I stood motionless before the water. My reflection did the same.
For a few seconds, my brain simply refused to process what my eyes were seeing. That thing was a wolf—no, calling it a "wolf" felt like an insult. It was gigantic. Its chest was broad, its paws looked capable of crushing anything without effort, its pitch-black fur completely covered its body, and judging by the height of the reflection relative to the surrounding trees, I had to be roughly the size of a horse.
My breathing hitched.
Calm down. Calm down, Ethan.
My mind started racing a mile a minute. How had this happened? Had I triggered the curse? And then came a much worse thought, one that chilled me to the bone before I could even fully finish thinking it.
Had I killed someone?
My heart hammered against my ribs. I had passed out. I didn't remember transforming, I didn't remember what I did afterward, and what if—
No. I took a few steps backward and started looking around frantically. I tried using my nose. Terrible idea. Thousands of scents exploded inside my head all at once—damp earth, leaves, wood, water, animals, insects, flowers, ancient smells mingling with fresh tracks. It was sensory overload, a chaos that should have made me dizzy. But strangely, my brain seemed to separate every single thread of that tangle effortlessly, as if it had always known how.
I searched for one specific thing. Blood. Human. Anything indicating I had hurt someone.
Nothing. No body. No strong scent of blood. Nothing suggesting I had attacked anyone.
My breathing slowed down a little. Okay. At least, apparently, I didn't kill anyone. But it still made zero sense. I already knew how werewolves worked—to trigger the curse, you had to take a life. Then came the transformations: full moon, agony, breaking bones, an experience so horrific that the werewolves at school avoided even talking about it.
I hadn't gone through any of that. I hadn't killed anyone. It wasn't a full moon—it was still daytime. And I had simply... turned into this.
I looked back at my reflection. This shouldn't be happening.
Then I stopped. Rethought it.
Since when has anything about me been normal? My strength was never normal. My hearing was never normal. My healing was never normal. I could use magic even with what everyone believed was werewolf blood. Then I spent three weeks unconscious and woke up looking years older. My body temperature would now be a fatal fever for any ordinary person. And just a few hours after all that, I turned into a horse-sized wolf in the middle of the afternoon.
I let out a low rumble—GRRRRHH—that echoed across the lake.
Okay. Maybe it's time to stop expecting anything about me to work like the rest of the world.
I stared back at the creature in the reflection. Still terrifying. Very much so. But now that the panic was starting to recede, I had to admit one thing: it was incredible.
I tilted my head. The reflection did the same.
So, let's find out what you can do.
I backed away from the shoreline. First, I tried walking. It was weird—really weird. My brain seemed to automatically know how to move four legs, but I was still overthinking every single movement. Right, left, hind, other hind. I almost tripped. Very graceful, Ethan. After a few paces, I stopped thinking about it, and it became much easier.
I broke into a trot. Then I picked up the speed. The wind rushed through my fur, and my body responded instantly, as if running in this form was as natural as breathing. I accelerated. The trees began blurring past me. Faster. Faster. Faster—until the entire forest turned into a streak of green and brown.
Holy shit.
I was absurdly fast. Every push of my paws against the ground launched my body several yards forward, and the wildest part was that I wasn't even getting tired. It felt like I could run forever. I pushed faster—and only then did I notice a tiny detail I probably should have considered earlier.
I didn't know how to brake.
A massive tree materialized right in front of me. Crap. I tried to veer off, my paws skidding in the dirt—CRAAAAACK—and my shoulder slammed straight into the trunk. For a second, everything became wood, leaves, and noise. But I wasn't the one who went down. The tree cracked, the trunk gave way near the base, and—BOOOOOOM—it crashed down right beside me, flushing birds out of the nearby canopy in every direction.
I stood completely still. I shook my head once, then twice, my ears flopping along. I looked at the fallen tree. Then at my body. Then at the tree again.
Did I do that?
I walked slowly toward the shattered trunk. It wasn't just any little tree—it was thick, ancient, and I had simply plowed right through it. I dragged a paw over the broken wood. I felt absolutely nothing. No pain, not even a bruise.
A low sound escaped my throat. Rrrrrhh. If I still had a human mouth, I'd probably be grinning like an idiot.
This is bad ass.
I should have been worried. Extremely worried. But it was impossible not to feel a surge of satisfaction spreading through my chest. My human strength was already ridiculous; in this form, it was a completely different story.
I spent the rest of the afternoon pushing the limits of this new body. I learned to lean into turns using my weight, to switch directions almost instantaneously once I stopped panicking. I jumped—the first time I nearly hit a branch, the second time I cleared a massive boulder, and on the third, my body sailed several yards through the air before touching the ground again. I sprinted up an incline and charged down even faster. My reflexes were insane, and so was my hearing—I could hear small animals scurrying long before I saw them. And my sense of smell was even more impressive: I could distinguish tracks from rabbits, deer, birds, and somehow knew, in a way I couldn't explain, whether a scent was fresh or old.
How the hell do I know how to do this?
Maybe I didn't. Maybe he did. The wolf.
The thought should have frightened me. But strangely, it didn't. It didn't feel like another creature was sharing my body with me, no secondary consciousness lurking behind my eyes. It was me. That was me, in a way I couldn't fully articulate yet—I just knew it was true.
That was when my ears perked up on their own.
Footsteps. Human—no. Almost human.
I froze. Thump. Thump. Thump. The heartbeat was too slow to be human. Vampire.
I turned my head toward the sound, and a few seconds later, a boy emerged from between the trees, his school uniform recognizable even from a distance. He had probably come to investigate the crash of the tree. I remained motionless.
"Is anyone there?"
He took a few more steps. Then he saw me, and stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes blew wide, his mouth agape, but no sound came out. I just stared.
"What..." He took a step back. "What the fuck is that?"
I tilted my head. His heart spiked.
"No..." He looked up at the sky, then back at me. "That's impossible."
You and me both, pal.
He kept backing away. "Are you... a wolf?"
Tough question.
He scanned me top to bottom. "Werewolves don't get this big..." And there's no full moon!
I automatically glanced at the sky. Still bright out. I met his gaze again. Good point.
"And you're out here in broad daylight!"
His fear was becoming easier to sense—not just through his heartbeat, but through his scent, which had shifted completely: adrenaline, sweat, tension, all far too glaring for me to ignore.
"Are you..." He narrowed his eyes. "Can you understand me?"
Finally.
I gave a single nod. Yes.
He went pale. "Ah... right." He glanced around, then looked back at me. "Are you a student?"
I nodded again. That was when he truly lost it.
"No. There's no way." He looked at me, then at the sky, then back at me, as if repeating the gesture would change the answer.
Welcome to the club.
"Are you telling me some school student turned into a giant wolf..." I nodded "...in the middle of the day..." another nod "...without a full moon?"
Yep.
He ran a hand through his hair. "I need to get someone." He started backing away faster. "Stay here." I blinked, and he seemed to realize the absurdity of that order on his own. "I mean... I don't know. Just don't leave."
Sure thing, boss.
He spun around and, in less than a second, vanished through the trees with that supernatural vampire speed.
I stared in the direction where he had disappeared. Then I lowered my eyes to my own paws.
Alright. Now for the next problem: how the hell do I get back to normal?
I closed my eyes. I pictured my human body—hands, legs, face. Nothing. I opened my eyes. Still a wolf.
Maybe it works like magic. Concentration. Intention. Willpower.
I took a deep breath. Change back. Nothing. Back. Nothing. CHANGE BACK.
Still a giant wolf. I let out a frustrated growl—GRRRRRR—and sat on the ground, my tail thumping against the leaves on its own.
I stared at it. Stop. It flicked again.
I lost control of my own ass. Fantastic.
I tried everything—anger, calm, focus, picturing my bedroom, picturing the school. Nothing worked. After a while, I gave up, laid down on the grass, and rested my massive head on my paws, having no idea how much time had passed, just waiting.
The vampire practically ran through the door of Alaric's office.
"Principal Saltzman!"
Alaric looked up instantly. Hope, sitting across from his desk, turned as well.
"What happened?" Alaric asked.
"There's something in the forest."
He frowned. "Something?"
"A wolf."
Neither of them responded immediately. Alaric waited.
"A... giant wolf."
Hope slowly straightened in her chair. "How giant?"
The boy spread his arms wide. "He's practically the size of a horse."
Alaric blinked. "A wolf the size of a horse?"
"Maybe bigger."
"Are you sure it was a wolf?" Hope asked.
"I know what a wolf looks like."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"Four legs, fur, a snout, and teeth big enough to rip my head off. So yeah, I think it was a wolf."
Hope knitted her brows. "There's no full moon today."
"I KNOW!" he pointed out the window. "It's still light out!"
Alaric stood up. "Did it attack you?"
"No."
"Did it try to?"
"No."
"Did it growl?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you so terrified?"
He hesitated for a second, as if still processing his own answer. "Because it understood me."
Hope went stock-still. "What?"
"I talked to it."
Alaric narrowed his eyes. "And it responded?"
"By nodding."
The silence in the room shifted. Hope and Alaric exchanged a quick look, the kind loaded with too many thoughts to fit into words. A specific boy had woken up just a few hours ago after three weeks unconscious. A boy with an impossible body temperature, far greater strength than normal, heightened senses, physical alterations no one could explain—and who believed it was all linked to the part of him inherited from Clark.
Alaric let out a slow breath. "Where's Ethan?"
Hope looked at him. "He woke up?"
"A few hours ago."
"A few hours ago?!"
"Hope—"
"And you didn't think it was important to tell me?"
"I was handling the situation."
She crossed her arms. "Right."
Alaric decided not to engage in that argument. "He said he was going to his room."
The vampire looked between the two of them, piecing it together. "Wait." He pointed toward the forest. "You think that thing is the new kid?"
Hope was already on her feet. "Only one way to find out."
"Hope."
She paused, but didn't step back.
"You don't need to go."
"If that's really something related to werewolves, I probably know more about it than anyone here."
Alaric didn't answer, because she was right. Hope had been born into that world. Grown up surrounded by werewolves. Hayley was a wolf. Klaus was the Original Hybrid. If anyone could instantly tell if something was wrong with a lupine transformation, it was her.
Alaric opened a small cabinet and pulled out a crossbow.
Hope stared at the weapon. "Seriously?"
"Precaution."
"Against a horse-sized wolf?"
He looked at the crossbow, then at her. "It makes me feel better."
Hope almost smiled. "Fair enough."
Naturally, Lizzie and Josie found out what was happening before the two could even step outside.
"We're coming too," Lizzie said.
"No."
"Dad."
"Lizzie."
Josie appeared beside her sister. "If you think it might be Ethan..."
Alaric closed his eyes for a second. "How did you find out?"
Lizzie pointed at the vampire. "He told half the school on his way in."
He shrugged. "I was nervous."
Alaric sighed, and a few minutes later, against his better judgment, he had both twins trailing behind him. Caroline wasn't at the school at the moment, and normally he wouldn't even let Hope get involved in something like this. She had returned not long ago and was still trying to deal with her mother's death; the last thing he wanted was to drag her into trouble just to keep her busy. But Hope was already with him when the vampire arrived, and the decision to go had been entirely hers.
"Stay close to me," Alaric warned.
"Yes, General," Lizzie replied.
"If I tell you to run, you run."
"No arguing," Josie added.
Alaric looked at Lizzie. She raised her hands. "I didn't even say anything."
Hope walked in silence, her eyes sweeping the woods ahead. It didn't take long to find the first signs: snapped branches, massive footprints, and then an entire fallen tree, its trunk split right near the base.
Hope stopped. Everyone stared at it.
Josie's eyes went wide. "Did the wolf do that?"
Hope crouched near one of the tracks in the dirt, placing her hand beside the footprint just to gauge it. It was huge.
"If he did..." she stood up again "...the guy wasn't exaggerating."
Lizzie swallowed hard. "Great."
They continued following the trail. It didn't take long. Hope was the first to spot him, stopping so abruptly that Alaric nearly bumped into her.
"Hope?"
She didn't answer. She just stared.
Amidst the trees, sitting with his back to them, was a massive mound of dark fur—so black it almost blended into the forest shadows. Even in that position, he was gigantic. His ears twitched. He knew they were there.
Josie froze. "My God..."
Lizzie lost all color in her face. "He really is the size of a horse."
Alaric raised the crossbow, without aiming it directly. "Stay behind me."
This time, neither twin argued.
Hope kept watching, and something inside her refused to fit what she was seeing into anything she had ever encountered before. She had seen plenty of transformed werewolves. This wasn't simply a larger wolf—the build was different, bulkier, more powerful, almost as if it had been designed to exist that way. Regular werewolves looked like humans forced into an animal frame. This creature seemed born to be exactly what it was.
"This isn't a normal transformation," Hope murmured.
Alaric glanced at her. "Are you sure?"
"Positive. I mean, look at the size of him."
My ears perked up. Three... no, four people. I recognized the scents one by one: Alaric. Lizzie. Josie. And...
Hope.
Ah, great.
I kept my back to them, but I could hear everyone's heartbeats. Lizzie was nervous. Josie too. Alaric was trying to keep his breathing steady. And Hope's heart—for some reason, it stood out from the others instantly.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
My ears moved on their own, orienting toward her. Strange. But I had bigger problems right now: I needed to show I wasn't dangerous, or at least that I didn't plan on eating anyone.
I heard Alaric step forward. "Stay behind me."
I decided sitting with my back to them probably wasn't helping my case. I raised my head slowly. Then I turned around.
The four of them went rigid. Alaric raised the crossbow a bit higher. Lizzie grabbed Josie's arm without realizing it. Hope didn't move.
I scanned them, one by one. Alaric. Lizzie. Josie. And then—Hope.
And I froze.
Something happened. I didn't understand what, but without me realizing it, my eyes narrowed, and the natural blue of my irises began to fade away slowly. A vibrant green bled in from the edges—subtle at first, then growing intense until it dominated almost completely. A deep, vivid, wild green.
Hope's brow furrowed slightly, but I barely registered it, because in that exact fraction of a second, the world simply stopped.
It didn't feel like it stopped. It stopped.
The wind vanished. The birds went silent. The rustling leaves ceased to exist. Alaric's heartbeat disappeared. Lizzie, Josie, everything—even the overwhelming flood of scents my new form could perceive—was pushed to somewhere far away, as if someone had suddenly muted the entire universe.
There was only one thing.
One person.
Her.
My entire body locked up—and it wasn't fear, it wasn't surprise, it wasn't even attraction in the way I knew it. This was happening somewhere much deeper. Before thought. Before reason. In my bones. In my blood. In my instinct.
It was as if, my whole life, the world had been made of millions of scattered things with no real order—people, places, problems, desires, fears, memories, each existing on its own without touching the rest. And then I looked at Hope, and in a single second, everything found its center.
Gravity. That was the only word that made sense. A person doesn't choose to be pulled by the Earth; they don't need to understand why. It just happens.
And right there, something inside me had just rearranged the entire universe around her.
My heart thundered. THUMP. The vibration rattled through my chest.
Hope.
My mind had known that name for years. But my body seemed to recognize something much greater in it—a certainty as natural as breathing.
Protect her.
It wasn't a command. Nobody had invaded my head; there was no voice telling me what to do. I just knew. If Hope was in danger, I would reach her. If she was afraid, I needed to know why. And if someone tried to hurt her—my claws dug into the earth on their own, a violent reaction surging through my entire body just at the thought.
But it wasn't just protection. It was even stranger: I wanted her to be okay. Even if that had absolutely nothing to do with me. Even if she never wanted me around. Even if she told me to leave right now. Her happiness, out of nowhere, had acquired an importance I didn't know how to justify.
And the strangest part of all was that I was still me. My mom was still important. My friends were still important. My thoughts were still my own, my choices were still my own—I hadn't magically fallen in love with someone in a single second. But Hope now occupied a space inside me that simply hadn't existed before. A space that felt like it had been built exclusively for her.
My heart beat again. THUMP.
That was when I noticed something else: the emptiness. That hollow feeling that had been haunting me since I woke up, the irritating sense that something was missing. It had vanished. Completely. As if it had never existed at all.
Because she was there.
No.
My mind finally started catching up to what my instinct seemed to have known for much longer. No.
I remembered the stories from that bastard—the things he had told my mom once. A rare bond. A single individual. Something that couldn't be chosen, couldn't be triggered on purpose, and couldn't be undone just because someone didn't like the idea.
The word slammed into my head like a punch.
Imprint.
So that was it. That was the feeling. After all, I always said my old man was a liar, that he lied to my mother, but in the end, it was all true.
I kept staring at Hope. It was as if I was seeing her for the first time—not because I'd never noticed she was pretty before; I had eyes, after all. But this had nothing to do with beauty. I noticed details I had never truly observed before: the way she held her chin slightly raised when she wanted to seem stronger than she felt inside. The tension she carried in her shoulders without realizing it. The exhaustion hidden behind her eyes.
And the sorrow.
My focus locked onto it immediately. I didn't know the reason—had no idea what had happened or what she was carrying inside. But I felt it. In a way that didn't come from my eyes or my sense of smell, but from somewhere deeper, as if her pain found an echo in me before I could even understand it existed. Something inside me deeply hated the simple fact that she was suffering, whatever the cause. Not because I expected anything in return. I just wanted her to be okay.
And maybe that was the scariest part of all.
Oh, shit. Of all people. Of all the things I could have inherited from that bastard...
Hope was my imprint.
"Dad..." Lizzie's voice sounded as if it came from miles away. "His eyes."
Alaric had noticed too. "I see it."
Josie stared at my irises. "Ethan's eyes were blue."
Hope answered almost without thinking. "They were." And she didn't look away.
Alaric took a small step forward. "Ethan?"
I forced my focus back to him, and he noticed the reaction immediately—his eyes narrowed. "So it really is you."
I nod once, slowly.
Lizzie's eyes went wide. "I don't believe it."
Josie covered her mouth. "Ethan?!"
I nodded again.
"My God..." she whispered.
Lizzie stepped out from behind her father. "You turned into a giant wolf?!"
Looks like it.
She looked me up and down. "Like... actually giant."
My ears flattened slightly. Thanks, Lizzie.
Josie looked at her sister. "I think he understood you."
"I know!"
Alaric lowered the crossbow a little. "Ethan, do you understand everything we're saying?"
I nodded.
Josie seemed genuinely fascinated. "He retains full consciousness."
"That's already different," Hope commented.
I immediately looked back at her. THUMP. My heart answered before I could do anything about it, and the green in my eyes seemed to glow even brighter.
Hope noticed. Her expression shifted—just a fraction. Confusion.
Alaric spoke up again. "Did you kill anyone?"
My attention snapped back to him. I shook my head hard. No.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded.
"Then you didn't trigger a traditional curse," Hope said.
Alaric glanced at her. "That's what I was thinking."
Josie frowned. "Then how did he transform?"
Nobody answered.
Lizzie pointed subtly up at the sky. "And it's still daytime."
"That shouldn't be possible either," Hope added.
I looked at her. Thanks. You guys are so obvious.
Alaric lowered the crossbow completely. "Alright." He let out a breath. "At least we know it's Ethan, and that he's conscious."
Lizzie crossed her arms. "We still have one small problem."
Alaric looked at her. "Which is?"
She pointed at me. "How do we make him stop being a horse-wolf?"
I let out a low growl. GRRRRR.
Lizzie instantly took half a step back. "Right." She held up her hands. "Giant wolf. No horse."
Josie tried to stifle a laugh. Even Alaric almost cracked a smile.
Hope, however, kept staring at me, and I tried to ignore it. I couldn't. It was impossible—not because some force compelled me, but because suddenly, I was absurdly aware of every single detail of her presence. Her breathing. Her heart. Her scent. Even her smallest movement.
Hope frowned and slowly brought a hand to her chest.
My entire body went on high alert. What is it?
She took a deep breath. "This is weird..."
Alaric perked up instantly. "What?"
Hope kept her eyes on me, her hand still resting over her heart. "I don't know." A pause. "I felt something."
My heart hammered. THUMP.
She breathed in deeper, her eyes narrowing slightly. For a second, her expression looked almost surprised. Confused—as if something inside her had responded to something inside me.
And that was the moment an even scarier possibility crossed my mind.
Maybe I wasn't the only one feeling it.
I can't pinpoint the exact moment everything started to shift. All I know is that while I kept staring at her—at that hand pressed against her chest, at the confusion in her eyes that mirrored my own—something inside me let go.
It wasn't like before. It wasn't focus, or willpower, or me screaming CHANGE BACK inside my own head like an idiot. It was simpler than that. Almost gentle. As if my body had decided, on its own, that it no longer needed that form—that the message had already been delivered.
A tingling sensation started at the tips of my paws.
"Uh..." Lizzie took a step back. "Is anyone else seeing this?"
Josie's eyes widened. "What?"
"He's..." Alaric lowered the crossbow for good, his eyes locked on me. "Ethan?"
The fur began to recede, like a pulling tide. My bones rearranged themselves with sharp cracks, one after another, but this time it didn't hurt—just a strange pressure, a tug at every joint, as if my body was being folded back into its proper shape after being stretched out all day. My paws elongated. My claws retracted. My snout shrank.
And the green, slowly, faded back to blue.
It only took a few seconds. Maybe ten. But they felt much longer to me, inside there, feeling every piece of my old body settle back into place.
When I finally managed to open my eyes—my human eyes, with eyelids I actually knew how to control—I was kneeling in the middle of the woods, breathing heavily, my heart still pounding hard.
And completely naked.
Silence.
"Ah, finally," I spoke, my own voice sounding strange after being silent for so long.
Josie looked away instantly, both hands flying to her face. "Okay! Okay, okay, okay!"
"My God, Ethan!" Lizzie spun around so fast she almost tripped over her own feet. "A little warning next time?!"
"Sorry, I didn't exactly plan this," I replied, trying to cover what I could with both hands, which, scientifically speaking, was impossible.
Alaric had already pulled off his jacket and tossed it in my direction without even looking directly where he was aiming. "Put this on."
"Thanks."
I wrapped the jacket around my waist as fast as I could, my hands still shaking a bit—not from cold, but because my body didn't seem to fully know whether it was still a wolf or human again.
Only then did I realize Hope hadn't looked away.
She was still staring at me, her hand half-raised near her chest, as if she'd forgotten to drop it. There was no embarrassment in her expression—just that same confusion from before, now mixed with something I couldn't quite name.
Our eyes met.
And, for a second, no one else existed.
"Hope," Lizzie called out, her back still turned. "You could look away too, you know?"
Hope blinked, as if snapping out of a trance, and finally turned her head, her cheeks flushing a shade of red that I severely doubted was just from the chilly air.
"Right," she said, her voice a little firmer than necessary. "Let's... let's head back to the school."
Alaric nodded, still looking at me with a mix of relief and concern that I was beginning to recognize well in that man.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so." I tested my legs. Still a bit shaky, but holding my weight. "I just... feel weird. Like I just ran a marathon in the wrong body."
"That makes more sense than I'd like it to," Hope muttered, without turning back.
I started walking behind them, Alaric's jacket pulled tight around my waist, my heart still beating far too fast for it to just be from the transformation.
I knew what I had felt back there.
I just didn't know, yet, what to do with it.