Short story commission for  TuxedoedPenguin about a hunter who learns what happens when you try to hunt wolves in this forest.

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The air is cold up in the woods of Northern Michigan. Alex adjusts his ushanka as he continues trudging through the snow, following the scent of a grey wolf he saw earlier. He stops, picks up some snow and sniffs it, grips his rifle and continues following the trail. As he continues, the yellow eyes of the wolf can be seen leering through the bush, watching him.

Alex slows down as he nears the bush where the wolf is watching him. The bush rattles, and Alex swivels around and raises his rifle, aiming it at the bush. Out of the bush runs the wolf, not wanting to attack, but to get away. Alex, despite watching the bush seems startled and fires at the wolf, but misses in his panic, and drops his rifle.

The wolf barely misses getting shot, and runs off further into the forest, howling. Soon, several more howls can be heard coming from all directions. Alex looks around, trying to see where the wolf ran off to but there doesn’t seem to be any trace. The howling continues, getting louder. Soon, more eyes can be seen in the surrounding bushes and several wolves pop out, surrounding Alex. Alex picks up and raises his rifle, the wolves encircle him and get closer, and Alex fires again, but his rifle clicks as it misfires. He rapidly opens the bolt of his rifle and tries to clear it, but he’s quickly tackled by one of the wolves.

Alex yells, but nobody hears him as the wolf pins him down, glaring him directly in his eyes. Alex then can feel his skin tingle, then itch as grey fur begins to sprout all over his body. Alex tries to reach for the itch to scratch it, but he can’t with the wolf on top of him. His jaw stretches forward, and tongue grows longer and flatter. Seeing this, the wolf gets off Alex, knowing that no matter what Alex does, it won’t help him now.

Alex reaches up with his hands to feel his nose, as it flattens and becomes wet. Alex panics, unsure of what to even think of what’s going on right now. He looks back at the wolf, and tries to go for his rifle again, but finds it difficult to grip it as his fingers shrink, thumbs shriveling away to form dewclaws. His fingernails grow longer and darker, and dig back into his fingertips, becoming claws. Alex hurriedly tries to grab his gun again, but keeps slipping as his palms swell into rough, leathery paw pads.

As Alex is leaning over his gun, fumbling trying to pick it up, he feels a sharp pressure in his back as he’s forced forwards onto his paws, and his shoulders flatten and move inward, leaving him with a pair of forelegs instead of arms. Alex looks back to see his shoes tearing from his feet growing out and stretching into digitigrade paws. His big toes shrink away to form dewclaws, then toenails grow out longer and thicker to form claws on his new hindpaws. The soles of his feet swell, forming rough paw pads, and he can feel his pants being pushed down both from being looser on him now due to his smaller frame, and from the tail beginning to grow out.

The tail behind him grows long and fluffy, grey and white like the rest of his body now. His thighs cramp as the bones rearrange and crunch into feral haunches, then begin to thin out. He’s left lying in the snow, on his side, eyes wrenched tight at the pressure of the transformation unfolding in his body.

Alex grunts as his back flattens out, now requiring him to walk on four legs. His ears pop as they grow out and reshape into triangles, and move to the top of his head. Alex can then feel a sting in his eyes as they change to a brilliant amber color in the iris, and his body finishes shrinking down to that of a young adult wolf. Alex can feel the transformation stop, and he slowly opens his eyes, which are now wet and fur matted with tears, and he tries to sit up and look around, looking rather ridiculous not being used to sitting on haunches.

He shakily reaches a paw forward and tries to paw at his rifle, but finds he is unable to do anything with it. The rifle then glows, and the metal components seem to turn to wood, and soon what was once his .30 caliber hunting rifle is now a large stick lying in the snow, as if it fell from one of the many trees around in the forest.

The other wolves surrounding him sit up and howl. Alex then feels a burning urge to do the same. He fights it off as best he can, but can no longer handle what feels like extreme peer pressure, and he sits up, throws his head back and lets out a powerful howl of his own. One of the other wolves approach him, looks him straight in the eyes and nods, then starts to walk away. He turns back to Alex, then nudges his head to gesture for Alex to follow.

Alex follows the wolf and is led into a den where he is silently indoctrinated into the pack. After getting acquainted, he is soon out in the woods with the others. He patrols the woods, silently watching for more hunters. He knows more will be coming, since he had invited some friends over. He sees a Jeep approach and runs off into a nearby bush and watches as the rest of the wolves scatter. Alex crouches down and watches his two friends get out of the Jeep and prepare their rifles.

Alex pops out of the bushes and howls, signaling for the other wolves who come out of the other bushes and surround the two hunters. Alex and another wolf look at each other, pick their target, and pounce.