The moon hung full and round in the velvet blue night, an orange pearl studded with white diamonds. Prudence ran silently through the pumpkin field. Her feet made no sound, like a predatory animal on the hunt. Her heart hammered like a drum in her ears, her racing feet keeping up with the frantic rhythm. Shiny metal handcuffs glinted on each wrist, broken chain links dangling.

She’d intended to drink herself into oblivion, drown her regrets in alcohol. Instead, she got arrested for credit card fraud. A declined credit card transaction came up with the card reported as stolen.

Once out on the street, she’d tripped the police woman, sent her crashing to the ground while she took off. Prudence moved with inhuman speed and stealth. Lycan bodies were better tuned than humans. Superior senses, strength and endurance. Almost super human. Which was why humans so feared them.

Before the policewoman collected her wits and called for backup, Pru was long gone, lost in the crowd and shadows of the night. She’d broken the handcuffs easily with her lycanthropic strength, as if they were cheap dollar store toys. Not much time had passed- a half hour at most. The cops would still be searching the town for her. Even the most in shape human fugitive couldn’t get this far.

She was on the first farm on the outskirts of town. The farmhouse lights were out. The entire family, all three generations, was in town. The smells of crushed apples, smashed pumpkins, hay, chickens, and cows filled her nostrils. Only faint scents of humans lingered. Her nose told her the family was gone. No humans were around.

She stopped at the bottom of a hill. Most of the pumpkins had been picked and sold off. Only a few smashed ones remained in the tangle of prickly leaves and vines. Throughout this entire night, the call of the moon had nibbled at her subconscious, plucking her lycan DNA. She had no reason to resist anymore. With the moon now risen, she couldn’t fight it off anymore.

Like a majority of lycans, she couldn’t keep her human form under the full moon. Only the oldest and strongest of lycans could keep their human form and remain calm, like the moon didn’t bother them. In all her years, she’d only met one. Daniel. Just thinking of that brute caused her to shudder in fear. Prudence considered herself tough and badass. She pulled mid-rank in her pack. She packed a pretty nasty bite if she did say so herself. Danny was on a whole other level. Humanity was long gone in him; pure primal lycan. The alpha’s alpha. He was a rogue who’d slaughtered his own pack. She’d nearly wet herself when she crossed his path.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her heavy breathing. She was only slightly winded; she could’ve run much further. Most of her exertion came from fighting the moon. It was a losing battle. The pain in her shredded heart and being lost in her memories had helped her fight it off earlier, when the call was weak because the moon wasn’t fully out.

Prudence threw her clothes off, tossing them aside. She felt a twinge of regret at the loss of her money. It would be a while before it was safe for her to resume her human form.

“Good job, dippy. You’ve upset the law here too. No more hidey-hole for you. Lucas, I’m so sorry. It was a bad moon for when you met me.” Her last human words drifted away on the chill night air.