Chapter 38: White Wolf, Black Wolf, Red Wolf
--- Lobo Blanca ---
Stalking through the nightclub he couldn’t help but cringe away from the various pups partying their days away. Not that he had any problem with the youth enjoying said youth, just in the way that they did it.
Perhaps he was being a bit romantic, but he’d much rather spend an evening with a few close friends than gyrating among the faceless masses half drunk out of his mind. Then again, he was also both lucky and unlucky enough to meet the love of his life when he was still in high school and lose her before he turned thirty. (So maybe I just don’t know any better.)
Back near the VIP area he watched a couple of female youngsters try to convince the guards to let them in, not realizing that the VIP area wasn’t a party lounge.
It was sadly part of the cost of doing business, or rather using the nightclub agonizingly dubbed ‘The Wolf’s Den’ as a front for their business. (Personally, I preferred when we were just a rundown old bar.)
Sure, he never actually drank there and people gave him no small amount of shit for it, but at least he didn’t have to listen to this bass heavy party music the kids were into these days. (Don’t even get how they can dance to this shit, where’s the rhythm?)
Unfortunately, as they expanded they’d needed a heavier source of income to launder their other sources of income. Whatsmore they needed a front that the vamps wouldn’t think of going after, similar to how the higher ups knew to never go after their base because half of that old hotel was filled with regular folk just staying the night.
From there one of the pups somehow convinced old man Fredrick -who in his sixties wasn’t working the place himself- to switch to a ‘younger demographic’. (Which is why I regret not stomping that kid's ass harder when I was in charge of training.)
That mentality was probably why he wasn’t allowed to be in charge of training anymore. (But some pups just need the pendejo beaten out of them, before they get someone killed.)
He walked past the bouncer wolf recognizing wolf, even if the other man couldn’t tell which wolf he was.
Once in the VIP area, he moved past the various curtains where the pups showed off in the hopes of impressing someone enough to get some tail. Something he’d find less irritating if it weren’t all one night stands. (Ugh, this generation has no appreciation for romance. Just be flashy and half drunk. Where’s the art, the seduction?)
Even as a horny teenager trying to get in his amor’s pants, he’d be repulsed by this.
The fact that the place reeked of past deeds even with no one present, did little to change that opinion. (Starting to see why the old chain smoked so much. Even if it gave him cancer at least he doesn’t have to smell all of… this.)
He really wished he could just deaden his senses like he did around the house, but in the circumstances that was a terrible idea given how half the pack saw him.
The elevator at the back of the vip was a mercy he’d praise the lady for if he didn’t know it’d just annoy her.
Still he couldn’t help but take a breath of relief as he was taken to one of the club's multiple sub-basements. Something only possible because the building had been in this spot longer than the city had.
The doors opened to a second set of doors with an electronic lock. Ones that opened to what could be considered the real VIP area of the building, a place where maybe a dozen people in the entire pack had access to.
Entering the passcode, the full birthday of Fredrick’s deceased wife, he stepped inside a dark room save for the lights shining down on the plants -a mix of purple aconitums and air purifying plants- all housed in terrariums along the walls and the faint glow from the fridge full of bottles he had no intention of touching.
Idly, his tongue licked the inside of his cheek as he looked around the room. The scarred tissue feeling just a touch different in a way, almost ticklish, as he cycled between living and dead nerves.
The only other person present was a dark haired man wearing a suit and glasses as he read a book with one hand and flipped a silver coin along the knuckles of the other.
“White.” The man greeted.
“Black.” He nodded back, before leaning against the wall opposite the elevator and in front of the other man. “So what are your thoughts on tonight, amigo?”
“The old man couldn’t have picked a worse time for this.” Black told him dryly.
“Maybe, but with everything going on topside can you blame him?” He wondered. “Things aren’t slowing down, and the old man is in his seventies.”
Black’s eyes flashed gold as his fingers snapped around the coin and he finally deigned to look away from his book. “That doesn’t mean as much to us as it does to others. As long as he stays out of the field he has another decade at least.”
He didn’t argue the point, after all (we both know he’s in denial.)
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The old man had had cancer for a fair while, and even with the wolf extending their prime, well (death comes for all eventually.)
“Maybe…” He sighed. “But he should enjoy that decade instead of stressing over all of this mierda.”
Black didn’t argue that point. After all, they both knew it was true.
“Besides, it’s better he takes himself out of the loop before one of us needs him to pull our asses out of the fire.” He smiled, remembering how they’d first joined the pack.
“True…” Black gave him a wry grin before sighing himself. “I don’t suppose you intend to-”
“Fuck no.” He interrupted before the other man could finish the question. “We both know that given my circumstances that’d be a terrible idea… How about you?”
Black considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “No… Honestly, without Fredrick I think I might pull back like you have.”
“Really?” He couldn’t help but ask given how the man had treated his own withdrawal. Namely the fact that they’d come to blows over it.
Black grimaced. “I didn’t mind following Fredrick, not after everything he did for… everyone, but I… I can’t bring myself to go all in for anyone other than him… or you.”
“And I told you I’m not doing it.” He had too many other responsibilities. “Besides, if I took over half the pack would revolt.”
“You sure?” Black smirked. “You got them all to rally behind you when the sky first cracked. Almost reminded me of Fredrick during the riots.”
“They do what I tell them because I scare the shit out of them, and we both know that fear isn’t respect.” He reminded his oldest friend still standing. “And we both know they can’t not fear me. The instinct is hardwired in, and at some point they’ll resent me for it.”
Black didn’t say anything, knowing that he was one of maybe half a dozen wolves who didn’t fear him on some level, and part of that was because they’d practically grown up together.
As for the rest, well he’d always known that the wolf could sense danger, one of the first lessons any of them learned was to spot a threat and when to fight or run. He just never realized how the others’ wolves would respond to something they couldn’t fight.
It didn’t matter if he was on their side, if he spent too long around them the fear would turn to resentment, and then the pack instincts would make the whole thing spiral. (Just like the war with the Vamps. Hundreds dead on both sides because of one little accident almost forty years ago now.)
The fact that he was arguably the only wolf to not resent the vamps wouldn’t do him any favors either, but he knew not to bring that point up if he and Black wanted to stay friends. (And I don’t have enough of those to just throw them away.)
As if summoned like a devil, the doors to the room opened to reveal one of the few pups he couldn’t bring himself to dislike like the rest. A red headed youngster with glowing red eyes and a smiling fang mask visible beneath a pulled up red hoodie. Something she did to keep the other pups from realizing how high up she really was.
“If it isn’t caperucita roja!” He smiled, happy to let the more solemn conversation he and Black were having end in favor of greeting his favorite pup. “It’s been too long!”
The girl rolled her eyes clearly amused as she took off her mask. “White. Black. You two are early.”
“Red.” Black nodded, having added the girl to their little color scheme back when she’d still been an angry high schooler, rather than an angry college student. “And I’m not early, I simply stayed after finishing work rather than leaving and coming back.”
“Ugh, right, you actually work at ‘the club’.” He shivered in disgust. “I always repress that.”
“I’m working with the money down here, not up there.” Black glared, looking equally disgusted by the idea. “I do all that I can to avoid stepping foot in there. The last thing I want is to deal with some little teeny boppers and music designed to deafen rather than entertain.”
“God, you two are old.” Red laughed. “Music here isn’t that bad.”
“It is.” He assured her. “And given how I’m the only one with any musical talent here, my opinion wins.”
“Whistling is not a musical talent.” Red scoffed.
“I can sing and play the guitar too.” He pointed out. Admittedly, he’d only learned the guitar to impress his amor and he hadn’t actually played one in over a decade but the point stood.
Red shook her head with a grin. “I’d rather not risk my ears bleeding so I’ll let you when that one.”
“Escuincla.” He flicked the air, using just a touch of power to blow Red’s hood off.
“Crotchety old man.” The girl shot back as she pulled her hood back up.
He couldn’t help but smirk, always glad to see that the closest thing he had to a daughter still had some bite to her.
After a moment, Red glanced around the room. “Any idea how long everyone else is going to be?”
“No telling.” He shrugged.
“Fredrick’s already here., but he’s getting dragged around taking a look at everything we have going on in the Den.” Black informed them as he went back to flipping his coin across his fingers. “As for the other three, well, the meeting is in half an hour so they shouldn’t be too long.”
“Yeah…” Red sighed, rubbing her head under her hoodie. “I don’t suppose the oldest man told you two what this is all about? I’m more used to his whole one on one thing than this ‘all hands’ kind of meeting.”
He and Black glanced at each other, because while they knew what the meeting was about, the old man hadn’t explicitly told them either. (It’s just pretty obvious given how he’s been talking the last few months…)
“Probably a rundown on how the whole ‘the sky is falling’ thing.” He shrugged, not wanting to get back into the talk of succession when neither he nor Black wanted any part of it, and Red was too young to be given the position.
Something he was willing to fight Fredrick over if the old man disagreed.
“Yeah…” Red nodded, letting some of her exhaustion slip through. “It’s been a wild week. I’ve spent just about every night hunting those Creep things, and it just seems like there’s a never ending supply of them.”
“An infinite number of hells does equate to an infinite number of Demons.” Black pointed out, likely having dealt with his own share of monsters coming out of the woodwork.
He couldn’t help but let out a huff of amusement at that, knowing that for all that these two were his familia, they had no idea what a real Demon looked like, or what monsters were really worth being scared of. (Sometimes I wonder how it is that I’m the only real Hunter in a pack of wolves.)
Then again there was a reason he was known as Lobo De La Muerte.