Chapter 4: First Kill
347 Words
The first time Luca killed a man, it didn’t feel like murder.
It felt like instinct.
His claws sank in before he even registered the scream. The hunter had been aiming at Raine—silver-tipped dart raised—when something inside Luca snapped.
He lunged, teeth bared, fury unleashed.
The man’s blood hit the dirt with a hot hiss, steaming against the cold forest floor. Luca stood over the body, chest heaving, heart hammering.
And then came the silence.
The pack emerged from the shadows—four wolves, two human—watching him. Judging. Approving.
Raine shifted back, her breath visible in the chill.
“You did what you had to,” she said softly.
He looked down at the corpse. The hunter’s eyes still wide. He had been young. Maybe twenty. Maybe afraid.
“I didn’t think. I just… reacted.”
“That’s how it starts,” said a deeper voice.
Silas, Raine’s older brother, stepped forward. He was built like a boulder, his shirt stained from battle, his hands still bloody. “The first kill chooses you. Not the other way around.”
Luca nodded, though his stomach churned.
Something inside him liked it. That scared him more than anything.
Raine moved closer, her fingers brushing his.
“You did it to protect me,” she whispered, her lips near his ear. “That means something.”
The pack began to move, shifting into wolves again, heading deeper into the woods. But Raine stayed behind with Luca, her breath warm against his neck.
“I know it feels like you’re losing yourself,” she murmured, “but you’re not. You’re becoming who you were always meant to be.”
He looked at her. “And what is that?”
Her eyes burned silver.
“A predator.”
A scream echoed from the valley below—another hunter, or another wolf falling. Raine grabbed Luca’s hand and pulled him after her.
The war was far from over.
But Luca had just stepped into it.
Fully. Completely.
And for the first time, he didn’t want to run.
- Writer
