He turned his head and looking into her beautiful brown eyes, asked, "And just what 'other options' did you have in mind?" The calm and quiet tone of his voice surprised even him. He stood up straight and faced his mate. Taking a step towards her.

Nova, ever self possessed didn't move from her position, "We have very people left the send against the wolves. That explosion took out two floors of your tower. We should think about getting out of here."

Kenneth took another step towards her, "And after we 'get out of here,' then what? We rebuild? We hunt the wolves on our own terms? Go back to their mountain hideaway and wait for them there?" He noticed and admired that the woman didn't move, even though he was very close to her now.

Nova didn't move but held her mate's stare with her own, "What choice do we have? Even with the handful of fighters left alive in the tower, do you think it's enough to exterminate the few dozen werewolves that are left, and those hyenas? It is honorable to take a loss to preserve the kingdom, my mate." She softly emphasized the last word.

"You may be right, Nova." Kenneth looked back at the destroyed console. Could he really leave? Could he survive if he didn't? He should kill this woman for even suggesting such a thing. Yet, he knew that she was right.

What Nova didn't know, what only a few of the older members of his House and Brian might suspect, is that if he lost this tower, if he lost his home, the Duces would come for him. House Dukart would be eradicated and House Himura and House Brandt would divvy up his territory. It had happened before, and the Duces would hunt him down for his failure. He would be on the run for the rest of his life. That was something that he could not bear to have happen.

"No, Nova it can't be done. There are reasons, we have to stay and deal with this now." He picked up the radio, "Brian? Brain, come in?" He was met with silent static from the radio. "Brian? Brian come in? Luca? Giulia? Anybody? This is Kenneth, if anyone is available, answer me."

The radio didn't come to life. Kenneth felt a very real chill slide down his back.

"If you don't want to meet your true death today, we have no choice," Nova said quietly.

A ding interrupted Kenneth's response.

Kenneth and Nova turned toward the office elevator as the stainless steel doors silently opened and Brian stumbled into the room wildly, spinning on his heels and pointing his gun at the elevator, clicking the trigger over and over again, the weapon having spent it's ammunition already.

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"Brian, what in the hell has gotten into you?" Kenneth stepped forward and gripped his Captain by the shoulders.

Brian looked around wildly still trying to shoot at something.

Kenneth slapped the gun out of his hands, sending it careening through the office and clanking down to the floor off the far side wall. Kenneth slapped Brian hard across the face, "Look at me, Brian!"

The younger man's green eyes slowly focused on his Head of House. He stood there, as if confused by where he was.

"Brian what happened? Where is everyone?" Kenneth asked still gripping the man's shoulder.

"They're all rotting in hell, and its better than they deserve, if you ask me."

Kenneth turned back towards the still open elevator. Standing in the door way with an open hole in the elevator's ceiling that he didn't notice before, was a seven foot tall werewolf. He had tan fur shot throughout with black stripes. His eyes were gold and bright in the dim light of the darkened office.

"And who might you be?" Nova asked calmly and directly.

"My name's William."

Kenneth eyes shone with recognition,

William nodded in acknowledgement, "Yeah, that William. You remember we met at that strip club a while back." He took a step forward, unfortunately he wasn't able to fully hide the slight limp that he had incurred from the last bought he had been in.

Kenneth spotted it immediately, "Oh you're hurt. Too bad. I have wanted to kill you for so long now. I would have liked to face off against you when you were fully healthy. Oh well, we can't have everything, I guess. I haven't forgotten that merry chase you gave us all that time ago, what was it a few years ago now isn't it?"

William knew that Kenneth was stalling. There were three vampires that he could see and smell. Brian was still in shock and wouldn't be too much trouble. The girl was an unknown though. She might be very dangerous, unless Kenneth wanted to take him one on one. That could be to his advantage.

"So, you're the one who chased me out of my valley. You and I have a score to settle on that and a few other counts." William took another step towards Kenneth and stopped cold.

Above Kenneth's head on the wall was row upon row of what looked like fur pelts. William took another step and in the center of the display was a grey pelt. He knew that fur almost as well as he knew his own. The Old Grey. He knew it deep in his soul he knew that this was all that remained of his wolf pack.

His mind reached back to all those nightmares, all those feelings of unease. Every time he had thought about his valley and his wolf pack, the feeling of impending doom was always there. He had tried to rationalize it away. His pack was fine, the Old Grey would look after them. Those dreams had been warnings, or what was actually happening. Seeing the remains of his pack displayed on the wall, he felt all of his failures, all of his fears manifested. He kept his features as calm as possible but his pain and rage at what had happened to innocent wolves was almost too much for him.

William let his eyes fall back to Kenneth. The vampire was smiling softly as he noticed exactly where William had been looking. Kenneth turned his head towards the wolf pelts, "Do you like my decorations? They're real wolf pelts from the animals we killed in that valley we initially found you in."

Willaim charged. He didn't roar or let himself feel any pain. He flooded his body with endorphins and adrenaline, going full bore. Kenneth was still smiling and looked like he was happy to see seven feet of death charge at him. William shoulder charged Kenneth, throwing him across the room.

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