The Last Hunt

The Pack

Tommy, a skinny lad and barely even twenty, jumped up from his chair. “Don’t say that. Don’t say werewolves. That’s insane.”

Rachel turned to face him looking angry. “You got a better explanation? Because I’ve been blacking out for months. Been waking up in the woods, even in parking lots. I once woke up in someone’s backyard next to their dog torn to pieces. So please, Tommy, give us a possible logical explanation.”

“Maybe we’re sick. Just something that has to do with the brain…,” replied Tommy, nonchalantly.

“I’ve seen doctors,” Sam cut in. Sam was the oldest in the room. He had some grey in his hair, and his hands rested calmly in his lap.

“I’ve had MRIs, psych exams and blood tests. Nothing’s wrong with my brain.”

“Then what?”

“It’s a curse,” Nicole ventured.

Everyone turned to look at her. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. She had dark circle under her eyes, pale skin and tired. She looked Nineteen, maybe. But she looked far too young to be caught in something like this.

“There’s no such thing as curses,” David muttered. But his words felt heavy with doubt.

Leah stepped between them, raising her palms. “Call it whatever you want. curse, disease or infection. The reality is still the same. We’re changing. Every blackout is stealing more from us. And the full moon is just in six days.”

A chill ran down my spine. “So?”

“So, once the full moon comes, the change can’t be undone,” she said quietly. “Not humans who turn into wolves, wolves who almost forget they were ever humans. At least… that’s what Claire told us.”

“Who’s Claire?”

The back door slowly opened with a squeak and a woman entered. She was tall, and very thin, with long gray hair tightly pulled back. Her face was sharp and difficult to read. She could have been anywhere between fifty or seventy. She wore a heavy coat despite the warmth and had a limp that made her move slowly and carefully with each step.

“You must be Jake Morrison,” she said, her voice was rough and scratchy. “The last one.”

My throat felt tight. “Last one what?”

“The last one to be infected that night in August.” She fixed a gaze on me. “There were seven of you in those woods. Robert Chen was the first to die. You’re the seventh, the last one of the puzzles.”

I felt the floor wobble a little under my feet “You said we didn’t mean to kill him.”

“We didn’t mean to,” Leah insisted. “But one of us did. Whenever one transforms, we all transform. We blackout the same time and hunt as a group.”

“No,” I whispered. “There’s no way I’d forget that.”

Claire laughed. Her laughter was colder than the forest floor I had woken up on, at Millbrook. “Your mind remembers what it can survive. But soon, it won’t be able to protect you from the truth.”

She placed a leather bag on the coffee table and then pulled out a stack of photographs. They were photographs of strange wolves caught on trail camera, They were too big with sharp eyes and broad shoulders that didn’t seem right.

“These were all taken within ten miles away from Millbrook,” Claire said. “Wardens suspect it’s a new wolf pack. But look closely.”

She tapped one of the pictures. It showed a creature standing on its back legs, reaching up into a tree.

“Wolves don’t do that,” Sam murmured.

“No,” Claire agreed, nodding affirmatively. “But people do. People wearing wolf skins.”

Tommy gasped in shock. Rachel rubbed her eyes with both palms and David fixed his eyes on the table , like staring at it hard enough might make everything disappear.

I picked up one of the photos. The wolf’s eyes looked straight at mine, like it’s eyes were locked onto mine. The eyes glinted with much familiarity. It was as if I recognized it somewhere.

“What are we?” I whispered.

“Cursed,” Claire said calmly. “You all are Infected and marked. Three months ago, something ancient bit each of you. It passed on its hunger, even its instinct and nature. Now you’re becoming what it is.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, dying to know.

A smile appeared across her cracked lips. “Hungry.”

The next sailed by in a storm of shared stories. Everyone opening up and comparing timelines. The patterns were clear.

All of us were attacked by “something ancient” in August and were left with the same scar on our left shoulder. These happened in different places but by same predator.

“It’s a bite mark,” Claire confirmed. “The infection spreads through saliva. At first, the changes are slow. Then the blackouts begin before the wolf takes over you. You don’t remember because your mind refuses to watch itself hunt.”

I swallowed hard. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

“But we can stop it,” Leah said, holding on to hope. “Right, Claire? You said there’s a way.”

Claire paused for a bit before pulling out one last photograph from her bag.

It’s the photograph of a young woman, laid in a hospital bed. She was maybe in her mid-twenties. She looked calm at first glance. But there was something off about how still she was. She looked like the statue of a person, not someone alive.

“This is my daughter, Elena,” Claire said, her voice breaking for the first time. “She was bitten five years ago. I slowed down the change, but I couldn’t stop it. She’s trapped between two worlds. She’s changed too much to be fully human, but not enough to survive as a wolf.”

Rachel’s voice became softer. “I’m so sorry. But what does that mean for us?

“It means the infection needs a pack,” Claire said. “Werewolves are connected. When one changes, it triggers the others to change too. Changing alone, you’re only just starting. Together, it fully takes over you. You become a whole.

“Are you saying we’re making each other worse,” I asked.

“I’m saying you’re making each other what you now are,” she replied. “There’s a an old ritual that can separate you from the wolf inside you, but it has to be done before the full moon, and all seven of you must take part in it.”

“What kind of ritual?” David asked.

“One that might kill you,” Claire answered honestly. “The survival chances are… uncertain. Maybe fifty-fifty.”

Tommy’s voice cracked anxiously. “A game of coin flip? Is that the plan?”

“Listen, it’s better than zero,” Claire said. “And zero is what you have if you do nothing. Once the moon rises, you all will be wolves forever.”

A heavy silence filled the room, almost like you could feel it in the air.

“I’m in,” Rachel said. “I refuse to become a monster.”

“Me too,” Sam added.

One by one, each one agreed to the plan, as they were fearful but determined, until only Nicole and Tommy remained frozen to a spot.

Then every eye turned to me.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I need time to think.”

“You don’t have time,” Claire said. “I need your answer tonight. Once we begin preparations, there’s no going back. If you refuse… you must leave now before the moon.”

“Leave?” My voice felt like it was far away. “And if I do?”

“And you will transform alone.” Claire’s gaze held no mercy. “You would be stuck in between. Not fully human and not fully wolf. You’d be unstable and dangerous. Someone will put you down eventually. But at least you won’t drag the others down with you.”

My stomach rumbles. “drag them down, how?”

“The ritual needs all seven of you. If one is missing… it fails. And every one of you dies.”