CHPT 168: Scheming.

Bones. That was all that was left littering the ground after their meal— after Samuel made his next step into becoming what he was in body, in mind.

After consuming everything that hung from the dead—human bones. Samuel slept. He slept a terrible sleep, racked by paranoia and newly developed traumatic tendencies.

Tendencies such as restlessness. Even in his exhausted state, he couldn't get a good amount of sleep. Every hour or so, he'd surge up from the grass to find Jack staring at him, or in response to Dolion's ramblings.

The way the Alpha's voice rose and fell in response to the terrible amount of control he had over his emotions made Samuel's skin crawl. The man didn't sleep at all like the rest. Instead, he paced, he sulked and grumbled to himself while Jack stuck to the shadows with a cunning glint in his eyes that almost made him more wary about Jack than the Alpha. What were their motives? Why was it starting to feel like Jack wasn't just some unhinged peasant who gained the power of a monster?

Thoughts such as those penetrated Samuel's dark slumber and kept him jumping— flinching, sure of the fact that the animalistic torture would start again any second. In a way, being left to sleep was worse. The silence, the suspense and the watching was almost unbearable.

***

After a long stagnant night of restless sleep, movement woke him and kept him that way.

The tall dark skinned man walked out from the forests that lined the clearing where he must've slept, he was jogging, but a calmed and determined look was on his face. Exercising.

"Aye, Dier. How about you get your training in with me today, eh?" Jack said before dropping down from a tree branch that was at least 20ft above ground.

"You don't want that." The cold South African accented man named, Dier, said with a teasing tone in his voice.

"Haha! Come on. I'm feeling good, let's dance you brute!" Jack said before they both ripped off their long draping black cloaks that covered their bodies.

As Samuel watched the two naked men circle each-other in the clearing, he found that it didn't seem odd to him. In fact, it seemed like a perfectly natural reaction.

Without another chance to speak, the two Lupines lunged at eachother, wasting absolutely no time.

Woo!

CRACK!

They met with a loud smack from their shoulders crashing together and sent a powerful gust of wind blowing past Samuel's face. He was baffled.

They pushed against eachother, snarling and thrashing as they tried to throw the other off balance. After realizing neither was going to be thrown, they settled with trying to push one another inside the earth they stood on. That's when the madness began.

Small twisting streams of steam rose from Dier's muscles and veins bulged while his eyes ignited as they looked at the ground angrily. He was straining against Jack. An odd sight to see since Dier was so gigantic— he should've been able to flatten Jack in seconds.

The same Jack who was only around 5'10 and 180lbs at most. He was surprisingly in shape, despite his leathery scar littered skin and balding slimy hair, his body reflected that he was in perfect health. He looked like he was carved from a statue— a very old and weathered statue.

Crckcrcrckrcrk!.....

Jack's feet sunk into the ground after a few seconds. It seemed that Dier's strength was climbing as more steam rose from his hulking muscles.

Jack chuckled lightly for a moment, with the sound ending in a deep familiar chortle as smoke rose from his body as well.

"Your getting stronger, Dier! That's good! But not good enough..." He said before slamming his calloused palms into the dark skinned man's shoulders and pushing him away.

Smack!

Woo!

As soon as he created enough space, he lunged backwards at incredible speeds, leaving torn grass falling to the ground as the only bit of evidence that he even moved.

The two resumed circling each other, now steaming and glowy eyed. It was like a ritualistic dance. Their movements were practiced, calculated and the shift from man to their Lupine forms was slow, steady— in both mind and body.

Once they lunged at eachother again, words blended into unintelligible roars, punches flowed into bites and slashes of deadly claws until it was no longer man vs. man. Now it was 8.5ft monster vs a oily black furred 6ft Lupine that somehow dominated the fight.

Jack was unbelievably powerful.

"The Shift Dance. You'll be doing that soon whether you want to or not." Dolion suddenly said from behind him, smelling of jealousy and anger.

Samuel quickly spun around and backed away to create space between them— a useless attempt to ensure safety since everyone around him was deceptively fast.

"I still need my answers Samuel. Either you tell me, or we continue the chasing— the fighting. And you won't get anything to eat after. If you keep being stubborn like this, you will wither— become weak and die. Then we'll eat what's left of you under the Full Moon. So, are you ready to return to your human skin and tell me where my Lupines are?" Dolion asked.

Samuel tried to speak, forgetting he couldn't and let out a quiet snarl before quickly nodding.

"Ok. Then change." Dolion said simply.

Samuel tilted his head in confusion as he looked up into the man's eyes. As soon as their eyes met, a suffocating wave of power washed over him and a switch went off in his mind.

"AARGH!" He groaned in pain in response to his body immediately beginning to revert back to its human form.

Unfortunately the change back was just as painful, just, as agonizing. He felt every bone shorten, every claw shrink and every bit of fur seep back inside him. Only this time it was worse, his human dinner lent him the energy required to stay awake for the entire transformation. The entire 10 minutes of pure agony that Dolion simple watched calmly.

By the time it was over, he lay in the grass naked and sweating like he'd just run ten miles— only ever moving to shiver violently.

"Now talk, Samuel." Dolion said, completely indifferent to his pain induced shock.

Slowly, his mind began to solidify again, the idea of what consequences he would face if he continued to test Dolion's patience came rushing to his thoughts. He was learning how it would work here.

"Alright, alright. Here's what happened...."

***

Samuel spoke to Dolion in a pained and raw voice, retelling the events of the Nightmare that was actually a reality as clearly as possible.

He started it by explaining how him and his brother chased Claude out of the building, causing Dolion to point out that Claude seemed to showcase an uncanny level of control and understanding of what he was. Samuel immediately smelled his unease and more jealousy after the statement.

Then, he dove into what happened after the Moon's molten rays fell on them in the forest. He started by telling them how his brother was oddly deformed— showing features of both Lupine and man in an uneven chaotic blend. As soon as he said it, Dolion had to take a break, the waves of anger that rolled off him were nauseating to say the least. And the Lupines that were slowly gathering around to hear his retelling of the events murmured about the fallen twin being a Malformed.

It must've been bad because they all snarled at the word with disgust.

He didn't blame them, his shadow of a brother did in fact look disgusting under the pale moonlight. In a way, he'd always been disgusting to Samuel— something he never considered until after talking about what Tai had become to them. Someone sharing a body looking exactly like his own, yet performing so differently. Always following, always insecure, always the second fiddle.

Samuel's newly learned disgust for his brother was interrupted by Dolion returning, now fur covered his forearms and claws stuck out wildly at the ends of each finger.

With the first Lupine failure out of the way, he started explaining the strange case of the silent monstrosity that reeked of Hatred, Claude.

***

"Ok, tell me of the other. Now." Dolion demanded before bringing his shaking hands together to hold in a tight grip that would probably shatter Samuel's windpipe.

"Erhm. Right. Claude's his na—"

"I DONT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT HIS NAME! WHAT HAPPENED!" Dolion snapped before shaking his head and snapping at the air around psychotically.

Samuel took a deep breath in an attempt to check his own anger before starting. "Unlike Tai, he changed fully....he was huge...and he looked different. He didn't even make a sound when he moved...."

By the time he was finished speaking, he looked up at Dolion and found that he was frozen. Frozen solid. Usually he had angered tics or random muscles twitches in response to his erratic inner thoughts, but now— only silence. In fact, some time while he was speaking all of the Lupines gathered around completely. They were just as still.

"W-what's wrong?" Samuel asked.

"What....." Dolion suddenly said.

"Hm?"

"What.....is his name again?" He said, still completely frozen and looking straight through Samuel.

"Uhm. His names Claude....Claude Grey." Samuel replied. Slowly beginning to feel very uncomfortable.

"Continue with the story— focus on him and his Lupine form please...." Dolion said, sounding like he was trying not to explode and murder everything with a heartbeat around him.

Samuel swallowed, "He uhhh.....well his ears weren't up here." He said while pointing at the top of his head.

"Where...." Dolion demanded, still not looking at anything really.

"They were at their normal spots— but they weren't human ears...they were long, and sharp. L-like an Elf." Samuel explained.

For the first time, Dolion swallowed and a bead of sweat could be seen racing down the side of his head. "Continue..."

"He uhm...he still had a face like yours—like ours. He was also shaped differently....I don't really know how to—"

"TRY!" Dolion demanded in a voice infected with so much rage and power that it sounded like it came from everywhere at once.

"He was...hmmm. I guess he was built more human— more like his old self just with a Wolf-like face, black skin, fur and more muscle. But he wasn't completely human looking. His feet were like a Wolves— like ours so he ran on all fours sometimes..." Samuel explained, trying his hardest to recall the events and his fight with Claude.

He heard a gasp and a snarl towards the end of what he was saying, causing him to turn around and see Aiko looking appalled.

He turned back around to see Dolion looking like he was going even more insane than he already was. "Sometimes....you say he ran on all fours....sometimes?" The Alpha clarified.

"Y-yea. He usually walked like....like a man. He even took a fighting stance against the Detective." Samuel remembered.

As soon as he said it, two very common scents began to flow from everyone like one giant waterfall. Fear and rage. Lupines around him began to whine silently while others had to fight to stifle snarls.

Woo!

Dolion suddenly blasted from the ground and stood up, sweat now covered his entire body and his breaths were short.

He began pacing and grumbling to himself, speaking so fast that it all just blended into a groan.

A flash of black flew past Samuel and over to Dolion.

Jack stopped behind the Alpha and tried to stop him only for them to immediately begin fighting like animals.

Samuel couldn't even trace their movements, only being able to follow the blur of the two men as Dolion slammed Jack into a nearby tree.

Crack!

"Dolion! You must relax." Jack said, still somehow keeping that scheming glare in his eyes.

"HOW CAN I RELAX!? THERES A NEW PROGENITOR OF ROMULUS!" Dolion roared, confirming the other Lupines suspicions and increasing the potent scents in the area.

Samuel sat back in confused shock as the Lupines around him became incredibly distressed and uneasy at the mention of Romulus.

He was completely lost among them. Completely unaware that an old enemy had returned. Risen from the ashes of destruction with a shot at vengeance and a chance to disrupt all their plans. And they had no idea how.

Samuel's attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere before being distracted by Dolion's roaring again.

The black haired man was once again looking at him with a scheming smile.

Jack was the only Lupine who wasn't rattled. The question was, why?