Most of the men with Hunter presently in the room that had decamped from his pack to Hunter’s unnamed camp were mostly unfamiliar to Keith, it was one of the problems of having a big pack to rule over. He knew Hunter because they grew up together. Practically. He knew Maxwell because of his sister, Laura, Fabian was not here, and he knew… this other guy, vaguely.
The man stood right at the far back and he seemed to know Keith- well, everybody knew who Keith was, but this man seem to hid behind the others like he knew the alpha would be able to spot and identify him.
“You there, behind the others.” Keith had called out to him, never allowing his eyes to deviate. The man looked up at Keith, he had a fearful expression on his face as he still tried to cower back behind them, but the others, out of curiosity, moved aside to look at the person Keith had called, exposing him to Keith’s full view.
Keith’s frown deepened. He had not been mistaken.
“You’re Wayne, are you not?”
The man swallowed and his lips pressed into a fine thin line as he looked to Hunter for some sort of protection. Keith’s eyes darted to Hunter whose head was just turning away from Wayne, back to him.
Keith growled, and in a flash he went for Wayne, but Hunter had expected his attack and struck out the wooden cane he held in his hand which caught Keith right in the abdomen, momentarily stopping him.
Keith turned his attention to Hunter, grabbed the cane and yanked it away from Hunter’s hand. His claws and fangs were now fully extended, and so was Hunter’s.
He lifted the cane up in the air and brought it down hard with speed and intensity, aiming for Hunter’s obnoxious head, but the man blocked it with his right arm which he held above his head. The impact caused the cane to snap and break into two.
Without giving him room to attack, Keith swung his left hand at Hunter’s abdomen, scratching and slicing his stomach deep with his claws. Hunter howled and staggered backward, his left hand wrapped around his abdomen.
From the corner of his eyes, he spotted Wayne making his way to the back of the building to make an escape, Keith snapped his fangs in the man’s direction and made to chase him, but Hunter was quick to transform, leaping into the air in one bound, mouth open and fangs extended, aiming to get Keith right in the neck, but Keith’s reflexes were faster.
He held his left hand in the air just as Hunter got closer, allowing the werewolf bite into his lower arm. In this form, Hunter was bigger and overpowering him would be a task too tedious for Keith to do in his human form, so with his left hand still trapped in Hunter’s mouth, he transformed, and just as he did, he fisted his right palm and brought it down hard on Hunter’s head, snapping one of his fangs off which remained embedded in Keith’s arm.
The werewolf whimpered and took several steps back away from Keith, his mouth and head bleeding. Keith stood straight and sent a chilling growl at Hunter. The others fighting seized and Keith’s men made their way to his side, all of them having transformed. The stood behind their Alpha, looking like little cubs beside him in comparison to size. In the whole building, only Hunter was close to being as big as Keith’s wolf, but even his was smaller in Keith’s eyes.
Keith lifted his left fore leg where Hunter’s fang was still embedded so the rest could see, then he fixed his golden yellow eyes full of rage on Hunter who still managed to stand his ground but was obviously pained and clearly defeated.
“Souvenir.” Keith said to him, his werewolf voice deep and intimidating. He pulled the fang out of his foreleg and began to morph back into his human self, watching as the huge hole in his arm caused by the fang began to seal until not even a scar was left. “Remember what you are, Hunter.” he said to the man, flashing his fang at him with a tight frown on his face. “Always only second placed.”
He turned and walked away from them, heading for the back of the building where he had seen Wayne run to, Mark, Sebastian and Shelby remained in their wolf form, walking back behind Keith but had their attention facing Hunter and his rouges. They continued this way until they were out of sight before morphing back to their human self.
“I need to find that Wayne guy.” Keith said to the men with him, his face still bore a deep frown and he massaged his forearm, the injury was gone but the pain was only slowly fading.
“You should call out to him.” Mark pointed out. “If he is a werewolf under the Twelve Order then he cannot resist the Alpha’s call.”
“And if he is not?” Sebastian asked just as they got to the back door. Shelby ran forward and held the door open for Keith and the rest to pass through. “He might be from up north.”
“Then we will search and sniff him out.” Mark replied to Sebastian. “But he was in the twelve order, I recognize him from the ninth.”
“But he is no longer under the Twelve Order.” Shelby pointed out, shutting the door behind.
“Hunter has not been made Alpha yet,” Keith said, replying to Shelby. “The Alpha bond has not yet been established.”
“Right, Wayne is only just a rouge as are the others. He will listen to Keith’s call.” Mark completed.
Keith knew Wayne would still be under the control of his Alpha call, and in as much as he enjoyed showing and proving his dominance, he really wanted to end this and retire home. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, instigating his Alpha call.
“Wayne.” he called out in his subconscious, knowing that only he and the person he called would be able to hear him. He sensed the man’s fear and a smile crept up to his lips. He gave only one command as he knew that was all he needed to say. “Freeze.”