After Tom was done with his explanation about Alpha, Beta and Omega wolves, he proceeded to go into detail about some other possibilities for what these words could mean. Unfortunately, Gary didn’t really register anything past that point. After learning of what his future could possibly entail things were going in one ear and out of the other as he was too busy to think what he should do about it.

‘I was just starting to appreciate this system for letting me shine during Rugby practice and allowing me to make money with Kai, but now it seems that this really is more of a curse rather than a blessing.’

Suddenly, the ten days until the next full moon seemed to be a lot shorter than it had appeared this morning. In the first place they weren’t really sure what would happen, maybe Gary would just get the biggest stat boost of his life on that day, but that was unlikely.

He had already entertained the thought of either getting Tom to tie him up, so he couldn’t do anyone any harm, or perhaps hiding that day somewhere where there shouldn’t be any other people. However, knowing that there is another werewolf out, he had to do something about it, especially since he was the one at fault for that.

‘So assuming that Omega wolf really is Billy that should mean that just like me he hasn’t turned yet, right?’ Gary thought. ‘But then why did he end up killing his parents? I haven’t hurt anyone… At least, I don’t think I did... apart from those three guys perhaps… Shit, do all werewolves have to hurt people?’

If Billy really was that Omega wolf, the high schooler had a different problem altogether. Billy was on the run, the prime suspect for killing his own parents. With the police not having any clue where he was, how was a sixteen year old supposed to find him?

He looked through the system, hoping there might be some way to track the guy down, but so far, other than the red mist he could use to follow Barry because of their Forced Bond, if there actually was a way, the system had yet to grant it to him.

At that moment, Tom had finished explaining everything he needed to, unaware that his friend hadn’t been listening at all, just nodding along. He stood up, intending to put some of the books away, when he felt a sharp pain on his side, causing him to almost drop the books.

“The stairs?” Gary asked, taking the books off of him as he went to put them back.

“Yeah... sorry, I'm not in the best of shape.” Tom apologised.

Being so concerned about his own problem, Gary had almost forgotten that Tom was in some type of tricky situation of his own. Since he had come to help him, despite his own situation, Gary wanted to return the favour. Unfortunately, this was harder than it sounded, since Tom refused to tell him exactly what his problem was.

‘Well, those bruises definitely aren’t self-inflicted. Did he run into another gang, only this time there was no mysterious stranger to help him?’ Gary thought, placing the books back and heading to his friend.

“Tom, I'll be honest, I'm getting worried about this werewolf stuff. I have no idea what will happen to me when the full moon comes up, but I'm going to need someone to help me and you're the only person who is really helping me.”

“So I want you to promise me that the two of us will be friends no matter what happens. I also promise you that I won’t eat you.” Gary added, not realising how hard it actually was to say out those words, since the possibility actually existed.

He held out his hand, ready for a hand shake and although his words were quite cheesy in the sense for two people who were in high school, there was a reason for them.

“Gary, are you on drugs or something?” Tom asked, nevertheless grabbing his hand. “We’ll always be friends. Besides, I don’t think we have to worry about it. Even if you do turn, my scrawny ass won’t even be enough to be an appetizer.”

[A spoken deal has been made, would you like to mark “Tom Green”?]

Once the two of them shook hands, the system gave Gary exactly the notification he had been hoping for. His Bond Mark skill triggered when he made a sincere promise to another party. It would allow him to track Tom at any point in time, which might tell him more about what exactly had happened to his friend.

However, his skill had a very bad side effect. If Tom ended up breaking that promise, he would be assigned a Broken Mark, which would automatically turn him into a hunting target, so Gary had to make sure that the promise was something that neither one of them would ever break. He was also secretly hoping that it might have the additional effect of making Tom immune from becoming a hunting target for as long as he kept his promise.

[Yes]

[2/5 Marks have been assigned]

After mentaly agreeing to activate the skill, Gary saw a mark that looked similar to a M appear over Tom’s head. His friend started giving off a new type of scent, which was similar yet at the same time different to the one Barry had.

Another thing that was different was the colour of the mist that followed with the scent. Rather than red, this one was green, so unless one of the side effects of becoming a werewolf included belated red green blindness, it should be impossible for Gary to get the two of them mixed up.

After leaving the library the two of them split ways once again. Tom asked if he wanted to meet up tomorrow to do anything, but Gary claimed that he already had other plans. The truth was, he didn't really want to leave the house more than necessary, in case any members of the Underdogs or people who worked for them were looking for him.

Were it not mandatory, he might have even ditched school all together, until he figured out how to deal with Damion and his thugs. Still, Gary did go to the gym on his way home and the convenience store to continue doing his Daily Quest as these were vital to improving his body and strengthening him.

[Name: Gary Dem]

[Level 4]

[Exp 225/460]

[Health: 100/100]

[Energy: 110/110]

[Heart rate 62 BPM]

[State: Normal]

Without any underground fights, no challenging school clubs or hunting colour gangs, his leveling had naturally stagnated. School was closed today and going after the gangs again would be suicidal, until they would become less wary again, meaning he would just have to wait until Kai called him for his next fight.

The rest of his Saturday proceeded as normal, to the point that Gary even went to bed at a reasonable time, simply because there was nothing else to do. Nevertheless, it took him a couple of hours until he finally fell asleep, due to everything on his mind and the decreasing number of days that were left.

In the middle of the night, Gary woke up in sweat once again, pulling his bed sheets off him. He was covered in sweat and immediately looked to see if his sister was okay. Apparently her sleep was so deep that she hadn’t even noticed her older brother screaming right next to her…

[Your bloodlust grows]

[9 days until the next full moon]

Because of the messages he had received he knew it was past midnight at least.

‘Damn, I can’t keep having these dreams. All this werewolf stuff is causing me to have the strangest of nightmares.’ Gary thought as he went to answer the call of nature. Before he made it to the toilet, however, he was distracted by a scent in the air.

It was something he had never smelled before, and naturally he followed where his nose led him.

‘Who could be cooking this late at night?’ Gary wondered.

Strangely, the scent was closeby, yet it wasn’t coming from inside their apartment, but from their front door. Opening it, Gary could soon see what it was. Right there on the Dem’s doorstep, was what looked like a fresh piece of meat.

The only thing was it still had blood around it and it was lying there on the ground. Gary had seen quite a lot of raw meat recently but never had he seen something like this before.His natural human brain was making him feel a little sick, but for some reason the smell it gave off made him hungry.

The question was, why?

Soon the system had answered that question for him.

[Human flesh discovered]

[For a growing young Werewolf such as you, consuming human flesh is the best way to recover your Energy and who knows, it could make you stronger!]