Tim knew he was dead. There was no way that his anger, which he could still feel burning in his chest, could be satisfied now. If only that burning would stop, he could go to sleep and no longer worry.

But the burning also carried a familiar feeling to him. It was anger, but it was also something else. Looking inside the darkness, he could start to see light. The light pulsed, almost beating, and he could see movement.

The light was circling around within a trapped space, but he could see it increasing, getting brighter every second.

There was a second light as well, not quite the same, definitely darker than the first, but this light was familiar.

This was the light of his beast core, the one that was supposed to be around his neck was now lodged somewhere under his heart. The light from the first location was increasing inside him, he could see his heart now, he was somehow visualizing his internal organs. There was a jagged cut in his chest, open to the air. He could feel the cold as his senses started reconnecting. But the burning warmth of the beast core and the brightness of the other core was keeping him aware. As he watched, the light in the first core was almost a solid ring now, spinning at a dizzying rate.

All of the sudden, extreme pain filled his mind as the blinding light pushed forward, breaking out of whatever contained it. Light filled Tim’s body as he felt it spread out, merging with his blood within his heart. As the blood that had been transformed by the light moved on, he felt his body strengthen, his mind clear. He had no idea how long it had been now, but he could feel the blood returning to his heart, finishing up modifying his body as it passed. His skin felt hard, then soft, there was even an itching at his neck where the old wolf scars were.

As he felt the first of the empowered blood return to his heart, he could now feel how weak it was compared to when it first left. Whatever energy it had carried was almost all gone now. But the blood moved into the chamber where the light had been before and he felt that empowered state return. At the bottom of that organ, there was a fine dust-like substance, and as he watched, it converted into energy that attached to his blood flowing through his core.

And then pain came from somewhere near his heart. Tim focused on it, and he found the beast core again, but looking closely it had a crack in its surface. That alone amazed him as he knew it was almost impossible to crack them normally. The damage to his chest had opened a wound all the way to his heart with the beast core in it. The two situations combined allowed the energy from it to enter his heart. The warming beastial energy tried to attach to the blood, attacking his brighter energy to replace it.

As the two energies fought, he was wracked with pain, body now arched, muscles clenched fighting against the conflict inside him.

Tim’s mind reached out to the energy spilling into him. It was chaotic and damaged, almost frightened as he touched it. Remembering all the nights that the core had protected him, he reached out with thoughts of comfort and safety.

The energy responded, pulling back from the blood, awaiting his direction. It reminded him of Ralph, eagerly waiting for a snack from Miles.

Hoping that his own core had a better idea of how to handle this, he focused and tried to lead it all into his core, which he guessed was the organ really attached to his heart. He wanted to get it out of his body, but focusing on that made the beastial energy fight against his control. It seems to have found a body and not want to leave.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Once he set the destination to his core, the energy quickly left his control, but instead of trying to contest for blood again, it moved through the chambers of his heart, floating into his core, returning to its normal pattern it once had within the beast core.

Now that he could focus, he could feel the damage to his body again. Miles had mentioned that it was easier to heal your own body, but this felt strange. Like his body was flooding his mind with how each organ worked, and what the pattern the body was supposed to be in.

And that thought was combined with a desire to return his body back into the shape it was supposed to be. To his astonishment, his body quickly complied. Blood moved within his body like it had a mind of its own. It solidified itself and moved bones and organs back into the right locations. It started his lungs breathing, which he hadn’t noticed before were both collapsed, the right one no longer even in his body. But his body remembered, or some part of it did. He had the blueprint of what his lungs should be like, and without even trying the energy in his blood mapped out the replacement. Blood shifted into mist and back into some kind of mass. The mass seemed to latch onto the pattern, filling it out, replacing what was lost or broken. He watched as the organ regenerated through this new vision inside his body.

A cracking sound from his bones fusing in his chest reached his ears. There was an additional oddity his body was trying to figure out a solution to. The old core was breaking down, fragments were entering his blood. With some testing, the similarity to his own core seemed appropriate, so the tendrils moved the fragments there and he could feel them sinking to rest within it.

Blood, empowered from his core, completed changing his skin for the newly repaired sections. His body felt normal again, and he opened his eyes.

Miles was on the ground nearby, unconscious. A large wound on his head was bleeding. Ralph was almost flying, bouncing in the air like there were steps, attacking the demon. But he could see that the silver wolf was slowing down. He was losing whatever boost Miles had given and could no longer provide.

The demon no longer caused me fear, but anger. It had attacked his pack and needed to die.

As Tim flew off the ground, he could feel his face, arms, and legs shift to be better suited to his purpose. His snout had better senses than his normal nose, and the teeth were strong, they would rip and tear at that demon's flesh. This was a new pattern, but it also felt right, like it was what he was supposed to be.

His nails were harder and elongated into claws. They felt tougher than metal to his new abilities as his mind registered them and added them to the pattern. The legs were a slight issue, and he stumbled as the knee bent back, his bones doubling in size, newly created muscles wrapping into place to increase his speed and strength. He would be able to run down any prey.

Some part of him was mildly surprised the demon didn’t notice him until his jaw snapped closed on the back of its neck. He was much taller now, bigger than the demon this time and he pulled it into the air. As the demon screamed for the first time, blood poured out around his teeth as he locked the demon in the air, lifting him in his mouth.

His claws shot forward, digging into the soft flesh under the rib cage. The black skin parted almost as easily as his chest had before to the demon’s claws. Revenge was sweat, even better when protecting your alpha. That wouldn’t last long as he would soon challenge the old leader, but he was doing his duty now.

His claws dug in, angling for the glowing crystal that should be somewhere near where a heart would be. He had seen it before when he was attacked, and it was odd enough it had to be important. His hands entered an odd void in the body, like a very large stomach, but one hand hit something his claws couldn’t cut.

Howling in rage and anger, his clawed fingers wrapped around the mass, pulling hard as it traveled out the demon’s back. He raised the crystal and howled again to celebrate his victory over the enemy of the pack, releasing the body to fall on the ground in front of him.

Then the energy that was maintaining him started to fade. Looking back inside his body he could see that he had very little blood left. It was all gone, and he had no idea where it was.

As his body reverted, becoming more human, his enhanced thoughts attempted to help him understand what was happening. But the only thing he knew now was that he was about to pass out, and couldn’t stop it. Those thoughts were lost as he once again closed his eyes.