550 CHPT 550: Alpha, Take Two.

For the first time there was true silence in the Tower. And for the first time in a — relatively, long time, Claude opened his eyes

"What the hell is this…?" He thought, splitting apart the crusted over sweat that melded his eyelashes together like glue. He needed a deep clean as badly as Vampires needed blood.

"[Claude— by the gods are you alright? Am I speaking to you? I worry this is my first meeting with Fenrir and I'm terribly unprepared! Can he take over your body? …. I mean can you do that?]" Arne rambled.

"Relax." He thought, "We need to think of how to take down the first one that moves. We can't have another gladiator match I need to get the hell out of he—"

"[You fool!]"

Claude almost jumped.

"[Not only do you have an entire pack of Silver Cursed at your feet but you just ate over four hundred pounds of WolfApe and almost died!…]"

Claude moved to spea—

"[WHY WOULD I BE RELAXED, YOU CRETIN!?]"

Claude swallowed. Arne copied him.

"[I feel you often don't know how frustrating…. It is to go from Alpha…. To the very backseat of another's mind. A mind that's powerful— focused, erratic. Watching you get so close to death. And make such intense changes on a whim. It….. well anyway, you're here. You're you. Welcome back.]"

"I'll work to be safer."

"[No you won't.]" He could almost hear Arne grin.

"Fuck no I won't."

He looked over the kneeling Silver Cursed. Still as stone statues.

"[You seem to misunderstand. Gladiator matches won't be needed here. You took down the Alpha. Now it's all on you.]"

"Right…. Silver Cursed. Even in human skin, they are anything but that. Still….. no."

"[I beg your pardon?]"

"They aren't mindless. They have opinions and ideas— they're people in that way."

"[I think a multitude of them would find offense to that I don't know just my opinion really…]"

"Someone here doesn't like me. Someone here wants me dead let's find them now." Claude's fur stood on end making him look even more imposing and wild as his longcoat tightened.

"[Well that's obvious, but consider your circumstance. These Shifters have barely been surviving their previous structure. Now here you are— in sleep you gave them purpose. You immediately established dominance. These are good starting points— highlights for many. What's the plan for these hateful packmembers now, mate? Kill you and swim to shore? Alone? No pack and no chance of survival?]"

Claude calmed, "That's a good point. They'll be easier to handle now…"

"[For fucks sake please don't tell me you've flown off the deep end.]" Arne prayed.

"Arne I'm surrounded by ShapeShifters in a half baked steel tower built over a fire dragon that's slowly cooking us alive."

"[When life gives you lemons…?]"

Claude cracked his neck and took a deep breath before roaring at the sleeping Shifters.

They all jolted out of their sleep while others more or less were unaffected. Whether that was because they were awake and playing sleep or used to it was his decision. He decided.

Among the less affected was Li and Marcel. His paranoia had never felt so seen.

"What the hell was that for?" Tom questioned.

Claude scented the air and watched them all adjust themselves. Some openly showed signs of happiness in their movements. Others sneered and watched cautiously. Too many variables.

"Everybody listen up!" Claude's voice in his full transformation eliminated any teen boy squeaks and octaves.

"[Be firm.]" Arne reminded.

"Alpha's dead…"

"Obviousl—" Tom smacked the Wolf before he could finish his words. Good sign.

"Yea— obviously. But the way he went out….. that's not something I do often. That's not something I enjoy…. Enjoying." Claude shook as he got the words out. "I don't have problems embracing that side anymore. It's part of who I am. But it's not who I am. What I'm trying to say is I'm not Alpha the tyrant. I'm Claude Grey."

He let the words sink in before looking at Tom and pointing to his neck. An idea on a whim— he didn't know if the old Wolf would listen, but if he did….

Tom nodded and removed his boulder, followed by everyone else's. Sighs of relief and howls of happiness spread as whispers and tapping feet.

"[Good. Establish a ranking. Having Tom close at your side works considering he seems to know most of them and be on good terms.]"

"He also did dealings with Vampires meaning he knows about The General better than most." Claude replied in thought.

"[Ohhhh good thinking. Splendid, really. But let's not bite off more than we can chew.]"

"Let's." Claude's eyes widened.

"For at least the time we're here. We are a team." Claude started, "And the wildcards that can't see that will see me…. And them." Claude referred to the hounds surrounding him.

One of the Tigers raised their hands. Even in human form there was just something about them more violent than the others.

"Yea."

The Tiger spoke, "You say for the time we're here. Is this pack no more when we escape this place?"

The others began mumbling.

"Listen." Claude cut the silence, "I'm not a WereWolf. I run a pack differently than most I'm sure…. I have to. And I can't force anyone here that doesn't want to be here. But I want you here….. you just need to know what here is."

They all listened in.

"I'm a Lupine of Romulus."

A couple gasps split the silence from the older Shifters. Tom made a face like he just put a dozen pieces together.

"Aren't you all extinct?" One yelled.

"[Dumbass.]"

"No. But we're not what we once were. I need Shifters. I need soldiers. The Lupines of Remus want me dead…. They killed my father. But I'm sure you've all lost something. So if not for me, for yourselves. The Lupines of Remus have plans to overrun the world and set it back to something…. Primal. In that world I'd be dead. And you'd all be slaves… again."

The scent of fear, anger and something else filled his nose.

"A lot of you lost your pack. Or it's been overrun by a longtime rival. You don't have a home. So join me. No racial or species based boundaries. Embrace your differences and be joined by them. Learn something. You all built a tower half dead when made to work together. Imagine what you can do at full strength and unison. Imagine what you can do to Sgt Bertrand."

Some of them snarled with vengeful bloodlust. The crocs let out a killer deep bellow. The Lions hissed.

"Let's escape this literal hellhole. Let's change the world. Let's get even."

It felt like the sun shined on the inside of the tower for the first time.

But that only made the shadows deeper…

***

And so they began their first task. Escaping a literal hellhole. Well, a metaphorical one at least.

The Tower being in a state of never ending ascension towards the clouds meant they had an easy escape. Right out the top.

And without the boulders tied to their necks, they scaled the wall like lightning in reverse.

"Why them first, Claude?" Tom whispered to him as they all watched the Tigers fly up the walls in a blur.

"I flipped a coin."

"Coins only have two sides. There's four factions of shifter here. What did you wager?"

Claude didn't reply, simply looking at him. He smiled faintly and looked away.

"Tests are good as long as the tested doesn't take offense. Or challenge." Tom commented.

"You said the south side of the walls, aye Alpha?" Li questioned from above. He walked the slim walls like it was a tightrope, casually flipping and vaulting over his Shifters. Claude kept seeing him maim Marcel's sister. He could smell Marcel seeing the same thing.

"Yes. Furnace usually faces the north wall. There's a higher number of shifters there that attracts her so you'll have a lower chance of burning on the way down. Or worse."

Li chuckled, "Worse…. I like it." He squatted down and leapt across the gap in the missing roof, landing silently on his top toes on the north wall.

The other Tiger Shifters followed him with matching levels of feline agility and power. The wall they all fled from fell from their downward force.

CLANG!!!

Furnace hissed from far below and heated the floor.

"Watch yourselves." Li sneered, "See you at the bottom."

And just like that, they jumped. The next thing everyone heard was a thud and screeching tear as they dug their claws into the walls and began descending.

Furnace's fire began to warm the interior as they purposefully made noise, hooting and chuffing— banging their fists and letting out monstrous meowing sounds.

The other Shifters angered. Claude watched.

"The bottom floor will be untouchable by the time they touch the ground. But not the others. We'll have to jump. We'll survive…. They aren't trying to kill us. They're just assholes. At least Li is."

"[That much is known.]" Arne agreed.

Someone moved amidst the huddle of Shifters listening to their chance at escape become that much more difficult.

With the pack mental link back up and running he could see who it was through his minds eye. He could feel their power. Feel the curled claws dig into his back like a warning.

He spun around.

A tall and thickly built dark skinned woman faced him. Like everyone else she was bald. Slim eyebrows set close to her hazel eyes and her full bronze lips were curled upward to show a set of thick fangs, "So is your first goal to upend the rankings amongst us? you let the Tigers leave first as if we don't exist?"

He could feel Marcel's eyes on him like hot coals.

The Wolves closed in around him in support. He didn't know if that was a good thing.

"No. But the rankings won't be so stringent. We'll all be working together— not just living in the same space. I'm the Alpha— I'm a Lupine. I told you I run things differently. And before I can do that, I need to know you all can handle change." He lied. Straight through his Lupine teeth.

He didn't even consider if they could handle the changes to pack life. He just wanted to test the Tigers.

"Fuck."

"Tara's very hard headed and dominant but she can see reason." Tom's voice was in his mind. Choppy and quiet, but he had good hearing.

Claude readjusted, holding Tara the Pride leader's gaze, "Are you telling me Li is someone you want to be out in the wild with? Do you know what he's capable of? Genuine question."

Tara's face twisted up, "Of course I do. He's a killer."

"Yes but he's not mindless. Let's see his limitations and see how the others follow. Before shit gets real. If it doesn't make work how I need it to, I won't do it again. Cool?"

He held his hand out to shake.

Tara looked down to the side as she pressed her lips together. A very odd stretch of silence followed as she looked up to the sky and groaned before turning away. "Fine."

Claude felt his hand get grabbed up in a shake. He looked down and saw Don.

"Can't get left hanging out here."

"Right."

Either way, she submitted. The showing of her neck, the drop of the eyes. The openness of her naked chest to expose vital organs. She didn't want to but she did.

He'd never been so thankful to be adept at reading body language.

It had been long enough, "Alright, Crocs next."

"Just in case the Tigers go rogue, they'll have a hard fight. One against the greatest defensive faction of Shifters. It'll give the rest of us time to intervene without any lost hopefully."

"[Good thinking.]"

Time passed at a snails pace afterward. One by one by one until Claude was freefalling from the sky. The Tower was hundreds of feet high. You didn't truly know until you were outside, blurring past floor after floor after floor.

His longcoat in the wind, reeking of Alpha. His hair, caked with sweat. The wind cleansed it all. Not as good as the water would.

Halfway down, he threw out his malevolence Tether, ended with a spike that ripped through the metal wall and stopped his descent.

From there he bounded down floor by floor before jumping to the group five floors up to avoid the superheated metal. A difficult task since Furnace's floor was over twice as wide as the rest of the Tower.

He hit the ground in an explosion of sand. When the debris faded, the Shifters surrounded him.

The air smelled so good. Salty, free. Wild Magic soaked into his limbs. The Full Moon was near. Pure power rode the air like birds on the wind.

He joined up with the Shifters, sifting through the crowd to reach them.

Him.

He stood with his arms crossed talking to his fellows.

"Hey Li."

"Ye—"

SLSH!

Claude ripped open his throat, drowning his words in his own blood before kicking in his knee. As he fell, he grabbed the back of the WereTigers head and drove his knee into his still grinning face.

CRUNCH!

In a single seamless movement, he spun around behind Li with his Malevolence Tether fastened around his throat. Interrupting the healing process. Forcing him without air.

He crouched down behind Li as he choked. In his full transformation he was seven feet tall. In Li's human form he was barely five foot six. He still towered.

"Li…..when you agitated Furnace you forced us to have to jump to land….. a lot of us broke our knees." Claude said as he looked around at the still healing Shifters.

"This isn't how you build unity. And this isn't how we escape. We can't face the ocean if we can't fight at our best."

His chain burst into flames and disappeared as he dropped Li.

He moved to join the others. in his wake, the Phantom Wolves jumped out of his fur and surrounded Li, licking at his wounds.

"Did you say the ocean… fighting?" Helena the old Crocodile raised a salt and pepper colored eyebrow at him.

"WereWolves don't make good swimmers." Don said with a shiver as if he was remembering something.

Helena patted his curly haired head, "Easy, Neto. I will protect you."

Claude stood at the island edge, kneeling down by the water as the Shifters followed him.

"We're not swimming."

A single wooden tendril rose up out of the blue and met his touch.