Lorenzo had chain smoked ten cigarettes since arriving two hours before the time and yet his nerves remained. He had masked the smell of alcohol on his breath and tried his best to get rid of any lingering scent of blood. Still he was surprised that his father had wanted him to attend this sitdown. Why him and not anyone else? It only became obvious on arriving how small the area was. It was nothing resembling a road, just some old tracks that hadn't been trekked in years.

Sitting on the outskirts of Black Water to the setting sun was what looked like a long forgotten church. Moss was crusted on it like a tic. Grass grew high burying the cracked tombstones of long forgotten men. The alpha, Lorenzo, had never met her before. Outside of her name, it was as though she was a myth, Karen Three Gun Njeri.

Staring out the window, questions rang out in his mind. Was this really the place? Why would the alpha have them wait here? Or was it here that he was going to get whacked?

Lorenzo scratched his face.  His family alone would fill this area ten times over. That didn't sit well with him in the slightest. Then why? His father and him were not close or had any form of bonds. Just like Angelo and countless others he would kill him in a heartbeat. It was lonely and abandoned and only he was here with the driver.

The old fur sat quietly in the car not a single word had left his mouth. His paper in his hand the only sound came when he changed the page.  Lorenzo hadn't known him long and that made him uneasy. Despite the grands he had given him to show interest. The old fur had handed him back the brown bags of cash everytime. Wolves took their oaths seriously, he had said.

Lorenzo gritted his teeth. "Did you hear anything yet?"

The old fur looked in the rearview mirror. His eyes landed on Lorenzo. "Shouldn't you be telling me."

"No, I haven't heard a thing. I thought you might know why no one is here yet." Lorenzo's hand drew closer to the gun hidden in his gray suit.

"Relax, I'm sure it's just that we arrived early. I didn't drive you out here for a hit." His eyes trailed back to his paper and the page turned. "You're a big earner. I know you're a bit jittery with that mess with Angelo but you have to keep it together."

Lorenzo's hand lowered. "Was I really that obvious?"

"Yup, you telegraph way too easily. Your face and then your hand moves unnaturally slowly. If I wanted to kill you. You would be already dead. Don't bring that energy around your father or the other four families or it might not end well for you."

"Thanks."

The paper merely turned in response.

A noise of approaching cars came from behind them. Lorenzo's hand pulled on the door handle.

"You don't want to go out there heavy." the old fur hand extended back. "Hand it over."

Lorenzo held the door mulling over the request. For him it was the equivalent of a death sentence.

"You will get it back after the meeting."

Lorenzo took the gun from out of his suit and slowly handed it to the old fur. Despite his mind telling him not to. The old fur could have got the jump on him if he wanted to already.

The man took it and rested it in the chair beside him. "You can go now."

The wind howled a biting cold amongst the trees as Lorenzo got out and slammed the door. Birds chirped as they settled in their beds. It was dark and had it not been for his canine eyes Lorenzo would be in pitch black.

He was unarmed and uncertain about what would play out tonight and as the limos slowly approached him and came to a stop. A sinking feeling came in the depths of his stomach. Each one came and parked beside his car.  The first  plates marked Caso but as the others came into view he noticed the plates of the three other families.

His father stepped out of the back of his car first. He was flanked by two others. They were baseline soldiers, faces he had never seen before.  His father's  hand waved out for him to come over. As he walked across the other bosses also stepped out with three others. Lorenzo picked up that he was a third man for his father. Everyone waited  by their cars in their human forms.

As he reached his father the first younger soldier stopped him and patted him down immediately. Finding nothing he stepped aside.  The other standing next to his father looked like a grizzled veteran. He had claw scars mangled across his face and in his human form, his hair was completely gray. The C pins were placed on their clothes. Lorenzo's eyes shifted from the fur to his father who welcomed him seated  in a warm embrace.

Father, unlike the men around him, was dressed in the finest threads.  His neck had long ago disappeared, the hair on his head thinned and bald in the middle making him look like a medieval monk.

A crude smile was on his pudgy face. He dipped his hand that held expensive rings into a jar and placed the worm-like contents into his mouth. The sight of him made Lorenzo sick. The hypocrisy of it all, Lorenzo knew that those worms were drugs.  Just he didn't know the kind.

This was the fur that made him kill Angelo, his brothers and sisters. The man that kept them trapped in this vicious cycle so that he would remain on top. And the question burning on his mind the most was the witch really dead? He chomped down on his thoughts before they showed on his face.

"Come," Lorenzo's father said. He labored to his feet, needing both Lorenzo and the other soldier to carry him. The other carried his folded chair. He heaved as he spoke further. " Remember, don't speak at all even if you're spoken to."

Lorenzo nodded.

The group walked over to what looked like the previous entrance to the building. They were met by the other families. The Rosolino, Serafina and Giovanni families, unlike them, did not have any pins. There was a clear difference in clothing between the groups, the other families seemed plain in comparison to Caso. Even Lorenzo's suit as much as he tried to be modest made him look more like the don than the dons themselves.

The heads from the three all seemed younger than what he had expected.  It could also be that Richard's father was the oldest that they may have dressed themselves down in respect.  So these were the furs that ran Black Water. Lorenzo tried to put their infamous names to their faces. Albert The Ice Picker Lucchese.

The fur was shorter than he expected looking more like a pretty pup with his black hair slicked back and chiseled face. That nickname however didn't match the face. The fur was notorious for stabbing to death anyone that got on his nerve. The other two Francesco and Alessandro with the exception of being tall were less of note to Lorenzo.

The soldier behind him stepped forward and  rested the chair down and his father sat. Lorenzo merely listened to their banter while he stood a few paces away from his father.

To anyone else it would seem as though it was a pleasant conversation but to Lorenzo he knew that every word held a dagger. After all, Caso was the biggest in Black Water and the other families had to work together to hold out against them. There were only two things stopping them from all out killing each other, the alpha and the dragons in the sky.

"Enough with the pleasantries. Why do you think she called this meeting, Richard?" Francesco asked, the burly fur arms were folded with slant yellow eyes fixated on Richard.

Richard shrugged his shoulders in the chair. "I don't know, it's been over a hundred years since we last saw each other. Do we really need an alpha anymore?"

"Of course we need an alpha," Alessandro said.

The others nodded.

"Really, we seem to be doing very fine on our own through our own merit. The times have changed and we need to change just like how the humans were here before. We don't hide in the trees anymore nor will I return to that. Progression is what we need."

"You're sounding just like Saul, Richard and you remember what happened to him right?" Albert said.

Richard pointed his finger at Albert."What do you know about that day you weren't there? Just drooling words from your dead father, Mark."

The others went quiet.

"What? If you had all come under my umbrella, Albert, Mark would have never died. Where was the alpha then? Huh?  Tell me where she was then when your father got whacked?" Richard paused and Lorenzo noticed no one said anything. "Where was she when the dragons descended or the other alphas and the overlord?"

"If you were smart you shut your mouth and —"

"It was me. That broke the deal that kept Black Water alive, not any alpha just me. And that includes your lives."

Wolves howls thundered around them. An animalistic and predatory noise that Lorenzo had long grown away from. He noticed only for a split second  that his fathers body impulsive shook. The ground beneath them shook as the sound of what could only be perceived as giant wolves approached.

They were surrounded by packs of wolves, some small to others gigantic in nature. Lorenzo reached for the gun he had once carried in his suit. Every instinct told him that he had now shifted to a prey in these creatures' eyes. The same response happened to the family's bosses' guards who seemed just as uneasy. They drew guns that Lorenzo knew had to be silver laced.

"You're still the same lickfinger Richard." A gun clicked. " I suppose it's been a while." The figure of a woman said. She stood beside his father with a revolver drawn to his head.  Her ginger hair flowed wildly with the wind. 

For a split second her hazel eyes landed on Lorenzo who fell back to the ground and the grass itched against his skin. Where had she come from?

"Wait! Karen!" Richard shouted.

Karen?

"Why should I wait for a traitor like you?" Karen said.

"Traitor? I'm not a traitor." 

" I smell the thick musky scent of the dragons all over you."

"Had it not been for me we would all be dead! To keep them at bay we pay them tribute in gold. They come to collect every three months. Sometimes they also just pop in."

"Where is Mark?"

"Dead."

Karen kicked Richard's chair backward causing him to fall to the ground. "I let you get away with too much while I roamed. This lead pusher will change that."

The two soldiers drew their guns cocked and aimed at Karen. The other families drew their guns as well trained on us. The surrounding packs of wolves that kept us in a circle growled. Lorenzo shuddered as he watched his father try to stand.

"If you kill me the city will crumble this ain't like the wild west. Times have changed."

"You're really going to try bargaining with that card?" Karen said.

"Where were you when your clan needed you?" Richard said, stumbling to his feet. "Where was the alpha, the overlord alpha and the rest of the clans?" He chuckled. "That smartass Tanner for that matter."

Karen's eyes met Richard.  "When you have been living a luxury as a puppet we have been losing a war."