A ROGUE WEREWOLF.

CHAPTER NINE— NIKOLAI.

I was surrounded by partial darkness but I could see a figure standing close to me. From the scent exuding from the person, I could tell it was one of my brothers. He was standing somewhere, waiting— watching my every movement. My body was laid on a bed, tightened with chains so I couldn't move.

"Take these chains off of me." I said to the figure. There wasn't any response and I struggled again with my strength to see if I could get out of the hold but it was a failure. The chain was bound by a spell.

The chains stinged a little, almost cutting through my skin, but I could endure it. I knew whenever I got hostile— the chains were the closest thing my brothers could use to bind me because they didn't want to hurt me.

Footsteps could be heard as the figure moved closer to the window, spreading the curtains far apart from each other. The rays of sunlight hit me in my eyes immediately which made me close my eyes for a bit so I could adjust to it. It was dawn already.

Opening my eyes, I looked around, only to see that I was in my room which was trashed. The wood of a chair was splintered and the walls were ruined with dents in them.

My gaze landed on my brother, Abramov, who stood rigid. His hands were folded under his arms and he stared at me for a while before walking closer to me. "Did you know, you almost killed someone yesterday." Abramov spoke quietly.

I could see the vein in his neck which meant that he was seriously angry. I remembered what had happened yesterday vividly, I had acted in a cretinous manner, and almost lost control of myself. I had totally forgotten there was going to be a full moon yesternight.

Hopefully I didn't hurt anybody, especially Karina. "I don't have any excuse, I can only say that I am sorry." I replied, struggling to look at him as he towered over me. "Please can you get the chain off me? It's tearing into my skin."

Abramov was really mad and I could see that, "You could have hurt that human if Ivan hadn't come on time!" He shouted at me. "And the last thing you should be worrying about is the chain, your injuries will heal."

My ears perked up at the mention of his name, "Ivan— he's back?" I asked as I looked up at my brother.

Abramov was about to give a response but a voice cut him off, the voice I haven't heard in a while.

"Yes, I am. Abramov, take those chains off him." Ivan said, as he walked closer to us.

I saw the reaction of Abramov's face, he didn't want to disobey Ivan, "What if he acts out again like last night? How would we subdue him?" He threw the questions at Ivan.

Ivan sighed quietly, "Fine, I will deal with it."

Abramov was about to retort but my oldest brother asked him to leave the room. Abramov did as Ivan asked of him, leaving no room for argument. Ivan had the final say.

After Abramov had left, Ivan took a chair and pulled it towards me. I took the time to look at my brother who I hadn't seen in a while. Ivan looked perfect as always, his features weren't like mine. My eyes were nothing like his pitch black, lifeless color, and his hair was totally white. He looked like a Moon God; If there was one.

"You should have been careful." Ivan said to me, his tone wasn't scornful or harsh like Abramov, that was always what I liked about Ivan. He knew when to scold and when to be gentle.

I sighed out quietly, shutting my eyes for a bit while I apologized to my brother. "I'm sorry Ivan." That's all I said.

He nodded his head in understanding, "You should always be careful though. If I hadn't come on time, we could have been in a deep mess." He continued, "You know some of the humans do not trust us fully and it's not their fault, so if you get out of control— problems could arise."

After he was done talking, Ivan stood up to take the chains off me. The chains clanked loudly on the floor while I wriggled my body in relief, the cuts the chain made through my skin released steam as my flesh regenerated, healing by itself.

I stood up from the bed, stretched my sore muscles and I heard a crack— I looked towards my brother whose face was stoic… I didn't argue about what he said, it's true some of the humans didn't trust us and I knew a particular one who loathed us with anger.

"Ivan," I picked my words carefully as I looked at my brother, "Ivan, yesterday did you see any lady with me?"

He didn't give any response, just folded his arm as he relaxed on the chair.

I went closer to him, "You're not saying anything— did something happen yesterday which you're not telling me?"

"Put on some clothes and meet me in the living room, downstairs." Ivan said to me before leaving the room.

Immediately he left, I went towards my drawers to pick out a black jean and I wore a white top over it.

Getting to the living room, I saw all of my four brothers sitting down as they all pondered over something. They kept quiet as soon as I stepped in their place.

"What are you guys talking about?" I looked at all of them but I didn't get any response.

I moved closer and I noticed something, "Why is there a rogue wolf in our house?"

"Since everyone is here, you all should sit down. There's something I need you to know." Ivan said in a serious tone.

Each one of us sat down on the closet thing we could sit on and Ivan faced us. It's been a while we had a discussion between us brother's, it had always been banter and joke but with Ivan around, we knew it was something serious.

"We came here to save humans, not behave like them. Our creations, wolves, are killing humans and it hasn't stopped." He paused for a while before continuing. He pointed to the wolf who laid on the ground, asleep and all bloodied, "I got a snippet of what went wrong."

As soon as he said that, Abramov asked, "What is going on?" He stood up, walking closer to the werewolf.

"It is known to me that someone is trying to cause a rift between our creations and humans." He said.

I kept quiet as my other brother — Antonov, asked, "Who could be doing that?"

Our eldest brother, Ivan, shook his head, "I don't know who but I am going to find out. All I know is that they've been cursed and they are being controlled by something unknown."

Ivan paused for a moment, glancing down at the sleeping rogue.

"What they are doing isn't voluntary, the wolf who lays on the floor couldn't speak with me— All he wanted was blood. He was not in control of himself." Ivan explained.

I asked just one simple question, "Who are the people behind this and why?"

Volkov, who had been quiet since I entered the living room, spoke up, "It doesn't matter why they are doing this. All I know is when they are caught, they won't get a fair judgment." He said with angst.

"Just like Volkov has said, we would surely catch them and when we do— we will get to know why they are doing this." Ivan said before leaving the room, dragging the wolf behind him.

After he left, my brother's started their own discussion and I decided to leave but before I could, I heard one of my brothers say, "Where are you off to, Nikolai?" I looked back and saw my three brothers, staring at me. I knew what they wanted to talk about; So I tried to run away.

I had only just turned around when I heard, "If you go ahead with whatever your big brain is planning to do, you're going to be grounded." Abramov said. It was like he could read my mind.

I laughed so loudly which made my tummy hurt, "What do you mean? Me, grounded? I am not human, and you can't do that."

"We know you are not going to listen to us but if Ivan tells you, you're not going to say anything." Abramov said to me.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, "What is it?" I asked, in order to soothe them.

"Didn't you know that there was a full moon yesterday?" Antonov asked.

"My mind skipped the fact that there was a full moon yesterday. If I had, I would have just stayed inside." I replied.

Volkov walked towards me, smiling, "So, did you have a nice time yesterday?" He asked. He looked suspicious and I wondered what it was about. "That feisty lady sure looked pretty last night, too bad she ended up like that." He said, chuckling slowly.

I saw my other brother's look at me, they were also confused with what Volkov was saying. I faced him, not understanding what he was saying.

"What lady are you talking about? We didn't see anyone with him, right?" Abramov asked Antonov.

"I'm not certain, someone might have been there but I was so preoccupied with handling him." He said.

Volkov laughed loudly, "Such a pity, she might have been a good lady for me." He said, standing up. He left the living room and Antonov followed immediately, leaving only me and Abramov who seemed to be lost in his world as he stared out the window.

I headed towards the door and paused for a minute. I couldn't understand what Volkov was trying to say. The way he spoke about Karina made me really anxious. It made me wonder if I'd mistakenly done something to her, even though I had no memories of such. After minutes of ruminating, I turned the door knob and ran outside as soon as possible. Thoughts churned around my mind, both good and bad— I was hopeful, but also scared of what I might find out.

As soon as I got to Karina's front doorstep, I knocked without hesitation. I waited for a while but there wasn't any response— I knocked again and still there was still no response.

I made a quick decision before deciding to force my way into their home, but before I could, the door opened and there stood her mother.

"Hello, it's nice to see you again." Her mother said to me, she was smiling which definitely meant nothing worrying had happened.

It relieved me a bit.

I greeted her back as she invited me into her home but I declined politely. She asked me what I was here for and I asked after Karina.

"Oh my dear, she's still asleep." She said as her smile fell off her face.

At least I knew Karina was alright but I also knew that something had gone wrong. "Is everything okay with her?"

"Her sisters told me that they found her unconscious on the floor next to the pub. They also found a bad bruise on the side of her neck."

I looked at her, "Is she okay now?"

She added, "She's okay. One of my daughters interns as a nurse under a physician in the village, so she helped administer some ointment. Right now, Karina is just sleeping."

I nodded my head in understanding, apologizing for what happened. If her daughter wasn't with me yesterday, none of everything that happened could have occured, which made my mind trail back to what Volkov had said earlier. Finally all the puzzles clicked in my head. Volkov definitely knew something.

Before leaving for my house, I bid Karina's mother a quick goodbye, telling her that I was going to visit later to check on Karina.

Oh, Karina — I was mad at the fact that she got injured. I knew Volkov was responsible. He had to be the person behind it, probably because of the incident which happened some days ago. He went for revenge when he found the chance. That was how petty my brother was.

On my way, all I could think about were the bad things I could do to Volkov.