PROLOGUE

“We hunt those who hunt us.”

— The Hunter's Code

As long as there have been werewolves, there have been Hunters.

Not the kind found in stories, but families—bound by blood, tradition, and a singular purpose: to track and eliminate the creatures they believe threaten humanity.

Generations passing down knowledge like inheritance, every weakness, every pattern, every way a werewolf can be found... and killed.

Weapons forged, modified and perfected—tools built not for war, but for something quieter. More precise.

Hunting.

But pride does not grant freedom.

They operate in secrecy. They must. The world beyond their doors cannot know what moves in the dark. Ordinary lives depend on that ignorance, on the illusion that the night is empty.

So by day, they are unremarkable. Workers. Neighbours. Faces in a crowd.

By night, they become something else.

When a member of a Hunter family turns eighteen, there is no choice. The knowledge is given. The training begins. The rules are carved into them, whether they wish to carry them or not.

Because to be born into the bloodline is to inherit the Hunt.

The Code was not written to make hunting easier.

It was written to prevent Hunters from becoming executioners.

Long before the Code, fear ruled where discipline did not. Werewolves were hunted on suspicion alone. Entire packs vanished because one wolf had turned savage. The guilty died beside the innocent. Every act of vengeance gave birth to another, until the line between Hunter and monster became dangerously thin.

So the elders did something few warriors ever choose to do.

They placed limits upon themselves.

Over time, those limits became something more. Not just instruction—but law.

A code.

Simple in its wording.

Ruthless in its weight.

• Hunters only hunt werewolves who harm humans—where proof exists.

• Hunters do not kill the young.

• Hunters do not kill humans.

• Hunters who are bitten must follow the honour code... and end their own life.

A system built on control.

On restraint.

On the belief that they are not the monsters they hunt.

Every Hunter is taught that fear is not proof. That anger has no place in judgment. That a weapon drawn without cause stains not only the hand that holds it, but every generation that follows.

Because the Code does not exist to protect werewolves.

It exists to protect Hunters from themselves.

Yet not every Hunter believes restraint is strength.

Some see mercy as weakness.

Some believe every werewolf is a threat simply waiting for the right moon.

To them, the Code is not a safeguard.

It is a chain.

They are taught that every Hunt carries a cost.

A life taken can never be returned.

A mistake can never be undone.

The greatest Hunters are remembered not for how many werewolves they killed, but for the lives they chose to spare.

Because restraint demands far greater strength than hatred ever will.

The moment a Hunter begins to enjoy the killing, they have already lost their way.

History has shown what happens when those chains are broken.

But history has a way of repeating itself.

Because codes are only as strong as those who follow them.

Not all of them follow the code.