Dangerous Games: Chapter 10

Wooowee, a lot happens in this chapter, and at times I felt it may have gotten away from me, so please tell me what you think in the comments down below.  My biggest fear is always disappointing you guys, so please let me know.

Please enjoy and as always Thank You For Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Chapter Ten

Ethan couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the boy’s mother had turned into a giant wolf right before his very eyes. The murderous look in the mother wolf’s eyes left no doubt in Ethan’s mind that she was going to kill the man that hurt her son. He watched as not a single person dared to move, they all just seemed to be waiting for the death they all could feel was coming. As Ethan’s gaze slid moved to the trembling man on the floor, something next to the man caught his eye.

‘The necklace!’

It had fallen out when the boy’s father had knocked the other man down.

‘Damn it, how does Sera expect me to steal this necklace from a bunch of werewolves?’

Ethan froze for a moment as the word werewolves crossed through his mind.

“Werewolves.” Ethan whispers to himself.

Just saying the word seemed to help Ethan realize that that’s exactly what these people were, they were all werewolves, except for the boy. Focusing his gaze back to the situation below Ethan watches as the little boy gets up and grabs his mother’s tail. The boy was saying something to her, but his voice was too low for Ethan to hear. He leans in closer to the glass hoping to hear what the boy was saying only for the window pan to let out a small creak. Ethan immediately ducks out of site, cursing his stupidity. After a few seconds Ethan peeks up, praying nobody heard or saw him. To his relief everyone attention still seemed to be focused on the situation with the boy and his family. Ethan watches carefully as the father picks up his son and places him on top of his mother back.

“We are leaving, I suggest no one try to stop us!” The boy’s father calls out.

“You’re finished Silverblood, you hear me, finished!” The man on the floor yells out pathetically.

Ethan gaze moves back to the man called Silverblood, that was the person Sera had told him to contact if things sideways. As Silverblood turns to leave his eyes lock onto Ethan for a brief second, the look in his eyes letting Ethan know that he had known he was there the whole time. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he was going to expose him, as Silverblood said nothing as he walked out with his family.

Ethan let’s out a sigh of relief, his gaze shifting back to the necklace on the floor, he watches as the man gets up and picks it up off the floor, stuffing it into his inner breast pocket.

‘Ok, now that I know where it is, the question becomes how do I get it.’

Now that he knew these people were werewolves, he couldn’t risk a direct approach even with the tear gas and flash bangs in his bag. As the music and chatter start up again, Ethan lets out a small laugh as he watches the man who was knocked down try to play off his embarrassing display from earlier.

“What a dick.” Ethan whispers to himself.

“I agree.”

Startled, Ethan turns to the voice that just spoke; it was Silverblood.

“I don’t have long, I need to get back to my family, so tell me, why are you here?”

His voice was commanding and calm, but there was more to it, there was a pressure in his words that made it hard to breath. This man, no, this wolf was not something Ethan could hope to face normally.

“I was hired to steal a necklace, that belongs to the man you punched earlier.” Ethan explains, deciding to just go with the truth for now.

“A necklace?”

“Yep.”

“For what reason?”

“Not my business.” Ethan responded out of reflex, even though he himself was wondering that very thing.

“Who hired you?”

Ethan hesitates, he couldn’t be too sure that naming Sera would do or explain anything. Remembering the note she had left for him, Ethan takes out the card and with a flick of his wrist tosses over to Silverbood, who catches it. Looking over the card, Silverblood seems to be taken aback by it.

“The Witches Council, no one’s heard from them in ages, but that would explain why I can’t smell you even from this distance.” Silverblood muses to himself.

‘Witches?’ Ethan thinks to himself. ‘Is that what Sera is, a witch?’

“From my understanding occuluvis is extremely hard to make and is not something to be used for something as simple as stealing.” Silverblood states in a suspicious tone.

“Trust me when I say nothing about this job is simple.” Ethan responds.

Silverblood stares at him, Ethan could tell from the look in his eye that Silverblood was trying to make sense of his presence. Once again Ethan was glad for mask covering his face, after a moment the pressure surrounding Ethan disappears.

“Trying to steal the necklace here would-be suicide.” Silverblood notes.

“I know, the person who sent me left out quite a few details that would have been helpful, like the fact that I would be crashing a party for werewolves.” Ethan states to his own chagrin.

Silverblood smiles before quickly schooling his features, “For you to show me this card so quickly must mean you know of my friendly relation with the witch’s council.”

In reality Ethan had no idea what any of this meant, but he couldn’t afford to show Silverblood his ignorance.

“I was told you could help me.”

“Perhaps, for now I suggest you head back, I’ll contact you when I can.”

Ethan was in no position to argue, and there were too many unknown variables for him to try and steal the necklace now anyway.

“Ok, I’m staying at the Northview Hotel room 8.”

As Silverblood turns to leave; Ethan calls out to him.

“About your son.”

Silverblood stops but doesn’t turn around.

“He’s a tough kid, and…you’re a good father.” Ethan stated, unsure of why he felt so compelled to say that to him.

Without responding or turning Silverblood performs an inhuman leap into the darkness of the woods.

It was late by the time Ethan made it back to the hotel, but he couldn’t sleep, his mind was still trying to process everything he had witnessed and learned back at the manor. He paced back and forth as he tried to understand why Sera had really sent him here.

‘She must have known about the werewolves, there’s no way she didn’t. So, either she’s severely overestimating my abilities, or she wanted me to fail.’ Ethan stops. ‘Maybe failing was the point, maybe forcing me to meet with Silverblood was the true goal all along?’

As Ethan considers this, the hotel phone rings; given recent events Ethan had a good idea who it was on the other line.

“Yes.” Ethan said in a sure tone as he answered the phone.

“One of my people is waiting for you in the woods at the east edge of Northview, you have one hour.” Silverblood’s voice states before disconnecting the call.

Ethan quickly puts on his mask and grabs his bag; his hotel was already on the east edge of town, so he forgoes using the rental and just walks. Despite the late hour, plenty of people were still roaming about the town, making it easy for him to slip by unnoticed. He’s able to reach the woods in under an hour, after a waiting few seconds a naked man steps out of the woods towards him.

“You the thief?” The naked man asks.

Having been dumbfounded by the man’s nudity, Ethan mentally shakes himself to respond.

“Uh yeah.” Ethan answers.

The man nods and then begins to transform into a giant wolf, Ethan almost falls back in surprise but catches himself and continues to watch in awe. The transformation itself only took seconds, but it was no less incredible. Once done, the wolf lays down on the ground and motions with his giant head for Ethan to get on. Ethan nervously steps towards the wolf, grateful that his mask was hiding the nervous expression he knew he had on his face. The wolf lets out an irritated huff, clearly annoyed that Ethan was taking too long.

‘Snap out of it!’ Ethan chastises himself.

Standing up straight; Ethan walks towards the wolf and quickly mounts him, the wolf in turn gets up and shoots off into the woods. The sudden acceleration causes Ethan to jerk back and almost fall, but he quickly catches, and grabs hold of the wolf’s fur. Once he was sure of his hold, Ethan watched as the wolf effortlessly weaved through the woods as if it were a flat road. His mask helped shield his eyes from the strong wind as they raced through at a speed that easily outmatched that of a car. Ethan could feel the smile on his face growing with his excitement, he’d never felt such speed or freedom before. A part of him wanted to hoot and holler, but he wasn’t too sure how his werewolf guide would take that, so he held it in.

After a while the wolf began to slow; looking ahead, Ethan saw a large group of wolves with two naked men standing in front of them. The first man he easily recognized as Silverblood, but the second was a tall muscular black man he hadn’t seen before. As the wolf comes to a stop in front of the group; Ethan quickly jumps off so that the wolf wouldn’t have to get down to let me off. Unsure of the etiquette, Ethan walks forward and gives Silverblood a respectful nod as he stands in front of him.

“This here is my beta, Charles.” Silverblood states as he motions to the man next to him.

“You can call me Red Eye.” Ethan states as he gives Charles a respectful nod as well.

“The Alpha said you didn’t know you’d be dealing with werewolves, so he had me bring you this.”

Charles hands Ethan a small dagger in a sheath, Ethan pulls the dagger out to inspect it and quickly notices that it’s made of silver.

‘Huh, so I guess the whole only silver can hurt werewolves thing is actually true.’ Ethan muses to himself.

“I appreciate it, I’ll return it once the job is done.” Ethan states as he straps the knife to his belt.

Charles gives a nod in response and then steps back behind Silverblood.

“The Alpha who has the necklace you need is named Clermon, him and his pack live in an estate a few miles from here. Thankfully, there’s little to no wind tonight so we can risk being so close without being detected.” Silverblood explains.

“Ok, just get me close and I’ll take it from there.”

“No, I didn’t bring you here to help you steal the necklace.” Silverblood states.

“Then why di-?”

“I brought you here so that you can take the necklace, after me and my pack deal Clermon and his pack.” Silverblood clarifies.

“Wait what?”

Ethan was at a lost he hadn’t expected this.

“What kind of magic can you use? We need to know so that we can plan around it.” Charles asks.

‘Oh shit.’ Ethan says to himself as he begins to panic.

He should have realized that after handing Silverblood a card from the witches’ council, that he would assume Ethan was a witch from the council.

‘Idiot!’ Ethan chastises himself, ‘Should I just tell them I’m human? No, I can’t assume they’d take that well just because his son is human. Maybe I can pass off my ability as-’

“No, he will not be taking part.” Silverblood interrupts.

“Alpha?” Charles asks.

“This is a personal matter, and I will not have the witches’ council be part of it.” Silverblood states.

Ethan felt the same pressure he had felt before in his words, as if it were enforcing Silverblood’s will. From the look in Silverbood’s eyes, Ethan immediately understood that this was revenge for what Clermon had done to his son back at the party.

“Now then, Charles, you and your team will lead their patrol away, act feral to make them think you’re rogues, one of them might recognize you so make sure to keep your distance. After leading them away, Clermon will most likely send out a second group to continue the patrol.” Silverblood pauses. “No, Clermon is a narcissist and a coward, he thinks such things as beneath him.”

Ethan was confused as Silverblood seemed to answer a question nobody had asked, this happened a few more times as he continued to explain their plan of attack. After the fourth time, Ethan realized that he was answering question from the other wolves and deduced that they must have some type of shared telepathy.

‘But if that’s the case why is he explaining his plan out loud to…oh.’

It was for his benefit Ethan realized, Silverblood had not wanted to leave him in uncomfortable silence. Once Silverblood finishes going over the plan he turns to Ethan.

“There’s a ridge overlooking the estate nearby, I’ll have one of my people stay with you there.”

Ethan nods; as everyone begins to move out, they’re interrupted by the arrival of a lone female wolf, Ethan recognizes the wolf as the boy’s mother.

“What’s wrong, I thought you were going stay home with Lucas and Caden?” Silverblood asks the female wolf.

The wolf doesn’t respond, at least not in a way Ethan could hear.

“No, you should go back.”

The wolf growls at Silverblood’s words.

‘Yep, they’re definitely married.’ Ethan thinks to himself.

Silverblood let’s out sigh, “Fine, you can wait with him at the ridge, take it or leave it.”

Silverblood motions towards Ethan; he felt like a deer caught in headlights as the female wolf looks over at him, after a moment she looks back at Silverblood and nods. With that done Silverblood and Charles transform and lead their respective groups towards Clermons estate. The female wolf motions for Ethan to follow her as she heads off in a different direction then the rest. Ethan jogs along as the female wolf, who was clearly annoyed by his slow speed, leads him to the ridge overlooking Clermon’s estate. Once there, they both wait in silence for the assault to begin.

Looking over the estate; Ethan sees that similar to the manor the party was held in, there was no barrier between the manor and the woods. Now knowing they were werewolves he understood why. As they wait, Ethan once again goes over everything that has happened so far in his head and is still in disbelief of the entire situation. He was sent by a witch to steal a necklace from a werewolf with the help of other werewolves.

Ethan glances over at the female wolf, she was a little under six feet in height and red fur covered her body. She was clearly on edge; her posture was stiff, and her eyes hadn’t stopped moving since they got here.

“Your husband didn’t introduce us, or at least not in a way I could here, but I’m called Red Eye.” Ethan says trying to break the tension.

The female wolf makes no indication that she heard him.

“Well, I mean, Red Eye is my professional name, my real name is Ethan.”

Once again, the female wolf gives no indication that she was listening to him.

“So yeah, I’m Ethan, what’s your name?”

The female wolf turns her head and gives Ethan a dead stare.

“It was a joke, I know you…can’t…talk in wolf form…. Can you talk in wolf form?” Ethan asks sheepishly.

The female wolf looks back towards the estate, ignoring Ethan.

‘Nice, maybe next you should ask if she wants to play fetch, I’m sure that will go over really well.’ Ethan scolds himself.

A howl breaks out letting Ethan and the female wolf know that the attack had begun. Even with lights coming from the manor and moon, Ethan still struggled to make out anything. Focusing his breathing Ethan activates his ability, he had never tried using it at this distance before but decided to give it a shot anyway. With his ability active Ethan glances over at the female wolf, just like at the party, light from werewolves was much stronger than that of humans. It wasn’t as strong or as bright as Sera, but there was a wild animalistic feeling to it. Using that as a reference, Ethan looks out towards the manor. After a few moments Ethan began to see small bright dots that gave off the same feeling as the wolf next to him.

‘Yes!!’ Ethan inwardly rejoices.

He had no idea his ability was capable of such a thing or distance; in truth he had never tried pushing it past the things he already knew it could do. Ethan continued to watch as some of the dots began to disappear, some were gone in a blink while other seem to slowly fade away. It only took a second for Ethan to realize why some of the dots were disappearing. It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him, a harsh reminder of what was happening down there. He had let himself get swept up in the mystique of meeting werewolves and learning about witches. But this was no picnic, and these were no gentle creatures, they were deadly and dangerous to anyone they saw as an enemy. Ethan shudders as he glances over at the female wolf’s and imagines her attacking him with her giant claws and massive fangs.

“I don’t know if your husband told you, but I was at the party tonight and I saw what happened with your son.” Ethan says in a low voice as he looks forward.

The female wolf beside him goes still.

“Even though he probably deserved it, I’m glad you didn’t kill Clermon at the party tonight. You would have regretted showing your son such an ugly side of yourself, and at the same time you also taught him restraint. The worlds an ugly place, and it’s better for kids to not witness that ugliness through their parents.” Ethan continues in a low voice.

Ethan could feel the female wolf looking at him, so he turns his head to meet her gaze, there was a softness in her eyes that wasn’t there before. After a moment the female wolf lowers her head and grabs a stick off the ground with her teeth. She then procced to use the stick to carefully write something in the dirt in front of her. Once she finishes, she underlines the word to let Ethan know she was done. Looking down at the ground; Ethan reads the word the female wolf had written.

“Laura?”

The female wolf drops the stick and looks at Ethan, and he quickly realizes that she was telling him her name. In return, Ethan pulls back his hoodie and lifts up his mask showing Laura his face.

“Nice to meet you Laura, I’m Ethan.” Ethan offers with a small smile.

Laura simply nods before focusing her attention back to the fighting happening at the manor, Ethan follows suit, putting his mask back on and pulling his hoodie over his head. As Ethan continued to watch he notices three of the bright dots moving out the back of the manor. Remembering Silverblood’s words about how Clermon was a coward, Ethan quickly surmised that it was Clermon and two others’ making a break for it.

“Laura, Clermon’s making a break for it!” Ethan exclaims as he points in the direction of the three dots.

Laura lets out a growl, Ethan could see in her eyes what she was thinking.

“Wait, wait, wait!!!”

Without thinking Ethan grabs hold of Laura’s fur and jumps on her back as she jumps from the ridge and gives chase after Clermon.

‘What the hell was I thinking!’ Ethan shouts at himself.

Laura was fast, faster than the first wolf he rode on, she was quickly gaining on Clermon and the two others. As the three dots grow closer Ethan notices two of the dots break off and begin coming towards him and Laura.

Ethan leans in close to one of Laura’s ears, “There are two coming towards us with one still running away, I’m pretty sure that’s Clermon. Lower your speed so I can get something out of my bag.”

Hearing Ethan, Laura drops her speed, allowing him to open his bag and take out one of the flashbangs.

“Ok, once they get close, I’ll toss this flashbang to blind and disorient them. When that happens, you keep going after Clermon, I’ll keep the other two busy.”

Ethan had no idea what he was saying, why he thought he could keep two werewolves distracted was beyond him. But it was too late to take back now as saw two grey wolves coming towards him and Laura.

“Stop and close your eyes.” Ethan tells Laura.

Listening to Ethan Laura stops and closes her eyes; Ethan tosses the flashbang and cover Laura’s ears with his hands. The flashbang goes off right as the two grey wolves are next to it, blinding and deafening them.

“Go!” Ethan yells as he jumps off Laura’s back.

Laura runs past the two grey wolves and continues after Clermon. Meanwhile, Ethan only had a few seconds before the two grey wolves got their vision back. Grabbing the smoke bombs from his bag Ethan tosses one of them to give him cover. Thanks to the flashbang their ears should be ringing for a while, and thanks to the powder Sera had sent him, occuluvis he remembered Silverblood calling it, he didn’t have to worry about them sniffing him out.

Ethan unsheathes the silver dagger Charles had given him, he had never killed anything directly before, but he couldn’t afford to hesitate. Ethan quietly runs towards the grey wolves and uses the dagger too slice at their legs before ducking back into the smoke. Thecuts were clean but shallow, the wolves growl out in pain as the cuts begin to slowly heal themselves much to Ethan amazement.

‘Okay, so trying to whittle them down with small cuts does not seem to be an option.’ Ethan concludes.

As Ethan moves around the wolves; he accidently steps on a twig causing it to snap, one of the wolves hears it and immediately turns and lunges toward him. Even with his ability allowing him to see the wolf’s movements at a slower a pace the wolf was still moving fast. Ethan is barely able to dodge out of the way in time and uses the dagger to slash at the wolf’s face. Ethan quickly ducks out of sight as the wolf howls in pain and the other wolf comes to it aid. The smoke from the smoke bomb was beginning to dissipate so Ethan takes out another one and tosses it nearby. The grey wolves were cautious now and were covering each other’s back, to disorient them further, Ethan takes out one of the tear gas grenades and tosses it at the two wolves. They begin to cough and wheeze, and procced to run out of the smoke, only to come face to face with Silverblood and Charles. Ethan looks away as Silverblood and Charles make quick work of the two grey wolves, their short painful cries sending shivers down Ethan spine. Once it was over, Silverblood lets out a victorious howl which Charles other the wolves nearby join.

As the sounds of their howls die down Ethan hears the steps of an approaching wolf, turning towards it he sees that its Laura. The fur around her mouth was stained with blood and the air around her reeked of satisfaction, Clermon was dead. Laura walks up to Silverblood, though they made no sound they were clearly speaking. After a moment, the two press there foreheads together, and the air around them becomes intimate. Afterward Silverblood turns to Ethan and transform back into his human form.

“I apologize, I said that I didn’t want to involve you, but my wife ended up dragging you into it anyway.” Silverblood apologizes.

“Its okay, I was glad I could help.”

“Here the necklace.”

Ethan sticks out his hand as Laura step up to him and opens her mouth, dropping the necklace into Ethan’s hands.

“Clermon had it and a few other valuables on him as he tried to run, probably why Laura was able to catch up to him so fast.” Silverblood explains.

Laura lets out a small whine.

“No, no, no I didn’t mean it like that, I know you would have caught him anyway!” Silverblood quickly tries to correct himself.

But Laura didn’t seem to be buying it, she sticks up her nose and lets out a humph before walking away.

“I’m gonna pay for that one.” Silverblood says to himself.

Ethan couldn’t but snicker at the display.

“Now then, Ethan.”

Ethan was surprised to hear Silverblood call him by his name, but then realized Laura must have told them through their shared telepathy.

“Clermon, would have gotten away if not for you so if you ever need a favor don’t hesitate to ask.”

Ethan pulls back his hood and completely takes off his mask.

“Thank you Silverblood.” Ethan says as he sticks out his hand to Silverblood.

“Please, call me Mattias.” Silverblood states as he shakes Ethan’s hand.