Chapter 41: Go home

“Is he… dead?” Lyra’s voice broke the heavy silence.

The body lay across the floor, blood soaking through his shirt. Peter’s eyes were wide open, blank, staring at nothing. The light from the window made his skin look gray.

Maya stepped closer, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. “Don’t touch him,” she said quickly. “We don’t know what this is.”

Damien knelt beside the body, his hands shaking. “It’s Peter,” he whispered. “But he looks… different.”

Jack swallowed, his voice barely a whisper. “He’s colder than ice.”

The smell of metal filled the air, it was thick, sharp, and wrong. Maya crouched down and looked closer. There was a dark mark on Peter’s neck, shaped like a claw print, burned deep into his skin.

Lyra frowned. “What’s that on his neck?”

Maya shook her head. “I’ve never seen a mark like this before.” She reached for a candle, the flame flickering as she leaned closer. “But this isn’t normal. Something did this to him.”

Damien’s chest tightened. “Peter was strong. If something killed him like this, we’re not safe either.”

Jack ran a hand through his hair. “You think it followed him here?”

The room went still.

The candles flickered again. Then the lights went out.

Lyra gasped. “Maya.."

“I know,” Maya whispered, reaching for the matches on the table. “Don’t move.”

The only sound was the wind pushing through the half-open window. Then came a creak, soft but sharp, from the corner of the room.

Damien’s breath hitched. “Someone’s here.”

Jack grabbed a broken chair leg from the floor. “Stay behind me.”

A low growl echoed, not from an animal, but something darker, deep, scratchy, like something dragging metal across stone.

Lyra’s hand found Damien’s arm. “This house isn’t safe.”

The lights blinked back on.

Peter’s body was gone.

Everyone froze.

“Where is he?” Jack shouted, spinning around. “Where’s the body?”

The front door creaked open on its own as cold air rushed in.

Maya’s lips trembled. “That’s impossible. He was right there.”

Damien’s head pounded. “He’s not dead,” he said slowly, voice shaking. “He can’t be.”

Lyra stepped back, fear flashing in her eyes. “What if… he’s something else now?”

Jack turned to Maya. “You said power always finds a new host. What if Peter’s power didn’t die, what if it turned into something worse?”

Maya’s face went pale. “Then we’re in real danger.”

The sound of claws scraping against the window made them all jump. Damien’s heart hammered in his chest as he turned to look.

A shadow moved outside standing tall, wrong, with glowing red eyes staring back through the glass.

“It’s him,” Damien whispered. “It’s Peter.”

The shadow smiled.

Maya grabbed the salt jar from her shelf and threw a line across the window. The glass fogged instantly, the shadow shrinking back.

“It can’t enter,” she said. “Not yet.”

Jack stepped closer to the window. “What the hell happened to him?”

“He’s not a werewolf anymore,” Maya said quietly. “He’s something else now.”

Lyra looked at Damien. “Didn’t you bite him before you turned human again?”

Damien nodded slowly, remembering. “Yeah. The night of the fight, I bit Cole but he tasted my blood too.”

Maya’s eyes widened. “That explains it.”

Jack frowned. “Explains what?”

“When he tasted your blood, you took part of Peter’s curse, but Peter took something back. When Damien lost his wolf, Peter didn’t lose his power. It twisted him instead.”

Lyra gasped. “So he’s.."

“A creature born from both sides,” Maya finished. “Half human, half cursed. Something worse than a wolf.”

The scratching sound returned, louder this time. Everyone turned toward the front door.

“Don’t open it,” Maya warned.

But the door shook violently, as if something outside wanted to tear it down.

Damien’s instincts kicked in. “Everyone, back away.”

The sound stopped suddenly. The silence was almost worse.

Maya whispered, “It’s waiting for night.”

Jack stared at her. “What do we do then? We can’t just sit here.”

“We have to prepare,” she said, already pulling an old wooden box from under her shelf. She opened it, inside were charms, old papers, and a silver knife. “If Peter’s body rose, something’s binding him. We’ll need to break it before it spreads.”

Lyra crossed her arms, trying to sound brave. “You mean there could be more like him?”

Maya didn’t answer.

Damien looked out the window again, his chest heavy. “He’s after me.”

Jack frowned. “How do you know?”

Damien met his eyes. “Because he’s the last person I hurt before I lost my wolf. He wants revenge.”

The air inside the room grew colder. The candlelight trembled.

Then, from the dark hallway, they heard it, a voice, soft and slow.

“Damien…”

Lyra’s blood ran cold. “That’s his voice.”

Maya grabbed Damien’s hand and whispered, “Don’t answer it.”

But the voice came again, closer this time.

“Damien… you took my life. Now I’ll take yours.”

The lights burst out, glass shattering across the floor. Everyone screamed.

When the lights flickered back, there were claw marks across the door, deep, fresh, and steaming.

Jack’s breathing was shaky. “He’s toying with us.”

Maya clutched her book tighter. “Not for long. If he’s becoming a creature, his body won’t last. But we need to act fast before he spreads the curse.”

Lyra turned to Damien. “What do we do now?”

Damien looked around at all of them, his friends, his pack, even if he wasn’t one of them anymore. He straightened his shoulders. “We fight.”

Maya looked at him, her voice low. “Then we’ll need more than courage. We’ll need the truth about what Peter became.”

Damien nodded. “Then we find it.”

The front door rattled once more, then went still. The night outside fell quiet. Too quiet.

No one moved.

And then Maya whispered, “This is just the beginning.”