Chapter 1524: Where Are We? (Part 1) When Gary was in his True Alpha form, his body was no longer entirely his own. It wasn’t as though he lost consciousness, but rather, he became a passenger inside his own body. Instincts, the ancient, primal urges buried deep within his bloodline, were the ones steering him forward. Every Alpha carried instincts unique to themselves. They didn’t listen to reason. They didn’t ask for permission. And yet, despite that loss of control, Gary remembered everything. He remembered each movement, each clash, each moment of violence. He could recall the surge of power that had coursed through him, as well as the terrible moment when his chest burned with unbearable pain. That was when it happened. The medallion, the one he had carried for so long, had lifted from his body. It floated in the air before him, glowing brighter and brighter until it was impossible to look directly at it. White light erupted outward like a beacon, swallowing his vision and everything else along with it. The pain in his chest vanished. His sense of smell, gone. His hearing dulled. The sound of battle, the scents of blood and fur, even the rhythm of his own heart, all of it disappeared. The light grew so intense that it filled every corner of his mind until he couldn’t even be sure if his body still existed. And then, just as suddenly, things began to return. Bit by bit, sensation seeped back into him. He became aware of himself again, his arms, his legs, the beating inside his chest. His thoughts, sharp and racing, belonged to him once more. The whiteness around him began to dissolve, like fog peeling away, and the world snapped into place all at once. The first thing Gary saw were his own hands. They weren’t covered in brown fur. They weren’t the claws of a beast. They were simply...his hands. Human hands. Familiar, pale, scarred from the life he had lived but undeniably his. For a moment he simply stared, flexing his fingers, almost disbelieving. Then his eyes lifted to the ground beneath him. He was standing on grass. Not the patchy, city-maintained grass he knew from Slough, but grass so vividly green it almost seemed unreal. Each blade was a slightly different length, waving gently in a breeze he could feel on his skin. The scent of soil rose with it, rich and earthy, layered with the clean fragrance of wild plants. It was stronger, clearer, almost too perfect, like he was breathing air filtered by the heavens themselves. Gary looked up and froze. The sky stretched wide and open above him. There was no smog, no dull gray haze, no neon light pollution from the city. It was blue. Pure, endless blue, with faint wisps of white cloud drifting lazily in the distance. He spun slowly where he stood, taking in the scene. Land stretched as far as his eyes could reach. Rolling meadows of green hills. Dense forests clustered in the distance. Mountains stood like jagged guardians at the horizon, their peaks dusted with white snow. He saw no skyscrapers, no roads, no lights, no buildings, nothing man-made at all. It was as though he had been torn from one world and placed into another. Gary’s voice broke the silence. “I’m not in Slough...” His words sounded small against the vastness around him. “This definitely isn’t Slough. I don’t even think I’m anywhere near it. This...this is countryside. But how? How did I get here?” The thought chilled him more than the wind brushing his skin. He had been in the middle of a fight. The sun had only just been rising over Slough when he last remembered. But now the sky above him was bright and clear, the air crisp like late morning. Not only had his location changed, but the time of day as well. “How?” Gary whispered. He glanced down at himself, noting his Howlers uniform still intact on his body. It was impossible. His uniform had been shredded during his transformation into the True Alpha. He should have been bare-chested, his clothes nothing but tatters. Yet here they were, whole, clean, untouched. ‘The medallion...’ Gary’s mind snapped back to that moment. ‘That was the last thing I saw. It floated out, it glowed, and then...this. It has to be the medallion. It must have sent me here. Sent me away.’ His fists clenched tightly. ‘Damn it. The system said I wasn’t ready to use it before, but it activated now, was it because I was in my True Alpha form? Because my power triggered something I couldn’t control?’ Questions swirled without answers. ‘And what about the others? What’s happening to them right now? Are Lupus and Kai still fighting? Are the Howlers safe? Are they looking for me? Do they even know where I went?’ Gary’s chest tightened. It was like the medallion had pulled him from the battlefield at the worst possible moment, ripping him away when his people needed him most. He had carried it for so long, believing, as he had with every other item acknowledged by his system, that it would benefit him, empower him, protect his pack. But for the first time, it had betrayed him. ‘No...not betrayed,’ he thought bitterly. ‘Just...different. Something I don’t understand. But right now, that doesn’t matter. What matters is getting back. I need to return to Slough. I need to get to them. But...where even am I? And how do I get out?’ Instinct pushed him to do what he always did in these situations. He reached for his system. If the medallion had truly done this, then the system might know. His thoughts pulled at the familiar command in his mind. System, open. Nothing happened. Gary frowned and tried again, more forcefully this time. Open system. Still nothing. His heartbeat spiked. He could feel sweat dampening his palms. He had never, not once, been unable to call the system. Even in his darkest moments, when everything else had been stripped away, it was always there. But now... ‘What the...? What the heck is going on? Why can’t I open the system?!’ 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦 **** For updates on MWS and future works, follow me on my social media below. Instagram: jksmanga P.a.t.r.e.o.n: jksmanga When news drops about My Vampire System, My Werewolf System, or any other series, you’ll hear it there first. Feel free to reach out, if I’m not too busy, I tend to reply.