MATED TO THE NIGHT WOLF (MTTNW)

[21.1] A DYING HOPE

No one wished to be near me whilst the Night inside me formed.

The darkness gathered in the middle of the room as I grunted and howled in agony, the shadows reaching up to the stoned roof, a beam of shadow in the center of the throne room.

With a last agonizing push, I managed to stumble through the shadow, my feet crunching against the leaves of the forest, and I staggered against a tree. The darkest night formed above me, manifesting as I transformed.

Lightning flashed and the storm began to pour as the Night raged on. I was a wolf the image of night, wearing the very stroke of midnight as my fur. My spikes quivered in the roaring wind, heartbeats scampering every which way as the animals began their race to freedom.

Shadows moved with me as I hunted through the forest, the storm beating down my back, cold giving only more power beneath my paws.

It was easy to kill. Easier than ever in this form. Perhaps too easy.

I was faster than any animal in this forest. I was the predator to predators.

I hunted the bear for only it could somewhat appease my hunger. I was quick and the shadows were my allies. Nothing could escape me, and the rain that beat down my back only refreshed me. The fog soon loomed with the forest as I found my prey.

There wasn't much of a fight to remember, even when I heard a second growl of the beasts mate and it the next fall.

My memories often sunk into the dark place when my wolf was laced with anger and hunger.

Images came in glimpses, and I understood I was losing the will to return.

I could stay in the endless, allow my wolf to lead, lone and feral, and with him an Ever Night.

I would never have to worry about despair again.

It was what he deserved after all, freedom after my failures.

The world was farther than it had been a second ago, and I felt my hold on it loosen between my fingers. I did so willingly as I watched the world through a narrowing window in the endless.

Glimpses of the world before it could fully fade.

Bloodstained against my midnight fur, spikes quivering in the wind, the smell of death in the air as my teeth ripped into the hard flesh, muzzled shadows hiding from the death in my fangs. Yet eager to live in a world with no sunlight forever.

Glimpses only, fading slowly.

It was calmer here.

The sounds of the forest around me became less audible and replacing it was the silence of the endless.

Glimpses. Foggy trees. The storm, Corpses of eaten bears, the darkness that hung in the sky,

Glimpses

A last look at my home. The Night Court, ancient and bold against the ruling wind of the storm, lightning flashing. My mother would miss me but she has lost and survived before.

Glimpses.

The tower....

I blinked, noting a small glow through its singular window, against the beating of the rain.

It was hope then?
The keffer- the trial.

A dying hope but nevertheless, hope.

I reached out for it, unsure, and I grunted, throwing myself through the sliver of a window in the endless, finding my naked body in the river of blood between carcasses left by my wolf.