In an instant, Carl pounced on the man and growled threateningly while on top of him.

“P-please spare me!”

Just as Carl’s sharp teeth were about to touch the man’s neck, the man hastily cried out in a terrified voice.

Daphne, who had been momentarily stunned by the shocking situation, finally came to her senses and shouted.

“Carl! Stop! You mustn’t kill people!”

At that sound, Carl’s movement abruptly stopped. After remaining still for a moment, the wolf, instead of tearing at the man’s neck, firmly pressed the man’s shoulder with his front paw.

“Ugh……”

Even with just a bit of the wolf’s weight, the man grimaced pathetically and groaned.

“Grrrr—“

Carl pressed down more firmly with his front paw and lowered his head. The wolf, growling near the neck as if in warning, opened his mouth wide and bit the man’s shoulder once when his claws began to pierce through the man’s clothes.

“Aah!”

With the man’s scream, Carl came down to the ground. The man, clutching his shoulder, hastily retreated.

Having barely created distance from Carl, the man quickly turned and fled the bloody scene, almost crawling on all fours.

“Carl……”

Daphne slowly approached the wolf, who still hadn’t calmed his excited breathing. That’s when it happened.

“Awooooo!”

From Carl, who howled loudly with a sound she had never heard before, came the cracking noise of muscles and bones.

“C-Carl?”

Smoke began to rise from Carl’s body, and his muscles expanded uncontrollably.

The wolf’s body, which suddenly started to grow, swelled endlessly like bread dough in an oven.

After the enlargement continued for quite some time, the smoke rising from Carl’s body subsided.

As the smoke dispersed and her vision finally became clear, Daphne’s mouth fell open.

His size, which until just now had been merely that of an adolescent wolf, had grown large enough to overwhelm even a bear. His physique was enormous, to the extent that comparing it to a house was no exaggeration. It was the manifestation of a legendary werewolf. A Great Wolf.

“Carl……”

While Daphne stood watching blankly, Carl, having completed his awakening, collapsed on the spot.

“Carl!”

Daphne rushed to Carl in a flurry. Carl’s body, which had fallen to the ground in wolf form, gradually shrank, the fur covering his skin receded, and he transformed into his human form. Daphne stopped in her tracks.

“Carl…… you……”

Daphne covered her mouth with her hand, unable to continue speaking.

“D-Daphne……”

Carl, regaining consciousness, picked up the robe the lecher had dropped earlier to cover himself and stood up.

“Carl…… you…… were a werewolf?”

“I-I’m, sorry.”

Carl hung his head low. Would Daphne hate him for his monstrous form, neither beast nor human? But Daphne, who had momentarily frozen in surprise, soon approached Carl with her eyes shining with curiosity. She poked Carl’s cheek with her finger and exclaimed in amazement.

“Wow! It really is you, Carl! To think you’re a werewolf! This is so amazing! I can’t believe werewolves really exist in this world! I thought they only existed in legends. Carl! This is my first time seeing a werewolf!”

“Daphne……”

Carl, dumbfounded as if he couldn’t believe Daphne’s reaction, asked.

“Am I not strange? Not disgusting?”

“Disgusting? What is?”

“Um……”

This form of mine. Harming people, belonging neither to humans nor animals, this abnormal form of mine. This frightening form of mine.

Carl couldn’t bring himself to voice the thoughts in his heart.

At that moment, Daphne grabbed both of his cheeks.

“Carl.”

“Yes?”

Carl, who had been hanging his head low, raised his gaze to meet Daphne’s eyes.

“Thank you.”

In that moment, something struck Carl’s chest with a thud. A numb and heavy sensation. The dull pain that started in his heart spread throughout his body like ink bleeding on paper. It was the moment when an adult werewolf imprinted on his mate.

“You saved me. Thank you so much, Carl.”

Carl grinned and nodded.

“Yes.”

After that day, Carl guarded Daphne’s side more firmly. Sometimes in wolf form, sometimes in boy form. From then on, no one with impure intentions dared to approach her.

But their peaceful days did not last long.

The shadow of tragedy fell upon them on an ordinary day no different from any other. The day when village children who had gone to play in the forest vanished like smoke.

“It’s a werewolf! It’s the work of a werewolf!”

“Come now, that’s nonsense. Werewolves? You need to talk sense. Don’t you know werewolves are just stories that circulate like legends?”

The villagers wanted to know the cause of the unfortunate incident. That’s when the village chief’s son stepped forward and claimed.

“It’s definitely a werewolf. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes before, a wolf transforming into a human!”

“What?”

“It was that monster that slaughtered all my dogs too!”

“I-is that really true……”

The position of the village chief’s son carried enough influence to instill false beliefs in the villagers. People gradually began to believe his words.

“Daphne, who lives at the foot of the mountain, controls that werewolf.”

“She’s a witch! That girl must be a witch!”

“Then are our children in that cottage……”

“Let’s go! Let’s go find our children!”

The perfectly incited villagers rushed to the forest. There was no one to restrain those seized by the anger of parents who had lost their children and the madness of needing to punish evil.

They set fire to the entire mountain, searching for Carl.

They knew that even the fiercest beast would be powerless against fire.

At that time, Carl was far from his habitat, looking for a rare flower to give to Daphne.

Carl, who had been bending down for quite some time, raised his head when the wind carried the smell of burning flames to him.

Witnessing the high-rising smoke and red pillars of fire, he ran to where his pack was.

But what greeted his eyes upon arriving at his clan’s territory were only blackened, charred corpses lying amidst the hazy smoke and flickering flames.

Carl wandered through the flames, howling.

After that heart-wrenching howling continued for quite some time……

Amidst the noise mixed with the screams and wails of wild animals, the voices of excited humans were heard.

“Now, let’s go destroy that witch!”

“Yes, we’ve done enough here, that werewolf must be dead by now! If we stay here any longer, we’ll be in danger too!”

“Good! The cottage at the foot of the mountain, right? Let’s hurry. It would be troublesome if that witch escapes!”

‘Cottage at the foot of the mountain? Witch?’

As soon as Carl heard those words, Daphne’s face flashed in his mind.

Something felt ominous. The only people living in the cottage at the foot of the mountain were Daphne and her grandmother. But a witch? The sinister way the humans spoke while holding torches, their eyes somehow eerie, made it seem like they would harm Daphne.

Carl immediately ran to Daphne’s cottage.

Shortly after, as Carl frantically descended the mountain, leaving behind the horrific fire scene, Daphne’s house began to appear as a small dot in his vision. That’s when he heard a tearing scream from somewhere.

“Kyaaah! Let go! I don’t want to!”

“Just stay still! If you just listen well, I’ll tell the villagers you’re not a witch!”

Hearing the voice that was unmistakably Daphne’s, Carl’s mind raced with urgency, seeing nothing else.

Arriving at the cottage at lightning speed, Carl immediately broke down the door and leaped inside.

In an instant, the house, which had been filled with loud voices, became as quiet as if doused with cold water.

“Carl!”

Recognizing Carl, Daphne called his name with a voice tinged with joy and relief.

She was lying on the ransacked floor of the house, fending off some man’s hands.

There wasn’t a single part of her that wasn’t injured. Her clothes and hair were all torn and disheveled, and her face was bruised. Her clothes, torn here and there, vividly showed how fiercely she had resisted.

Why are you. In such a state.

Carl, with bloodshot eyes, glared murderously at the man holding Daphne’s arm.

The man frozen like ice had a face Carl recognized. The village chief’s son, known for his lechery. The unpleasant memory resurfaced—the man he had wanted to kill was trying to violate Daphne again.

Carl slowly rolled his eyes. Behind the man who was trembling and backing away, he saw furniture scattered everywhere and an old woman collapsed with bl＊＊d flowing from her head.

This b＊stard. Carl gritted his teeth and lunged at the village chief’s son in an instant.

“Aaaaah!”

The man’s screams echoed endlessly inside the cottage.

Bl＊＊d droplets splattered on the window, followed by the eerie sound of flesh and bones being crushed.

As the man’s screams began to subside, a group of people burst into the cottage with a clamor.

“Daphne! You witch! Come out here…,”

The words of the first man who entered were suddenly cut off.

Behind the man who stood with his mouth agape at the horrific scene, about a dozen villagers rushed in.