Maria walked into Gabriel’s apartment. It was silent apart from the sound of laughter coming from the shower. Unlike Declan, Gabriel had moved into one of the largest apartments on the top floor. “If you’re gonna be an alpha, you should live like an alpha,” was the way he’d put it.

Maria saw clothes scattered over the floor, and two pairs of panties and two bras. Maria would show concern if she had a crush on Gabriel. But she was only keeping him close to keep an eye on him for Declan’s return. Maria kicked the clothes into a pile and sat on the couch. She’d have to put on a show for appearance's sake, and she quite enjoyed that.

Gabriel walked from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. Following were two giggling blondes who both had flushed faces. Maria scanned Gabriel’s body, he looked different, somehow. Her eyes fell onto the solid wall of muscle that was his chest, and then to the tight ropes of muscle in his stomach —and back to the steely-leanness of the muscles in his arms. Shit, Declan might have a problem when he returns. Gabriel dropped his towel while smiling at Maria. He made no effort to cover his modesty. Maria noticed his manhood hanging proudly against the tight muscles of his thighs.

“Don’t worry, Maria, there’s plenty left for you later,” he said in a cocky manner. Maria made a disregarding sound as if she was pissed that the two girls were there with him.

Gabriel pulled the center of his brow in. “Don’t give me that sort of attitude, I’M THE ALPHA here, I’ll do as I god-damn-well please!” Gabriel snorted, throwing the girls into the hallway, half naked. “Pack meeting —twenty minutes. I’m gonna put everyone straight, once and for all,” Gabriel boomed. His inner wolf rose to the surface and his saliva was dripping and his teeth were snapping, just inches from her face.

“Geez Gabriel, don’t forget who you’re speaking to. That might scare a lot of the other members of the pack, but I’ve seen it all before and much worse.”

Gabriel’s face morphed back to normal as he wiped his saliva-covered chin on his towel. He pointed his finger at Maria’s nose. “You wait, you’ll get what’s coming to you. I know your game, you play nicey, nicey to me, and all you want is that freakin’ seat by my side. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, you’re gonna have to earn it this weekend.”

Maria snapped out of her play routine when she heard those few words. “The ritual’s this weekend?” she asked.

Gabriel stormed around the apartment room. “Isn’t that what I said?” he scoffed. “That’s the point of this pack meeting if you get off your ass and tell everyone. And not the basement, that smell made me want to puke.”

Maria ran from the apartment and began telling everyone about the pack meeting. It was to be in the apartment lobby. The pack all stood between the front doors (locked and covered), and waited for Gabriel to arrive. None of the pack could sit; Gabriel had said it was a weakness to sit in a meeting, and that it led to people not listening. Gabriel was fond of quoting that famous line from the roadhouse movie. “It’s my way or the highway.” Yet Gabriel’s highway consisted of eating the dreaded silver bullet.

Maria stood waiting, along with all the others in the crowd. She busied herself with looking around at all the carved marble features that laid around the lobby of the apartment building. Stone columns supported the floor, and the stone window frames were hand carved, albeit they’d been boarded by Gabriel’s request. The crowd chatted amongst themselves as they waited impatiently. Maria heard conversations of, “I wish Declan was back,” or “Declan wimped out,” and more current topics of, “Gabriel’s such a dick and I’m thinking of leaving,” to “Gabriel’s so hot, I want to be his mate.”

Maria shook her head in dismay, it was like looking at the reviews on an online marketplace, where you had no clue what was real and what was made up.

“Is everyone here?” Gabriel yelled from halfway up the staircase.

The pack nodded with a few cheers thrown in, just for good measure. Gabriel leaned on the marble balustrade and looked down on everyone. He raised his hand and pointed toward the crowd.

“I hear what you're all saying, and it’s not all positive. You’re restless, and I understand that. What you have to understand is; I’m the one in charge! If anyone here has a problem with the way I run things, you can bite the bullet, and we can end it, right fucking now,” he boomed to a few scattered cheers. Under the cheers were more sighs as he showed his tyrannical leadership skills.

“I wish Declan would silence that dick forever,” Maria heard one of the wolves say quietly from behind her.

“Me too, but look how big Gabriel is now,” she heard a second wolf reply.

Gabriel stretched his arms to the side and tilted his head back. “Who’s ready for the ritual, and what lucky lady wishes to be my mate?” he yelled out like a god. All the crowd cheered now, in essence, the ritual would break up the monotony of the pack being prisoners in their own apartment building. “This coming Saturday, the basement has to be prepared, and all food and drink is to be provided,” Gabriel screamed as he willed his inner wolf to show itself. His face morphed in a split second as gasps fell from the cheering crowd. “Eleven pm on Saturday; women get yourselves ready, it’s gonna be a night you’ll never forget,” Gabriel said as a final note. He began walking back up the stairs without as much as a rear glance back to the pack.

Maria pushed her way through the muttering pack members and ran up the stairs to catch Gabriel. She panted as she caught up with him. “Good speech,” she said gasping for breath. What a self-centered dick.

Gabriel turned his head and looked. “Yeah, I thought so,” he replied draping his arm over her shoulder. “You sound out of breath, Maria, do you think you’ll cope with the ritual? Some girls have been training really hard, those blondes never even broke a sweat with me, yesterday.”

“Human form, that’s why I’m gasping. In my wolf form I’m much less human!” Maria replied plainly.

They walked casually back toward Gabriel’s new apartment. Maria couldn’t help but notice how the interior had already started to look a little shabby again. The paint was cracking, and the paper on the walls was starting to curl on some of the corners. There were even hand and paw marks on the walls where pack members had carelessly made their presence shown. Come on Gabriel take a look around you, the pack and the apartments are falling apart from the inside.

They reached the apartment and Gabriel opened the door. Maria half turned to leave as Gabriel placed his hand on her arm. “Where do you think you’re going? I said earlier there’d be plenty for you. And now I want to see you pant some more.”

“Oh! Gabriel, you’re so forceful,” Maria replied. What a douche.

Gabriel winked. “I'm being the best alpha I can be.”

* * *

Declan pulled himself from the water and checked for leeches, he was free this time. He reached down and offered his hand to Judy, now pulling her up the muddy bank to the end of the pathway.

Judy rested her hands on her knees and looked into Declan's eyes. “Now we have to run again. I wanna run like this before I change to my wolf form,” she said.

Declan threw his backpack over his shoulders and pulled the knife from inside his belt. “Let’s go then!”

They set off running, and being weighed down by wet clothes was harder than when Declan ran in the opposite direction. Now filled with adrenaline, he had less than seventy-two hours to find Dustin. If Marina was right; and he was alive, there was only one place where Declan would find him. The old house in the woods.

Declan’s mind came back to what he was doing. He ran pushing branches from his path. He looked and brought himself to an abrupt stop. Judy rounded the corner behind him and she collided with him.

“What have you stopped for?” she asked.

Declan nodded his head across the small clearing —three pairs of yellow eyes glared at them from the darkness of the undergrowth. The eyes stepped forward, and they could see three, gray-haired wolves.

“You think they’re normal wolves or werewolves?” he asked.

“There’s one way to find out,” Judy said as she fell on all fours.

Declan watched as Judy flexed her shoulders, bone and sinew twisted and buckled before his eyes. Fur sprang from her skin and filled her back as her bowed head raised, now showing her snarling snout. Judy shook her body like a dog who’d just had a shower, and the droplets of water splashed against his face.

The three wolves never broke their gaze. “I think they’re real wolves,” Declan murmured clasping his hand around the handle of the knife. “I’m not killing them though, a wolf is a wolf, no matter what type.”

Declan and Judy stepped into the clearing, the moon broke from behind the dark clouds. It cast its nightly brightness onto the three who stood between them and to the path leading to the boat. Judy took a step forward and snarled. The wolf pack of three split as two began to circle.

“They’re gonna attack anytime soon,” Declan murmured facing the wolf to his left.

Judy faced the one on the right as the one in the center ran forward and lunged. The wolf glided through the air, its body aimed for Declan as Judy swung her paw. Her claws dug deep into the wolf’s cheek as she sent it crashing to the side of the clearing. Declan pulled the knife stepping toward the second wolf. He could see the other one, cowered under the bush licking its wounds.

“You, get outta here,” he yelled, waving his arms at the wolf.

The wolf sprang and launched itself in Declan’s direction. He switched the knife to his opposite hand and landed his fist right on the jaw of the wolf. It landed on the ground, hard, shaking its head and turning. Its shoulder hunched as it paced closer to Declan.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, but I’ll wound you if you don’t go,” he yelled.

The wolf was oblivious to Declan’s words, and so it pounced, with its paws hitting him in the chest. Declan fell back. His arm pushed against the throat of the wolf as it snarled and snapped pushing closer to his face. Declan tilted his head from the fangs of the wolf and saw Judy pulling the third wolf from her own back. A crimson mark appeared on her shoulder as she threw the wolf against a tree.

Declan raised the knife. He pushed the blade against the animal's shoulder. He felt the sharp blade pierce the skin, and then he pushed harder. The wolf turned its head and snapped at Declan’s hand. He pulled his arm from underneath its throat and punched the wolf in the eye. The animal shook its head and became dazed and confused. It pulled back from Declan and trotted into the undergrowth, glaring over its shoulder.

“Get on,” Judy shouted.

“You’re bleeding,” Declan replied.

“Declan, we don’t have time for any of this, get your ass on, and we can go before they attack again.”

Declan did as he was told and threw his body on the back of Judy. He grabbed her fur away from where she was bleeding. She sped across the clearing and back onto the path. He could feel she was hurting, her speed was limited, and her shoulder dropped when her weight was on it. The path thinned, and Declan could see the boat ahead. Now, it was just a small trip to the jetties and back into the comfort of his car.

* * *

Judy clenched at her shoulder as she leaned back in the car seat. Declan glanced over and saw blood trickling between her fingers. “We should take you to the hospital,” he said, concerned. Judy turned her head, and damp strands of hair clung to her mud-covered face, and her lips tightened from the pain.

She shook her head. “No hospital, just get me home.”

Declan stepped on the gas, the lights of Miami appeared, and he hit the city limits. He peered over the ocean as the full moon cast a silvery glow over the ripples of the water. His car spun into the parking space, and he helped Judy from the car. They reached the apartment. Judy sat on a chair and pulled at the buttons of her vest.

“Get this thing off me,” she yelped.

Declan popped the buttons on the leather vest and slipped it from Judy’s shoulders. Her t-shirt was torn and soaked in her blood. “I can’t see properly,” he said, trying to peer through the hole in her shirt.

“Declan! Cut the fucking thing off me, and do it quickly,” she said.

Declan reached for the knife and sliced through her shirt. “Why’s the bleeding not stopping?” he asked as he looked at Judy’s semi-naked body.

Judy clenched her fist. Her knuckles whitened, and she gritted her teeth. “Check the wound, is it clean?”

Declan looked, there was too much blood. He looked around the apartment and saw a vodka bottle. “Hang on, and I’m not sure if this will sting,” he said, uncapping the bottle. Declan poured vodka over the wound. The blood diluted and cleared the wound. He could see something white stuck between the parted flesh. “There's something in there.”

Judy pointed to the cupboard. Declan opened the door and reached for the medical kit. He noticed it wasn’t your typical home medical kit, this was a kit made by a doctor, just in case of emergencies. This, Declan deemed an emergency!

He opened the bag and pulled out the pair of surgical tweezers, then he doused them with vodka and rested his fingers at the side of Judy’s wound. “I’m gonna have to dig a little.”

“Just fucking do it, Declan!”

Declan spread the tweezers and pushed them deep into Judy’s shoulder. She squirmed, and Declan could feel her inner wolf wanting to retaliate and show itself. He twisted the tweezers and clamped his fingers together.

“Got it,” he said jubilantly pulling the tweezers from Judy’s shoulder. “A fang, a big fucking fang,” he said, holding the tweezers in front of Judy’s eyes.

Judy nodded, slumping her shoulders as Declan cleaned her wound. He poured more vodka on and wiped the wound with the remnants of her shirt.

“You’ll be okay in a while, it might ache though, with my digging.”

Judy turned her sweat-covered brow to Declan. “Thanks for that, you’ve saved me.”

Declan sat and patted his backpack. “That’s nothing, it’s you who has helped to save me.”

“Keep your eyes and ears open, anyone can stab you in the back.”