Fur sprouted on the man’s back as he crouched low, a guttural scream tearing through his throat. Nicole instantly stepped forward, only stopped by Damon’s hand reaching forward to put a stop to her movements.

"Goddess..." Kyle muttered, his eyes wide with horror, remaining glued on Thorton Elrod with the inability to look away.

His shift was a long and grueling process, unlike the smooth and swift transformation he had previously. Thorton Elrod’s bones snapped out of place, jutting out at weird angles before cracking back into place. Fur sprouted in patches down every inch of his skin, and his skull distorted out of shape in slow motion, turning from a man into a wolf.

It was as though the process had been slowed down by ten times, and we were watching everything move at a snail’s pace.

Kyle’s hands moved to wrap around his own throat, his expression curdled as he silently watched the shift, no doubt visualizing it as himself should the serum work.

But it was a necessary evil.

A large wolf lay on the floor where the man previously was, heavily panting. Then, his eyes suddenly opened, round and bright as he stared at us wordlessly. Specks of gray freckled his hide, and slowly, the wolf got to all fours. He snarled, baring his teeth our way.

"Did it work?" Kyle asked.

Just by looking at the amount of hatred that pooled in the wolf’s eyes, I knew for a fact that it did.

"Darach..." Nicole called out, her voice shaky. "You are still his alpha. You need to get him to shift back."

"Does he even have control over his own mind and body?" Kyle asked, frowning. "You guys said I didn’t."

"This serum should have tweaked out the bugs compared to yours," Milo explained, his guard up.

"Get him to shift, Darach!" Damon yelled, but it was too late.

Thorton Elrod leaped forward, and in a flash, Damon darted in front of all of us. He raised his hands, creating a huge wall of ice in a flash that separated Thorton Elrod from us. The wolf banged against the icy surface before landing on the ground. Through the translucent, distorted layer, I could see the large predator pacing back and forth as it debated on its next move.

The ice wall was only getting thicker and thicker, courtesy of Damon’s magic, so that Thorton Elrod couldn’t break it through that easily.

"What the fuck were you doing?!" Damon barked, glaring at Darach for a split second. "We have no time for your insecurity issues, Darach Elrod. Get a grip and pull yourself together. You’re an alpha― act like it!"

"I am only an alpha in name!" Darach hissed back. "Don’t forget― you and your brother are the ones who even put me in this position. I never wanted to be the alpha! And now, I don’t even have a wolf! Milo is more qualified than I am!"

"Darach, this isn’t the time!" I exclaimed. "You need to at least try!"

"Here!" Kyle exclaimed. Out of seemingly nowhere, he pulled out a syringe that was nearly identical to the one Damon had previously injected Thorton Elrod with. "It worked. Time to see if it does the same for you."

"No, wait! That hasn’t yet been tweaked for Darach―"

Nicole was all but ignored as Darach grabbed the syringe from Kyle’s hands, jabbing the needle directly into his forearm. He exhaled loudly in pain as the serum flowed into his bloodstream, quickly disappearing in the blink of an eye as Nicole’s face significantly paled.

Similarly, Darach was not spared from the groans of pain. His knees shook before he crouched, barely catching himself before he could collapse into a mess on the floor.

"Darach!"

"Alpha Darach!"

Milo and Nicole were the first to surge forward, supporting him before he let out a low growl, forcing them to step back. When he raised his eyes again, I sucked in a cold gasp of air through my teeth. The aura around him had changed― it was now oppressive, making it so that it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

While Damon and I were still standing, Kyle, Milo, and Nicole had already hunched over, their hands grabbing at either their chests or their necks. Darach, on the other hand, slowly straightened himself. He stood proud and tall, his steps and pace even as he approached Damon at the ice wall.

Damon pursed his lips but dutifully stepped aside, the last sparks of magic fading from his fingertips, leaving behind only the frosty residue.

On the other side, the wolf who had been pacing back and forth non-stop finally ceased in its movements. It growled, hunching low before it pounced, using its body weight to repeatedly bang into the ice. Darach stood still, unflinching, his blue eyes staring straight at the ice as cracks began to form in the ice wall.

"Get back," Damon warned all of us, using his body as a meat shield to protect us from the imminent danger.

"But Alpha Darach―" Nicole tried to say but was quickly shot down by Damon’s stern glare.

"This is his test," he said simply. Nicole immediately went quiet.

When the ice wall finally gave away, shards of it flew everywhere. Damon gritted his teeth, swinging his hand forward to create yet another curtain of ice that blocked the incoming projectiles. However, this time, he brought the shield down quickly so that Darach wasn’t out of sight.

The latter now stood face to face with his father — one a man and one a wolf — as they stared each other down. Thorton Elrod was hunched, prepared to swipe at any given moment, but for some reason, he didn’t make a move yet.

"Shift," came Darach’s clear voice, oddly lower than before.

I gasped when I noticed his eyes, a bright blue that seemed to be glowing like a powerfully bright moon in the night sky. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"I won’t say it again," Darach said, staring down at his father.

He took a step forward, and surprisingly, we all watched with bated breaths as Thorton Elrod, too, stepped back rather than advance.

"Shift. Now."