He opened his eyes in a dazed stupor.
He blinked rapidly several times, trying to chase away the thick fog obscuring his vision. His breath came in hot, ragged gasps, while an old wooden ceiling crisscrossed by cracks—letting in the cold, silver moonlight—stared back down at him. He moved to get up, but his movement was met with a heavy metallic clinking sound and a dry, ruthless tightness wrapping around his wrists and ankles.
Clack! Clang!
He froze in place. He stared downward with mounting terror: thick, rust-stained iron chains securely binding him to a massive wooden chair anchored to the floor.
What is this? Where am I? Was I kidnapped? Or a car crash? What on earth is happening?!
A cold shudder ran through his body, and instinctively he tried to pull his hands away with all his might, but the chains yanked cruelly at the skin of his wrists, sending a sharp sting of pain. Before his mind could spiral further into questions and panic, the wooden door of the room swung open with a sharp screech.
Creeeeak...
A relatively middle-aged woman walked in, sweating profusely, her unkempt hair clinging to her cheeks. Her features were a mix of pity and sternness, her gaze burning with fear and anticipation. She hurried over to him and dropped to her knees in front of him, grabbing his shoulders with trembling hands.
She said in a choppy voice and a decisive tone: "Listen to me very carefully, Luke... It's about to begin. The first transformation will be extremely difficult, and it will take many hours if you allow it... You must not fight the pain! Let the frenzy pass through you, don't fight it!"
Luke didn't understand a single word she was saying. The words echoed in his head like an unknown buzzing, and his heart hammered like a war drum in his chest. His pupils dilated in shock, and he said with a voice escalating in panic: "Who the hell are you?! And what transformation are you talking about?! Let me go!"
The woman frowned in deep confusion, eyeing him with a bewildered, startled look: "What? What do you mean by...?"
Before she could finish her sentence, a terrifying sound ripped through the silence... a dry, thick snapping sound, as if dead wood were breaking under a hydraulic press!
Craااack!
The woman's jointed leg bent in a freakish, horrifying way, and her bones twisted inward at an imaginary angle!
"Aaaaaah!"
A soul-shredding shriek of agony tore from the woman's throat, and her face locked into a mask of pure pain. Luke stared at the twisted leg with terror that paralyzed his limbs.
Good God!! What kind of savagery is this?!
Despite the crushing pain tearing through her body, she turned to him with pupils that had begun to transform into a glowing golden-yellow, the whites of her eyes rapidly turning as pitch-black as the dark in a terrifying blur.
She screamed over the sound of her breaking bones: "You're on your own now, Luke! Remember... don't fight it! Sink your claws into the ground and let it take you!"
Grrrrrrr!
She growled with a predatory, animalistic sound that had nothing human about it—a sound that shook the walls of the wooden room. In less than a second, she bolted out of the room like a bullet, the sound of the rest of her bones snapping and her joints dislocating echoing down the outer hallway, accompanied by her distorted howling.
Crack! Crack! Groooo!
Luke remained frozen in place, breathing with difficulty like a drowning man, pinned to the chair while the chains emitted a muffled rattle as his body trembled.
But before he could process the caravan's passing or gather the pieces of his stunned mind... it happened.
Tick!
The sensation of a heated branding iron suddenly plunging straight into the center of his chest.
Craااack!
A muffled explosive sound shook his entire ribcage. He felt the ribs surrounding his heart snap one after another, driving inward and outward at the very same moment, as if trying to forcibly reshape themselves.
"Aaagggggghhhhhh!"
His throat tore with a scream of pain unlike anything he had ever imagined existing in this universe. His head snapped back, his eyes squeezed shut, and his restrained hands rose to yank crazily at the chains.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The first fracture was only the spark!
Crack! Crunch!
Both collarbones in his shoulders broke, and he felt his joints pop out of their sockets with a horrifying sound of tearing muscle. Sweat burst from every pore in his body, and his vision began to blur with a bloody red tint.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The vertebrae of his spine began to pop and twist as if they were an iron chain being bent by fire, one after the other snapping to rebuild his backbone. The pain was overwhelming, devouring every thought and every memory; there was no more "confusion" or "questioning," there was only liquid fire surging through his veins and cutting his flesh from the inside.
"Please....have mercy! Aaaaah! Damn....damnit!"
He screamed with overwhelming confusion and unbearable torture. It felt as though every bone in his body was being crushed by a heavy hammer and then instantly healed just to be broken all over again. His mouth filled with the bitter taste of blood after he unconsciously bit down on his tongue and lips.
Grr-Crack!
The bones of his feet dislocated, and his fingers began to lengthen and twist so cruelly that his screams gradually turned into a hoarse, beastly rattle. Every break brought a new wave of screaming that tore his throat, and every passing second felt like an entire eternity at the bottom of hell!
Oooooooohhhhhhhh!!!
The howling of wolves rose from the outside, harmonizing with the sound of his body shattering in the darkness, while "Luke" sank into a flood of pure agony...
...announcing the birth of his first curse.
Amidst the violent storm raging through his entity, Luke understood nothing.
His human mind was burning, his old memories scattering and blending with fierce, mysterious instincts erupting from the depths of his soul without warning.
Had he lost his mind?
Were these death hallucinations?
Or had he truly been killed in an accident and fallen into an eternal nightmare?
(What is this hell?! Where am I? Was I kidnapped? How did I get here, and how did the chains break?! What is happening to me?! Please...I want to wake up!).
The screams of his human mind echoed inside his skull like a dead echo, while his body completely refused to listen to him.
His limbs no longer followed human commands, having transformed instead into a mass of fur saturated with sweat and blood, along with muscles as hard as iron pulsing with terrifying energy.
Before he could comprehend the horror of what was happening, the door shattered and the windows splintered, and he bolted outside like a mass of pure panic.
He landed on all fours with a flexibility and shock that surpassed the limits of the mind's endurance.
At that moment, the world flooded into his mind in a terrifying and painful way; he no longer saw the world through human eyes, but through supernatural senses that suddenly swept over his consciousness.
Colors merged into a dark palette of pale and bright shadows, but the warmth emanating from the trees and the earth was clearly visible.
The cold gusts of wind were not merely caressing his skin; they carried millions of chemical and biological scents: the smell of wet pine, the scent of burning grass on the horizon, and the scent of fear emanating from the smallest creatures.
The sounds of the forest amplified to play a loud symphony: the buzzing of insects miles away, the rustling of leaves, and distant heartbeats pulsing regularly.
Amidst this terrifying sensory chaos, just as his body fully assumed the form of the beast, a faint image flashed in the depths of his fading human mind... the face of someone he loved, or a warm place he used to know in his old life, far away from this cold hell.
"I... who am I? Will I really forget them?"
This question echoed desperately inside his chest, and his human mind tried to cling to the last fragile thread of his human identity, screaming against the pain and the darkness. But the voice of his mind gradually faded away, and his memories eroded like leaves burning in a raging fire, making way for a profound silence—a silence that left room for pure instinct to devour what was left of him.
Aااااarrrraااااahhhhh!!!
Luke roared in anger and ran wildly, randomly, howling with disbelief.
His new paws dug into the muddy soil with tremendous power, and his speed exceeded anything a human could possibly imagine.
During his hysterical run, a subtle, distinct scent pierced his nose...
A scent both sweet and burning.
The scent of prey.
His human mind completely stopped thinking, replaced by pure predator instinct.
He lowered himself, creeping close to the ground like a loaded arrow.
A few meters away, a wild rabbit appeared, leaping in panic.
Without his own will, Luke bolted after it instantly.
He could feel every vibration in the earth and hear the rapid pounding of the rabbit's heart racing with terror.
With terrifying agility, he leaped into the air and pounced on it, driving his jaws and claws into its body in a single decisive strike.
As soon as he tasted the warm flesh, an irresistible frenzy exploded in his blood.
The taste of blood...
It wasn't just a metallic liquid; it was delicious, hot, quenching a deep, instinctive thirst in his soul that he didn't even know existed. The taste of blood penetrated his mouth and throat, igniting an additional fire of savagery and ecstasy in his body.
He wasn't satisfied; his supernatural senses opened to a wider horizon.
He picked up another scent—stronger, heavier, emanating from the heart of the deep thicket.
He suddenly tracked it, panting with his tongue hanging out and drool dripping, to find a massive deer turning around in terror before him.
Luke charged at it in a fierce chase amidst the dense bushes; he dodged the trees with innate skill, feeling the wind whistling in his ears.
He leaped with all his weight onto the deer's back, locking his powerful jaws with extreme ferocity around its neck, making it collapse to the ground amidst gushing blood that filled his mouth and fueled his madness even more.
Hah!
Luke inhaled the air forcefully, then stepped back a few steps while staring at the deer's carcass in terror.
(What... what is happening to me?! Am... am I a wolf?! What is going on?)
Luke thought to himself in terror while his mind was hazy and struggling to stay conscious.
Luke looked at his paw, and instead of a normal human hand, he found a large black paw covered in fur and claws.
Before he could react or comprehend what was happening, a booming sound echoed, freezing him in place instantly.
Awooooooooowl!
He froze, his body trembling with blind instinct. A deep, animalistic growl erupted from his throat in response to that call, and he began to run, following the source of the sound.
He had barely broken through the curtain of dense trees when he found himself in a wide natural clearing in the middle of the forest, where dozens of wolves of various sizes and colors surrounded the place. At their forefront was a remarkably massive, giant brown wolf asserting its dominance over everyone.
Luke didn't know how, or by what means he knew it, but he was dead certain that this massive brown wolf... was none other than the woman who had been speaking to him moments ago!
Instantly, a blind, blazing rage surged in Luke's mind. A single scorching thought crossed his mind: She is the one who did this to me! She is the cause of all this torture!
Without thinking or hesitating, Luke opened his jaws to reveal his newly grown fangs, and let out a sharp growl that tore through the silence of the place before launching his body like a catapult, leaping through the air toward the brown wolf with all his weight!
Grrrrrr-Crack!
The cries and howls of the rest of the pack immediately erupted; the wolves stepped back, forming a wide circular ring, their howling rising as if they were beating the drums of war for a bloody battle ruled by the law of the jungle.
The brown Alpha was not surprised. With supernatural agility for her massive size, she dodged Luke's aerial leap with a swift side movement, and the exact moment Luke touched the ground, she struck him with her heavy front paw directly on his left side!
Thwack!
His fur tore, his skin peeled, and Luke went tumbling across the dirt for several meters before crashing into the trunk of an ancient tree. He felt his lungs compress from the force of the blow.
But anger and ignorance blinded him; he immediately rose, panting with blood bleeding from his side, and charged at her again, trying to sink his jaws into her neck. He leaped toward her throat, but the Alpha was far more experienced; she stood on her hind legs and thrust her chest forward into his chest plate, colliding with him in mid-air with tremendous force that made his bones pop!
Crunch!
The Alpha clamped her powerful jaws onto his right shoulder, sinking her deep fangs into his flesh, then tossed him into the air and threw him hard to the ground!
"Aaaag!" A pained groan escaped his animalistic throat.
Before he could gather himself to rise, the Alpha was already on top of him. She pounced on him, driving her sharp claws into both sides of his chest to pin him to the ground, then clamped her steel-like jaws entirely around his throat—not biting hard enough to kill him, but just pressing with enough force to block the air from entering his lungs, declaring absolute dominance!
Luke was crushed under her terrifying weight, her golden eyes blazing with fierce, fiery anger as she stared into his eyes from a distance of mere centimeters. He thrashed with his hind legs trying to break free, but a swift swipe of her left paw across his face left three deep bloody streaks on his cheek and forced him to go still.
At that blood-stained, helpless moment, the decisive instinctive knowledge flooded his subdued mind:
She was the Alpha of this pack... and he, in his ignorance and madness, had just challenged her and suffered a crushing defeat.
The brown wolf stood weighing him down with her massive weight over his throat and shoulders, growling in a low, deep voice that shook his skull, baring her blood-stained fangs, ready at any second to snap her jaws and re-break his neck to finish him off immediately on charges of rebellion.
Luke began to emit faint, hoarse moans, lowering his ears backward and begging her with his bloody, pleading eyes to stop and not kill him.
The Alpha paused for a few seconds, staring at his submissive surrender. Then suddenly, she brought her face close to his ear and let out a single thunderous, rumbling growl that nearly pierced his eardrum and shook his entire body.
Slowly, she lifted her paw and jaws off him, leaving him soaked in the blood of his wounds, but... alive!
The Alpha turned coldly, turning her back to him and heading toward the forest. Immediately, the rest of the wolves shrank back and followed her in solemn silence and complete harmony.
With extreme difficulty, Luke rose on his trembling all-fours, blood dripping from his shoulder, face, and side. He lowered his head as low as possible until it almost touched the dirt, and stepped with heavy, hesitant steps—head down and pride broken—to follow the footprint of her and the pack into the darkness.