The Werewolves of Nyxryn

Chapter 5- the human realm

Malrik’s hand clamped around my arm, pulling me back. His grip was iron, desperate, shaking with rage.

“No,” he hissed, his voice cracking under the weight of it.

“No, Veyra. You’re not going with him. I won’t let you.”

Behind him, I could hear Elira’s muffled sobs, the creak of the closet door as she tried to stay hidden like we had told her to. My heart clenched. I couldn’t let them see me fall apart. I turned to Malrik, gripping his wrist, trying to anchor him, to anchor myself. His eyes were wild, terrified in a way I hadn’t seen since we were kids, hiding in that same closet from men who had destroyed our lives once before. He wasn’t my strong brother anymore; he looked so much younger, like my baby brother again.

“Malrik,” I whispered, forcing calm into my voice even as my throat threatened to close.

“Listen to me. You have to let me do this.”

“Like hell I do!” His voice broke, his jaw trembling as tears welled in his eyes.

“You think I’m just gonna stand here and watch you walk off with that thing? No! You’ve held this family together, Veyra. You’ve been everything. You’re not leaving us!”

God, I wanted to collapse into him, to let him fight for me, but I couldn’t. Not now. Not with their lives on the line, not with that beast standing three feet away, waiting. I swallowed hard, leaned closer, and lowered my voice so only he could hear.

“In the coffee tin. Behind the loose brick under the sink. That’s where I’ve been keeping the money. It’s not much, but it’ll cover rent and food for a month.”

Malrik shook his head violently.

“Stop. Don’t talk like that—”

“You need to know.” My grip on him tightened, nails digging in to make him focus.

“Promise me you’ll take care of Elira. Keep her safe. Keep her laughing, Malrik. She needs you now.”

His chest heaved, a sob ripping free before he bit it back, his face twisting with anguish.

“Veyra, please—don’t do this. Don’t leave me.”

My own tears burned hot, spilling before I could stop them. I cupped his cheek with my free hand, forcing him to meet my eyes.

“I don’t have a choice. If I stay, he kills us all. If I go, you two get to live. This is the only way.”

Malrik’s breath shuddered, his fingers tightening painfully around my arm, like he could hold me here by sheer will. For a second, I thought he might actually fight the werewolf for me. But then his shoulders sagged, and his forehead dropped against mine. His whisper was broken, raw.

“I can’t do this without you.”

“Yes, you can,” I whispered back, my voice trembling but firm.

“You’ve always been stronger than you think. And Elira’s gonna need you to be. Be the man Dad couldn’t be. For her. For me.”

Malrik shook his head again, but his tears betrayed him. I pressed a kiss to his temple, my heart splintering with the weight of it. Knowing it would be the last time I could ever kiss my brother goodbye. My mother and my sister, I wouldn’t even get that chance. Then I turned back to the beast, wiping at my face with a trembling hand. My voice came out cracked but steady enough.

“I’ll go with you.”

The werewolf’s dark eyes narrowed, satisfied. He stepped forward, looming like a shadow ready to consume me. Malrik let out a strangled sound behind me, but I didn’t look back this time. Because if I did, I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to leave.

The werewolf’s massive hand—claw? paw?—closed around my arm with a grip that was neither gentle nor cruel, just final. His dark eyes flicked once toward Malrik, who looked like he was ready to launch himself at the beast regardless of what it would cost.

“Don’t,” I whispered to my brother, shaking my head. My throat burned, but I forced the words out, steady as I could.

“Stay with Elira. Take care of her. For me.”

Malrik’s chest rose and fell in sharp, panicked breaths, his lips trembling like he wanted to argue but couldn’t find the words. Tears streamed silently down his cheeks. The sight nearly broke me. I held his gaze for one last, long second, trying to memorize everything about him—the stubborn set of his jaw, the boy still caught in his eyes even though life had forced him to grow up too fast. And then the werewolf tugged me forward, breaking that final fragile thread. The doorframe splintered further as we stepped through it, shards of wood crunching under the beast’s heavy feet. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t.

Outside, the night hit me like a slap. Cold, biting against my bare skin, crawling up my legs until I realized—I hadn’t even put shoes on. My toes curled against the pavement, numb already. Was the chill real, or just the shock that hollowed me out inside? I couldn’t tell anymore.

But what struck me harder than the cold was the silence.

No voices.

No footsteps.

Not a single car rolled by, though this street usually never slept.

Even the birds—gone. No chirps, no flutter of wings. The air itself felt… held, like the world was stuck on pause. Frozen.

I glanced around wildly, heart hammering. Streetlamps glowed dimly, but the sidewalks were empty, every window shut tight, not a soul in sight. It was as if no one but me existed anymore. I swallowed hard, my voice scraping against the silence.

“What… what did you do?”

The werewolf didn’t even look at me. His dark eyes scanned the street ahead as his stride pulled me along.

“I made sure no one sees,” he said, his voice low, rough.

“Your world cannot know of mine.”

His words settled like stones in my stomach.

His world.

His laws.

His brother.

And now… me.

We moved quickly, faster than my bare feet could handle, every step sending a stab of pain up my legs. By the time we reached the edge of town, my soles burned and bled against the gravel, but I kept moving. Stopping wasn’t an option. The trees loomed ahead, tall and dark, their branches stretching like claws against the sky. The woods. Of course, it was the woods.

Panic surged hot in my chest. I licked my cracked lips and forced myself to speak.

“Where are you taking me?”

He didn’t slow, didn’t glance down at me.

“Home.”

The word hung heavy, cryptic.

“Your home?” I asked, desperation cracking through.

“Where is that?”

This time, he looked down at me, his dark gaze cutting sharp and unyielding.

“Far from here. Beyond what you know. And you will not escape it.”

My throat tightened, breath catching. He was dragging me to another world. One I had no map for, no plan, no way back. But still, I memorized every step, every bend in the road, every dark shape of the houses we passed and the trail we entered. Just in case. Because if there was even the smallest chance… I’d find my way back. I had to. For Malrik. For Elira.

Even if the beast beside me thought otherwise.

The deeper we went into the woods, the quieter the world became. Even the sound of our footsteps seemed swallowed by the trees. I stumbled over roots and rocks, my bare feet raw and screaming, but the werewolf never slowed his pace. His grip stayed locked on my arm, not cruel, not kind—just inescapable.

I tried to make sense of it. Werewolves. Out of all the insane things in my life, this one took the cake. I’d lived in this miserable town my entire twenty-three years. I knew these woods—back trails, campfire spots, the creek that Malrik once dared me to jump across. Never once had I stumbled across glowing-eyed monsters that could tear a man apart with their jaws.

But he was here.

Solid.

Real.

Every tug of his hand yanked me closer to a truth I didn’t want to believe.

“You can’t be real,” I muttered under my breath, the words spilling out before I could stop them.

“You’re just—just a story. A horror movie. You don’t exist here.”

The werewolf glanced back at me, his dark eyes sharp, unblinking.

“Not in your world.”

My stomach twisted.

“What the hell does that even mean?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. Because a few steps later, I saw it.

At first, I thought it was a trick of the light, the way the moon filtered through the branches. But the closer we got, the clearer it became: a shimmer, like heat rising off asphalt, except it pulsed between the trees. A curtain of vibrating air, rippling faintly, as if the forest itself was hiding a secret.

A force field?

A doorway?

Something that shouldn’t exist.

Couldn’t exist.

My breath caught in my throat.

No. No, no, no.

This isn’t possible.

This isn’t real.

I can't run back home from something like that...

I dug my heels into the dirt, tried to pull back, but the werewolf's strength was absolute. The closer we got, the more wrong the air felt, buzzing against my skin, raising every hair on my body.

“This—this is insane,” I whispered, panic clawing its way up my chest.

“This can’t be real. This isn’t—”

A sharp impact exploded across the back of my skull.

Pain flared white-hot, and the ground disappeared beneath me. My body crumpled, the world spinning, tilting. The last thing I saw was the shimmer between the trees, vibrating like a living thing, growing brighter, closer—

Then everything went black.