Alex stepped back instinctively, his golden eyes fixed on the figure that had materialized from the darkness of the forest. The wolf inside him growled, uneasy at the creature's presence, but it wasn't just a physical threat he felt. It was something deeper. Something dark.
"Warn me?" Alex couldn't hide the mix of fear and confusion in his voice. The creature before him, with its twisted smile and air of evil, didn't seem like someone who would offer help.
The being, barely taller than a human but with grayish skin that seemed made of pure shadow, tilted its head. Its eyes gleamed, almost mocking, as if it enjoyed Alex's reaction. "You're right to be wary, wolf. But believe it or not, my presence here is precisely to prevent you from making a fatal mistake."
Alex gritted his teeth, his muscles tense, ready to attack at any moment. "What mistake?"
The creature took a step forward, moving as if it floated instead of walked. "The full moon isn't your only concern. There's something else lurking, something much older and more dangerous than any hunter or pack of werewolves. And you, Alex... you're the key to unleashing it."
Alex's blood froze. "What are you saying?"
"Your transformation wasn't by chance. You weren't attacked randomly. There's a plan in motion, something that not even old hunter Gideon fully understands." The creature smiled, showing more of its sharp fangs. "Your lineage carries special weight, a heritage you can't ignore."
Alex felt the world around him start to spin. His hands began to shake as the creature's words hit him like a wave. Plan? Lineage? None of this made sense. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm... just a kid who was attacked."
"That's what you believe. But your blood carries a burden, something that has been dormant for centuries. And now, thanks to your transformation, it has begun to awaken." The creature leaned in a bit more, its eyes shining even more intensely. "If you don't control it, if you don't understand your true power, you'll unleash something that neither you nor your world can stop."
Alex took another step back, his mind racing in all directions. His lineage? A power within him? All of this sounded like a nightmare he couldn't wake up from. But there was something in the creature's words, something that resonated deep within his being.
"What are you?" he finally asked, his voice barely a whisper.
The creature smiled again, a smile that showed no warmth. "I am a messenger, Alex. A guardian of dark secrets. But make no mistake, my presence here isn't out of kindness. I'll be watching you, and if I see you straying from the path, I won't hesitate to destroy you before you unleash chaos."
Alex's heart pounded in his chest. "Why me? Why now?"
"Because you're the last of an ancient line, a line that has been hunted and extinguished. Until now." The messenger straightened up, its figure blurring a bit more into the shadows of the forest. "The full moon was just the beginning. Soon you'll understand. And then, you'll have to choose."
Before Alex could react, the creature vanished into the darkness, as if it had never been there.
Alex remained in the clearing, motionless, feeling his heart racing in his chest. The wind whispered through the trees, but there were no more signs of the sinister presence that had confronted him.
"Lineage...?" he muttered to himself. The air felt heavy, as if the entire forest was watching him.
It was then that he felt a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, turning abruptly to find Gideon's figure, who had silently followed him from the cabin.
"I saw everything," the hunter said, his expression grave. "That being is not something we should take lightly."
"What does all this mean, Gideon?" Alex was on the verge of collapse. "What lineage is it talking about? What power do I have?"
Gideon sighed, running a hand through his beard. "I don't know for certain. But what it said about your lineage... it might have some truth. In the past, there were much more powerful werewolves, with abilities beyond what any current pack could imagine. But they were hunted, extinguished."
"And you think I...?" Alex couldn't finish the sentence. It was too much, too big to process.
"It's possible. Your transformation was more intense, faster than it should have been. And that creature, that messenger, is here for a reason." Gideon looked him in the eye, his expression stern. "If it's true, that puts you in a much more dangerous situation than we thought."
Alex couldn't breathe. His entire world was crumbling. What he thought was a simple attack, a curse that had fallen on him by chance, now seemed to have much deeper roots.
"What do we do now?" he finally asked, his voice shaking.
Gideon turned to the forest, watching the shadows as if expecting something else to emerge from them. "First, you need to rest. Then, we start investigating. If this lineage is real, we need to know everything we can before those hunters return."
Alex nodded, but his mind was still lost in the messenger's words. "The full moon was just the beginning," it had said. And if that was true, then what was coming would be much worse than he had imagined.