CHAPTER 2: RUNNING LIKE WOLVES

Adding the two companies, New Shadow and Lightning, there were 1200 active employees in total. It was impossible not to have something to advertise in that place, and it was impossible for the two companies not to be known throughout the city. Cassie was one of the people that everyone tried to recruit, and she refused everyone because she didn't have time to deal with many problems, and the work she had was already taking up too much of her time.

The theme of the party was still open. There was a poll among the employees to decide what would be the best theme.

While arranging his work material in his briefcase, Kurt was talking to his partner, Jack. "Which option and theme did you vote for?" he asked.

"I didn't vote, we won't, you know that you know why," Jack replied, also tidying up his material. "I know we should participate, it's important and all, but we can't," he commented, as he closed his work case. "We're not in the condition to break the camera or anything else that can be broken, like anything in the building."

"Can't we even stay for a while? I know it's risky, but we work here," Kurt rebutted.

"Kurt, you know we can't. Stop talking about it, before we...", Jack didn't finish his sentence, he stopped for a moment and his breathing gradually quickened, Kurt watched him for a few seconds. "What time is it?", Jack asked slowly, keeping eye contact with his friend, who seemed as restless as he was.

"Holy shit, Jack. You always get an early start, let's go!", Kurt shouted, pulling his friend along and starting a race towards the nearest elevator to get down to the parking lot. Using the stairs would take too long. "Come on, I'll drive, get in the back seat," he ordered, already pushing his colleague through the car door, looking around to make sure no one was seeing anything. Kurt didn't have a car yet, so he often used Jack's. Sharing the driving of the vehicle was very common between the two of them, especially in this situation. Jack rebuffed his friend for a few seconds because he wanted to get in the front seat, but Kurt ignored him and kept pushing him out the back door until he finally made sure he was sitting in the seat. Then he ran and got into the driver's seat, starting the car almost immediately. The car still smelled as strongly as it used to. Their smell, the smell of wolf.

"Are you feeling anything yet?" asked Jack as he staggered around sitting in the back seat, quite breathless and struggling to speak. "My vision is pretty blurry."

"Don't you dare surrender now. Hold on, it's your fault, we should have left earlier, asshole," protested Kurt, behind the wheel, looking impatient and slowly demonstrating he wasn't as sure of himself as he would have liked, since his move wasn't starting that late.

A few minutes passed, and they were already halfway there when Jack simply threw up on the floor of the car and collapsed on the seat. Kurt made eye contact in the rearview mirror, and at that moment he knew he had to stop the car right there. There wasn't enough time to get to the usual spot. "Get out of the car, Jack," Kurt ordered, having already parked in the middle of a half-open thicket. Jack replied that he couldn't get out on his own, as his vision was even more blurred, and he felt that his body already had some internal modifications that made it impossible for him to walk without having problems. The friend then pulled him out of the car, with some difficulty, Jack was bewildered enough that anyone who saw him would ask if he needed help. Fortunately, on that late afternoon, on that avenue, there wasn't much traffic, also it wasn't the first time they had passed that way, nor that situation.

"It's going to be here today, Jack. I'm sorry, but in these conditions, you can't go on, and you're probably already losing all consciousness, I can already see some changes in you." Kurt supported Jack on his shoulder as he walked with him into the thicket that lay on the side of the Avenue. The city was full of woods, and most of them were so dense that almost all of them had prohibition notices. People even respected it, normal people at least.

"Kurt, here, leave me here, go!" gasped Jack once again. Now it's for real, you must be hearing the sound of bones breaking, right?" asked Jack, already trying to get loose from his friend. Kurt finally left him there and prepared to walk away, as he already felt his change. "I hate this part," Jack said to himself, before giving the first cry of pain from the change. The first stage was the breaking of the spine. Then the rest of the body, the feeling of the blood rushing through the veins at high speed, the heart racing, the heavy breathing, the pain of the bones breaking and coming together in different ways, the pain of the change of body and mind as he screamed.

Exactly ten minutes later, Kurt walked past where Jack had been before, at least when he was still Jack, in human form. Kurt was no longer human at that point either, and he didn't like to be too far away from his friend in that condition, he was terrible when he had to fend for himself. His animal side didn't know how to hunt well, and they were new at this yet, very new, it had only been a few months since they had started to transform.

When he assumed the form of a wolf, Jack had a ritual, first to find the nearest safe place, then to meet Kurt, and finally to hunt something. There wasn't much to do while transformed, so he let his instincts guide him, after all, he had almost no consciousness in the process, often waking up without remembering anything.

When they finally met, both wolves began the hunt. Jack had already learned to track his prey, probably his habit of observing everything around him at work had given him a certain experience with this, even as a wolf. Kurt, as a wolf, had an excellent memory, a fact that matched his human personality, since he had a shrewd and reasonably vivid memory than the others.