The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 114: Unraveling from the Inside

I didn’t even realize how wildly uneven my breathing had become until my chest gave a painful, desperate thud in protest. I twisted the shower dial, letting cold water rush over me while turning the hot tap all the way down. It didn’t help. My forehead pressed against the wet tiled wall, the cold droplets sliding over my skin like tiny burning needles, doing absolutely nothing to cool the inferno blazing beneath my flesh.

I could breathe, technically, but it didn’t feel like nearly enough oxygen. Each inhale felt shallow and strained, as if my lungs were fighting just to function. My limbs trembled violently under me, feeling both impossibly heavy and far too weak at once, while a slow, pulsing ache began to grow behind my eyes. Dull at first, but steadily gaining strength like something trying to claw its way out of my skull.

Heat licked under my skin. Not the warmth of the shower, but something deeper, alive, and thoroughly unnatural. I could feel sweat slicking my back, even with the freezing water pelting me. Panic began to scratch viciously at my insides.

This wasn’t normal. None of it was.

I forced myself upright, dizzy and completely disoriented. The shower had done nothing but make it infinitely worse. I reached for the dial to turn it off, only for a sudden, sharp agony to slam into my spine with such force that I stumbled backward, nearly slipping on the wet floor. I cried out loudly, catching myself on the metal railing just in time.

Pain. Radiating, searing, spreading through every fiber of my being.

Every single nerve ending in my body lit up at once. My back, my chest, even my gums. My vision swam, my eyes struggling to stay focused as intense pressure bloomed behind them. My legs trembled as I fumbled blindly for a towel, barely managing to wrap it around myself before dragging my trembling body toward the sink. I leaned heavily on the cool marble counter, bracing myself with shaking arms.

The mirror was thick with fog from the steam, but I wiped it away with a trembling hand and froze dead in my tracks.

Claws. My claws were out shifting erratically, lengthening and retracting with zero control. My fingertips throbbed with each heavy pulse of pain.

Something was wrong. So very wrong.

My reflection barely looked human anymore. My wet hair clung to my pale skin like dark ink, my face gaunt and drawn. My eyes were wide, filled with a feverish sheen. My pupils were far too large, swallowing the natural color of my irises, but what little brown remained flickered wildly between light and dark, like it couldn’t decide who or what I was.

And my gums gods, they were bright red and aching, raw like they’d been torn apart from the inside. I lifted a clawed hand to touch them but stopped, terrified I’d slice my own skin open without meaning to.

What is happening to me?

Then the pain in my back returned sharp, pinpointed, like someone was driving massive talons straight into me from the inside out. I gasped and staggered backward, my legs giving out completely. I collapsed hard to the floor, cold tiles pressing against my overheated skin as my body twisted and trembled in sheer agony.