It was a sudden de-escalation, so quick it caught Gary and Kai off guard. From the look in his eyes, it wasn’t an act. He truly didn’t want to fight.
Yet, the short clash they’d just had made one thing crystal clear. Lupus, even without the full might of his True Alpha form, still fought with precision and raw strength that dwarfed them both. Gary and Kai knew, deep down, that if they pushed themselves to the very limit, they could probably bring him down. But it wouldn’t be clean. One of them, maybe both, would fall with him.
And was that worth it, here and now?
Their instincts screamed yes. Their grief demanded blood. But beneath all that, uncertainty clawed at their hearts.
“I didn’t want to attack your group, Gary!” Lupus’s voice rang out. His fists trembled at his sides. “I promise you that. You can choose to believe me or not, but you should at least hear me out, hear everything I have to say, before you decide.”
Gary’s teeth clenched. He wanted to reject it outright, to bury Lupus under the weight of the rage and sorrow he carried. But another part of him, the part that still remembered the uneasy respect he once held for Lupus, wavered. Could these words be true, or were they just lies meant to soften his resolve?
“Listen to him, Gary,” Kai said, shifting back into his human form. “If you don’t, and we fight now... I know you’d regret it.”
Gary’s chest tightened. The truth was, Kai was right. If they killed Lupus without giving him a chance to speak, they’d never know whether there was something more behind all the betrayal.
Seeing the two of them lower their guard, Lupus eased his shoulders and continued.
“I wanted to wait until the night of the full moon had passed,” Lupus said slowly. “That way we could talk properly. There were... things I needed to deal with. And I’d learned of the weakness in your pack.
“As a way to show I was serious about working together, I wanted to wait first. I thought you’d be more willing to believe me after that. But before I could do any of it, before the full moon even arrived... I met someone.”
He paused, his jaw tightening as the memory seemed to weigh on him. “Or maybe it wasn’t someone at all. Maybe it was... something. A creature. He looked like a werewolf, but twisted, like one risen from the grave, fused with a demon’s form. His power, it was overwhelming. When we fought, it felt like he was inside my body. My arms, my claws, even my legs... he could stop them from moving mid-strike. He controlled me, piece by piece, like a puppet.”
Lupus’s fists clenched as he went on.
“In the end, I lost. But the battle wasn’t the worst part. Afterward, he placed his hand on my head. And that’s when it happened. He planted something inside me. Not a thought, not a whisper, something deeper. A will. A compulsion. A task that dug into my bones.
“To kill the other Alpha.”
Gary’s heart skipped.
“I was still me,” Lupus said. “I had my own mind, my own thoughts. But that drive, that command, it wouldn’t leave me. It gnawed at me day and night, until I couldn’t resist. It was like starving on the night of a full moon, you stop caring what’s in front of you, you just need to feed. That’s what it felt like.
“So I gave the order. I unleashed my pack. I attacked you. I fought you myself, and I did it at the worst possible moment, when you were most vulnerable. I hated every second of it, but I couldn’t stop. It made me sick... truly sick.” His voice cracked, the weight of shame pulling on every word. “I would never have done that, Gary. Even if I despised you, I would never have led that kind of slaughter. But he forced it on me.”
Gary and Kai exchanged a look, neither speaking.
Lupus continued, his voice quieter now. “Something strange happened in the middle of the fight. That feeling, that compulsion... it started to slip. I don’t know why. But when I woke up here, wherever here is, it was gone. I’m myself again.”
Silence blanketed the meadow.
Out of all the excuses Lupus could have given, out of all the explanations Gary might have expected, this was the only one that made sense. The only one they might actually accept.
Kai swallowed hard. He had suspected something all along. When he’d first encountered Unzoku, the so-called Werewolf God, he had been forced into a transformation against his will. That alone had proven how badly Unzoku wanted the Alphas to clash, no matter the cost. If Unzoku couldn’t use Kai, then targeting Lupus, who led a powerful pack of his own, was the next logical step.
It fit too perfectly.
“Damn it... damn it, damn it!” Gary’s roar tore through the air. His knees hit the ground as he slammed both fists into the soil. His claws gouged the earth, his shoulders trembling with rage and helplessness.
What was he supposed to do with this? How was he meant to carry it? Could he truly blame Unzoku for everything that had happened, when he had watched Lupus’s pack slaughter his people with his own eyes? Even if Lupus had been controlled, the blood of the Howlers still stained his hands.
Forgiveness felt impossible. But so did hate.
Gary opened his mouth, ready to spit out whatever words came to him in his turmoil, when it happened.
His head snapped up. His eyes widened.
‘That noise... the system?’
And there it was. A transparent rectangular display shimmered in front of him, hovering in the air. His heart raced.
‘Is it working again? After all this time?’
“What the hell is this?” Kai muttered.
Gary turned toward him, and froze.
Kai’s hand was stretched out in front of him, reaching toward empty air. Lupus was doing the same. Their eyes locked on something unseen, their fingers almost brushing against invisible walls. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
Gary’s breath caught. To them, it wasn’t empty. They were seeing it too.
“Wait... Kai... Lupus!” Gary shouted, rising to his feet, his pulse thundering in his ears. “You can see this? You both can see the system?”
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