MARKED BY THE HUNTER

05: WEREWOLF'S BLOOD

“Don’t,” Bryle snapped suddenly.

But it was too late. Because I already knew. Not the full truth. Not yet, but what happened to me earlier was enough.

“I can feel you,” I said, my voice trembling.

My body twitched violently as I spoke.

“Every heartbeat… every movement…”

My fingers curled slightly. And my wolf eyes, followed like a puppet, and I can control it.

My breath hitched.

“No…” I whispered. “This isn’t possible…”

But it was. It was a terrifying part but it felt natural.

“Release her” Bryle said sharply.

I didn't move. Because the wolf within me remained silent, and I couldn’t figure out why. Deep down, something was holding me back, refusing to let go. The energy coursing through me was intense, almost intoxicating.

“I said release her,” Bryle repeated, stepping closer to me, as he pushed the werewolf to come near to me.

The male werewolf who came and attacked Bryle, let out a strangled sound, its body shaking harder now.

“Or.. you’re going to kill him,” Bryle said, his gaze turned to the werewolf who was in his front, begging for life.

That snapped something in me. Kill him?

My grip, whatever it was.. tightened instinctively.

My wolf screamed, a raw, and inhuman sound.

“No!” I gasped, stumbling back.

The connection broke instantly. My body-wolf collapsed to the floor, coughing, convulsing as I struggled to regain control of itself.

I stared at my hands, shaking. " What… did I just do…?”

For a moment, no one moved, and no one spoke.

The male werewolf who attack Bryle Fox started laughing, even his own breath is now unstable. I can sense that he is being broke and his werewolf's body started to weaken.

Bryle’s gaze snapped back to it, his expression hardening again.

“You find that funny?” he asked coldly.

The male werewolf slowly bowed his head, letting his body fall to the floor, blood dripping from his mouth. Bryle lossen him but his blade was still on his neck.

“You have no idea what you’re standing next to,” he said hoarsely.

Bryle Fox didn’t respond. But I saw it, a slight tension in his shoulders. The readiness.

“I know exactly what she is,” Bryle said.

The male werewolf grin widened. “No,” it said. “You don’t.” His gaze shifted to me again.. and this time I'm not mistaking it, his fear.

“You should’ve killed her when you had the chance, Hunter?” the male werewolf said.

My chest tightened.

“Why?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

The werewolf tilted its head slightly. As if he was scanning my entire body. Like I was something unnatural.

“You don’t even know what you are yet,” he said softly.

.

“Then tell me,” I demanded.

For a second, his expression changed. Sharp and fully alert.Then his head turned toward the forest outside.

“No…” the werewolf muttered.

Bryle Fox noticed it too. “What is it?” he asked.

The werewolf backed away slowly. "That's not my fight,” he said.

Before either of us could react, the werewolf turned and leapt back into the deep forest, then he was gone.

Silence fell again.

I stood there, frozen, my mind racing. “What did it mean?” I asked.

Bryle Fox didn’t answer immediately. He was staring at the doorway. Outside, the wild forest is so dark like a storm, while he was thinking about something.

“It means,” he said slowly, “we’re out of time.”

My stomach dropped. “For what?”

He turned to me. And something in his expression made my chest tighten.

“Whatever brought that rogue here,” he said, “wasn’t just hunting me. It was tracking you.”

Cold and fear spread through me.

“But… I just woke up from the dead,” I said. “How could anyone...”

“Because you’re not hidden anymore,” he cut in.

His gaze dropped briefly to the mark on my hand.

Still faintly glowing beneath my skin.

“That bond?” he continued. “It changed you.”

I swallowed hard.

“Changed what?”

He stepped closer to me now. Close enough that I could feel that same strange pull again, it's more real, like I was really connected to him.

“It made you visible,” he said quietly.

The storm outside raged harder. And deep inside me, I think he answered it again. Stronger this time, but wilder and hungrier.

“What am I?” I whispered.

Bryle Fox held my gaze. Unflinching.

“You’re something that shouldn’t exist,” he said.

My chest tightened.