How Not To Be A Werewolf (Editing)

My Fellow Wolf

My heart dropped to somewhere in my stomach as I watched the wolf finish with the two men who had been arguing. Luckily, my stomach had other things to deal with. Mostly, that consisted of emptying its entire contents into a nearby bush.

After a moment I rejoined Kian and Victoria by the oak tree and I watched with intense scrutiny as the wolf suddenly stopped in the middle of the clearing and its long furry limbs started to shake violently. And then it screamed. Like, a full-on blood-curdling scream.

I felt goosebumps appear up my arms, a cold sensation running down my spine. I really felt like running, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to look away.

The worst part was how painful the transformation seemed.

Hair slowly receded, the features of the wolf  becoming more human, giving way to milky patches of skin. The wolf's skull reduced in size, the large muzzle shrunk too, a more human nose and mouth forming in its place. The screams had started to sound more human as well. After a moment the screaming suddenly stopped.

What was left in place of the wolf was a guy in his thirties lying fully naked, panting heavily in the middle of the clearing.

"Something's not right," Victoria whispered as she moved slightly to get a better view. "The report said there was only one person attacked. Not two."

"I don't recognise the werewolf." Kian added, "He's not from Moonstone that's for sure. At least, not from any pack that I know."

Honestly, I was more focused on how much pain the transformation seemed to have caused the guy, rather than who he was.

If that's what it was like to transform into a werewolf then I didn't want to bloody do it.

I'd much rather live isolated on an island somewhere where there was nothing to trigger me off, and nothing to remind me of my current condition.

"What's he doing?"

The man in the clearing had started to strip off the taller of the two men. He pulled off the dead man's trousers, t-shirt and boots one at a time, then quickly shoved them on. He left the body on the floor, stripped down to its pants.

The whole thing was bloody bizarre.

He dragged the stripped-down body by the legs and pulled it out of the clearing. The three of us stayed where we were waiting, too shocked to say anything. The man returned again after about ten minutes, minus the dead body. He walked over to the second body and bent down over it.

Then I heard a gunshot.

It was loud, and made my ears ring. I wasn't entirely sure where it had come from, but it had been close.

Looking round I saw that both Kian and Victoria were also trying to see where the shot had been fired from. I turned my attention back to the clearing just in time to see the werewolf limping off into the tree line.

"Our murderer is getting away," I said, "He's injured so I don't think that he'll get far. We should go after him."

"There is no bloody way we're gonna chase an injured and dangerous werewolf through the forest," Kian said stubbornly. "I'm not going to put myself in danger, or you, Alec. I like to call it my self-preservation plan."

"Well, I'm going after him," I replied, "With or without your help. I've not come this far just to give up now. I can't let that guy get away, Kian." 

"I have to agree with you, Alec." Victoria said. "We need answers and that werewolf can give them to us."

Kian looked from me to Victoria. Finding no movement in either of us, he gave up.

"Fine!" he said, annoyed. "I know when I'm outvoted. We'll go after the killer werewolf. Just to warn you, I will say 'I told you so' when this all goes tits up, and I'm pretty sure it will."

No doubt he would. Kian was not one to mince his words if he thought something was wrong. I kinda liked the fact that he told it straight. It made him a lot easier to deal with.

"Right then, let's get going."

Victoria led our way around the edge of the clearin to the other side. When we reached it Kian suddenly stopped and bent down. He put his hand out and ran it through the grass, when he brought it back up the white skin was smeared with dark red blood.

We'd found the trail.

Kian put his hand up to his nose and sniffed the still fresh blood. As he inhaled it his eyes turned an even darker shade of red, his fangs longer and more prominent. Then all of a sudden he was off, running through the trees like some kind of supernatural bloodhound.

"Follow him!" Victoria said as she started to run after Kian.

I didn't need telling twice. I quickly followed Victoria, dodging through the trees in her wake. I somehow managed to keep up with her, and soon enough we both caught up with Kian. He had stopped outside of a small cave that stood carved out of a large rocky hill.

Then I saw why he had stopped. He was being held up by the throat. The man who had fled the clearing, the werewolf, was snarling as he glared at Kian.

He was wearing the ragged, dirty and torn clothes that the tallest of his victims had worn, and it really didn't suit him. The light blue t-shirt so was badly ripped that the logo it had once supported was no longer discernible. His abs were showing through the tears in the fabric. The trousers were just a little too long for him, a hazard considering that he was still barefoot.

The man was pretty damn good looking. He had short sandcoloreded hair, and a short beard to match. His eyes were a brilliant blue, although right now they looked slightly manic and full of hate. If I hasn't just seen him kill two people I'd sure as hell want to fuck him.

Shit. That's just really... wrong. Just really fucking wrong. What the hell was wrong with me?

My mind was a bloody weird place.

"Let him go!" Victoria shouted as we both stepped into the man's eyeline.

He looked at both of us, his eyes lingering on me. It was only for a second, but I still caught it.

"I'll talk to my fellow wolf. Nobody else." he said. His voice was hard and as rough as he looked, like he wasn't used to speaking much.

"Let my friend go," I replied with as much authority as I could muster, despite my nerves and the fact that he had Kian by the throat. "Please."

The man sneered and looked back to  Kian, who was trying and failing to free himself from the werewolf's grasp.

"A vampire cannot be friends with a werewolf, it's against our nature. I should put a stake through this one's heart and save you the trouble of having to do it later." 

I felt myself begin to lose control. I began to shake violently, my vision blurred. An incredible pain then shot through my whole body.

"No, don't give in to it!"

I could just about hear Victoria's voice, like an echo that was miles away. I tried to focus on it. I tried to pull myself out of the change. Losing control was the last thing I needed while we were stuck in the past with a dangerous serial killer.

But, it was a losing battle.

"Allow me."

The man's voice, which also sounded faint and impossibly far away, was the last thing I remembered hearing before I blacked out.