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Home / Werewolf Short Story / The Third Year of Wolf Decay / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of The Third Year of Wolf Decay: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

16 Chapters

Chapter 1

The donation consent form I'd sent hadn't gotten a response in days.By the time the call connected, my fingers were so stiff I could barely hold the phone.I set it flat on the table, hunched forward, and called out, "Mother."A pause on the other end, then the rustle of turning pages."Laila?" Her voice carried the irritation of someone interrupted. "What is it?""I... want to donate... my body. Needs... family signature. I sent... the form."My brain was sluggish. The words came out in fragments.Her voice went taut."Laila, how many times have I told you, I'm busy! Stop making things up."I hesitated, then said, "My wolf... has been deteriorating. For three years."A scoff."Three years?" She said it back slowly, her voice laced with icy disdain. "Laila, wolf decay doesn't last three years. You're lying again. And the last time you showed up, your color was perfectly fine."That was the cruel irony of it. The worse my condition got, the healthier I looked.A false flush. I'd read a

Chapter 2

Before I died, I wanted to see the laurel tree from my childhood one last time.I could barely move on my own. I had to ask my caregiver, Mrs. Grace, to take me.When I was very small, my mother used to bring me here. She'd hold me close and tell me stories about the ancient wolf clans. I'd curl into her warmth and feel safe.The memory settled over me like something sharp.Three years since I'd seen her.After we said goodbye to the tree, Mrs. Grace brought me to the hospital. I could barely keep my eyes open.Wolf decay felt like having your bone marrow ripped out while you were still alive. The pain was so bad I thrashed, and it took two doctors to hold me still.After I died, my soul drifted up. I watched them remove my organs one by one."Strange. The wolf heart is heavily mutated. No use for transplant. Send it to the research institute."The research institute.Where my mother worked.But my wolf was gone now. No scent left. She'd probably never recognize me.She came in the eve

Chapter 3

I followed my mother everywhere.She took a detour through an import grocery store. She looked at the wild berry jam for a long moment, then put it back and picked up a jar of wildflower honey instead."Lily likes sweet things," she murmured to herself.Wild berries were my favorite. When I was little, she'd buy them sometimes and spread them on fresh roasted meat.I followed her home. She'd moved to this apartment after the divorce, and I'd been left with Grandma out in the countryside.My first visit here, I was nine years old and had been on a bus for six hours.That day was my mother's birthday.I'd spent a whole year saving up sun stones to make her a necklace, and I'd stared at it every day until I could finally come.Grandma had stroked my hair gently before I left. "Go on. It's been so long. Give it to her yourself."But the moment my mother opened the door and saw the necklace resting in my palms, her face went cold."You heard I made professor? Think you can get something out

Chapter 4

It was cold enough that even my soul seemed to ache.So my mother hated me far more than I'd ever thought.Grandma had told me the story once. My mother had been selected for a fully funded scholarship abroad. My father didn't want her to go. He tampered with the contraception. She got pregnant.A classmate she'd always outranked took her place, went abroad, and came back with credentials my mother could never get. My mother's promotions stalled no matter how brilliant her research.She came home later and later. Poured everything into her work.People would sigh about what a shame it was. She'd been top of her class. And then they'd add, "That baby in her belly held her back."At first she tried. She tried to be a good mother.But when her replacement came back and flourished, and her fights with my father grew worse, something in her shifted.She started to hate me.She hated me for wrecking her future. She hated my father for trapping her.When I was five, they finally ended their m

Chapter 5

Under the warm amber lamplight, my mother sat reading.Three years ago, when I first realized my wolf was deteriorating, I'd worked up the courage to go to her.She had books the university library didn't carry.I stood quietly in her doorway. "Mother, could I borrow some of your books?"She didn't look up. "Even doctoral students struggle with them. You think you can handle them?"I stayed quiet.They were hard. But I didn't have a choice.I wanted so badly to live.Just in case. What if there was a treatment I didn't know about."There's something I want to look up.""What?" Her eyes passed over me."...I haven't been feeling well," I said carefully. "Something's off with my wolf.""Your wolf?" She said it back with a faint sneer. "You're standing right in front of me. You look better than ever. And you're telling me your wolf has a problem?"The disgust in her eyes sharpened."I don't lend my books."I gripped the hem of my shirt.She hated me enough not to even let me look at them

Chapter 6

"It's been quiet lately. Not bothering me anymore."My mother muttered to herself.[Because I'm dead.]But I'd never looked for excuses to bother her. Not once.I thought back to my first year of university and a follow-up appointment at the hospital.By then my wolf had already started to go. I'd lost my sense of smell, which was why I didn't catch her scent.I didn't know she was there until I saw her inside the consultation room.Her face shifted. She yanked the curtain closed."Laila?" Her voice dropped to almost nothing. "What are you doing here?""I'm here for a checkup. My—""You picked today on purpose. You knew I'd be here giving a lecture." She cut me off fast. "You want everyone to know you're my daughter, don't you? You enrolled in medical school just to—"She looked at me with something like revulsion."Same as your father. Always calculating.""I wasn't—I'm really just here because—""Enough." She reached out and pressed two fingers into my calf, hard and quick. Less than

Chapter 7

That afternoon, medical students came in for a lecture.My heart sat quietly on the display stand."The early symptoms of wolf decay are often overlooked. Stiffness in the lower legs. Loss of smell.""There are subtler signs too, like unusually bright color in the face.""That's because before the body loses its ability to repair itself, it goes through a brief period of compensatory overactivity. During this phase, patients are often told they look great."She stopped mid-sentence.I watched her shoulders tense.She gave her head a small shake, and her gaze dropped to the specimen on the stand."This specimen lasted three years, so it shows—"She stopped again.She checked her phone impatiently."Professor Astrid?" A student in the front row said it quietly.She came back to herself. "Sorry. I got distracted."She pulled out her phone and opened my contact thread.[Whatever you're doing out there, call your grandmother back. Now.][Mom. You started to feel it, didn't you?][You're rem

Chapter 8

Even as she wrestled with her own thoughts, she finished the lecture.After class, she drove to the medical school.It was her alma mater too. Her portrait still hung in the hall of distinguished graduates.I'd chosen this school because she'd graduated from here.I never told anyone who my mother was. I knew she didn't want me to.This was the first time she walked in looking for me.A teacher dropped the news like a grenade."Laila? She withdrew a year ago."My mother stood at the desk, fingers wrapped around the strap of her bag. "She withdrew?""Such a waste." The teacher's voice softened. "She was remarkable, near the top of her class in every subject. I asked why she was leaving. She only said there was a health issue. I suggested a medical leave, told her to keep her enrollment and come back when she was better. She refused. Said she had to go."A pause, like the teacher was reaching back for something."She mentioned once that she chose this school because her mother graduated

Chapter 9

My mother swayed.Her face had gone white. She kept shaking her head."No. That's not possible. It can't be."[It is, Mom.][That heart your students were looking at on the stand. That was mine.][You left because of Lily's phone call. You never came back to look.][You never once thought about it. Yesterday was my birthday.][My twentieth. My coming-of-age.]Grandma crumpled to the carpet."Astrid. You got what you wanted. You really do have only one daughter now. My Laila... how could you do all of this alone? How could you die on your birthday, alone and forgotten?""That's not possible." My mother's voice was sudden and sharp. "She had wolf decay. I would have noticed. I'm the one who studies this. No one at the institute knows this disease better than I do.""You hated her father, so you hated her."Grandma's voice went very quiet."You saw his blood in her and you didn't want to see her. When you looked at her, you never really looked. Of course you wouldn't have noticed she was

Chapter 10

My mother tracked down the apartment where I'd been staying.I'd rented it quietly near the end so Grandma wouldn't be burdened.Mrs. Grace was at the computer, sending another video to Grandma.On screen, I was spinning in circles, dressed in a sundress.My mother grabbed her arm."Where is she? Where's that little liar? How dare she pretend to be dead—"Mrs. Grace froze, then her eyes went red."She... she's really gone."My mother pointed at the screen. "She's right there."Mrs. Grace let out a slow breath."She recorded these in advance."She looked carefully toward Grandma."She said she didn't want the person who loved her most to see her suffer."Mrs. Grace had been the only person I could ask. The only one I trusted enough.My mother didn't believe it. She stood there shaking, watching the videos one by one, until she spotted a fountain in the background, one that had been demolished two and a half years ago.She sank into the chair and stared at that frozen frame with empty ey

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