Chapter 11: Shifting Loyalties (Part One)
Selene's heels clicked across the cracked pavement as she made her way toward the motel door, her heart still fluttering from Tyler's kiss. She was late. The full moon was already climbing, and she could feel her family's disapproval boiling behind that door.
She opened it.
Inside, her father stood with arms crossed, face weathered from decades of war against things most people denied even existed. Uncle Caleb leaned against the far wall, tattoos like ghostly veins up his arms, sharpening a silver-edged blade. Both turned as she entered.
"You smell like perfume," her father said flatly. "Nice dress too. Sorry to interrupt your date."
Selene froze in the doorway, one heel half off. "I… I wasn't—"
"Don't lie," Caleb cut in. "You were gone for hours. On the night of the full moon."
"I met someone," she admitted, swallowing hard. "He's... a good person."
Her father's eyes narrowed, cutting through her like a flint. "You're here to hunt, not date. You forget who you are, Selene?"
She stood straighter. "No. I remember exactly who I am. I've hunted more monsters than most of your men."
"That's true," Caleb muttered to her father. "She's got kills."
"Then act like it," her father said. "If this boy's a distraction, then cut him out. If you hesitate in this game, and people die."
He unrolled a map of Hollow Pines across the bed, pointing to red-circled areas. One mark too close to Graves Auto, something tightened in Selene's chest.
As the meeting ended, her father pulled her aside, voice softer but firm. "If there's something you're not telling us… now's the time."
She looked him in the eyes. "No, sir. Nothing to report."
He didn't believe her. But he didn't press her further.
Back at Graves Auto, the night was deathly still.
Inside a steel shed at the back of the workshop, Tyler shuddered against the cold concrete. Thick chains snaked around his waist and arms, locking him to a reinforced metal beam Mason had mounted to the floor earlier that day. They hadn't had time to equip the foot restraints on Tyler, sweat beaded on his forehead. His breathing sharpened. His transformation was slower more controlled.
He clenched his jaw. "Not like last time," he muttered. "You're going to hold it together."
His fingers bent and cracked, claws pushing through his other hand. His eyes flared yellow, muscles bulging beneath the strain of the chains.
The steel groaned.
He screamed, half-human, half-beast, as the transformation surged through his spine and shoulders.
Then—SNAP.
The chains around his waist ripped loose with a metallic whine. He slammed into the wall, then staggered to his feet, fur bristling down his arms, features distorted but still partially recognizable.
His legs weren't bound. This was a big mistake.
With a heaving snarl, he burst through the shed door, splinters and hinges flying.
Selene crouched by the edge of the logging road, watching the red taillights of her father's truck fade into the woods. Uncle Caleb rode shotgun, their plan clear: sweep the eastern hills where she'd claimed the werewolf signs were strongest.
She'd lied.
The signs were west of town. Near Graves Auto. Near Tyler.
She didn't know what she expected to find maybe nothing. Maybe she just wanted to be sure he was safe, or maybe her gut was screaming at her that tonight was different.
Selene adjusted her drone controller on her forearm, flicking the screen to thermal view.
A heat signature bloomed small, then rising fast.
Her eyes narrowed. "Got you."
Selene's drone caught the heat surge instantly.
A shape was large, fast, humanoid and moving west of Deadwood forest.
She sprinted through the brush, cutting across the ridgeline. The traps she laid earlier in the week activated as the creature passed the first sonic trap.
The beast dropped to its knees, clawing at its skull, releasing a gut-wrenching howl that echoed across the forest. Selene leapt into action, descending from the ridge, silver blade in hand.
The creature spotted her. Its eyes glowed a fierce yellow but not fully feral. Still… there was something strange about them.
Before she could strike, it smashed the sonic trap with a crushing backhand and stumbled away, limping but fast.
"Dammit," she growled, giving chase.
For the next three hours, they clashed.
She tracked it through burned-out groves and moonlit valleys, striking with precision and drawing blood. It never turned to kill. It fought with strength, yes, but not bloodlust. It moved like it was protecting something… or someone.
But every time she closed the distance, it would lash out lightly injuring her, pushing her back, always fleeing instead of finishing the fight.
She caught a slash across her arm. Then a brutal hit sent her flying against a tree her ribs screaming in protest.
But she always got back up.
"I'm ending this tonight," she whispered between panting breaths, one hand over her side.
Blood glistened on her blade. The beast was slowing. She had cut it deeper than before.
The silver was working.
And now, it was bleeding a trail that led to the old creek bed at the forest's edge.
She followed.
The sky was beginning to fade from black to a dull, steel-gray, the first hints of dawn softening the edges of the forest. Mist clung to the creek bed like a shroud as Selene crept through the underbrush, every breath tight in her ribs.
She pressed a hand against her left side. Bruised. Probably cracked. The tree impact earlier had knocked the wind out of her and left a deep throb beneath her jacket. Her other arm, lightly scratched, still trembled from the last exchange.
But her blade was steady.
Silver glinted faintly in the morning light.
Blood spatter marked the trail thick, dark, and heavy. The creature was slowing. It had no more fight left.
Selene's boots squelched in the damp earth as she followed the tracks up the embankment toward the half-collapsed cabin that overlooked the stream. Moss had overtaken most of its roof, and one wall had caved in long ago. She moved carefully, slowly. Her instincts were razor-sharp.
The beast was inside.
She slipped into the broken doorway, blade up, knees bent, ready to end it.
But the sight stopped her cold.
There on the floorboards, half-curled and slumped against the far wall was the werewolf. Still huge, still furred, still monstrous… but breathing raggedly, blood oozing from several deep gashes across its back and side.
Its chest rose and fell in shallow, pained gasps. One hand - paw? trembled as it tried to push itself up.
Selene moved forward cautiously, breath hitching. Her blade remained raised.
The beast didn't respond.
Then, slowly… unnaturally… the fur began to recede.
She blinked, her heart hammering.
Muscle shifted, his bones realigned. Thick brown fur melted back into pale skin. Clawed hands flexed, shrinking. The massive, beastly form shrank, curling into something leaner. More human.
A patch of blonde hair emerged from the crown of the creature's skull, matted with sweat and blood.
Selene froze."No…"