“You, Samantha Reed, are the last Direwolf.”

A strange feeling overcame Sam, a numb sadness that seemed to pervade every inch of her body. It wasn’t really something she’d ever spent much time thinking about before. Sure, admittedly, her knowledge of werewolf society had been incredibly limited up until now, and she hadn’t even met another werewolf outside of her family until just a few months ago, but the idea that there were other werewolves, other direwolves around the world had always seemed like an undeniable and obvious fact, like gravity or something. Gravity was always there, it affected every aspect of her life, but it wasn’t really something she would think about. She was a werewolf - a direwolf - so obviously there were others like her around the world. It wouldn’t make sense for her to be the only one.

And yet, she was the only one. The only direwolf. In the entire world. The last of the original werewolves, the last direct descendant of the ancient forebearers of her species. Sam suddenly felt incredibly lonely, even surrounded by her pack as she was.

“B-but…” she started, looking up at Pedro from where she’d previously been staring at her lap. “But what does it mean? F-for me?”

The man shrugged. “Whatever you want it to mean. It’s a bit before my time, but some direwolf families apparently liked to argue that they were ‘better’ than their fellow werewolf due to the ‘purity’ of their blood or some other elitist crap, and as such should be leading them, but I personally call bullshit on that, as did many of the direwolves. Bloodline doesn’t mean jack shit when it comes to choosing a leader, as most of human society has figured out. It wasn’t even really applicable to us for most of our history. Werewolves were pretty much self-governing within their packs and followed whatever the human law was wherever they were. Only within the last hundred years has any sort of global leadership formed, and that’s composed of a Council of selected individuals. Nothing to do with bloodline whatsoever, it was just formed so that we could keep better track of things and try to ensure we don’t end up extinct.”

Sam vaguely realised that he hadn’t actually answered her question at all, but she didn’t say anything. Pedro seemed to have a bit of a habit of going off on tangents about things that were only barely related to the original topic, but she wasn’t going to stop him. If it meant finally learning a bit about what werewolf society was actually like, she would sit through it.

“I actually work for the Council myself. I was sent here to keep an eye on you to make sure that the direwolves didn’t completely die out after what happened to your parents. They wanted me to, uh… take you under my wing, so to speak, but as you can probably guess, I decided against that. I didn’t want to interrupt your childhood any more than it already had been.”

Sam recoiled slightly. “Wait, does that mean you’ve been spying on me?!”

“No, no, god no! I just kept watch for hunters and the like for a few years, but I pulled back after nothing came up. I’ve had absolutely no idea what you’ve been up to for the past twelve or so years, at least until I met Roxy.” Pedro sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I promise you, kid. I have not been spying on you.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief. “R-right. Sorry, I… shouldn’t have just jumped to conclusions like that. I… I guess I should thank you?” she asked apprehensively.

Pedro shook his head. “Don’t. I really didn’t do anything. Hell, maybe if I’d actually done my job for the past few years, I’d have noticed the hunters closing in and could’ve warned you. I should be apologising, if anything.”

“R-right…” Sam mumbled. Something occurred to her. “So… if I’m the last direwolf, that means there won’t be any more after I die, right?”

“Nope,” Pedro answered. “Not unless there’s another direwolf somewhere that the Council doesn’t know about. You could have a kid with another werewolf, I guess, but I’m not sure I can see that being very likely, given the whole… y’know.” He gestured vaguely between Sam and Roxy.

The human in question laughed nervously. “Haha, oops.”

“Don’t feel bad, kid. There was no guarantee Sam was going to have kids anyway. As much as the Council doesn’t want the direwolves to die out, I seriously doubt they would force the matter in any real way.”

“Could we please stop talking about me having kids? I’m feeling weirdly obligated now and that really isn’t something I’ve spent much time considering.” Sam interrupted, more than slightly uncomfortable at the whole prospect.

“R-right,” Pedro sputtered. “Apologies. If no one has any other questions, I think it’s probably time to get to the real reason why I’m here. We need to talk about what happened last night, and what we can do to prevent anything like it from happening again. Or, at the very least, ensuring that everyone is as ready as they can be should it happen again.”

The mood in the room dropped considerably. Sam glanced at Roxy nervously, looking for some sort of comfort from her mate. Roxy took her hand and gave her an encouraging look.

“Why don’t you tell Pedro what you told me earlier?” she offered. Sam knew exactly what she was talking about.

“R-right, um…” She took a deep breath. “U-uh, Mr…?” She paused, realising she didn’t actually know Pedro’s last name.

He sighed. “It’s Luna, but please, just call me Pedro. I hate all that formal crap. I’m not above you, you don’t need to call me a title.”

“O-Okay… Um, P-Pedro… The hunters, last night… Th-they… they actually w-wanted me… a-alive. The only reason I was able to…” She swallowed thickly. “G-get the upper hand on them… was because they let their guard down thinking I had surrendered.”

“Alive? That changes things,” Pedro said, a grave look on his face. “I’d been wondering why they didn’t just pick you off from a distance, so that explains it pretty well. Did they say what they wanted you for?”

Sam shook her head. “No, not that I can remember.”

“Actually, there is something that I forgot to mention to you, Pedro. Something about the Shepperton Street murders. I… I think it could be related to why they wanted Sam,” Roxy chimed in.

“What is it?” he asked.

“When the hunters showed up, right after they shot Blaine, I remember them saying something along the lines of ‘the test was a success’ or something. I-I think that whatever happened to Blaine was part of the test. M-maybe they want Sam so they can test the same thing on a direwolf?”

Pedro nodded. “That’s a good theory, but it raises a few questions. When he attacked you two, Blaine was incredibly strong, much stronger than he had been previously, correct?”

“Y-yeah,” Sam answered. “I… I still don’t really remember everything that happened, but I can guarantee that he’d never have been able to do what he… what he did to me if he was just normal.”

Her hand travelled to her scarred cheek subconsciously, feeling along the grooves that Blaine’s claws had made. A token of survival from a night she couldn’t even remember.

Roxy spoke up. “It wasn’t just that. He was also shrugging off every attack like it was nothing. I tased him and he barely even reacted. Sam kicked him so hard across the face near the start of the fight that I half expected his jaw to come off, but he didn’t even flinch.”

“Right,” Pedro acknowledged. “The question remains, though. If the hunters were indeed the ones to put Blaine in that state, why? Why on earth would they want to make werewolves stronger? And effectively impervious to attacks? Well, not entirely impervious,” he added, “That silver bullet did a real number on his head, and according to ballistics analysis he was only shot once. Still, I digress. Why would they want that?”

“Sorry, can I just clarify something?” Leif asked. At Pedro’s nod, she continued. “You said silver bullet. Silver is extra dangerous to werewolves, right? That’s what all the myths say.”

Sam’s stab wound twinged slightly. She answered before Pedro could. “Yeah. I-it’s what the hunters used on me last night. I’m completely cut off from my wolf until it all clears from my system.”

Leif nodded in understanding. “Right. Is that why your eye is red?”

Sam paused. She looked around to Roxy and Pedro. “Wait, my eye is still red? Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

Pedro scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Uh, I thought you already knew. Don’t ask me what it’s about, because I have no idea.”

“Sorry, Sammie,” Roxy said. “I… I didn’t want to stress you out any more than you already were.”

Sam growled as her frustration grew. “Great. Thanks. Not like I wouldn’t have seen it in a mirror or anything. Totally stress free over here!”

Roxy wilted at her harsh tone and Sam immediately felt guilty. Roxy was probably under a lot of stress with this whole situation as well, it wasn’t fair for Sam to take out her own fear and pain on her.

“Rox, I-”

“No, no. You’re right. I should have told you. I-I’m sorry.” Roxy cut her off, looking away with a guilty expression. Sam wanted to finish apologising for her tone, but at that point it felt like it would just be moot, so she settled for silently taking her partner’s hand and squeezing it. Relievingly, Roxy squeezed back.

“Riiight.” Leif spoke up. “Anyway, I was gonna say, if Blaine was resistant to most attacks, maybe he would be resistant to normal bullets, as well? Maybe the hunters are trying to make a werewolf that’s only susceptible to silver?”

“But why would they do that?” Pedro replied.

Leif shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe they wanna get a monopoly on the werewolf hunting market? It’s all the one organisation that’s doing this, right?”

That managed to get a chuckle out of the older man. “I’m not sure if there’s much of a market on hunting us, and if there was, the Sons would already have a stranglehold on it. To answer your question, yes. The Sons of the Black Sun is a global organisation that’s been hellbent on our destruction for hundreds of years. They’re backed and funded by many of the 1%, as well as certain world leaders in the know. I can’t say for sure if the current president supports them, but I can say for certain that he’s aware of them, and of us.

“The only thing stopping the Sons from kicking down a werewolf’s door and blasting them full of holes is their goal of preventing public knowledge. They’re discreet. That’s why they chose to attack Sam when she was deep in the woods, not walking down the sidewalk. Their shooting of Blaine was the most brazen thing I’ve heard of them doing in years. Whatever it is they’re planning with this ‘super werewolf’ thing, they must be pretty confident in it if they’re gonna risk the public finding out like that. Seriously, the guys down at the PD are still scratching their heads as to what Blaine was. We’re just lucky it wasn’t leaked.”

Sam shuddered. “I-I-I just wish I knew why they wanted me. I-I don’t want to be turned into some m-mindless monster.”

You already did become a monster. Nothing more than the animal they think you are. Violent, filthy murderer.

Sam curled up, tucking her legs up to her chest, doing her best to ignore the voice in her head. The action pulled on her stitches, but she ignored it. The pain was manageable. Distracting. It made it easier to focus on the memory of Roxy’s voice, telling her that she’d done nothing wrong. Even if she didn’t know if it was right.

“Well, regardless,” Pedro continued on, completely unaware of Sam’s mental conflict. “Whatever they’re planning, we can’t just sit around and wait for it to happen. Now, obviously, it would be a bit difficult to take the fight directly to them, as we don’t currently know where their outpost here is situated. Instead, I have a proposition for you three. I want to train you.”

“Train us?” Roxy asked.

“Yes. While we can’t directly make the first move against them, we can make sure that we’re as prepared as we can be should they come for us, or, more likely, you. They’ve already tried to get Sam, but since that failed it’s not unlikely that they’ll go after one of you two instead, to try and lure her to them. If I can train you like a werewolf, teach you how to fight, how to properly defend yourself, and condition you into being able to spot a hunter on a crowded street from body language alone, I believe it’ll give us the best fighting chance should they come again. I’ll have to take some time to set it up, and to rework parts of the course for you two humans, as it’s mainly designed for werewolves with our higher muscle density and natural weapons, but I think it should really pay off.”

“Leif and I are already taking MMA classes, how much different will it be?”

“Ah, Clarissa’s right? I thought I recognised her technique in that video of you fighting that other girl. To be honest, I’ll probably ask her to help out. She knows a lot more than she teaches in those classes, stuff that’ll be very helpful, to both human and werewolf.”

“Wait, you know her?! And she’s a werewolf too?!” Roxy exclaimed.

“I suspected she might’ve been, after that story she told us.” Sam said. Seriously, what were the odds of some random crazy on the street having a sword of all things? That was definitely a hunter.

“Honestly, the werewolf population of Dewsbury is, if we’re talking about the ratio of werewolves to humans, one of the highest in the country, even with just the four of us. There’s something about this town that draws us in. Maybe the council knows something, but I’ve never been curious enough to ask. It’s hard enough to get into contact with them when you need them.” Pedro waved himself off. “To answer your earlier question, while much of the training will be general endurance and strength building, as well as learning fighting techniques, much like your classes, I also want to focus on teaching you how to use weaponry, especially for you humans. Sam has her claws and her fangs if she needs them, as do I. You don’t have that luxury. I’ll teach you the ins and outs of how to use and maintain different firearms, as well as the technique involved in using swords and knives effectively. These are the main weapons that hunters use, and as such, should you find yourself in a situation where you’re being attacked by hunters, those are what will be in high supply.”

Leif sighed. “Sounds like it’s not gonna be much of a summer vacation for us, then.”

Pedro shook his head. “I’m afraid not. There really is no way I can ensure your safety other than giving you the best possible chances through this. I have a job, I can’t watch after you twenty-four seven, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to, either.”

“Well, that’s that, then,” Roxy said, a slight reluctant acceptance tinting her voice. “When do we start?”

“Give me a few days, maybe a week. I’ll need to set up some sort of schedule, but I’ll text you the details when it’s ready.” He stood up, checking his watch. “Now, unless any of you have any other questions, I’ll be going. I’ve got work tonight and I’d like to get something to eat before then”

“I think I’m good.” Leif answered.

“Same.”

“Me too.”

Pedro nodded. “Alright. I’ll be in touch.” With that, he walked out of the front door, leaving the room in silence. At least, until Leif spoke up.

“Man, Roxy,” she started. “When you said there was someone I had to meet, you never mentioned that he was such a DILF!”

Sam did a double take.

Roxy scoffed. “He is not a DILF.”

“No offence, dude, but you’re a complete lesbian. As someone who actually likes guys, I think I’m a bit more of an expert on the matter.”

“Okay, fair point, but still-”

“Alright, you guys have your fun, but I’ve lost far too much blood in the past twenty four hours to listen to this. I’m gonna go have a nap.” Sam interrupted, forcing herself to her feet.

Roxy took her hand and kissed it. “Okay, hun. Call me if you need anything.”

Sam smiled. “Will do.”

—

A few days passed and Sam’s condition remained relatively the same. The pain generally came and went as it pleased, forcing her to be completely bedridden whenever it struck. It wasn’t something she was really used to. She’d never had to deal with long-term pain from an injury before, barring her hospitalisation, but even then she’d been able to call out her wolf most of the time to speed up the healing process and take most of the pain away. Without any access to her wolf, Sam was effectively a normal human, as long as you ignored her heightened senses and the fact that her left eye had yet to return to its normal shade. She just hoped that it was a side-effect of having her wolf locked away. It’s not like there were any other direwolves with silver sickness to compare herself to, anyway.

Her relative inability to do anything besides lie around and maybe walk at a snail’s pace if she was lucky meant that the group’s upcoming plans to hang out at Ross’s place had to be heavily reworked. No one wanted to exclude Sam, but they weren’t exactly keen on cancelling or rescheduling either, especially given the girls’ knowledge of what their summer vacation was about to turn into. Everyone wanted to get in as much ‘normal summer fun’ as they could before it came time for whatever bootcamp Pedro was putting together.

Given these extenuating circumstances, the group collectively decided to move the hangout to Sam’s house instead, so that she could participate in the fun without having to move much. Leif and Ross were going to bring some of their consoles over and hook them up to the TV in the basement and they were going to spend the day playing games and eating junk food. If she was being honest, Sam wasn’t really as into videogames as her friends were - she’d never really given them much interest when she was growing up, and that extended into her teenage years as well - but Leif said that she was confident they would be able to find something for her to enjoy. Even if they didn’t, Sam wasn’t too bothered. She was more than happy just to be there while her friends and packmates were having fun around her. The fact that she even had friends to spend time with was good enough for her.

Their new plan did bring about some issues, however, such as how they were going to explain away or hide Sam’s injury and red eye from Ross. Roxy had offered her an eyepatch that she’d used in a pirate costume for halloween once and said that she could say that she got hot oil in her eye while cooking or something. Sam agreed to it, since it was the best idea anyone’d had about her eye, and neglected to mention that she didn’t actually really know how to cook, aside from scrambled eggs and toasted sandwiches. She couldn't imagine that Ross would call her out on that specific detail, anyway.

Her almost immobilising injury was a little bit more complicated to explain away. They were hesitant to go with the ‘Sam got mugged’ excuse, as they’d used that when Roxy and Leif were knocked around by that hunter. The odds of two muggings happening to the same friend group within three months were pretty low, especially considering Dewsbury’s low crime rate. Ross would pick out that discrepancy in a second.

Eventually, Ava gave them their cover story: Sam had been impaled on a spiked fence when she stumbled while trying to jump it. It was, as Sam would begrudgingly admit, pretty in character for her. The amount of times she’d seriously injured herself while being careless numbered in the hundreds. Just look at how she and Roxy met. The only difference this time was that she didn’t have her wolf to fall back on.

And so that was how things went. Everyone gathered at the Walkers’ house and set everything up before settling in. Things were going smoothly for a few hours, with Sam even finding some games that she could enjoy, but eventually their supply of snacks ran out. Roxy and Leif offered to head out to the store and get some more while Sam stayed back with Ross. They were playing the same racing game she’d seen get played at Ross’s party, and Sam was enjoying herself. Ross was still beating her every game, but she was just proud that she was able to beat most of the ‘NPCs,’ as Ross had called them, quite consistently.

This game, Sam had managed to catch all the way up to Ross and was about to beat him before one of those red shells came up from behind and stunned her. He shot past her and through the finish line just a second before she recovered.

“Damn, Sam. Well done,” he congratulated. “That one was really close. You’re getting better.”

Sam rubbed her face, groaning exasperatedly. “Uuugh, that fucking shell. I had that!”

She leaned back into the mountain of pillows that had been set up for her. Ross was lounging on the other side of the couch, now in its mostly-unused ‘pullout’ mode. He laughed, a hint of satisfaction in his amusement.

“Yes, it really is a shame about that. A shame that I just so happened to pick up a red shell, that is.”

“That was you?! You dick!” Sam exclaimed, trying to playfully swat at him. He ducked under it, laughing all the while, but her arms were much longer than he’d calculated for and she managed to get him on the back-swing.

“Ow!” he laughed. “Watch it, Reed! You have a weak point now!”

She paused, eyeing him carefully but unable to suppress her grin. “You wouldn’t dare, Oberfeld. I could throw you over my shoulder and you know it.”

“Wouldn’t I? You never know what might happen if you corner me. I’m like a wild animal!”

She snorted at the irony of his statement. “Yeah, sure, stick limbs.”

He scoffed. “Hey, I’m just saying, I’m not the one with the crippling wound and blindspot. I bet I could take you as you are now.”

Sam rolled her eyes playfully. “Sure, tough guy. Beat me up while I can barely move, that’s real manly.”

“Well I’ll be, is Samantha Reed being sarcastic? I never thought I’d see the day!”

She scoffed. “Yeah, okay, whatever.”

Sam knew that she’d never come out on top in a battle of retorts against him, but she was proud enough of the fact that she could identify that he was just joking around in the first place. A few months ago, she would have most likely taken a lot of what he had said at face value and gotten heated or defensive, or, more likely, worried that he was actually going to try to fight her, but she’d come a long way in picking up social cues since then.

Her ears twitched as she heard the front door open. She could vaguely make out the sounds of Roxy and Leif idly chatting as they made their way through the house towards the basement.

“They’re back!” she exclaimed happily.

Ross looked at her in confusion. “What? How do you know?”

She eyed him smugly as she counted down from three on her fingers. At the moment her last finger closed back into her fist, the basement door opened with a loud greeting from a certain green-haired girl.

“Woah, how did you do that?!” he asked in barely concealed amazement.

“Do what?” Roxy asked as she came down the stairs, carrying shopping bags that were no doubt filled to the brim with soft drinks and chips.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“It’s a secret.” Sam replied with a cheeky wink. Well, it was more of a blink because of her eyepatch, but the intention was there and Ross seemed to get the idea.

He sighed. “Whatever, keep your secrets. I’ll figure you out soon, blondie.”

The two newcomers joined Sam and Ross on the couch, Roxy squeezing in next to Sam while Leif threw herself over Ross’s lap carelessly, much to the boy’s chagrin. They’d apparently dated briefly at the start of highschool before Leif had figured herself out and it was clear that the familiarity was still there.

Things quickly settled back into routine. Sam mostly just watched as the other three duked it out in various games, occasionally joining in for the ones that were newbie-friendly, pigging out on chips and chasing them down with generous helpings of sugary drink. She took a moment to be grateful for how easy it was to maintain muscle mass as a werewolf, because there was no way she’d be able to keep up her physique otherwise, what with the way she was shovelling down junk food. That just made it doubly impressive to see Roxy’s progress on her own physique.

Sam sighed to herself as she thought of her girlfriend. Her steadily sharpening muscles, her gorgeous brown eyes, her soft tan-olive skin, those almost invisible freckles on her ears, her adorable round cheeks, her adorable round… well, other places. She bit her lip as her train of thought continued in that direction, blessing her with conjured images and memories that she would absolutely not be able to share if someone asked her what was on her mind. Her face started heating up, but it was a good heat, so she didn’t really care. No one was paying attention to her, anyways, so they wouldn’t notice if her face was a little red. Then the heat began to spread throughout her body, through her chest and arms and abdomen all the way down through her legs to her toes. Okay, that was a little strange.

Sam’s jaw and gums started to ache slightly, along with her fingers and toes. The centre of her back and her chest started to itch, along with various other parts of her body. It reminded her of what it felt like to shift, but that didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t able to shift, at least not for another few days, so where was this feeling coming from? Was her body trying to resist the silver and shift on its own?

“Sam? A-are you alright?” Roxy asked from beside her. Looking over, she found her partner staring at her, eyes full of concern and alarm, gently touching her own neck, right where her mark was. Well, that wasn’t good.

“I… I don’t know. I feel… weird,” she replied, bringing a hand to her chest, right over a patch of skin that felt like it was trying its hardest to sprout fur. She could see Leif and Ross eyeing her with concern from the other side of the couch. The heat intensified and all of a sudden the world began to spin.

She watched as Roxy’s face paled, reacting to something that Sam wasn’t aware of. She was saying something, but the words seemed to become nonsense the second they left her mouth.

Her mate pulled something out of somewhere. A dark rectangle. She handed it to Greenie-packmate. Greenie started touching the rectangle and held it to her ear, looking at her like there was something wrong. What was wrong? Could Sam help?

Sam felt her ears twitch in the direction of a gasp. There was another thing in the room. Not quite packmate, but not dangerous, either. He had fluffy brown hair. He was Fluffyhead.

Fluffyhead looked scared, smelt scared. He was scared of her. His eyes were wide and his mouth was wide and he was trying to get away from her. Sam didn’t want him to be scared of her.

She tried to move closer, but something stopped her. Mate was holding her face, talking to her. She spoke softly. Her voice was soft. Sam liked her voice. Soothing. She only recognized a few words, like Sam and stay and don’t, but she gathered the idea from her tone. Mate wanted her to stay here, so stay here she would. Sam was good like that.

—

“Pedro’s not answering!” Leif called from behind her, a slight edge of panic in her voice. She could hear Ross saying ‘what the fuck’ over and over again from where he was pressed against the wall. She didn’t blame him. This situation was probably more than a little jarring for someone who, up until a minute ago, had no idea that werewolves were a thing. Hell, this particular situation was pretty fucking jarring for her, and Roxy was starting to consider herself something of an expert on the topic.

Sam stared back at her blankly, her visible eye half lidded and glowing red. Roxy lifted up her eyepatch and, sure enough, her other eye was in much the same condition. She decided to just take the thing off, as it wasn’t really serving much of a purpose at this point. Her mouth was slightly ajar, showing off a row of long, sharp teeth that would be more at home in the maw of a fully formed wolf than whatever strange hybrid form that the blonde was currently experiencing. Roxy didn’t even think it would be possible for her to close her mouth if she wanted to, not that that seemed likely. Sam’s tongue was hanging loosely from the side of her bizarrely widened mouth and she was panting up a storm.

“Try calling him again.” Roxy answered without looking back, watching in fascination as Sam’s ears swivelled and twitched towards her voice. They’d somehow shifted up the sides of her head to the top, baring the fur that they usually would in her wolf form. Roxy hadn’t yet gotten a good look, but it seemed like the rest of her body had suffered a similar fate to her head. The tops of her hands and arms were covered in a thick layer of fur, with hard brown claws sprouting from where her nails should be. One of her hands in particular seemed to have morphed into more of a paw than anything resembling a human hand, while the other one seemed relatively… normal, if such a word could possibly apply to this situation. It made her stomach twist slightly to look at it, in such a way that body horror usually did for her.

Her legs were in a similar condition, covered in golden fur all the way up the shins. Her feet… whoo boy, Roxy did her very best not to look at them. From what little she gathered on her glance, they were stretched unnaturally, her heel no doubt meant to replace those weird ‘backwards-knees’ that dogs and wolves had on their hind legs, while the balls of her feet and the bottoms of her toes had darkened slightly. She made a note to research wolf anatomical terms later, because she was almost certain that ‘backwards-knees’ was not the right word. In any case, Roxy would be very surprised if Sam was able to walk normally on her legs as they were now.

In terms of other changes, it was mostly just more fur. It covered her sideburns and cheeks, and there seemed to be a shock of white fluff that had sprouted up on her chest, if the little tuft she could see peeking from her shirt collar was anything to go by. Roxy realised that she could hear a familiar rhythmic thumping noise, and leaned around Sam’s huge form to confirm her suspicions. Sure enough, there was a tail sticking out over the top of her shorts, thumping against the couch in a consistent tempo, because of course there was.

“Wh-what the fuck is going on?! How is everyone being so f-fucking normal about this?!” Ross’s slightly screechy voice brought her out of her ruminations on Sam’s new form. She turned around, Sam’s face still in her hands, to see Leif on the phone, seeming like she’d finally gotten through, while Ross stood against the far wall, pressing against it as much as he could, shaking like a leaf.

She turned back to Sam and gave her a stern look. “Sam, stay,” she commanded. It usually worked on her in her wolf form, and that seemed to be roughly where her brain was currently at, so hopefully she would obey.

Roxy pulled herself off of the couch and approached Ross carefully, hands out in a calming gesture. “Hey, Ross. Buddy. I need you to breathe. Can you do that for me?”

He shook his head madly. “D-don’t fucking b-baby-talk me! What the f-f-fuck is that thing?!”

Roxy felt herself flush with anger, but forced it down. He didn’t mean it, he was just scared. “She’s not a thing, Ross. She's still a person. She just looks… a little strange right now.”

Ross didn’t seem to be listening to her. He slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, hands gripping the sides of his head and a manic look in his eye as he gently rocked back and forth.

“I was p-playing videogames with a f-fucking monster. What the fuck. I’m losing my mind.”

“Hey!” Roxy snapped, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. She tried, she really did, but no one gets to talk about Sam like that, regardless of the situation. On the bright side, her sharp tone seemed to finally get his attention. She knelt down to his level.

“She’s not a monster, Ross. Don’t talk about her like that. She’s a werewolf. She’s not going to hurt you. She’s still the same girl you were just playing games with.”

“Pedro’s on his way!” Leif called from behind her. Roxy stuck her thumb up without breaking eye contact with Ross, who seemed to be struggling to swallow the little nugget of info she’d dropped on him.

“Make sure Sam’s alright back there, please. You’re pack, she should listen to you,” she instructed. She heard Leif shuffle over to the werewolf and start cooing as she gave her the affection that Sam was no-doubt needing. She couldn’t be sure what condition the blonde was in, but she’d always been quite receptive to emotions, and Ross was currently filling the room with so much tension and emotion that it almost felt hard to breathe, so Sam was probably feeling that in droves. The rhythmic thumping in the background started to speed up in response to Leif’s care, prompting Roxy to smile without realising it. So predictable.

“A… a werewolf?! L-like a lycanthrope or something?!” Ross finally responded, more than a little too loudly. Roxy heard Sam’s lupine whine from behind her as the volume no doubt irritated her extra-sensitive ears.

“A lycan-what? Dude, no, just a werewolf. I don’t know what that is. Also, keep your volume down, please. Her hearing is sensitive and even if she can’t currently understand you, your shouting is no doubt starting to hurt.”

“Oh!” he laughed manically. “Sorry, I d-didn’t mean to hurt your fucking werewolf’s ears!” he hissed, before curling up in on himself and continuing his chant of ‘what the fuck,’ this time with a few ‘I’m going insane’s thrown in for good measure. Roxy sighed. She really wished that she could just focus on worrying about whatever-the-fuck was going on with Sam right now, but instead she had to play babysitter for her friend while his whole world-view forcibly collapsed around him. Perhaps a slightly selfish wish, but a wish all the same.

“Alright, that’s enough. C’mon, up. We’re gonna go say hi.” Roxy grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet quickly enough that he was too shocked to stop her.

“Wh-what? N-no… no, no, no, no, thank you. I-I-I’m good over here,” he stuttered.

“Dude,” Roxy said, with much exasperation. “How is this scarier than when you met her in wolf form? Look at her, she’s completely harmless!”

Roxy waved her hand in the direction of her hybrid girlfriend, who was currently growling and panting as she played tug-of-war with Leif over a toy that had previously been on the ground, her tail wagging wildly. She suspected that she was going easy on the green-haired teen, and also made a note to wait for Sam to wash her mouth out before she kissed her next, because who knew where that toy had been. It was a post-shifting habit of Sam’s that Roxy was quite grateful for. Roxy didn’t even want to guess at the sorts of things that could unwittingly end up in a wolf’s mouth.

The sight seemed to sober Ross up by a significant degree. He turned to her. “Roxy, you’re dating a dog. You realise you’re dating a dog, right? That’s weird.” His eyes suddenly widened. “Oh my god, that’s what you guys were talking about!”

Roxy sighed and rubbed her face. “I promise you she’s not normally like this. Most of the time she’s just a regular person, barring when she turns into a wolf to play around or something. I… actually don’t know what this is. I’m a little worried, to be honest.”

He backed off, dropping into a bean-bag chair that had been pulled out specifically for today. “Okay, you gotta explain this all to me, because I’m a little lost. Werewolves are real, and Sam’s a werewolf. Am I right so far?”

“Yep.”

“Are… are you a werewolf? Is Leif? You said something about a pack earlier.”

“No, we aren’t werewolves. The only other one you would know was… Blaine.” She shuddered internally. “I said pack because werewolves have packs. Leif and I are part of Sam’s, as is the rest of her family. Before you ask, they’re all human, Sam’s not related to them by blood.”

“Pack, right, okay.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Man, what the hell. Have you guys known the whole time?!”

She shook her head. “No, though I was suspicious for a while. I found out properly at the same time as Leif, about a week after we started dating officially. Leif only found out because of the hunter that attacked us.”

“Hunter?! Attacked you?! Was this the mugging?!”

Roxy sighed, sitting down on the edge of the pull-out. “Man, there is a lot to catch you up on.”

“Clearly!”

—

“I…” Pedro started, as best he possibly could. “I really have no idea what to make of this. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

Sam was currently aggressively sniffing the side of Roxy’s head, occasionally butting against it in what seemed like an attempt to scent-roll. She must like the scent of her shampoo or something. The girl herself was just staring back at him exasperatedly, keeping a surprisingly calm face for all of the stressed-out scent signals she was giving off.

There were two others in the room. Leif, and one other boy who Pedro didn’t know. He seemed wary of Sam, and fair enough. The young direwolf currently looked… mildly disturbing, to put it plainly. The sight of her deformed legs and the way her mouth seemed unable to close around her sharpened teeth was even putting Pedro on edge. It just… wasn’t right. Half shifting would normally bestow a werewolf with claws, fangs, and protective fur, perfectly suited for combat. The jaw would shift and extend slightly to make way for the enlarged teeth, and the bone structure of the hands and feet would change slightly to better suit their new claws, as well as general muscle and bone growth throughout the body. Whatever Sam was currently experiencing seemed completely different from that, as though her body had chosen attributes to shift at random. Unfortunately, that also seemed to include her brain.

“So, what can we do?” Roxy asked. She’d somehow wrestled Sam’s head down to her lap to stop her incessant headbutting and was now mindlessly stroking a hand through her hair. The sight of the rest of her body splayed out on the couch, tail idly wagging back and forth, was one that Pedro wasn’t likely to forget any time soon. Whether or not Sam was currently aware of the changes her body was experiencing, she seemed to be taking the whole thing quite well.

“I… I’m really not sure. I have to get back to work, but just… keep an eye on her, I guess? Text me if anything changes, for the better or the worse. On the bright side, it seems like her injury isn’t bothering her much as she is now, so hopefully that means her healing has kicked in. If this is some weird side-effect of the silver finally being flushed from her system, she should be able to shift voluntarily after this, but if not, that brings up a whole new set of questions. I’m hesitant to do it, but I might postpone the training course until we can be sure of her condition. I’ll try and get in contact with the Council, ask them if they’ve ever seen anything like this, or if they know what to do.”

The newcomer seemed completely lost at most of his words, but Roxy nodded in understanding. “Right.”

—

Pedro left shortly after that. Roxy sunk into the couch in emotional exhaustion as she watched Sam bound around in circles, chasing her own tail in the centre of the living room. Ross was sitting in an armchair, still looking like he was trying to swallow a particularly large frog. He’d been like that ever since Roxy had explained everything to him. His expression was a mixing pot of worry, confusion, and plain-old dumbfoundedness. Part of her felt for him. Her and Leif had the advantage of slowly being drip-fed information about werewolves and hunters, while Ross had just had about three months worth of secrets and violence dropped on him all at once. It was probably a lot to wrap his head around. Leif, for her part, seemed perfectly fine, just watching Sam with amusement written all over her face. At least someone was having a good time.

The rest of the afternoon continued in a relatively similar fashion, the mood having been so thoroughly destroyed that the idea of returning to their games seemed nonsensical. Ross went home shortly after, saying that he had a lot to think about and would get back to them. Leif stuck around for a while longer until she too took her leave, leaving Roxy alone with Sam. Ava was at another friend’s house, and both of her parents were working late, so it was just them.

A few hours passed and Sam’s condition stayed the same. Roxy passed the time much as she would have if the werewolf had been entirely in her wolf form, play-wrestling with her interspersed by periods of tired cuddling. It was honestly really disconcerting to see her girlfriend, still in a mostly human form, acting so much like an animal, but it was also kind of cute at times. Sam was obviously a big fan of physical affection, but she was usually a bit more needy about it in her wolf form, which seemed to have carried over to her current state.

She would frequently rub her head against Roxy’s and flop into her lap limply, looking up at her with a goofy - if slightly disturbing - lupine grin, trying to get some affection or belly rubs, which were, for quite obvious reasons, a sight more awkward to give in this form. Roxy did her best to keep her happy, and it seemed like Sam wanted nothing more than to just exist in her presence.

When it finally happened, it was without any of the fanfare that Roxy had been expecting. If she hadn’t been watching her dork of a girlfriend scratch herself behind the ear with a hind leg, dopey, loving grin plastered on her face, she might have missed it. There was a slight crack and all of a sudden, Sam was back to normal. All of her limbs were back to their appropriate lengths and shapes, and she was back to her regular amount of body hair, her other abnormal qualities all shifting back into normalcy in the blink of an eye. Well, her left eye was still red, but Roxy would take what she could get.

Sam looked around blearily, seeming quite disorientated. Roxy quickly made her way over to her, joining her on the floor and wrapping her arms around her as both a grounding gesture and a way to express her infinite relief that whatever had happened wasn’t permanent. As much as her friends loved to tease her about it, she really wasn’t all that into fur, nor would Sam have been able to give consent in her previous state, regardless. Roxy mentally hit herself. Of course that was the first thing she was thinking about. Well, whatever. Sam was okay, that was the important part.

She pulled back, taking Sam’s face in her hands. “Sam! You… You’re back to normal! Are you alright?!”

The blonde looked back at her, seeming to still be quite dizzy. “I… I f-feel… sss… sick,” she muttered slowly.

“Are you gonna throw up?” Roxy asked, slightly wary.

“I…” Sam tried to respond, but she was forced to stop when she lurched forward and held a hand over her mouth, vomit seemingly imminent. Roxy threw herself out of the way, not eager to get any puke on the comfort clothes she’d put on to try and calm herself down after everyone else had left.

When the sound of half-digested food hitting the carpet didn’t grace her ears, Roxy turned around, seeing Sam still in the same position, heaving and lurching every few seconds. Finally, a monstrous belch echoed out of her throat, lasting for far longer than either of them seemed to expect.

When it finally ended, Sam breathed out and wiped her eyes. “Phew… much better.”

She turned to Roxy and gave her award-winning goofy smirk. Roxy was silent, completely dumbfounded for a few seconds before she snorted and finally broke, laughing so hard that her sides hurt and her eyes filled with tears. It was a laugh of relief, of love, of amusement and forgotten fear. The past week had been filled with so much fear and hardship and confusion for both of them that they’d barely even had a moment to just exist as the teenagers that they were meant to be. Laughing at Sam burping like an idiot felt like becoming a kid again, bringing her back to those moments at the beginning of their friendship and relationship, when they were just able to enjoy their lives without the constant crushing fear that something was coming for them.

It felt like regaining an innocence that she’d lost, somewhere along the way. She wondered, was it when she was first attacked by a hunter and realised that being with Sam would mean being in danger? Was it when she first saw a person die, as Blaine was shot, so close to her that she could feel his dying breath on her face? Or was it later, more recently, when her girlfriend, quite possibly the love of her life, stumbled into the kitchen covered in more blood than just her own, plagued by the knowledge that she’d taken the lives of other sentient beings, no matter how cruel?

Roxy tucked those thoughts away as her laughter died out and she wiped her eyes. Sam was looking at her, smiling brightly with love behind her eyes. Roxy crawled over to her and climbed into her lap, gently pressing their lips together. Sam’s were so warm against her own, another reminder that she was here, she was alive. Sam was safe and sound in her arms.

Roxy deepened the kiss, humming happily when Sam reciprocated, wrapping her arms around her and making Roxy feel secure and held in a way she’d forgotten she needed. She’d been so focused on Sam’s needs for this past week that she’d barely stopped to think about herself. The blonde seemed to sense her thoughts, as she quickly lifted her up and brought her over to the couch, laying down with Roxy on top of her, kissing her all the while. The shorter girl would have sobbed at the gesture had she not been so preoccupied.

She pulled back, looking down at her partner, her mate, with all of the feeling she could conjure up. “I feel like I don’t say it enough… I love you so, so much.”

Sam breathed a wistful sigh, a soft smile on her face. “I love you too, blackberry.”

Roxy laid back down, her nose pressed against the skin of Sam’s neck, breathing in the pine scent that had become such a pivotal part of her life. She was perfectly ready to go to sleep right there, the mental and emotional exhaustion of the day weighing down upon her like a pile of bricks, but Sam stirred her.

“I… don’t want to break the mood or anything, but I should probably mention that I still haven’t washed my mouth out. I, uh… I do remember most of what I did, when I was… whatever I was, so I should probably get on that.”

Roxy expected herself to be at least mildly disgusted, as she had been very close to sticking her tongue into that very mouth, but instead she found herself to be pretty much apathetic to the idea. She sighed. “Do it if you want, I don’t care either way. We’ve been dating for, what, two and a half months now? My mouth has been in some pretty… exotic places when it comes to you already, so I think I’ll be okay.”

Roxy heard Sam’s breath hitch slightly and felt her pulse quicken under her skin. She smiled. Sam was so easy sometimes. “R-right… Uuuh, I, um… I th-think I’ll d-do it anyway, i-if that’s, uh… alright with you…?”

Roxy lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend with a curious smirk. “Of course it is. I was mostly kidding, anyway. Please, go and wash your mouth out. Actually, scratch that, I’m coming with you. You spent like fifteen minutes licking the drywall earlier. I don’t want any of whatever you were finding so tasty in my mouth, thanks.”

Sam looked both alarmed and slightly horrified. “I don’t remember any of that. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I wish I was, but Leif recorded the whole thing. She was cackling up a storm, actually.”

Sam’s face scrunched up. “Oh, god…”

Roxy sighed amusedly, shaking her head. “What am I gonna do with you, wolfy?”

—

“She still can’t voluntarily shift, for whatever reason, and her left eye is still red, but your guess about her healing was right. Her stab wound is all closed up now.”

Pedro nodded, even though Roxy wasn’t able to see him through the phone. “That’s good, at least. Hopefully this doesn’t happen again, but try to keep her inside for a few days in case it does. The last thing we need right now is her having one of these ‘episodes’ in public. I’ve already sent word to the Council, but, like I said, they’re pretty slow at getting back to me, so I’ll keep you updated. All we can do now is just hope that whatever this is doesn’t stick around long. It’s probably got to do with that eye of hers, if I had to guess, so keep an eye on that.”

“Right. Anything else?”

“No. Since Sam’s healed up, we’ll continue with the training camp as scheduled, so try to rest up. You’ll probably need it.”

There was a sigh through the phone. “Right, sure. If that’s all, I’ll be going.”

“Roxy?”

“Hm?”

“Take care of yourself, alright? You may be pretty good at putting on a brave face, but don’t think I couldn’t tell how stressed you were today. Take a day for yourself and relax, okay? You’ve been through a lot this past week.” He didn’t really know where the words were coming from, but he let them flow, regardless.

“That… sounds amazing, actually. Thanks, Pedro. I think I’ll do that. Talk to you later, then.”

“Cuidate, kid.”

Pedro paused as he heard Roxy hang up on the other end. Had he really just said that? Was he really already so familiar with those kids that terms like that would just slip out so easily? He sighed and rubbed his eyes as he dropped down into his office chair. He was just worried about her, about all of them. It had been a long time since he’d had to look out for anyone other than himself and clearly the extra stress was getting to him. Maybe he needed a day to himself.

He chuckled at the thought. As if he’d ever willingly take the day off. What could he possibly find relaxing about his cold and lonely apartment? No, work was where he was able to let himself go, bury himself in his cases and lose himself in the details of some random crime that had nothing to do with him.

He was about to go do that very thing when a ding from his laptop distracted him. A new email, it seemed. Sent by… someone by the name of Tacitus Kilgore. Pedro smiled. An old inside joke between him and his old raiding friends. He missed them quite a bit, but the idea of abandoning his duties in Dewsbury to go see them was a hurdle he wasn’t quite ready to jump.

Pedro opened the email and scanned over its contents.

Sent by: Tacitus Kilgore

Subject: You might want to see this.

Hey, Peddy Bear. Been a while.

Looked into anything related to that super jacked-up werewolf you saw, but things mostly came up empty. Even pulled a few raids, but no one found anything. Not until tonight, that is.

The Sons have updated their website, and it is seriously fucked up, man. Have a look.

There was an attachment on the email. Pedro opened it and was greeted with a screenshot of what seemed to be the hunter’s website, a new picture on its homepage. It displayed a row of five gleaming silver cages, all stacked next to each other and situated at the edge of a brightly lit room. Inside each cage was the corpse of a werewolf, each one as huge and misshapen as Blaine had been. Pedro was no stranger to violence, but to see so many of his species locked up and slaughtered like stray dogs lit a fire in the pit of his stomach. His hand curled into a fist, slowly growing claws digging into the flesh of his palm.

Below the picture was some text. Honestly, Pedro didn’t care to read it, but it was irresponsible not to with everything that was going on, so he forced himself to absorb each and every deranged word.

THE HUNT GOES WELL.

WITH EVERY BEAST THAT IS SLAIN, A LITTLE BIT OF EVIL IS EXPELLED FROM OUR WORLD.

FATHER SUPERIOR IS OUR SHEPHERD, AND HE WILL GUIDE THE SHEEP OUT OF THIS DARK AGE IN WHICH WE LIVE.

PREPARE FOR THE NIGHT OF THE BLOODMOON, FOLLOWERS OF THE BLACK SUN.

IT WILL SIGNAL THE NEW DAWN.

LAUDATE LUCEM SOLIS

… Pedro didn’t know what the ‘Night of the Bloodmoon’ would entail, but he got the nagging feeling that he would be finding out soon enough. The email continued on.

Wild shit, right? Me and the boys are looking into what this ‘Bloodmoon’ stuff could be about, but my bet is that it’s just more brainwashed mumbo-jumbo. Still no leads on why all the bodies are fucked up like that, though. Let me know if there’s anything on your end, people are going crazy with their theories over here.

P.S. Could you get me the direwolf’s autograph? I heard you made contact with her from Clarissa and thought it might be a fun souvenir for Lara. Her grandma was a direwolf, apparently. Hey, does that mean our kids will be part direwolf, too? Well, I guess we’re all part direwolf, aren’t we?

That’s about it over here on the east coast. Miss you, P. Talk soon.

Pedro sighed as he read through the email, over and over, trying to squeeze as much of his old friend’s personality out of it as he could. He missed Don. After composing himself, he began to type up a reply.

Hey, D.

You weren’t kidding. That’s seriously fucked up. I have a few more leads on my end, but they’re mostly just theories. The hunters want the direwolf alive for something, and I can only assume it’s related to this crap. They came after her. She ended up having to take her first blood, but she’s alright, if a little shaken up. They got her with some weird new silver that can somehow affect her. She’s been showing weird symptoms. Asked the Council but you know how they are, so I guess I won’t know anything for a while.

P.S. No, I will not ask a 17 year old for her autograph, that’s just weird. I would tell you to come up here and get it yourself, but the young Reed is pretty jumpy about new werewolves. She thought that territories were still a thing until a few days ago, though that’s kind of my fault, leaving her with humans. Either way, tell Lara she’ll just have to do without. Hope you two are good.

P.P.S. Yes, we’re all part direwolf, cabrón. Your intelligence is blinding sometimes.

Talk soon, D. Miss you too.

Pedro hit send and leaned back in his chair, listening to it creak. He really needed a new one. Oh well, something to think about later. He checked the clock. It was only nine thirty.

Pedro cracked his knuckles. Plenty of time for some case work.