Chapter 216: Shifting

He wanted to clutch something, hug something, and bite something.

Maybe a warm body.

He had considered many possibilities for how to calm or trigger the werewolves.

But he had never considered that it might be his own body that would betray him first.

He crouched down, hiding his face.

[Mooney, accept it. It’s your body, and you are their mate. If they feel restless, you will too.]

The Moon Goddess comforted him.

"I-I don’t know..." Moon mumbled.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Axe, Nox, and Ugo had dipped into the pool and taken the pills.

Though every instinct urged them to run toward Moon, they still had a little sanity left.

But Leo and Rio were the opposite.

They were literally thrashing against the water, trying to get to the cage.

Even after Lupine removed their nail caps and muzzles, he kept their shackles in place to hold them back.

Moon watched the two wolves struggling against their restraints.

His blood ran cold.

Gradually, their movements slowed.

One by one, they began to calm down until they were floating quietly on the surface of the water.

Time seemed to pass more slowly.

Moon waited for the pills to take effect.

"Why is it taking so long?" he murmured.

The moon continued to climb higher.

Then, without warning, a dark shadow crept across its surface, dimming its silver glow.

[It’s about time.]

The Moon Goddess’s voice whispered in his mind.

A violet-grey shade spread across the sky, turning the distant treeline into something eerie and otherworldly.

The air fell deathly silent.

Even the night insects stopped their chirping.

Darkness began creeping inward from the edges of the area.

Moon’s hair suddenly stood on end.

His entire body began to tremble. He slowly raised his head.

What he saw made his heart skip a beat.

"UUUURRRRGH!"

Nox let out a suppressed cry as his back arched violently.

Brown and black fur began bristling along his spine.

Then—

AWOOOOOOOO!

AWOOOOOOOO!

Two desperate, heart-wrenching howls tore through the silence.

Moon shuddered from head to toe.

The two howls had barely faded when another painful growl erupted.

Ugo’s body suddenly jerked.

His fingers dug into the wet ground along the shore, and his back hunched as if an invisible force were pressing down on him.

"Ugh...!"

Green fur began spreading across his arms and neck. His clothes began to tear, and his fingers curled into powerful claws.

The scent of damp moss and cedarwood spread through the air.

Moon’s eyes fluttered.

He suddenly wanted to run.

But not away.

He wanted to run toward that wolf and hug him.

His fingers curled tightly around his robe.

Ugo was transforming!

On the other side, Axe was no better.

His entire body stiffened.

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he bit his lips hard. A drop of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.

"What the hell are you doing? Let out your wolf. Don’t suppress."

Moon’s voice vibrated through the air. He himself didn’t know why he was suddenly so angry or why he was shouting.

Axe’s body jerked again.

His silver gaze fell on the figure clutching the golden bars now, as if the man wasn’t the one who had imprisoned himself.

Those blue eyes were turning a shade of silver.

That angry yet sultry look made his blood boil even more.

He let out another growl, and silver fur suddenly tore through his skin, leaving a bloody trail.

His shoulders broadened, and his bones cracked one after another.

The sharp scent of rusty iron and gunpowder soon filled the air, mixing with the frost and jasmine.

This irritated the others even more.

Ugo suddenly leaped at Axe.

Mid-flight, his body shifted, and he landed on Axe as a bright green wolf, masking every trace of Axe’s scent.

Moon’s fingers tightened around the bars so much that they turned deathly pale.

His back was drenched in sweat as he started to pace back and forth inside the cage.

Then another howl echoed across the area, and the ground shook violently.

A smoky petrichor scent seeped through the air, slowly crawling at the cage.

AAWWOOOOOOOO!

A black shadow swiftly leaped out of the pond and landed in front of Moon.

Moon instinctively pressed himself against the golden cage, even though his mind was screaming.

’Get out of the outer range! Move, move! MOVE!’

Heavy claws pressed against the bars near his hand.

Moon didn’t know why he stretched out his own hand.

For a single moment, he wanted to remove the cage entirely.

But an invisible force suddenly yanked him back into the middle, creating a distance Nox couldn’t reach.

Nox’s claws slammed against the golden bars, but the cage didn’t even budge.

"Who..."

Moon whipped his head around and saw the Moon Goddess standing behind him.

Her silver light shone even in the dimmed night.

She looked so ethereal, so pure, yet her face was cold.

Colder than any man Moon had ever seen.

There wasn’t a shred of the affection she had shown the wolves earlier.

"Let them fight," she said.

"..."

Xiao Hong opened her mouth from the side, then closed it again.

She didn’t interrupt.

A tear fell from Moon’s eyes.

"I-I want to..."

Moon couldn’t finish, but the Goddess cut him off.

"NO!"

Soon...

Another fiery red flame burst out of the water. Splattering droplets everywhere.

The broken shackle still hung loosely from his hind legs.

Leo directly lunged at Nox and bit his neck so hard that they both fell to the ground.

Only the ever-cold Rio slowly walked toward a distant rock, sat down, and looked at Moon intensely without showing any interest in the others.

Only his scent was getting stronger and denser.

It was as if he preferred to claim his territory simply by sitting there with his scent.

His frozen mint and myrrh scent almost covered the entire area, suffocating like ice piercing through the lungs.

Not for Moon, though.

To Moon, it was only an invitation.

And to Moon’s disdain, he realized his body had gone far more limp than he had thought possible.

He fell to the ground, crumbling.

"I-I want to..." he cried again.