“C’mon, you stupid piece of shit,” I murmur under my breath, staring intently at my phone as the bright blue dot on my GPS app jitters around. I stand still for what feels like the hundredth time and wait for it to find my location. With no umbrella, shielding it from the pounding rain is an exercise in futility, but I do my best to huddle over it. It’s not like I have any hope of staying dry at this point.

Without warning, the screen suddenly goes blank.

I tap at it over and over, but it stubbornly refuses to turn back on. I didn’t even notice the battery life draining, if that’s what killed it – getting pelted with raindrops for the past fifteen minutes might have shorted out the electronics.

Letting go of the urge to chuck the useless brick of plastic and metal against the nearest tree, I sigh and slip it into my front jeans pocket, then try to gauge my surroundings. We don’t get monsoons here, but I figure that this is what it’s like to get caught out in one. The pitter-patter of water hitting dead leaves underfoot drowns out all other sounds, and the air is saturated with an overpowering scent of ‘dampness’. All I have to navigate is the light of the silvery moon ever so occasionally peaking through the thunderclouds and the dense canopy overhead. At least there’s that.

I move from tree to tree, hopelessly looking for some kind of marking that might jog my memory – an irregularly shaped knothole, a scar in the bark, anything – but each time I come up empty. There are no landmarks of any kind – only woods as far as I can see in every direction. Fear prickles the back of my neck. I can hardly tell at this point whether I’m getting closer to my destination, back to where I started, or somewhere else entirely.

As I begin to consider looking for some kind of shelter and simply hunkering down for the night, the snapping of a twig behind me pierces the curtain of rainfall. I freeze and try to pinpoint the sound. Between four and five o’clock, maybe thirty paces back. Unsure whether it was simply my frazzled mind playing tricks on me, I strain my ears and wait with bated breath. Crunch. Whatever it was has closed the distance by half.

Not my imagination, then.

Now I hear footsteps – heavy, plodding, quickening. Continuing to approach me. With my heart pounding, all I can get myself to do is turn around and wait.

A shadow slowly materializes, its outline traced out by raindrops bouncing off of its hulking figure. And it is huge, whatever it is – though its shape is difficult to make out, it stands at least eight feet tall. Larger than me, for sure.

It comes to a halt a few feet away. I can see that what I’d mistaken for a shadow was actually a blue-black, water-slicked pelt. My eyes slowly travel from the ground upwards, taking in the dangerously untrimmed claws of its massive paws, the corded muscle of its calves and thighs, its chiseled abs and pecs… finally I crane my head upwards to catch the glinting of long fangs in the moonlight.

There’s no doubt. It’s a werewolf.

I smile with relief. “Bobby?”

“Alex!” The werewolf slaps his forehead. “Finally! You idiot, what the hell are you doing all the way out here?”

Quirking my jowl in irritation, I retort, “I couldn’t smell a damn thing in this fucking downpour. I tried using my phone, but the GPS was wonky and then it up and died on me. An abandoned shack in the middle of the woods isn’t exactly easy to find.”

“Ah… well, you could have missed the rain if you were actually on time for once.” Bobby shakes his great head. “In any case, I’m glad I found you. We didn’t want to start the party without you, and then you weren’t responding to texts… I got worried.”

I place a paw on my boyfriend’s bicep, then get up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the muzzle. “I’m fine, babe. Just a bit lost is all.”

He gives me an affectionate nuzzle in return. “Let’s head back, yeah? We only get to do this once a month and sunrise will be here before we know it.”

With a flick of his tail, Bobby turns around and begins to jog in the opposite direction. I hurry along after him, unable to keep the giddy smile off my face. I just hope they brought the good beer this time.