Chapter Text
Snowflakes started to stick to Laura’s windshield as she drove. Glancing up toward the cloudy, darkening sky, she noticed that it had begun to snow. Judging by the amount of flakes falling, it wasn’t going to be just a light flurry or dusting. She probably should’ve checked the forecast for the evening, but hopefully she’d finish her plans, her secret scheme, long before it affected anything.
Her secret scheme? Well, her boyfriend - her well-to-do, thoughtful, sometimes uptight boyfriend - who she’d been seeing for almost half of a year, who she’s gone all the way with, who she’s done everything but move in with, had told her he wouldn’t be with her on tonight of all nights, Christmas Eve. As a matter of fact, he had said Christmas Day was most likely going to be a no-go, too. She had asked him what he was doing instead, kind of playing coy but also overly curious as to what was more important than spending time with his girlfriend on a night you would normally spend with the people you care about most. Yet when she pried for details, he had none. Just that he had a prior engagement.
Was it because he knew he couldn’t lie to her? Or that he didn’t want her to go sniffing around and call his bluff?
So here she was, skipping out on the vet clinic Christmas party to go over to her boyfriend’s cabin, and drop off a plate of wreath-shaped, frosted cookies to seem like she was wanting to surprise him with some holiday cheer. In actuality, deep down and not wanting to admit it to even herself, she’s making sure there wasn’t some other woman lying in his bed in nothing but a Santa hat, popping Christmas crackers between her ass cheeks.
The familiar pull-off came into view and she carefully turned down it, making sure she didn’t take the turn too quickly or go down the dirt drive too fast and cause the plate of plastic wrapped baked goods to go flying off of her passenger seat.
As she pulled up to the cabin, she noticed a few things. First, that the snow was starting to stick a fair amount to the ground, already giving the grass and Travis’ roof a healthy dusting of white, and it was still coming steadily down. The other thing, which gave her a feeling of dread in the deepest pits of her stomach at the possibility of her being proven right, was Travis’ cruiser AND Jeep both still parked beside each other in the driveway. That meant he was still here. Not at his parents’, which she would understand as they could be a bit overbearing at the best of times. Not still at the station for some kind of obligated office Christmas party that she knew he’d hate to be a part of. Yet also not at another woman’s abode.
Unless someone picked him up…
But why would he bother doing all of that just for a holiday romp in the hay? Honestly, Laura didn’t think Travis was clever enough to think that far ahead. However, she also didn’t think he’d be so dishonest, so sleazy, to go behind her back like this.
Yet maybe she was getting ahead of herself. Maybe he just wanted to spend the evening alone and not with anyone. But that hurt almost just as much as thinking that he was cheating on her, because either way, he decided she wasn’t someone important enough to him to spend this night for family, friends, and those you love, with, while she had fallen almost head over heels for him; his stoic, police officer facade that hid a soft, funny, amazing guy at its center, who may have been a bit odd and quirky at first, but grew on her the more time that she spent with him. How with most everyone else, he was hard to read, stone-faced, mysterious. But with her, he was completely different, and was so caring, charming, open, and sweet. He was even two decades older than her, and she didn’t care one bit! Not one iota. She didn’t care what anyone else thought about it, either.
Did he not feel the same way?
Well, she was going to find out the truth of the matter one way or another.
Laura pulled up behind Travis’ cruiser and parked her car. Deciding to leave the car running as she didn’t intend to stay long, no matter what answer she found, she grabbed the plate from the seat beside her and got out, slamming the driver door maybe a little harder than she should have. Her breath misted in front of her as her heart sped up against her will. She took a deep, chilly inhale, trying to get her nerves to calm the fuck down.
Because of the way the cars were positioned, she’d have to walk between them to get to the front walk that led to Travis’ porch.
Yet as she got near the walk, she heard an alarming sound…
Travis screaming!
Thinking she must’ve heard wrong, or the wind was playing tricks on her, she stopped to listen. Again, she heard what sounded like Travis in distress! This time, she could tell that it had come from off to her right. Toward his cellar doors.
Plate of cookies completely forgotten, she dropped them in favor of rushing over to the sloped, wooden doors to understand just what the fuck was going on. The doors were chained shut by a heavy metal chain wrapped around both handles and a large brass padlock bound tight between the links. Giving the handles a decent tug, there was no way they were budging whatsoever.
Another scream came from Travis, this time seemingly even more pained and… deeper?
“Travis?! Travis, can you hear me?! It’s Laura! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Laura shook the handles forcefully again to not only make enough noise to maybe get his attention, but a small part of her hoped she’d suddenly become She-Hulk from the adrenaline starting to course through her and she’d just rip these stupid doors off of their rusted hinges. She stopped her clamor for a moment to hear if Travis responded. But all she was met with was the sound of the biting wind that was starting to make her ears hurt and more pained groans from Travis on the other side of the wooden barricade.
This was going nowhere fast, and Travis could be in serious danger. Maybe if she could peek between the doors, she could see just what was happening, and if she should call 911 or handle it herself. While it was probably a good idea to call 911, she also didn’t want to bring them out here and get caught snooping, all for Travis stubbing his toe really badly or something.
Getting her eye as close as she could to the crack, all she could really make out was the weak, yellow light of an overhead bulb and a convulsing, shadowy figure.
Travis!
“Travis, come on! Answer me!” Laura shook the chained handles again, but was again only met with howling gusts and Travis’ continued noises of pain. She needed to get in there and help him!
She ran back to her car and unlocked the trunk. Luckily, her dad insisted she always have a tool kit in her car in case she got a flat or something under her hood came loose. That meant she always had what she was digging for now: A pair of wrenches. She could also try whacking the padlock off with a hammer, but knowing her luck, she’d probably just end up hurting herself instead. Running back over to the hatch, she pushed the wrenches onto the padlock, emulating the trick she had seen in a life hack video once, and with a flick of her wrists, it came right off and clattered to the dirt at her feet.
Pulling the chain off as quickly as she could, she threw the hatch doors open and flew down the flight of wooden steps. Or at least as fast as she could with what dim light she had from the late dusk sky behind her and the shitty light below without falling face first.
But what she found, she wouldn’t have predicted in a million years…
Travis was in pain alright…but he wasn’t Travis. At least not fully.
She was having trouble understanding just what she was seeing, because it looked like someone had made a hybrid out of her boyfriend and a furry animal. A furry animal with claws, and pointed ears, and large, sharp fangs! And…bulging, rippling muscles…
He still had his familiar dark shock of hair, but it was being quickly overtaken by a scraggly coat of fur that had begun to creep up his neck and cover his ears that were starting to grow and move up the sides of his head. He was on his hands and knees, his claws dug into the dirt floor of the cellar and his back arched in pain. She morbidly watched as his spine seemed to protrude upward, vertebrae by vertebrae, squelching and crunching all the way up to his shoulder blades that also seemed to extrude outward in a sickening fashion. It made her want to puke, yet she couldn’t look away. Her heart told her to run to him and help him somehow, but her fight-or-flight instinct was telling her to get away from whatever sick abomination was in front of her.
Laura must’ve gasped too loudly, or he must’ve finally sensed her presence, because his head finally lifted up and his no longer dark brown eyes took her in. She watched what remained of his human face drop in sheer terror, glowing eyes blowing wide.
“L-Laura?!” his voice was so wrong! It was his, yet too deep, too growly, too bestial, to belong to the man she loved.
She was too stunned to answer him, unable to get out any more than just a whisper of his name, “T-Travis?...”
“W-what are you doing here?! G-go-!” Travis cringed as another loud crunch and series of cracks came through. The overheard light chose that exact moment to begin flickering, casting an even eerier effect on the whole situation. Yet Laura’s limbs were frozen. Her brain had stopped functioning, too engrossed by what was transpiring before her.
She watched as her boyfriend’s furry ears became that of a canine’s, growing exponentially in size and moving until they reached the top of his skull, poking out of his now shaggy, black fur. A particularly loud crack came out, and he winced as he crouched low to the ground. What she could only surmise was a tail was rising skyward behind him, getting longer and longer by the second, swishing about as long fur took it over almost instantly.
But what must’ve been the worst started to happen as his body seemed like it was inflating, expanding both in length and girth, his feet and limbs snapping and contorting into inhuman proportions, his chest barreling outward. Travis screamed in agony, but it no longer sounded like a scream and was instead more of a dog’s moan.
He came back to himself enough to look at her with a still human expression of fear, but his dark fur was starting to sprout and cover his face, shrouding his discernible features in dense fuzz.
“Laura, RUUUUUGGHH-!”
His yell became a loud roar as his mouth and nose started to push outward before her eyes. His sharp teeth and long fangs glistened, on full display as his mouth that was now growing into a snout hung wide open.
Those fangs could easily tear her throat out…
The thought was enough to finally get her moving, and she turned to flee back up the cellar stairs. But as she got halfway up them, looking up toward the now dark sky and wide open cellar doors, she realized that in cutting the padlock, she now had no way to secure them shut. If she went that way, her now movie monster lover could burst through them with no problem, and probably tear him limb from limb before she could get her driver door open.
Thinking on her feet, she risked going back down the steps to find what must’ve been the other set of stairs down here. If it was chained and locked from the outside, there must’ve been a way Travis had gotten down here from the inside! Yet as she quickly glanced around the room, she saw that the other flight of stairs…
Was barricaded!
Travis in his infinite wisdom probably assumed it would keep him secured in the dank space all night, not remotely considering his girlfriend would become trapped down here with him! Thinking of no other course of action in the time she had left, she sprinted over to the piled up boxes and bric-a-brac to try to reach the door in time. It was only secured by a deadbolt, so if she could only get to it before-!
A loud howl echoed from behind her, signaling her boyfriend had fully transformed, and it made her blood run cold. Turning to face what was surely her untimely demise, she came face-to-face with the beast that her loving boyfriend had become.
His muzzle hung open in a slavering snarl, his tongue lolling as saliva pooled over his dark, rubbery lips. Dark, almost black fur covered him from his head to his bushy tail. By all accounts, he was every bit…
A werewolf!
There seemed to be no recognition in his golden eyes as he stalked menacingly toward her, a slight growl emanating from him. Panicking, she trembled as she tried to push herself backward and up what she could of the stairs that were behind her, trying to put as much of the flung debris between herself and him as possible. But it was no use as he easily scaled every obstacle in his path.
“T-Travis,” she tried pointlessly to deter him, “it’s me! Laura! You don’t want to do this…” Predictably, her words meant nothing to him as he continued to snarl and lurch closer. Her back met a box that was too large to get around, and it was here she was sure she was about to meet her end. She began to hyperventilate as Travis crept closer and closer until he was inches from her.
Unable to watch, she squeezed her eyes closed and tensed, waiting for her lover’s sharp fangs to close around her neck…
But after more than a few seconds, nothing came…
Laura opened one of her eyes to see what was going on, and was mystified to find the werewolf not about to eat her, but instead sniffing her. He was taking big whiffs of her all over as if he was sussing her out. His big black nose led him to between her legs of all places, where human Travis himself had been on multiple occasions, and began a thorough snuffling. As peculiar as it was, she didn’t dare flinch or make any sudden movements lest she potentially startle him into attacking her.
After a few nerve-wracking heartbeats, something changed in his demeanor. He went from a dangerous wolf on the hunt to a curious dog. With a final sniff of her leggings seam, and then a freaking lick, his big predatory eyes went wide and his snarl became a happy pant!
What the fuck?!
Travis let out a happy woof and lunged at her. But instead of tearing her open, he pushed her onto her butt and began licking her face as if it was covered in peanut butter!
“Pah! Pah! Travis, stah-ahp!” Laura laughed as his licks tickled her face.
She moved to sit back up, and Travis obeyed her command, but started to nuzzle her lovingly instead. He whined happily as he rubbed his big, wolfy head all over her. Seeing as she basically had a humongous fluffy dog on top of her, her mind went into auto-pilot as she semi-consciously started to pet him as she processed what was happening.
Did Travis recognize her? By her scent?!
And not just her scent, but the smell of her sex?!
That was what seemed to trigger him, so it was a safe conclusion to make. He at least seemed overjoyed at the sight of her now as opposed to an animal that was on the prowl for meat. Maybe if she got back to her car, he at least wouldn’t try to tear her face off. However, he might try to jump in her back seat and go home with her…
After one last head rub, she carefully stood up and moved to go back down the stairs. Travis let her do so, but stayed right on her ass like a lost puppy, happily panting as he followed her across the cellar and to the wooden steps.
“Uh, you stay here and be a good boy, okay?” God this situation was so fucking weird. Laura didn’t know if she should be talking to Travis as her boyfriend or as the overly large dog thing he currently was. Hopefully he wouldn’t remember this in the morning.
Yet as she proceeded to head up the steps, some of the snow now falling over the edges of the hatch and blowing into her face, the big dumb werewolf continued to follow after her!
“Travis, no! Stay here!”
Her heart instantly broke as his big, triangular ears pinned back and he looked up at her with his large, sad eyes, whimpering sullenly.
Holy fuck he was so goddamn adorable!
Trying her best to zip up her emotions, it still took everything in her to turn back around and go up the rest of the stairs, Travis yipping and whining all the while. This time, he didn’t follow her. Temporarily relieved, she poked her head through the hatch, but was met with a worrying sight.
The snow coming over the edge should’ve been a warning sign, because in the span of time that she had been down in the cellar, there was now a good half an inch of snow on the ground! Travis’ two vehicles were already covered, and her car, albeit a little better off due to the warmth of the still running engine, was getting there as well. And judging by the looks of things, it was quickly turning into one Hell of a blizzard! It might even be a snow squall if the high wind was any indicator. She could risk driving home in it, but if the roads aren’t plowed yet, she could easily swerve or be blown into a ditch, or worse! It was also rural up-state New York. On Christmas Eve. If, not when, someone found her, she would probably be frozen to death before they did. And she certainly didn’t have a manly boyfriend capable of driving his 4 wheel drive Jeep with a towing cable out to her right now.
And besides, she was just grumbling about Christmas Eve being the night you spend with those you care about. Sure, he was currently a giant werewolf, but Travis was still her boyfriend, and she still loved him! He deserved to have a good Christmas Eve, too, and not alone in some poorly lit, freezing cold cellar.
With a heavy sigh, and the blistering wind almost blowing her wooly hat off of her head, Laura made up her mind.
She was spending Christmas Eve with a werewolf…