The run and the events at the park had drained him of his energy. He felt hungry, but not in the usual way. It gnawed at him, low and insistent, like a fire smoldering deep in his gut. He opened the fridge and stared at its contents: leftover pasta, a half-empty carton of milk, a few limp vegetables. None of it appealed to him.
Kaelen frowned, his stomach tightening. He pulled out the pasta, peeling back the plastic wrap. The sight of the congealed sauce, the soft noodles made his stomach turn. He slammed it back on the shelf with a grunt, the sound of the fridge door rattling in its frame echoing through the quiet house.
His gaze shifted to the freezer. The thought hit him suddenly, unbidden: Meat.
He hesitated, his hand hovering over the handle. Shaking his head, he opened the freezer. Frosted-over bags of ground beef, a package of chicken thighs, and a steak he’d forgotten he’d bought weeks ago stared back at him. His mouth watered, but the sight of the pale, icy meat made his stomach churn in revulsion.
Kaelen grabbed the steak, holding it in his hand. Even through the frozen packaging, it felt satisfying. Solid, raw. But it was useless like this. He couldn’t eat it, not frozen. He knew that. Yet the thought of cooking it felt absurd, as though the idea of preparing it was an insult to the hunger that roared within him.
With a frustrated snarl, he tossed the steak into the sink. It landed with a dull thud, the plastic crinkling. He braced himself against the counter, gripping the edge until his knuckles turned white. His breathing was uneven, his body buzzing with energy despite the exhaustion weighing on his limbs.
He ran a trembling hand through his hair and stumbled into the living room. The house felt suffocating, the air heavy and charged with something he couldn’t name.
Ignoring the still upturned state of the house, he flipped the couch upright and dropped onto it. Laying his head back against the armrest.
His eyes fluttered closed, but sleep didn’t come easily. Restlessness consumed him, his muscles twitching as though they were preparing for something he didn’t understand. His dreams, when they came, were jagged and incoherent. Flashes of dark forests, the gleam of eyes in the shadows, the taste of blood.
Kaelen jerked awake as the last rays of sunlight slipped below the horizon, plunging the world into twilight. The house was silent, but he felt the shift. The air was different now, charged with anticipation.
His skin prickled, a strange heat radiating beneath it. He sat up slowly, every nerve in his body alive. The full moon was rising, and with it, something he could no longer deny.
Change was happening within him he did not fully understand, but he had to accept that it was happening. As crazy as it sounded to him, Alden had to be right. He was experiencing a change that was not human in nature.
“Alden.” Kaelen thought feelings of rage mixed with curiosity circled his mind. Mainly rage though.
Alden. This was all his fault. Rage coursed through his body. Hunger, too. This time he did not hesitate as he entered the kitchen. Straight for the pack of meat, he had thrown in the sink. Pools of thawed blood sat in the styrofoam tray.
Ripping the plastic off he started devouring it with his bare hands, shoveling handfuls of raw meat into his mouth, licking the blood from his fingers. Mentally he was feeling a little repulsed by his actions, the voice of reason was at the back of his mind now, rather than at the forefront as instincts took over.
He stopped gorging on the meat suddenly, frozen mid chew. He could sense someone close. He knew instantly who it was. Rage flooded every cell in his being as he ran out the back door, not even pausing to open it. Smashing through the solid door, splintering it into thousands of pieces.
Revelling in his new found strength, he paused to ascertain which direction Alden was. He was moving away, towards the forest from the first night. Memories of that night had come flooding back with the blood he had ingested. Knowing now, that more of the same, or even better, human blood, would bring back all that had transpired where his memory currently failed him.
He wanted to know.
He needed to know!
He started to feel his body changing as he launched himself over his back fence effortlessly. The full moon was almost at its peak. He could sense he did not have much time left. He had not heeded Alden’s warning of resting, or nourishment. He knew instinctively what Alden had meant by that.
A human kill.
He started running through the middle of the park in Alden’s direction, intent on causing him harm but not before he got some straight answers. Kaelen felt powerful. His heart was pumping furiously. Adrenaline coursed through his veins.
Suddenly through mid-stride Alden felt excruciating pain through his spine. A loud pop followed by a deafening crack knocked him face-first into the grass in the park. The moonlight shone down on him in full force.
It was time.
Kaelen’s back arched involuntarily, a searing pain igniting at the base of his spine. It felt as though a red-hot poker was driving upward, each vertebra grinding, snapping, and reforming as it climbed toward his skull. His ribs creaked, expanding outward with each agonizing breath, the tendons snapping like overstretched cords.
Pain flooded every fibre of his being, lighting up every nerve ending, exploding flashes of intense light filled his brain. He could not see or hear anything but the relentless grinding of bone against bone.
The agony spread like wildfire, reaching his shoulders and hips. His pelvis tilted unnaturally, the joints popping as his legs lengthened and the arch of his feet flattened. His ligaments stretched beyond their limit, his skin started to tear at his joints as they popped and contorted in seemingly unnatural positions.
Finally a scream erupted from deep within Kaelen that sent flocks of sleeping birds bursting out of trees the whole length of the park and beyond. Dogs that had been barking, fell silent, but for a whimper amongst a few who knew, instinctively, they knew.
The moonlight seemed to pierce through him, its silvery glow burning against his skin like a brand, amplifying the pain coursing through his body. He tried to crawl into the shadows, but the light followed him, relentless and merciless. He clawed at the ground as his hands stretched, nails blackening and curving into razor-sharp points.
Kaelen struggled with coherent thought as the pain of the process overwhelmed all his senses. He could only stare in horror as he saw the physical changes happening in front of his eyes. Struggling to retain his sanity he tried focusing on his last clear, human memory. All that came to mind was the sensations at the park during his run, driving home further into his subconscious his lost humanity.
Kaelen desperately sought anything out that could ground him in his human experience. Kaelen’s eyes fixed on his hands—no, his claws now—as fur erupted from the raw, bloodied flesh. Chunks of flesh and skin continued to fall away from his body.
Now he was just wishing for death to come. For it to be all over. He could not bear the pain any longer.
His breath hitched, the sound of it guttural, inhuman. He tried to scream, but the noise that escaped was a low, primal growl. Somewhere in his mind, a fragment of himself recoiled, desperate to make sense of the monster he was becoming.
Through the haze of pain, Kaelen felt his jaw extend, teeth lengthening into razor-sharp points. His chest heaved as his ribs expanded, his breathing deep and guttural, echoing like a predator stalking the night.
Kaelen collapsed amongst a pool of blood, flesh and skin. Exhausted, his mind shutting down. Feeling his grip on sanity failing him.
Deep within him though, when all hope was about lost, his soul screamed awake. The inner beast rose, refusing to lay down and die. Not this day.
A growl rose from deep within Kaelen, as he slowly rose onto all fours. Then he stood, shakily at first as he began to get used to his new body, then he stretched all the way, head lifting slowly towards the night sky. Kaelen tilted his head back and released a howl that tore through the night. It wasn’t his voice anymore—this sound belonged to something ancient, something feral.
He heard an answering howl from deep within the forest.
Alden.
His rage returned, only now it was primal, powerful and unrelenting. He bounded towards the forest, travelling at speeds that dwarfed even his best as a human, reaching the forest in no time.
He sensed Alden in front of him even before he saw him. His vision was tailored for the night, no longer seeing a rainbow of colours his human self would have seen. The light from the moon gave everything a silvery shine, from bright silvers to anything thin in its design. Leaves that hung from the tree branches shimmered in full silver light, whereas the trunks of trees were darker with a more subdued silvery tinge to them.
The beauty of it all gave him pause until he saw the pulsing life form of Alden, his keen werewolf vision picking up his form a good 500 metres away. From that distance, all he could see was the werewolf form, emitting a powerful blood-red, filling his full form.
Kaelen leapt towards Alden who was still some distance away. As he closed the distance rapidly, he could see the blood-red light emitting from Alden pumping through his body. It was clear he had recently fed. Kaelen could sense the power emanating from Alden's body as a result.
Kaelen slowed as he neared Alden, now wary as Alden had not moved. Kaelen's instincts warned him of possible danger for this was not how anything reacted to a possible threat inbound.
He started circling, away from Alden directly, but in a direction to hopefully give Kaelen an advantage if Alden dropped his guard or turned his back.
“Enough of this Kaelen. You are still there are you not? Or have you turned feral? Do I have to put you down like a rabid dog?”
Kaelen growled at him in response, circling Alden still. He could now sense another body nearby, close to Alden. This was not a threat, so Kaelen dismissed it as unimportant.
“Aww, such a pretty growl,” Alden taunted, “I’m glad to see you survived the transformation physically, seemed to be touch and go there at the end, but you pulled through. You get used to it.”
Kaelen stopped, glaring directly at Alden, never breaking eye contact. Torn between his primal urge to attack, to destroy who had turned him into this beast, and his still human nature, remnants of who he was, warning him it was not a smart move, not yet.
“What’s the matter, boy?” Alden’s voice dripped with condescension. “Still trying to decide if you’re man or beast? Let me make it easy for you—you’re neither. You’re mine.”
This final taunt quelled any remnant of his human instinct to survive at all costs. Rage-filled he screamed at Alden.
“GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!”
As he launched himself into full, direct attack at Alden.
Alden had been prepared for this outcome, he swiftly stepped to the side, reaching from behind a tree as he did and flinging a body at Kaelen.
A human scream erupted from the body as Kaelen collided with it, his jaws clamping down on what he thought was going to be Alden’s neck but ended up being some hapless human in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The body collided with him like dead weight, its scent flooding his nostrils. Kaelen’s jaws snapped instinctively, finding flesh and bone before he could stop himself. The scream was sharp, human, but it ended in a sickening gurgle as his jaws crushed the windpipe. Warm blood spilled over his tongue.
Kaelen froze, his jaws still clamped around the lifeless neck. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, and for a fleeting moment, the man he once was screamed in anguish. But the beast in him growled louder, silencing the human voice as it craved more.
He didn’t let go.
The forest was suddenly deathly quiet, the only slight sound was the crunching of bones and tearing of flesh as Kaelen ate.
He had become one of the forsaken.
