The Most Important Rule

The werewolf was running a few yards in front of me, but I was catching up. He bolted down the empty street, constantly glancing over his shoulder to see if I was sprinting after him. He turned left, darting down a solitary alleyway. He was immediately engulfed in shadows.

I stopped in front of the narrow alleyway entrance, panting as I caught my breath. I scanned the shadows, but it was impossible to see through them. The werewolf was nowhere to be seen - he had disappeared, just like that.

But then I heard a cough and a shuffle of feet. I grinned. Gotcha. Without a moment's hesitation I stepped in the alleyway. The darkness was overwhelming and I waited for my eyes to adjust, but even then my eyesight didn't improve much.

I slowly made my way forward in the direction of the sound. I was careful not to bump into anything and I held the knife out in front of me. Everything was pitch black. I could barely see three feet in front of me.

And then, quite suddenly, the werewolf came into view. He standing right before me, only a few feet away from me. He grinned, showing off his yellow canines. "Hello, girlie," he said in his rough voice.

I realized what I had done. I had stepped right into the werewolf's trap.

Immediately I spun on my heels and sprinted towards the exit. I could hear the wolf running right behind me - but his breaths weren't coming out in pants like mine. He sounded tireless and it seemed like...he was laughing softly. He was having fun.

I staggered into the street, and I turned to get away as fast as humanly possible, but a firm hand grabbed my arm and held me back. I struggled like hell to free myself of the werewolf's clutch, almost pulling my arm out of its socket in the process. His grip only tightened, and I suddenly became aware of the fact that his claws were digging into my flesh.

And that's when I stopped.

If his grip got any firmer, his claws could easily break the skin. Werewolves could only turn people if they were changed into their wolf forms, but I knew for a fact that this werewolf was strong enough to change at any moment, despite the lack of a full moon.

And all it took to turn a human was a bite or a scratch. All it took was a minor flesh wound. I could become a werewolf at any second.

I stood dead still, wary of what he would do next. He noticed that I stopped fighting and he chuckled maliciously. "Good girl," he cooed. "I'm glad you now understand what kind of situation you're in."

I glared at him, but said nothing.

"Let her go," said a gruff voice from behind me.

I turned around the best I could without pulling on my arm too much to see who the new voice belonged to.

He was...wow. He was handsome. His scruffy brown hair fell into his eyes, giving him a dark look, and it was visible that he was rather well toned. All thoughts about the werewolf standing beside me disappeared as I just stared at the newcomer.

"This girl's mine, now back off," the werewolf growled, and his grip tightened defensively.

"I'm not here to kill her," the man replied. He was trying to keep his tone calm and cool, but the natural roughness of his voice prevented that. "I'm here to save her."

"Who the hell are you?" the alpha barked.

The man smirked. "I thought you would have been able to recognize me," he said. "I've been hunting you for a few days now."

Hunting?! He's a hunter? That doesn't make any sense - a werewolf killing other werewolves?

And then that's when I noticed it - the badge on his chest. It was a badge for D.a.r.c. This man was an Agent. He was a werewolf hunter.

"If you come any closer, I'll kill her," the alpha growled. His face was so close to mine I could feel his stubble scratch against my skin and his foul breath filled my nose, making me almost gag.

I was completely defenseless right now - and I hated it. Being unable to fight didn't scare me; it irritated me.

I glared at the Agent. I wasn't looking at him angrily - I was merely giving him a stare that read: Hurry-up-and-get-me-out-of-here.

The Agent quickly got the point. "Unless you have a strong desire to be disemboweled and mutilated, I would suggest releasing her," he said to the werewolf. He reached for his belt, revealing a row of silver daggers. He also had a pistol, which was presumably loaded with silver-coated bullets.

The werewolf took one look at the weapons and snarled in defeat. His grip on my arm loosened, and I immediately pulled away from him and ran over to the hunter's side, where I was safe.

But the scowl on the werewolf’s face did not disappear – I don't think he was finished with us yet. He looked like he was getting angrier and angrier by the second, to the point where he was trembling out of pure rage. Soon he was shaking so violently I thought he was about to have a seizure or something.

"Move out of the way, he's about to change!" shouted the hunter, quickly shoving me aside.

The werewolf was trembling so much his outline was a blur. Before I could register what was actually happening, I heard a sickening rip of skin, and before my eyes could register what had happened, a massive wolf now stood before me, growling ferociously and ready to kill. He was roughly three times the size of a normal wolf. His fur was gray and matted, reminding me of his ragged human appearance. His eyes were still the same; the leaf-green orbs seemed to glow against his dull fur.

For the first time in a long time, I was actually a little bit scared. I had seen werewolves in their true form before - this was the year 2018, after all, and these mangy mutts were running all over the place - but I had never been up so close.

All of the wolf’s attention was focused on the hunter. The hunter was quick, though, and before I could even bat an eyelash he had reached to his belt and pulled out a dagger. The wolf immediately lunged for him, snapping his sharp teeth at his face. The hunter crouched down low, bracing himself for the attack. But the wolf was twice the size of him. As the two collided in a crash of silver against fangs, I was worried that the man wasn't going to be able to win.

The wolf’s giant form slammed against the Agent, and I heard the nauseating crunch of a bone breaking. The hunter fought back fiercely, and I heard the wolf yelp in pain as he slashed this way and that with the knife. The two were moving so fast I could barely keep up with my eyes - however, it wasn't too difficult to see who was winning.

It was the wolf. He was so huge and vicious, it wasn't too hard to believe that defeating a feeble human was as simple as squashing a bug.

I felt a jolt of fear rush through me again. What if the wolf won? What would happen to the hunter, and what about me?

Suddenly the wolf howled; the noise was so loud I had to cover my ears. I may not have been a werewolf expert, but I could have sworn that his howl sounded victorious.

I think I was about to find out what would happen if the wolf won. And what was going to happen to me. Because the werewolf hunter was just killed.