The Lycanthrope Tails. Chapter Thirteen.
The Lycanthrope Tails
Chapter Thirteen
By Roofles
Once upon a time there was a monster without a name, without a face and that couldn't even cast it's own shadow. It lurked within the depths of society, watching and studying them as if it were trying to attempt to fit in. But where ever it went, all it brought was misery, suffering and death. An ill omen that was said if you saw it you would die within in the week.
A shadow without a shadow, just a silhouette of others. Without a face, without a name it watched from the side lines. What it thought was a mystery in itself. Did it envy them? Did it hate them? Or was it nothing at all.
And one day it found a way. A way to walk amongst the others as if it were one of them. A creature that could never cast a shadow of it's own. Only by taking the shadow of others was it able too. And thus it got it's name. By stealing the faces, names of others. Some cultures began calling it The Face-Eater. Others would know it by another name.
A Doppelganger.
Raith led the way, deeper into the trees along the forest path. The mini-bike hot on his heels. Jared helmet made it hard to see and the single light only gave him vision several feet in front of him. Trying to keep up with Raith made it impossible to see the creek at the speed he was going. The creek cut the path in half and even before Jared could hear the sound of it, it was too late.
The front wheel hit it hard, dropping off the small hill and plummeting down into the shallow water. Jared ended up spinning the bike around and tossing himself off it with the motion. Better than having the bike roll over him. He landed hard on his back within the water, dazed and confused as he stared up at the full moon above them. Watching it as his thoughts finally caught up with him.
In the cold night, a halo had formed around the moon. And Jared stared up at it, just as Dakota had been when Raith found him.
It was eerily quiet and all Jared could hear was the sound of the trickling creek around him. He sat up slowly still looking up at the moon before down at it's shadow to the wolf on the other side of the creek.
Raith was sitting down, his long tail curled around him as he watched the boy.
"Watch your first step, it's a doozy" The now obsidian black fur wolf grinned with slimy yellow fangs. His eyes shoned in the moonlight.
"Thanks." Jared groaned a bit, rubbing his sore back and getting up. He was thankful he packed mostly cloths in the backpack, it helped cushion his fall. "A little heads up next time would be nice." He glared over at the wolf before sighing and shaking his head knowing Raith would never inform him ahead of time. It'd ruin the fun.
"Where would the fun be in that?" Raith tilted his head to one side, still smiling widely. His eyes glowed in the moonlight and all that could be seen were those smoldering eyes and crooked smile in the tangled mess of black fur on his face.
"It'd be the nice thing to do." Jared rolled his eyes. Trying to explain adequate to Dakota was hard enough, let alone morals. And at least Dakota had wanted to try to follow along. Raith couldn't care less. So the man headed back over to pick up his bike, giving it the once over before moving back, and forgetting all about it.
Sometimes it was better to turn the other cheek when you knew the person would never truly change.
"Besides," Raith shrugged a shoulder. "You needed to get off the bike anyways. The pack gathers in a place that's difficult for humans to get too. And no trail leads to it."
Jared didn't point out how many other ways Raith could have let him know that without having him go head first into a creek. Jared was just lucky he didn't break his neck in the fall. Still he rubbed the side of it as he moved over the creek and to the other side. He slipped a bit on the mossy rocks and steps into a rather deep hole. Raith watched the whole time without blinking once.
Jared couldn't tell if he was enjoying himself, as if he were watching a comedy. Or if he was pitying the human who had difficulty getting to the other side of a creek in the middle of the night. How he shivered from the cold. Or if it was nothing at all.
"Hey," Jared said looking at the dark fur wolf who was looking past him now and at something Jared couldn't see. "You're injured." Jared only now seemed to notice the wound Dakota had inflicted on the smaller wolf. His shoulder was bloody and raw. The shapeshifting seemed to have reopen the wound.
"Oh," Raith looked at his shoulder only now remembering the wound he had received. "It's just a flesh wound." He muttered a bit, looking at it with that blank face he had before. It was unsettling, how empty it was. Devoid of any real emotion as if Raith understood what pain meant but couldn't feel it.
And it was then Jared felt it. Pity for the creature before him.
"Still," Jared said getting angry now and shaking his head and those thoughts away, it wasn't wise to pity something that could slice and dice you into ribbons. This macho routine the wolves seemed to have got old fast and ignoring their wounds only made the matters worse in the long run. "Could get infected. Could get worse. There a lot of stuff that could happen leaving it untreated." Jared set his bike aside and began rummaging in his backpack still grumbling angrily to himself. "You should have said something sooner!"
"I see what Frostbite was talking about now." Raith just frowned at the human now. "You're annoying."
"Yup." Jared grumbled a bit looking through the bag before cursing under his breath. "Fuck, I forgot the bandages. How could I." He shook his head and covering his eyes with a hand. "How could I forget something so simple." Jared sighed, cursing lightly as he looked around aimlessly before spying a pink flower in the water.
Jared jogged over and pulled it out and headed back. "Going to sting a bit." Jared warned as he applied the medication. Raith didn't even flinch as he watched the man. Then frowned as Jared applied a Lily Pad to the wound. "It's not much, but it'll at least help stop the bleeding. Why didn't you say anything before?"
Raith looked at the flower now resting on his shoulder, the green plant molding itself to it as if trying to form itself to him. "I can't feel it." Raith said truthfully, in a soft tone still looking at the flower. He looked over at the man.
"It's worse than it appears." Jared just said not seeing Raith stare at him, or just avoiding those eyes. They seemed to resemble the moon itself, dull empty and mysterious. "It'll take a while to heal up." Unknowingly it was because of the werewolf's, Dakota, saliva that made the wound keep bleeding. Acting like an anticoagulant, the very saliva kept the wound bleeding. And allowing the hunter to track the prey, no matter where they ran too. The smell of blood was a strong enticement to a wolf after all. "How did you get it anyways?" Jared still asked, ignorant to the factor.
"During the fight." Raith just replied in a flat tone. Watching the man put everything back into the bag and pick up the bike once more. "You remind me of her."
"Of who?" Jared asked giving the wolf a look. He didn't like reminding people of woman.
"Nothing," Raith just replied getting up. "It's nothing more than a dream now." He spoke softly as he headed deeper into the forest. "Keep up. You don't want to get lost out here. We'll move around, from where the wind is blowing so our scent doesn't alert them to our presence."
"Why does Dakota need me anyways?" Jared asked yet again trying to figure out why he was being led into the middle of nowhere. Normally he'd have waited for Frostbite but there was an unknown number of wolves out this night. He wasn't sure where they'd come dropping down from again and at least this way he had his own personally killing machine to watch his back.
If Raith hadn't been there, the wolf on the house would have easily killed him. Jared shuddered at the thought and tried not to let it show.
"They didn't call themselves the Blood Moon clan, you know." Raith said began, as if telling a child around a campfire a scary story. "The clan, the pack Dakota belongs too. They were a proud, dangerous and most feared out of all the clans. They are the monsters you tell to scare children into behaving, the things that go bump in the night, those that hide under the bed and what sends chills down your spine.
"Blood hunters. Beasts that thrive in the gore they inflict on their victims. Letting them bleed out before finishing them off. Monsters that most would rather ran from than even think about attempting to fight. Mindless brutes."
As he spoke the temperature began to plummet once more, a thick fog having fallen on the forest making it nearly impossible to see even within the bright moonlight above. Jared ended up holding onto Raith's tail (that had wrapped around his wrist) as he was led deeper into the forest, already knowing this was a bad idea. He couldn't just turn around and head back yet and hoped that Frostbite would catch up. The tail at least allowed him to know where Raith was but at the same time seemed to act like a handcuff, keeping Jared from running if he had the nerve too.
"Ok." Jared just replied as Raith took a moment, pausing in his story. The wolf took a moment before taking a sharp left and then continuing.
"One night, under the blood moon, the clan turned on itself. For unknown reasons, every member seemed to have gone mad with bloodlust, lost in a craze, they ripped each other apart. All throughout the night horrible howls filled the air. Until everything went silent and someone dared to go investigate. And under the blood moon, they found a graveyard of blood."
Jared swallowed loudly in the silence that had fallen. He shivered at the cold of the world.
"So you need me too..." Jared began but was shushed.
"Quiet, we can't let them hear us coming." And with that the two trudged along in silence.
Elsewhere, deeper within the forest and back at where the pack had gathered, Dakota was just reaching the clearing. His fur clung to his thick form, outlining the muscles on his arms and chest, as he was drenched in the horrible stench of blood. Every wolf that had remained behind smelled him before he even entered the clearing. It was only fear that kept them from running away.
Sylvan was in the middle of an argument with the Alpha before that scent hit them, coming up from the South where the wind blew towards. "You can't send them to their deaths!" She shouted at the Alpha, baring her fangs and standing in front of her sister's children. Using her own body to keep them from the Alpha, their father. Those behind her coward away; each looking more like Sylvan, brown fur, than their white fur wolf in front of them.
"They are part of this pack!" The Alpha snarled at her. "They must serve like everyone else. We cannot give them special privilege just because of their birth."
"You send them to their deaths!" Sylvan just said again, louder. She looked around, trying to find some sort of support from the rest of the pack. Her face fell seeing that only a few strays were left, her and her sister's children. The only one that could possibly help was the Alpha himself. Until Dakota joined them.
"Alpha," Dakota spoke loudly as he moved forward on all fours still in his were-form. His heavy upper body made it easy to crawl on all fours however. "I have returned." He smiled at that. "You didn't need to send a party to greet me." And he chuckled lifting an arm up. Blood dripped down his fur to stain the grass below. "They were a nice appetizer before the meal."
"Monster." The Alpha just stared at him, sickened to see the wolf covered in the blood of his own pack. His legs shook, if only for a second, before he stood tall and walked forward to face this threat to the pack, to him. "I should have left you for dead when I found you!" The Alpha bared his teeth, hackles raising high up he accepted the challenge. His white fur shining in the moonlight. "I took pity on you! And this is how you return my kindness? By starting your own pack and coming back for my head?"
Dakota lifted an eyebrow at that, before tossing his head back and laughing loudly for all to hear. "My own pack? I barely belong to yours! Nothing more than an outcast that did your dirty work that you were too afraid too." And Dakota sneered, his face falling into something of disgust. "Why the hell would I bother forming my own pack? When I could just eat yours." And a dark chuckle sounded from his chest.
"You sent the others to stop him because of this?" Sylvan just stared at the Alpha in disbelief. "He wasn't even trying to start his own pack! He is just a Fang. And you sent..." She shuddering, pulling back and looking away, unable to face Dakota. The sight of him, knowing the fate of her sister's pack made her sick. "So many... So many..." And her teeth clenched tightly as she glared up at the Alpha. "Just like before!" Her voice cracked as a growl sounded deep within her chest. "You sent the others back then to stop the threat. To kill the hunters that came for us. And because of that-,"
The Alpha didn't take his eyes off Dakota as he replied sharply cutting her off. "It was for the good of the pack." He growled back at her. "Everything I've done. I've done for the pack!"
"No," Sylvan replied coldly. "Everything you've done was for yourself."
The Alpha turned on her at that, planning on snapping his teeth at her for such treachery. For speaking at him out of turn, talking out of her place from the pack. Just as her sister had back in the day. The movement made Dakota do just that at the Alpha, his teeth missing by only a whisker as they came clamping down. The Alpha spun back around, moving back and nearly tripping over his own left leg in the hurried rush.
Dakota watched that, the odd movement and looked at the Alpha. The large white wolf turned his head back towards him, focusing his right eye on him.
In tradition fashion, the two began circling one another. Keeping a fair distance between each other as they sized the other up. The Alpha was just as large as Dakota was but the way his fur clung to his muscles, to his form, drecnhed in blood... somehow made Dakota appear larger, huge in fact. And that fear alone made the Alpha take a half step back, the first to break the circle they had been forming.
Once that was done, Dakota had the opportunity, the right, to take the first strike. He was enjoying himself to attempt anything that would leave an actual wound, and just ended up snapping his teeth in the Alpha's face.
Teeth, fangs and muzzles flew as the two snapping at each other. Their teeth only meeting empty air as they twisted and spun their heads back and forth so quickly that they were nothing more than a blur of red and white in the night air. And just as quickly as it happened, the two distance themselves once more.
It was testing the waters, as it were. To see just how fast, how strong the other wolf was. Every movement they made, every step they took, every breath they inhaled. It told the other all they needed to know about their strength. Their weaknesses. And who of the two stood a chance of winning this duel.
Like many previous challenge for Alpha-ship, it was pride that kept the weaker wolf from backing down and giving up the mantel of Alpha or giving up trying to take it. Pride had led more than one wolf to their deaths. And it was why the Alpha still stood his ground, moving his left side away from Dakota once more.
And then Dakota laughed. It was a soft sound that rolled out of him like a choking bark. And one of pure amusement and mockery.
"So that's the problem?" Dakota just smiled widely showing off each one of his bloody fangs. "You're fear is justified." And he narrowed his eyes looking at the Alpha. "Someone indeed would have challenged you for rights of the pack. But it wouldn't be me."
The Alpha took another step back, ears folding back and crouching down into a defensive position.
"You're going blind, aren't you?" Dakota said and that made the Alpha widen his eyes, staring at the other wolf now. "And that slow, creeping illness began to make you paranoid. Fearful that one of the younger members would challenge you and in your... condition, you wouldn't stand much of a chance." Dakota sniffed at the air, looking from one side. Then to the other. Daring, mocking the Alpha but taking his eyes off him if only for a second. "And I don't see your loyal lapdog here now to defend you."
"Grimjaw." Sylvan said catching on. Her eyes widen too as her face fell. "Oh Mother Moon, why?" She cursed now glaring at the Alpha, trying to hold back her tears. "Were you afraid Grimjaw would challenge you? He was the most loyal in the pack! He would never have done such a thing."
"In fact," Dakota was pleased to add seeing the discomfort of the Alpha as he looked back and forth between them now. "Grimjaw was the only reason why no one else dared to challenge you. So fearful that Grimjaw himself would challenge you, that you sent Grimjaw, the one wolf that was protecting you, to his death. To face the hunters by himself. Even a wolf of his caliber didn't stand much of a chance."
"H-he planned to turn on the pack!" The Alpha stammered out looking back at Sylvan, then his eyes went to those behind her. Pleading, trying to convince them of his own fears. Those behind Sylvan were large wolves, growing into their adult years. Those that would eventually grow bold enough, strong enough to challenge him as well. Those who had the back bone, the spirit to face him.
Just like their mother had.
It wouldn't work, not at first. A younger member challenge the Alpha? But it only needed to take one, even in failure, before more would pop up to challenge him for the rights of the mantel of Alpha. And from there it would only go down hill, snowballing into something even the Great White Wolf of the north couldn't face.
The Alpha shook in rage now turning back towards Dakota. "That stupid human," he muttered darkly facing the wolf now. Dakota's ears dropped back as he heard his words. "It's all that damn humans fault! Once I've dealt with you, I'll make him suffer. Suffer for putting such thoughts into my mindless tool's head!" And he laughed seeing the look on Dakota's face, misreading it. "That's right. I took you in as a pup because I knew I could use you. A killing machine directed at any that opposed me."
"Like the Tundra Hunters." Sylvan growled once more, referring to Frostbite's pack.
Dakota eye twitched at that, his muzzle opening slowly and thick tendrils of bloody drool falling out of his mouth. His breath was ragged, his clawed fingers and toes beginning to rip into the ground.
"Shut up." Dakota warned, shaking now. He could care less. Care less about this whole damn pack! To rip them apart, to bathe in their blood? None of it mattered in the end. But once the Alpha brought up his human, thing's got personal.
"That fucking human! It's always those humans fault!" The Alapha just snarled, howling in a maddening rage. "They won't leave us be, and so I'll kill them. Every last one of them." And the Alpha wasn't looking at Dakota, even though he was facing him. The Alpha now was staring off at something else. "Every last one of them. And your human." He smiled now, eyes focusing back on Dakota. Milky clear eyes that were beginning to fade into darkness, like a candle's flame flickering out on the last inch of wick left. "That human of yours,"
"Shut up." Dakota shook more now as that hungry bloodlust crept back into his throat and into his mind.
"I'll toy with him at first. Peel the skin from his bones, rip his finger nails out and use his entrails to floss my teeth." Something snapped inside Dakota's head and everything went blank, empty and silent. "His bones will be fun to chew on, while still attached." And the Alpha laughed at that missing the empty look that fell over Dakota. "Oh his screams! They'll be music to my ears. I'll strangle every last. Single. Note. Of them out of his neck."
There was silence in the air. Everything was silent, still and quiet as far as Dakota was concerned. Then there was fire. Burning hot, molten led that ran through his veins and burned in his eyes as his bottom jaw cracked and bent, extending forward like a bad underbite. His fangs jutted up and out, crooked and bent. His shoulders filled out, arms increasing in mass as the very fur on his back stuck out at all angles as his very hide seemed to rip open like Bruce Banner's shirt. Only for a new, thicker hide to form from underneath.
And he rose, taller than the Alpha who looked nothing more than a child in comparison, and panted loudly in the night air.
The Alpha moved back, looking up at him now, jaw dropping open. And cried out as Dakota came down on him like a pile of bricks.
It wasn't a fight. I fight implies that both parties have an equal chance of winning. This was just a brutal beating. Something inside Dakota's head told him not to use his claws or teeth, all he needed to do was wail on him with closed fist, pummeling the once great white wolf into the ground.
And it was slow. Dakota taking his sweet time with every hit. Cracking his jaw open with the back of his hand, knocking the once great white wolf to his side. Giving him a kick as he fell onto the ground, grabbing his leg with one hand and slowly dragging him back to the center of the clearing where the rock was jutting up from the very earth.
Spinning around and throwing his body against the side of the rock and was rewarded with the sound of several ribs crack, snapple and popping.
And once more the Alpha laid on the rock, over looking all the pack. His dying eyes flickered and went black for a second and he could almost see them. All the pack that he had lost, surrounding the rock and looking up at him with empty died eyes he had brought on them. Just like his own.
The Alpha yelped loudly, clawing at the rock as one of his now broken hind legs was grabbed and slowly dragged down by the brutish monstrosity that had once been Dakota. The Mr. Hyde to Dakota Dr. Jekyll, the monster just dragged the wolf down.
"Idiots!" The Alpha howled at the others. "He'll kill us all! Do something! Anything! Mercy, please!" He begged, groveling now looking like an old, dying wolf than the once proud Alpha he had been before.
Despite her own feelings for the Alpha, Sylvan moved quickly to stand between him and Dakota.
"You won!" She called to Dakota. "You won. It's over. He's done for. It's over-,"
And before she could say another word, Dakota swatted her out of his way with the back of his hand. She was sent flying towards the side, rolling over herself on the ground. With sunken eyes, Dakota turned away from the pest that had gotten into his way and back to the thing that needed to die.
The Alpha fur looked mangy now, clinging to his body and sagging at his sides as he lay on his side. One of his back leg's broken, ribs cracked and bleeding from his muzzle and ears from when his head had smacked against the side of his rock throne.
A howl filled the air and the pack that had banded behind Sylvan, charged forward. Doing as they practice in their hunts, and circling the massive monster that was Dakota. Each of the wolves took turns snapping, biting at him to draw Dakota's attention for one of their brothers or sister to get behind him. And soon enough three of them pounced, leaping into the air and onto Dakota's back and sides.
Dakota spun around, snagging one of them around the neck with his hand and threw her aside with enough force to dent the ground where the wolf's body hit.
Teeth and claws sunk into Dakota's thick hide. And with that he howled. His voice ripping the air in two that shook every wolf's body within the clearing. Fear gripped them, freezing them where they stood and made their limbs feel weak, wobbly as if they had been hit by a rather powerful tranquilizer.
And in that instant Dakota rose to his hind feet, wolves still on his back, and then fell backwards. Crushing them under his massive weight. The earth shook from the impact and several of the wolves lost their foot.
One unlucky wolf got too close, and Dakota's jaws snapped shut around his front leg and shoulder ripping it's whole leg clean off. He howled in pain as Dakota chewed his arm like bubble wrap.
The wolf moved back, his sister pushing him further away. He was convulsing, blood running from his wound. "It won't stop!" He howled staring down, pale in the face as his body continued to bleed. His abnormal regenerative werewolf blood holding nothing against Dakota's saliva, that ate away from the inside out. "Make it stop!" He begged his sister before his eyes went wide, facade... and then his head went limp, his side still trickling blood.
The rest of the pack had already circled Dakota, blocking every side so he couldn't escape. Not that the Blood Moon wolf had any thought too.
"Ok, here you are." Raith said stopping before the clearing. He turned back towards the boy, giving him another yellow tooth smile. Jared was shaking from head to toe at the sound of that horrible sound, that howl that seemed to have ripped the very sky in in two. "Go find Dakota now."
And even before Jared had got the chance too Raith pulled him forward with his tail as if it were a hand and tossed the boy forward into the clearing.
"Too bad," Raith mused as he disappeared back into the trees. "I was beginning to like you too. I think." And he chuckled at that. "Distract him long enough for me, boy. While I finish the work I started."
Jared landed hard on the ground, coughing grass and mud out of his mouth before looking up. And every drop of blood drained from his face as he stared at what he could only call...
"A monster."
Every since Jared had met them, these strange wolves that posed as men, he had never once truly thought of them as that. A monster. Until now.
A dozen plus wolves were circling around one massive one that had to be over ten feet, even crouched over. That's fur was soaked with blood that only got worse as it swung one arm far faster than something it's size should've been able too.
Dakota's fingers opened, claws fanning out as he swiped his hand. And like a fry press, sliced the closest wolf into strips of it's former self. Blood gushed out of each wound like a fountain and watered the grass around them. And it laughed, Dakota laughed into delight as it turned towards the next one.
The fear, the very smell of it, attracted one of the far wolves towards Jared. Nothing more than a mindless animal, a feral creature, it ran at him. And Jared screamed at that, trying to move back and only ended up tripping over his own frozen legs. And the wolf was in front of him.
Then a shadow fell over the two, blocking out the full moon large above. The wolf hesitated, turning around slowly before looking up at the crimson fur wolf that drooled above him.
Dakota, literally, stepped on the wolf, crushing him beneath his weight as his snout bent down, still fresh blood on the front and sides of it. And gave Jared a sniff.
"Holy shit," Jared muttered looking into it's face. "D-Dakota?" He stammered. And he knew why Raith had brought him here, as bait to distract the massive wolf.
On the other side of the clearing, the farthest away from Dakota, the Alpha managed to crawl out and into the tree's. Limping, he moved further into the forest planning his escape.
"Bastards." He cursed, growling and cursing more as he tasted blood in his muzzle. "After everything I've done for them! This is how they repay."
"As I recall," a voice chimed behind him. The Alpha spun around quickly before relaxing, seeing the pale fur wolf, Raith, step into view.
"Raith!" The Alpha panted happily. "The others! They have turned on me, on us." He looked away. "We need to make our escape. Start new. Start fresh. A bigger, better pack. One that can come back and crush these miserable fools."
"Why don't you just usurp this pack?" Raith offered, lightly, raising up one of his front paws. "Like you did before." And he smiled as the Alpha turned to face him. "Oh! Right. Right. When you did that, you still didn't do the dirty work."
"Raith, what are you babbling about." The Alpha narrowed his eyes, sniffing at the wolf now, confused.
"Wolfs-bane, I believe it was." Raith said loudly and the Alpha face fell once more.
"How did... when did... what are you talking about?" The Alpha stammered quickly.
"You're father I believe it was, no?" Raith tilted his head to one side as if waiting for an answer. His smile only widened at the look on the Alpha's face. "Oh, that's right. You had me put Wolfs-bane into his meal before you challenged him for Alpha-ship.
"The Tundra Hunters weren't fooled however." Raith went on, standing up and just as Dakota had done, began circling the Alpha. "They suspected, the smelled foul play. They wouldn't fall into line like the others. So you had to get rid of them." And Raith rolled his head back with a laugh. "Brilliant really. Poison the father, usurp the pack and then with your ruthless, mindless killing machine wipe out the clan that even suspected anything."
"Raith, what is the meaning of this." The Alpha asked watching the wolf move around him. The Alpha had to turn his head to the other side and froze when the wolf had all but disappeared and on the ground was a bloody, damp water leaf. A lily pad.
"Why her?" Raith asked looked down on the Alpha now from where he hid from view. "All the wolves and you chose her to be your mate. Why." He asked once more, this time waiting for a reply.
"S-she was the strongest, the best suited for breeding." The Alpha explained.
"Nonsense, Sylvan would've made a far finer choice." And Raith just continued to stare at him. "You thought if you could control a free spirit like Lily, you could control the rest of the pack. Break her and the whole pack could be broken, bent to your whim."
The Alpha gritted his teeth, wincing at the pain in his side. His wounds had already begun to heal. "We don't have time for this."
"Oh, but we do." Raith said dropping down right in front of him. Raith was looking down and the Alpha couldn't see his face, until the pale fur wolf looked up. And the Alpha's eyes widened, yelping and pulling back.
"L-lily pad?" He gasped, shuddering at seeing her face on Raith's body.
"Why did you send me to die?" She asked, taking a step closer.
"It was an accident, a misunderstanding!" The alpha rushed, trying to explain himself to this dead spirit that had plagued his nightmares and dreams.
Raith lifted up his hand, covering Lily Pad's face and when he pulled it down a new mask was there, that of a grizzled looking veteran of a wolf. "And me?" Grimjaw asked. "What of me? Was I not loyal enough? Devoted enough to your cause?" And Raith pulled the face back up to reveal...
Nothing.
It was as if someone had pulled the wolf's face off, as if it were a mask, and all that was left was a blank, empty, black space of nothing.
"It was easy." The creature spoke with a monotone voice. "Once I found the one known as Raith, assuming his identity. Slipping into the pack. All too easy." It spoke, taking a seat. It's body was that of a wolf but it's face, the lack of one, made the Alpha just stare. "The best way to bring down a pack is from the inside.
"So you were right." It said just facing forward. "To be afraid of the pack, for the very thing hunting you was your own shadow."
"T-the hell are you." The Alpha stammered now.
"I have no name." It only answered.
"What are you?" The Alpha was moving back, trying to distant himself from it as far as it could.
"I am that which casts no shadow." It only replied. "The thing that haunts your nightmares." And the thing lifted up a hand, before pulling it down over it's blank face. And white fur sprouted, ears flopping up and eyes staring forward as the Alpha faced... himself.
And in his fear, the Alpha never saw the tail drop down from the tree's. And like a black python, it wrapped itself around his neck pulling him up off his front paws.
"I call this technique the Hangman's Gullitine." The creature said with the Alpha's own voice, tail wrapped around the alpha throat, lifted up like a noose. "Let's play a game. If you win? I'll let you go. If you lose? I'll eat your face." And it smiled widely.
The Alpha was choking, clawing at the tail. Instead of meeting fur and flesh with his nails, instead he met metal as if there was a hidden blade underneath that tail.
"I am what's known as a true, shapeshifter. My body, my appearance and even what I am. I can change." And then smoke began to rise as that metal bit into the Alpha's neck. "Even turning my body into silver."
The Alpha tapped several times on that tail.
"Answer one question, a riddle really." The creature spoke now in that monotone, dry voice. "Answer and I will let you go." The Alpha could only choke in reply. "Tell me. What is my name?"
Back in the clearing Dakota was staring with a blank, empty look in his own eyes at the man in front of him. That voice sounded familiar, the scent was familiar like an old cherish memory. But the wolf couldn't think, didn't want too. He was in too much bliss slaughtering this pack. Ripping them apart and tasting the warmth of their blood.
"Dakota," Jared said once more looking into his face. He didn't dare move as that massive snout hovered before his face. And he found his hand touching it, his cheek and felt that warmth of blood on his palm.
His fur was coarse, rough against his fingers. And in the moonlight it looked crimson black, like dried blood.
"It's me Jared," the man went on to say seeing some reaction, if anything, from just hearing the sound of his voice. Whatever it took to delay the inevitable. "Dakota," he said his name once more as if to tell the thing in front of him what he was. "You promised you wouldn't hurt me." Jared said, wondering why such an arrant thought was returning now. "It's me. Your buddy, your friend. Your roomie. Your pal. Please," Jared found himself with tears in his eyes now as he spoke to this thing.
It wasn't Dakota any longer. It was some mindless brute, a beast, a monster that had taken him over.
"Please," Jared begged now, hot tears running down his face. And he hugged that large muzzle against his chest and body, pushing his cheek on the top of it, clenching his eyes shut and waiting for it to rip him apart. "Please, come back to me."
For a second, Dakota's ears twitched and eyes seemed to regain some thought. And then a hot, slimy wetness touched Jared's injured hand, where he had cut it while he was imprisoned by the hunters.
His hand hurt, his injured palm tingled and as he withdrew to look at it he found that the wound, a rather nasty cut he had just wrapped with a bandage... was gone. The flesh was tender, soft to the tuch but the wound, the cut was gone.
Dakota nudged his head against him, as if in an awkward attempt to nuzzle him. It knocked the man over.
And Jared saw another issue that hadn't, even for a second, crossed his mind. And it was hanging between Dakota's naked legs.
Dakota crawled ontop of the human, mounting him from the front and began grinding, humping down against him.
In a mindless, animal state where only instincts ruled. Dakota saw him as just that, a mate. Something that was his, owned and possessed only by him. And a mate was to be mated with. And so in the clearing, the massive wolf humped the human's body under the full moonlight.
The heat, the musk and that sticky warmth oozing over his front alone made Jared shudder, shivered and recoil from the large male on all fours above him. Dakota was just grinding his full, erected member against Jared's body and basking in the feel of it, his mate, without another care in the whole entire world.
What was left of the pack kept their distance, leaving the odd couple alone and retreating away. Looking for their Aunt who had seemed to have abandoned them as well...
The Alpha's head rolled onto the ground, severed clean off his shoulders and stared blankly forward with cloudy eyes.
"Wrong answer," Raith said looking as he had before in a mock-wolf form that resembled something between a cat and a fox rather than a wolf. "Ah, sister." He said just in time turning to face Syvlan who had tracked them down. "I was hoping I could delay our reunion until later." Raith smiled sweetly at her. "You really are the best tracker within the pack, it seems."
Sylvan was looking at the body of the Alpha, dead and beheaded. Then turned to face Raith. "You..." She said in no more than a whisper.
And Raith smiled.
"I always knew." She went on to say. "Something was off about you when you returned to the pack. And I always feared that you had-,"
"Led the hunters to the pack?" Raith asked now, blinking his eyes a few times. "Well, yeah. That was me. Or the one who started the fire in the forest? Or how about the one who tracked down and killed the Alpha's real shadow, the wolf named Raith." And he smiled widely at her. "Dear sister, dear sister." He began to taunt but was silenced with a single name.
"Lily Pad." Sylvan began. Raith frowned at her now. "She knew too." Sylvan whispered. "She always knew you weren't the Raith that had belonged to the pack. An unknown element, a dangerous one! And that only seemed to excite my foolish sister." She took a moment before looking up at him. "Tell and I'll tell you." She said and Raith knew what she meant.
"You're pack," he explained why he did what he did. "Grew too big. Too arrogant. Drew too much notice. The Black Court wasn't ready to reveal their hand yet, and yet you stupid lot." He snarled now. "Went and got the hunters mad." And he stood up. "This is why I hate werewolves! Such arrogant bastards that only think of their own, until the very end." And with his tail he punctured the Alpha's head and flung it to the side. "Pitiful, arrogant, prideful beasts!" He glared now, back at her. "Every one of you..."
Sylvan just looked at him, not understanding every word he said but nodded. And said, as she turned to leave. "Lily Pad did love you." And with that began to walk away. "Even in the end, when she knew what you were." And that was the last thing Sylvan said to the monster dressed like Raith.
Raith stopped at that. Looking up at the moon above them. How bright it was, how it seemed forced every tree, bush, creature alive on this planet to cast a shadow. And as he stood up to leave; only he did not cast a shadow as he vanished into the night.