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Lupercal

Resistance from the wolves was nearly non-existent as we shot through the heartlands like a lightning bolt. The few that did were overtaken by a fit of rage, likely from a desire to avenge their kin, and were just as quickly put down.

Most of the rest were reeking of defeat and shame, not unlike Galip when I first laid my claws on him. Many offered up some of their precious family heirlooms as tribute, wishing to avoid losing the rest of their wealth or family to any potential looting.

It was a relief but a bit pathetic to witness. Perhaps I wanted them to at least put up a decent fight before I knocked them into the dirt and humbled them. Strategically though, what I got was preferable.

Fortifications were abandoned and military patrols were non-existent. There was nothing of substance that stopped our rapid advance.

We only delayed once we began reaching the isthmus leading into Crimea. A large fortress historically blocked passage into the peninsula through this narrow pass and we were certain the wolves would be garrisoned there. It would be the best place to make a last stand and we spent time arguing over how to take it before eventually deciding on a siege strategy...

Only to find its gates open and the fortress abandoned.

Were my victories this disastrous to the Alphate that it inspired such desertion?

Not a single quivering soul was left behind, not even the slaves. The scent of wolf was only faint, they must have fled several days prior, perhaps even longer.

Vito urged caution and advised waiting. He felt something was wrong. I didn't disagree that the state of the Alphate army was unusually pitiful but we couldn't slow down our advance and wait for the Eastern Army to catch up to us. Laurent backed me up on this.

Against Vito's objections we continued south and then southwest, along the mountains of Crimea. I was certain skirmishers would pepper us with stones and arrows but aside from a light rain for a brief portion we were left completely unscathed.

Had we not encountered a band of militia about one hundred wolves strong, I would have felt we were walking into a trap. Armed with spears and bows, and clad with whatever armor they could slap together, they bravely and quite idiotically advanced on us, ready to defend their homesteads on the outskirts of the capital from our soldiers.

This was the kind of stubbornness I expected from wolves and it was a bit refreshing to witness so close to the capital. My fennec horse archers quickly sprang into action and encircled the wolves, firing arrows at the slower militia to soften them up before my infantry pressed into their ranks and slaughtered them.

There were only five left after a skirmish that lastedno more than fifteen minutes. We slapped them in irons and prepared them for the next time we met Salvia. One of the wolven soldiers was quite handsome: snow white and slim, almost like a fox. Sadly, I never got the chance to lay with him.

We were close now, our captives told us. Only a few hours away from Lupercal. For a moment I felt like I was dreaming: a combination of my luck and the haste of my soldiers led us here but it felt like my body was still back in Vulpezzia.

It was time to break wolven haughtiness and humble them before me.

It was time to change the world.

Lupercal beckoned me.

"Not exactly like the stories describe it, huh?"

Livio spat down the hill overlooking the city. Lupercal was certainly a pearl on the Crimean coast but one littered with flaws. Even from this distance I could see the walls were messing pieces of stone and a few temples with their towering pagodas had tile roofs that were in disrepair.

"This is the Alphate capital?"

I asked that rhetorically but Laurent quickly piped in, "Aokus only just moved back into it and with the poor quality of his leadership and bureaucracy, it's only natural that things are not in the best of shape

"Almost like the capital is still in Nu'tag," Guy adjusted himself in his saddle.

So help me, Canis, if I hear one more mention of Nu'tag or fucking Constantine from him...

"Decades of having the court moved will cause even the most beautiful city to crumble," said Laurent. "I guarantee you that if you, dear Dictator, moved the government away from Vulpezzia that the canals would run dry within a year! If a lesser fox were to move back there, it would definitely take quite some time to get things back to as they were!"

"Use caution," Vito rubbed his chin as he considered the city, "this has been going far too easy for us."

"Just remember," I slapped Vito and Livio on the shoulders, "I get first pick from the Alpha's harem."

Livio shook his head, "That's fine, you can have 'em all, I'm happily married."

"Strange," I tilted my head at Livio, "I thought Sister was tolerant of you doing what any red-blooded fox does while on campaign."

"With an occasional villager, sure, she'll even join in sometimes. Those folk in the harem though? They're not gonna be willing and if they are, they've got a plan for you."

"I don't recall you being so..." I swallowed, "...careful about captive's willingness before."

"Like I said before, we've all changed, Marco."

We've all changed, I'll say. The mangy fox was a lot more amicable and entertaining before. Adopting that litter of orphans must have softened him, something I feared would happen to myself when I became a father but am glad that I avoided such a fate.

It did not matter. I intended to gain victory immediately and ordered us to surround and besiege the southern gate.

The earth quaked beneath my stead as my soldiers slowly marched on. I could see the wolves on the ramparts pointing and calling out as we approached, terrified that they would die as the last wolves to hold Lupercal.

I expected them to steel their courage and provide a defense for the ages, it would be the one way they could die with honor. They could either die pathetically or die with glory, no other options.

Save for one other that I did not expect.

The gates slowly rolled open while we were still a good distance away and a small group of riders slipped out. We had not even set up camp, let alone defenses or started chopping up wood to build siege weapons with; and an envoy was approaching flying the flag of parlay.

Memories of my last parlay with Zel flashed into my head and I felt a tinge of fear. Guy noticed it, his nose twitching in my direction.

"That appears to be the Prefect of Lupercal," Laurent said after peering down a spyglass. "His position is such that he would no dare attempt what that crazed she-wolf did on you."

"Lets hope not," I gripped the hilt of my blade just in case.

The Prefect was dressed in a yellow, silk riding robe and I could practically hear his old bones creak. His fur was graying with age, looking almost like he was born with a white coat.

"Wait a minute, Prefect?" I suddenly snapped to Laurent. "Shouldn't a member of the court be meeting with us?"

Before I could reply, the old Prefect stopped his horse a few feet away from me and consented to my soldiers helping him off his horse and patting him down for weapons. The old wolf was wearing nothing other than his robes and an amulet with a silver moon flanked by two golden claws.

Immediately after his pat-down was complete, the wolf bowed his head and took off the amulet, putting it in his palms.

"This pathetic Prefect greets you, Dictator Marco of the Fox Republic," he stretched out his paws. "We offer a complete and unconditional surrender of the city of Lupercal."

"I accept your honorable surrender," I said, goading my horse close enough and snatched the amulet from the Prefect's paws. "You may raise your head."

"Thank you," the Prefect's left leg gave out and one of my foxes immediately grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him from falling. The Prefect laughed, showing off rows of rotted, yellow teeth, and patted the fox on his helmeted head. "Thank you, young fox, for taking care of an old wolf."

"It's not a problem, Prefect," I spoke before the soldier could. "But I'm afraid we must meet with the Alpha himself and take him into custody. Time is of the essence."

"Eh?" The Prefect cupped his palm around his right ear. "Could you repeat that?"

"The Alpha, we need to take him into custody. He must surrender along with his capital."

"Capital!?" the Prefect laughed hoarsely. "Not for another ten years, I'd reckon! The honorable Alpha is in Nu'tag!"

The whole world went silent and I felt very cold.

How...how could this be?

"Well? You young foxes gonna take over Lupercal or what?"

Though Lupercal was not the current capital, it still held an important place in Wolven culture. It was the seat of Kutlar power and housed numerous important ceremony sites and temples which I made fit to order my foxes to mark up as much as they could.

Statues of famous wolves were open game for all sorts of vandalism but temples had to be respected but one could defile them in subtle ways to wolves. It was technically not sacrilege to leave ones scent in a temple to Canis but the smell of fox would still offend wolves who attended service and it would take days of work for them to get the scent out.

Of course, I didn't come here to urinate in temples, I came here for the Alpha. I was fuming, ready to give the order to put the whole city to the sword as revenge for being mislead, but that wouldn't have been productive.

We marched in a parade through empty streets on the way to the palace, passing through the famous Forum of the Moon on the way. Normally, so I've heard, the streets would be bustling right now with merchants, but they were all gone.

"We've passed through villages with more commerce," I hissed at Laurent, who rode beside me. "Where are all the merchants?"

"Well," Laurent cleared his throat, "I guess with the Alpha not being here, there was really no reason not to evacuate and flee the city when they got word of us approaching."

"And whose fault is that?"

Laurent lowered his head.

"Who advised me to come to Lupercal?"

"Forgive me, Dictator," Laurent folded his ears. "I thought my agents were reliable, I trusted them with all my heart and I am devastated that they've turned on us. I will resign immediately."

"No," I waved my paw, "don't resign. I still..."

Sighing, I looked at the stone palace gates to the north. They were wide open, once again not a single bit of resistance in the city.

"...Just don't do anything too hasty, we'll talk about it."

The reports from the first scouts into the city were not promising. The Prefect had spoken the truth, there was no Alpha here, nor was his court. There was a distinct lack of treasures and there would be no harem to raid for the entertainment of the soldiers. We couldn't even loot the city because we accepted a surrender and promised safety, that was a mistake.

There had to be something here, something that I could take as a sign of victory. The city was not enough, all the wealth had no doubt fled for Constantine and my officers were definitely repeating Guy and Vito's advice in their head, regretting not supporting them.

If there was something worth taking, I would find it.

We were ushered in by our escort into the Great Hall and I was given a greeting befitting the conqueror of a city in decline. The palace guards were at best, bored, upon seeing me. Many were taking naps in the hall and one group was too busy playing with gambling sticks to pay me any heed.

I pulled the ear of the Prefect and a few of my guards came to my side, "Call for the most important officials and have them meet me in the throne room."

"The most important officials?" the Prefect asked.

"Yes."

"That's uh..." the Prefect sighed, "...that's a very relative term, young fox."

"Just get the guards to find them."

The Prefect approached the guards that were gambling and slapped one of them on the shoulder before giving him orders to find a list of people. The wolves immediately sprang into action and the old Prefect approached me, motioning down the hall and through a door leading into the imperial city.

City was the key word there, it was far more than a palace and made my manor back in Vulpezzia look like a shack. Instead of entering from one hall to another, the Prefect guided me down streets snaking through the complex. He was telling me what each building was but I honestly had no inclination to listen until he led me to the Hall of the Reclining Lupine.

I should have guessed that the audience room had fallen on hard times like the rest of the city. Save for the immaculately lacquered wood floor and the elevated dais at the end of the room, there was no indication that anyone so grand as an Alpha held audiences here. All the fixtures and decorations that littered it before had been stripped away and taken to the new palace in Nu'tag.

The Prefect spoke a few words and a human slave suddenly darted out with a chair and placed it on the dais. It was no throne but the implication of me sitting upon it would be enough.

The world slowed as I placed my rear atop the chair. It was uncomfortable, to be honest, but here I was, sitting in the former hall of Alpha's long past as the most commanding figure around.

For one small moment I felt totally satisfied. It was enough to forget the unfortunate events that had happened earlier.

I demanded some regalia to fit the occasion and after a long search, a dusty crown was placed atop my head. It was a black board atop a cloth cap that fit surprisingly neatly across my head and had four ropes of gem beads trailing from it across my vision.

Moments later, an audience was assembled with the most important remaining members of the palace.

"Lady Zhen, Chief Gardener," a black she-wolf bowed towards me.

"Istvan, the chef," a fat human bowed.

"Finally, Iskander Wuji, the Court Priest of Canis."

A gray wolf wearing a black cassock bowed. He was absolutely drenched in anise perfume, enough to give me a headache, but not enough to make me miss his eye twitching and his tail held stiff. He was afraid of something, perhaps me, but neither of the other servants carried such an obvious fear in his heart.

Of course, perhaps he was just a coward.

I looked towards the Prefect, "These are the highest ranked officials?"

"The ministers decided to flee the capital when word reached us, except for me," the Prefect laughed. "I'm afraid I was the only one willing to meet with you, Dictator!"

"Were they in that much of a rush to flee with their gold?"

"One can never tell what will happen when one is left to the mercy of a blade," the Prefect laughed. "You can understand that self-preservation trumps honor at times."

"Besides they had to get the cub outta here!"

The human suddenly blurted out and all pairs of eyes in the room shifted to him. All of them except for one: Wuji, whose eyes darted to the right before he suddenly joined suit with everyone else and cast an angry glare at the human.

"What cub?" I asked.

The human started to sweat, "Begging your pardon, but uh..." he broke out of his bow to take a handkerchief out of his pocket and dab at his forehead.

"You will not be harmed, you have my word. Please, tell me."

"Prince Lycanlong was here, yeah..." the human looked over at the Prefect and bowed, "...I'm sorry."

"And the ministers smuggled him out?" once again, Wuji's eye twitched and darted to the side when he thought I wasn't looking.

The human nodded.

I waved Laurent over and he approached the side of my throne. Each and every one in the court tensed up, fearing that I might be the type to enact punishments.

"Sir, Lycanlong is expected to be the heir presumptive after Aokus dies without issue."

"Ah!" I laughed and waved my paw before smiling at the court. "Hard luck, eh? Oh well, can't be helped!"

All of the court relaxed except for, once again, Wuji. His body language had not changed a bit. Something was bothering him but I didn't want to make him aware that I knew.

"You are all under my protection and may roam the grounds as you please. Do not leave the palace and you will not be harmed. Dismissed."

They all sprang to their feet but none quicker than the priest, who was the first one to bow in respect and head for the gates. Soon I was alone in the hall with Laurent and my guards.

"Lycanlong, eh?" I mumbled. "That's another detail your agents missed."

"It's a surprise to me as well, sir."

"Iskander Wuji is hiding something," I whispered. "Lets follow him."

I got up from my chair and ordered only two of my guards to follow me along with Laurent and ducked out into the wide streets of the palace complex.

Wuji was already long gone by now, which was ideal as I didn't want him to catch us trailing him. The downside of him wearing such strong perfume was that it was incredibly easy to track his path. Still, I occasionally ordered a few wolven guards to stick their noses to the ground and give directions just to show them who was boss, only half of them lied.

His trail led to the Princely Palace, where the heir presumptive of the Alphate was to live back when Lupercal was the capital. It had been a long time since it saw proper use and was clearly in need of renovation. Many of its red shingles lining the roof were missing and I could smell rotten, wet wood even from outside the stone wall surrounding it.

Four wolves were standing guard by the gates of it and upon seeing me, their hackles raised and they growled.

"I...am...sorry..." one of them spoke extremely slowly and loudly in Wolven, "...you...no...enter...big...danger..."

"I'm going in," I shot back with perfect Wolven. "Step aside."

The wolf folded his ears back and gripped his spear, "Look, the place is dangerous, okay? The floor is likely to collapse under you in the wrong areas and the last thing I need is to get my head cut off for letting our new overlord break his skull open in the cellar."

I was almost charmed by the wolf's abruptness with me despite the fact I could have him killed in a second.

"You let someone in just a few minutes ago," I sniffed the air, wrinkling my nose at the smell of anise. "So, are you going to let me in or do I have to teach you a lesson."

I gripped my sword and my guards stepped in front of me, spears drawn. For a moment I thought the wolves were going to attack but the Captain of them spat onto the floor and dropped his spear, waving us in.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

The Princely Palace was almost a miniature version of the Alpha's Palace. It opened into a smaller great hall, except it was overgrown with weeds coming in through cracks in the stone. Rotten support beams slouched over and I feared the guards were right, that this place could collapse at any moment.

I turned left, sniffing at the air to keep track of the trail. He wasn't far now.

We slipped into a dark hallway. The air was wet and I could hear water dripping in from somewhere, despite the fact it was not raining.

My ear twitched as an old door creaked open slowly down the hall. Wuji stepped out slowly, peeking to the left before looking to the right.

His eyes widened upon seeing me approach with my armed guards and flung himself into the hall, slamming the door shut behind him and pressing his back against the door, spreading his arms.

"D-D-Dictator!? W-w-what are you doing here?" he stammered. Not even the anise could smother his fear now.

"I'm asking the questions here," I walked up to him, sticking my nose straight in his face. "What's behind the door?"

"Just old books!" he laughed nervously. "You'd be surprised what treasures the Kutlars left behind in there, but I imagine it wouldn't interest you!"

"I enjoy reading quite a bit, actually. Let me have a look."

"No!" Wuji shouted. "They're very delicate, I'm afraid! Priceless too, if even one were to be damaged, I-"

"I know about Lycanlong."

Wuji couldn't help himself, that damned eye of his twitched and his head darted back. I didn't need him to tell me with his lips, his body language did all the talking.

"What do you want with him?"

"I haven't decided yet."

Once Aokus dies, the Alphate will go to his younger brother, of whom Lycanlong was his presumed heir. Aokus' brother was just as weak as him, but he had a functioning knot, so the Kutlars could continue their dynasty down his line.

Unless anything were to happen to Lycanlong...

It would make more sense to take him prisoner and use him as a bartering chip, but part of me thought that the chaos his death could cause would be justification enough for his death.

I would never normally dream of harming a child but this cub was born to a very dangerous family, one the world would be better off without.

But first I wanted to see the future Alpha for myself.

"Step aside," I whispered, "or I'll burn this palace down with you both in it."

"Please be merciful," Wuji sobbed and stepped aside. One of my guards immediately threw him up against the wall.

I placed my paw on the rusted iron door handle and pushed open, not quite sure what to expect except the smell of musty old books.

Instead I found myself choking on the foul scent of feces.

I groaned and covered up my nose. Manic giggling rang out from the small library that was lit by dim candles. The light brown wood wall was covered in darker brown stains and old books were flung across the room with missing pages everywhere.

Creeping in, I headed to the first stack of books with my sword drawn. The laughter ceased just as I leaned against the side of the stack.

"Don't move!" I shouted as I rounded the stack, pointing my blade forward.

I just about dropped my sword when I saw a young cub, just old enough to have started growing his adult coat, squatting over a priceless illuminated manuscript of the Kutlar history with his robes spread wide. The cub had his tongue lolling out and his gaze was vacant, he didn't even notice I was there.

The fool shit all over the book, laughing hysterically the whole while. I ordered Wuji to be brought in and ordered him to tell me who this was.

"T-this is Prince Lycanlong..." Wuji cleared his throat and clapped his hands sharply together. "Bad cub! Bad!"

Lycanlong didn't seem to notice being scolded and moved onto urinating on a poetry book, laughing all the way. I found myself joining in with his laughter.

"H-he has always been like this," Wuji stammered. "E-ever since he was born, y-you see? H-h-he is just a cub though, please..."

The choice was easier than ever: Lycanlong would not be harmed under my watch. This simpleton would one day inherit the throne and bring more ruin to the wolves than I ever could!

The Kutlar family would end with this as its footnote. What could be more perfect than that?

"He has my protection," I smiled at Wuji.