Luna awakens to the sounds of soft jazz playing nearby, fluttering her eyes to adjust to the dim lights of the room. The queen-sized bed she was resting on is comfortable enough, but when she tried to move, she seemed unable to. Looking down, Luna soon discovered why; a small series of ropes kept her bound to the bed. Pulling at them didn’t entice the bindings to loosen much; the knots were very well made. Her wounds had all been cleaned and bandaged, though she was still wearing the tattered remains of her jeans and jacket from the other night.

Unable to move, Luna looks up towards the room at large. It’s very clearly someone’s bedroom, with a nightstand next to the bed, a closet and a glass panel TV hanging on the white wall. The room also had the feeling of only recently being occupied, as multiple labeled cardboard boxes were strewn around haphazardly. In the corner sits a desk with a cheap laptop computer resting on it, it’s screen showing the main page for a Zillion email account. Next to that appears to be some kind of battery charging station with multiple six inch long, rectangular batteries. The setting sun casts a soft orange glow into the room, it being the only light available. Wherever Luna was, it’s high off of the ground, judging by the multiple rooftops could be seen through the window.

“Look who’s finally awake...Any longer and I was going to call the vet...or the doctor. Both maybe?”

Miguel strides casually into the room, carrying a can of beer in one hand. The man is clearly at home, judging by his clothing. He’s wearing a sleeveless white T-shirt and a pair of army camo slacks. A gun holster hangs off the side of his waist, Luna recognizing the gun as magnum popular culture. Miguel grabs a chair from out of Luna’s line of sight and drags it over to her, flipping it around and sitting in it with the backrest against his chest. He sets the beer on the nearby nightstand and slides his hand over to his holster. Luna’s eyes focus upon him, forcing herself to be as alert as she could manage, her heart ready to leap out of her chest.

He speaks calmly. “First thing’s first wolf girl...Can you talk?”

“Y-yes. I can.” Luna states plainly.

Miguel’s eyebrows raise at the clarity of the voice. “Huh. Interesting. So here’s how this is going to work.” He reaches over towards his beer with a hand, cracking it open.

“We’re going to do a bit of Q&A. I’m asking. If at any point, you start showing off those pearly whites or start trying to break those bonds, my dear ol’ friend here...” Miguel’s free hand pats his gun holster for emphasis. “Is going to have a word with you. If you be good, I send you back to whatever hole you came from, and I never see you again. Is that clear?”

Luna nods rapidly.

“Excellent,” Miguel says, taking a few swallows of his beer before setting it back down on the nightstand and clearing his throat.

“First thing’s first. What are you, some kind of science experiment? Or are we talking about you legit monster movie here?”

Luna shrugs her shoulders, looking worriedly between the casual man and his ‘friend.'

“I-I’m not from a lab or anything like that. It just...it just sort of happened..”

Miguel takes another sip of beer. “Supernatural stuff huh? Are there more like you?”

Luna shrugs again.

“I...don’t know? Maybe?”

Miguel raises an eyebrow towards her. “Gonna change back? Isn’t that how werewolves work?”

Luna gulps quietly. “I...don’t know how. If it’s been a few days...maybe it doesn’t turn off?”

Miguel taps his gun holster contemplatively.

“That sounds fun. You know, you were chewed up pretty bad when I found you. Nasty bumps, some scratches and one hell of a hickey your leg. Who’d you piss off?”

Luna’s lupine ears slowly lower as she huffs out a depressed sigh.

“A...few people. My...family.”

Luna’s heart skips a beat as Miguel’s gun-hand starts to move, but relaxes only slightly when it comes to join his other at the top of the chair rest. He leans forward in his chair, raising a brow towards her. “Come again?”

Luna’s voice remains downcast. “My step-brother...he... he shot me. He was trying to kill me. We’ve never really gotten along but for him to do this...”

Miguel’s leg twitches. “Oh. Ah...so then where do you live?”

“...Nowhere.”

“Any chance you could go back and patch it up? Maybe get mom or dad to help you out?”

Luna looks up towards Miguel, frowning a little bit. “No. They’re all stupid, terrible, awful people. They tried to kill me not once, but twice. The second time was his dad. Would YOU try to go back and ‘talk it out’?”

Miguel chuckles breathlessly. “I suppose you’ve got a point there.”

Luna sighs at him, shaking her head. “Not that I could anyway. I think..they died. There...was a fire and I know one of them didn’t get out for sure.”

Miguel raises a slow brow towards her. “...Did you set the fi-”

“Of course not!” Luna snaps, showing a few her teeth. “I don’t like them, but I wouldn’t try to kill them, what kind of crazy person do you take me for!?”

Miguel nods slowly and lets the girl calm down for a moment, taking another sip of his beer and resuming his calm tone.

“So this whole wolf suit thing...it’s new?”

Luna nods quickly, still feeling quite tense. “Y-yeah. I think it saved my life when I got shot the first time.”

“Yeah...I was kind of curious as to why you weren’t a corpse on that one. But hey, I’ve seen people survive shit they had no business to, including yours truly. By any chance, have you heard the name Benny Scardino before, have you?”

Luna shakes her head. “Never heard that name before in my life.”

Miguel sighs, reaching for his beer and downing the rest of it in a few gulps. “Figures.”

Luna lets him finish his drink before speaking again.“Hey, can I ask you a few questions now?”

Miguel scratches at the side of his newly growing beard. “Fair’s fair. If I don’t like a question though, I’m not answering it.”

“Where am I and what day is it?”

“It’s December 26th, 2059. You were pretty much half dead when I found you. So I decided I’d do you a favor and patch you up. Merry Christmas. As far as where you are, you are in mi casa at Cypress Hill Apartments. More specifically, my bedroom. I had to find a place to keep you in case it turned out that you weren’t a very hospitable guest.”

Luna looks down at the belts and ropes keeping her still and sighs, looking away from Miguel.

“Yeah...I can’t say I blame you for that one. If I met someone who looked like me, I can’t say I’d trust them straight off either. I’m...a monster now.”

Miguel reaches forward and gently pats her on the shoulder. “Look on the bright side wolf girl. You tanked some pretty nasty stuff. And you are still in one piece. That’s gotta count for something.”

Luna sighs and turns away from Miguel for a quiet moment of contemplation. Tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes as her ears flatten against her head. Miguel, noticing this, rubs a hand over the back of his neck sheepishly, turning away. After an awkward silence, he coughs to clear his throat and leans a little further forward on his chair’s rest.

“Hey uh...listen kid...how...how about we start over? Look.”

He undoes the holster around his midsection and holds it out to his side, letting it dangle just long enough for Luna to turn back around towards him and see that he was setting it on the floor next to him.

“See? No more gun. Now you have nothing to worry about. You are safe here. You...you can talk to me okay? Let’s start with something simple. My name is Miguel Morales. What’s yours?”

Luna looks up towards his eyes, blinking away the welling tears. “Luna Oswald.”

“And how old are you?”

“I’m...I’m eighteen. M-m-my birthday’s on Halloween.”

Miguel pauses for a moment of reflection before continuing, taking a deep breath before he speaks again. His tone is conversationally soft and warm.

“Luna...I don’t need all of the details right now. We can talk about that stuff when you are ready. But for right now...how about I untie you, get some new clothes on you and talk over dinner? Would that be good?”

Luna considers and agrees, nodding her head slowly, her lips trembling like she wanted to say something more. Miguel leans over her and stands, pulling apart the various belts and ropes that kept her restrained. Once they were out of the way, he reaches down with a helping hand. She accepts, pulling herself upright and into a slightly unbalanced standing position. She wheels her arms around until she manages to get her balance, smiling weakly up towards Miguel, who rests a hand underneath her elbow, ready to brace her in case she fell.

Now steady, she leans forward and wraps her hands around Miguel, who takes a deep breath of suspense in retaliation, only to find that he’d been drawn into a deep hug. He slowly collapses his hands over her back, patting it a few times and holding her close. Luna sniffles deeply, reverberating against Miguel’s chest, trying to hold the tears in.

“Sh-sh-sh-sh. It’s okay. You can let it out. I’ll be here.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sounds of a hurried dinner didn’t escape Luna’s ears; Miguel’s apartment was small enough that she could hear everything he did...as well as several neighbors. The abode is separated into 4 rooms; a bathroom, bedroom, living room and a kitchen, all linked by a hallway that runs through or adjacent to each one. The moving boxes that were present in the bedroom were also in the other rooms, stacked up in various corners. The soft carpet present in all of the rooms minus the bathroom and kitchen were quite pleasant, a far cry from the cement floors in the basement of the Oswald home.

Luna’s rests in the bathroom, getting a good look at herself for the first time since Christmas eve, and while her appearance certainly is monstrous, she didn’t look as bad as others made her out to be. Her curly hair is still intact for the most part, and her face is still expressive, but her upper canines are long enough to stick out of her mouth at all times, like a saber-toothed cat. With the short amount of time she’s had them, they didn’t even seem to bother her in the slightest. Even odder, her eye color seems to have changed, from their normal brown to a lavender-like purple. She runs a finger over the edge of her canines, finding them to be sharp to the touch.

She steps out of the bathroom, freshly clad in a loose white t-shirt and grey sweatpants that had a hole cut out of them specifically for her tail. The sun slips behind the horizon, blanketing the city in a familiar darkness. She makes her way to the kitchen, passing a polite wave towards Miguel. He gives her a friendly nod in response, grabbing a spatula to flip over his grilled cheese sandwiches. The process smelled heavenly to Luna, who wanders closer to him, nose sniffing up a storm towards the sizzling goodness.

“Smells good huh?” Miguel opens a nearby tub of butter, scraping off a bit of it with a spoon and throwing it in the heated pan. “ It’s my mother’s recipe. Go ahead and take a seat, I’ll plate em for you in a sec.”

Following directions, Luna turns to look towards the table in question to find two bowls of tomato soup. She slides into a drawn out chair, pulling herself up to the table. A quick look towards the corner trash can confirmed the canned origin of the stew. Still, it smelled quite good and Luna brings her hand down towards a provided spoon, staring at it for a moment before dipping it into her bowl.

“Thank you Mr. Morales.” Said Luna in a somber tone. “Thank you...for everything.” Her spoon swirls the soup in a slow rotation.

Miguel turns his head just far enough to see Luna’s saddened facial expression and brings down two plates from the cabinets. He shrugs as he pulls off the sandwiches and grabs a well-placed kitchen knife. “Don't mention it kiddo.”

He slices the four sandwiches into eight and splits them onto both of the plates evenly. He sets down the food in front of the werewolf and takes his share onto the opposite side of the table, getting seated himself. Luna barely reacted to the presence of her food, looking up at it for a second and then going back to staring at the spoon swirling in her soup.

“I meant to ask before but didn’t get around to it…” Miguel says, dipping a corner of his grilled cheese into his soup. “How are you feeling? I mean...physically? Tired? Sore?”

Luna snaps from her sorrows and looks up at him, placing an elbow on the table to prop up the side of her face. “Oh...kind of...both. I mean...It’s the first time I’ve not been in danger since I turned into this so...I’m kind of still feeling it out. You know?”

Miguel takes a hearty bite of his sandwich, clearing his throat before speaking again. “I fixed you up pretty good then. Even stranger is that, after I scraped you off of my car and saw how much you were bleeding, I thought for sure you’d be dead but-”

Luna’s eyes widen in surprise, nearly dropping her spoon. “Scraped… off your car? What? How? What’d I do?”

“You landed on it from the overpass not too far from here. Practically knocked out the engine block. I had to grab some towels from in the back, wrap you up and push it and the car all the way back here. I got a hell of a workout in, to say the least.”

“Oh my god.” Luna rests her head in her hand again, running it over her forehead, massaging it. “I had...wow. That’s gonna be a really expensive repair. I’m sorry about that. Holy cow.”

Miguel snickers at her, letting another corner of the grilled cheese soak up the soup. “Oh don’t you worry about that. You’ll be paying me back for it soon enough. But for now, eat. You’ve been healing way faster than anybody I’ve ever seen, but I’m pretty sure you still need food like everyone else.”

Luna smiles weakly towards him and begins to eat, raising the grilled cheese to her mouth and nibbling at it ineffectively. She then attempts to push more of the sandwich into her mouth, but the large canines block her path. Finally, she opens her mouth as wide as possible and crams it in messily, sending out a cascade of crumbs dancing across the plate and the table both. She chases it down with several spoonfuls of soup. As to be expected, the food is quite good, tantalizingly so. She starts stuffing more and more of the grilled cheese into her maw, it disappearing as fast as she could get it in there. The spoon is abandoned for a more direct muzzle-to-bowl action, upturning it so that the contents of said bowl could pour directly into her throat.

In a matter of a dozen or so seconds, the last of her food had been messily devoured, her tongue cleaning off the last remnants in a wide sweep around her muzzle. Miguel, who’d witnessed this from start to finish, sits wide-eyed, simultaneously impressed and intimidated by the whole event. He slowly reaches down to his plate and slides it over towards her slowly. He jerks his hand back as she starts wolfing down his share.

Miguel smiles towards her and dips his spoon down in his soup. “So I take it you are a fan of my madre’s recipe?”

Luna looks up towards him, her cheeks bulging with food and nods rapidly.

“Excellent. I’d offer to make you a little bit more but I’m afraid you caught my pantry at a bad time.”

Luna swallows her food in one large gulp, setting her empty bowl on top of her plate. “Did I eat too much or something?”

Miguel stands up, collecting her dishware and his own and moves them to the sink, drinking his soup before setting them down.

“No...I get the feeling you probably eat like a horse anyway, but I haven’t been grocery shopping in about...five years.” Miguel shakes his head dismissively. “I bet milk is like, double the damn price now. Anyway, I should probably get that stuff done. If I get lucky, I’ll pick up some decent stuff on sale.”

Luna folds her clawed hands over each other, her ears standing at attention on her head. “Oh...can I come?”

“What..?” Miguel turns to look at her, grabbing his car keys off of a nearby key rack. “Absolutely not.

Luna’s ears sink to the sides of her head. “Aww come on, why not?”

Miguel raises a brow towards her and gestures towards her with an open palm. “Come on...do I really need to spell this out? Really kid?”

“Well I didn’t say I’d walk out in the streets or anything like that. I’ll just stay in the car.” Luna points towards the twilight skies of a nearby window. “Besides, it’s getting dark now. Nobody will see anything. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“As a former police officer and army vet, I think I’m qualified to say; everything. Everything can happen.” Miguel says in a frustrated tone, pinching his eyes shut.

“Pleeeeeeease?” Luna presses her hands together in a praying motion, leaning a little closer to him with a begging smile.

Miguel sighs as he rolls his eyes, his hand coming up to his face to smear his facial features for a moment. He taps his foot for a few seconds before shrugging. “Madre-mia. Fine. You can go.”

Luna’s ears perk up energetically, her tail waving of it’s own accord. “Really? That sounds awe-”

Miguel leans down and quickly and presses two of his middle fingers directly into Luna’s nostrils, plugging them up and instantly getting her attention.

“But-” He says in a cool voice. “-we get you a hoodie and some baggy clothes. My car has a nice tint to it, but you do nothing, you say nothing and you touch nothing. The last thing we need is somebody making a big deal out of you. Got that?”

Luna nods her head quickly in response. Satisfied with that answer, he pulls his fingers back out of her nose and notes the slickness that had bathed them. He grumbles as he wipes them off on the side of his pants, shooting the werewolf a look of mild disdain. Luna grins back towards him, a wide smile creeping up on her muzzle.

“Good god kid...you are going to give me cavities.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took some time and some digging, but Miguel managed to find Luna something to wear. A grey hoodie that had been taking up space in his closet and a pair of old jeans. Using the cover of night, they snuck out of Miguel’s apartment and into his car without raising an alarm. The snow from the days past had been appropriately disposed of, leaving the streets cleaned and lightly salted. It’d grown late enough for the street lights to be on, but the evening traffic hadn’t quite settled down into the late night quietness.

Luna sits in the passenger seat, looking around the city from the view in the car, careful not to get too close to on window. Miguel’s driving with one hand on the steering wheel confidently, though shooting nearby cars a glance to see if anyone was behaving oddly. So far, nobody had seemed to notice his unusual passenger.

“So…” Luna began, turning to look at Miguel favorably. “So...what do you do for a living?”

Miguel sidelines a glance towards the werewolf. "I was a field medic in the army and I'm also a former police officer."

“...Former?”

“Uh...yeah. Well, the police officer part anyway. You could say I’m between jobs.”

“Can I ask why? Did you get fired or something?” Luna leans in slightly, growing curious.

“Eh...you could say that the boss and I had some disagreements, and I left. To be honest, it was a long time coming, and I needed to get some stuff off of my chest. He and I just didn’t see eye to eye, if you get what I mean.”

Luna nods a few times and settles back in her seat, watching the various street lights go by. The car goes comfortably quiet for a few blocks before the conversation picks up again.

“I know it’s really early to be asking this kind of question, but...you are okay with me staying with you...right? I don’t want to be a burden or anything, especially since you don’t have a job.”

Miguel’s car rolls up to a stop light, sliding to a halt. He turns to look at her, his passive expression unchanged from when he was driving. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I have a decent amount of money saved up, but only for a little while. Besides, there’s some stuff I need to do before I go about worrying about getting a new job.”

“Oh...well that’s good I guess. I know I’ve cost you a lot of money already and I just don’t want to make it any worse than it already is.”

Miguel smirks as he presses his foot down, accelerating the car back up to normal street driving speeds. “Outside of finding a mechanic who would work on Christmas Day, it wasn’t too bad. You leave the money thing to me for now. When you can help, I’ll let you know though honestly unless you know of a costume shop, you are gonna have a pretty hard time getting a job. I mean..like what? Werewolf Barista? Could you do that?

Miguel turns to look at Luna, a sarcastic smile pulled onto his lips. Luna looks less than pleased, her expression flat and unamused. Miguel snickers and recenters his eyes back towards the road, pulling an even right turn into a fairly unpopulated grocery store parking lot.

“Nah, probably not. I mean, they don’t make full body hair-nets, do they?” He pulls on the parking brake and turns off the car, wrenching the keys out of the ignition. Luna folds her arms defensively and leans her head back, tilting a good-natured side-eye towards her friend.

“Oh, we’ve got jokes, do we?”

Miguel pushes himself out of his car, turning back to respond to the werewolf. “You’d be surprised how often you need a sense of humor to get through both of my former lines of work. Seriously though, don’t blow your cover in there. I know what I need to get so I won’t be long. Stay. Put. I mean it.” He points a commanding finger towards her before shutting the car door, walking around the car to head towards the grocery store. It wasn’t too long before he was gone altogether, the flooding lights from the door of “All-Mart” guiding him in.

The rest of the parking lot wasn’t terribly interesting, though there were several aesthetically pleasing trees planted around the outer edges. Miguel had parked his car at the very back, which left her with a nice view of the street and its traffic, as well as the infrequent pedestrian. The werewolf reclines in the car, leaning the seat back and staring out towards the street to collect her thoughts.

Just like Miguel, Luna had quite a few questions about her new form, most of which she just flat out didn’t know the answer to. She frequented the internet quite a bit and liked to look up stories of the occult and weird, but nowhere was there a mention like this. Was this a temporary change? The moon was full when she was still living at the Oswalds, but those only last so long, and she continued to feel fine. And the sun didn’t dictate her changes either, as she remained fuzzy the whole day or so she was unconscious. Conventional wisdom about werewolves she’d picked up from popular media didn’t seem to be holding to her, so it’s entirely possible that she actually might be something else entirely.

But clearly, she was something like that, because she should have died when Percy shot her, not to mention the fall off the mountain and the fall off of the overpass. Despite all of that, the only thing that remained a physical reminder of those events is some soreness around her midsection. Luna’s hand wanders underneath her hoodie, pressing a clawed hand towards the tender area. The bandages around her abdomen were nice and tight, to the point of it feeling like she almost had on an odd undershirt underneath everything.

As she pulls her hand back to rest in her lap, a rather large man wearing a thick black trench coat passes alarmingly close to the car. He looked to be an older, rounder gentleman with a newsboy cap covering his head. Even though the windows were rolled up, a strong smell wafted into the car, instantly catching her attention. In the man’s hand looked to be a hot dog, likely purchased from some sort of street vendor nearby and supported by a foil tray.

Even without being able to see it, her nose instantly locked identified the condiments graciously drizzled upon it. It was mouthwatering, even from his rapidly retreating form. Luna presses her nose up against the windshield as the man stops for a second to take a bite out of his snack, oblivious to her presence. What she wouldn’t give to have one of those right now...but even if she wanted to, she didn’t have any money on her. An unfamiliar, guttural voice suddenly speaks out clearly, almost as if it was right next to her.

~”Take it.”~

She perks up immediately, standing upright in her seat and searching for the sound of the voice. That...didn’t sound like her consciousness, and it certainly wasn’t something she’d actually go and do. The voice speaks up again, even louder than before.

~”TAKE IT. He is not worthy.”~

Luna blinks hard, raising a hand to her chest to press her back against the seat. The voice sounded...rough. And spoke to her in a way that immediately interrupted her own thoughts. Unsure of her other options, she quiets her mind to address this new voice.

~”Who are you? What are you doing in my head? Is this...telepathy?”~

Her skin prickles with tenseness, almost of it’s own accord. The voice didn’t seem to answer her, going quiet for as long as it took for her to casually notice the man still eating his hot dog. The smell wafts over her nose again.

~”He is weak. Take his food. TAKE IT. Steal it! Quickly!”~

Luna’s hand finds itself at the car door’s handle, her finger hovering over the unlock key. She forcefully pulls her hand away, though nervousness begins to unsettle her. Who was this? What was going on? The gruff voice returns, tearing it’s way back into her consciousness.

~”STEAL HIS FOOD. THERE IS STILL TIME. FIGHT HIM. BEAT HIM. HE IS WEAK.”

Her mouth waters of it’s own will, as her lips pull back to reveal the full extent of those sharp teeth. Her hand moves over towards the unlock button, her finger starting to click down upon it when the smell vanishes from the air. The man finishes his hot dog and balls up the foil tray afterward, tossing it on the ground next to him. He shoves his hands back into his pockets and turns to walk away.

Luna relaxes considerably when the man finally leaves, though her eyes were wide with worry. Without the smell, the voice, whatever it was, didn't return. A few tense moments pass as she listens for it, but with no success. Just as soon as the man was out of sight, the locks on the vehicle make a loud clicking sound. Luna double checks her hand, finding them both in her lap where they belong.

Just then, the sounds of a shopping cart close in on the car, the hard wheels rattling jankily against the frozen concrete. The SUV’s rear door pops open, and Miguel soon appears, with a cart completely full of grocery. Luna turns to look at him plainly, though her tail couldn’t help but wag slowly against the chair.

Miguel begins shoveling in the plastic bags, offering a wave towards Luna. “Told you that wouldn’t take long. Didn’t miss me did you?”

Luna blinks away a tear, wiping the excess off with her finger.

“Maybe a little.”