THE COBBLESTONE ROADS WERE SLICK as the rain continues to beat down heavily drawing the town in the dull grey scenery. It had been fifty years since the pack had left with a fear of what came to become the Family line of Hunters on their tails. They took shelter in a fairly small town off to the far side of London and walked amongst the humans unnoticed, but what was to come was a terrifying reminder of the dark past and tangled web they had weaved.

    Their knowledge of what they were had grown tremendously. They learned how to deal with cravings and control their shift at will and learned to live with their curse that proved to be deaths blessing--Lycan's, as they called themselves and they stood ranked individually by power and status.

    The streets were confined in rows of lampposts and foul-smelling humans rushed around like puppets and someone tugging at their strings. Dreary rainfall pools in low dips of the cobbled roads and few steam cars flew past.

    Clayton, Alric, and Viktor took grace upon weasling themselves into an abandoned flat they had stayed in for several months. They continued to feed, Clayton soon fell into the feeding frenzy but recoiled every time.

    "What do you mean he's back?" One voice shouted through pelting rain sliding off the roof, the tone was uncanny and dark.

    "I mean the man who you two bafoons turned wants you dead." It was Clayton's growl that surfaced above all noise.

    "Alric turned. Let's make that clear." Viktor sneered pacing in front of large, gleaming windows anxiously. "So he survived the shift?"

    "I wouldn't have scratched him if you didn't feed!"

    Clayton nodded his head. "He took the pleasure of speaking his name since you didn't ask when you ate his sister."

    "Sister?" Questioned Viktor eagerly. He turned and raises his eyebrow over his shoulder at Clayton's mottled brown gaze and gave him an ear. "His name?"

    "Blaine, Blaine Coldwell."

    "Coldwell?" Viktor's tone was questioning and crossed-examined it in his brain. "My family was close to the Coldwell's years ago. My grandfather always went away for hunting season with them." He told, restlessly shifting in his few feet that paced in a straight line.

    "I used to be friends with his brother,"

    All heads twist to Alric with sympathetic eyes. "He fought when the Wolves attacked, he didn't return that night."

    It was still and a heaviness filled the air. The moons watery glow infiltrated in through the sparkling shine of the windows--a perfect sight of the half-crescent shard in the dull rain-covered sky.

    "He's also feeding carelessly. The people are growing scared and weary."

    "How'd be find us anyway?" Alric points out. "We've lived here many years without any hassle."

    Clayton's shoulders shrugged."Blaine Coldwell wasn't here fifty years ago." He grumbles.

    Viktor glowered his face and brows snapped together. "How can he hold a grudge for fifty years! All I did was eat his sister,"

    "I wonder if that's all you have done, just ate his sister's heart out from her chest?" Clayton rolled his splotchy gaze.

    Viktor huffed annoyed. "Why couldn't he have picked the opposite side of London to wreck havoc on. How come we have to clean up his leftovers?"

    Alric grinned at Viktor's regretful ways and irritated manner. "What do you suppose we do?" Clayton replies. "Since you, two got us into this spiraling mess"

    Viktor morphed around to face the men and scanned the silent room--the only noise now came from the heavy downpour. Slivers of moonlight weave through cracks and crevices illuminated their bodily outlines that were placed several feet from each other.

    "We need to find him, confront him and tell him to leave, if he doesn't he'll be a dead man. This is our territory." Mumbled Viktor. "Where did you last see him, Clayton?"

    "By the old fishing dock,"

    "That's been run down for years," Alric mentioned to Clayton.

    "Let's go," Viktor hurried. "Grab anything you may need." He gave a reassuring tap on Clayton's broad shoulder and faded into the entrance of another room that was bereft of color.

    The old docks were rundown and empty, ghost-quiet. Rats scurry round and round as Clayton and Alric fell swiftly behind Viktor in formation.

    "Blaine!" Shouted out Viktor under luminous glow of lamps. "I can smell you from miles around."

    They paced steadily in circles splitting up by several feet from the comfort of each other, taking in the unusual sent of rotting stench that filled the air.

     "We won't bite," Viktor rumbles.

     "How nice of you to remember my name," An eerie voice emerged from dark shadows high above them, the voice that bellowed stretched far and wide. Blaine jumped off from an old crate and paced evenly towards the pack. "Well, well well. Hello"

    "I'd like you to meet my Beta," As soon as their ears caught the words that Blaine spoke another outline surfaced out from the dark behind Alric.

    The silver lining of the shadow was bleak, the man that stepped forward into the light was tall and callous-hostile,  giving the expression like a ticking time bomb.

    "We heard you stopped in town for a little visit," Smirks Viktor with a chuckle. "Get out."

     "Oh, won't you accept two stray rogues in a time of need with little food or water?" Blaine pouts poorly.

    "You're in our territory," Alric growls under his chilled breath.

    "Oh quiet the contrary ol'friend." His pupils turned, glinting with red hues and spiraled oranges. "You're in our territory now," He stresses.

    "Oh that is right," A tone mocked from behind Clayton's back, his spine-tingling. "I could kill you all where you stand." He gibed. "Won't you interduce me," The male jeered, leering downward.

    "Where'd you get the toy," Clayton jokes making the corners of his mouth turn upward at the male's scraggly appearance.

    They turned their backs to Blaine and focused on the overly confident Beta. "That's right," Began Blaine. "You haven't met the old chap that killed my sister." His boots clicked against the cobbled ground in two long strides.

    Viktor bounced around and fixated on Blaine with a crimson death glare. "One more step and I'll have your head." His voice was like thunder in the air.

    "Touchy much," Teases the male from behind. "Here, I'll go first. Hi, my name's Simon and I feed off unsuspecting Humans. There, we broke some of the tension."

    A type of heavy feeling fell on Viktor's chest as Clayton rolled his eyes as he grew impatient. "What are you doing here Blaine." Clayton's eyes darted to the Lycan as he jolted ahead one long stride with massive legs.

    Blaine sighed. "I simply came to kill your Alpha."

    "You'd be a child if you think you can take us," Up stepped Viktor next to Clayton's side with bared teeth.

    "Oh, Is that so?" Questioned Blaine.

    "We are the first Lycan's--you-you are merely a reproduction of our power, you're a bitten. Nothing more." He spoke truthfully.

    "Well," Blaine scanned over his hands and glanced at his Beta who stalked around Alric. "I might not kill you but I can make you tremble at my feet."

    "Looks to me odds are in our favor. There's only two of you."  Proded Clayton.

    Viktor bared his teeth at the aggression pulsating through the vein in his forehead. His mind melted and left nothing less that furry and anger. "Try me,"

    Simon lurkes around carefully from behind and made his way to linger around Blaine's side. Alric snarled at his repolsize movement.

    "Puppy's collar too tight?" Sneered Simon jokingly.

    "Looks to me puppy's lost without master tugging him everywhere," Alric and Simon's childish bickering was amusing and quite enjoyable.

    "What are you waiting for?" Viktor wanted to fight, he was mentally crazed and he craved good rumble with a childish man like Blaine.  "C'mon, take your shot cub!" Viktor snarled while bracing himself. "I'd like to tare your throat out one-hundred times over again."

    Alric's body contorted into that of his wolf-his organs shut down and formed to the unusual figure. His mind had gone and any sympathy fades away, he snarled and shook out the matted brown locks of fur while saliva streamed from his gaping jaws with bared teeth. He moved light-footed and twisted side to side with ease and gentleness, snapping viciously with power.

    Blaine lunged violently at Viktor's waist and drew him to the ground in a single strike, they struggle on the ground in massive force. Simon attacked Alric and sent him slamming into a near crate with a yelp of pain flowing through his hips. Alric shook the dizzy feeling and wobbliness out as he resided up against the other Beta.

    Alric's massive forepaws sent dust winding through the breeze, he piled his massive weight on Simon as he tussle and tried beneath him.

    Clayton followed Viktor in attempt to lend a hand, Viktor pulled Blaine up to his feet by his collar that followed with a ripping sound. Blaine ruffled under Viktor's grasp

    "I told you once." He snarled. "Get out." Viktor's jaws clenched, throwing Blaine across the yard as he slid and his back burned. Clayton could see from the corner of his eye Alric and torn Simon apart, he scrambled and hurried backward in pain and fell next to Blaine's side.

    Simon sunk back into the comfort of the darkness with painful wounds caused by Alric, with Blaine behind. "The fights not over, Viktor. It has only begun. If you wish to keep your territory you will meet me at the Tower in one final fight at tomorrows Midnight, alone" Blaine's words were crystal clear."If you lose I kill you. Don't show and I'll poison your life."

    "And if I win?" Viktor's tone bellows out loudly. He couldn't resist the words that Blaine offered, it was his life on the line.

    "You may have your pathetic scrap of land and I shall have no justice for my sister."

    That reasoning was only fair thought Viktor impatiently with a nod of his head.   Blaine and Simon left as quickly as they had come. Viktor received worrisome glances from his Beta's. Viktor brushed off the chilling words and turned away, the rain had subsided only to come again.

    "Well?" Panicked Alric.

    Viktor furrows his brows in a questioning motion. "Well, what?" He bluffs in appempt not to draw any attention.

    "The man who just threatened to kill you." Clayton cries out. "You never flinched."

    Viktor stopped and faced his friends. "That's my worry, not yours," He told stoiledly holding back a relentless growl. "I don't want to hear another word of it. Let us leave now"

    It was a long walk back to the flat in the drizzling rain that cascades from rooftops. Few humans roamed the streets and hurried past. All three seemed to move without time as if it had slowed down to an even longer treck back to the lining of Viktor's territory.

    "Maybe we should just leave, let us leave now." A tired and aching Alric pleaded back at the safety of the flat. What was once safety.

    "No," Viktor argued, slumped in a chair by the windows that spilled with yellow moonlight. "I have already told you once, I don't want to hear it, the next one to speak of it will have consequences to face." Viktor had grown with anger and restless from Blaine's words that continued to taunt him as the hours flew past.

    Alric nodded in response and sunk into his skin. "Very well."

    "What if he kills you," Clayton riles up.

    "I told you, Clayton." Viktor fumed

    "Does it look like I care?" Clayton shouted facing off Viktor.

    Viktor confronted Clayton angrily. "Don't push me, Clayton." He snarls widely.

    "Come at me," Rebuked Clayton to Viktor who had risen from his seat.

    Viktor's body shifted at blinding speed to cause a blur of motion, Viktor pinned Clayton against the near wall with his fingers wrapped around his throat."Step out of line again and you'll be a dead man on the floor." He berated hositily.

    Viktor pushed off the wall and turned away to peer far out the windows to see nothing but stretching pavement and little trees. It was nothing he desired, the home he missed and thrived for to see once again had since become memories stored away.

    "I will tell you my desition at daybreak."

    Time passed, seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours. Viktor awaited his confrontation with Blaine, the scales wouldn't lie, it was life or death, whether he would kill a man or flee and take that chance--No, Viktor was an ignorant man and thrived for a good fight, he would see Henrik once again or continue to grieve in eternity.

    The fire-glow of dawn began to show as sunlight spilled across the bare pavement and streamed through glossy windows. It was a  magnificent scene and glint with beauty across the bleak, gray town. Alric and Clayton lined up before Viktor and stood under his shadow.

    "I told you I would give you my decision. In return, he must do as I say." Viktor cleared his throat. "A life or death promise you must make."

    "Tell us, then we shall decide." Rumbles Clayton from the back of his hoarse throat.

    "You know my conditions, give me your word," Viktor stresses his words to the last second suppressing a growl.

    Clayton held a growing hatred as he and Alric both nodded their head in reply to Viktor.

    "Good," Viktor shifts in his spot uncomfortably, undoubtedly Clayton nor Alric have ever seen him this nerve-racked.

    "I'm going to fight Blaine. He doesn't stand a chance."

   "He could kill you!" Alric shouts back.

    Viktor interlocked his hands and closed his eyes in attempt not to lash out at his dear friends. Even though he seemed to speak darkly of them and revolted at their company, he cares deeply for them-- after all, they were raised together.

    "You gave me your word." Viktor's tone changed darkly yet gentle. "You will obey my every order."

    "Very well," Alric's gaze was etched like stone and cold.

     "What is your plan of attack?" Clayton jolts forward with questioning eyes.

    "I plan to fight him like he wishes."

    "You mean kill him."

    "It's against the laws, Clayton." Viktor's voice rumbles above all noise in the air. "I shall not kill another of my kind unless it comes to it."

    Viktor replenished his lungs with a fresh breath of the stagnant air that loomed eerily in the flat.

    "And till the time comes?" A smooth tone cracked the silence. Viktor had risen his icy gaze from the dust riddled floor and fixated on Alric.

    "We patiently wait."

    Clayton had questions piling up in his brain and so did Alric. Blaine's ways were suspicious and ununiform. It wasn't vengeance he wanted for his sister, he wanted much more.

    They did nothing in preparation--they waited and waited for the dreadful time to approach. The orb of sunlight in the sky rose and fell to cast long shadows that strung through the open town. Darkness reigned once again.

    He had a low, raspy tone. "You will stay here and flee if I do not return by the time the clock strikes one o'clock."

    They didn't agree nor argue, they just loomed wide-eyed.

    "Why can't we come with you?" Clayton wonders like a two-year old, beginning to beg and whine childishly. Usually, it was Alric, but it was Clayton this time.

    Viktor turned and sunk through the entrance of the flat that led to rusting metal stairs. He cleared them in one jump- one bone-crushing jump to a human.

    The tower grew in the distance till Viktor stood small before it. The clock's chime was mesmerizing till it strikes twelve o'clock. Viktor's figure moved and shifted in a blur racing the side of the clock tower, he stood on a solid platform--far from the soft earthy ground. He seen from miles around, small shops were nothing and he could touch the sky.

    He could hear the steady breaths that Blaine took, his eyes shined through little lighting and his ears were finely tuned. He could hear the raindrops that trickle evenly from the thundering clouds and rolled in hastily.

    "I'm here Blaine." Viktor declared. "Show yourself."

    "I didn't think you would show," Out lurks a still object from the grim darkness-Blaine, he steadily paced ahead and gave Viktor a heavy eye. His arms swung gently by his side as he strode only sever feet from Viktor, a few feet too close.

    "You know me, I couldn't resist a good rumble with an amateur."

    Viktor heard a low, raspy growl surface from Blaine, he was annoyed and unease.

    "I see you left your dogs at the door," Blaine sneered.

    "You as well, I can't smell your mutt anywhere." Teases Viktor madly, he prodded at a ticking time bomb and scoffed.

    "Let us skip the small talk wolfie, come get me."

    Blaine cracked his neck and braced himself as Viktor bared his overly sized teeth and claws emitted from his slender fingertips.

    With a snarl Viktor flings himself at Blaine and locks his broad hands against his shoulder, Blaine crashes into the solid concrete beneath their feet.

    Blaine shook while ignoring the heat wave that consumed his left leg and spine. Blaine's body hurdles through the thin, stale air with his force on top of Viktor's aching stomach.

    Viktor gnarls and sings Blaine away from him, landing nearly ten foot from him--It was over, Blaine struggled to wake himself from the dizziness and overwhelming pain. Claws had sunk in and teeth showed warningly.

    A nose-catching scent overwhelms the air while Blaine fights to stand on his own two feet--Then, Viktor wasn't near to a struggling Blain, he was on the opposite side of the Clock Tower. Who had moved him?

    Viktor lurks under darkness and illly cast shadows with snarls and mix-toned growls emitting from his throat. He saw no one threw scarlet eyes--Yet then, a hand slams against his back.

    A familiar face emerges. Viktor's eyes had grown wide with a scowled expression

    "I had him!" He rages. "I could have killed him where he sat!"

    "He was going to kill you!" An uncanny rasp and deep growl spat--Clayton, he held a silver knife, an unusual one that glittered white with dabs of red.

    "You gave me your word!"

    "I gave you my word we would stay together till the end!"

    It was a blood-battle with harsh words that stung. Clayton peers down at the dagger running it through his fingers."Silver knife dipped in ash from the last Elder tree." Clayton frowns fixated on the deadly blade. "The only way to kill a primal Lycan."

    Alric emerged from behind--He had been keeping a watchful eye. Viktor's and Clayton's anger subsided lightly even though they still growled from within.

     "We won," Alric told with a cheer.

    "I lost," whispers Viktor.

    "You won, you fought Blaine." Rasped Clayton.

    "I lost Clayton, those were the rules. I fled. I lost the fight." Viktor was angry and fumed. "We must leave this territory."

    "No,"

    "The odds were fair!" Viktor spat facing off to Alric. "We leave now."

    "If you wish so desperately to leave where shall we go?" Clayton asks.

    "Home,"

    The scales tipped, it wasn't in anyone's favor. Viktor, Clayton, and Alric gathered their things and fled watching over their backs. They sailed towards once home, where the forest was plentiful and streams were many. To the place, Viktor had taken Henrik's life, back to the village.

    How would it have changed? His brother, sister. The people they once knew. Jesper and Viktor exchanged few letters with deep questions, why did you leave so suddenly? The Curse.  Alison was right, their curse proved to be a burden and a heavy one at that, yet there was a lightness to it.

    Their boat floated gracefully off the shore only a half mile out, the sail unfurled. A dense fog loomed stalely at least one foot above the slopes that proved to be steady waters.

    "Won't Blaine and his mutt catch up with us after he shakes the blow you served him?" Observed Alric keenly.

    "It would take a days journey for them," States Clayton, earning a nod from Viktor.

    Their ship drove and closed in on the ridged moonlit shoreline as it came to a grinding halt. They leap from their boat and stood tall, stretching out their cramped legs. An argument brewed between them.

    "What do you plan to do when the dogs find you?" Grumbled Alric, his voice traveled far across the sand scattered scenery. His insults were amusing and at the hatred, he grew for Simon.

    "They're going to kill us all," Clayton pants to Alric,  throwing a tantrum. Viktor twisted around from about five feet away from the boys and gave a hard glare.

    A cold silence grew between them as Viktor pulled back his shoulders and drew in a heavy breath, he paces evenly in front of Clayton with ill words.

    "You're right Clayton." He realized clearly. "They might kill us all but not if I get to you first he won't." Viktor pushed the air through his nose and growled. They said nothing and began the jagged climb up a slope that leads through dense forest that had a covering of crow-black darkness.

    "What do you plan to do, for the time being, waltz around town and hope everyone welcomes you back since fifty years?"

    "No, Alric." He scoffs. "I plan to have a drink." Viktor vanished in the thick forest with an even thicker dew and mist with the two closely behind in his footprints.

    They tracked nearly a mile till they reached the main town, everything had changed, the smell, the look, the people. No humans roamed the streets, it was near empty with a frozen wind that blew with great force.

    All three stormed into the local bar into a thick aroma of bourbon and rum fill the air as dim lights began to flicker, dust stirred up from the ground. Clayton and Alric marched in unison with Viktor ahead and stood in front of the bar with eyes fixated on the bartender, taking a seat.

    Gazes wondered around the room to the commotion that they had caused and attention they drew to themselves.

"What'll it be?" The Bartender asks wiping out a glass, the sent of uneasiness wavered through the air, they all took in a deep and fresh breath.

    "The strongest you have," Viktor recommended giving a stale grin. "Its gonna be a long night."

    The gentleman behind the bar slid three glasses over to them, all grabbing a glass and tipping their noses down into them.

    "What's your poison?" an icy voice spoke from across the next stool down. Viktor's head turned to see a woman with her fingers wrapped around a glass as well with a small amount of liquid left. She was slender and quite beautiful with vibrant forest eyes.

    He furrowed his brows, setting his cup of bourbon on the bar. "What do you mean by poison?" Viktor questions with a curious look drawn to his eyes. He could smell her scent across from him, it was uncanny. He knew what she was, she was just like him.

    The lady smiles at his ignorance, her eyes flashing to the front them back at him. "Your drink," She points, her green gaze catching in the glass on the bar.

    Viktor frowns upon thinking, grabbing the glass and putting it against his lips once again. "You'd be the death of me." He gives a smile. "The name, M'lady?"

    She pondered, but for only a moment. "Elizabeth, but you can call me Eliza." she takes a drink from her glass. "What about you tall, dark and handsome?"

    "Viktor," He told plainly yet enthused, he was an ignorant child.

    "What about your friends, Won't you interduce me?" She echoed camily with a sly and energetic grin.

    Viktor turned over his shoulder to see Alric and Clayton drinking quite happily by themselves. "Oh they do bite darling, it wouldn't be advised." He told with an amused look in his eyes as he twisted back around to her radiant presence.

    "Do you," She questions deeply.

    "Not as beastly my dear." Viktor's stone-colored eyes fixate on hers.

    "You're new in town," She comments, scanning over his figure.

    Viktor's brows snap together and the feeling of uneasiness fell over him. "If you only knew my darling." His voice turned deep. "What makes you say that?"

    "You're and your pals are a new face in town, and it appears you like a good fight every now and then." She referred to the deep scratch on his shoulder through his torn garment. It stung like venom.

    Viktor's eyes shifted to their wide-crimson state as he scanned the people like a file. He hid his eyes from view and spoke.  "Why don't we get out of here? Take a fresh breath."

    The humans--Oh the humans. Viktor's hunger grew with uncontrollable cravings as he slipped through a thick crowed unnoticed. He slammed his back against the rusty red wall and gasped for a breath with protruded fangs and red eyes.

    "You're like me," Eliza spoke calm and gingerly directly at his side then moving in front of clay earth. Her soft hand caressed his cheekbone as he calmed.

    "Darling I am far from you. I am an original Lycan." He stated with a hard swallow and clenched jaws.

     "You, you travel with your friends?"

    "Merely company for the misery, love," Viktor said sullenly

    "They are originals too?"

    Viktor gave her a gentleman's nod and she removed her hand from his slightly swollen cheek. For one single moment, Viktor was truly peacefully and his heart no longer ached for Henrik.

    "What's your story gorgious?"

    "Don't embarrass yourself," She teased."I as walking home one cold and dark night, let's just say I was in territory I couldn't handle myself in." Her eyes fell to the ground and Viktor felt something he hadn't felt in many years, sympathy.

    "I killed my own Brother," Viktor's eyes clouded and glazed over. "The night we had been cursed, 1683. A crazed man lunged himself at us and I threw my brother from harms way, we fought and struggle, eventually the dagger he held squared my brother in chest."

    Eliza was saddened by the grim words and cold tone that Viktor held. "His name?"

    "Henrik, Henrik Sullivan."

    "Sullivan?" Her eyes rounded and her tone was curious and eager. "The founding family of the village?"

    Viktor waved his head. "My grandfather arived from Germany and built it with his bare hands."

    "How come I've never seen you around town before? I think I'd recall a face like yours."

    "I've been away for nearly fifty long years."

    "Your return caused quite the amusement for some, why have you returned?" Eliza falls deeper into the web of questions and complex answers.

    "Someone I know wants me dead." Viktor told Eliza calmly.

    "You mustve done something awful for a man to have so much hatred."

    "I killed his sister," Shook Viktor with a chill. "But anyway--" He continued his long line of useless rambling. "The man held a dagger dipped with Elder ash. His plans were much more than revenge for his sister, he would've taken a good ruffle and been satisfied. He wishes to have much more."

    "Enough about me and my troubles. Your pack, do you travel alone?"

    "I servied in a pack once, not many years ago." Eliza began. "I was the lead beta until my Alpha broke us apart. He was cruel and unworthy."

    "Your Alpha?"

    "His name was Blaine, Blaine Coldwell."