Adrian pulled up in front of the little cottage on the sandy road. Lucy had been uncharacteristically quiet in the car on the way back. Although he was pleased to see that her cell phone wasn’t in her hands.

He hoped she wasn’t wondering if he had lost his mind.

The moon hovered near the horizon, swollen and yellow. The haze from the humidity of the Carolina night made the orb seem to throb and hum with seductive energy.

The panther trembled in his chest, eager to emerge after decades in hiding.

Between the twin pulls of the moon out the window and the woman beside him, he hadn’t managed much sleep last night.

Tonight, he would go into the trees and meet the panther that was his other half.

“I’m going for a run,” he told Lucy as they pulled onto the sand–filled parking lot.

“Oh,” she said. “Okay.”

He couldn’t tell if she was relieved or disappointed.

In any case, her phone buzzed a moment later and she slipped it out and lost herself in reading and messaging back with expert movements of her thumbs.

They went inside and he headed to the bathroom to change into something he could ostensibly jog in.

When he came out, she was perched on the chair, still holding her phone, a worried look taking the place of her usual tranquil expression.

“Everything okay?” He hoped the answer was yes, the panther was tugging at him as if he were on a chain.

“Yes, yeah,” she stammered. “Sorry, everything’s fine. Go ahead, enjoy your run.”

He felt a pang of guilt, but Lucy was an adult and could keep her own counsel. Besides, if he didn’t get out of the cabin soon, he wasn’t sure what would happen.

He let himself out and headed into the trees. When they were close enough to block out the moonlight, he slipped out of his clothes.

The night air felt good on his bare skin, in spite of the odd feeling of being naked in what was essentially a public place, even if it seemed like there was no one for miles.

He tucked his clothes into the crook of a tree, glad that his panther’s nose would lead him back to them when he needed them.

Taking a deep breath, he looked around one last time. There truly was no one. The woods were quiet, the cries of night birds and the breeze through the trees the only noises to reach his ears. He sniffed the air, picking up only the natural fragrance of pine needles and small animals.

He closed his eyes, reaching for the panther, expecting pain and difficulty - the breaking of bones, the sprouting of whiskers.

Instead, he tumbled into the form of the creature effortlessly, like diving into a pool of warm water.

The woods brightened before his new eyes, and his senses expanded exponentially. He could smell the soap from his shower all the way back at the cottage, and the birds at the tops of the trees, snug in their nests. He even caught a pleasant hint of salt water on the breeze, as if he were smelling the sea, which was a forty minute drive away.

The soil was soft, the sandy grains slithering between his toes. He padded further into the woods, his massive paws untroubled by broken twigs and stones in his path.

Without warning, a strange sound assaulted his ears, and suddenly he was flying through the air.

He realized a moment after he landed that the sound must be a nearby owl, its cries more intricate to his sensitive panther ears.

Which meant the flying…

Could it really have been merely a jump?

He crouched, bunching up his muscles to try again.

When he let go he sailed unexpectedly far and landed, un-catlike, in a shrub.

Instinctively he threw himself sideways and touched down in a crouch.

Exhilarated beyond belief, he coiled himself again on his spring-like legs and bounded off into the trees.

The stretch and burn of his muscles made him ecstatic. He wished that he could see himself in this form. But of course he likely never would.

Adrian ran on.

After a time he felt hungry. Chagrined, he realized that crashing around in the woods he was scaring away all the small prey.

He nosed around and found what he wanted, a large fallen log, rich with the scent of the many animals who had slept in its shelter, hidden behind it, or pawed worms out from under it.

Here his scent might be masked, at least partially.

He stretched himself out on the thing, rubbing an ear against the knobby bark for a moment.

He had just settled in to wait, content, whether it took a moment or an eternity, when he heard it.

He was far away, but Lucy’s voice would be unmistakable to him anywhere. And there was a note of fear in her tone.

A thunderous snarl filled the air. Adrian was already launching himself from the trunk when he realized it was his.

He exploded through the trees toward his mate.