"Be quiet!" I hushed everyone, jogging along the side of the hedges around the outside perimeter that made up Declan's home. Lucas snuck closer towards the ground, partially on hands and legs while Jude crouched low, running his back along the tall gates that would lead up and around to the main entrance. Just ahead of us, the path was blocked for a car, but we approached on foot in the dead of night. We left our car behind some distance to not give us a way, and were hoping that our dark clothing was going to keep us from being too visible.

"I hope you all are ready for this," Jude said, taking a quick scan around us as he stood out of his squat position to peer over the fence and hedges as well as he could.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" I smirked. I had plotted all of this out, and it had to be perfect or else we all very well may die trying to stomp out of one of the leaders of the Grey Brotherhood.

I grabbed a hold of the top of the gate, the many rounded spear like tips were great leverage to pull ourselves over, but it was taking a lot of upper body strength, as there was nothing to put our feet onto to help pull us up.

Jude, of course, was the first to make it over, with me falling over next. We both turned around to see Lucas' arms shaking at the strain, but he managed to get himself over in no time before we could offer up any of our assistance. Although with a less than graceful landing, planting straight onto his butt.

"Gee, thanks guys," he grumbled, rubbing his behind and getting up to his feet once more.

"You were able to do it, weren't you?" Jude sneered, his brows low as he continued to scan the area. I could see the light from the moon reflecting over his eyes, giving them an eerie glow like an animal in the dark.

Jude seemed to be as determined as I was to stomp out Declan. He raised his hand, making a circular motion above his head before pointing forward. With a nod, Lucas and I split away a few yards from Jude, who continued straight. I went left, while Lucas took up the right. We stayed within visual of one another, but didn't want to be grouped together totally should there be an ambush before entering.

Thanks to the long sleeves and pants we wore, we didn't have to worry too much about getting scraped up as we forced away way through and around the bushes and trees of the slight maze that made up the rest of the grounds with which the driveway intertwined. We made short work of making it through the actual grounds, and to my surprise there was no one out there patrolling. I would think even just on an average day, when things weren't so risky, Declan would have people scouring out these woods.

Maybe he really didn't expect us to come after him after a few days of lying low. Perhaps he suspected an immediate retaliation, and not doing anything let him put his guard down. Or maybe he really was so cocky that he didn't even consider the idea of needing backup.

"Behind you." I could hear Lucas say, as he had somehow made his way back over towards the left and stood close to me. I elbowed him as he crept to my side, still hidden and low among the foliage as we looked ahead to the front steps of Declan's manor. As before, the valet who was there when I had first arrived stood outside, attentive for who knows what reason.

"Does he have a schedule?" Lucas whispered, looking to see anyone else walking around. I joined in his search, only to realize that Jude was missing from my line of sight. Where the fuck did he go?

"I-I don't know." I was genuinely unsure.

"Then how are we gonna sneak up from out front? Is there a way through the back?"

"I only know the way through the front. We'll just have to take him out."

"Kill or knock out?" Lucas cracked his knuckles in front of him before digging his fingers into the soft dirt underneath us.

"Whatever you want."

I didn't care who lived or who died in this, outside of Declan. They were all serving this scum of the earth, and had chosen their side.

"Ladies first." Lucas laughed, gesturing forward for me to go ahead. I rolled my eyes, also getting pretty low to the ground, digging my fingers into the dirt and moving onto my knees on all fours. I kept my head low, dragging my fingers in the ground slowly, being as quiet as I could, until it was no longer dirt beneath my palms, but bits of soil under the pads of my paws.

Moving as a wolf would be much more viable, we could be more silent, until it was time to attack.

I looked behind me, seeing Lucas had shifted as well. I sniffed towards him, tossing my head forward in a sign for him to follow me. He snorted loudly, white mist escaping from his nostrils in the cold of the night.

Both of us approached closer to the edge of the trees and bushes, watching the valet, for any moment he was going to look away or turn around so we could rush over.

The stared vigilantly ahead, simply staring.

This was taking longer than I thought, I began to think to myself, only to see the man look down at his wrist towards his watch. That might only take him a few seconds before he looked back up, but it might have been the only few seconds we were going to get. I bolted as soon as his head shifted downwards and took off towards the houses. I kept my mouth shut, trying not to instinctively pant as we both sprinted ahead.

We practically tossed ourselves against the side of the house, flattening our furred sides against it and continued on. There was no stopping now, and there was no guarantee that he didn't see us coming. So we trotted along the small path between the exterior of Declan's home and the bushes in front of it. Slowly at first, until we began to pick up speed as we approached the front steps.

I could hear Lucas' paws padding behind me as we stalked towards the first victim.

Without any hesitation, I forced myself into a sprint, and emerged from the bushes. The top step was nearly six feet down from the bottom of the ground, and I lunged straight towards it from the side.

The valet spun around as we emerged out into the open, both of us leaping with all of our might to make it onto the step and not miss him. His eyes opened wide,

"Oh shi-." The valet began to speak. My claws scraped as I skid against the smoothed marble of the top staircase, but I was able twist awkwardly as I sent myself into the air and straight onto him. My front paws pushing against his chest to send myself just a little bit higher, until my teeth sunk straight into his neck, interrupting his exclamation.

That was my first taste of it. That first drop of Grey Brotherhood blood in my mouth, and I found myself.. exhilarated. The valet started to struggle beneath me, but I held him in my jaws as well as I could, this strange, animalistic urge inside of my head growing. Pulsing down my gullet as blood flooded into my throat, out of my victim's.

My ears perked up at a sound coming from around the other corner of the house, to see Jude approaching us as well, though his fur was as black as midnight, making him even harder to detect in the pitch dark. As he joined us on the front step, the light made him glisten. And the red that covered his snarling maw was visible.

Lucas tilted his head to the side, lowering his ears as he approached our Alpha. Jude snapped at him, shaking himself off while splatters of a bit of blood sprayed over the marble.

Lucas whined, inching away from him before he began to shift out of his wolfen form, as did Jude.

I gave the valet one more vicious shake to make sure he was done for before I too became human once again.

"There were two armed men around the back. I didn't know who they were, so I thought it best to just end them." Jude smirked, stepping over my victim's body. Just as I went to take another step, I heard my foot hit something metal. All of our heads snapped down to spy the source of the noise to see a weapon there. A gun that had skidded to a halt against the wall to the side of the door from my accidental kick.

"Shit." Lucas breathed, his eyes widening as he placed a hand against his chest.

"Did you think they weren't going to be touting weapons?" Jude rolled his eyes, walking over to the gun and picking it up. Expertly, as though he had done so before, he quickly opened the barrel of the revolver to peek inside.

"Five bullets. Wonder where the sixth one went to."

"I'm not sure, and I don't wanna find out. Keep a hold of that, we might need it," I said, pressing my ear to the front of the door.

"I think we're okay to go. Hurry up." I pulled on the massive handles in the front. There was no turning back now.

I followed the steps I had taken to originally get to Declan's study. Though I made only a couple of mistakes, heading down the wrong hallway through this massive manor, but in the end, I realized which was the correct way. Suspiciously enough, we hadn't ran into anyone. Not only because we were hiding, trying to stealth our way towards Declan without detection to err on the side of caution. But there wasn't anyone to dodge and hide from.

But there were people outside, so where were the rest of the housing staff, or guards, or anything?

"Is this his room?" Jude asked, all three of us pressed up against either wall in the hall. I nodded, creeping closer.

"On the count of three." I whispered, holding up my left hand and placing the right on the doorknob, and began to count.

One. Two.

Three.

I pulled the door open with as much force as I could, rushing in with Jude and Lucas right behind me as I ran up towards his desk. And stopped cold in my tracks.

Empty.

The whole room was fuckin' empty.

"Well what the fuck, Jason?" Lucas asked, scratching the back of his head.

"No, no this is his study. I thought he'd be here."

"Not his bedroom, not gettin' a late night snack in the kitchen?" The blond huffed, almost as though he was let down from the lack of carnage. Something I'd never thought would come from him out of all of the pack.

"Shut up. Look around, maybe there's a sign of where he went to," I ordered, spinning on my heel and walking over towards the fireplace. Kneeling down, I extended my hand over it, feeling for warmth. There was a bit there, but it had faded greatly. Someone was in here, but it had to have been hours by now.

"You're not my Alpha." Lucas pouted, walking off to a random area of the room to search. I moved over towards the desk, opening up the drawers and sifting through all of the papers and folders that were tucked away inside. I looked at each one, and placed them back neatly after determining if it was useful or not.

"Trash. Garbage. Bills. Oh... what's this?" I grabbed a hardened box from deep inside the bottom drawer, all the way at the back, which was enough for me to fit my forearm completely within. I pulled it out, setting it onto the top of the desk and broke the lock. It was easy enough, requiring only a key, or a good use of strength for the thing to snap open.

Inside was nothing incriminating, however. Merely another gun, though this one seemed to be a glock, and of a better make than the revolver that Jude had tucked into the back of his pants.

"Of course all we find is more weapons and nothing useful," I muttered to myself, kicking the desk, placing my hands on my hips and glancing back at Lucas. "Find anything?"

"Nope. A bedroom connects to the bathroom here in the corner though. But no one's in there either. Lots of nice lookin' watches though."

"What about you, Jude. . . Jude?" I turned back to face my Alpha. He'd been quiet this whole time we were digging through the room, but his face looked pale, as if all the blood had drained away. His eyes were wide as he stood still, staring at the array of pelts that decorated the walls.

"Jude? You alright?" Lucas also called out, approaching and walking past me to get closer towards him.

"Don't you see? Look. They're here." His voice was trembling as he stood on his toes, reaching up to gently brush his fingers across the fur of one of the pelts before pulling away immediately, shaking off his hand as though he had been shocked.

"What's here?"

"The Golden Dukes," Jude whispered.

Lucas froze in his approach, and I stood still as well, holding a breath.

"I'd recognize them anywhere. The golden hairs that stand out. Only their pack had fur like this. All.. all of this. It's their skin. Their skin."

Jude started to shake, staring across the walls at the various displays of what I assumed to be the missing Golden Dukes. But they weren't missing anymore. I tapped my fingers against my palms anxiously. This man wasn't just some gang leader. He was a serial killer. His whole pack.

This was evil.

My voice shook as I came to realize what we were really going up against.

"Holy fuck."

Before we could explore the pelts further, all of our heads snapped towards the main door that led into this study room. We shared glances with one another, and without a word ran for cover. Jude ran and slid across the wood of the floor towards the bedroom area. Lucas bolted towards the bathroom door, shutting it quietly behind them. I stared at the silver heart-shaped handle that began to twist open. My heart was racing, and it took every last piece of will that I had to break out of the frozen state I found myself in. Just as the door started to creak open, I bolted behind a changing divider that was decorating the left side of the room. I grabbed the box that was open on the desk with me in a desperate attempt to hide evidence of us having been there.

"We're fucked, I'm telling you. Who the hell is this fuckin' pack to dare cross me." Declan stomped angrily into the room, I could just see through a small slot in the divider their bodies. Delcan turned around, leaning against the desk while another person walked in. I squinted, trying to see them more clearly as this leader began to continue his tirade.

"I tried to help them out of this shit and they want to rebel? Who do these ants think they are?"

"Well, you did try to poison them." My eyes widened, and I still couldn't get a perfect vision of who it was. But their voice was strangely familiar. In a frightening way.

"Only because that mutt dared to disobey me. I gave him a home, and only wanted what was fair in return. I killed their aggressor, and promised no harm would come to their pack. All I wanted was their fear and respect by following my commands."

"Yeah, and they've been a pain in my side since fuckin' Leon wanted to attack the small pup. He needs to lay off the ice,” the familiar voice said, moving slightly into view while Declan moved out of it. Who was it?! I stayed as still as I was able, but tried to angle my head slightly in an attempt to see his face.

"We've completely disbanded his little distribution center. The risk didn't outweigh the profits any longer. We'll stick to what we know. But I still want to make them pay." Declan slammed his fist into his other hand as he stood in front of the fireplace, moving his hands behind his back. He stared up towards the pelts that decorated the wall, and I could only see the back of his head now.

"Revenge doesn't suit you,” the stranger said with a slight chuckle.

"It's the principle of the matter. One of them is at the hospital now, I've had people watching them since we had to flee. Maybe he will offer up his life in retribution. Then I'll feel a bit better about this."

George? Were they going to go after him now?

"Well, after you get your silly retribution, you better start staying low. I can't keep covering your asses, it doesn't matter how much money you give me. There's only so much I can do before we get found out."

The man approached Declan slightly, before he froze. My ear twitched, and I could hear rustling coming from one of the rooms. I could only bet it was fucking Lucas being stupid. But as the man turned around, spying on where that noise had come from, I could finally see his face in totality. And why his voice looked so familiar. That motherfucker!

"Shhhh. I think we have some unsuspecting guests,” he said, reaching his hand towards his back pocket and moving to grab a weapon from his holster. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Was I gonna wait and let them approach and find Lucas? Or Jude?

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Declan said in a sing-song tone, approaching right behind the other man slowly with an eerie grin on his face.

Shit! It was now or never.

I rolled out from behind the decorative divider, kneeling on the ground with the glock I had stolen and aimed at them both.

"Don't fuckin' move!" I shouted, the barrel of the gun shifting only an inch or two between the men, in case either one of them were to make a stupid move.

"Oh, adorable. He's here with friends." Declan smiled, placing a hand onto his hips.

"Nice to see you, Jason." The other man smirked, slowly raising his hands in the air.

"Detective Evan," I snarled back. That piece of shit had been working with them from the start!

"Shit, my bad!" Lucas said, stumbling out of the bathroom, with Jude leaving the bedroom at the same time. "Shit!" Lucas cursed again, "It's him!"

"Huh." Jude frowned, watching the detective carefully as he moved over to the opposite side of the room. "No wonder your team didn't find shit at Club Mega. You've been in bed with them the whole time."

"Haha. Very good deduction," Detective Evan said, his face low, causing a creepy cast of shadow to show across the top of his face.

"Why?! Why are you doing this to us?!" I asked, baring my teeth, not wavering my aim of the gun in the slightest. I held my kneeling position, watching them both carefully.

"This all started because Leon had to overreact because he was high on ice. We didn't want this, but we have to be the ones to finish it," Declan said calmly, trying to back off carefully.

"Don't fuckin' move!" Jude shouted, pulling out his revolver and aiming it at the old man.

"Rather touchy, old sport. I guess we can't talk this out?" He smiled, raising his hands into the air with a lackadaisical attitude.

"I guess not,” he replied, cocking his gun.

"That's unfortunate,” he replied, and before my eyes could register what had just happened, Declan had dropped to the floor and bolted over towards the fireplace. Jude let off a round but it had missed him completely, the bullet splintering the wood just a few feet to the right of my head after missing its destined target.

"Shit!" he cursed, turning back to Declan, but he had grabbed the fire-stick poker, a metal one with a sharp point at the end and launched himself towards Jude, knocking the gun out of his hand with his makeshift weapon. Detective Evan quickly drew his gun at the sudden distraction, and fired off towards Lucas. It hit him in the shoulder as the blonde attempted to rush him.

"Lucas!" I screamed, sending a shot straight towards the detective, who expertly weaved out of the way just as I fired, and dodged the next one as well. He aimed his gun to fire back to me as I heard Jude and Declan wrestling on the opposite side of the room. Suddenly, Lucas pushed himself forward, screaming in pain as he sent a high kick to Evan's hand, sending his gun scattering to the floor while another bullet accidentally went off. Thankfully, not hitting any of us.

"Why don't you just stay down?!" Evan shouted, scrambling over Lucas while raising his now extended claws to take a swipe at Lucas. But he did fine on his own, rolling out of the way and using his capable arm to block the blow. The way they continued to scramble made it too difficult for me to take a clear shot, so I gave it up. I wasn't going to risk losing one of my pack mates, and instead I got up and rushed to Jude who had his hands on the poker, fighting with Declan to get it out of his hands.

"Fuck off!" I shouted, grabbing Declan by the collar of his shirt and trying to yank him backwards towards me. As he was thrown off balance, Jude's grip came free too. The fire poker swung towards me and scratching me across my abdomen. I gritted my teeth through the pain and grabbed at the other end of it, while Jude jumped on him from the side, knocking Declan to the ground with a loud groan from the elderly man.

"Get off of me. Get off!" He shouted, just as I heard a guttural howl coming from the other man. I turned quickly to spy Lucas had his teeth sunk into Detective Evan's neck, shaking him violently in his shifted wolf form. I winced, watching as Evans tried to scream further, but only a gurgling mess of gore came from his throat wounds, his eyes starting to roll back into his head. I panted, clutching onto my chest as I stepped over Jude, who still sat on top of Declan, pinning him to the ground. His chest was heaving as well.

"Fuck you," Declan spat, glaring at the two of us as we towered over him.

"You deserve this," I whispered, slowly taking aim of my firearm towards him as he laid there. The lack of fear in his face was infuriating, and his glare was accompanied by a hateful yet amused grin. "For trying to fuck with my family, my pack. And for what you did to Jake." I tried desperately to keep my voice from shaking, but I couldn't prevent it completely.

"I should have had Leon poison you as well,” he growled. I cocked back the gun.

"Any last words? Not that you gave Jake any."

"No. But maybe you should give them to your pack. My lesser is headed over to question your pack mate as we speak. You can kill me, but I'll still get what I wanted in the end. Even as a dead man."

"You’re lying," I replied, trying to keep my cool. Was he bluffing?

"If you kill me, I can't call them off. You'll get your pitiful revenge, but you won't see the rest of your family again."

"He's lying!" Jude shouted, shaking Declan by his collar. "He doesn't know where we live!"

"Am I? Or do you want to risk it?" Declan smirked, trying to sit up as though he had already known that he secured himself a way to escape death again.

Lucas whimpered off to the side, making his way into my view in his wolfen form.

But what if he isn't? Was I willing to risk it?

The two men looked at me, waiting to see what I would do. Did we really go through all this effort to not kill him?

I wasn't going to listen to his lies again. I couldn't trust this man.

"Fuck you," I growled.

BANG

Jude clambered off of Declan's now limp body quickly, rising to his feet and jogging to Lucas who had finally released Evan's throat after dragging him across the ground. Our Alpha dropped to his knees, grabbing Lucas by his wounded shoulder, holding a paw in his hand while he checked him out. Lucas whined at the pain but didn't nip at him or try to pull away. "This doesn't look that bad, it looks like the bullet went straight through the side."

I ignored them, tossing the gun to the side and grabbing my phone from my pocket. If what Declan said was true, I needed to call Forest to make sure he was going to be okay, to warn him to get to safety. I couldn't have gone through all of this just to lose my family now.