005 Marked

How could they be here when he had lured them so far away?! Perses stared at the wolves appearing from the woods, petrified.

"How are the baits he sent you to?" Erebus asked with a totally different tone of which he used to talk to Kitty. There was stateliness and dominance hiding in there.

The dim grey wolf standing closest to Erebus reported: "All done. We would have come back earlier if it wasn't for Menoetius--"

"Hey! Dionysus!" The wolf who attacked one of the Perses's protested.

"Quiet. Lord is injured." A cold, calm voice came from the darkness of the woods.

Surprisingly, she was in her human form, with a tight dress on her that was suiting her well.

"Metis, you always--" Seeing Metis's eyes, Menoetius swallowed the rest of his sentence.

Kitty peeked out at the wolves from behind Erebus. There were seven huge wolves in total, or that she could see.

"Who are you?" A deep, dark voice came from behind Kitty that scared her to jump.

"Tartarus." Erebus said, warningly.

"My apologies, my lord." Tartarus lowered his head at Erebus, "I'm only curious."

"She is...coming with us." Erebus hesitated for a second, and turned to look at Kitty in her eyes: "If she would like to, that is."

Kitty blushed again. She hated that she was doing this every time Erebus pays any attention to her.

"The rest are still on the way, we wanted to come back early so we separated." Tartarus knelt before Erebus as Metis helped the other wolves took care of the injured wolves on the ground quickly:

With a needle they were forced to shift back to human form and fell asleep.

"The cars are right around the corner!" Menoetius yelled happily and shifted right where he was standing.

"Menoetius!" Metis scolded. Kitty jumped at Erebus, hiding her face in the fur on his chest when she realized why Metis scolded Menoetius...

He was totally naked.

This was the part where the stories and legends leave out.

Kitty felt like her face burning up.

It was not because Menoetius, but because his shift reminded her the battle scene she had just witnessed where Erebus shifted in the middle of it for a few seconds.

He was HOT! She was too nervous to think about it before, but now...

"What's holding you up?!" So used to shifting in front of his team, Menoetius was not even aware of what's wrong.

All the others: "..."

"Menoetius." Erebus called him with a very gentle and kind voice, but somehow Kitty feel like there were mischief hiding in there somewhere.

"Yes my lord!" Menoetius ran toward Erebus with his cloth still in his hand.

"Here," Erebus held out his paw for Menoetius's cloth, "Shift back, stay with her, and I'll explain to you what's wrong later."

"Okay!" Cute, innocent Menoetius was still happy and sunny, having no idea what was going on.

He shifted back to the wolf form again, sitting by the side of Kitty. Menoetius Looked up at Erebus, shaking his tail like a Husky waiting for a reward from his owner.

"Dismiss." With the order of Erebus, all the other five wolves disappeared into the woods instantly, as was Erebus himself. A few seconds later they reappeared, all dressed up, suits and all.

"Here," A tall man came right to Kitty. Well built and handsome, he was holding his hand out for her.

The thin shirt he wore only reminded Kitty of the body underneath.

"..." Kitty was hesitating, lost in the pretty dark blue eyes that were gazing at her.

"My name is Erebus; may I know yours?" His voice was deep and a bit rough, but amazingly enticing.

Kitty stepped up and took his hand: "I'm Kitty...Why... why are all your names of ancient gods?"

"Haha..." Menoetius burst into laughter and then turned to Kitty with a very serious face: "Because we ARE."

"..." Kitty would have believed that Erebus WAS a god, but not if that came from this seemingly very unreliable young wolf.

"Our names are position titles. We are the Dim Patronus. We forswore our given names when we took the oath of serving our alpha, AKA, Lord Erebus." Metis explained after she knocked Menoetius on the head.

"As for Menoetius," Erebus turned to the happy tail-shaking wolf, "It's gentlemen like to notice a lady's present for some certain behavior."

"Hmm...okay... But lord, why are you in my cloth?" Menoetius asked with a genuine and curious face, so innocent that Kitty almost felt sorry for him.

"It was to my understanding that they came back late because of you?" Erebus answered with a question.

"Errrr... I..." Menoetius stammered with no good answer.

"It's okay, you are forgiven." Erebus patted him on the head, and added when Menoetius let out a long, relaxed breath, "This, however, is the punishment for sacring a lady."

That said, Erebus led Kitty to where Menoetius's car was parked, leaving Menoetius froze at where he was because there was no cloth for him to change into.

The wolves, now in human shape and all suited, burst into laughter and followed Erebus to the cars, leaving Menoetius barking behind them: "Lord, my lord, don't leave me behind!"

"You can hold on to the roof of the car, if you don't care to run!" Theia gave him a bright smile as she opened her car.

It was a twenty-mile run.

Of course Menoetius didn't chose to paste himself on the top of Theia's car, or any of the cars.

It was humiliating in either of his forms.

Dionysus closed his door at him after Menoetius begged with puppy dog eyes to sit in his car, NAKED, and Menoetius knew he would have even lower chances at the same request with others...

But being "abandoned" by his team was not what on his mind on his run--

Because what was really weird, was that not just his team was teasing him this time, but Erebus also, who never participates in this kind of "childish" game, ever!

"Who is the little girl that was with the Lord?" Watching Erebus taking Kitty up to a room, Menoetius pressed near Oceanus and asked him --

They got back to the nearest town where they can take a short night's rest before heading back to the city.

"From what I heard--" Oceanus turned to see what was so smelly, and saw Menoetius with only a towel he just got from the hotel around his waist: "Go shower first! You are all sweaty!"

"He meant to say 'filthy'." A rough, loud voice came into the hotel hall behind them.

"Ares!" Menoetius shout at the man coming into the hall with his fist waving in the air, but then he saw the figure following Ares into the hall.

It was Themis, the ice beauty that Menoetius just cannot help but to want to melt.

Menoetius put Ares behind his mind and went to greet her: "Hey! Themis! You are back! I was starting to worry--"

"Why are you all filthy?" Themis cut off his too warm welcome and asked, surprised and was dodging backwards.

Menoetius went after Ares for bursting into laughter, and the night finally fell after a long, long day...

"Boss's coming!" Menoetius ran into the room yelling.

Pretty sure "boss" also heard him, even though Erebus was upstairs. The rest of the Patronus sighed and kept on what they were doing, giving Menoetius a pity look.

"Were you being naughty?" Dionysus teased him.

"No! Of course not!" Menoetius protested.

"Then why are you so nervous? He always drinks with us." Metis waved her hand casually and her drink spilled a little.

After a long day, they all settled in this small hotel. Showered and fed. There was little left but to have fun and drink before bed.

The Patronus were now gathered at the dining hall, around a huge table standing or sitting, with drinks in their hands.

Well, in Oceanus's case, beef in his hands still. He was always hungry.

"Because! Aren't you even a little bit curious about the girl? He NEVER does that! He is always the cold type, remember?! And this time he just took her with us?!" You can almost see the curiosity burning a hole in Menoetius's head.

"What do you think he SHOULD do? Leaving her there in the woods with a burnt village?" Metis said, calm as always.

"But... You weren't there! You didn't see. Lord did NOT do that out of pity! I... I don't know, but..." Menoetius started to object, but he wasn't sure of his judgement so his argument turned into a whisper to himself.

"He IS right about one thing though," Metis suddenly added, "Lord IS the cold type."

"How is he cold? He's alright with us!" Theia protested, pouting. Tartarus patted her on the head as a comfort.

"With women I mean." Metis explained patiently.

"He IS gentleman like, and polite, and kind, and everything nice you can say about a man, but I have never seen him being warm to a woman, or, in this case, a little girl." Dionysus agreed.

"See?! See what I mean?!" Menoetius jumped to hug Dionysus for supporting him, and the latter pushed him away gracefully.

"Still, nothing happened yet." Themis added coolly.

They all knew Themis likes Erebus, so for a second no one said anything after her comments.

"I have to find out--" Menoetius stood up suddenly and started heading out when--

"Find out about what?"

It was Erebus, standing by the door, right in front of Menoetius, with his hair still humid from the shower.

"Errrrr..." Menoetius seemed like a cat got his tongue.

"How's your wound, my Lord?" Metis saved him with a question.

"You took a hit?!" Themis only loses her cool when it comes to Erebus.

"It's okay," Erebus returned Themis a smile, "Almost healed now."

"Almost..." That word didn't take away Themis's worry. A wound that took Erebus nearly a day to heal is not a shallow one.

Erebus just shrugged and headed to the table for a drink. "How were your missions? Tell me about it?"

His Patronus started their reports, not official one though, just so he could have an idea about their day.

"I'm sorry, my Lord, for not returning sooner." Themis apologized after her briefing.

"It's okay, not your fault. It was on me." Erebus patted her head, "Plus, it's not even a big deal."

There was no way Erebus would let her know that Kitty was the reason why he was injured.

"A whole village was wracked this time. It's bound to be on paper." Pallas turned the topic with a plaint, seeing that Erebus didn't want to keep on about that topic.

Pallas was always the rational one in the team.

"This time there's no way Perses could get away with it!" Ares put down his beer, hard, causing the drink spilled all over the table.

"What's gonna happen to him?" Metis turned to Erebus. She was not too optimistic on Ares's wish. They all knew what the Alpha King had been like recently.

"There will be punishment, that's for sure." Erebus gave only a cool comment, as if not caring about it too much.

"But...It's hundreds of lives taken! Even if it's an alpha-- " Menoetius started to protest.

"The King was his alpha." Erebus said only those five words softly, and the whole room fell in silence.

The bond between an alpha and his warriors was not light.

Ever since werewolves from all over the world decided to join and be one whole pack and hide their identity among human society for safety, their world was no longer the wild, free one that only their ancestors knew.

And was when the war started.

All sizes of packs joining together is bound to evoke conflicts. They were werewolves, it was in their blood.

Packs fused and breaks, and fused into bigger ones. Finally the war was over when they all fused into a huge whole pack.

EVERYONE of them felt the connection between them and the Alpha King, they had to obey and follow, when an alpha was chosen by the pack. And from there, even though they can still have their own pack in different cities and their own alphas, they all belong to this one huge pack.

There were no more wars.

Order was brought to them. They quickly went into hiding and no more werewolves was discovered or killed by human ever again.

The Alpha King would assign each pack an area to protect, depending on the sizes of the pack.

Years after years, werewolves left only legends among the human society with no more traces of them anywhere.

They became Patronus, worshipped by human and lived among them peacefully in hiding.

Their Alpha King now was the third. And like the tradition, he picked the best wolves from his own small pack to lead the other small packs around the world, like Erebus, like Perses.

Often than not, the packs approved these leaders as their alpha because they ARE strong, wise and has everything a leader needs to have.

But there were rare cases where the pack would form their own alpha, and in those cases, the leader assigned by the King would be his Beta, and still be the bridge between the King and the pack.

Of course, these cases need to be kept rare. The King would try to make adjustments when it happens.

"I don't see a reassignment would be a good solution. He doesn't care about life, not even werewolves’. He WILL expose us." Ares broke the silence.

"That would be the King's decision to make." Pallas spoke with a light voice, but in it there was a trace of firmness.

"Enough with that jerk already," Menoetius waved his hand indifferently, "We will capture him again if he crosses the line, again."

"It's dangerous for the Kingdom, and this solution doesn't solve the problem because by that time, more lives would be lost!" Themis said angrily and Menoetius shrank at her tone.

"Alright." Erebus finally spoke to stop the dispute. "I will deal with it, so don't worry yourself too much. Enjoy the night and get some rest. You did good today."

They all lowered their heads, and the drinks soon wiped out the worries on their faces.

"Something bothering you, Menoetius?" Erebus was standing by the window, looking outside when he noticed that Menoetius had been pacing back and forth around him for a while with a hesitating look on his face.

"No my Lord!" Menoetius jumped as if someone stepped on his tail, and he changed his answer right after the words burst out of his moth: "I mean, yes, my Lord!"

Erebus chuckled and didn't reply right away.

He returned to the table, sit comfortably and then asked, "What do you think of Kitty?"

"My, my Load?!" Menoetius's eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his head.

"We don't know anything about her." Metis glanced at Themis's pale face and sit down too, smoothing the conversation.

She knew Erebus well enough that she could tell, Erebus knew what was going on in their heads.

"She is asleep." Erebus said with an innocent and genuine look.

"Ugh, you can be so evil sometime, my Lord." Dionysus complained.

"Haha..." Had his fun, Erebus stopped joking around.

He squinted his eyes with a subtle grin and said lazily: "She became an orphan at 14 when she lost her parents to a tragic accident. She was the only child in her family, and she lost a few siblings today."

He always made people feel like they were being teased but had no proof!

"But how?!" And Menoetius fell right into his trap.

"Good question. That's what I want you to find out." Erebus turned to him with a harmless smile.

"My Lord...?" Poor Menoetius had no idea what's going on now. He asked with a wronged and confused face: "Y-you think she lied to us? Or...?"

"I'm sure all of these statements are true. I just want to know more about her, as much as WE can." Erebus stressed on the "we" hinting that the research would be Menoetius's job.

"Noooo..." Menoetius hated research the most. He'd rather run another 20 miles if he had a choice.

"And Themis will help us. Won't you, Themis?" Erebus turned to Themis. He was well aware that Menoetius was sweet on her for quite some time.

"Of course, my Lord." Themis sighed at the assignment. She liked neither Menoetius nor Kitty.

"My good Lord, stop teasing us!" Theia couldn't bear the suspense any longer. Tartarus chuckled at her anxiety and patted her head before he turned to Erebus: "We are here for you, my Lord."

He KNEW how Erebus was feeling. In fact, he might be the only one in that room that knew his feeling on that day.

"Haha... well," Erebus laughed at Tartarus's subtle hint, and took a deep breath: "I marked her."