Just a quick author's note: This chapter isn't canon within the actual fanfiction, "Princes of Moonlight". No, I just wanted a chance to express some of the darker aspects of the story. Hopefully, this may give further depth into the characters within the story themselves. and what they may have gone through. Also, all chapters will be told through Ren's perspective since he was the first one bitten.

In a circle, we sat just a meter away from each other, legs crossed or hugged close to beating ribcages. We haven't said a word to each other since we've started, though in the beginning, there was no need for words, only signals. Using only gestures, we cooperated together. We worked like a team, and as a team we made it to our goal. Even though we won, my heavy heart and stomach told me this wasn't a proud victory, but a bloody one.

With an exhausted sigh, I run a blood covered hand through my sweat soaked hair before wiping it over my mouth. A few flakes of blood chip off from my lips, but it stopped being so revolting around the third or fourth time. Absent mindedly, I drag my tongue across my teeth, picking out any remaining pieces of flesh and fur. The salty taste of iron covers my tongue as I swallow the few chunks of meat still in my mouth.

I glance down at my own body; the dried blood along my arms and chest, the dirt caked into my nails and the ridges of my palm, and even my own stark nakedness. Not like it matters anymore. You've been through this more than once by now… I shift my legs, one stretched out in front of me and the other pulled close to my chest. Raising an arm to rest on it, I place the other palm on the soft earth.

The others looked as bad as me, all covered in blood and with dirt all along their bodies. Some might have looked a bit better than others, Tokiya and Masato were fairly insistent on grooming themselves, thought they could never get the blood along their chest and mouths. My head falls back slightly, to see the gleaming stars between the branches of the trees as the bark of one dug into my back. The full moon showed through the branches too, giving us just enough light to see each other's faces, even when we didn't want to.

"It's just this once, Ren. Just to keep them satisfied for now. One time, with all of us, like a pack." I mentally scoff to myself. Just once, huh? Not sure if you guys have noticed, but I think this is the twelfth time we've done this. Maybe even the sixteenth. Hm... Guess I must have lost track by now. Even when we felt guilty the first time around, we did it again and again and again for weeks on end. Eventually, the guilt went away and all we got were full stomachs and heavy hearts.

The buzzing sound of a fly fills my ears, as one zooms by and lands on the rotting heap of bones and flesh in front of us. The body was picked clean this time around, some of us missed out on dinner or lunch earlier in the day, but that happens on occasion even on nights when we don't hunt. Didn't think I'd be 'that' hungry. I don't think we've ever picked a deer clean like this. But it wasn't just me who joined in this hunt, it was all of us. We all agreed to this, even the more stoic members like Masato and Tokiya agreed. Even the sweet animal lover, Natsuki, took part in it.

"Hey Ren… Why do they do that?" I turn to my left to see Otoya, legs pulled up to his chest, staring at me with a confused expression.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean… Why do we change back? After we hunt, the wolf lets us be human again. We stop having to fight it, even on full moons. So why?" He tilts his head to the side.

I shake my head at him. "I don't know…"

"Punishment maybe?" Tokiya chimes in. He sat with his legs crossed, just next to Otoya. "Their way of saying, 'This is what you did. You'll have to deal with it'."

Otoya shakes his head. "They're not the type to do that. Besides, what kind of punishment is it if we enjoyed doing it?" Collectively, we look away from him, each one lost in their own thoughts. We only did it to appease the wolves. Has it gotten to the point where we do it for fun instead?

"They're satiated now," I look to my right to see Masato, hands pressed together and keeping his head up with them. "They use our bodies to hunt. Once they've hunted, they see no need for it."

Otoya shrugs before nodding, "Maybe." He pauses, looking around at the different and guilt stricken faces. He sighs. "Come on guys. You're still going to deny it at this point? We've done this countless times, yet you're still trying to play it off like it was the wolf the whole time?" He crosses his legs and rests his chin on his propped up hand. "I saw the way some of you moved. It wasn't just the wolf controlling you; you all played a part too."

"Otoya, please," Syo raises his hand to stop him. "It's been a long night. Let's not talk this over now." Syo pulls his legs to his chest.

"We have to talk about it at some point though." He casually adds. "Why not now?"

The clearing fell into silence, the only sound being the occasional fly buzzing by. We don't say a word, or even look in Otoya's direction but it was hard to ignore the stares he gave each one of us.

"Tell me, Otoya," Cecil leans forward as he continues, "Why do you care so much about whether or not we deny it?"

Otoya looks away, shrugging his shoulder slightly. He pokes at the earth before answering in a low tone, "Just didn't want to see you guys lie to yourself anymore…" Cecil shows no expression as he leans back against a tree, satisfied with the answer.

Tokiya whispers just enough for us to hear, "You really think we're doing it cause we like it now?"

He shakes his head. "I guess it depends on if you all really did like it… But I think we should talk about it."

We all knew it, but everyone one of us was too scared or guilty to even mention it out loud. We all knew that if we said what we wanted to here and now, it would plague our thoughts in the morning. None of us wanted that. None of us wanted to be the first to say we liked it.

I scoff. "Seems like we're all on the same page, huh?" The others look at me. "None of us want to say it ourselves, right? Because we think we're gonna remember in the morning. So… Let's make a pact."

"A pact?" Syo raises a brow.

"Yea, a promise of sorts." Otoya leans forward slightly, eager to hear the rest of what I have to say. I cross my legs and continue, "Whatever we do out here, whatever we say in this clearing, whatever we confess here and now, stays here. As in, we don't tell anyone about what happens here. Not Haruka or anyone else. And we have to promise never to speak about it either. What happens in the woods stays in the woods. Deal?" Though there's a moment of hesitation, everyone nods their heads slowly, as do I.

Otoya chirps in, "Hey, I have an idea!" Looking to him, we wait for his response. "None of us wants to say it first, right? So why don't we say it at the same time? You know, all at once. 'I enjoyed hunting tonight'. Like that!"

"That seems incredibly childish." Tokiya adds in. "But it looks like it's our best option."

Simultaneously, we all shift in our spots and get ready to say the phrase, whether we really wanted to or we're just humoring the younger wolf. Otoya smiles at the simple movements and practically bounced in his spot. "Okay! On three then, alright?" We nod our heads. "One, Two,-"

"I enjoyed hunting tonight." Almost instantly, we break out into grins of having finally gotten those words off our chest. I can't help but grin towards the others.

"See? All better!" Otoya grins. "We can talk about it now!"

Tokiya chuckles, "Alright, you got what you wanted. What did you want to talk about first?"

"Well… Why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep hunting? I mean, it used to be the wolves that did all the hunting at first, but they slowly started giving us control over the past few weeks. So... It's just us now." It's a bit surprising to hear such a serious question but we contemplate it nonetheless.

Natsuki chimes in. "Isn't it how you said? That we've started enjoying it which is why we do it now?"

"Yea, but we didn't like it in the beginning. Remember the first night we hunted and we changed back? We were horrified! But now it seems like we're numb to it. At least after the hunt we are..."

Syo shrugs. "It's not like there's a lot to be excited over now. It's only fun when you're hunting, but afterwards you're just sitting around with a full stomach. I can barely move." We chuckle as Syo mockingly falls onto his side.

I stretch out my legs in front of me and continue where he left off, "Either way, we do it at this point because it's fun."

Otoya tilts his head to the side. "You know some people in this world would think that our hunting almost every night would be comparable to an addiction."

Cecil shrugs his shoulders. "It'd be an addiction if it was ruining our lives."

Masato glares at the other. "And you don't think this is ruining our lives?" He gestures to the rest of us.

"It's not like we're on a downward spiral. It doesn't feel like our lives our getting any worse…"

"Ceshi might have a point," I continue. "We've been handling the situation fine so far. I don't think our lives are getting any worse."

Tokiya looks down. "They might not have gotten any worse but they've certainly gotten stranger. Besides becoming wolves every night."

Otoya leans forward slightly. "Hm? What do you mean?"

Tokiya stares at his roommate with a deadpan expression. "Otoya… We're sitting in a forest clearing naked and covered in blood after just eating a whole deer, something I never expected to happen to me. Does none of that seem even slightly strange to you?"

The other scoffs. "Well when you put it like that…" We laugh. Not a forced laugh, but a real genuine laugh shared among friends.

"I'm a bit impressed, really." Natsuki softens his laughter. "I think we we're in full control tonight, and the hunt went smoothly despite of it. Makes me wonder how we got so good at it."

Syo replies. "We've been hunting a lot more lately. I guess we've just been watching them when we first started out."

Otoya grins at them. "I think it got more exciting along the line too. Maybe in the beginning we didn't really care and just let them do what they wanted. But then they gave us more control, and we started doing it ourselves. I think that's when it started being more enjoyable for us." He laughs. "I think it's more fun when we're all working together as a pack more than anything. Yea, it's great to be able to run like that and it's nice being able to get a good meal, but it's more fun when we're all together."

"Must be a pack thing." I mutter.

He laughs. "Yea, it probably is." He pokes at the earth in front of him, dragging his finger along, creating a line in the dirt. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Hard to say considering I don't have my watch anymore" I shrug. "Bit after midnight probably. Why?"

"Just wondering." He looks away. "You know we've done this a lot. Hunting I mean. It kind of bothers me that we've lost track of how many times this has happened."

"No point in worrying over it now." Tokiya reassures him. "I'm more worried about how long this will go on for."

"Who knows?" Syo asks. "Could happen twenty more times or even one more time."

"Don't say that Syo!" Natsuki scolds the younger one. "We've finally admitted that we like hunting and when you say that it could end at any time, it just makes me want to savor it even more." Natsuki licks at the dried blood around his lips, a slight frown gracing his features.

Syo flashes a reassuring smile. "Hey, now there's no need to worry about it. I'm sure this won't be the last time we hunt together."

"I hope not…"

"I have to agree with Natsuki." Masato confesses. "It took me a few hunts to get used to the taste of raw meat." He nudges his foot at some of the remains of the carcass.

Tokiya sighs. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I actually enjoy the taste of raw deer. I don't even know how many calories are in a deer anyhow…" I can't help but laugh at Tokiya's calorie counting behavior and the others seem to get the joke as well while the blue haired idol simply rolls his eyes at us.

"I'm glad though." Otoya beams proudly. "I like that we're able to talk after our meals."

Cecil chuckles. "You make it seem like our hunting's a regular family dinner." The clearing burst into laughter once again.

It continued on like that for a while, with us making casual comments about the hunt, someone making a joke out of it, and all of us laughing. For the first time, our hunts ended on a better note, with us being happy that we had it. We talked and laughed throughout most of the night until we sensed the sun rising in the great distance. The stars would disappear in mere hours and we knew that.

"Best go to sleep before it's too late." Masato nods to everyone before turning into a wolf and moving to leave the clearing. Otoya and Cecil are the first to bound after him with Natsuki and Syo soon follow cheerfully. Tokiya and I both smirk at the act before turning into wolves and bounding after them.