Silas nervously began backing away even as he felt multiple sets of eyes shift to him. He knew that there were humans just waiting for the order to shoot, but he also knew that if they hadn't killed any of the other wolves they'd captured because they'd needed their blood, killing an alpha would definitely be a mistake. 

"I truly am sorry for what I have done to you, but the bigger picture is so much more important," Jerik said as he stepped up to Marquise's wolf and settled a hand against what remained of the fur on the right side of its face. 

The giant beast gave out an exhausted but firm warning growl in response, but the other man didn't seem to care about heeding it. 

"You know, I was on death's door when you first came to me asking to resettle your pack within the city limits to save them from being hunted down," he said calmly as he continued to gently pet Marquise's wolf. 

"I'd been hiding it from the public, but I was at my limit. Without your help, and without our agreement, I wouldn't be standing here today..." 

Jerik let his sentence fade into silence, then sighed and looked Marquise directly in the eyes. 

"Unfortunately, I've reached my limit once again. I called you out here not to reveal my plans, but to relay my final words. You are a smart wolf, Marquise. You already suspected me, and even questioned me multiple times during our meetings, but you allowed your heart to cloud your judgment. I've seen you countless times outside my home, watching and waiting and hoping that I had nothing to do with the attacks of your wolves. I'll be leaving this world soon, because the blood I have relied on, the one thing that has helped so many others, can no longer hold my own sickness at bay." 

Silas watched as Marquise's good eye slowly widened as he took in the information he was being given. Evidently, not only had someone he'd loved done such a terrible thing to his wolf, they'd also gone behind his back and used other wolves in the same manner. Wolves that he'd brought to the city, himself, so that they could be safe from human hunters. And now, after all of that, the man behind everything was still going to die by the sickness he'd harmed so many lives to try and fight. 

Pinning his ears, Silas took another step backwards, but immediately hunched to the ground when he heard movement from several different directions around him. 

Go, alpha Silas. Do not hesitate. Your wolves need you. 

Silas clenched his jaw tightly as his muscles tensed. Not a moment later and he was blurring through the forest faster than most eyes could follow. His speed didn't stop the arrows coming at him, however, though his previous thoughts on whether they wanted to risk killing him or not had been valid. The arrows that pierced his hide stung, and smelled of silver, but even as he continued to flee with the shafts dug into his flesh, he could feel no burning. 

The feathers at the end must have been dipped in liquid silver. 

It would make the weapon itself smell strongly of it, and that scent alone would be a massive deterrent to react should a wolf have the weapon pointed at them. 

As soon as he was close enough to his territory he sent out a call to all of the wolves in the area. 

Gather any wolf you come across and head southeast immediately, this is a message from alpha Marquise and needs to be relayed as fast and as far as possible! 

He felt the immediate faint pressure of acknowledgement from several different wolves in response to his call, and as he got closer to his destination, his mind was flooded with thoughts from those in the large city around him as they hurried to gather. 

Skidding to a halt outside of elder Pretennon's home, Silas scrambled up the front steps, then slammed his injured body against the front door before tilting his head back and letting out an extremely loud, roaring howl. 

One of Pretennon's servants opened the door not two seconds later, her face twisted with confusion and worry. 

"Lord Silas? Pretennon is not here," she stated quickly, then hurried to add; "Master Kandza is also absent. They left about half an hour ago." 

Silas felt his heart twist into a tight knot but quickly reassured himself that the two were at least together. As he gave the woman a respectful nod, he dismissed himself and continued his way south. 

As he ran, he tried to connect his thoughts to Ruoka or Verander's, but while he could feel them at the very edge of his mind, and could somewhat feeling what direction he had to go to find them, he couldn't seem to get through to either wolf. 

Ruoka watched as Verander's little wolf inched its way closer to the rotting one. His master was clearly too shocked to hold his leash properly, allowing him plenty of freedom... though he took it very carefully since they still had plenty of crossbows aimed at them. 

"I know who you two are, but I'm curious about the smaller wolf. Ruoka has been your food for many years due to your illness, but I have never seen such a small wolf like the other you have brought," the head doctor said as he walked closer to where Verander was now nudging at the incapacitated wolf's muzzle. 

Play along, Ruoka thought to his master as he saw Sebastian straighten his posture ever so slightly. 

"I wasn't joking when I said that I needed a bigger wolf. If you know who I am, then you know where I came from. I left this city twenty years ago to live by myself so that people wouldn't ridicule me for still being so sick after being changed into a vampire. Soon after I moved a friend discovered a werewolf pup that had been left in a den after the pack had been forced from the area abruptly. He gave it to me and I raised it as a source of food," he said sternly as he looked down at him for just the briefest of moments before returning his attention to the group of men before them. 

"I grew up hating werewolves, and even if my master's views have changed, mine have not. The only thing I will say on that matter is that Ruoka does matter to me, since I've raised him for so many years. Even if I can't feed from him as much as I used to, I'm not interested in trading him."

Turning his attention to Verander, Seba nodded. 

"That one, however, I can't use long term. It's way too small to be fed from often." 

The group of doctors didn't look like they were being swayed, but at the same time, their hostile gazes seemed to relax the slightest bit.

"Does it not bother you that we did this to a werewolf? Whether you like them or not, you clearly don't mistreat them," the head doctor said as he stepped closer to Verander, and the rotted wolf, then abruptly grabbed the leash still fastened around his neck and yanked it back, hard. 

The action finally made the wolf turn its attention away from the sick one, forcing a yelp from Verander's mouth as he hurried to back away and sit down, his shoulders and head hunched. 

"My main concern is for myself and my wolf. I need him to be healthy or I'll be the one who suffers for it. Any other wolf is none of my concern," he said before nodding toward Verander. 

"Except that one, since it's the only one I've managed to catch so far and I'll eventually need it as a partial replacement, but it probably won't help enough." 

"Dr. Bosh?" one of the other men questioned, drawing the doctor's attention to him before he leaned closer to whisper something into his ear. 

Of course, they could hear it easily, but he doubted that they cared. 

Ruoka, however, did. Very much so. 

Don't act up, Sebastian warned him, making Ruoka quickly lower his raising lips and force his ears back up part way. 

I don't want them to touch you, he replied, a growl to his thought. 

Of course, he knew that his master didn't want to be touched, either, but their cards were limited. So, when Dr. Bosh turned back around to face them, Seba remained calm. 

"I believe we might be able to make a deal. We have larger wolves that we no longer need, but aren't in as bad a condition as this fellow here," he said, gesturing to the rotten wolf near his feet. 

"We will give you one of those wolves in exchange for your smaller one, but we'd also like one more thing from you..." 

They already knew that, and they knew that he'd overheard them, so playing koi wouldn't matter. 

"You can test my blood, but both wolves stay with me until that's finished and you hand over your larger one," Seba said with finality, even though Ruoka could tell that he didn't feel like he really had a say in any of the events that were about to occur right then.

The men surrounding them all seemed to give their agreement as Dr. Bosh nodded his own, then offered a hand to shake. 

"That's perfectly reasonable. Right this way, lord Sebastian," he said as they shook hands. He then turned away from the rotting wolf to walk along a thick ledge carved out of the rocky wall. It hurt to leave it behind, but there was nothing they could do for it right then. 

Verander, especially, seemed distressed as Ruoka felt him pacing in the back of his mind, but the alpha was thankfully decently composed on the outside. 

They followed Dr. Bosh through different caverns, and eventually began passing jail cells carved into the course stone that smelled so strongly of silver that Ruoka couldn't help but wrinkle his nose. 

The scent of rot was also present, but it was much less noticeable. Sparing a glance into the cages as they moved past them, Ruoka knew that they had found exactly what they'd come for. Wolf after wolf lay chained up with silver shackles, some of their eyes gleaming with hatred in the dim light while others simply kept their heads down, likely too exhausted to lift them.

All of the missing wolves are here, as well as several from the part of my pack that decided to remain in the wild, Verander thought to them as they moved past the cages and took a left turn into a more open area. 

Ruoka bit back any kind of outward response as his eyes took in what appeared to be a large laboratory. It was quite large, even though it was just one story and carved into the wall. It was smaller than the first area they'd been in, but not by much. Torches on the walls gave off plenty of light and as he looked from place to place, he noticed all sorts of experiments going on. 

What caught his attention right away, however, was the wolf that was hog-tied in front of a desk loaded with all sorts of different tools to their left. It's muzzle was wrapped tightly shut. It looked like there was a small wound on its neck, too, because a person in a doctor's coat seemed to be taking a blood sample from it. 

"Right this way, lord Sebastian," Dr. Bosh said, pulling their attention back to him as the other doctors that had been following them stepped closer, forcing his master to move. 

They ended up in one of the areas near the entrance, and even though a few of the men that were armed tried to nudge Ruoka and Verander away from Sebastian, Ruoka refused to budge, and Verander played the scared pup card very well and hid between his paws. 

"We had a deal. Tell your men to leave them alone," Sebastian said with narrowing eyes as Dr. Bosh got some things ready. 

He seemed uninterested in listening to him, but eventually played his part and looked over his shoulder. 

"Back off."

The other men thankfully retreated a few steps, and most of the doctors actually dispersed to other stations around the large room, but only half of the remaining ones lowered their weapons. When Dr. Bosh turned back around, he had a small bowl and a knife in his hands. 

"I hope you don't mind, but we ran out of numbing medication," he said with a smile that told Ruoka that they'd never had any in the first place. 

Ruoka? 

Stifling a whine of relief, Ruoka remained seated at his master's side as his eyes followed the movements of the doctor's knife as he got ready to use it. 

Elder Pretennon? 

Check their weapons carefully. They aren't what they seem. Only one or two will likely have silver on the tip. 

Ruoka flicked an ear and yawned, tilting his head a good distance backwards before completing the gesture and shaking out his coat. He then got up and stepped away from Verander, who must have overheard the message, because he quickly began to nibble at Ruoka's left leg, clearly annoying him on purpose. 

Backing up closer to the few doctors and guards that remained, Ruoka pinned his ears and swatted at Verander as he hurried to chase after him and bite at his muzzle. He was a little too good at playing the rambunctious pup. 

"You clearly haven't trained the small one very well yet," Dr. Bosh commented as he nodded toward his men, likely signaling to his guards to quell the pup's little outburst. 

Ruoka glanced over his shoulder, watching as two men stepped back slightly and others hurried forward. 

Those two. 

If they were just trying to scare them into submission, then normal weapons would work fine. There was no need to accidentally shoot one of them with silver by mistake. 

One of the men, a smaller guy with balding hair, reached down to grab Verander's leash, but right before he could, the tiny, bumbling pup suddenly gained a few hundred pounds... and some much-pointier teeth. 

The scent of his master's blood met Ruoka's nose right as Verander shifted to his second form, making his own wolf shiver with rage. He immediately lunged through the group of startled men standing around them and managed to clamp down on the neck of one of the two that likely had the more-lethal weapons. He snapped it in a heartbeat, but before his paws could land again, allowing him to go after the second man, Verander's massive canine was already taking him down. 

Crossbow bolts and arrows quickly found their way into their body's from all directions, but neither of them were deterred by the onslaught. They managed to take down all but two of the men before a searing pain erupted from his back right leg!

Thankfully, the silver arrow that had slid into his flesh was removed before he could even swing around to grab for it. 

"Go, Ruoka!" Sebastian yelled as he broke the arrow in half, then threw it off to the side. 

Ruoka caught sight of a figure blurring through more oncoming guards as he turned, his ears lifting to their full height. 

Lord Pretennon, we need to rescue the other wolves but their cages are made of silver, he thought as he hurried to follow after his master back down the path they'd previous taken toward the makeshift prison. 

The rest of the wolves are coming. Meet me at the cages, Pretennon replied as he slid in front of him, grabbing his scruff and his master's waist in order to move them out of the way of an oncoming barrage that would have been tricky to dodge. 

Thank you, he said as they were set down behind a large boulder. 

He could still smell the damage from the vampire's leg, but he wasn't too surprised to see him running around. Pain didn't mean much to vampires... at least, not when their heir was in danger. 

"Go!" Pretennon hissed before turning and catching four crossbow bolts with his bare hands. 

Yes sir. 

Ruoka was just about to start running toward the cages again when he felt his master's hands grasp his silver collar and quickly tug it off. He spared the beautiful man a quick, appreciative glance, then they both darted into the tunnel as fast as they could. 

When the ground beneath his paws began to shake about halfway to the caged wolves, they took a few steps backwards, confused.

"Ro?" Sebastian questioned, hoping that he had the answer to whatever was about to happen.  

Before he could even turn around, a massive stone slab slammed down behind them, mere inches from crushing his tail!

Another loud slam echoed through the growing chorus of stressed howls echoing down the tunnel. What he didn't hear anymore, however, were the sounds of men running after him, weapons being discharged, or any kind of fighting. 

With his heart pounding in his chest, Ruoka took a few steps forward, being sure to put himself slightly in front of his master, then tilted his head back and howled loudly. By the time he had finished, all of the other wolves had quieted, sensing the alpha present amongst them. 

Since he could still hear no one coming toward them and no weapons being readied, Ruoka carefully but quickly led the way through the dimly-lit tunnel until they came across the rows of cages. 

"Why are there no guards?" Sebastian asked as he hurried to look around for anything that could help them open the cages. 

When he returned to Ruoka's side at the first cage a few moments later, he knew that whoever had been guarding the wolves had likely taken the keys. 

Undeterred, Sebastian walked forward and grabbed a bar in either hand. His palms began to burn almost immediately, but even after Ruoka nudged him a few times, silently begging him to let go, he managed to pull the bars apart enough to slip inside. 

Thankfully, the chains holding the wolf in the cell didn't have holy water on them, allowing his master to break them without damaging his hands further. 

As soon as the medium brown wolf felt the collar slip from its neck it stood up, shook out its coat, then ran from the cell and right to Ruoka. It was a bit awkward to have another wolf nuzzling against him, but when he noticed that the animal was shaking terribly and quite underweight, he calmed himself and returned its affections with a reassuring nuzzle of his own. 

"I'm not sure how many I can do, but let's keep going until I can't anymore," his master said as he walked straight for the next cage. 

The bars on that one took a while longer and Ruoka whined as the pain from his master's burning hands showed clearly on his face. Sebastian refused to give up, however, and after nearly five minutes of trying, managed to pry the bars open enough to get inside. 

As Seba tended to that wolf, who could no longer get up by itself, Ruoka decided to shift and walk to the next cell. Inside, a small pup quickly lifted its head and flicked an ear, nervous for only a moment before it stood up, its tail swishing a few times behind it as it realized that wolves were outside its cage. It appeared to be one of the city's missing wolves and was in better condition than the other unfamiliar two. 

Ruoka looked around for any kind of fabric to protect his hands, but realized that nothing had been left behind. 

I can handle the pain. Master is hurting himself to free you. I will not hesitate to do so, either. 

Right before he was about to grab the bars, however, his master's hand intercepted his right one, drawing his attention to him. 

"Here Ro," Seba said as he tugged off his own shirt and tore it in two, then began wrapping half of it around Ruoka's right hand. 

Ruoka's brow furrowed with confused worry, especially because his master's own hands were already bloody and burned terribly. He should be the one wrapping his hands!

"It won't help me. They must have recently doused the bars with holy water because my hands began to react before they even touched it. A little fabric wouldn't have done much," he said as he finished wrapping his hand, then moved to do the same for the other. 

"Then let me finish freeing them," Ruoka said sternly, his words more of an order than a request. 

Sebastian gave him a pained smile but didn't argue as he finished wrapping his left hand, then leaned forward to press his lips to his own for the briefest moment before he settled on the ground where he'd laid the more-ill wolf. The one that had been brushing against Ruoka hesitantly turned its attention to Sebastian and, after only a few moments, found its way into his lap before settling its chin on his master's shoulder. 

A faint hint of jealousy rose up in his chest, but Ruoka quickly squashed it and hurried to begin freeing the remaining wolves. They needed to get everyone out of the cages as soon as possible, because they were still trapped behind massive walls of rock and needed to find a way out before they ran out of air. 

One problem at a time, though, he thought to himself as he began to pry the bars in front of him apart.

He managed to get through the remainder of the cages within half an hour, freeing a total of eleven wolves between himself and his master. Two were severely ill and couldn't stand, but the rest would be able to manage on their own. Most of them also seemed a bit feral, meaning that they had likely been caught outside of the city. 

Once done, he scooped up one of the sick wolves as his master picked up the other. They then headed for the opposite side of the tunnel. They knew that it was likely pointless, and as they came around the final corner they were met with what they figured would be there. 

"Another rock wall," Sebastian said, his voice sounding exhausted as he looked up at the massive slab blocking their exit. 

Ruoka was about to comment that they should go back and start looking around for a possible third way out, but his words were cut off before they could even leave his mouth when the ground shook again... but this time, they could hear something behind the wall in front of them. 

His master was the one to speak up as the rumbling slowly ebbed into silence after a few more moments.

"Was that... a wolf?" 

(Edited)