The flush that enveloped Lilac’s face was immediate. The room began to sway as she spoke. Her voice felt further and further away as the shock set in.

     “M-ms.Teddy, are you certain now is the best time to undo those restraints?” A nurse assistant asked, clutching tight to her clipboard. Despite this, Teddy continued, reaching to undo the heavy manacles encasing each limb that kept Lilac affixed to the bed. 

      The older woman beside her placed a hand on Teddy’s shoulder.

       “Even with you here it would be a…a nice comfort for the staff.” Only then did her hands halt their unfastening. 

     “She’s panicking.” Teddy remarked with an irked expression, as though it were obvious.

     “Yes, and that’s why we would prefer them on, miss!” The poodle nurse insisted. Teddy's eyes glanced upward with a slight petulance, but she begrudgingly granted their request. You’d think they’d be used to this by now. Thank god they’re temporary. She thought. The woman beside her only sighed.

     The heart monitor’s beeps increased their pace. Lilac’s fur stood on end as she processed this information. Through her drug-addled mind she thought that surely this had to be a mistake, a wrong identity, a cruel and unusual prank. 

     Right? 

     Teddy’s brows knit together at the sight, crossing her arms with hands itching to intervene. 

     “Hey…I need you to understand you have a very, very large dosage of tranquilizer in you, you need to calm down before you make yourself ill.” Teddy’s small hand laid itself on an arm full of muscles twitching erratically. 

     The response came out broken through seizing breaths.

      “H-how do you- how…? How? I don’t understand. I don’t. I don’t get it. I can’t- I don’t-” Lilac’s voice shifted between octaves as her pupils grew and shrank. “Is-is it happening? Am I dying? Please, I don’t understand.” She sobbed. Her hands tightened evermore along the metal railing until she was certain her fingers were going numb. The metal against her skin stung like thousands of pinpricks as her muscles fought to expand. 

     I’m a monster I’m a monster I’m a monster. I’m in chains and my body isn’t working. Oh god what’s happening to me!? A terrified mind cried to itself. Her teeth clenched tightly as she felt the muscles in her jaw burn. She felt her veins pulsing with fire hot blood- her skin tightening as her body forced outward growth…the nerve endings in her mouth pierced like needles as the teeth within slowly elongated.  

     Teddy’s arms crossed tighter into themselves. She shot a look at the stocky woman next to her, tossing a glance at the cowering nurses in the corner. With silent understanding, the woman dismissed them. Without a moment’s hesitation, the nurses scrambled out of the room, leaving the two women, a thrashing patient, and a doctor typing silently at his desk. Lilac’s wide unfocused eyes grew dark along the whites. 

     The larger of the two women stepped forward. Her movements were slow and gentle as she leaned in towards the panicking patient, whose muscles were spasming and becoming noticeably larger.

     “My name is Henna. I’m the head of this facility. This is Teddy.” She gestured to the woman beside her staring at Lilac with calculating eyes. “Please know that you are safe here, you haven’t hurt anyone, and you’re not in trouble.” The larger woman spoke, but it was clear the words fell on deaf ears as the panic became all consuming. Gradually, Lilac’s small ears began to grow. Her fur began to darken incrementally reflecting the agitation despite the profuse amount of sedatives coursing through her rising blood pressure. Her weighty giant tail now touched the floor as it banged against the sides of the bed. Her ragged breath slowed as her mind began to blank. The metal cuffs round her wrists and ankles ignited a deep groan as they dug deeply into the expanding body.

     Placing a hand upon Teddy’s shoulder, Henna silently granted permission to her colleague. In response, Teddy cast the doctor a smile before gingerly prying one of Lilac’s massive paws from the railing and into both of her own hands.  Her muscles were taught and twitchy, just on the brink of a full body meltdown.

      I don’t think the nurses would like me very much if I let that happen. Teddy smirked internally. But then again I don’t think they like me much anyway.

     Taking a single, deep breath, Teddy released all the tension from within her own body. Slowly, she let two fingers trace from the palm to the tip of each finger, one at a time; repeating the motion in time with her audible, deep breaths. Teddy’s pressure was light, but even. They stayed like that until the hyperventilation began to descend. 5 minutes? 20 minutes? Time was a blur for how long they stayed in that position but eventually, the initial panic began to subside. Lilac’s eyes subconsciously closed, hearing only the sound of Teddys breathing, and the feel of slender fingers tracing the lines of her palm. A shiver ripped through her and her eyes returned to their bright blue hue.

     As the newfound werewolf became more aware of the situation, she couldn’t help but jerk her hand out of the women’s grip with a flush of embarrassment as the chains clinked sling the railing. They stayed in silence for several moments while sharing a look. 

     “No matter how many times I see it happen, you still manage to impress me.” Henna said in awe. 

     “You can tell me later.” Teddy said with a wink before returning her focus. “Deep breaths.”  

     Silence filled the room as everyone allowed the chained woman to regain her composure. Lilac allowed herself to find comfort in the soft brown eyes as she finally willed her body into speech.

     “So…sorry. I’m sorry. Can you…tell me more? More about…me?”

     The doctor sprang to life. His mouth pulled tight at the corners before he began to talk. "Well, there's not much to tell." He started. "The technical name for the condition is 'Lycanthropia'." In addition to what looked like a physical exam form, the clipboard in the doctor's paw held a pamphlet that he offered with a shaking paw to Lilac's own once the collie--Teddy--freed it.

     Trying to accept it was a mistake. Her elongated claws pierced the card stock without effort. As if that was somehow a test, the doctor began scribbling notes. 

     "Please," Lilac's voice shook. She was on the verge of tears. Her lungs felt like deflated balloons that she desperately needed to keep full. "Can you please just...tell me?"

     Undeterred, the doctor kept looking back to his clipboard and scribbling notes. His brow scrunched slightly as if he were agitated by the request. The wolf between him and still trembling Lilac--Henna, she called herself--gave him an annoyed glance of her own. This finally earned his acknowledgement.

      "Yes well, among those with a preponderance of wolf DNA, some manifest a latent ability to spontaneously reinforce their physiology and feral instincts. This includes things such as muscle mass and bone structure-” The doctor took that moment to look Lilac in the eye,”- as well as aggression and impulsivity. Simply put, the moment you took this form, you became a ticking time bomb of violence." As he spoke, Teddy and Henna visibly tensed. Despite glaring at him, the doctor only continued. "For the safety of yourself and everyone around you, you had to be restrained and relocated to this facility."

     "How did this happen?!" Lilac blurted out. There was a fire just below her skin. She was radiating with confusion, the onslaught of emotion filled her throat with bile she bit back. Her tears felt like lava soaking into her cheeks.

     The restraint on her other arm came undone. On reflex, she brought it up to wipe away the tears, and suddenly another pain tore into her. When she pulled her paw away, there was blood on her claw.

     She accidentally gashed her own cheek.

     Suddenly, the wrestling match in her head between lightness and fullness was drawing to a close as she felt the urge to faint take over. The heat under her pelt turned to ice and her line of sight dropped like she was being lowered from a platform.

     "Let me get that." Teddy offered, holding up a disposable towel. Henna rushed to assist steadying Lilac's posture. The towel must have been pre-soaked in ointment, because it stung too. Teddy wasn't long at it though before she stopped. "See? It wasn't even that deep."

     Lilac dared not put her paw up to her face again to see for herself. She didn't even want to look at her paw and see the blood again, lest she actually lose consciousness. Instead, she looked down towards the rest of her body. Her other restraints had loosened. Her fur color had lightened to its usual navy blue. Her teeth no longer felt too big for her mouth. "H-How...?"

     "You changed back." Henna reassured her with a smile.

     "Am...am I cured?" Was that all it took? The look on everyone's faces suggested not.

     "I'm afraid there is no 'cure' at this time." The doctor answered in what was possibly the most blunt tone Lilac had ever heard. "You will transform again, sooner or later."

     In a far gentler tone, Henna chimed in. "Lycanthropia is a lifelong condition. Once it manifests in someone, they have to learn to manage it."

     "That's why you're here." Teddy adds. She placed a tiny paw on Lilac's arm. Lilac flinched at it, but to her surprise, Teddy remained staunch in the gesture. "Our job is to help you do that."

     Lilac’s short ears angled downward as she looked away in shame. “Why me?”

     Before they could continue, Lilac’s body began to slow. Sounds of the room became more static. The weight of her bones and eyelids became like iron bars. Her muscles fell like dead weight as the effort to use them was unreachable. 

     Henna seemed to notice the drugs beginning to take their full effect and turned to leave the room as the doctor concluded his notes.

      “For now, just try to get some rest. We’ll be here. I’ll be finding a specialist to work with you.”

     “Hmm?” Lilac’s head felt heavier with each passing moment, bobbing as her eyes drifted closed.

     Henna looked thoughtfully at Teddy, a question in her gaze.

     The border collie glanced back at Lilac’s dozing form, taking her lip between her teeth in contemplation. After a moment she flashed a sharp, lopsided grin. 

     “Alright.” Teddy muttered just before Lilac’s eyes fully shut, her listless body dropping into a dreamless sleep.