The cabin sank into absolute silence after Paige's departure, and the echo of her harsh words left nothing behind but a devastating void in Luke's chest.
He walked with heavy, broken steps toward his small room, closing the door firmly behind him, leaving him alone with the ghosts of the bitter truth. He collapsed onto his narrow wooden bed, opening his eyes to stare into the darkness while dark, merciless thoughts squeezed him from within.
How had his life transformed like this in the blink of an eye? Wasn't it enough that he had been torn from his old world, his family, and his friends whom he would never see again, only to find himself reincarnated in a strange body?
Even worse, this body wasn't just a fleeting vessel—it was stained with innocent human blood; he had killed someone to awaken his damned curse and grow stronger!
The memories of his past human life rushed through his mind like a dim nightmare; a simple high school student who carried only the worries of his adolescence, now forced to accept the reality that he had committed a cold-blooded murder—even if driven by Paige and under the threat of a harsh reality—just to become a "werewolf."
The greatest torment, however, was his future; he had to endure the cruelty of transforming into a ferocious beast every single full moon, suffering the hell of his bones shattering and regenerating, and the agony of his skin peeling over and over again for the rest of his eternal life! As if the physical pain wasn't enough, reality added a black layer of sorrow: he was an isolated, outcast person, hated even by his own kind and pack because of his old ideals and his rejection of his nature.
Where should he go? Where could he escape from this hell?!
There was no place to turn; the outside world swarmed with vampires hunting his race to extinction, and here in this camp, he was merely a hated outsider holding the rank of the pack leader's adopted son.
Faced with the magnitude of this absolute absurdity, his final defense shattered. Unable to curb his emotions any longer, he burst into silent sobs, drowning in painful, broken gasps tearing from the depths of his shredded chest, burying his face in the pillow for fear that someone might hear him, curled up like a lost child on a dark night.
On the other side of the thin wooden wall, Paige stood in the dark hallway.
She leaned her back against the door of Luke's room, her blue eyes drifting into the void, and the wound on her hand that had bled moments before pulsed with a hidden ache. The sounds of his broken sobs and clear devastation echoing from behind the door tore at the fibers of her heart.
She closed her eyes tightly, pressing her lips together to prevent her own tears from falling, feeling the weight of guilt crushing her chest.
At the end of the day, she was the one who forced him, the one who imposed this cruel destiny upon him.
Luke woke the following morning, his mind heavy with the remnants of yesterday's nightmare and its absurd pain. He washed in silence without thought in the small bathroom, stepping out of his cabin reluctantly to be greeted by the cold air and the same familiar sight—Paige chopping wood with her heavy axe just like yesterday.
The moment she saw his shadow, she stopped chopping and turned to him immediately.
A cold, heavy, and electrified silence hung between them, as if the air had frozen halfway.
Luke opened his mouth and spoke in a voice dripping with coldness and cruelty: "You're crazy."
Paige exhaled with a provocative sharpness, saying nothing, content to watch him with her cold blue eyes.
Luke stepped closer to him with slow, steady paces, growing fury igniting in his features as he spoke in a biting tone: "You force six-year-old children to kill someone, just to break every bone in their bodies over and over again for the rest of their lives!"
He stepped closer until he stood right in front of her, closing any safety margin, looking straight into her eyes with deadly coldness: "And you forced me to kill, turning me into a terrifying monster on every full moon, just because you think it's the right thing to do to protect me!"
He reached his limit, extending a hand to grab her arm with blind strength and fury, screaming in her face: "You're crazy, mentally ill, a deranged killer! And I don't want you in my house anymore... why don't you take your things and get the hell out of my house, and go back to leading your pack of dogs?!"
Paige remained completely silent. She stared at him with a terrifying calmness, and Luke met her gaze with grinding fury and absolute disgust.
Yet, without any prior warning... Paige sighed slowly, then delivered a sudden, powerful punch that landed right in the middle of his face with utter brutality!
Craااack!!
Luke's nose broke instantly with a booming sound, and hot blood gushed from it like a fountain, quickly mixing with his beard and covering his whole face.
"Damn it!"
Luke screamed in hysterical fury as he stumbled backward, clutching his broken nose, staring at her in total shock: "What the hell is wrong with you?! Have you completely lost your mind?!"
Paige shrugged with total coldness, saying indifferently: "I'm crazy.... didn't you just say that?"
Before he could process the shock of her reply, she kicked him with brutal, savage force straight in the stomach.
"Ughhhhhh!!"
Luke flew backward violently from the force of the blow, landing hard on the dirt ground while vomiting blood amidst violent coughing.
Clutching his aching side, he struggled to rise, his face pale from the magnitude of the pain.
Paige advanced toward him slowly in total silence, without uttering a word, eyeing him with a challenging and stern gaze.
At that moment, Luke saw her, and every moment of torment he had gone through flashed in his mind... Their eyes met, his widening with immense, delirious fury, and he exploded in her face with a terrifying roar that shook the surroundings: "Aaaaaarrrraااااahhhhhh!!!"
Then he charged at her like a wounded beast, attacking her instantly without a thought!
Luke lunged with all his blind fury and accumulated pain, throwing a wild, brutal punch toward her face, ignoring the heavy blood streaming from his broken nose to stain his beard and shirt a dark red. But Paige didn't budge an inch; she received his attack with revolting coldness and ruthless combat expertise.
With lightning speed, she dodged his lunging fist with a slight tilt of her head, then grabbed his wrist with iron-clad strength. Before he could realize what was happening, she violently twisted his arm behind his back with a loud bone-popping crack that doubled the agony in his body. Not stopping there, she hooked his leg with a swift sweep, dropping him straight to the dirt and dust.
Boom!
Luke's body collided harshly with the ground, blood splattering from his face onto the dirt grass. He tried to rise with a hysterical scream, but Paige was much faster and stronger. She pounced on him like a predatory falcon, straddling his muscular chest with her full weight and pinning his trembling arms in ruthless iron grips as if planting roots in his body.
Luke thrashed and twisted violently, frantic like a wounded animal, vomiting blood from his mouth and screaming at the top of his lungs from the sheer insult and pain: "Damn you! Is there no end to this hell?! Kill me then and put me out of my misery!"
Yet Paige didn't even blink.
She remained firmly seated atop his chest, blocking any escape, her blue eyes blazing with a burning, stern, and unquestionable glare.
With a terrifying, swift motion, she reached out and grabbed the heavy axe lying on the ground beside him, lifting it high in the air.
Shoooo-thwack!
She brought the sharp axe blade down with absolute force and savagery, burying it with terrifying depth into the dirt ground right beside his head, a mere fraction of a millimeter from his ear!
Dirt and gravel shards flew across his face, and the echoing ring of the powerful, terrifying iron strike vibrated straight into his skull, jarring his mind entirely.
Luke stopped thrashing abruptly, his limbs freezing. His eyes widened with terrifying shock and instinctive fear that froze the blood in his veins, staring at the shining silver axe blade resting so close to his skin while his facial blood continued to pour, flooding the dirt beneath him into a tiny pool of blood.
Paige lowered her face toward him slowly, her lips brushing against a hot breath as her voice rang out strong, steady, and dripping with absolute dominance right beside his ear: "Are you done with your childish tantrums and howling now? Because I won't put up with your childishness anymore... you are a werewolf, and you need to act like one if you want to survive in this forest!"
Luke suddenly stopped resisting, the flame of struggle dying out in his trembling limbs. As hot blood continued to flow from his broken nose to mix with dirt dust and the burning tears pooling in his eyes, he screamed in a voice torn by buried despair and rage: "I don't want to be a werewolf! You're all killers!"
At that moment, Paige roared back in his face with immense fury, her blue eyes suddenly flashing a clear, terrifying golden hue reflecting her predatory nature: "This is what we are! This is exactly what you are! We are supernatural! Killers by nature! We are cursed on this earth! And this is the truth you cannot escape or deny, no matter how much time passes and no matter how hard you try to reject your being!"
She brought her face even closer to his, until her hot breath touched his blood-stained skin, whispering in a voice as cold as a knife edge: "And we are hunted and persecuted by everyone because of it; whether human hunters or vampires trembling in fear of our toxic bite. So, the sooner you accept your truth, the better it will be for you and your survival! You cannot deny what you are, just as you cannot deny that you were born a man in this life... you can never escape the reality of being a werewolf, even if you hate this fate all your life!"
Slowly, she pulled her face back and stood up from his body with steady strength. Extending her hand, she yanked the buried axe firmly out of the dirt, resting it casually over her broad shoulder. She cast one final look at him and said with a decisive tone: "And if you truly want to survive... if you want to live in this savage world... you must accept who you are and what you are."
She turned with firm, confident steps, walking away from him toward the cabin. She opened the door and walked inside, delivering her final words before slamming it shut firmly behind her: "I'll be back for you later, and I hope I find that your behavior has changed for the better!"
Thwack!
She slammed the door violently behind her, plunging the surroundings into absolute silence, leaving him lying alone on the cold grass, wrestling with his pain, wounds, and a mind ready to burst from the horror of what had just transpired.
Luke groaned in pain, then stood up with extreme difficulty and stumbling, leaning on his blood-stained hands. He wiped his face fiercely and barbarically with the back of his hand, trying to clear the horrifying bleeding, and spat a red glob onto the grass. He glared with destructive fury and burning resentment at the firmly closed cabin door, as if his scorching gaze could pierce through it and burn everything inside.
His burning eyes shifted to catch the long hunting rifle leaning carefully near the entrance of the house; he lunged toward it without hesitation, grabbing it with a trembling, violent grip, determined to break through the door, confront Paige, and chase her out of his home no matter the cost.
Yet, he froze completely in place like someone struck by a living thunderbolt.
Suddenly, he felt a burning, stinging sensation, as if a hidden fire were coursing through the bones of his face and broken nose. He slowly raised a trembling hand and touched his nose cautiously, his eyes widening in terrifying shock and total disbelief; the broken, shattered bones of his nose were moving and reassembling themselves at a wildly impossible, terrifying speed!
The bones snapped back into place as they mended and fused, his nose returning to its exact normal shape as if nothing had ever happened to it.
The bleeding stopped completely, leaving only dry blood flakes and patches on his face.
Luke's hands shook with frantic madness before this terrifying, undeniable truth—conclusive, unquestionable proof that he was no longer human, but had truly transformed into a supernatural being healing his horrifying wounds in mere seconds. With sweeping panic and terror gripping his soul, he dropped the hunting rifle from his hand to fall to the ground with a muffled thud, spinning like a madman and breaking into a hysterical sprint deep into the dense forest, running away from himself, from his body, and from his cursed reality, weeping bitterly with a tearing agony ripping at his chest.
Behind the simple wooden windowpane, Paige watched his escape with features cloaked in profound sorrow and immense pity. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to absorb the bitterness of the situation, whispering in a faint, broken voice barely audible in the stillness of the place: "I'm sorry, Luke..."
Then she closed the window quietly, drew its curtain, and turned to step deep into the cabin, leaving the forest and his destined fate to run their harsh courses.
Luke ran blindly and madly, as if the entire forest conspired to choke him and narrow his path. His feet barely grazed the ground; he bolted clumsily through tangled tree trunks and thorny bushes that tore his clothes and scratched his skin without him registering any physical pain, for the real ache was tearing at his soul from within.
While he panted violently, his heart racing like wild war drums, warm and bright flashes from his old world—from the life stolen from him—crept into his consciousness amidst the darkness of his flight.
New York.
That bustling, vibrant city with rain-slicked streets and neon lights reflecting on glass windows. With painful clarity, he remembered their small, warm apartment, the smell of fresh coffee his mother prepared every morning, and his father's voice reading the newspaper and exchanging sarcastic jokes with him before he slung his school bag over his shoulder and headed to class. He remembered his room, his books, his friends, and the simple details of his life as a teenage boy studying and dreaming of the future.
Those were real, pure memories, but now they felt like a distant, fictional dream—a lost paradise whose eternal doors were closed and whose bridges were destroyed. How had he transitioned in the blink of an eye from that safe tranquility into this bloody nightmare? How had he found himself drowning in a world of vampires and werewolves, accused of murder, and bound by a ruthless, merciless fate?
He kept running as stumbles chased him, his breath nearly cutting off, until a rugged dirt slope suddenly opened up before him, causing him to plunge hard and crawl stumble-footed onto the bank of a fast-flowing, winter-ice-cold mountain river.
He stopped there, at the water's edge, gripping a damp rock with violently shaking hands. His chest rose and fell madly, his tears mixing with sweat and dust on his face.
He bent down very slowly, dipping his hands into the cold water to splash his face, hoping to quench the burning fire in his head and mind. But with an involuntary motion, he raised his gaze to look at his reflection on the clear, still surface of the water between the currents...
And there, time froze.
The face looking back at him was not that of the teenage boy with white skin, blue eyes, and childish features he had known all his life in New York. No... he found no trace of "Lucas Thiemen."
Instead, a completely alien, terrifying, and frightening face stared back from the depths of the water; the face of a dark-skinned, rugged-featured, bald man with a thick, stiff beard outlining his jaw and cheeks. The features of a completely different person, a strange body he had been usurped by, a dead or unknown human vessel that had completely stolen his original identity.
The truth struck him like a devastating lightning bolt; it wasn't just a nightmare he could wake up from, but a definitive, forced, and irreversible reincarnation. He wasn't in his world, he wasn't in his body, and he was doomed to live as a cursed wolf inside the body of a stranger.
A lethal lump accumulated in his throat, and his mind failed to bear any more absurdity.
Luke collapsed to his knees in the mud and cold water, covering his face with his hands, and broke into a bitter, shattered bout of weeping, unable to suppress his broken sobs.
He screamed in a muffled, trembling voice dripping with absolute sorrow: "Mom... Dad... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I'll never see you again... I'll never go back..."
Then his entire body collapsed onto the damp earth beside the river, curling up on himself, weeping with the heartache of a child stripped of all safety in this wild world, searching for unseen solace amidst the screams of the rain and running water.
Yet before Luke could react, a booming roar echoed around him.
"Grr-rawrrrrrr!!"
The echo of a monstrous, deep, and terrifying beastly roar reverberated across the quiet forest, piercing through the sound of the rushing river and Luke's broken sorrows like a devastating thunderbolt shaking the tree roots.
The tears froze in Luke's eyes, and his heart skipped beats. He turned with a trembling head and very slowly toward the source of the suspicious sound, locking his eyes onto a horrifying sight that froze the blood in his veins:
A few meters away, amidst the dense brush, appeared a massive, towering mass of rough brown fur and bulging muscles—a huge Grizzly Bear the size of a small tree, glaring at him with yellow eyes blazing with blind fury and absolute savagery, its bared fangs dripping with the predator's curse.
Time gave Luke no chance to think, nor even to comprehend the scale of the catastrophe.
Before he could blink or his mind could process what stood before him, the grizzly bear lunged at him with its full weight and sudden madness, driving its sharp, terrifying claws toward him in a lethal attack with no certainty of survival!
Instantly, the bear's massive claws dug into Luke's shoulder and neck, tearing his flesh and clothes in swift, savage motions.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!"
Cries of agony tore from him as he tried to crawl through the mud and escape in panic, but the beast gave him no chance; sinking its sharp fangs deep into his back between his ribs.
The bear lifted him off the ground like a weightless doll, then slammed him down with force and madness onto the hard rocks at the river's edge.
Thwack!
Some of Luke's ribs shattered upon impact, and blood gushed heavily, dyeing the river water a dark crimson.
The predatory animal began to savage his torn body violently, carving pieces from his flesh amidst Luke's agonizing, life-and-death struggle.
In the midst of this hell and fatal bleeding, while his head spun on the mud and his vision blurred before him, the thought struck him like a lightning bolt:
Why surrender? Why let this animal eat me?
Luke froze abruptly.
Fear slowly vanished from his features, replaced by a complete realization of his new reality; he wasn't a weak human who could be preyed upon this easily.
He was a werewolf...
possessing immense physical strength, blazing speed, and a mighty regeneration factor overcoming the deepest wounds.
Paige's cold words echoed in his ears once more:
"This is what we are..... killers by nature... a supernatural race."
Luke closed his eyes for a few seconds, ignoring the horrific pain eating away at his bones and body, gathering every ounce of strength and savagery lurking in the depths of his cursed blood.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open violently!
His pupils glowed with a bright, terrifying golden hue gleaming in the darkness, and he opened his mouth to roar with all his might.
"Aaaaaarrrrraااااahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A mighty, earth-shaking roar ripped from his throat, a beastly cry surpassing the sound of the rushing river and the entire forest.
With a swift, lightning-fast motion, he twisted his torn torso and delivered a devastating punch with all his supernatural strength straight into the bear's nose!
Crraااack-boom!!
The bear's nose and jaw bones shattered from the sheer force of the blow, causing the beast to roar in a voice dripping with pain and panic, stumbling backward a few steps as it flailed in terror with blood streaming from its face.
Luke stood up very slowly from the bloody dirt.
He gripped what remained of his torn, blood-stained shirt, ripping it off his torso violently to toss it to the ground, revealing his massive, bulging muscular build.
Before the bear's shocked eyes, the torn flesh and gaping wounds on Luke's body began to interlock and mend very slowly under the skin, and the bleeding stopped instantly as if nothing had ever happened.
Luke's golden eyes blazed with the highest degree of savage fury, and he burst into another predatory roar, charging with absolute viciousness and brutality upon the terrified bear to engage it in cold-blooded combat without a single drop of fear.
Instantly, the bear lunged at him once more, opening its massive, blood-stained jaws and releasing a roar that shook the surroundings: "Grrr-rawrrrrr!!"
Luke evaded the attack with a quick side-lean, leveraging his advanced senses, feeling the blast of hot air from the beast's mouth brush past his face.
Yet the bear didn't stop; it spun with astonishing speed and struck Luke with its massive log-like front paw.
Crraااack-sh!
The violent swipe smashed against Luke's side, sending his body crashing into a large boulder at the river's edge with a booming sound.
Boom!
Cough!
Cough!
Luke vomited blood fiercely from his mouth amidst an immediate, cutting cough.
He staggered for a moment, feeling a crushing pain tear through his muscles, but the regeneration factor worked madly behind the scenes to repair what was shattered.
Luke rose from the dirt, his golden eyes blazing with savage fury, and pounced on the bear before it could repeat the attack.
He wrapped his muscular arms around its massive neck, squeezing with all his supernatural strength to choke it.
The bear began to thrash with frantic madness, striking the ground with its paws to kick up a storm of mud and water.
The bear's neck muscles were hard as stone, causing Luke to suffer intensely as he clenched his teeth hard, forcing out a strained groan echoing through the combat:
"Ughhhhhh!!"
Luke growled fiercely, his eyes blazing gold as he struggled to keep his grip steady on the bear's neck.
The bear drove its hind claws deep into Luke's torn thighs to shred his flesh, prompting Luke to scream in suffocated pain, yet he refused to release his hold.
"Rawr... rawr..."
The fierce struggle intensified, and the sound of cracking bones and stretching ligaments in the bear's neck mingled with the roar of the raging river and the dying beast's growls.
Finally, after an eternity of desperate struggle, the bear's strength began to wane under Luke's iron grip.
The massive bear's body slowly dropped to its knees in the mud, its voice cutting out almost entirely.
Luke mustered every remaining ounce of his latent supernatural strength, preparing for the final, decisive pull to snap its neck and end its life completely.
Yet, at that crucial moment.....
The wild stillness of the place was pierced by another sound—not a roar of panic, but small, choking cries echoing nearby:
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Luke froze in place, holding back the finishing blow. He tilted his blood- and dust-stained head toward the source of the sound, his eyes widening with sudden amazement and pity; from the opening of a small rocky cave very close to the riverbank, three small brown bear cubs emerged.
Their eyes gleamed with panic and confusion, and they began to squeak weakly toward Luke, scurrying toward him with stumbling steps until one of them lunged at his torn leg, sinking its tiny teeth into it with a sad cry:
"Squeak! Squeak!"
At that shocking moment, realization struck Luke's mind like a lightning bolt, suddenly halting the pulse of blind fury in his chest.
He understood everything now.
This grizzly bear hadn't been a mad attacker, but a frightened, desperate mother...
She had been fighting with all this viciousness and madness solely to protect her vulnerable cubs in their den.
Luke felt a lethal lump block his throat, looking down at the wounded bear in his arms, which was moments away from death.
His blood-stained hands trembled, slowly loosening his iron grip from her neck.
"Damn it... what have I done?"
Luke muttered in a broken, remorse-heavy voice, while tears mixed with blood in his golden eyes, whose glow had faded.
Luke stepped back a pace, letting the massive bear's body drop heavily onto the dirt ground.
The bear breathed with extreme difficulty, her eyes looking with exhaustion and terror toward her cubs, who gathered around her licking her wounds with sad cries:
"Squeak... squeak..."
Luke watched the scene with profound sorrow, then turned with heavy, stumbling steps, walking away from the riverbank, drowning in the ghosts of his own deed.....
Leaving behind the wounded bear, who lifted her head with extreme difficulty, staring at his back disappearing among the dense trees with a burning gaze full of hatred, fury, and pain, carving an unhehealable groove of guilt into his cursed soul.
"Luke" walked among the dense forest trees with heavy, broken steps, while his horrific, deep wounds healed silently and very slowly beneath the skin. A stinging, burning sensation pricked his exhausted body with every movement, and he reached out slowly to touch one of the deep claw marks left by the bear on his shoulder, feeling the edges of torn skin pull together and knit anew beneath his fingertips. He sighed in absolute silence, his breath steaming in the cold air of the wild forest.
In that stillness, amidst the deep shadows of the trees, his thoughts began to sink into the deepest points of his mind and heart. He remembered every word "Paige" had spoken, every scream, and every burning look carrying a terrifying reproach and sincerity. The reel of events passed before him like a heavy phantom; his battle with the bear, her desperate ferocity in defending her cubs, the shock of his reincarnation, and his violent rejection of everything "werewolf" inside him.
With every step, he realized step by step the truth in Paige's harsh words.
He had spent his days lamenting his luck, weeping over his old life in New York, clinging to the illusion of being a peaceful human with no connection to blood and monsters. But where had this denial led him? He had nearly lost his life with absolute brutality on the riverbank simply because he hesitated, unprepared mentally or physically to handle the true survival instinct in his new body. He had been helpless, slow, and full of fear.
And if he had suffered all this agony and near-death facing a grizzly mother defending her den... how could he possibly survive in this world if he encountered a vampire?
He froze in place briefly when that terrifying thought crossed his mind.
Vampires.....
Those bloodthirsty nocturnal creatures, fast as lightning, intelligent, showing mercy to no one, hunting his race relentlessly, and murdering his parents in the most gruesome ways right before his eyes.
If a simple wild animal had come close to tearing him apart, facing a real vampire meant instant death, utter crushing, and vanishing from existence without a trace.
Luke realized, with aching, painful bitterness, that Paige's cruelty was neither sadistic nor absurd; it was a final lifeline she threw toward him in a raging sea.
She knew with certainty that hesitation and weakness were the true graveyard for any werewolf in this harsh world.
If he didn't accept his nature, if he didn't become strong and ferocious enough to defend himself, he would end up dead, eaten, and doomed to extinction.
After hours of arduous walking and painful reflections that changed something fundamental deep inside him, the contours of the dirt clearing and the simple wooden cabin slowly loomed into view.
Luke advanced with slow, steady steps toward the cabin, pausing briefly in front of the wooden door, then opened it in absolute silence to step inside.
The first person to greet him was "Paige," sitting quietly on the sofa, holding her pen and writing in her leather notebook in silence.
Paige's pen froze abruptly mid-letter, stopping her writing entirely. She raised her gaze toward the door to stare at him in silence.
Luke's face was dark and shadowed; the setting twilight sun fell against his broad back, casting heavy shadows covering his entire face and hiding his features under a mysterious, majestic veil.
Before Paige could react to the sight or comprehend his new demeanor, Luke spoke in a rough, deep, and stern voice: "I thought about what you said."
Paige was startled for a moment by his boldness and sudden calmness, then set the notebook aside with a swift motion, staring at him with intense interest and anticipation: "Really? So... what did you conclude?"
Luke spoke in a calm, steady voice: "You're right."
Paige's eyes widened with intense, unexpected shock, and a sweeping wave of relief and deep joy she couldn't hide washed over her. She stood up quickly from her seat, approaching him slowly as if fearing this fragile moment might break.
Luke gazed at her with a piercing look, saying in a dark voice issuing from the depths of his chest: "Teach me."
Paige stopped right in front of him, taken aback by his frightening calmness, and studied his dark face. She extended her hand very slowly, touching his cheek with her fingertips, softly stroking his thick beard with a subtle tenderness, and said in a soft, whispered voice: "Teach you what, Luke?"
At that moment, Luke's large hand reached out and grabbed her wrist with decisive, irresistible, massive grip. Suddenly, his eyes blazed with a burning, frightening golden hue piercing the shadow's gloom, and he spoke in a definitive, unquestionable voice: "Teach me how to be a werewolf."
Paige stared at him for several long seconds, watching this radical, profound transformation in his being and soul. Then a slow, savage smile curved onto her lips, and her own eyes blazed with a bright golden hue reflecting her savagery, saying in a voice dripping with satisfaction and confidence: "I thought you'd never ask."