The wolf was dying.
Kael Morrow watched from the ridge, binoculars pressed to his eyes. Below him, in a snow-covered valley, the old alpha lay on his side. His pack surrounded him. They didn't move. They just stood there, watching.
Kael had been tracking these wolves for three years. He knew this alpha had led for eight. Knew his mate, a gray female with a limp from an old injury. Knew his oldest son, a big male who'd been challenging his father more often lately. Knew the younger one, the gray three-year-old who kept his distance but never looked away.
The gray male circled the dying alpha. Sniffed him. Licked his face once. Then turned and walked into the trees.
One by one, the pack followed.
Kael lowered his binoculars. He pulled out his notebook, flipped past pages of tracks and kill sites and weather patterns, and wrote:
Alpha dead. Pack moving east. Gray male leading.
He'd been doing this work for fifteen years. Started in Yellowstone, moved to Alaska, ended up here in northern Canada. No particular reason. The wolves didn't care where he was. Neither did he.
No family. No wife. No kids. Just a cabin, a notebook, and wolves that didn't know his name.
People in town asked if he got lonely. He always gave the same answer.
"Wolves are better company."
He meant it.
The cabin sat at the edge of a frozen lake, forty miles from the nearest road. Kael built it himself ten years ago. No electricity. No running water. No neighbors for miles.
He stripped off his gear, started a fire, opened a can of stew. Ate straight from the pot while reviewing his notes.
The gray male would be alpha by morning. Maybe someone would challenge him. Maybe not. Kael had seen it happen a dozen times. The strong led. The weak followed or died. Simple.
He finished his stew and grabbed a beer from the snowbank outside. Sat on the porch and watched the northern lights twist across the sky.
No one to call. No one waiting. Just the cold.
He thought about the wolves. About the gray male. About how the pack would change now. Some would challenge. Some would submit. Some would leave. That was the way of things.
He finished his beer and went inside. Slept alone. Woke alone. Same as always.
The light came at 3:47 AM.
Kael woke to white. Not snow. Light. Everywhere. So bright it burned through his closed eyelids. He tried to move. Couldn't. Tried to scream. Couldn't.
Then pain. His bones on fire. His blood boiling. His body changing in ways he couldn't understand. He felt his spine shift. His jaw crack. His skin crawl.
Then nothing.
He opened his eyes to three moons.
Silver. Red. Blue. Hanging in a sky that wasn't his.
He was lying on cold stone. Moss beneath him. Trees above him that didn't belong to any forest he knew. The air smelled different. Older. Strange.
He sat up.
His body felt different. Lighter. Stronger. His hands were the same. Same scars. Same calluses. But something underneath had shifted. Something in his blood.
Voices. People. Around him.
Six strangers. All waking up. All confused.
A woman with dark hair sat up fast, grabbed her head, and groaned. "Fuck. My head. Feels like someone hit me with a truck and then set me on fire."
Next to her, a massive man with scars covering both arms pushed himself up, stumbled, caught himself on a tree. He stared at his hands like they might attack him. "Where am I? What the hell is this place?"
A kid, maybe twenty, rolled onto his side and vomited into the moss. He stayed there on hands and knees, shaking, breathing hard.
A middle-aged man with glasses was already standing. Scanning the trees. He adjusted his glasses, squinted at the sky. "Three moons. Atmospheric composition seems breathable. The flora is unlike anything in our fossil record. This is impossible."
A woman with gray-streaked hair sat perfectly still, one hand pressed to her chest. Her lips moved silently. Praying. Her eyes were wide but she wasn't screaming. She just kept praying.
And a teenager with a nose ring sat cross-legged, staring at nothing. Not moving. Not speaking. A tear rolled down her cheek. She didn't wipe it away.
Kael stood up. His legs felt solid. Good.
The woman with dark hair noticed him first. "You. You're seeing that text too, right? The system thing? Tell me I'm not crazy."
Before Kael could answer, something grabbed him.
Not physically. Inside. His chest seized. His blood felt hot. His bones started moving.
He fell to his knees.
"What's happening to him?" the big man shouted.
Kael couldn't answer. His body was tearing itself apart.
His spine curved. His arms lengthened. His fingers twisted, nails darkening, growing, becoming claws. Fur erupted from his skin, dark gray, spreading across his arms, his chest, his face. His jaw cracked and reformed, teeth pushing out, becoming fangs.
He heard himself scream. Heard it turn into something else. Something animal.
Then it stopped.
He was on his hands and knees, breathing hard. The world sounded different. He could hear everything. Heartbeats. Breathing. Insects in the moss. Water dripping somewhere far away. He could smell them too. The six strangers. Their fear. Their confusion. Their sweat.
He stood up.
Six faces stared at him. Six sets of eyes, wide with fear.
The woman with dark hair screamed and scrambled backward, grabbing the kid and pulling him with her. She tripped on a root and fell, still dragging him.
The big man raised his fists. His hands were shaking so bad he could barely keep them up.
The man with glasses took a step back, then another. For the first time, he looked scared. Really scared. His mouth opened but nothing came out.
The gray-haired woman stopped praying. Her lips parted. No sound came out. She just stared.
The teenager stared. For the first time, something moved behind her eyes. Not fear. Something else. Recognition, maybe.
Then the kid whispered. "His eyes."
Kael found a pool of water and looked down.
Red. Bright red. Glowing.
The big man spoke first. His voice cracked. "What the fuck are you?"
Kael looked at his hands. Claws. Fur. Not human.
"I don't know."
"You don't know? You just turned into a monster and you don't know?"
"I don't know anything." Kael's voice was rough. Deeper than before. "Same as you."
The woman with dark hair stood up, still gripping the kid's arm. She was shaking but she stepped forward anyway. "My name's Lina. I work at a coffee shop in Vancouver. I was asleep in my apartment. Now I'm here. Now you're..." She gestured at him. "That. So excuse me if I'm a little freaked out."
The big man lowered his fists. "Marcus. I was a bouncer. Toronto." He looked at his own hands. Still human. "Why am I not like you? Why didn't I turn into whatever that is?"
The man with glasses adjusted his. His hands were shaking too but he was trying to hide it. "Dr. Aris Velenkov. Professor of evolutionary biology at the University of British Columbia." He cleared his throat. "If I had to theorize, I'd say the transformation is triggered by something we don't yet understand. Adrenaline, perhaps. Or a genetic predisposition. The fact that only one of us transformed suggests there's a hierarchy we're not aware of."
The kid wiped his mouth. He was pale and sweating. "Dax. I'm a student. Art history." He laughed weakly. It came out broken. "Real useful now. I can tell you about Renaissance painting while we die out here."
The gray-haired woman spoke softly. "Sera. I was a nurse at a hospice in Calgary." She touched her chest. "I have a heart condition. Bad one. Congestive heart failure. I was supposed to have six months left." She looked at her hands. "Now it feels different. Stronger. I don't understand."
Everyone looked at the teenager.
She stared at the ground. Didn't speak.
Lina frowned. "Hey. Kid. What's your name?"
Nothing.
"Hey." Lina stepped closer. "I'm talking to you."
The teenager looked up. Her voice was flat. Dead. "Tess. I'm seventeen. I don't care about any of this."
Lina snorted. "Edgy."
Tess's eyes flicked to her. Cold. Empty. "My parents died in a car crash last year. I was in the back seat. I watched them die. Then I lived with my aunt who didn't want me. Then this happened. So forgive me if I'm not excited about being in magic forest land with a bunch of strangers."
Silence.
Sera moved closer to Tess. Didn't touch her. Just stood nearby. Tess didn't acknowledge her but she didn't move away either.
Kael looked at them. Six strangers. All scared. All broken in their own ways. All looking at him like he had answers.
He didn't have any.
Something moved in the trees.
Everyone froze.
Dax grabbed Lina's arm. She shoved him off but didn't look away from the shadows.
Marcus stepped forward, fists up again. "Something's out there. I heard it."
Aris squinted into the dark. "Multiple somethings. I count at least a dozen. Maybe more. The heat signatures are wrong. Not human."
Sera moved in front of Tess. Tess didn't react but her eyes finally focused on the trees.
Lina looked at Kael. "So what now, red eyes? You got a plan?"
Kael watched the shadows. Shapes moving. Circling. Low to the ground. Fast. Like wolves testing a herd.
"Marcus. You ever actually fight anyone?"
"Threw out drunks. Broke up fights. Got stabbed once outside a bar. Never killed anyone."
"You might have to tonight."
Lina stepped up beside him. "I'm not hiding. I didn't survive fifteen years in Vancouver working nights to hide from something in the dark."
"Good. Stay close."
Aris pushed his glasses up. "I can observe. Note weaknesses. Identify patterns. I'm not a fighter but I can think."
"Do that. From the middle. Don't die."
Sera put a hand on Tess's shoulder. Tess flinched but didn't pull away. "I'll keep her safe. I've held dying people in my arms. I can do this."
Dax looked at Kael. His face was pale but his eyes were steadier now. "What about me? I throw up and know art history. That's literally all I have."
Kael almost smiled. Almost. "Stay behind Marcus. If someone falls, you pull them back. Can you do that?"
Dax swallowed. Nodded. "Yeah. I can do that."
The shadows moved closer. Shapes emerging from the dark. Gray skin. Too many joints. Arms that bent wrong. Eyes black and empty.
Lina's breath caught. "What the fuck are those?"
Kael didn't know.
"Things that want us dead."
He tried to shift again. Focused on that feeling from before. The heat. The pressure.
Nothing happened.
He tried again. His bones popped. His skin itched. A little fur sprouted on his arms. Then it stopped.
"What the hell?"
Marcus looked at him. "What's wrong?"
"I can't do it again. I can't change back."
Aris stepped closer, squinting at him even in the dark. "Fascinating. Perhaps the initial transformation was triggered by the system's arrival. A one-time event. Or perhaps it requires specific conditions we haven't met yet. Emotional state. Lunar position. Adrenaline levels."
"Not the time, professor."
The shadows kept coming. Closer now. Kael could see them clearly. Humanoid but wrong. Their arms too long. Their heads twisted at angles that should have broken necks. They moved like insects. Jerky. Wrong.
Lina grabbed a rock. Marcus picked up a thick branch. Dax stood behind them, shaking but holding his ground.
Sera pulled Tess further back, both of them pressed against a large tree.
Tess looked at Kael. Her flat eyes met his red ones.
"Are we going to die?"
Kael didn't have an answer.
But something in his chest stirred. That heavy thing from before. It whispered without words. Just feelings.
Protect.
Pack.
Yours.
He stepped forward. In front of all of them.
"Stay behind me."
Lina stared. "You don't even have claws right now. You're just a guy with red eyes."
"Doesn't matter."
The first creature lunged.
Kael moved. Not as fast as before. But fast enough. Years of hiking through rough terrain. Years of tracking wolves. His body knew how to move even if it wasn't a monster anymore.
He grabbed its arm, twisted, felt something break. The creature shrieked. It sounded like breaking glass. He threw it into another one. They both went down.
They kept coming.
Marcus swung his branch, caught one in the head. It stumbled but didn't fall. It turned on him. Marcus swung again. Missed.
Lina threw her rock. Hit one in the face. It barely reacted.
Kael fought. Fists. Feet. Teeth when he had to. Whatever worked. One creature clawed his chest. He felt the skin tear. Felt blood run down his stomach. He ignored it and broke its neck.
Behind him, someone screamed.
He spun. Dax was on the ground, a creature on top of him. Its hands around his throat. Dax's face was turning purple.
Marcus was already moving, grabbing the creature, pulling it off. Lina grabbed Dax and dragged him back, coughing, gasping for air.
Kael killed the thing on Dax. Stomped its head until it stopped moving. Then another came. Then another.
He lost track of time. Lost track of how many. Just kept moving. Kept killing. Kept bleeding.
Then they stopped coming.
The remaining creatures pulled back into the shadows. Watching. Waiting. Their black eyes reflected the moonlight.
Kael stood there, chest heaving, blood dripping from a dozen wounds. His pack huddled behind him. Dax was on the ground, coughing. Marcus had a gash on his arm. Lina was bleeding from her forehead. Aris was pale but alive. Sera was praying again, holding Tess who was finally crying, silent tears running down her face.
No one spoke.
Then Lina whispered. "Your eyes."
Kael looked down at the pool of water at his feet.
Still red.
Still burning.
He didn't know why.
He didn't know anything.
But his pack was alive.
For now.
GLOBAL CHAT
xDragonLordx: First night. Lost two of us. Shades are real. Watch the dark.
ElfQueenBree: Elves still alive. Found water. Building shelter. Anyone need aid?
NotAOrc: Orcs don't need aid. Orcs take. We found a village. Weak. Easy.
DwarfKing2026: Dwarves in the mountains. Iron. Stone. Safe. Others not safe. Good luck.
ShadowBlade: Shadows watching. Always watching. We see everything.
He looked at his pack. At the blood and fear and exhaustion.
"Can you walk?" he asked Lina.
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Good. We find shelter. We find water. We live."
"And tomorrow?"
He looked at the dark forest. At the shadows where the creatures waited.
"Tomorrow we learn how to fight back."
He started walking. His pack followed.