Hello everyone. Here's part 4 of my Adventures of Max series. Hope you enjoy.

Preface: After the night of a lunar eclipse, Max finds out it has some unexpected side effects on him the following morning.

It was the night of a lunar eclipse, the cosmic event where the earth’s shadow is casted on the full moon. But so far to Max and Jake, it felt like any other full moon night. So naturally, they treated it like any other full moon. They ran about the outskirts of town to their heart’s content, which helped them stave off any wild tendencies. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while now.” Max brought up to Jake during their run. “Have you ever really thought about how or why you suddenly became a werewolf?” “I’ve asked myself that many times, since my transformation came out of nowhere. However, after our camping trip, I finally learned why it happened.” “Really?” Max replied. “What did you learn?” “Lycanthropy can be passed through biting someone, as you know fully well. But it can also be hereditary. I found out during the summer that my mom is also a werewolf so that explains why I’m one as well. On the full moon after the camping trip, we caught each other leaving our house at the same time after transforming, most likely trying to keep the rest of the family from finding out.” Explained Jake. “It must have really come as a surprise to both of you.” “Oh, it did. She of course didn’t recognize me at first so she nearly killed me before I had a chance to explain why I was there. Afterwards when I was able to explain myself, she almost hugged me to death while she apologized.” “I see.” said Max. “So, were you able to spend some time with her before meeting up with me?” He then asked. “I was not. She unfortunately doesn’t have the same level of control over herself as you and I do, so she wanted to be by herself. Hopefully, I can get to a point where I can help her with that but I’ve never been able to bring it up with her during the day because my dad was always nearby and I‘m pretty sure he doesn’t know about us being werewolves and we both prefer it stay that way for now.” Answered Jake. “Ok then.” Said Max as he turned to look at the night sky. The moon was dark red in hue. “The moon sure does look beautiful tonight.” he said. “Especially with it being a lunar eclipse.” Added Jake. “Though I would have thought that it would have some kind of effect on us but so far, it feels just like any other full moon.” “I guess that’s a good thing then?” said Max. “Hopefully. Anyway, I’m about done for the night. See you at school tomorrow?” said Jake. “Sure. See you then.” With that, Max and Jake headed home for the night. Once Max had arrived, he crawled through his open bedroom window, curled up on his bed and fell asleep.

Max awoke in the morning to his alarm clock buzzing loudly in his ears. As he got out of bed after turning his alarm off, he noticed something about him felt off. Still half asleep, he went over to the mirror next to his dresser and was shocked by what he saw. He was still transformed as a werewolf even though it wasn’t night time any more. He would have turned back to normal by now but for some reason, he hadn’t this time. “This is bad.” He thought to himself. “I can’t go out anywhere while I’m still transformed! Why did I not change back?” As Max was panicking in his room, he could smell the scent of freshly made pancakes coming from the kitchen. “Max! Breakfast is ready!” his mom called out to him. “Crap! I can’t let my mom see me like this!” “I can’t right now mom!” was the only thing he could think of to say to her. Since he was still transformed, his voice was deeper than what it normally was. “Are you doing alright Max? You don’t sound the same as you normally do.” His mom said. Max could hear her footsteps moving closer to his room. “I think I might have a really bad cold.” He replied. It was the first excuse he could think of, so he rolled with it. “I can tell. That explains why you don’t sound good. Let me check your temperature.” Max could hear her footsteps approaching his room. “You don’t need to do that! I don’t want you coming in and getting sick too.” Max pushed against his bedroom door just before his mom could enter. “Maxwell Clover, you open this door right now!” yelled his mom from the other side of the door. She was pushing as hard as she could to get the door open, but Max’s superior strength made it difficult for her to do much. “I will break this door down with something if I have to, so let me in!” “Fine but can you promise me you won’t overreact?” said Max as he slowly backed off of the door. “You better not be faking being sick to get out of sch…” she started as she opened the door, stopping midway in her sentence as she saw Max squatting behind the door. “Max, take off that costume and get ready for school.” She wrapped her hands around Max’s head and pulled up, thinking it was the head of a costume, but it wouldn’t come off. “Umm, Mom?” Max said as his face was being smooshed and stretched. She kept trying to remove what she thought was the costume’s head, but to no avail. “Help me get this thing off of you.” She said impatiently. Getting very annoyed, Max then grabbed his Mom’s wrists, forced her hands off his face, and leaned in so she would see his face more clearly and said, “I’m not wearing a costume.”, making sure she could see his mouth moving as he spoke. His mom’s eyes widened as he released his grip on her arms, realizing that no costume head could make those kinds of mouth movements. She then grabbed one of Max’s wrists, feeling that the dark silver fur didn’t have that artificial feel to it, and that there was definitely a pulse moving through the arm she was holding. Looking absolutely terrified, she began to take a few steps back. “Max, what’s going on here?” she asked, quivering. “There isn’t really any way to sugar coat this; I’m a werewolf.” He answered. “Why I’m still transformed during the day however, I don’t have an answer for, considering that this never happened during any of my previous transformations.” “Wait, ‘previous’!? This isn’t a new thing that just happened to pop up!?” Max’s mom asked “No it isn’t. I’ve been one for 3 months now.” “3 months!?” “Yeah. I’ve been taking some measures each full moon so as to keep myself in check at night. I usually turn back to normal in the mornings but for some reason, I haven’t changed back. What about last night was different from all the other nights?” After thinking about it for a bit, it finally hit him what made last night different. “The lunar eclipse. That must be it!” “Ok, slow down for a bit.” Max’s mom interjected. “I still want to know why you’re a werewolf to begin with. That’s not something you can just keep from your mother.” “I guess that’s fair.” Max conceded. “But before I explain that, can I get something to eat? I’m really hungry.” “Sure. You go eat while I call the school and tell them you’ll be absent today. You also better contact Jake that you will be missing school today so he can get you your homework.” Said Max’s mom. “Yeah…about that? I probably can’t do that because… know what, I’ll explain that later.” With that, Max and his mom exited the room to do the things they needed to do. Max went to the kitchen to eat while his mom went to the phone to call the school. Once Max had entered the kitchen, he could see a large stack of freshly made pancakes sitting on the table. He placed about half of the stack onto his plate and devoured all of them in a matter of moments. With his hunger still not satisfied, Max rummaged through the refrigerator looking for other things to eat, not wanting to eat up all of the pancakes. As Max was searching, he could hear a pair of footsteps entering the kitchen from his parent’s bedroom. “Do I smell pancakes?” It was Max’s dad, who had just entered the kitchen. “Morning Max. Are you looking for the syr…up?” Max’s dad turned to see a giant wolf going through the refrigerator. “Umm…hi dad.” Max said awkwardly. “Isn’t it a bit too early to be dressing up for Halloween? Still, that’s a nice werewolf costume you got there.” While examining Max, his dad went to jokingly pull on Max’s tail, which caused Max to yelp loudly in discomfort. “Ouch! What was that for?” Max turned to look at his father, who was now staring at him with a mix of shock, awe, and confusion in his face. “Wait, what the hell is going on here!? Why did that tail feel so real?” “Because it is real. Do I really look like I’m wearing a costume? You would think people could tell that it’s not because of how I’m standing or from how the tail actually moves.” Complained Max. “Here, come feel my fur and tell me that it’s fake.” Max walked up to his father and lowered his head so he could feel the top of it. His father slowly lifted his hand to Max’s head and rubbed the top of it. After combing through the fur on Max’s head, his father immediately retracted his hand and slowly backed away. “Are you freaking kidding me?” “As much as I want him to be, he’s unfortunately not.” Said Max’s mom as she entered the kitchen. “Now Max, I want you to explain how this all started.” “Ok mom. To be perfectly honest, I’ve already told you what happened. I just left out a few details. Remember when I told you guys about what happened on the first night of the camping trip I went on during the summer?” “Yes. You were attacked by a bear and you said Jake was able to stop you from bleeding to death.” Answered his Mom. “Well I intentionally left out how he was able to do so. The thing is, Jake was actually born a werewolf and he had to bite me in order to save me.” Max explained. “Are you serious?” asked his dad. “Yes. I first found out he was one the night the house was broken into. Everything I told you Jake did that night, he did so as a werewolf. So, I can’t ask him to bring me any homework from school because he’s also in the same situation that I’m in. So, that explains why I’m now a werewolf.” “Ok but, that still doesn’t explain how you still are one during the day.” Said Max’s dad. “The most likely cause of that would be the lunar eclipse that happened last night. It somehow must still be affecting us.” Responded Max. “And just to be sure, you haven’t hurt anyone have you?” asked his mom. “I haven’t seriously injured anyone but there was the time last month the school bully Duncan kept me and my friend Chris locked in a classroom on a night during the full moon. I was forced to transform in front of the two of them right before Chris was going to get beaten up. I came this close to ripping Duncan to pieces, but I stopped myself before I did so he left with a few bruises. I was really mad at him for everything he’s done to me, but I didn’t want to kill him. I’m just glad for having the amount of self-control that I do when I transform. At the end of the day, I’m still myself. I just look different.” Said Max. “Well I’m just glad you haven’t seriously hurt anyone.” Said Max’s mom, looking relieved. “I’m still trying to process the fact that my kid’s a werewolf.” Said Max’s dad. “Were you ever going to tell us?” “To be honest, I never really planned to tell you, mostly because I thought you wouldn’t believe me if I did tell you. Though I had a feeling you guys would find out eventually, which you did.” Said Max. It was then that the three of them heard Max’s stomach growl very loudly. “You must still be hungry. Why don’t I run over to the store and get you some meals for today?” suggested Max’s dad. “That would be nice. Thanks.” Max responded. “But don’t you dare get me any dog food because I know that would be something you’d do.” He added. “Ok, fine.” Said Max’s dad, disappointedly. “Thanks. I think I will camp out in my room for now.” With that, Max returned to his room and started playing Splatoon 2, seeing how much of an edge he would have over everyone else while in wolf form.

Many hours later, Max had returned to his room after dinner, still having not turned back into a human. “Maybe I’ll turn back while I’m sleeping like I always do. Though I wish I could turn back to normal now.” He thought to himself. Then, Max began to notice the fur on his body was starting to recede. His muzzle was flattening itself and his overall frame was turning back to normal. It was as if he started to turn back on command. Once he was back to normal, an idea came to him. “Could it be that I now have control over my transformations? Let’s give it a shot. Alright me, wolf out.” On cue, he could feel his body reacting. His fur started to grow back, his frame bulked up again, and the rest of his werewolf features returned. “Now let’s go back.” His body returned to normal. “Oh boy. I could have a lot of fun with this. I can’t wait to share this with Jake tomorrow.”