CHAPTER 1
Adonay
“Hello brother, you had disappeared…”
Asher tilted his head. “I met a woman.”
"Another one?" I picked up the book to read. The weight of the spine comforted my hands.
"This one was different."
I sighed. “You say that about all women? No matter how many you meet, you’ll never find one like her.”
"I'm not trying to replace her".
I snorted. "You could have fooled me."
He slammed the door. "Damn it, Adonay. I wanted to tell you about the woman I met tonight. She changed me."
"s*x does that," I murmured.
I wasn't opposed to s*x. I just didn't see the need to have s*x with every woman I met. That was hard for Asher. I turned the page and tried to read, but my concentration had evaporated.
"We didn't have s*x"
That made me close the book and look at him. He looked different. His muscles seemed bigger. His eyes were brighter. Did his hair look longer, too?
He moved a little closer to my chair. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as if he sensed a threat approaching, but he was my little brother. We may fight sometimes, but we love each other. As soon as I hurt him, he hurt me. We had suffered together. We formed a bond that would never be broken.
"What happened then?"
"She bit me."
My eyebrows rose to touch the shaggy hair that hung over my face.
"She changed me."
He approached my chair. To the glowing warmth of the fire that licked the logs of the fireplace. The way he moved...
"I want to change you too"
Change? I stood up and faced him. The glow of fire shone in his eyes. They were as different as his performance. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run. To run from my little brother. Which was ridiculous.
"I like who I am," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"A book nerd that the whole town makes fun of?"
"I don't care what people say".
Asher sighed with all the pent-up anger of our childhood. “Yes. I’m stronger now. More powerful. You can be too. We always deserved more than we’ve had. We deserve to be treated better, Adonay.”
He opened his mouth; his teeth seemed longer, sharper, and harder. He lunged at me as if he were about to bite me.
"Get off me."
I fought him. I covered my face with my arms to contain him and struggled. Arms against arms. Body against body. Sweat trickled down my back. I held him back as long as I could, but he was stronger than usual. Stronger than me, for once. He pinned my arms to my sides. His eyes flashed with triumph. He lowered his mouth to my face, the sharpness of his canines evident. He bit my neck. I cried out in pain as his teeth ripped into my flesh. Blood trickled from the wound and ran down my neck. Asher rolled away from me, wiping his mouth and smearing my blood across his face in a gruesome story.
"Why the hell did you do that?" I spat, sitting up and bringing a hand to the wound. Warmth and moisture seeped between my fingers and slid down my wrist to the cuff of my shirt.
"Your blood tastes disgusting." He spat on the ground.
"What did you think, i***t?"
Now I would have to clean up this mess and bandage my wound. What had happened to Asher? I never thought he'd hurt me. Suddenly, a pain shot through my body. Prickling pain in my skin. A pain in my bones. The pressure in my head increased and increased until a howl of pain tore through my lungs.
“What the...?” I gasped, struggling to breathe through the pain coursing through my veins.
The first time you change hurts. The next time, not so much.
-Change?-
Another wave of pain washed over me. Consumed me. There was nothing but pain in my body. I rolled onto my stomach as my insides churned. My skin was too tight. It tightened further and further, until I thought it would break and spill my insides. My bones ached, then snapped and twisted. Even my teeth ached. My mouth widened as it grew, too. Sharper against my tongue.
"Now you're like me, brother. A werewolf.
I lifted my head, which felt heavy. My skull was throbbing. "You turned me into a werewolf? Why?"
Now no one in town will make us feel small again. We won't be children abandoned by their parents. We won't be so weak they can bully us. They won't hurt us again.
"Asher…"
You won't be the book nerd who gets rocks thrown. I've protected you this time.
Did you protect me? By changing me?
The pain was so intense that sweat trickled from every inch of my skin. It dripped from my forehead and into my eyes. It ran in torrents down my back under my shirt. Even down my legs, under my pants. My toes curled and uncurled on the wooden floor. My joints ached with every movement. Every noise grew clearer. The faint rustle of a mouse in the kitchen. The flutter of a moth by the window. My vision sharpened. The flickering flames were brighter. The blood on the floor was clearer.
It'll still be you, but with fangs and fur.
I tried to say his name again, but every bone in my body creaked and twisted, transforming into that of a werewolf. I rose from the ground. A beast of fur and claws. They filled my mouth with fangs. My head hit the ceiling. I stared down at my brother with the cool gaze of an apex predator.
I wanted to hate him for what he did to me, but power and strength surged through me. They drove me to come out, raise my head to the pale, moonlit sky, and howl so everyone would know that I was stronger, too. A beast that wouldn't let anyone bring me down anymore. That wouldn't make me feel less than. That I would no longer be the butt of the villagers' jokes. Of being the children their parents didn't want. Who had left us to our own devices for so many years. Not being real children. Not knowing the difference. Until now.
Our lives had changed.
I hoped Asher had changed me for the better, but a part of me understood that even though I was stronger now, people would always consider us outcasts. We were still different.
Now we were monsters.
