We spent the next several weeks like that. She’d wake me with a blowjob or sex, we’d go off to work, then come home for more. In between, she told me what to expect on the next night of the full moon. Eventually, she said, I’d be able to control it and change at will regardless of the moon phase, but for the next six months or so, I should plan on spending full moon nights at the ranch.

During that time, I felt something strange building within me. Some sort of tension, or static electric energy. It felt like every nerve I had was buzzing with fear or with anticipation, I couldn’t tell which. Probably both. She enrolled me in meditation and tai chi lessons, and that was the only thing that really eased the itch. Well, that and sex.

The morning of the full moon, I woke up before she did for a change. I was near bursting with the tension within me. I figured it was time to pay her back for all the wakeup calls she had given me. I slowly spread Ashley’s legs apart, then kissed the slit between them, at first gently, then with more and more pressure as her labia swelled and dampened. I licked and sucked and prodded with my tongue until I felt her spasm. Before the last wave crested, I flipped her on to her stomach, then took her from behind. Before long, she came again with me inside her. It felt so good that I followed shortly thereafter. I collapsed on top of her as we basked in the orgasm afterglow.

She lifted herself up on one elbow to look over her shoulder at me, smiled, and kissed me. Then she reached over to her handbag and pulled out a compact. She opened it up and held it so I could see myself in the mirror. My brown eyes had lightened to cougar gold.

I called in sick to my internship, and we spent most of the day clearing salt cedar. By the end of the day, I felt like I was holding a live wire or something. My whole body was buzzing with energy. I heard a flutter behind me, and by reflex turned to look. My eye was immediately caught by the motion of a sparrow flying overhead. After it passed, I smelled its scent wafting down.

All day, I was being distracted by the local wildlife. All the time I had helped her on her ranch, I had never noticed how much of it there was. Now, every rustle, every scent on the breeze, every glimpse of motion caught my attention. Late in the afternoon, we spooked a rabbit, and I almost started chasing it. Ashley laughed, put her arms around me and said “I’ve done that, too. Come on, it’s almost time.”

With the sun getting low in the sky, she led me to a secluded clearing overlooking the creek. We undressed each other, then sat down to watch the sunset. It made everything glow, including her body. Her scent filled my nostrils. I reached for her. She put her arms around me, gave me a hug, and said, “Not now. Later, I promise.” She was still holding me as the nervous tension inside me crescendoed. I looked behind us, and saw the moon rising over the hill. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here with you. I’ll be with you.” She kept murmuring reassurances in my ear as the tension became unbearable.

It started in my groin where she had - is infected the right word? - well, infected me. My cock and balls retreated backwards between my legs. My cock was slowly being enveloped by a sheath. As I watched, the tip disappeared inside it. I felt pressure inside my fingertips. My nails grew thicker and longer and hooked into wickedly sharp claws. Then I felt the same thing in my toes. My toenails became claws, then my toes bent upwards as my foot bones lengthened.

My canine teeth expanded in girth and length. I ran my tongue over my new fangs. The pressure grew to fill my lower face. I felt my jaws extending forward, pushed out by the pressure within. My nose broadened and suddenly, I was overwhelmed by the scents surrounding me. I focused on Ashley’s scent. Her odor, her words whispered in my ears, her arms around me kept me grounded, sane, as my ears were dragged backwards and upwards through my skull.

It’s hard to describe what happened after that. It’s not that I don’t remember what happened. I can’t find the words to describe it. My best guess is, as the changes penetrated into my brain, I lost the use of language. Ashley’s murmured reassurances became a soft buzz. This scared me more than anything else had. Was I losing my identity, the thoughts and skills and experiences that made me who I am? Until then, I could think of myself as a human in a cougar body. Now I was losing that, too,

The pressure increased and the changes to my arms, leg and head progressed. Finally, with a sensation somewhere between a full-body toothache and a mind-blowing, toe-curling orgasm, the rest of my body followed. I was a cougar.

You know the feeling of release when the last item of clothing comes off, and you're finally fully naked for the first time with a new lover? That's what it felt like. I felt free. Unfettered.

I tried to run, but my four legs betrayed me. I couldn’t coordinate them, and fell painfully on my snout. Ashley let me go, and got down on her hands and knees. She shifted into a cougar herself. It was the first time I got to watch her shift since that night weeks before. I had been a bit distracted then. I was amazed by how fluid it looked, compared to how my change felt. After I regained my feet, she led me into the bushes. I stumbled at first, but soon walking on four legs seemed natural.

We spent the night prowling her ranch. She taught me how to walk, run, pounce, and climb on four legs instead of two, how to use night vision, smell and hearing to navigate instead of stumbling around in the dark. Towards dawn, she brought down a yearling buck, and I tasted hot blood for the first time. It was wonderful.

Then she led me back to the clearing by the creek where we had first changed. We made love in the dawn sunlight as we regained our humanity. Along with everything else that summer, she taught me how to be a cougar and a man, without losing my identity in the cougar mind.