The last month

by Michverdun   

After a chance encounter in the forest, the youngest son of a monster-hunting family struggles with his last month being human.

Alex stomped through the forest, hearing the crunch of the leaves as he kept walking. He felt a familiar heat in his face, and tried to preemptively blink away the tears that were ready to flow. He was venturing deep into the forest, far away from the town that lay on the edge of the woods. That was fine by him though, the less people around to see him cry, the better.

The full moon shined in the sky, but that light barely reached the forest floor. The trees were still mostly full of leaves, fall only just beginning to take them off. It left patches of darkness, big enough for Alex to stumble over tree roots and flinch whenever he thought he saw something. Every flinch just made his heart sink even further. He was a coward, literally scared of his own shadow. His brother was right.

He found a small clearing, made from an old tree being cut down, leaving a large stump and an open sky. The moon shined so brightly here that it almost felt like midday, except for the cool blues and dark tones of the night. He plopped down, right next to the old stump, hoping that the first frost had killed off the poison ivy on the ground. He brought his knees closer to his chest as he listened carefully, hearing only a few insects and the flowing of a small creek nearby, not a human within earshot.

“Fucking…stupid…” Alex said softly as he started to cry again. He cursed his inability to be frustrated without crying. Anger was a motivating force for his family, their reason to keep going, but it just paralyzed him, leaving him on the forest floor once again. Another fucking stupid day.

Alex felt a distinct vibrating in his pocket, and pulled his phone out as he sniffed, the tears starting to slow down. He opened his phone and glanced at it, only to see that he had gotten a text from one of his friends, Katie.

Hey, how have you been? I haven’t heard from you in a while.

Alex felt a distinct pain in his chest as he tried his best to calm down. He wanted to pretend everything was okay, but he couldn’t even get the words out right. With teary eyes he typed out:

Not good my brother yelled at me and i ran out of the house

He felt the pain in his chest lessen almost immediately, the act of talking about it relieving the pressure. It felt almost bearable now, and it didn’t take long for Katie to reply.

I’m sorry. Do you have a place to stay? I wish I you could crash here, but I’m way too far away. :(

Alex sniffed, feeling the cool autumn breeze hit him. He texted another message as the pain in his chest turned into the dull ache he was accustomed to.

I’m just gonna sneak back in when he goes to bed. I guess I gotta start doing commissions so I can get an apartment of my own.

Her reply was almost immediate. Alex wondered how he could even get a signal good enough to get messages that fast.

Yeah! I always liked your art. I was honestly kind of bummed when you stopped drawing.

Really? My art is crazy horny. I didn’t think you liked that stuff.

I don’t, but you have a really good grasp on anatomy and your OCs are fun. Plus, you are my friend, so it’s fine if I have a random buff dude interspersed in my likes occasionally.

Alex laughed, thinking of his art being randomly interspersed with the well-painted backgrounds and cute characters she usually liked. He sat his phone down on his lap and looked straight up at the sky again. There were almost no stars to see from the clearing, the moon outshining all of them, but it was still a very pretty night. His older brother had probably burst a blood vessel seeing Alex leave the house tonight, but if he wanted Alex to stay inside, he should have been a little nicer, or at least yelled a little less.

It was only then that he realized just how late it was, looking back down at his phone to confirm that it was 2 a.m. He texted another message to Katie.

Why’d you text me tonight? You never stay up this late.

The reply was almost instant again.

Couldn’t sleep, plus I just got a feeling that I needed to message you. Glad I did.

Alex turned his phone off, set it on the stump, and started straight up at the sky. The moon outshone any other stars that night, leaving one bright circle in a dark sky. Just seeing the night sky and feeling the cool breeze calmed his breathing and untied the knots in his chest, until he heard rustling in the forest.

Alex jumped up and looked around wildly for the source of the noise. If it wasn’t a random deer or raccoon, there was only one person it could be, and he didn’t want another confrontation right now.

“Just leave me alone okay!? I don’t want to talk about it,” Alex yelled.

The forest was silent, except for his echo. Alex felt a chill run down his spine as he looked out into the trees. Although his brother hadn’t responded, he still felt like he was being watched. No telling if his brother was just hiding out somewhere, waiting to strike at any moment. He went and grabbed his phone off of the stump and looked out at the forest once more where he saw a pair of eyes looking back at him.

The eyes were low to the ground, like an animal, and pure white in color. There was no iris or pupil, just blank white eyes staring his way. They blinked once, as Alex stopped, trying to figure out what was looking at him. Alex squinted, trying to see the rest of the figure, but its body was covered in shadows. Alex slowly took one step back, trying to get ready to run, before he saw something that froze him in place.

The glowing white eyes rose from their place on the ground, until the unknown creature was even larger than Alex. The creature took one hand and clutched a tree, finally showing Alex more of its form. Its hand was paw-like, with large dark claws at the end of its fingers, covered in white fur. The creature’s head poked out into the clearing next, a white furred wolf’s head. The creature let out a snarl, black lips exposing gleaming white teeth in a wicked smile, drop of drool hitting the forest floor. The rest of its body followed, showing its towering form.

Alex had been found by a werewolf.

Not only that, but Alex had never heard of a werewolf being this big. In all of the warnings from his family, all of the pictures showed nothing like this. Even at 8 feet tall, the werewolf was bulging with muscle, clearly showing even with his thick fur. Thick, powerful arms, one that looked like they could snap a large oak in half, were connected to boulder like shoulders, leading to bulging pecs and traps with a massive thick neck. The slight hunch in the werewolf’s posture served to only make his traps look even bigger by comparison. Each muscle pressed into the next, all supported by thick legs, ready to lunge at Alex within seconds.

The creature made a low growling sound, a clear warning to the person right in front of him. Alex’s legs shook, the fear inside him begging to be let out. His lips quivered as he tried to remember a prayer, any prayer that his parents had told him. It wasn’t fair, he wasn’t good enough to hunt, he didn’t learn the prayers, or how to stay hidden in the woods, or what to do when a werewolf was a few feet away from you. He only knew how to run.

He took one step before the werewolf pounced on him, slamming him into the ground with such force that he skidded out of the clearing. The werewolf had every limb of his pinned, and even with the fiercest struggle it wouldn’t budge an inch. Alex kept struggling, even though he knew that it was over. He had been pinned down many times by people before, and he couldn’t escape then, why would that change now?

Alex looked up at the wolf, now staring him right in the eyes. He could swear that it was smiling even wider, taking some sick joy as it watched its prey struggle. Alex struggled harder and harder, crying out as he saw the wolf’s smile get wider. He didn’t even make words, just animalistic screaming as the werewolf finally struck, sinking its teeth into Alex’s neck.

The forest went quiet, save for the sound of one man choking. Alex assumed it was his own blood currently choking him out, as the werewolf held onto his neck. He wanted to scream, but the only noises he could make were choking and gurgling as the werewolf let go of his neck. The werewolf then rested its forehead against Alex, as his struggling slowed with confusion. The werewolf had him by the throat, why was he not dead yet?

The werewolf got up, leaving Alex on the forest floor. The constant struggle and the throbbing pain in his neck had left him exhausted, waiting for the end as he bled out. He could still hear that the werewolf was around but was unable to move his head to see him. All he could do was stare up at the full moon, the last thing to see him alive.

However, the end didn’t come. Alex could feel the adrenaline of a near-death experience coursing through him, as he sat up and touched his neck. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, leaving a wound covered in drying blood. Was it over? Had he survived a werewolf attack?

He glanced up at the moon once again, before feeling the adrenaline rush he had shift into something else entirely. He felt a sharp pain in his heart, sending Alex back to the ground on all fours.

“No,” Alex gasped. “Nononononopleasenogod—” His words were heard by nobody as he started to scream, the pain in his heart spreading throughout his body. He whimpered, tears filling his eyes again as he could hear the cracking of his own bones as they prepared for his transformation.

He dug his hands into the ground, feeling his teeth sharpen and shift as his own skull started to change, He could see hair growing on his forearms, pitch black like the hair on his head. He closed his eyes and tried his hardest to stop the changing, to not turn into a monster, and for a moment he could feel it slow down. He opened one eye slowly just to see his forearms again, just as hairy as they were, but Alex could tell that they were muscled, as if he had been working out for years.

And in that second of realization, Alex’s will to hold back the transformation slipped.

His body exploded with muscle, with dozens of pounds slabbed on in a second. His shirt was shredded instantly with shoulders like cannonballs, and a still widening back, gnarled with muscle. His shorts followed suit, with ballooning legs and a bulbous ass destroying both his shorts and underwear, freeing his hard cock.

He whimpered, feeling the cool breeze on his dick, as his shoes were then destroyed by new paw-like feet. He bucked his hips, humping the air, trying desperately to get off as he saw how massive he was becoming. Looking down once again, he saw that his forearms and hands were covered in dark hair, but even that couldn’t hide the massive amounts of muscle packed onto his arms. His arms were the size bodybuilders would kill to have, fully past humanity in their grotesque display of muscle, and yet every beat of his heart made caused his muscles to swell larger and larger. Alex let out a series of growls and snarls as his face stretched into a muzzle, as the flood of hair on his body thickened and darkened into black fur. His body detonated with muscle, with hundreds of pounds until finally he came. He howled as his cock fired load after load in worship of his own transformation.

He was left panting, an 8 foot tall beast with muscles so densely packed on his body that there seemed to be no room for more. He sniffed the air, smelling all of the scents of the forest, with most of it being his own musk and his cum. However, his mind didn’t drift to his new form, as one scent caught him.

He was out here. That disgraceful fucker, that disgusting little snake of a “brother”, was out here stalking around his forest. How many years had he lived underneath his boot, always being too weak to change things, but no longer. Alex’s mind filled with thoughts of violence, gnashing teeth and breaking bone. He could taste the blood on his mouth already, and it tasted sweet. He craved it, craved the feeling of flesh between his teeth, and he knew exactly where to get it. And when he got it that fucker would pay—

Alex shot up in his bed, drenched in sweat and panting. His eyes darted around the room, unfocused, trying to make sense of his surroundings. It was a room with dark walls, a pile of clothes unceremoniously dumped on the floor. The side of the room had a desk with a computer, and not much else. Once he saw the computer, he recognized the room quickly. He was back home, sleeping in his bed.

Alex sighed, glad that the whole ordeal was just a nightmare. No fight with his brother, no werewolf encounter, No transformation. He grabbed his chest to try and calm down his still rapidly beating heart. His chest was bigger. A lot bigger.

Alex flexed his chest, unaware that the muscle could even move like that, to confirm his fears. It was all muscle, and there was a significant amount there, too much for someone who spent most of their life in their room.

Alex looked at his hands, and saw dirt under his fingernails, and dark hair on his knuckles. His hands moved to his throat where he could still feel dried blood and scar tissue from a bite mark. He was a monster.

He slowly got out of his bed, the soreness in his body finally apparent to him. He hurt everywhere. His arms, his stomach, the back of his head. He waddled over to the door closing his eyes as he approached the mirror on it. He pawed at the door blindly until he could grab the handle, before opening the door and getting to the hallway.

Opening his eyes, he could see his brother, Caleb, at the dining room table. He was reading the Hunter’s Manual, before realizing Alex was awake and staring right at him. While the family resemblance was obvious between the two; pitch black hair, brown eyes, but the resemblance stopped quickly. Caleb’s hair was cut short, almost shaved down to stop being a nuisance while Alex’s stayed shaggy and unkempt. Caleb’s face was in a near-permanent scowl, with a scraggly beard that Alex had no chance of growing. Lastly, Caleb was buff. He wasn’t bodybuilder sized, because he thought that was gay, but he had muscle built from years of training and hunting, muscles that easily overpowered Alex.

Or at least, they had. Alex didn’t know what he looked like now, and he didn’t have the courage to look in the mirror. He felt stronger though, and judging by the look on his brother’s face, his transformation had been drastic.

“I’m sorry about last night,” Alex said. He shrank down, lowering his head and drooping his shoulders. It didn’t feel that effective anymore.

“Try five days ago,” Caleb said, voice filled with contempt.

“I was asleep for five days? Why didn’t you take me to the hospital?”

“I know what’s wrong with you,” Caleb snapped. “You acted like a little bitch and ran off, and now you’re a fucking freak. No doctor can fix that.”

Alex flinched at his brother’s words. There was a certain kind of venom Caleb had when he was angry, and it was in full force now.

“Is there any way to fix it?”

Caleb groaned, before opening the large book in his hands.

“Since you didn’t fully transform, I might be able to fix you, although I’ll have to get the ingredients for it.”

“That’s not right, I felt myself changing.” Alex tilted his head.

“And I saw you on the ground passed out, fully human. You were just imagining things, you do it all the time.” Caleb rolled his eyes.

“Which means you’ve got to keep your emotions in check,” Caleb continued. “None of this whiny bullshit. If you do any of your little freakouts that wolf inside of you is going to gain that much more control, and you’re going to get that much bigger, got it? If you’re not careful, you’ll fully transform and you won’t even be human by the next full moon.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, as he felt a pit forming in his stomach. He could feel the wolf inside him. It felt… angry. He imagined it tearing through his organs, replacing him until the wolf was the only thing left. He walked through the dining room, trying to ignore it, before jumping at the sound of barking outside.

Caleb’s dog, Spike, was up against the door to the backyard, snarling and baring his teeth at Alex. Caleb had adopted him years ago, a former police dog that Caleb had trained to be as vicious and cruel as possible. He said that Spike would be a valuable asset when he hunts, but for years Spike was only used to terrorize Alex. He hated that thing and had fantasized many times about leaving the backyard fence open to let Spike run out in front of a car.

“Are you… growling?” Caleb said.

Alex stopped growling and looked back at Caleb, before clearing his throat.

“No, that was just my stomach,” Alex said.

He stomped into the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was well stocked, but Alex saw a little “C” written on every item with a marker. Even moving some items aside, he couldn’t find anything that was his.

“Where’d my food go?”

“I threw it out. You were out for five days. All your stuff went bad.”

In response, Alex’s stomach growled, making a loud noise and causing Alex to crouch over in pain. He needed food. Alex contemplated just asking to make something with his brother’s food, but one quick glance at his brother stopped that thought. He was pissed, and asking for things never really went over well.

“I—um, I’m gonna go to the store.”

With that Alex ran out of the house. He grabbed his jacket, ignoring the feeling of it almost splitting as he got in his car and drove off.

The grocery store was bad on most days. The lights were too bright, the fluorescent bulbs letting out a constant buzz that seemed to only set Alex on edge. The floors were sticky with days’ worth of grime from people’s shoes, and all the aisles were too close together. Even for Alex normally it was hard to move past somebody, now it wasn’t even an option. The second he stepped inside the store he knew he had to be quick, so he grabbed a basket and got to grabbing food. He mostly grabbed items he knew wouldn’t take long to make, which meant less time in the kitchen. It also meant less time in the grocery store, until he reached the meat section.

Alex tried to avoid it, but every step he took seemed to subtly lead him to the back of the store where hundreds of cuts of meat were sitting, just waiting for his arrival. He looked down at the cuts of steak, mostly wondering why he was even back there. He wasn’t a good cook, and spending this much money on something that he was just going to burn was out of the question.

He felt drool drip off of his chin and onto the floor. The wolf didn’t want him to cook it.

Alex tried to think of anything to get him to stop wanting raw meat. He thought about how gross it would be to eat it raw, a cold, slimy thing running down his throat. He pictured what he knew about processing meat, all the blood, guts, and hanging carcasses in freezers. It only seemed to make him want it more. In fact, he could feel the urge to start tearing into it right now.

Alex looked down to see his basket had been filled with meat, and he was holding a cut of steak in his hand. It was still in the packaging, but even then, Alex kept looking for cameras out of the corner of his vision. Nobody would see right? It’s not like there was anybody in the store. This place was almost empty.

He tried to rationalize first with the shame of tearing into raw meat in public, and then with his family. How would his parents react if they were still around to see? What would his brother say? He was succumbing to the curse, turning into a monster, and he couldn’t even fight it in the smallest of battles. That didn’t work either. He could feel something inside him react well to the idea of disappointing all of them.

Before he could indulge his own hunger, Alex felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped. He turned around to see a girl behind him, who looked just as surprised as he was. Between her thick rimmed glasses, and her curly brown hair, Alex knew that this was his brother’s girlfriend.

“Oh, Alex? Wow, I honestly thought you were Caleb for a second there. Whoops,” Jessica said, adjusting her glasses.

“You think I look like Caleb?” Alex said. He glanced down at his white shirt, which was being strained by actually visible and sorta prominent pecs. God, how big was he?

“I mean from a distance yeah, but up close you’re… actually bigger than him. You’re…huge. Have you been going to the gym?”

“Uhh, yeah, for a while now,” Alex said.

Alex’s worries started downing out Jessica’s conversation as he realized what he had just said. He could hear his parent’s ghosts back to haunt him. In a moment he was back in the kitchen with his mother, being admonished for stealing a cookie from the cabinets. She told him that there was no such thing as lying, as God saw everything he did and would reveal the truth to her, and everyone else he lied to. He was back in his basement, staring at the ground while his brother listened diligently with his father, as his father talked about how this holy war his family was in. He said that the reason it was secret was to protect people, and because monsters would never show their true nature. Everyone would turn on them the moment they did.

And Alex was a lying monster now. It was only a matter of time before someone found out.

Before he could truly start panicking, Alex heard a walkie talkie going off. Jessica then grabbed the small radio that she had on her hip and turned the volume down.

“What’s that?”

“Police scanner. Gotta hear about things fast so that I can put them in the paper.” She held the scanner close to her ear, listening intently to words Alex couldn’t make out. The longer it went on, the more she looked scared. “Oh shit.”

“Did something happen?”

“You don’t have to worry about it,” she said, putting the police scanner back. “So how long have you been working out? Maybe you can start giving Caleb some tips.”

“It was a while ago…” Alex said, mind racing for a time that would somehow make sense with the times she had seen him before. Had it been recent? He didn’t know how fast someone could grow without a werewolf curse. Maybe he could just say a couple of months? He stayed in his room often and tried to avoid the people his brother associated with, but she could’ve seen him accidentally when he needed to go to the bathroom or something. Then what?

In that moment, his stomach growled. It made a roar so loud that Alex could believe that there was a physical wolf living inside him, and it was hungry.

“I’m sorry, I gotta go,” Alex said, and before Jessica could reply, he was already halfway down the aisle to the checkout.

The checkout was a blur, as Alex watched all the food he had bought come right back into his vision once again, as tantalizing as ever. He paid as quickly as possible and grabbed every bag in his arms before getting to his car.

He threw all the groceries he got in into the passenger seat, spilling onto the floor, as he got in the driver’s seat and drove away from the store.

His hands were shaking as he gripped the wheel harder. He wanted it, needed it more than anything, but for the moment his will persisted as he drove back to his brother’s house. Then, he parked the car. He kept gripping the wheel, knowing exactly where his hands would reach when he stopped. This curse had him by the throat, and he knew he wasn’t the strong one. He couldn’t fight this.

As he let go, his hands immediately clawed into the groceries as he finally fed the wolf living inside of him. He gorged himself on every piece of meat and food he could find, until he slumped back into the driver’s seat.

He felt his own body as he kept his eyes closed. Every mound of muscle was so new to him, and he knew that they would only get bigger with time. A smile spread across his face as he realized just how big he could possibly get, as the wolf sank its claws in deeper. He never thought failing could feel this good.

He opened his eyes to a knocking on the car door, only to see his brother looking down at him.

Alex sat outside of the gym, thumbs tapping the wheel. It had taken him another week to get back out into the world after the grocery store trip. For days, Alex tried to convince his brother that he wasn’t too far gone, and that it was just an honest mistake. Even after apologizing repeatedly, Alex could feel his brother watching him, trying to make sure whatever was there was still human. Caleb wasn’t mincing words either.

“This isn’t just some stupid fucking game, Alex. If I don’t cure you by the end of the month, you’re dead. And if you keep this shit up, you’ll be dead even earlier,” Caleb had said.

Alex remembered seeing Caleb’s hands ball up into fists, as if he was ready to throw a punch, before stomping off. That entire confrontation made it much easier for Alex to just stay in his room for a couple days, to try and let his brother cool off and give him time to ignore the timer over his head. That didn’t work for long, as he started feeling restless quickly. He felt trapped in his small room, and even leaving his room late at night to grab food wasn’t enough to make him feel better. It was the wolf again, but this time it wanted to be free rather than feed. Alex thought it was best to listen to this request. Maybe it would be easier to handle if he found a compromise.

The gym was the most obvious answer to the feelings of restlessness. It wasn’t near the house, so Caleb probably wouldn’t notice his car in the parking lot, and this way his “lie” would retroactively become the truth. It was the easiest way forward, the most logical thing to do, and yet he couldn’t get out of his car.

He stayed in the car, glued to the seat. It occurred to him that he hadn’t really gone anywhere that wasn’t either the grocery store or the woods in a long time, and he had no idea what he was going to do when he got inside. How does any of this work? What would he do if someone he knew was inside? All those questions kept him inside the car, even while the wolf got angrier with the stagnation.

“Fuck, okay, it’s gonna be fine,” Alex growled to himself. “You literally came at the time nobody comes here and you don’t know anybody here anymore, you’re not gonna be recognized.”

That little burst of motivation was enough to get Alex to unbuckle his seatbelt and open his car door. It was nice outside, with a slight chill coming from the breeze. He stepped one leg out onto the parking lot, followed by the next one. Alex wondered just how long he had been sitting in the car like a creep, before shutting the door and walking into the gym.

Signing up was easy, the girl at the counter led him through putting down his information and handing over his credit card, before getting the key to come in whenever he needed. He made a mental note to check if he had enough money for a couple of months, he needed to start drawing again.

“So do I need to wait a couple days or can I just…” Alex trailed off as he pointed towards the rest of the gym.

“Go ahead. I don’t care,” she replied.

Alex took her advice and went ahead to the rest of the gym. It wasn’t a big gym, just one large room with a good chunk of it dedicated just to treadmills. Being the only gym in the area meant it didn’t have the luxury of specializing: Everyone who wanted a gym had one option. However, to Alex’s untrained eye it seemed pretty good. That thought lead to the point that kept Alex rooted to the ground.

What the fuck was he supposed to do?

He didn’t know how to use half of the things in here, and the stuff he could begin to figure out from the few times he watched his brother just led to more questions. How much could he lift? Where did he start? If he guessed wrong, he would either hurt himself or look stupid, and he couldn’t tell which one was worse at this point.

Alex took a deep breath to ground himself. It didn’t matter if he looked like an idiot. Nobody was here, and the lady at the counter didn’t seem interested in watching a nervous wreck fail to lift. All he needed to do was make it plausible that he would be this big, nobody was watching to put his lies up to scrutiny.

And then someone walked out of the locker room.

Alex was first down to his pecs, accentuated by a cutoff shirt that was more of a suggestion of clothing than anything else, perfectly accentuating the two brown-skinned mounds of chest meat. He wasn’t tall, but he was wide, with rounded delts leading to monstrously thick arms. Hell, even his head with a chiseled jaw and short, black hair, was attached to a thick neck. As Alex looked down the man, trying to get a look at his thighs currently obscured by basketball shorts, he noticed something odd: He had a rainbow lanyard hanging out of his pocket.

Alex didn’t move as he locked eyes with the man, hoping that he would just ignore the weirdo standing in the middle of the gym, but instead he walked right over to Alex.

“Did you just join? I haven’t had anyone in the gym with me for weeks,” the man said. His voice was a rich bass that washed over Alex.

“Yeah, I did. I like your lanyard.” Alex pointed down at the lanyard, which he was pretty sure was a pride thing. It had the little progress flag and everything.

“Thanks,” the man said, running his fingers through the lanyard as if he had just remembered it was there. “I always thought I’d get a lot of shit for it, especially out here, but nobody’s said anything yet.”

“I mean, you won’t find a pride parade around here, but most people aren’t gonna be mean,” Alex said, as if he knew anything. The only places he knew about were church when he was younger (bad) and the grocery store (who the fuck starts a fight in the store?).

“Good to know,” the man said “What are you working on today? Arms? Chest?”

“I don’t really know what I’m doing honestly—” Alex said, before seeing the man tilt his head. “I mean, I used to work out with my brother, and he really just told me what to do.”

Alex felt the tension in his shoulders release. That lie wasn’t too obvious, it was even a little true. It wasn’t like this guy would be able to figure it out easily.

“Damn, he must be brutal,” the man said, looking Alex up and down. He paused for a second, with a thoughtful look on his face, before he spoke again. “You wanna join me?”

“What?” Alex said. If he wanted to keep his curse a secret, working out with someone else was the worst idea he could think of. He’d figure it out in an instant. However, the wolf seemed very receptive to the idea.

“I’ve been out of practice for a couple of weeks, just got back into it,” the man shrugged “We could figure this out together. Plus, I can go a lot harder if I have someone to spot me.”

“Wouldn’t I just hold you back?”

“Are you kidding me?” the man laughed. “I’d be more worried about me holding you back.”

Alex could feel the weight of every mirror around the gym, gazing at him. He wanted to look in them, to see what he was talking about. This guy was one of the biggest he’d seen in real life, broad shouldered with bulging muscles. He was a few inches taller than this guy, and he still looked bigger than him? He had only been a werewolf for 2 weeks. What had he become? He pushed that feeling down and kept his eyes downcast, he couldn’t see that, not now. He just nodded his head.

“Nice,” the man held his hand out. “Name’s Erin Torres.”

“Alex Rider,” Alex said, his last name feeling like bile in his throat. He hoped this guy didn’t use his full name often.

For the next couple of hours, Alex was pushed in ways he didn’t think were possible. He felt himself lifting using muscles he never even knew existed, feeling the burn of being put to work. It was a good grounding exercise for Alex. For a long time, he hadn’t felt connected to his own body, as if he was a ghost possessing the wrong shell, but this put him right back in it. He could feel the weight on the bar as he brought it down to his chest and feel the power in his muscles as he brought it back up repeatedly. It felt right.

“For someone who keeps saying they don’t know anything, you’re pretty good at this.”

Alex sat up, panting, and looked back at the bar he was just benching. He didn’t count the plates, and some part of him wanted to keep how much he just lifted a secret, but it was a lot more than his brother could lift.

“Just intuition, I guess.”

Besides breaking every gym record his brother might have set, Alex spent the time in between sets asking Erin about his life. What he found out was fascinating. Erin had grown up in Texas, before going to college for environmental science and had spent the next few years moving around the country doing seasonal work. He spoke at length about all of the jobs he had, from coast to coast. The reason he could even go the gym in the middle of the day was that his last job had ended.

“That sounds hard,” Alex said.

“Yeah, it’s hard to keep a routine when you’re working in Wyoming and the nearest gym is 75 miles away. I had to do pushups and shit for months. How about you?”

Alex sheepishly tried to bring up interesting parts of his life, but he wasn’t getting anywhere. Being a homeschooled shut-in wasn’t exactly the best way to impress someone, and Erin’s stories blew anything he had out of the water. Alex felt incomplete, as if he was missing something. They were like the same age, and Erin had done so much with his life. How was he ever supposed to catch up?

“You can draw? That’s so cool. Can you show me?” Erin said.

Alex stopped. He didn’t even realize he mentioned that. He thought about all of his recent work and chose not to show a stranger how much dick he had drawn.

“Sorry, it’s kind of personal to me.”

“Ah, that’s fair. My sister’s always been really guarded about her art too. I should show you some of it…”

Erin looked through his phone, as Alex panted at a finally finished workout. His arms felt dead, and he was sure he’d feel it tomorrow, but he didn’t regret it at all. He had never felt this good while being this tired. He looked down to see that his hands were beet red and looked back up to see that Erin looked even bigger. God, he was so fucking hot.

“Fuck, I can’t find any of it. I’ll have to show you later. Thanks for being my partner today.”

“No problem. Would you maybe wanna keep doing this?” Alex asked.

Alex flinched, ready for the man to reject him completely. He was sure the last thing Erin wanted to do at the gym was babysit him while he spouted boring facts about his life. Erin was nice though, maybe he’d at least let Alex down easily.

“Fuck yea dude. We’re gonna get huge. Same time tomorrow?” Erin said.

“Yeah,” Alex replied. Something about knowing he’d see Erin again made the wolf happy. It was one of the first times he felt like he agreed with it.

As he left the gym, he felt refreshed. The cool breeze of fall dried his sweat, and he was happy with how things went. He couldn’t remember a time when he had ever talked to someone that easily, especially recently. Even his moments of panic were pushed away quickly, and if anyone noticed they didn’t seem to care. Maybe he was better at talking to people than he thought.

Alex felt his phone vibrate as he started his car. He pulled it out of his pocket to see that his brother was calling him. He took a deep breath, then answered.

“I have to leave town for work, and to get the stuff to cure you. That means you’re on hunting duty until I’m back,” Caleb said.

“What? I—”

“I don’t give a shit about any of your excuses. You’re a man. Act like it. Our family has done this for generations, that’s not gonna stop just because you keep whining.”

Alex didn’t reply. He wasn’t going to do it; family traditions be damned. Caleb hadn’t hunted anything in years, just stomped around in the woods all night. Thankfully, with his brother it was all talk.

“Also, thanks for apologizing. Glad to see you come to your senses. I just wish I could’ve gotten to you before that freak did. Love you, bye.”

“Bye,” Alex replied.

Alex rested his forehead on the wheel. So much for having a good day.

On the drive home, Alex could feel himself straighten up coming closer to his full height. He could feel his breath becoming steadier, and his heartbeat stayed slow even as he walked into the house. It was quiet, and he didn’t feel his usual compulsion to run right to his room. It didn’t seem like Caleb packed anything, just left as quickly as possible. The only thing that had changed was a new lock on the door to the basement.

The lock was a large padlock, hastily snapped on the latch of the door. The lock itself didn’t bother him much, he hadn’t wanted to go down in the basement in years, but it felt odd for Caleb to lock the basement now. If he was supposed to “be a man” and “protect the tradition” why would he lock up all the hunting gear in the basement?

Alex absentmindedly grabbed at the lock, thinking that it might just be unlocked, before feeling a searing pain in his hand. He pulled his hand back, seeing a red mark that quickly healed, leaving only a dull ache. The fucker used a silver lock.

Alex stormed off, suppressing a growl in his throat. He passed by the kitchen, even though he could feel his hunger rising again, and only stopped once he saw that Caleb’s Bible and the Hunter’s Manual on the kitchen table.

The Hunter’s Manual was open to a page that Alex knew all too well. He didn’t know if Caleb was just studying or taunting Alex, but this page didn’t do much to hurt him. He had read that book back to front, probably even more than the Bible itself, but this page had always transfixed him. It was a series of images of a man, named Thomas, drawn in the late 1600s as he transformed. At that time, many hunters were trying to find a way to eradicate lycanthropy and that meant studying those who had been bitten.

In the first picture, Thomas was emaciated as he was shown chained to the wall. The scared look in his eyes was unmistakable, and seeing it made Alex’s heart hurt. The next picture showed him sitting down, still chained to the wall. He was turned away from the artist, not showing his face. However, Thomas was emaciated no more. The caption beneath him described him with the build of a worker, but Alex disagreed. He had muscle, probably even more than people working would have, but the drawn lines of the definition on his arms meant he had almost no fat. Alex wondered if they were even feeding him as they chained him up like a dog.

The third picture was a departure from the others. Thomas was now chained by the neck, and this picture showed him standing, trying desperately to tear it off. The neck that was chained up was much thicker than its previous incarnations, just like the arms trying to pull the chain off and every other thing about him. His clothes were now gone, save for some shreds of pants just barely keeping him decent. The caption doesn’t state what he could be compared to, because at that time he was incomparable. Now, Alex could probably see him as a champion bodybuilder, just over the edge of what was even possible today. His biceps seemed to press against his forearms as he clutched against his neck, muscles straining with power. His face had changed too, a chiseled, masculine jaw covered with a scraggly beard. In his grimace, you could see his canines had become much sharper than normal, and the caption stated that his eyes had turned a bright yellow.

However, the fourth picture was the one that Alex had a fascination with. Even when he was little, Alex would stare at it for hours, closing the book whenever his parents came in the room. It was Thomas again, standing at full height, but now he was so big even Alex didn’t have a metric for it. His basketball sized biceps pressed up against his massive pecs, even when they were clearly at his side. His body had been pushed to the limits of muscle while still remaining mobile: Pecs almost reaching his own chin, traps seeking to make his still-chained neck disappear. All of this was on top of truly tree trunk legs, his knees almost obscured by muscle. His legs left no room for his bulge, pushing it out and showing that it had grown just like the rest of him had. Thomas’s hands and feet were not tipped with dark, sharp nails, similar to claws, and his body was almost completely covered with hair: His chest, his stomach still showing abs, and even his arms and legs.

Thomas’s face now had a full beard, and his mouth was curved in a wild smile, showing incredibly sharp teeth. Alex couldn’t understand his expression when he was younger, but he could now: that chain couldn’t hold him. Alex could see how the chain was worn down; it was barely holding on. He was playing a game with his captor, letting him believe that he had all the power. This was no clearer than in the last picture, a hastily drawn blur of a massively muscular werewolf, drawn in a different style. The caption states that this was Thomas after killing his captor and escaping, becoming what would be known to hunters as the Beast of Salem.

The Beast of Salem was a werewolf that terrorized hunters for generations, until 150 years later he was taken down by a team of 50 men. He killed thousands of hunters, permanently stunting the tradition, and yet Alex couldn’t stop thinking about him. Even when he was a child he would think about Thomas, making crudely drawn pictures of him being friends with the werewolf. Later in Alex’s life, those fantasies became increasingly sexual, as he could take a copy of the Hunter’s Manual into his room to “study”. Even as he now left the book open and took a shower, he could only think about his earlier fantasies, the Beast breaking into his house and grabbing him, tearing him away from his family where he would never see them again.

Alex felt his cock, now fully hard, begging for some kind of stimulation. He tried to ignore it, turning off the water, and drying himself off, but he was too busy still thinking about his crush on a werewolf that was over 300 years old. In his state, he forgot to close his eyes as he got out of the shower and got a full view of his own body, thanks to the mirror hanging on the bathroom door..

Ever since he had woken up, Alex was worried that the changes in him would make him look like his father, or even his brother. They were related, and the biggest difference between them was that Alex was weaker, less masculine. That was gone now, so he figured that he would look like them. That wasn’t the case. He was bigger than his brother was, or his father ever had been, with a flexing of his arm showing a bicep like a cannonball. He was hairier than them, and there was just something about his face that wasn’t family resemblance anymore. His face was starting to grow a beard, and his eyes had turned to a sharp yellow with the points of sharp canines in his mouth. There was something animalistic about his face, something just off from human, and then in hit him as he brought his hands up to his neck, mimicking the pulling of a chain around the neck.

He looked like Thomas.

Immediately one of his hands hit the door as he leaned against it, as his other hand furiously stroked his cock. He growled; forehead pressed against the cool mirror. He was a beast, a monster of meat and fur, bulging with muscle. How could his brother keep acting like this needed to be cured? He was perfect. He could feel himself growing, the magic of the wolf within him making him bigger. He could see it, himself growing so big that he couldn’t even fit in the mirror, outgrowing doors. He could feel his claws and teeth getting sharper becoming so beastly that he couldn’t even be recognized as human, just a muscular beast.

That thought broke his conviction, he moaned as he shot his load onto the mirror, hitting his reflection with his own cum. He panted, trying in vain to remember everything his family had taught him. It couldn’t get through, as he was mesmerized by his own reflection. It felt too good to be this big, this strong. He didn’t want it to end. How was he supposed to go back after looking like this?

After cleaning off the mirror and getting dressed again, Alex walked back out to the kitchen to finally get something to eat. He passed by the open books again, pausing when he saw that the Bible had a verse highlighted: Matthew 7:15. Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Alex could feel the words rattle around in his head, as if they were said by his brother to his face. There wasn’t really much room for subtlety anymore, he was just trying to make it sting.

“Fuck you,” Alex growled as he shut the Bible.

Right after he spoke, vicious barking came from the backyard. Alex flinched at the noise, before remembering that he couldn’t just ignore Spike: his brother was gone and if anything happened to Spike, he would be dead way before the end of the month. He went out to the garage, ignoring his own growling stomach to go feed his brother’s dog.

He scooped the dog food from the sad bag in the corner of the garage, until the empty dog bowl was full again and made his way to the door to the backyard. He couldn’t reach out to open it.

Alex took a deep breath and repeated the thing he always said when he had to go to the back yard: Caleb didn’t let Spike off his chain. That happened once as a prank, and he hasn’t done it again. Just because he’s threatened sic his dog on you doesn’t mean he would, and no matter what you have to feed him, so suck it up.

Its effectiveness was mixed, but it did give him enough of a boost to turn the handle, open the door slightly, and slide through the open crack. He shut the door behind him and sighed, before hearing an ungodly noise from the other side of the yard.

Spike was chained to the tree, barking like mad at the strange intruder in his yard. His barking felt like nails on a chalkboard, and it only got louder as Alex approached with the food.

Alex had always hoped that Caleb would be a little nicer on the dog’s training, but he knew that would never happen. His family wasn’t interested in dogs that could go on walks or play fetch. His family didn’t want them nice, they wanted killers, dogs who could tear into human flesh without remorse and would hunt down anything when asked. Only perfect loyalty and perfect aggression, and apparently perfect fucking barking—

“Shut the fuck up!” Alex yelled, right down at the dog he towered over.

Spike stopped barking and cowered, looking up at the beast who had yelled at him. The dog flinched, expecting a punishment. Alex’s eyes widened as he realized what Spike had done. He had flinched like that before, many times. It was a full body, physical apology, complete submission in exchange for not being hurt.

Alex sank to his knees, dog food spilling onto the ground. He set the bowl down as he started to sniff, tears welling up in his eyes. Spike just looked so scared, so ready to give up everything just to not get hurt. How long had it been since he had just been treated well?

“I’m sorry,” Alex said, eyes looking away from the dog. He picked up a dog treat and held it out in his hand. He heard the sound of a chain moving, but Spike wasn’t any closer.

“Does he leave out passive aggressive Bible verses for you too?” Alex chuckled. He remembered how he saw Caleb’s hands ball up into fists before he stormed off. It was so unlike him to just fight verbally.

Alex felt the soft touch of a nose spiffing his hand, before Spike grabbed the treat and ran away to enjoy it, as far as his chain could go. Alex watched as he ate the treat. He guarded it fiercely; afraid Alex would take it away from him.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you. I promise.”

Spike’s teeth were sharp, easily able to tear into things. Alex remembered the time when Caleb clutched his bleeding hand from an accident while “training” Spike, which usually meant Caleb would leave the dog alone for a while. Alex put his finger up against one of his own canines. Maybe it was good to have his own set of sharp teeth. Maybe he needed them.

Dog training was harder than he thought.

He had spent a good chunk of his week trying to train Spike to be more friendly, with limited results. The first days were filled with nasty bite wounds and fights where Alex could relive old traumatic memories while also proving that werewolves can heal faster; these bite marks only lasted an hour. Now, a full week later, Spike wasn’t biting that often, but that was the only win he had. Spike was still insanely aggressive.

“What am I gonna do with you?” Alex said. He crouched down to look at Spike, who was currently playing with a chew toy. “You can’t keep biting people if we’re gonna go anywhere.”

Alex reached out towards the chew toy, only for Spike to respond with a mean snarl. Alex kept his hand back. Best to let him have his boundaries.

“It’s gotta be lonely living like this. You’re so scared of anyone going near you that I can’t take you on walks and stuff. Don’t you want to meet other dogs?”

Spike looked over at him, with the accidentally knowing eyes that most dogs have.

“Hey, I go to the gym every day now, I started drawing again, and I made a new friend. That’s better than you.”

Alex paused after saying that, feeling like he was overrepresenting his progress. The truth was his dog training wasn’t going that well. He was going to the gym, although they had started going in the middle of the night. He also was drawing; it was just that drawing and taking commissions didn’t give a ton of connections with people. It was less progress than he expected, and that didn’t even begin to cover the werewolf acceptance program.

Alex’s “Werewolf Acceptance Program” was his attempt to accept what he was becoming, rather than deny it. Physically, it was the easiest thing he had done all month. Every time he glanced at his body in the bathroom mirror, he couldn’t help but jerk off again. He had gone from “Possible but would take years of dedication to even get close” to “Barreling towards inhumanly big” in a week. He could feel his legs rubbing together as he walked, pushing his bulge out to make it prominent to the edge of obscenity. His formerly cannonball sized arms, later measured by Erin to be 22 inches, were even bigger, starting to restrict his movement as his pecs crashed up into it. His pecs had also gained a heavy helping of hair, also starting to cover his arms and legs. Even his face wasn’t forgotten: He had a full, dark beard.

He loved how he looked now. It felt right. Every single moment in his body just reinforced the thought that had been brewing in him since he was bitten: Why was everyone saying this was bad? Everything on werewolves he read had said he would be mostly gone at this point, a monster that would barely recognize the difference between friend and prey. That wasn’t happening. He was bigger, hairier, and hornier, but he was still himself. If this was all that it was, there was no reason to be cured, and he just needed to find something that could reinforce his experience. It wasn’t even for his own benefit at this point.

He knew how he felt, but it was convincing his brother that was the hard part. If he wanted to find any alternatives to being cured, he needed an argument that was rock solid. He needed to show that he hadn’t lost his mind, and that he wouldn’t hurt anyone, and that seemed impossible. Even in the time periods where werewolves were “studied”, the only thing he could find on werewolves was that they should all be dead. There was nothing about their transformation, their experiences, or even the cure that Caleb had talked about.

Alex was pulled out of his reminiscing by a bark, as Spike let him know that the chew toy had mysteriously gotten out of his reach. Alex grabbed the old chew toy, a blue and white rope, with a large knot at both ends, and threw it back to Spike.

“Do you know how I could convince Caleb? What do you think that cure is gonna do to me?” Alex mimed a microphone, pointing it towards Spike. He didn’t respond because he wasn’t that much of a conversationalist.

He spent more time than he should have thinking about that cure. For something that hunters had apparently been looking for centuries, He couldn’t even find what it was made of, much less what it would do to him. Would he stay like this? Shrink back to the size he was? What if it went too far, destroying all of his muscles until he was just a bag of skin and bone? Most importantly, what would his brother do if it didn’t work at all?

Just then Alex felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He slowly peeked at the screen, before realizing it was another text from Katie.

Hey, I saw that you started posting again! I’m glad.

Alex smiled, as he lay down next to Spike and replied.

Yeah, I’ve been feeling pretty good this past week. I even got a commission or two done. Honestly its surprising considering how this month has gone.

Aww, what happened?

Alex stopped, trying to figure out a way to talk about his month without actually talking about it. All of the lying he had to do was wearing on him.

My friend got diagnosed with some rare condition, and I want to try and help him out, but there’s nothing online. Also, the doctors are just being really mean about it, saying he needs to be cured immediately, even though he might be able to live a normal life? And the cure might not even work? There’s just a lot of unknowns.

Alex nodded to himself, that was probably the best way he could put it. He hoped it wasn’t too obvious.

I’m sorry for your friend, could he maybe find anyone else with the same condition? It might be good to talk to someone who’s already living with it, see what his options are.

Alex set his phone down as he looked up at the sky. He liked the idea, but he only knew about one werewolf that could be in the area: the one who bit him. Alex shuddered at the thought of coming in contact with those teeth, but he tried to not let fear get the best of him. If the werewolf was really biting to kill back then, he would’ve been dead by now.

As Alex got up off the ground, he vowed to keep an eye out for the werewolf. If those muscles translated to his human form, then he wouldn’t be hard to spot. Then, he could get some answers on what to do next, and maybe even figure out why he was bitten in the first place.

His thoughts of werewolf searching were interrupted by a knock at the door. He froze, before realizing that his brother would have just walked into the house. He went back inside and opened the front door to see Jessica standing there.

“Oh, damn,” Jessica blurted out, as she saw Alex.

“Hi.” Alex waved. He could see Jessicas eyes baring through him, trying to figure out how much he had grown. The only clothes he could fit in now were the biggest sweatshirts he had, and even they were tight. It was getting harder to hide what he had become.

“Sorry, have you seen Caleb? I’ve been trying to call him for the past week, and he hasn’t answered.”

Alex had heard from him frequently, usually to make sure that the curse wasn’t getting worse. Alex said he wasn’t getting bigger, which was an outright lie, but he didn’t want to deal with his brother getting mad and coming back immediately. He needed all the time he could get.

“He said last week that he left for work. He didn’t say when he’d be back.”

Jessica scoffed. “He works at a factory, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“What?” Alex said. Alex remembered multiple times over the years when Caleb had to leave for work, and he hadn’t changed jobs in years. Come to think of it, had Caleb told him anything about his job at all?

“You didn’t know?”

“I asked, but he—I—” Alex sighed. “It just seemed to piss him off.”

“Sorry, I knew you and Caleb didn’t get along, but I didn’t think—” Jessica trailed off, unsure of how to finish that sentence. “Anyway, I should probably just tell you. You should be careful, especially if you go out into the forest. The cops found a stray bullets after hearing gunshots outside of hunting season, and apparently it connects back to some unsolved murders a couple years back.”

“No way.”

“No, it’s crazy. This guy can’t be very smart, I mean he’s using these like basically homemade silver bullets. They find those, that guy is fucked. I’m sure someone will find out who it is, but that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous. Just, be careful.”

Alex didn’t respond, as his whole world shattered in front of him. He knew those bullets. He was forced to use them for target practice. He had seen his father making them in the basement, carving that same stupid fucking cross in them, and now here they were, being used on other people. There was only one source.

“Anyway, just let him know. It’s getting kinda late, so I gotta go.” Jessica ran off, back to her car that was still running.

Seconds later, Alex slammed the door to the outside, and clutched his head as he let out an ungodly roar. The sound was a pure outpouring of rage, as he stumbled into the kitchen. He clutched a kitchen chair, his newly darkened nails digging into the wood.

“It was the only thing I asked for. I pleaded. I begged. I told him I’d be good. I’d follow every rule. All he had to do was stop hunting, I even compromised! He could ‘protect’ this worthless town!” Alex yelled until his voice was hoarse. “And how am I repaid?”

“He fucking lied to me!” Alex threw the chair across the room, shattering it into thousands of splinters. It wasn’t enough.

He could feel it, the wolf feeding on his rage. His teeth felt like ivory knives, nails truly claws. He needed more things to break.

He stomped through the house, holding one hand against the wall, claw marks scratching the paint. He was led by his nose to a locked bedroom at the end of the house.

The door took two slams of his shoulder before it fell over, letting him into his brother’s room. Alex let out a satisfied snarl as he lunged onto his brother’s bed, starting his rampage on anything that had his brother’s scent. His mind imagined it as his own brother’s flesh, imagining the sounds of cracking bone and the taste of blood in his mouth. However, rage wasn’t his only reason for being here.

“Where is it? Where is it!?” Alex yelled as he tore through the room.

He topped over dressers, cracked TV screens, even tore into the closet all to find one thing: silver bullets. He was tired of being tricked by his own brother. He needed to be sure, to prove that he was being lied to.

Alex breathed heavily as he franticly searched the room. He saw the wreckage of his anger: a broken bed frame, shredded clothes, a shattered mirror and a toppled dresser. Nothing in his room had been spared, but there were no silver bullets. Only one other place to check.

Alex tore out of the room, sprinting towards the door to the basement. They had to be there; it all was down there. Every piece of evidence was down there, hiding from him. He slammed into the door with all of his might, but the door didn’t budge. Alex roared, and slammed into the door again and again, but it stayed firm. After the tenth hit, he slid down the door keeping his body against it, and that’s when he felt it: There were silver bars reinforcing it from the other side.

“You. Mother. Fucker.,” Alex yelled exhaustedly as he beat the door with his head. The adrenaline in him slowly ran out, as he realized he wasn’t getting down there. He had trusted his brother completely, and his brother had used Alex’s weakness against him.

Just then, Alex felt a vibrating from his phone. He answered the call and said “What?” weakly to whoever was calling.

“Are you still coming to the gym tonight?”

“Fuck! Sorry,” Alex said. He looked at the clock to see that his little rampage had lasted hours. He was supposed to be at the gym 15 minutes ago. “I’m still at the house, I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Do you want me to come pick you up?”

Alex almost said no, before looking down at his shaking hands. Driving probably wasn’t the best idea right now.

“Yeah, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll see you there,” Erin said as he hung up.

Alex stayed slumped down against the door, trying to slow his breathing. His rage still burned within him, begging to be released. At least this way it could be used for something useful, rather than tearing up bedrooms and literally beating his head against the wall. Maybe he could hit a new personal best and impress Erin, at least get something out of this day.

It didn’t take long for Alex to hear a single honk outside of the house, his sign that Erin had made it. He got up off the floor, grabbed his gym bag, and headed outside, trying his best to keep a brave face. He said hi to Erin as he sat in the passenger seat, hearing the creak of a car that seemed very surprised to have that much weight on one side. He looked up to see his own eyes reflected in the rearview mirror, a piercing yellow.

“You doing okay?” Erin asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“You seemed kinda on edge when I called.” Erin shrugged. “Is your brother back?”

“No,” Alex responded coldly. The last thing he wanted was to blow up in front of Erin. He glanced around for something to change the conversation, before seeing the silver medal that hung right underneath the rearview mirror.

“What’s that from?” Alex asked.

“Oh god,” Erin said. “I won that right out of college, when I had the stability to stick to a good routine and keep a coach around. Seconds overall was pretty good for one of my first contests. I had people telling me I was gonna make it big.”

“Did you keep competing?”

“Nah, I liked the jobs I took, being outdoors and all, and there was no way I could compete at a higher level while traveling around so much. Plus, I know that the whole system is really shitty, even with a ton of Christians boycotting the sport for a couple decades.” Erin shrugged again.

“I don’t need medals or anything to get big, I just like it. This probably isn’t even real silver.” Erin reached out and grabbed the medal, as Alex could tell right away that it was real silver. It gave him the same feeling as a hot stove, or an animal that was clearly poisonous. He could feel the pain that would arise before it ever even happened.

“I’m surprised you didn’t even know what this was. You look like you could win a contest if it was happening today. Honestly if you keep growing like you have been, you’d be able to win this year’s Mr. Olympia.”

Alex crouched over slightly to hide his rapidly hardening dick. It was a real problem, especially when he switched to just wearing sweatpants. Even with the insane amount of masturbating he was doing, he was still horny, especially when Erin talked about his body. There was something about him saying that made Alex lose his mind. It was the same reason he forbid himself from walking behind Erin anymore. That ass was too much to handle.

“Okay, we’re here,” Erin said.

Alex hopped out of the car, both eager to get in the seemingly empty gym and get a blast of cool air to hopefully shock him back into being normal for even a second. It did work, keeping the lust for his gym partner and the rage for his brother quelled. He thanked the fact that he and Erin were the only guys interested in doing late night workouts, as he needed the gym alone tonight.

Inside the gym, he was a monster. All semblance of gym etiquette was thrown out, as Alex made it his goal to push his body to the absolute edge. He grunted, swore, and squatted weights that even the bar could barely handle. It was left permanently marred, about to snap from what Alex put it through, but it still wasn’t enough. He needed to be stronger, be bigger, be more. Every single moment he spent lifting was another way to ensure that he could crush that little fucker’s skull for ever daring to treat him like—

“Hey,” Erin said, breaking through Alex’s concentration “That’s probably good for tonight.”

Alex blinked and shook his head, feeling the rage finally bleed out of his body. He was sweating, panting, a slight soreness in his legs. He looked at the clock to see that over an hour had passed. He couldn’t remember even a second of it.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t even notice,” Alex said.

“Yeah, I could tell, but I didn’t want you to get injured. Plus, I could not keep up anymore. You really have passed me by.”

Alex saw his own reflection in the mirror, clearly seeing what Erin was saying. His sweatpants were stretched to their limits, clearly showing just how pumped his legs had gotten from his workout. How was he even outgrowing sweatpants?

“So, do you want me to take you back to your place now? I was gonna shower here but I can wait.”

“No,” Alex said, remembering that he still wanted to try and get more comfortable with this place. He brought his gym bag here for this reason. “I just gotta figure out how I’m gonna wash my back.”

“I can help you if you want, big guy,” Erin said causally.

Alex’s cock became hard so quickly he felt dizzy, as it clearly showed in the outline of his sweatpants. He let out a small grunt as he thought of the man’s hands on his body.

“Is that just a joke, or did you actually mean that?” Alex growled.

Erin smiled and looked around the empty gym.

“I mean, there’s nobody here, so I’m down.”

With that, Erin walked into the locker room, and Alex was right behind him, cock leading the way.

Alex slowly undressed, turning his body away from Erin as he did. He couldn’t believe that he was doing this. Even his primal lust couldn’t shake the oddness of stripping down in public in front of something else, and he was worried that if he saw Erin’s body now, he would do something drastic. As he got fully naked, he turned on the water in one of the shower stalls. He jumped right in, not worried about the cold water. His shoulders touched both sides of the stall, he could barely fit in this thing as is.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Alex yelled.

For a few seconds, Alex didn’t hear anything as he felt the water run down his body, and then he heard someone step into the shower stall with him. He heard the sound of a bottle of soap being opened, and then Erin touched his back.

Alex’s arms hit the back wall, keeping him steady as Erin felt every muscle in his back.

“God, I always dreamed of touching a guy that was this big. I’d always see those guest posers at a comp and just want to brush against them for just a second. But you’ve blown all of those fantasies out of the water.”

Alex whimpered, as he felt the wolf inside him thrash around in pleasure. He felt Erin slowly soap up the curve of his obscene lats.

“I should show you how to pose, so you can really show these muscles off. Maybe that’s a little bit of me wishing, but you really are one of a kind,” Erin said. “Okay, you can turn around now.”

“What?” Alex said. He looked down at his throbbing cock. He was just in the middle of humping the air, imagining plowing Erin’s ass.

“I mean, I know you can wash yourself, but if you wanted me to I could still…”

Erin didn’t have time to finish his sentence as Alex turned around showing him a full view of the werewolf. Alex put his arms back at his side, still giant pillars of meat filling up the shower stall. Erin whistled when he looked down to see Alex’s cock.

“I’ll get to that later.”

Erin started at Alex’s pecs, soaping up the dark furry masses of muscle. Erin’s pecs were good, true chest pillows, but they weren’t even close to Alex’s giant pecs. It almost looked like Erin would lose his hands in the crevice between them. Alex could imagine shoving Erin’s face in them as they grew even further.

“I’ve never really been the smaller guy in this type of thing. I mean, I’ve been shorter, sure, but never smaller. You fucking dwarf me though, like, you have 4 or 5 inches on me, and you still seem way wider. You know how hard it is to outflex a 5’6” bodybuilder?”

Erin felt up Alex’s arms and abs as he said that. Alex imagined the white wolf who had bit him, 8 feet tall, but still almost overwhelmed with muscle. His body was going the same way, with legs that got in each other’s way while he walked. He was going to be as big as that thing.

“God these legs are beastly,” Erin said offhandedly as he crouched down and washed his legs. Both of his hands could just barely fit around one of his calves.

The word rang around in Alex’s mind. Beastly. Beast. That’s what he was. It was the word spit at every other werewolf, the way his brother degraded him. Beast. Freak. Monster. Alex could feel his claws hardening, a dark black and his teeth becoming sharper in his mouth.

Erin set his hand underneath one of the most impressive parts of Alex’s physique: his cock. A 13 inch long and very thick penis stood at attention, attached to cum-producing nuts the size of baseballs. He lifted his hand up feeling the weight of the massive balls in them.

“God, your loads must be huge. When did you cum last?”

“Mhhh… this morning,” Alex said, remembering how long it took to clean the mirror that was fully painted in his seed.

“Jesus, and your balls are this bloated? Have you always been this big?”

“No… growing…” Alex grunted, the lust and the wolf making it hard to speak in coherent sentences. His hands were brought up to either side of the stall, cracking the walls.

“Damn. You’ve gotta let me try what you’re on. Wonder how many strokes its gonna take to get you off.”

Erin chuckled as he wrapped a hand around Alex’s cock, as Alex’s mind was filled with the thoughts of freaks and beasts.

“I’m a… freak. A… monster” Alex whimpered. As the sensations of the hand job unlocked something deeper.

“Never gonna stop growing?” Erin asked.

“Never..gonna… stop” Alex said, his vocal cords getting worse at human speech. “Can’t..go back. He can’t make me go back!”

At that declaration from Alex, he came shooting load after load of cum right into Erin’s face. Erin wiped it off his face, just to see Alex thrashing against the walls, in the throes of a transformation. Dark stretch marks appeared as Alex gained hundreds of pounds of muscle in seconds, shoulders turning into battering rams to destroy the stall. Erin scrambled out of the shower to see Alex howl to the sky, face lengthening to a muzzle. The sounds of bones breaking and reforming, along with skin stretching and muscles swelling, filled the room.

Alex landed on all fours, letting out a pained noise as he kept transforming. His body kept gaining muscle with no fur growing. Giant pink vein-encrusted mounds of muscle encroached on his head. His heart hammered in his chest, as he felt his movement become almost impossible, something wasn’t right.

Alex took one shaky step forward, as that arm quickly swelled with muscle. His shoulder swelled past the size of a normal human torso. He whimpered as he fell over, lopsided muscles making it impossible to move. He let out another pained cry as his hunger gnawed at his insides, tired of not being sated. He wasn’t even making it to his first full moon. He whimpered, feeling his body stretch past its limit as his vision went dark.

“Alex? Alex!?”

Alex slowly opened his eyes as he came to. He saw Erin in front of him, clearly distressed. He looked down to see him sitting on a bench, hands shaking. He could feel a great pain in his stomach, threatening to break him again.

“Hungry,” Alex choked out; voice still hoarse from vocal cords changing.

Erin handed him a protein bar from his own gym bag, which Alex quickly devoured. It wasn’t enough to sate him, but it did enough to let his mind think about other things, like how he’d just been found out. Tears started welling up in his eyes as he realized what that meant. Monsters keep themselves secret because nobody would love them if they were found.

“I’m sorry,” Alex sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks. His voice still sounded like a child’s as he cried, even while being a freak.

“Hey, I’m not mad, I’m worried,” Erin said, trying to reassure the hulking man. “I just want to know what happened.”

Hearing those words made the dam break in Alex’s mind, as he recounted that night in the forest in between sobs and sniffles. The bite, the change as his body turned into something unrecognizable. As he choked through the story, Erin handed him his clothes, which he slowly put on without thinking. As he finished, Alex looked at Erin. He didn’t look scared, or sad, or anything really. Just the same slightly worried look.

“Is there anything else you need right now?” Erin asked, as he put his own shorts back on.

Before Alex could deny needing anything or ask why he wasn’t trying to kill him, Alex’s stomach growled audibly, to the point where Erin could hear it. Erin chuckled and helped Alex up.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat big guy.”

Alex followed him, basically being dragged along, all the while staring down at his own hands. The hair on his body had progressed to having dark hair on the back of his hands, even on his knuckles. The nails that had slowly darkened were now pitch black, coming to sharp points. There was no more pretending they were nails, he had claws. Erin led him to the passenger seat and got in the on the driver’s side.

“Why are you being so nice to me about this? Aren’t you scared?” Alex asked.

“I’ll have my existential freakout over werewolves existing later. I’m not scared of you though. You couldn’t hurt a thing, you’re too cute. Even when you’re a giant wolfman.”

Erin turned on the car and drove out of the parking lot. Alex didn’t understand. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Everything his parents taught him said he would’ve had to fight for his life by this point. Everyone was supposed to turn on him.

“I attacked you!”

“You took two steps and fell over,” Erin said. “I’m more worried about you hurting yourself. If looked like you were going to explode.”

Alex thought back to his earlier rampage, all the rage boiling inside of him that he didn’t really work through. Combine that with the worries of impressing one of his only friends and losing his virginity, it was a wonder he lasted that long without snapping.

“It’s been a bad day. I—figured some things out about my brother and I just couldn’t handle it apparently. I should’ve been more careful,” Alex said.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. I’m just glad I was around to help,” Erin said as he slowed the car in the drive through. Alex wanted to say something but was stopped as Erin started ordering food. Alex did ask for a cheeseburger, but Erin seemed to be ordering a lot more than just for the two of them. Nevertheless, in a couple of minutes Alex had a bag of cheeseburgers and fries in his lap.

“I would’ve gone somewhere else, but McDonalds is the only place open this late. Plus, there’s like nothing around here.” Erin fished in the bag for a stray cheeseburger and started to eat it as he drove away. “The rest is yours.”

Alex tried to say that this was way too much for him, but as the scent of food hit his nostrils, he found himself grabbing the first thing he saw. Barely with enough time to unwrap the burger in his hand before biting in. He devoured it in seconds, almost not able to register the taste as he chased the feeling of being full. He felt the car stop as he dug into the bag more, looking out to see that Erin had stopped in an empty parking lot.

“So, I don’t want to pry, but what did you mean by ‘He can’t make me go back’?” Erin asked, fishing into the bag for some fries.

“My brother said he found a cure for lycanthropy,” Alex said in between bites. He deserved the truth. “He left to go get everything for it, and he’s gonna give it to me before the next full moon. After that it won’t work.”

“And you don’t want to take it.”

“I—well, Its more complicated than that,” Alex said. “Like this feels fucking amazing. I never thought I would ever gain any muscle, ever, and now look at me! Plus, if I hadn’t gotten bitten, I would’ve never gone to the gym or met you. I’d probably still be in my room right now.”

“But,” Alex continued. “My brother hates it, says I’ll become a mindless beast. How am I supposed to convince my brother that I’d be okay like this?”

Alex looked expectantly at Erin, only to see him look worried again.

“It’s been like three weeks, right? Wouldn’t you have been mostly taken over already?”

“Well,” Alex stopped as he thought through what he said. Every time he gave in to what the wolf wanted; he’d lose more of himself. He’d done nothing but give in, how was he still fine? The wolf had only gotten quieter these last few days. “Yea, and I’m… still me.”

“And, this is kind of a weird question, but have you come out to your brother at all?”

“Fuck no,” Alex said. “Ever since my parents died my brother was really big on ‘continuing the bloodline’. He’s wanted me to get a girlfriend for years.”

Erin let out a big sigh before speaking again.

“Listen, I didn’t want to assume too much, maybe your brother was secretly super supportive, or the werewolf thing was really dangerous, but everything you’ve told me about your brother makes it seem like he’s trying to keep control of you. I mean, he threw out all of your food, maybe to starve you as a werewolf, and nothing you’ve ever said about makes me think that he has your best interests in mind. I don’t think you can convince him.”

“I mean, I was in a coma for 5 days when he threw my food out. I was in my room the whole time.”

“And he just left you there!? When my sister got a concussion, I had her at the hospital in 10 minutes. Has he ever had your best interests in mind?”

“I—” Alex felt a pang of guilt as he was left speechless. He had to defend his brother, his family. It was all he had ever known, but he couldn’t ignore what Erin was saying. How could he do that to someone he loved?

“I’m sorry if this hurts, but if your only concern about being a werewolf is how your brother is going to react, then you don’t have a concern: you have a shitty brother.”

Alex could feel something breaking in his head, a little hole being drilled through the wall of familial love he thought was strong. His childhood had been filled with the message of the family, how it was the only thing that mattered, the only ones that would be by your side no matter what, the only ones who could truly love you. One message passed through to him: His brother was shitty, and not just because he was a werewolf now.

Alex slumped down in his seat, fishing around in the bag for the last of the fries. What was he even supposed to do with this? Who could he turn to? Who was even left?

“Do you think that other people are gonna be mad that I’m a werewolf?” Alex asked.

“With muscles like that? No way. I could find dozens of guys lining up to get bitten by you. Tons of people would like you.”

“Really? Even with the teeth? The eyes?”

“They look good on you,” Erin said. “I know this must be scary. I couldn’t imagine being in your shoes. It’d be like coming out to my parents again but knowing they’d take it badly. But I think you gotta put your foot down and tell him that you aren’t going back. It’s bad, but all the alternatives are worse.”

Alex sighed, before smiling. Erin was right. He took out his phone and dialed his brother’s number before his nerves got to him. He heard it ring once, twice, three times, until it finally went to voicemail.

“Hey Caleb, this is Alex. You don’t have to finish the cure. I’m gonna stay a werewolf. I hope you understand. Loveyoubye.”

Alex hung up and held his phone in his hand. It felt like a live bomb.

“Now I gotta find a werewolf so that I can actually know how to handle all of this.”

“Are they gonna be as big as you are?”

“Maybe?”

“Then it’ll be easy. I’ll keep a lookout. Maybe switch up when we go to the gym to see more people,” Erin said.

Erin started the car and made a slow drive back to Alex’s house. Alex was glad it was taking so long. He didn’t want to leave just yet.

“Oh, shit I just realized,” Erin smiled. “The next full moon is on Halloween. Guess you’ve got your costume figured out.”

“Really?” Alex said, “I’ve never celebrated Halloween before. Family never let me.”

Alex looked out to see the moon shining down on the road. It was getting fuller by the day, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Alex spent the next week making actual progress towards being comfortable with his new life. He started to eat regularly, instead of letting his hunger take him over and then screw him over. He changed up his time to go to the gym with Erin, allowing him to see more people than the few he would see regularly. It was nice, and while there were people who would stare, it was more out of awe than the disgust he expected.

His growth had tapered off somewhat, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still a sight to behold. His back was still fully unreachable territory for him, and now any attempt to bring his hands together was impeded by cannonball biceps crashing into giant, furry pecs. It wasn’t impossible by any means, but the fact that there was no sort of interaction between his muscles just because they were so big turned him on to no end. It didn’t help that Erin had finally convinced him to step on a scale.

“We probably should have checked earlier,” Erin had said. “You broke the scale.”

That moment hadn’t left Alex’s mind. Even without seeing the scale, his pecs had stopped him from seeing much below him, he knew that breaking it meant he was over 400 pounds. That was far bigger than anyone could get, even if they spent their entire lives trying. The thought made him lightheaded with the way his blood rushed to his dick. His biggest fantasy was about a werewolf bigger than any man could be, and now he was that.

Except for the confidence. That, he was still working on.

Caleb hadn’t said a word since Alex had called. Alex expected to get a call back immediately, considering that his brother had called regularly to make sure that he wasn’t “lost” yet. Alex braced for screaming in his ear about how he was possessed or how he was betraying his family, but it never came. At the very least he expected to get some mean texts, that wasn’t even that uncommon for his brother. What he got was radio silence, and that scared him more than any threat Caleb could have said. Even with all of the progress in his body, and the new support of Erin, he was still a bundle of nerves waiting for the next thing to go wrong. He kept waiting, all the way to October 31st. One month after he was bitten.

Alex could feel the magic in him strengthening, getting ready for the moon’s rise. It left him restless, pacing around the house just waiting for his brother. Caleb had to get home soon, as there was no way he would just let Alex have this night. Especially not now, when Alex had betrayed the family so clearly. Alex looked out the window at every passing car, flinching at even the slightest of noises. There was no telling where Caleb was, or what he would do. Alex had to stay vigilant, no matter what.

Then, he heard a knock at the front door.

He opened the door to see Erin standing there, with a plastic pumpkin filled with Halloween candy.

“Trick or treat,” he said, before shoving the pumpkin in Alex’s hands and went inside.

Erin had made it a habit to come over ever since Alex had almost exploded right in front of him. Alex appreciated it. Not only was Erin nice to talk to, but it felt good to just tell him more about his childhood. So much of what he thought was normal, Erin reacted to with shock or disgust. The “noble profession” his family had given their lives for had lost its shine. With every passing hour it seemed to loosen his grip on him.

Alex heard barking outside as Erin sat down at the kitchen table. Spike apparently had learned what Erin’s car sounded like and judging from the lack of growling in between barks, he wanted attention.

“Sounds like someone’s happy to see me,” Erin said, propping his feet up on the table.

“It’s crazy how much he lets you pet him.” Alex shut the door and set the candy on the kitchen table. “He still tries to bite me sometimes.”

“Guess I’m just good with dogs.” Erin winked as Alex immediately let out a groan. “Sorry. Still too early for werewolf jokes?”

“Maybe.” Alex sat down at the kitchen table, opposite Erin. He poked at the plastic pumpkin full of candy that Erin had brought. “Why’d you get me this?”

“You said you’ve never gone trick-or treating, So I thought I could give you at least part of the experience. I doubt you’ll have much time to ring doorbells tonight.” Erin grabbed a piece of candy off the top of the pile, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth.

“I’m too old for that anyway,” Alex said as he popped a piece of candy in his mouth. There was a distinct hurt in saying that out loud, but he didn’t dwell on it. “Aren’t we supposed to be on diets or something?”

“I’m cutting myself some slack because it’s been a weird week, and it’s a holiday. You seem to grow muscle even when you’re starving, so I think you’ll be fine. You did eat today, right?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Alex scoffed. The kitchen was looking kind of empty now, as he tore through his and his brother’s food. He didn’t care anymore; they could call it even. “Thanks for helping me out so much.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I mean it though, you’re something special.”

Erin laughed. “You’ve got to stop underestimating other people. If anyone else heard what you’ve gone through, they’d try to help too.”

Alex sighed. It was a nice thought, even if it felt too optimistic. However, he wasn’t the only one having issues. He could see Erin’s hands shake, just a little.

“Are you worried about tonight?” Alex said.

“Yea,” Erin sighed. “When I told you that you needed to confront your brother, I thought he was a mean shithead, not…”

“You don’t have to say it.” Alex still couldn’t say it. He could feel it, the words inside of him, but any attempt to get them out just pushed them further in. Even still, he didn’t want Erin to worry. “I’m not gonna let him hurt you.”

“I’m not worried about me; he doesn’t know me.” Erin’s shoulders fell. “What do you think he’s going to do?”

Alex shrugged in response. If he could answer that, everything would be easy. Some part of him hoped he would get a call about a car crash, some confirmation that he would have the night to himself, but he knew that wouldn’t happen. Caleb was planning something, he always was.

“We could check the hunter’s manual again. He follows this thing to the letter.” Alex grabbed the Hunter’s Manual and slid it over to Erin.

“Pass. Unless it’s this page,” Erin opened it to the pages of Thomas transforming, “then I don’t want to see it. This thing reads like the world’s worst cult invitation.”

“Guess you had to be born into it,” Alex said as he looked over the Beast of Salem one more time. He was glad to not be the only one who could appreciate him.

“Are you worried about tonight?” Erin asked.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I still haven’t even seen another werewolf. What if I’m doing this all wrong?”

Alex rubbed his left arm as he spoke. It was covered in dark stretch marks, a reminder that he could still push his body too far. In the back of his head, he could only see it going wrong again, spending all of this time just to explode into a gory mess under the full moon.

“So, if I did find a werewolf for you to talk to, even though we’ve only got a couple of hours until the moon’s up, would you still want to talk to him?”

Alex slammed his hands onto the table without thinking, as he realized what Erin just said.

“No fucking way! How did you find him?”

“I asked a lot of people, so everyone probably thinks I’m crazy,” Erin said as he pointed to the Hunter’s manual again. “But this one guy did talk to me, and he knew what he was talking about. He’s just as big as this guy, and he has the same sharp teeth you have.”

Alex felt a wave of worry hit him as Erin described the man. His hand touched his own neck, where the bite scar still was.

“That might be the guy who bit me.”

“Oh,” Erin said. “Well, we can just stay here then, I don’t really care about ghosting hi—”

“No,” Alex said, steeling his nerves. “I gotta talk to him then.”

“Shit, well then, we should get out of here. We’ve got like what, an hour? Two hours before sundown?” Erin got up out of his chair and headed for the door. “ “

“I hope not,” Alex said as he followed him out.

The drive only took about 10 minutes, but to Alex it felt like hours. He went over everything he could say in his head, only to throw it all out. Where could he start? ‘Hey, I know you’re just some stranger who might’ve bitten me, but can you tell me how to make sure I don’t hurt anyone close to me or myself? P.S. I only have a couple of hours and my brother hunts monsters.’ Every way he thought of to try and talk about his issues was more embarrassing than the last.

“We’re here,” Erin said, pulling into the parking lot.

Alex looked out the window and almost had to pinch himself when he saw the only other person around. He was absolutely dwarfed by this man. Comparing him to the door of the gym, it was a wonder he could even fit anywhere. He was a mountain, carved of pure muscle. As he towered to a height well over 6 feet, that did nothing to stop his muscles from completely overtaking his frame. His neck disappeared due to monstrous traps, with pecs that jutted out feet from his body and reached up to his chin, all clearly shown, as all he wore was a sleeveless leather jacket. His legs were stuffed into jeans that begged to split open. Alex wondered how he could even walk with legs like that so crammed together, much less find clothes that fit. He was struggling to find sweatpants that still made him look decent. He looked down to see that the man not only was barefoot, but his nails were sharp and black, just like Alex’s own. Alex looked up at the man’s face, to see yellow eyes, long gray hair, and a face that changed everything: He had seen this man before, many times.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Erin said.

“No, I got this. I’ll be fine. Just wait here,” Alex said, the nervous energy inside of him, propelling him forward. It couldn’t be him. That wasn’t possible.

Alex got out of the car and stumbled towards the man, who held out his hand for a handshake. Alex shook it, noticing how the man’s hand was covered in gray hair.

“You must be Alex,” the man said. His voice was rough, with a certain tense quality to it. “Your friend told me a lot about you.”

“You’re Thomas…” Alex said, just barely audible.

The larger man stopped for just a moment, before letting out a hearty laugh. Alex could see his teeth when he smiled, a gleaming white. Alex was totally awestruck.

“I haven’t heard somebody call me that in years. You really are an odd one. C’mon, let’s go for a walk. I get restless standing around like this.”

The man lumbered off, as Alex watched the two globes of his ass shifting, before running to catch up. He thought that Thomas would have been insanely slow, barely able to move, but he maneuvered his legs to easily keep walking forward. There was an elegance to it, a grace that only came from years of knowing your body intimately. Every step just reminded Alex of how clumsy his walking was. He felt like an impostor.

“So, Erin said you wanted to talk to me about something?” Thomas said.

“You’re—how are you here? You’re like 300 years old!” Alex blurted out.

“Well, I wasn’t alive for all of those years. I came back.” Thomas winked.

“Why?” Alex asked, his earlier plans derailed by his realization of who he was actually talking to.

“Why not? The food, the nature, the men,” Thomas swooned as he said that last phrase. “There’s just so much to love, you can’t blame an old wolf for asking to come back a few more times.”

“I… don’t think I get it.” Alex stared down at the sidewalk as he contemplated Thomas’s situation. His life had been a couple decades of anxiety and pain. How was he supposed to keep going through one life, much less come back for another?

“I’m sorry to hear that. I should’ve been there to help you find the joy in this gift, but I thought it’d be better if I got that brother of yours out of your hair. Still, never thought I’d be the guy who’d abandon someone in their first month.”

Alex looked back up at the man he was talking to, a literal living legend. There was a regret in his yellow eyes, the animal ferocity replaced with a sadness. Even seeing his teeth as he talked confirmed what Alex already knew.

“So, you are the one who bit me?”

“Yes. Although I wish it didn’t go the way it had. Your brother has a knack for screwing things up. I’m sorry.” Thomas looked down at him, eyes full of worry.

Alex touched the bite scar on his neck, as he remembered how Thomas had torn into it. He almost wanted to laugh. He thought back to all of his fantasies of The Beast of Salem tearing him away from his family. Technically, he got what he wanted.

“Why did you do it?”

“I didn’t plan on it, if that’s what you’re asking. I was passing through, the last thing I expected to find was some crying hunter’s kid, but,” Thomas fidgeted with his hands, trying to find the right words. “There’s an instinct you get sometimes, sort of an alarm she gives you. To find the ones who-—”

“Want it?” Alex interrupted.

“Need it,” Thomas finished. “And looking at you now, I know she was right. You’re almost as big as I was after my first month.”

“That’s not—” Alex stopped as he made room for someone walking on the sidewalk. He had to walk behind Thomas just to give them enough room, as even just one of them was too wide for it. “All werewolves are strong, that’s just how it goes.”

“Listen, all werewolves can get big, but most spent their time growing throughout a few years, decades even. The only ones who get big as fast as us are the ones who are trapped.” Thomas’s eyes lingered on Alex’s neck. “I know it hurt to change like that, but I shudder to think of what he would’ve done to you if you were human.”

“I’m not—” Alex stopped as he thought back to Spike chained up in the backyard, still trapped by the fence and his own fear. He thought back to the years he spent in his own room, flinching at anyone walking by. The memories of countless insults and beatdowns, years of not being good enough. He remembered how his brother threatened to kill him as he ran out of the house just one month ago. Tears started to stream down Alex’s face. “I-I-”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Thomas said. He wrapped his arms around Alex, pulling him into a hug. Alex closed his eyes as he could feel the warmth of Thomas’s embrace, before feeling Thomas’s forehead touch his. “I’m here for you, and I understand how hard it is. What he’s taken from you. But the first step is saying it out loud.”

Alex could feel a magic pulsing between them, a light, floating magic that seemed to detach his mind from his body. However, instead of floating away, he fell deeper and deeper inside of himself, inside the darkness of his own body. He felt a heat as he fell, burning hotter and hotter, until he dropped out of the darkness and into a raging inferno, a living hell inside him, screaming one single truth: There was no wolf inside of him, no instinctual other half, it had been him all along.

“I wish my brother was dead!” Alex blurted out, feeling the flames of his rage. “I wish he had died years ago. With my parents. I wish that the werewolf had finished the job all those years ago and ripped all of them to shreds. I should’ve never been born to this fucking family. I should’ve been somewhere, anywhere else. They took everything from me! Even now, the love I could’ve had for this is just fear.”

“There it is,” Thomas said. Alex could hear his voice, a cooling thrum against the crackling of the inferno. “But that isn’t all, is it?”

At Thomas’s words, Alex could feel himself falling again. He flinched at the flames that threatened to engulf him, but the flames never touched him as he dropped out of the fire and into darkness once again. Even as he fell within his own body, he could feel the sensation of spinning as he fell deeper into his own emotions than he had ever dared to delve before, until he hit the bottom.

He found himself lying in the deepest recesses of himself, on a frozen lake. There was nobody else around, it was just cold, dark, solitude. He recognized it all too well.

“What did I do wrong?” Alex said, as he opened his eyes, looking right up at Thomas. “They hated me. They always hated me. I wasn’t good enough for them, I wasn’t man enough. but I tried. I tried so hard. I’m the strongest thing around now, and it’s still not enough. What else can I do? Why does it still hurt?”

“I wish I could just get rid of all that pain, but unfortunately, it’ll stick around for a while. There was nothing you could do. I’m sorry.” Thomas started petting the top of Alex’s head. “My father said the same thing to me, but when I was bitten, he chained me up like a dog. Said he’d ‘cure’ me just to torture me in solitude. He didn’t even see me as human anymore, much less as his son. You can’t win with these hunters; you just have to stop playing. It’s the only way to start loving life again.”

Alex scoffed. “What, just leave? He owns me. I can barely keep a job because of my nerves, and he’d spend the rest of his life chasing me down. I’m screwed.”

Alex’s shoulders slumped as his situation dawned on him. It didn’t matter if this was his last night alive or not, he’d never have a moment of peace. Caleb would make sure of that. It’s what he had done for years.

He felt Thomas pull away from the hug slightly to put his hands on Alex’s shoulders. Alex looked at Thomas again to see warm eyes and a smile. He was amazed that a smile with teeth so sharp could be so friendly.

“I hate to say this, but I might have a place for you,” Thomas said. “My pack has a place out in the Appalachians, around Northern Pennsylvania. There’s only 4 of us out there, but we do have a couple extra houses out there for some lone wolves. There hasn’t been a hunter out there in decades, but it’s perfectly safe. You don’t have to stay long; it could just be a couple of days for all I know. But if what’s stopping you from flying is a place to land, then I’m giving you that place.”

Alex sniffled, as he thought about Thomas’s offer. That was only a few states away, but to him it was another world entirely. When was the last time he left the state? Left his town? The world outside his family just didn’t even feel real.

“Would the rest of your pack be mad about me living there?”

“Of course not! You’d fit right in. And you don’t have to talk to any of them if that suits you. I’m just trying to give you a place to heal. You’re gonna need it.”

Alex could feel the pull of Thomas’s offer. He craved the connection Thomas talked about. He wanted to join a pack, to feel at home with people who understood him. However, Caleb was still out there, thinking he was the perfect brother. How could he live with himself if he just left without a word?

“I can’t. Not tonight. I still have to tell him what he did to me. Plus, he’s been hurt by all of this stupid hunter bullshit too. If anyone can talk to him about that, it’s gotta be me. We’re family.”

Thomas let out a groan as he rubbed his eyes in a mix of frustration and tiredness.

“All of us hunter’s kids are the same. Can’t leave without getting the last word in. I should be mad, but I don’t wanna be a hypocrite. Just be careful, okay? This’ll get ugly.”

“I will. If anyone knows Caleb, it’s me,” Alex said. He looked up at the sky. The sun was almost completely behind the horizon. “We should probably head back. It’s getting late.”

As Alex walked back, he tried to mention any of the smaller werewolf problems he had, but he seemed to answer themselves as he said them: none of the problems he had could be fixed without dealing with his brother first. Instead, he just said one of the first things that came to mind.

“Thanks for apologizing. Even with how scary it was that first night, there’s been a lot of good coming out of it too. It’s how I met Erin in the first place.”

“Yeah, that is good. He’s a cute thing. It’s a wonder you’ve kept your hands off of him for so long.”

Alex stopped as Thomas’s words hit at a problem he didn’t even know he had: Not every hunger he felt was physical.

“It’s been a lot of worrying, and I- well I really want to make sure he actually likes me.” Alex took a deep breath as he felt his cock jump to life, his balls aching with need. He was still wearing the baggiest of sweatpants, meaning his arousal was all too obvious.

“I will say this,” Thomas said. “Werewolves are creatures of want, down to our very core. So, if you can figure out what you desire, and chase it with your whole heart, then the rest will work itself out. And you’ve always got one person on your side.”

Alex looked at Thomas with confusion, feeling like he was missing some subtext. Thomas pointed up at the darkening sky, as Alex realized who he was referring to: the one thing that would cause him to transform tonight.

“Great, another god to disappoint.” Alex rolled his eyes.

“She isn’t like that, I promise,” Thomas said. “Not really the churches and prayer type. Only expectation is that she wants you to find a life that you love. Honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t talked to you yet.”

Thomas gave Alex a friendly pat on the shoulder as they got back to Erin’s car. Erin waved at them, as he asked about how it went. The three of them talked for a little bit, before Thomas sniffed the air.

“He’s been back for a while. You probably just missed him,” Thomas said.

“How do you know?” Erin said.

“He’s been chasing me for weeks. I can smell his exhaust pipe from miles away. Now, I need to get to a forest before I scare a bunch of trick-or-treaters to death. Good luck you two.”

Thomas waved as he left, leaving the two to get back in their car. Erin didn’t start the car yet, leaving the two of them to sit in the parking lot for a moment.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Erin asked.

“I… go tell my brother that I’m leaving, go out to the forest to have a hopefully decent werewolf night, and try and figure out how I’m gonna smuggle Spike out when I pack my stuff tomorrow,” Alex said.

“Do you have a place to go?” Erin said.

“Thomas said his pack has a place in Northern Pennsylvania with room for ‘lone wolves’. Kinda seems like I’m not the first person he’s met going through this,” Alex said, feeling his resolve strengthen. He wasn’t alone. “It’s a quick way out right now, which is exactly what I need.”

“It’s nice up there, I had a job in that area one summer.” Erin stayed still for a moment, trying his best to stay calm. “I don’t want to ask too much of you, but if you are leaving, please keep in touch? I’ve had a good time hanging out with you these past weeks.”

“Of course I will, I wouldn’t forget you like that.”

In response, Erin smiled and started the car.

The drive home this time felt blindingly fast, even as Erin went under the speed limit. Alex could feel his future barreling towards him, as he looked out the window to see kids all dressed up in costumes knocking on doors. He spotted a kid in a werewolf mask excitedly jumping up and down with his friends, and sighed. He couldn’t get that time back, no matter what he did, but he could make the best of what he had now.

“Call me when you’re done talking to him, so I can still get you out to the forest,” Erin said as he stopped the car on the side of the street. “Don’t forget, or I’m gonna be back here.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Alex said. “Thank you, for everything.”

Alex got out of the car and made his way to the front door. Caleb’s house was the only one on the block whose lights were out, signaling that he didn’t want anything to do with the blasphemy of Halloween outside, but as Alex walked the darkness seemed to beckon him, radiating out as if to swallow him whole. His hands shook as he grabbed the handle to the front door.

“I know it hurts, but this is the last time you have to do this. I promise,” Alex said.

With the last ounce of confidence he needed, he opened the door and walked into the house.

The house itself was even darker on the inside, with no lights on and all of the curtains drawn on the windows. Alex’s eyes adjusted quickly as he walked through the kitchen and the dining room, finding it just as he left it. The bowl of Halloween candy was on the table, as was the Hunter’s Manual, still open to the page of Thomas. Alex could almost convince himself that his brother wasn’t here after all.

“Caleb, we need to talk,” Alex yelled. He got no response.

Alex tried sniffing the air, to try and use some kind of werewolf skill, only to have his brother’s scent fill his nostrils, overwhelming his senses. He stumbled into the living room, only to realize that his brother had thrown his dirty clothes everywhere, as if Caleb wanted him to not be able to smell his approach.

As the realization hit him, Alex heard the creaking of wooden floorboards. He turned, ready to run, only to have something very hard and silver slam right into his skull.

Alex groggily came to, slowly opening his eyes, to see concrete walls and a sledgehammer with silver plating opposite him. He looked around to see a cold room, with weapons he remembered all too well. He looked up to see that he was chained up to the ceiling, silver handcuffs burning his wrists, and looked down to see that he was shirtless, purple bruises scattered across his skin. His feet could barely touch the ground, as he was forced onto his toes just to relieve some strain in his arms. He was in the basement, chained up like a freshly shot deer, waiting to be gutted.

Alex struggled against his restraints that left him dangling from the ceiling, feet barely able to touch the ground. His head pounded, the pain from the silver burns making it hard to think straight. Every movement burned his wrists even further, but still he thrashed, hoping that something here wouldn’t be able to hold his weight.

And then he heard someone stomp down the stairs to the basement.

“God damnit, you are getting stronger. Last time I did that it kept you down for 5 days. Honestly, when I hit you that first time I was hoping you’d just die,” Caleb said. Alex could see him holding a jar in his hand, the contents inside looked murky. “It doesn’t matter now though.”

Alex tried to turn away from Caleb, but he grabbed Alex’s jaw, forcing it open as Alex screamed. Caleb dumped the contents of the jar into Alex’s mouth and forced him to swallow. The pain was unlike anything else Alex had experienced, as shards of silver tore up his mouth and throat, settling into his stomach with the liquid that Alex could only think was motor oil. It was so clearly toxic that his body involuntarily retched, trying to expel it, only to be met with Caleb’s fist flying right into Alex’s throat, causing him to cough and sputter.

“Why?” Alex said in between coughs.

“Because you fucking disobeyed me!” Caleb yelled as he threw another punch into Alex’s gut. Alex winced, tears in his eyes. “I told you exactly what you needed to do, and you failed at every fucking turn.”

Alex shut his eyes, trying to think of what to say next. His mind was so busy with the silver scratching his throat, the pain in his arms from being suspended by them, and the magic in him slowly being snuffed out. Even with all of the pain, he knew he had to speak up, to try and get him to listen to reason.

“Please, you don’t have to do this. What mom and dad did to us was wrong. They hurt us. We were supposed to be children, not soldiers. I know that they hurt you, just like they hurt me. This won’t fix anything,” Alex cried out, hoping to reach his brother.

“There it is. Do you know what mom said to me after you were born?” Caleb said, before throwing one hand around Alex’s throat. “She said you were a demon. That she wished God would’ve just strangled you with your own umbilical cord. But I believed in you, I knew you could be a good part of the Rider family just like the rest of us, but she was right.”

Caleb let go, and Alex watched as Caleb walked over to a table, working on something as he talked.

“I saw you when you got bitten. I thought I could at least give you a chance to prove yourself, but you just let him. You wanted it. You laughed as you changed. You’ve always been weak willed, too obsessed with your own perversions. Don’t think I didn’t know about that either.” Caleb sauntered back, something in his hand. Alex eyes widened as he realized it was his father’s gun. The old revolver had been the last thing many people had seen.

Caleb brought the revolver up to Alex’s head, barrel pressed right into his forehead. Alex could feel the silver bullet, burning with anticipation.

“This is your last chance. You’ve been off a leash for too long, but not anymore. I’ll give you an antidote. It won’t cure you, but you’ll be alive and not be this freak.” Caleb poked at one of Alex’s pecs. “But you’re going to be totally obedient from now on, and you’re going to stay in this basement, so that I don’t have to deal with anyone seeing what you’ve become. I’ll even bring your computer down, here so it can be just like old times.”

Alex kept his eyes tightly shut as he felt the barrel of the gun press even harder into his forehead. Even with the adrenaline flowing through him, he could feel his heartbeat slowing, his arms getting weaker. This was his only chance of surviving the night, and yet he couldn’t say yes. He was tired of giving in to his demands.

“This shouldn’t be hard. These freaks killed our parents. You think they deserved to be torn apart by a monster like that?”

“Yes!” Alex screamed. “They were going to kill her! They lost! She didn’t deserve what they did to her, and I didn’t deserve what you did to me! You made every second of my childhood a nightmare, and I’ll never forgive you for that. Fuck you!”

Alex could feel Caleb’s finger on the trigger, ready to get rid of him once and for all. He said a silent apology to Erin, as he wasn’t gonna be able to tell him what happened. He braced for the feeling of his own brain splattering against the walls of the basement, only to hear a loud, powerful howl coming from outside the house.

“Fuck! It followed me back?” Caleb said as he pulled the gun away from Alex’s head. He looked at Alex once again. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead before sunrise. Scream about how terrible my help was all you want, it won’t save you. You’ll die the freak you always were.”

Caleb spit at Alex’s feet before running up the stairs. Alex could feel the moons light, shining through a small window at the top of the basement wall. He must’ve been out for an hour, maybe longer. It shifted his skull, restructuring his face to start a muzzle, but it went no further. Alex waited a few seconds to let him leave, before letting out the most mangled series of screams and howls a werewolf could make. His vocal cords, a mix between human and wolf, made sounds that weren’t even close to either animal, but were loud. He hoped that someone would hear him, some trick or treater, or their parents could call someone, come down here, do anything to save him. However, his voice grew quieter as he kept howling. Nobody was answering, nobody would save him. He was alone.

After almost an hour of screaming, his cries had turned to whimpers, as the strain of his arms holding him up took their toll. It was over. He was going to die the way he lived the rest of his life: completely alone.

Alex then heard someone walking around above his head. His heart slowed even more as he realized his brother might have been successful in his hunt, but he soon realized that there were two sets of footsteps as the door to the basement opened.

“Listen ‘dude’, I don’t care if you’re friends with Alex, asking me to barge into their house like this is crazy. I know they have problems but it’s not like—what the fuck!?” Jessica screamed as she descended the stairs. Erin followed right after her as they both ran up to Alex.

“What did he do to you?” Erin said as he traced the purple bruises on Alex’s body.

“He—he poisoned me. Please, there’s gotta be a key somewhere. It hurts!” Alex let out another groan involuntarily.

“Shit, yeah, okay, I’ll find it. Come on!” Erin called to Jessica who seemed to be in a trance from seeing Alex’s broken body. The two of them searched through Caleb’s stuff, all of the papers and strewn about weapons, all while still in disbelief of what they were seeing.

“I just thought he was fucking cheating on me or something, like a normal shitty boyfriend, not this!? What the fuck kind of person does something like thi-”Jessica gasped as her question was answered by a set of silver bullets on a workbench. Silver bullets that she had been looking for.

“Got it!” Erin said, grabbing a small key and running back over to Alex. He grabbed a stool and climbed up on it to reach the handcuffs.

“Thanks for coming to find me,” Alex said.

“I wasn’t just going to leave you here with that asshole, okay,” Erin said. “You deserve better than that. I told you I would be back for you if you didn’t say anything.”

Erin struggled to open the old handcuffs, as the jerking of them burned Alex’s wrists even more. Alex looked out of the one window still shining with moonlight. It was so bright.

“I gotta get out of here,” Alex said as he struggled against the chains.

“Don’t worry we’re gonna get you out of here. We’ll find a hospital, or something. I don’t know but- we’ll find something I promise.”

“I—I gotta—” Alex could feel an urge gnawing at him, with the moonlight becoming blindingly bright.

Alex grunted and struggled for few seconds, thrashing around until Erin finally unlocked the handcuffs.

In one swift motion, Alex launched himself towards the window, crashing through the small window and climbing out to the backyard. Alex could feel his body changing, limbs lengthening and face reshaping, but the silver inside him still kept him weak.

He ran on all fours, throwing himself over fences and through backyards in his pursuit. He could hear the sounds of screaming children or surprised parents as he heard the sounds of his claws hitting pavement. He pushed himself further, letting instinct guide him until he felt leaves and dirt underneath his hands. Trees flew past him as he found his way into the forest, traveling deeper, and deeper until he found himself collapsing near an old oak stump.

He fell to his hands and knees, coughing as the running wore on his heart. He could feel his body still failing to throw up the poison his brother had given him. He was getting weaker by the second.

“Please… it hurts,” he whispered. If the moon really was as nice as Thomas said she was, she had to help him, right?

Alex then felt the phone in his pocket vibrate, with a foggy mind and clawed paws, he clumsily pulled out his phone only to see a series of texts from Katie once again.

I’m sorry it turned out this way.

I knew that if I didn’t do something you would be trapped by your brother forever, or worse.

I wish this could’ve been easier for you, I wish you got the time to fall in love with this like so many others have.

I understand if you don’t want this. Just say the word and I’ll change you back.

“No, NO! I want this! I have fallen in love with it. This has changed my life in so many ways, and I don’t want to go back. Please, just heal me,” Alex cried.

A single text showed up in response.

Of course I’ll help you!

Alex felt a lightness in his body, a shimmering magic, pure moonlight, began to surround his body. He could feel it slowly entering him, pulling at the poison deep in his body, slowly drawing it out. He could feel his heart getting stronger, his breathing becoming steadier. He started to laugh as he felt the last of the poison leave him, and he looked down to see his forearms starting to grow once again.

Alex felt the pain of his transformation finally dawn on him, but this time it felt good, like the soreness he had felt from an intense workout. He watched as his forearms swelled with muscle, the thick cords causing his gangly transformed limbs to become pillars of power, the muscle almost obscuring the view of his hands transforming into paws.

Alex widened the stance of his arms, feeling his back widen in vain as the muscle thickened into a full mountain of mass. His shirt was shredded instantly, fabric confetti celebrating his growth. His traps made his thickening neck disappear, surging further up his head. His pecs bulged outwards and downwards, smashing into his biceps. He let out a satisfied growl as he felt his muscles crash into each other.

His legs followed as his feet destroyed his shoes, paws erupting from them. His legs thickened, pants becoming more restricted by the second, before finally giving way to tree trunk legs, the hair on them quickly turning to dark fur. He stood up, feeling the transformation slow as a tail sprouted from above his ass, as he let out a howl that shook the leaves from trees. He felt powerful, felt good, and most of all, he felt whole.

Alex cautiously sniffed the air, smelling many people he didn’t recognize, and one that he did. He heard rustling from behind him, and turned around to see the man he did recognize, phone in hand.

“Yeah, don’t worry I found him. No, he’s fine, just make sure if Caleb calls you, distract him or something. Hopefully he’ll be on a wild wolf chase the whole night,” Erin said, out of breath. He brought his phone down and talked to Alex directly. “Hey. Are you doing better now? You really scared us back there.”

Alex’s cock, which had transformed, had sprung out of its sheath, a red spear well over a foot long. His balls churned with seed, the pressure just begging to be released. In that moment, he found what he really wanted. A new hunger to be sated.

Alex lunged at Erin, pinning him to the ground effortlessly. Erin didn’t even struggle at all, just watched in awe as Alex humped the air, cock bobbing up and down between them.

“Fuck…” Erin said as he stared down the barrel of a cock that was as big as his forearm. “Let me get my pants off first.”

The wolf, in a moment of clarity, eased up on Erin’s arms as the smaller man struggled to pull his shorts off. When he did, Alex’s cock was already lined up.

“O-okay, just be carefuuuuulllll—!” Erin’s words devolved into a heavy moan as Alex pushed the massive cockhead into his ass.

Alex let out a low, pleasurable growl as he felt Erin’s hole tense around his cock. The sensation was unlike anything he had ever felt before, and there was still over a foot of cock to shove into the smaller man. He pushed a little further, letting Erin’s barely intelligible speech devolve into loud moaning, Alex pushed further and further, inch after inch burrowing itself into the man, until everything but the knot remained. Erin squirmed, the sweat coming off of his body making Alex go crazy, until he noticed a large tree right next to where they were on the ground.

In one motion, the wolf lifted himself and the little man off of the ground and slammed Erin’s back into a large tree. The wolf held up Erin with his arms, and slowly pulled out the cock until only the tip remained. He then slammed it back in with all of his might, Hearing Erin scream with pleasure as the wolf’s knot hit right against his hole. Alex could see his cock stretching Erin’s abdomen, causing a considerable bulge in the man’s stomach.

The wolf’s mouth curled into a wide smile as he started to thrust, gaining speed quickly as the pleasure overtook his mind. He watched Erin’s pecs bounce with his thrusting, the rhythm speeding up quickly. He brought his muzzle close to Erin’s face, smelling the sweet scent of his sweat as the wolf impaled him on his massive cock. Alex could feel his balls swell with seed, pressure becoming unbearable.

“So fucking big,” Erin panted, saying the only words he’d been able to say in minutes.

Alex growled, feeling his entire body tense from his words. His body grew ever so slightly bigger, Erin becoming even more effortless to carry. Even his cock seemed to bulge even larger In Erin’s abdomen, causing a satisfied snarl from the wolf. He needed more, as he slammed his cock into Erin’s prostate with every ounce of his supernatural power. Alex wanted nothing more than to pound his little guy, fill his precious cocksleeve to be filled with his cum.

The wolf paused; cock fully buried in Erin. He started to shake as his balls felt fit to burst. He was on the very edge of climax, but one thing caught his eye. Erin’s arms were outstretched in an attempt to find something to hold on to, and his bicep was so tantalizingly close to bite. Alex opened his mouth slightly, the idea so sweet in his mind. He locked eyes with Erin, who immediately understood what he wanted to do.

“Do it. Please, bite me,” Erin panted.

With one final thrust, Alex’s balls clenched as he bit down on Erin’s arm. His knot fully entered Erin as he shot load after load into him, filling him to the brim with his own seed. Erin shot his own load all. Alex let go of Erin’s arm to see his prize, with a gut full of his cum and smile on his face. Alex wrapped his arms around the man, cock still buried in him, as he fell to the ground cuddling the man. A wave of immense pleasure washed over him, as the wolf drifted off to sleep.

Hours later, Alex woke up hearing the sounds of birds. He opened his eyes groggily, seeing Erin underneath him wide awake.

“Morning,” Erin said. “I kind of need you to get off me so I can get my pants back on.”

“Oh fuck—sorry.” Alex scrambled to get off, and pull out of Erin as he sat up, leaving Erin to go put his pants back on.

As Alex sat up, he noticed something off right in front of him. There was a neatly folded pile of clothes right in front of him, consisting of a very large flannel shirt with jeans and some underwear. His phone was on top displaying a message from his friend once again.

hey alex, this is katie. i lost my phone like a month ago, and i just now got my phone back. i don’t know who was texting you all that weird shit but that was not me lmao

idk what thats all about

Alex let out a chuckle before sending a text back.

I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m glad you got your phone back!

Alex started to put on the new set of clothes, finding that they fit perfectly, just tight enough to show off his muscles. These things had to be specially made, there weren’t sleeves that fit his arms anymore, much less ones that fit perfectly.

“Where did you find these?” Alex said to Erin, who had just gotten his pants back on.

“I didn’t find those. I was busy sleeping underneath the worlds heaviest weighted blanket. Also, y’know,” Erin lifted his arm, showing a bite mark clearly on his bicep. “Wolfing out.”

“Are you…” Alex said as he traced the bite mark with his hand. “…okay? I’m really sorry if I—”

“Hey,” Erin put his hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I wanted this. I literally asked for it. Actually, I wanted you to bite me the second you told me about it, it just wasn’t the right time.”

“Plus,” Erin continued putting his hand on his stomach, which had gone down from its cum-bloated state. “I needed the werewolf resilience after what you put me through. Never been fucked so hard in my life.”

“Yeah, I kinda just lost control a bit there. I—”

“Don’t apologize for it, it was fucking great,” Erin interrupted him. “I can’t wait to see how good it feels when I’m as big as you.”

“Well…” Alex said, nervously shifting from one foot to the other. “Thomas said that growing this much in one month isn’t that common. It might take a while before you’re my size.”

“That’s fine. I’ve been growing slowly my entire life; I don’t need it all in a month.” Erin then stopped and looked around. “Do you hear that? Sounds like sirens.”

Alex heard the faint sound of sirens, just barely perceptible to his ears. He turned to the source of the noise and sniffed the air, instantly overwhelmed by the rush of smells of different animals and people all in that direction. However, he was able to recognize one smell.

“Caleb’s over there.”

“She actually did call the cops. Huh. Guess he couldn’t evade them the entire night,” Erin said.

“Should we go over there?” Alex glanced back over to Erin as he felt some familial teaching tell him to try and help.

“I really don’t want to talk to any cops right now. I mean, I never do, but I don’t have any way to explain this.” Erin grimaced and took a couple of steps, showing off his obvious limp. “Do you want to?”

Alex stared out at the forest, thinking about the situation he was hearing. This was his last chance to tell Caleb how he really felt, to get him to understand what he did. For all Caleb knew, Alex was dead in the basement. Alex’s fists clenched as he thought of Caleb’s stupid smile, his brother thinking he cleansed the family.

However, that was the problem. All the outbursts he had, all of the ways being a werewolf had hurt him, they all stemmed from Caleb. He had spent so much of his life trying to please his brother, only to find it didn’t change a thing. What would another screaming match do, besides get him hurt?

“No,” Alex said, turning away from his brother. He felt the ghosts of his parents fall away, losing their grip on him. “I’m done.”

“Oh thank god,” Erin said. “I’ve wanted you to say that for the whole week.”

“Took me long enough,” Alex chuckled.

The pair walked through the forest, trying their best to make sense of the night they had. Alex looked down at his wrists as he walked. The burns looked deep and seeing them just made the back of his head throb. Nevertheless, he knew they would heal, even if it took a while. He was more worried about whether Thomas was okay and mentioned it to Erin.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s the one who came up with the plan to distract Caleb. I wish he would’ve told me earlier, I wouldn’t have left you for so long.”

“Probably good that you did.” Alex gulped, feeling the sensation of something running down his throat. It felt perfectly fine, it was as if nothing had ever happened. Even still, there was a sense of the poison running down his throat, a phantom pain. Alex added it to the list of things he’d have to recover from, which was far too long. Still, it was better to have something like this to heal, rather than Erin being dead.

“He’s probably waiting for us so that he can whisk you off to his little Appalachian getaway,” Erin said, trying to lighten the mood. “Are you gonna be leaving today?”

Alex looked up to see the sun shining through the forest, streaks of light shining through the trees. It felt like his future calling out to him: unimaginably bright and full of potential. He wanted to bask in that potential for a while, let it sink in. He didn’t feel the need to rush it.

“I… think I’m too hungry to make a decision like that right now,” Alex said, feeling his stomach groan after another transformation without food. “I don’t want to just leave you here alone either. I’m the one who bit you, and it’s shitty to abandon someone you just bit. The first month is always the hardest.”

“I could tell,” Erin laughed. “But I wouldn’t mind moving either, if he’d let two werewolves in. I think we’ll make it work. We’ve been through worse now.”

“Yeah,” Alex said.

Just then, Alex felt another vibration from his phone. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket to see another text, but this time from an unknown number. However, He could tell who it was immediately. It was a sendoff from a friend he didn’t even realize he had until today.

Good luck out there!

Alex smiled as he put away his phone. He was sure he could take it from here. He wrapped his arm around Erin as they both walked out of the forest.

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A swelling hike by Lionel E. Linklander A young man meets and reveals to an old trainer guy about his dream of becoming huge with muscle. The trainer then gives the young man pills that surpass his expectations. 2,952 words Added Dec 2022 9,263 views 5.0 stars (6 votes) No comments yet •Cock Growth•Huge Cock•Hyper Cock•Hyper Cum•Hyper Muscle•Immobility•Muscle Growth•Plausible Size Difference•Size Increase •M

Andro-Gro anonymous by LucaWLee Fresh out of cryosleep in the post-apocalyptic Southwest, Phoenix journeys with a hulking Kassian and a wolfish Fynn in search of an irresistible growth-inducing drug. 3 parts 6,673 words Added Jan 2023 6,261 views 5.0 stars (14 votes) No comments yet •Cock Growth•Huge Cock•Hyper Cock•Cum Milking•Hyper Cum•Hyper Muscle•Muscle Growth•Muscle/Strength•Set in the Future •M/M

The garden of holes by brazboy Arriving at the capital, a young and talented recently recruited civil servant enters the world of high politics, love, and ambitions. Using his magnificent body as well as his mind, he ends up having an experience different from what anyone could have expected, even becoming involved in a plot to steal the throne… 5 parts 18k words Added Apr 2024 Updated 27 Apr 2024 4,775 views 5.0 stars (3 votes) No comments yet •Cock Growth•Huge Balls•Huge Cock•Hyper Cock•Hyper Cum•Nipple Emissions•Public Orgasm•Hyper Muscle•Immobility•Muscle Growth•Public Nudity•Gradual Change•Plausible Size Difference•Size Increase•Incest•Brothers•Medieval(ish) •M/M•M/M/M

Not so small anymore by Beastly Muscle Wesley is a short-stacked college student with aspirations to become a bodybuilder. He has been bullied relentlessly for his entire life, but now he gets the chance to turn the tables on his tormenters. 2,180 words Added Jun 2024 7,499 views 5.0 stars (5 votes) No comments yet •Cock Growth•Huge Cock•Hyper Cock•Hyper Cum•Public Orgasm•Hyper Muscle•Hyper Strength•Muscle Breast•Muscle Growth•Muscle/Strength•Muscle Worship•Butt Growth•Size Increase•Dom/Sub•Sex-Slave•Complete •M/M

Shared looks by Badboola Seth is a freshman in college who is trying to reinvent his image and break out of his shell. Seth gradually learns that when he gives attention to men they grow, and when he gets attention then he gets to grow. Using his new abilities, Seth helps the men around him achieve their desires and help him have the confidence to hook up with his crush. 5 parts 32k words Added Apr 2024 Updated 27 Apr 2024 14k views 5.0 stars (25 votes) No comments yet •Cock Growth•Cock Pumping•Huge Balls•Ball Growth•Huge Cock•Hyper Cum•Hyper Muscle•Pec Fucking•Muscle Growth•Muscle/Strength•Muscle Worship•Man Scent•Butt Growth•Increased Libido•Gradual Change•Getting Taller•Size Increase•Lycra/Spandex •M/M