A MAN HAD TURNED FROM A WOLF

Chapter 2

Alexander's POV

They always called me the quiet one, the one with too much ink and too few words.

But silence had a way of teaching you things, it taught you how to listen to what people didn’t say. It taught you how to read the cracks in a smile or the way someone hesitated before telling the truth.

It taught you how to hear the shift in the wind.

And tonight… the wind was screaming,not literally though. It felt off in a kind of way, like the world was holding its breath, waiting for something to go wrong.

The woods were quieter than usual, it shrouded in a kind of hush that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

The wind rustled gently through the pines, but the usual scatter of small animals and chirps of birds were absent. I gripped my bow a little tighter as I pushed deeper into the forest.

Hunting had always brought me peace. It was the one time I could hear myself think without the noise of the world closing in.

But today... today felt different. The forest was too damn quiet.

Twilight draped the woods in a soft glow, stretching shadows long across the earth. My boots crunched quietly over dry leaves as I moved toward the stream where deer often came to drink. I'd tracked one earlier, fresh hoofprints, signs of disturbed brush, but now the trail had gone cold.

Just as I was about to give up and head home, that was when I felt it. Not heard, but felt a presence. Heavy, close, too close.

I kept walking, slower now, hand near the hunting knife at my belt. My other hand tingled, a sharp ache crawling down from my wrist to my fingers. Probably the cold, I told myself. But I knew it wasn’t.

That’s when I saw it, something caught my eye. I paused, squinting through the thicket. Something slumped at the base of a twisted oak, black, massive. At first, I thought it was a bear. But as I stepped closer, the shape came into focus. Fur, snout, long limbs twisted underneath a heaving chest.

It was a wolf. Only… it was too big. Wolves didn’t get that big, not in this part of the state. And definitely not alone.

My pulse quickened.

It was lying on its side, ribs moving in ragged jerks as it struggled to breathe.. Blood soaked the fur around its torso, dark and matted. My instincts screamed caution, wolves were dangerous even when wounded, but something about the way it lay there, trembling and clearly suffering, tugged at me.

I lowered my bow slowly, then I moved forward slowly, lowering my voice.. “Easy, big guy,” I muttered, slinging my bag behind me. “I’m not here to hurt you…” I murmured, as i continued with cautious steps.

The wolf raised its head slightly. Its eyes snapped open and met mine, golden, piercing, sharp, and wrong.

I froze.

That stare wasn’t an animal’s, it was aware and focused. Like it was looking through me, like a human, almost. It blinked once, then twice… and then the impossible happened.

Before my eyes, the fur began to recede, the limbs shifted, bones cracking and reshaping. The muzzle shortened into a nose, ears flattening, claws curling into fingers. Muscles rippled and stretched until they didn’t belong to a beast anymore. In the space of heartbeats, the wolf was gone, and a man lay in its place. Naked, bruised, and bleeding out.

I stumbled backward, heart hammering in my chest. “What the hell are you…”

He looked barely older than me, maybe mid-twenties, his skin ghostly pale, lips tinged blue. His chest rose and fell in shallow rasps. I didn’t know whether to run or help. Every logical part of me screamed to get out of there, but my feet stayed rooted.

He coughed, blood speckling his chin, and raised his arm slowly. “Please…”

I knelt down beside him, still keeping a safe distance. “What happened to you?”

Instead of answering, he suddenly grabbed my wrist. I tried to pull away, but he was stronger than he looked, even on the edge of death. And then, his head snapped forward, and his teeth sank into the flesh of my hand.

“Ah!” I shouted, yanking my arm back. The pain was blinding. It felt like fire ripping through my veins. I fell backward, clutching my hand. Blood poured from the bite, warm and fast.

“What the hell, man?!” I shouted, my heart galloping with fear.

But he just looked at me, some kind of apology flickering in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “It was the only way.”

His gaze locked onto mine with an intensity that made my breath catch. “Protect… yourself... Her... Everyone around you… they’re coming. Protect he.....”

“Who’s coming? Who's her?” I asked, my voice low. But his eyes fluttered closed.

“No, hey, stay with me. What did you mean?” I crawled forward, shaking him, but his body had gone still.

He was dead. Silence settled like a heavy blanket.

My breathing came in short, shallow bursts. My hand throbbed violently, the bite now an angry red mark. I tore a strip of cloth from my undershirt and wrapped it around the wound, doing my best to stop the bleeding. I sat there for a long moment, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

A man had turned from a wolf.

He’d bitten me.

Told me to protect myself.

What kind of world had I just stepped into?

Even though I was scared out of my mind, I couldn’t just leave him there. That’s not who I am, no one deserved to be left in the cold dirt like that. With trembling hands, I gathered some fallen branches and started digging into the soft ground with my hunting knife. It took longer than I thought, the earth was stubborn and heavy.

I worked until my hands were raw and shaking.

By the time the grave was deep enough, the last light of day had vanished. Gritting my teeth, I dragged the body off the trail, into the place I'd dug. He was heavier than any man I’d ever carried, dense, like his bones hadn’t fully let go of the wolf. I laid him down as gently as I could, then covered him with dirt, stone by stone.

When I was done, I stood over the mound, staring down at it. “I don’t know who you were,” I said quietly, “but I hope you’re at peace now.”

Then I turned back into the woods, cradling my bandaged hand. The trees felt different now, the air had changed.

The Wolves howled.

And this time, I heard them.