Snow: The White Crow by Erik Schubach

air and did a doggy scoot close to the door without touching it then laid her head on her paws, eyes on me.  I smiled and drifted off.

Chapter 8 – Recovery
    I woke from a pleasant dream to a repeated thumping and someone humorously saying my name over and over in a dull tone, “Gretta, Gretta, Gretta, Gretta... Oh, there you are.  Umm... could you move, please?  I'm sort of naked here and need some clothes.”
    Still waking from the dream and foggy, I turned my head and looked through the plexiglass window.  Rachel was crouched there with her head tilted, studying me.  I inhaled deeply, her scent enveloping me.  I smiled at her naked form crouched there looking at me as she scented the air.  I murmured, “So beautiful.”  Then my eyes snapped wide as I realized I wasn't dreaming anymore.
    I blurted out, “Oh god!  I'm so sorry!”  I skittered away from the door of the cage and stood.  The green lights on the lock were lit.  I had blocked her from opening the cage after sunrise.  She smiled as she pushed the door open and moved out of the cage and stood in front of me.
    I tried not to stare, it was getting far too hot in that room with her scent enveloping me.  Her own nostrils were flaring and she grinned and sauntered past me.  She stopped as our shoulders brushed and she surprised me by burying her face in the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply.  I felt her growl into my neck.  It sent pleasant tremors down my spine.
    Then she brought her head up and rubbed her jaw across my cheek and walked off and started getting dressed.  I just stood there frozen.  Not because of what she did, I knew what scent marking was among the very old wolves, but because of what it did to me.  I had to restrain myself.  I was attracted to her before, I can't deny that.  But now after whatever had happened to me last night, some sort of animalistic part of me had awakened and all I wanted to do was throw her to the ground and take her.
    Oh dear lord, to my embarrassment, I needed to find a place to work my frustrations out.  I was knocked out of my fugue state by her husky sounding voice, “Sorry, I don't know what's come over me.  Normally I can control my impulses better.  But something has changed, your scent is stronger, more...”
    She was suddenly behind me and her hand was sifting through my hair.  “Your hair, it was light before, but it is pure white now.”  I watched it fan out in my vision, it was!  How much had I changed last night?  Then she paused and parted my hair.  She was running her fingers around a knob on the side of my skull and her other hand matched the ministrations on my other side. “Antlers?”
    I glanced back at her and then ran to the mirror on the wall behind her and stared at my reflection. My hair was white as the first snowfall in winter and the stubs of the starts of antlers were poking up just above my hair, barely visible but standing out like beacons now that I knew they were there.
    I said distractedly, “Something happened to me last night.”
    She was behind me again, inhaling.  “Your musk is so strong now...”  Then she suddenly smiled hugely. “You're attracted to me?”  I nodded, it was all I could do with her this close.  I realized all of my feelings were closer to the surface, my transformation last night brought my inner animal to the surface, but it felt right like I was closer to nature now.
    She growled again and that was the last straw.  I spun on her and pushed her violently backward.  She fell back on the bed and I was on her.  Repeating her actions and burying my nose in her neck and inhaling.  She was smiling and she tilted her head baring her long sinuous neck to me and on instinct I bit it gently.
    I was on the bottom suddenly and she was kissing me.  By all that's holy, I was burning up with want and need and I hungrily returned the kiss.  Her scent was like a drug to me that I just wanted more of.  We couldn't get our clothing