond, so I just smiled.

She was smiling at me too, but I couldn't get a read on her. What did she want? I wished I could have Eric's way with women. I just felt dumb.

"Hey, I know this is forward, but as I said, I'm not really from around here, and I've got nothing to do the rest of the night. Do you mind if I hang out with you? I'd love to get to know you better."

"Um…"

"Don't worry. I won't bite." She smiled.

Those words made me stop smiling. Was that just a colloquialism, or was she trying to tell me something?

"I mean, if you don't want to," she said, looking dejected.

"No! No," I said. "That would be great. You wanna get a pizza in the Village or something? Maybe a beer?"

"I was thinking maybe something quieter," she said. "I'm not really into crowds."

What the hell! Eric? Where are you, man? What do I do?

Before I knew it, I said, "Yeah, I live with a friend across campus. We don't have much to eat, and the house is a mess, but—"

"Don't worry about it," she said, cutting me off before I could make a total fool of myself. "We can get a slice of pizza and hang out in your dirty, nasty apartment." She smiled in a disarming way.

I swallowed hard.

"You're not scared of me, are you?" she asked.

Again, I find myself stumped at her choice of words.

"Scared? I—uh. No, not scared."

"Great! Then let's go."

"I'm Jude, by the way," I said as she held out her hand.

I took it, marveling momentarily at her smooth, pale skin. She had a firm grip and squeezed. As we shook, I felt a bit of static on my fingers. She must have felt it, too, because she pulled her hand back quickly.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Must be the weather. I'm used to more humidity."

"Yeah…" I glanced down at my hand.

I smiled and motioned with my head for her to follow. We both strolled across campus to my apartment. We talked about a wide array of things, and I couldn't believe how comfortable I was with her. I mean, I'd known Layla for all of ten minutes, but she was so laid back and breezy.

As we walked, I hoped things continued going well. She made me forget all about being a werewolf—at least for a couple of moments.