Wolves of blackbridge

Chapter 3

Nate was currently in his dorm, clicking away on his laptop. He needed to figure out what the hell was wrong with him. And so far, all he had were two conclusions:

He either had some kind of brain tumor.

Or he was a werewolf.

Neither option appealed to him.

He stared at the search results, his pulse pounding. This had to be a joke, right?

"Symptoms of Lycanthropy: Heightened senses, unnatural strength, increased aggression, rapid healing…"

Nate scoffed, rubbing a hand over his face. "This is ridiculous. This isn’t a damn movie."

And yet… every symptom listed lined up with what he was feeling. The overwhelming scents. The sharpness of his hearing. The feeling of nearly snapping at everyhing.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard before typing: How do you know if you’re a werewolf?

The first few links were laughable conspiracy blogs, ridiculous quizzes. But then, his eyes caught something deeper in the search results.

A case study of self-identified lycanthropes…

He clicked, scanning the article. Most of it was psychological nonsense people believing they were wolves due to mental illness. But one part stood out:

The afflicted often experience a trigger event severe trauma, exposure to another lycan, or a full moon transformation.

Nate sat back, heartbeat pounding in his ears. A trigger event. Like, say… getting attacked in the woods and waking up with no memory?

Nate had to go back to the woods. Something deep inside him told him that it might help maybe he would remember something, or maybe, just maybe, he would find a clue that could explain everything that had happened that night. Whatever it was that was happening to him, it was starting to feel like he was losing control.

*

*

It was a cool night, the kind of crisp, autumn chill that made the air smell fresh. The trees around him swayed, their leaves beginning to turn yellow and red as the season changed. It was quiet, eerily so, except for the crunch of fallen leaves under his boots as he moved through the woods.

Nate pulled his hoodie tighter around himself, trying to ward off the cold, but it wasn’t just the weather that made him feel unsettled. It was the feeling that something was watching him. His senses had been heightened lately, and every rustling leaf, every snap of a twig, felt like a warning. His heart raced, his breath coming in shallow gasps, but he couldn’t stop. He had to go back to that place. He had to remember.

As he walked deeper into the woods, the familiar silence seemed to close in on him. The deeper he went, the more it felt like the night was alive, watching him, pressing in around him. He swallowed hard, trying to shake off the creeping sense of dread that curled up his spine.

He wasn’t even sure why he was doing this. What if he didn’t remember anything? What if it was all just a trick his mind was playing on him? But he had to know. He needed to know what had happened that night how he had woken up in the woods with no memory of the past several hours, his body aching and... different. He couldn’t keep living like this, in the dark, with only fragments of a memory.

A sudden rustling sound from behind him made him freeze. His pulse spiked, and his instincts kicked in before his mind had time to process. He spun around quickly, his senses on high alert.

Nothing.

Get a grip, he thought. This is crazy. You’re imagining things.

But as the wind picked up again, he swore he heard something faint a low, guttural growl just beyond the treeline. His heart skipped a beat, and his breath caught in his throat. This time, it wasn’t just the wind.

A snap of a branch echoed in the distance, and Nate’s instincts screamed at him to run. But he couldn’t. His feet were rooted to the spot, his mind racing with thoughts of what could be out there. Maybe it was just a squirel?

He had to calm down, focus. His thoughts flickered back to the night he woke up in the woods. His clothes had been torn, his skin scratched and bruised. There had been blood on his hands. The memory was fragmented, a puzzle with pieces missing. But one thing stood those glowing eyes .

He hadn’t been alone.

A sound to his left made him freeze. He could hear the rustling of something moving through the woods, a heavy footfall, followed by another, closer this time. His heart pounded in his chest, and before he could think, his legs were carrying him in the opposite direction, deeper into the woods.

Nate froze in place, his breath caught in his throat as his eyes locked onto a shadow in the clearing. The figure was massive, its body sleek and muscular, its eyes glowing like molten gold.Was that ....... a wolf?

His heart pounded in his chest, the feeling of being hunted sinking deep into his bones. The wolf took a step forward, its movements slow and predatory, each step bringing it closer to Nate. The ground beneath his feet felt like it was tilting, his mind racing to process what was happening.

He had to run. His legs burned from the effort, but they wouldn’t move. His instincts screamed at him to flee, but his body refused to obey. The wolf was closing the distance too quickly.

Oh god, it's going to kill me.

Suddenly, the wolf lunged. Nate barely had time to react as the massive creature’s jaws snapped shut, just inches from his throat. He stumbled backward, his heart slamming against his ribcage, his body screaming for him to move, to survive.

But before he could think, a loud, guttural snarl echoed through the clearing, and another wolf just as large, if not larger came barreling out of the shadows. It collided with the first wolf in a flash of fur and teeth, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Nate staggered back, fear seizing his body, his mind unable to process what was happening. The two wolves fought, their growls reverberating through the woods, each one trying to overpower the other. It was chaos claws slashing, teeth snapping, and fur flying. Nate could barely keep his footing, his mind too overwhelmed by the primal violence unfolding before him.

He couldn’t look away, even though every part of him screamed to run. The second wolf was relentless, tearing into the first with precision, pushing the other back with a growl of its own.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the first wolf yelped in pain, backing off. The second wolf stood over it, its chest heaving with exertion. Nate could see the defeated wolf retreat into the darkness, leaving the clearing in silence.

Nate stood there, trembling. His whole body was stiff with adrenaline, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He felt the weight of what had just happened how close he had come to dying. But before he could process it any further, the second wolf turned toward him.

Nate stumbled backward in shock, his mouth going dry. But as the wolf approached, something... strange happened. Its form began to shift, its body warping and shrinking until, the wolf was gone.

And standing in front of him, fully human, was Killian.

Nate's eyes widened in disbelief. His heart skipped a beat as Killian stood before him, naked and covered in sweat, his hair wild and damp. His eyes had to be playing tricks on him there was no way he just saw Killan drake turn into a wolf