The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 35 - The Hunter (Patreon)

The Royal Hall of the Grand Werewolf Empire

Diane sits on her throne with a frown on her face as the three lesser werewolves that had broken her law and bitten another being without permission from a pureblood werewolf kneel in front of her whilst trembling in fear.

“Why are you so upset? I would have thought that you would be happy that he became a werewolf!” Leo exclaims as his face fills up a screen in front of Diane.

“Why, you ask?” she asks with a cold glance at the three lesser werewolves in front of her.

“Because he isn’t,” she continues while standing up from her throne, causing a wave of whimpers to run through the three lesser werewolves as Diane’s royal guard stands unmoving at the side of the hall, “a fucking…”

“WEREWOLF!” she finishes with a shout as her figure blurs for a second before she returns to her place next to the throne with three hearts in her hand while the three lesser werewolves all fall dead to the ground.

The royal guard all continue to stand unmoving at the sides of the hall, as if they were used to this. Meanwhile, Leo raises an eyebrow on the screen and says, “So he is something called a lycanthrope instead. Shouldn’t that just be an offshoot of werewolf? You were expecting his infection to be different because of his mutation already, so what’s the problem?”

Diane turns her cold glare towards the screen as she slowly says, “Because I was expecting him to become a werewolf. Not whatever the hell a lycanthrope is!”

Her words surprise Leo as both of his eyebrows raise in surprise before he asks, “Wait, so you have never heard of a lycanthrope before?”

Even Diane’s royal guards begin shifting a little at this news. This is because, despite the fact that none of them knew themselves what a lycanthrope was, they were all absolutely sure that their empress knew at the very least.

“No! I have never heard of it in my life!” Diane shouts with clear anger in her voice before she opens the livestream of Wolf next to the call and finally begins to calm down at the sight of him attempting to get a handle on his new body.

No one says anything for several minutes as the Empress continues watching the screen before one of the royal guards speaks up.

“Will this change your plans to make him your heir?”

Diane immediately changes her focus to the man that had asked the question before she says, without a drop of hesitation, “No. I don’t give a shit if he isn’t technically a werewolf. He was turned by a bite from one, so that’s all that matters.”

Tension visibly drains from several of the royal guard members as they feel relief at her answer.

Word of Diane’s decision to make the harbinger into a werewolf and her heir had spread throughout the upper echelons of the empire, and many of the subjects – excluding a few obstinate council members – had grown to like their new heir-to-be after watching him on the livestreams.

Diane notices their relief and briefly smiles before turning back to Wolf’s livestream.

“All of that aside, what do you think the difference between a lycanthrope and a werewolf is exactly?” Leo asks the question everyone within the room is wanting to know.

All of the royal guards focus their attention solely on their empress as she taps her chin in thought.

A few seconds pass by like this in silence before she finally says, “Aside from the noticeably greater difference in strength and hearing that a pureblood werewolf wouldn’t even have at his level, I’m not sure what the differences might be.”

The royal guards all share looks with each other before turning back to her as she continues, “That said, whatever it is, it will likely be pretty interesting to say the least.”

This statement causes a brief smile to reach the eyes of the majority of Diane’s guards as Leo thinks, ‘And we’re back to the carefree Diane.’

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Wolf

“Fucking hell!” I shout in pain as my bones shift around with audible grinding noises.

I wish these transformations didn’t hurt so fucking badly! All I did was wonder what my ‘hunter’ form looks like and now I am transforming into it!

Unsurprisingly, as the transformation continues, my senses begin to strengthen even further, allowing me to hear past the 80% soundproofing on my headphones for what must be a few dozen meters around the outside of the store. Furthermore, as a result of the bones in my leg suddenly extending both in length and width, I lose my balance and fall into the nearby table, breaking straight through it as I attempt to catch myself with my arm.

The pain persists for several minutes as I convulse on the ground by the broken table until the transformation finally leaves me panting in exhaustion.

I raise my head with a strange foggy-like feeling in my mind, along with a light reddish blue tint to my vision.

“The hell…” I mutter, only to jerk my head backwards in surprise at the sound of my voice, ending up in me smacking my head against the floor of the store with a loud clap. Or at least it’s loud to me.

Shit, that hurt…

“Testing, one two three,” I mutter to hear my very rough sounding voice before looking past my snout down at my body.

I have sprouted fur all over my body, with it sharing the same texture as the fur on my wolf form’s body. Meanwhile, my hands have turned completely into claws. And not just the simple ‘my fingernails have been replaced by claws’ like my skill does, but actual claws, with my entire hand and fingers turning into what I can only describe as a human’s hand with all of the same features of a wolf’s paw.

My fingers have all expanded quite a bit, with an incredibly sharp claw at the end of each – much sharper than how they were in my neutral form – and another thin layering of the white fur covering the entire hand. The claws themselves also seemed to be coated in a pale blue liquid that emits a strange aurora-like mist.

Looking past my claws, I finally take notice of my feet.

Feet that are now shaped entirely differently than they were before.

My feet have been elongated while also shifting one of my toes around to a higher position on the foot, matching the general shape of a wolf’s paw with a much longer and larger overall size.

Oddly enough, the claws on my feet don’t seem to have the same blue liquid as the ones on my hands do.

I look at the rest of my body to find that all of the rings I was wearing before are gone, along with the amulets and any other accessories I was wearing.

Well, that’s unfortunate. It means that I can’t wear my fire resistance ring while in this form, or my wolf form…

I raise my head before closing my eyes and focusing on the ice element within my body.

Surprisingly, it actually appears to be automatically generating itself at a much faster pace than when I was in my neutral form.

After a few more seconds of inspecting my ice element, I use it to create a mirror of ice in front of me.

My jaw opens slightly at the intimidating sight reflected in the mirror.

In the mirror stands a two-and-a-half-meter tall monster with a canine-like head, white semi-crystal-like fur, a mouth full of sharp fangs, and some very sharp claws, coated in a strange aurora-like mist.

Although, what makes me look even more intimidating are the armaments still covering my body.

The only thing that makes me look a little bizarre are the black headphones on my head that look entirely different from how they looked earlier.

Before, they looked just like ordinary headphones. Now? Now they stretch across my canine-like head whilst laying flush against it from ear to ear, covering the entirety of my – what I can only assume are – long ears.

A wolfish smile stretches across my face as I finish examining my new body.

The only problem is this stupid foggy feeling at the back of my mind that’s making it a little bit difficult to continue my line of thought.

That said, I would have that feeling any day over the bloodlust that I read about werewolves having.

“I could get used-”I begin before getting interrupted as I attempt to take a step forwards, only to end up using too much force and flinging myself forwards before face-planting into the ground with a grunt.

Scratch that. I need to get used to this. Otherwise, I could quite possibly die outside of this store…