Woven Fates: Crimson and Silver

By Jesus Arredondo

For years weve scurried about in the underworlds of society. We hid in plain sight, avoiding confl ict with the Human race. Weve always had a set of rules, guidelines to keep our kind safe. But they are broken, futile rules. No one obeys them, no one cares for them, and we just go through the motions. Like a loveless marriage we just stay out of each others way, let the others do as they wish as long as they dont mess with us. Well, those were the good ole days. Someone decided to break the uneasy balance between our species and the Humans; this
is now boiling down to a critical point. Its us or them, kill or be killed, unless

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456881634

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Copyright © 2011 by Jesús Arredondo.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011903567

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4568-8162-7

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4568-8161-0

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4568-8163-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Wolves Bane

Chapter 2: Meet The Pack

Chapter 3: An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Chapter 4: The Battle Of Vingard

Chapter 5: Sorrow

Chapter 6: Revelations

Chapter 7: Blackwood

Chapter 8: Sins Of A Father

Chapter 9: Shut Up And Trust Me

Chapter 10: Crazy Monkey

Chapter 11: Enter Luscious

Chapter 12: Welcome To Boot Camp

Chapter 13: Taking Out Trip Outs

Chapter 14: Battle Of Constanta

Chapter 15: Battle Of Satu Mare

Chapter 16: Battle Of Cluj-Napoca

Chapter 17: The Battle Of Daia

Chapter 18: Leave It To Izi

Chapter 19: Werewolves Of London

Chapter 20: Diplomacy

Chapter 21: Deep Breath Before The Plunge

Chapter 22: Dark Spot In The World

Chapter 23: The Battle Of Fresno

Chapter 24: One Giant Pack

Chapter 25: Funeral Bells

CHAPTER 1

Wolves Bane

The date is August tenth, two thousand-twenty. It is midnight in Daia, Romania. A woman is running through dark alleys. She’s average height. She’s in her mid-twenties, has brown eyes, long brown hair and is wearing a black shirt and black pants. She trips and falls on her hands, turning to look behind her, she sees the gleaming full moon. She quickly jumps up and continues to run. Her heart’s pumping, she grows tired. With what’s left of air in her lungs she cries, Help!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!

She runs out of the alley and into a neighborhood. She looks around franticly, seeing that all the windows have bars across them, and all the doors are shining in the light. She notices that all the houses are painted a crimson red.

The woman runs up to a house and bangs on the door, FOR GOD’S SAKE HELP ME!! IT’S GOING TO KILL ME!!

A voice comes from behind the door, Go away stranger! If it kills you, MAYBE it will spare us later. You shouldn’t have come to this land in the first place.

Giving up, she runs to another house. Again banging on the door she yells, Please . . . PLEASE!! HELP ME!! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, OPEN THE DOOR!!

A soft, gentle, woman’s voice comes from behind the door, I want to help you dear, I really, truly do . . . but if I help you . . . it will kill us next. The woman starts to cry, I have six children . . . the two eldest were taken from me already by that thing because they helped the last stranger . . . run . . . run until you cannot run anymore . . .

Suddenly, a man’s voice comes through, Let her in Maria!! She doesn’t know of this curse! She shouldn’t have to die!

The woman’s voice comes over again, You saw what it does to those of us that help people!! We have to live on to feed our children!! And what’s worse, what if it decides to eat the children too!!

The man’s voice breaks up, Ok . . . you are right Maria . . . RUN WOMAN!! RUN TO THE OLD MONASTERY AND PRAY THAT THE HUNTER HAS RETURNED!!

The woman, knowing that neither the man nor much less the woman are going to open the door she runs to another house.

Again, she bangs and yells, OPEN UP!! PLEASE!! I’LL PAY YOU; I SWEAR I’LL PAY YOU!!!

An old voice comes from behind the door. It is one of a man, in his nineties, I’m an old man, one who has no fear of that beast . . . but my grandson, the beast knows I don’t fear it . . . but he will hurt me by killing my grandson! RUN TO THE OLD MONASTERY YOUNG LADY!!! The hunter IS back . . . HE WILL SAVE YOU!! RUN TO THE OLD MONASTERY!!

The woman hears a noise behind her in the alley she came from. There stands a giant beast, nine feet tall, its white fur blowing wildly in the wind, blood dripping from its claws and fangs. The beast growls, almost smiling, it jumps at the woman.

From behind the woman, a truck speeds towards the beast. It hits the beast while it is in midair, knocking it away from the woman. A small statured man jumps out of the truck. He is about twenty-five, has brown hair, is clean shaven and has blue eyes. He has on a denim jacket and blue jeans. His baseball cap is on straight and reads The Wolves. The man pulls out a gun and shoots the beast nine times. The man looks at the woman, RUN!! I’m not going to hold it off forever!

The woman looks around franticly, and frustrated she asks, Where do I run to? No one will let me in!

The man reloads and shoots the beast again, Go to the old monk monastery. There is rumored to be an old monster hunter there. He will save you!!

The woman turns to the man and gently says, Thank you. She then turns and runs away, seeing the old monastery in the distance she heads there.

The man, however, is attacked by the beast. The monster grabs the man by the neck and holds him high. Growling it brings the man closer to its face.

The man looks at the beast. Smiling he says, You’re out of luck, mate. He’s back . . . Michael is back.

The beast growls again as the man’s eyes turn completely white. As the man sprouts fur the beast throws him into the truck.

The beast then starts to run after the woman again. It then hops into the air and transitions from a bipedal to a quadra pedal.

From the truck the man, now a beast emerges. He runs and catches up with the white beast. The once man is now a nine foot, brown furred beast. Both beasts fight for what seem hours until the white beast finally throws the brown beast back into the truck.

The woman is finally in the monastery courtyard when she is cut off by the white beast. The woman hopelessly backs into a corner. From the top of the monastery the woman hears a loud growl. She looks up to see another beast, this one with yellow eyes and black fur. Giving up she huddles into the fetal position.

Suddenly she hears a loud tearing noise. When she notices that she isn’t being bitten yet, she looks up and sees the white beast torn to shreds. She looks around but can’t find the black beast anywhere, for some reason it had spared her.

The woman however is skeptical. She leans over and picks up a steel bar lying on the ground. Suddenly she hears heavy breathing behind her. She freezes and starts to shake. Turning slowly she sees the black, yellow eyed beast. She swings the bar as hard and fast as she can, but the beast is faster. It catches the bar in its hand and yanks it away from the woman. It then slaps her as softly as it can. The woman however falls to the ground unconscious.

The woman’s eyes open up slowly. She then jumps at the sight of the man that tried to save her earlier, standing over her.

She gets onto her feet and struggles to regain her balance, Who . . . What . . . why . . . are you . . . I’m not . . .

The woman looks back at the shredded body of the beast. She jumps and tries to run away, but the man catches her.

Holding her tight he says, STOP!! Stop. I know, you have three questions: Is it completely dead, who or what was the black, yellow eyed . . . thing, and is this a dream? Am I right?

The woman picks up the rod again and holds it up to the man, separating him from her, Alright, Mr. I’ve got all the answers . . . start answering.

The man smiles, That thing in pieces over there . . . it’s dead. It isn’t going to jump up at us or anything. The yellow eyed, black beast . . . he’s THE hunter I was talking about. The villagers know him as Silver Fangs . . . because he has silver fangs, I know ridicules, but he likes the name. He isn’t dangerous . . . to humans. And before you ask, yes . . . he is the same thing that that thing over there in shreds once was. It’s a long story, but to finally answer your third question . . . yes, you are dreaming.

The man quickly punches the woman in the face and knocks her out; as she falls the man catches her in his arms.

The woman opens her eyes. She is back in the bar where she was before she was chased by the beast. The woman looks around; she sees she has been placed on the pool table and that the bar is empty but the lights are on everywhere.

From the shadows, the bartender emerges. The woman jumps at the sight of him, Who are you?

The bartender smiles, Relax dear . . . it’s only me, the barkeep. That Lauren really got you good, huh?

The woman looks over to see a man in a black suit with an apron on. He is about six feet tall, and has black hair. The man’s young, he’s about twenty-five. He’s full of muscles, his honey colored eyes seem to be glowing in the dark and his face is clean of facial hair.

She then looks at the floor, looking for something. Then she looks back to the bartender, Wait, wait, wait . . . I zapped that woman! She punched me and I took out my taser and zapped her! She fell here . . . and busted her head open?

The woman doesn’t see any blood; she takes out her taser and sees that it is still at full battery. Confused she tries to make sense of things, Hold on . . . I KNOW I zapped her because she assaulted an FBI agent. I was going to take her to jail when I heard a noise outside . . . that’s when I walked out to see what it was . . . and I was attacked by . . . a werewolf!

The bartender laughs, A werewolf? My dear, you have been seeing to many wolf man movies.

The woman shakes her head, No way was that a dream! Look! I have scratches from where I fell on the ground; my hands are all cut up too!

The bartender smiles, Lady . . . you had one to many. When Lauren whacked you, you fell to the floor, hands first. On the way down you scratched up your arms, also when we picked you up to place you on the table, you put up one hell of a fight, we might have scratched you trying to keep you still. You don’t have to worry about Lauren, she won’t bother you anymore . . . she only thought that you were going to take her turf, she was actually threatened by you. When I told her you were FBI she split.

The woman looks over at the shadows and sees a woman in her early twenties, she’s Anglo and has red hair, and she’s average height. Her blue jeans and white shirt are all the FBI agent can see. Then as she gets closer, she sees the green eyes and then her face is revealed, it’s Lauren. The FBI agent turns to the bartender and asks, Why am I not convinced that she’s not going to be trouble?

The bartender looks over and sees Lauren. His eyes widen as he sees her dripping blood, Lauren! What . . . what happened!?

Lauren tries to smile, and falls to the floor. The bartender bends over and picks her up. He walks over to a pool table and lays her there.

Lauren grabs the bartender by the collar and pulls him close, Jimmy . . . Jimmy . . . he’s . . . in trouble . . . Michael, help Jimmy . . . they’re too strong. They . . . they beat me like child’s play . . . Jimmy’s still out there . . . there’s about five of them . . . all white . . . help . . . help Jimmy.

Michael, the bartender, turns Lauren over. On her back are claw marks and huge bites. She has blood around her mouth, but it isn’t hers. She also has one of her fingers cut off, but years of FBI work tells the woman it wasn’t cut off, but rather bitten off.

The woman looks over at Michael, I’m an FBI agent, but I’m sure you already know that. About a year ago an FBI agent went missing, her name was Clarabella Villalobos. We sent more agents to look for her but they always came back to us . . . well, looking like this. The agency called off the search and presumed her dead. I’m here because about two months ago we got pictures, LOTS of pictures of her fine and dandy.

Michael looks over at the woman, You’re Isabella, aren’t you? You’re Clarabella’s sister, TWIN SISTER.

Isabella, the FBI agent, nods, Yes. This woman needs help. She’s dying, the other agents had the same markings, and they were dead almost immediately after this . . .

Michael smiles, This will not kill Lauren. She’s far tougher than this. She has been through worse; this . . . she’ll live through this. It’s Clarabella that I’m interested in. She disappeared about two months ago . . . didn’t even leave a trace. It’s like she turned to dust.

Isabella looks at Michael with cold, dreadful, piercing eyes, You knew my sister?

Michael nods, Yes . . . she was one of my lieutenants. I left her and her team in charge of protecting my territory in Vingard . . . when I checked up on her; I found most of the men dead and Clarabella missing. Look . . . I’ve got to go, one of my right hand men is in danger right now . . . take care of Isabella, Lauren!

Isabella looks confused. She turns around to see Lauren standing up. Lauren smiles at her, Hi dear . . . look I’m sorry I punched you earlier, it was the only way to make sure you weren’t one.

Isabella still looks confused, How are you? WHAT are you? I’ve never seen anything heal so fast.

Lauren walks up to Isabella, I’m a Lycanthrope. You know, Shewolf, a Werewolf. Don’t you ever see any movies? Some of them are more realistic than others . . .

Isabella shakes her head, No freeken way, man! You were half dead when you got here! How is this possible!?

Lauren nods, I know, normally I would have died, but good old Michael lathered some of this magic goo on my wounds. It’s not really magic . . . it’s an ointment that works really well on us . . . Lycans, it heals us fast. It’s called Wolves Bane. It’s the juice from a crushed flower, when applied to Werewolves it works ten times faster than our regular healing ability. See . . . only scars, no open wounds!

A deep voice comes from the back of the bar, That can be changed. I can leave you some pretty nasty wounds if you like. Hmmm, Lauren. You are more attractive than the last time I saw you. What do you say? Stick with me and I’ll make you forget about Rick and his chivalrous ways. Come on . . . you know you want some of me, I remember the way we used to do it, butt naked by the river. Hmm? Remember how you used to moan and scream? How we used to look at each other? What ever happened between us?

Lauren’s eyes become white, First of all, you’re delusional. We never had sex once. Second of all, you joined Byron’s side, Luke. You betrayed Michael, and all of us!

Luke, the voice from the shadows, walks into the light. He stands around five feet six inches. He has short brown hair. He has three scars, one on his right cheek, a second on his lip and the third one across his forehead. Betrayed? I STOOD UP FOR OUR KIND!! Human? TO HELL WITH HUMANS!!! We belong at the top of the food chain! WE ARE THEIR MASTERS!! Byron . . . Ebony knows that! He’ll make us GODS! Like it should be! Now . . . Lauren, hand over the little FBI bitch and you won’t get hurt, otherwise . . .

Two Werewolves already in their form walk out of the shadows. Luke smiles, Otherwise we have to get nasty . . . so what do you say? Skip the foreplay and just get down to business? Or should we toy with them first guys?

One of the Werewolves roars and Luke smiles, Alright then. We rape them first, then kill Lauren, then take the FBI bitch. That sound good to you?

Again the Werewolf roars and Lauren quickly turns into her Werewolf self. She now stands at nine feet and has shining red fur covering her body. Isabella draws her gun and fires at the wolves. The bullets hit their targets, but they still keep coming. Luke jumps over both advancing wolves and punches Isabella in the face. She lands on her back, out cold.

Lauren fights with all her strength. One wolf bites her leg as the other grabs her arm. With her free arm she sinks her claws into the skull of the wolf biting her leg. She then bites the other wolf on the neck. That wolf falls dead too.

Luke laughs, You can kill them all you like, and more will take their place. Two more wolves break into the bar and fight Lauren. Luke turns to Isabella; he starts to unbutton her shirt when he feels a slash across his back. Lauren manages to kill the other two wolves and is now protecting Isabella.

Luke smiles a sinister smile, Fine bitch, you just volunteered to get raped first. I’m going to enjoy making you scream, again. Only this time it’s not by the river.

Four wolves come into the bar now. Each one holds one of Lauren’s limbs. Unable to move she tries turning back to her human self to see if she can squeeze out. That only makes the wolves hold her tighter. Luke walks up to her and rips what remains of her clothes off. He then cuts off a lock of her hair and places it in his pocket. Smiling he whispers, Souvenirs and takes his pants off. Lauren is now trying more than ever to break free.

Luke is touching Lauren on her neck, I remember this touch . . . I remember how you always shivered at my touch, how you smiled as I rubbed my fingers around your elegant neck. I’ll try to make this as pleasant for both of us . . .

Lauren raises her head and shouts, FUCK YOU, YOU GODDAMNED PSYCHO SON OF BITCH!!! Find a shrink, because we never had sex, and I’m tired of hearing you say we did. LET ME GO NOW!

Luke laughs and mocks Lauren Let me go now, oh boohoo. Sorry honey, fucking your brains out was ALWAYS one of my fantasies, now I can cross one off my list. Hell, I might wake up little Miss FBI and take turns with both of you.

Laughing Luke orders the two wolves holding Lauren’s legs to spread them. As he is about to rape her, a huge dark grey, almost black Werewolf bites Luke on his collar bone. Luke screams in pain as the other four wolves let Lauren go to help him. The wolf throws Luke away like a rag doll. Lauren turns back to her Werewolf self and with her claws stabs one of the wolves in the back. She keeps pushing her arm into the wolf until she sees her hand coming out the other side of it. The dark grey wolf tears the head off of one Werewolf and tosses another wolf through the wall of the bar. The wolf hits a tree, which stops him and he falls to the ground. The last wolf decides to take Isabella. As he jumps to her he is met with the brown wolf that tried to save her. He is covered in blood and can barely stand, but he still stands between Isabella and the wolf.

The wolf sees the brown Werewolf and attacks. The wolf is not ten feet from the brown wolf when the black, yellow eyed Werewolf lands on him and rips him to shreds. The black wolf looks over to the others and nods. Slowly they all turn back to their Human forms.

The black, yellow eyed Werewolf changes back into the bartender, Michael. The brown Werewolf changes into the man in the baseball cap, Jimmy. Lauren changes back to herself and covers her body with a table cloth. The dark grey Werewolf changes into a six foot tall, muscular, dark man, from Brazil. He’s in his mid-twenties. His honey colored eyes shoot to Lauren, Are you alright, honey?

Lauren nods, Yah . . . yah I’m fine Rick. That guy . . . he was from my past . . . I never loved him . . .

Rick raises his hand, No explanation needed. I saw what he was doing; I know that you were not in that position for the fun of it . . . I’m just glad I got to you in time.

Rick and Lauren hug and kiss. Lauren then tears up, That sick son of a bitch! Yah, we used to be together, but we never did it. He’s always had this fantasy about me and him having sex by the river. We never had sex! I’ve told you this time and time before, I believe in abstinence. That will never change, not for him or you. You are different though, you respect that in me and then you saved me that day . . . you are full of honor, and honesty, and you’re so chivalrous . . . that’s the kind of man I want . . . you. Thank you, Rick. Lauren starts to tear up again, If you hadn’t come . . . he, he was about to . . .

Rick holds Lauren tight, I know, I know. Don’t worry, he isn’t going to be a bother anymore . . .

Luke jumps out of the shadows, Hey, Rick! You want round two? Come on! Let’s fight you and me!

Michael holds his hand up, Don’t except his challenge Rick, Luke is always a trickster, he has something up his sleeve!

Rick nods, I know . . . but a challenge has been issued and I must answer it . . . Luke, I except your challenge.

Lauren holds Rick’s hand tightly, NO RICK!! He always has something bad planned! He’ll kill you because he thinks I belong to him! NO RICK!!

Rick kisses Lauren’s hand, I’m bound as a gentleman to answer a challenge. I’ll be safe, he can’t hurt me.

Rick turns back into his Werewolf form. Luke then changes into a nine foot beast too. His dark grey fur matches Rick’s and his eyes too. One thing is different however, his strength. He was weaker than Rick a minute ago, but now he is stronger, much, much stronger!

The battle between Rick and Luke is brutal. Luke rips chunks of fur and flesh out of Rick, and vice versa. Finally Rick falls to the floor, injured, unable to fight. Luke jumps at him but is tackled by Michael in his Werewolf form. Luke jumps over Michael but Michael grabs him and tosses him forward. Luke lands on his feet and tackles Michael. Both wolves fly back and land beside Rick. Luke throws Michael away and holds his arms up to kill Rick. Michael lands and knows he isn’t going to be able to save Rick, but still he jumps at Luke, hoping he will draw his attention away from Rick. Unfortunately it doesn’t. Luke is still going for the kill when a gunshot echoes through the bar.

Luke falls on his back, with a bullet hole in his right chest. He staggers up and runs off on all fours into the woods that are behind the bar.

At the entrance of the bar stand three people. Two women and one man. One woman rushes over to Jimmy, she’s in her early twenties and is wearing black pants and a blue sweater with the hoody pulled up. She slides the hood down and reveals that she has black shoulder length hair, her hazel eyes gleam in the light; she has a small scar under her left eye and another across the bridge of her nose.

The man is in his early thirties, brown hair, tall and muscular; he has a hunter’s jacket with an orange vest on and is wearing green cargo pants. His high powered rifle is still smoking.

At his side is the other woman, she has long blond hair that reaches to her mid back, she’s attractive, has green eyes, she’s in her late twenties, wearing blue jeans and a pink tank top, she has a tattoo of a howling wolf on her right shoulder.

The man with the rifle walks forward, I heard the commotion, so I came as quick as I could. You should have called me Michael; I’m still a fighter you know.

Lauren kneels down and raises Rick’s head, Rick . . . Ricardo . . . please, don’t . . . stay with me . . . please . . . Rick . . . Jack did you bring your truck?

The man with the rifle nods, he turns to the woman beside him, Nancy, go get her. Megan . . . never mind. What the hell happened to you Jimmy?

Jimmy kisses the woman in the blue hoody, Hey, baby . . . Well, Jack. I fought off five of them sons of bitches . . . didn’t win but still fought. Michael helped me out.

Nancy backs up the truck through a hole made in the wall of the bar. She jumps out, and Jack jumps in. Michael and Jimmy both place Rick in the bed of the truck. Michael jumps into the bed and turns to Jimmy, Summon everyone, except those on special missions. I got a sample of Luke’s blood, we’ll see what we’re up against now, and bring Isabella . . . the FBI woman. Byron wants her for a reason, so we won’t give her to him.

Lauren then jumps into the bed of the truck, beside Rick. Looking up to Michael she asks, Do you have any Wolves Bane with you still?

Michael shakes his head, I used it all on you, Lauren . . . we have to get to the base pronto Jack . . . or Rick might not make it.

Jimmy watches as the truck speeds off into the distance. He then walks over and kneels down, shakes Isabella and wakes her up, Hey . . . you’ve got to come with us. The other Werewolves want you, so . . . well think of it as taking you for your own safety.

Isabella staggers up. She can’t see out of her swollen right eye. She then nods slowly, So I’m your prisoner?

Megan places her hand on Isabella’s shoulder, Something like that. Now come on, we have to get to the base.

Jimmy walks to the back of the bar and comes back with a cell phone. Isabella looks at him confused.

Jimmy smiles at her, Just because we are Werewolves does not mean that we don’t know how to use technology.

Jimmy smiles and explains to Isabella what is going to happen, I’m not going to call two-hundred different people. I’m going to call a guy at the base and he’ll send an alert to the rest. Some of them live in the U.S, some in France . . . so give or take a couple of hours for everyone to get there.

Isabella looks confused again. She glances back and forth in the room looking for answers, when she didn’t find any, she just point blank asks, All of whom?

Jimmy, Nancy and Megan look at each other, holding back smiles. Finally smiling and holding in a laugh, Megan says, Um, the rest of the pack.

Isabella’s eye widens, the other eye remains shut. With surprise she asks, There are more of you guys? How many?

Jimmy places his hands on Isabella’s shoulders and directs her out of the bar, What, are you freeken deaf? I just told you there are two hundred people that I’m not going to call. Using logic you should automatically assume those are the pack members. There are two-hundred and three to be exact. That’s how many roll with Michael. There are other wolves out there that help us but they have refused to join the pack. Anyway, there ARE a lot of us . . . the bad thing is that there are about five-hundred wolves in Ebonies pack.

Jimmy, Isabella, Megan and Nancy walk up to a parked, black car that is a couple of blocks away. It’s a sports car that fits four, but none the less a sports car.

Jimmy opens the car’s back door and helps Isabella in. Isabella then shuts the door. Nancy gets in on the other side. Jimmy takes the driver’s seat and Megan takes the passenger’s seat.

Nancy sighs heavily. Jimmy notices this and turns to her, Is something wrong, Nancy?

Nancy nods with anger, Yah . . . first Clara goes missing, then her twin shows up and Byron wants something with her, obviously . . . it makes me think, what’s so freaken special about these two girls? And why is Ebony sending some of his top men after Isabella? That and I HATE your driving.

Isabella smiles, thanks for your concern, and no offence but shouldn’t you guy’s be like, in your wolf mode and I can ride on one of your backs?

Jimmy’s eyes widen, Are you nuts! The base is about ninety miles away . . . we, on all fours can run up to fifty-five miles per hour. Even then, we hold back on running that fast, our fingers could break at about forty miles per hour. So the sports car is still the better choice. Besides, you don’t want to see a tired Werewolf, it’s not pretty. I mean we’re all panting at the same time, we’re getting our drool all over the place, if a car passes we all take off chasing after it. Of course only about half of us get out of the door, the rest of us either get stuck in the doggie door or forget about the car and start chasing our tail or licking ourselves. Sometimes we sniff each other’s butts too.

Nancy kicks the back of Jimmy’s seat, That’s quite enough of your damn stereotypical Werewolf jokes. Don’t you have respect for your own species? You don’t see Michael making all those jokes!

Jimmy laughs hard, That’s only because you haven’t seen his ass drunk! Man, one time he made this really offensive Werewolf joke, of course he was so drunk he was seeing double! He didn’t even remember making the joke! It goes like this: there’s a city worker that goes over to this Werewolf’s home. The city worker is looking to replace all the toilets in the city with low-flow toilets. When he tells the Werewolf his plan the Werewolf starts to cry. The city worker asks, Why are you crying? and the Werewolf answered, Because you’re going to take away my personal water fountain! . . . oh, man thinking of it now . . . even I’M a little offended by that.

Isabella looks over at Nancy and gets startled, Um, is it me or does Nancy look a little hungry? Are you guys going to make me a Werewolf?

Jimmy laughs, That’s how she always looks when I piss her off. And HELL no. It’s too dangerous. There have been documented cases that the transformation to a new comer is painful, can cause insanity, hell there’re sometimes that newbies die within the first few times they turn. Don’t get too scared, it’s rare; almost one in two-billion Werewolves have that happen to them. Look it doesn’t matter anyway . . . we are not going to turn you, unless you agree to it and Michael issues the order. Now everyone shut up . . . and let me remember where the base is . . .

MICHAEL’S JOURNAL LOG

JOURNAL ENTRY: 3558

I really don’t like where this is going. I mean first Clara goes missing and then two months later her twin sister shows up? And what the hell does Byron have to do with this? Whatever it is, it’s big. I mean he sent Luke after her. How big is this? Sending someone as nuts as Luke? Either he wants no mistakes or he wants her bad. The only thing I can think of doing is keeping her from him. If he wants Isabella that bad well he’ll have to kill me to get to her. It’s obvious that he wants her alive, maybe I should kill her? No, no, I shouldn’t think of crap like that. I’ll just increase security and keep an eye on her. Maybe I should send her over to Tadakatsu? She’d be much safer in Japan than in Romania. Who am I kidding, I’m so worried about finding Clara in one piece I can’t take care of her sister to!! She’ll end up dead or worse. I just hope I find Clara fast. Hopefully with an FBI agent we’ll be able to find her faster. Well, I’ll wrap up writing for now; I have to address the pack about this problem.

CHAPTER 2

Meet The Pack

Jimmy takes out a card and scans it at a door. He then walks in pushing Isabella in front of him. The door then closes and the women scan their cards too. There is a long hallway; it’s about a block long. The hallway seems to be going lower and lower, Isabella, Jimmy, Nancy and Megan finally come to a blast door.

Isabella looks around, Hold on . . . I thought you said that the base was ninety miles away? We didn’t travel that far . . . ten minutes max . . .

Jimmy grabs Isabella by the arm, Well I lied . . . DUH. I’m not going to hurt you, but some of the guys . . . they don’t trust new faces. I’m just going to hold your arm; Megan’s going to hold your other arm, just so you don’t run away. I know you’re scared . . . but if you try and run away . . . the elder wolves WILL kill you! So the moral of the story is . . . no matter how scared you are, don’t try and run! Oh . . . and another thing, if one of them asks you if you’re scared . . . there’s no point in lying about it, remember, we’re Werewolves . . . we smell fear, so you might as well be straight with everyone in there.

Nancy opens the blast door and Jimmy and Megan walk in holding Isabella. Izi looks down at the floor and sees hundreds of teeth. She looks at Jimmy, You sure you guys aren’t going to eat me?

Jimmy shakes his head again and laughs, No, see when Werewolves turn from their Human form to their REAL form we shed our Human teeth and grow in Werewolf teeth. Vice versa, when we turn from Werewolf to Human we drop our Werewolf teeth and grow in new Human teeth. Cool right?

Izi shutters at the sight of the teeth, Yah, depending on what your definition for cool is. Doesn’t anyone find it the least bit creepy?

Jimmy laughs again, Lady, you’re talking to someone who rips heads off cows and horses and then eats them, occasionally I’ll eat me a bear too, but the zebras . . . mmm, I think lions have something going on there. To answer your question, no, to us it’s just normal and not creepy what so ever, in fact Werewolves think it’s creepy when we don’t spit out our teeth. Anyway in you go dear.

Isabella freezes, before her is a room mimicking the United Nations’ debate room. The stage at the bottom is ten feet by fifteen feet. The room fits about one-thousand, however only about two hundred are seated.

Isabella looks around and holds her breath and her blood runs cold; the wolves are all looking at her with piercing eyes.

One of the elder wolves stands up and yells, JAMES!! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!? EXPLAIN YOURSELF BOY!!

A voice comes from the other side of the room, He doesn’t have to . . . I ordered him to bring her in.

Michael approaches the podium that’s at the center of the stage, I told James to bring in this woman.

The elder wolf stands up again, Michael . . . you KNOW our rules! No human AT ANY TIME must enter the den! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, ALLOWING A HUMAN TO ENTER!!?

Michael holds up his hand, First of all I don’t have to explain my actions to ANYONE!! I’m the pack leader . . . but, because I am breaking the rules, I’ll explain. We have reason to believe she is connected to Clarabella’s disappearance. That, and Byron wants her, alive.

The elder wolf laughs, Michael . . . have you lost all sense? Neither, Byron nor Byron’s pack wants anything to do with humans, except for eating them.

Michael sighs, I know, I know. Look Sir Isaac, I know it sounds absurd; however . . . I wouldn’t be saying this unless I witnessed Byron’s pack attacking this woman. HE SENT LUKE AFTER HER! LUKE!! Why would Byron send his right hand man, unless it was something serious?

Sir Isaac, the elder wolf, looks at Isabella. He clears his throat, What is your name girl?

Isabella is petrified, shaking where she stands, so frightened she can’t answer Sir Isaac.

Another elder Werewolf stands up quickly and shouts, ANSWER HIM WOMAN!!

Isabella jumps and is about to run away but remembers what Jimmy had told her; still however she isn’t able to answer Sir Isaac.

A third elder wolf holds his hand up, Sir William, please. The woman is clearly frightened. The elder wolf turns to Isabella, My dear . . . it is in your best interest to answer Sir Isaac, he isn’t very tolerable of humans, so I suggest you power through your fear and answer him.

Isabella stutters a little bit but is finally able to answer Sir Isaac, My name is Isabella.

Sir Isaac looks over at Michael, So how does this Isabella have anything to do with Clarabella?

Michael sighs and takes a deep breath. He then holds the podium tight, She’s the twin sister of Clarabella.

Jimmy whispers to Megan, He couldn’t tell by their names? I mean, come on, Clarabella, Isabella . . . it’s kind of obvious. Of course then you have the Robin and Robin factor. But Robin and Rob are two different people, not exact copies. Clara and Isabella are IDENTICAL twins, how could he have his doubts?

Megan looks at Jimmy and shushes him, It’s their scent Jimmy, now shut up or you’ll get in trouble . . . AGAIN.

The room fills with murmurs and gasps. Sir Isaac looks at Isabella, How? She isn’t one of us! This is preposterous!! HOW DARE YOU INSULT OUR SPECIES BY COMPARING US TO HUMANS!!?

Michael has had enough. Angered at the elder, he yells back, HOLD YOUR DAMNED TONGUE!! For the last time, YOU’RE NO ONE TO QUESTION ME!! Now sit down and keep your mouth shut, Sir Isaac!! Isabella IS the twin sister of Clarabella. The only difference between the sisters is that Isabella has yet to be bitten. I have explained time and time again what our scientists have discovered, yet you STILL think because she appears to be Human that she IS . . . enough of this nonsense! Sky . . . you come and readdress the pack, tell them what you have learned.

Michael walks off the stage and a Native American takes his place. His hair is long and black, his physique is extraordinary. He combs his hair back to reveal honey colored eyes and a deep scar across his face. The scar starts above his left eyebrow, travels diagonally down and ends under his right eye. He is wearing blue jeans, a belt with a large metal buckle, and a white, tucked in dress shirt.

Sky clears his throat and begins his speech, For hundreds of years now, the Werewolf has been thought of as a curse. That only being bitten by one will make one; however we AS Werewolves know that that is false. We know that by reproducing sexually we create Werewolf cubs. Throughout the years, the Werewolf population has diminished, or so we thought . . . it has come to my attention during my investigation that those we thought are Humans are actually Werewolves! This is because the Werewolf gene is dormant. I went through extreme measures to find out how we could activate the gene. I decided to investigate the Human fictitious lore that a Werewolf’s bite will turn you into a Werewolf. However, it did not turn out to be just lore.

Sir Isaac stands up at his chair, Preposterous!!! How can fiction be confirmed by science!?

The elder Werewolf that had given advice to Isabella stands up next, Sir Isaac . . . if I may, do SHUT UP!! You are disrupting a quite interesting talk. I’ve yet to have unsatisfactory results with Sky and his findings . . . if he used fictional lore to solve a problem, THEN KUDOS TO HIM FOR THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX!! The elder clears his throat, My apologies for prolonging your interruption, Sky . . . please, continue.

Sky bows, Thank you Sir Roland. As I was saying, I investigated the lore of the Werewolf bite, it turns out that the lore is everything but. It is indeed quite realistic, the bite will make a Human into a Werewolf, however . . . the only way you become a Werewolf is if you already have the dormant gene in your system.

The elders raise their hands, including Sir Roland. Sky acknowledges them, Yes . . . Elders?

Sir Isaac steps forward, All of the elders, including Sir Roland and Sir William, but most of all I, wish to know . . . how can a simple bite trigger a transformation?

Sky bows again, Excellent question. To answer it, I investigated myself. I figured that the change might be triggered by being close, or maybe even sexual intercourse . . . I tried everything, but I finally found that it’s our saliva. As we know all Werewolves carry a type of neurotoxin in our saliva, it’s what keeps our prey paralyzed and kills our prey while we feed. Well, that neurotoxin is what triggers the transformation. If a normal Human is bit, they will be paralyzed and face the possibility of dying, but if the Human has a dormant Werewolf gene in them, the neurotoxin acts as a wakeup call. The neurotoxin WILL trigger the gene. Thus it appears if a Human is bitten by a Werewolf, they become a Werewolf, however . . . they are already Werewolves. That’s why Clarabella and Isabella CAN be and ARE twins, the only thing is that Isabella hasn’t been bitten yet and Clarabella was. Michael?

Sky walks off the stage and Michael walks back on, Ok. Thank you Sky . . . now, does that answer your question? Now that we KNOW that Isabella CAN be and IS Clarabella’s twin sister, what are we going to do? Byron wants her for a reason. We can’t let him have her. For some reason he sent Luke after her.

Michael stands quiet and still. The room, again, fills with deep gasps of astonishment and quiet little murmurs.

Michael raises both his hands and waves the room down, I know, I know. Luke is extremely dangerous, unpredictable and his mind has deteriorated to a state of dementia, making him twice as dangerous and twice as unpredictable as before. I suggest assigning a team to take care of Isabella. However, I need volunteers, this mission is . . . well it’s not going to be easy. I myself will be on the team. I need nine other people.

Jimmy lets go of Isabella’s arm and raises his hand, I will volunteer to protect her, mate!

Michael points to Jimmy, No . . . if anything happens to me, I need you to help lead the pack. Whoever decides to be part of the team, you don’t need to make a decision now. I know it’s a difficult decision but please, I ask for your help. Whoever wants in, get back to me in a couple of days. For now, we will lay low. When the heat’s off, we’ll retaliate, but for now . . . just introduce yourselves to Isabella.

Little by little Isabella meets most of the two-hundred and three members of the pack. She then meets Michael’s lieutenants.

Jimmy comes up to Isabella, Hey, you’ve met me, Megan, Nancy, Lauren, Rick and Jack . . . well, these are the rest of the lieutenants: Ron, Kate, Scott, Naomi, Simon, Hugh, Milla, Mathew, Emma, Carla, Elijah and Anthony. There are two more lieutenants, but they had to leave early to go on a very important assignment. The ones present will introduce themselves in a minute and you’ll know a little more about them.

Within seconds Kate walks up to Isabella, she’s in her mid-twenties, wearing a jean jacket and blue jeans. She stands at average height and has brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Her green eyes seem to jump out at Izi. She extends her hand to shake Isabella’s hand, "Hi. My name is Kate . . . nice