The situation was rough all over the place, in the areas of Cipen and Burnham. The two areas seemed to be under attack, not just from the hired gangs from the surrounding areas, those after bounties, but even the Phoenix Gang themselves had finally come out.
In the middle of all of this mess, Kai was trying to get a handle on the situation, and now he was being called to the hospital in Cipen. It wasn’t too far from where he was and was within the protected area, so he decided to just run there.
When traveling fast, it was easiest for him to transform into his wolf form. Doing this, he would take off his black and gold blazer jacket and wrap it around his waist, leaving his chest bare.
There wasn’t much he could do with his trousers, but due to the special material, they stretched out anyway and returned relatively back to normal after transformation.
In his wolf form, he was running between alleys as fast as he could.
‘Who is at the hospital that wants to see me, that can help out with this war? Is it one of the other Kings? But why would they get involved?’
The only reason why he had decided to bother with this in the first place was because it was Xin who was saying these words. If she didn’t think that this person could help, he knew she wouldn’t bother giving him a call.
Going through one of the alleys, his sensitive ears had picked up some noise. Quickly, he took a right turn following the noise. Through the alleyway, he could see a woman with her son.
The son was a teenager, his head covered in blood. His mother was cornered up against a wall.
‘The citizens of Slough are being affected by this as well. What are these people doing, attacking normal people!’
Kai charged full force, and when he was close to exiting out of the alleyway, he jumped to the sides one after the other before giving himself a strong final push off the wall. Immediately his body banged into one of the attackers, sending him crashing into the wall.
His nose had cracked, and he immediately passed out. Before the others could react, Kai quickly bit their throats and jumped on top of another one doing the same, ripping out his throat.
His teeth covered in blood, he quickly transformed his mouth slightly, making it easier to talk.
“Hurry, head to the main areas of Cipen, the Howlers will protect you,” Kai stated.
The teenager quickly picked his mother up by her hand, and the two rushed off.
“Was that a talking giant wolf just now?” the mother asked.
“Does it matter? It saved us, and now we need to get out of here,” the teenager replied back.
After seeing the two heading in the right direction, Kai continued on his way to the hospital.
‘Now is not the time to hide our identity and who is who or what. We need to win this war of ours as quickly as possible; otherwise, normal people will be hurt.’
For a moment, an image of Kai’s mother appeared in his head, allowing him to pick up speed that bit more.
‘If this person really can help us, then I’m happy to accept a deal with the devil himself!’
Finally, after running for a while, Kai had reached the hospital. He could see that there were members of the Howlers still standing guard. It looked like the area hadn’t been hit yet.
Transforming back to his normal state, Kai guessed where they would be. He was rushing up and up until he had finally reached the correct floor. Here he could see Xin standing outside, and she wasn’t alone; there was a tall man by her side.
When Kai got closer, he was trying to see if he recognized the person.
‘He’s not one of the Kings that I recognize,’ Kai thought.
“I can see that you are quite surprised to see me. You are Kai, correct? Xin has told me about you and your position within the Howlers Gang,” the man stated.
The man had placed his hand out for a formal shake, and usually in this situation, Kai would take it. He was one for manners, but with everything going on, the last thing he wanted to do was waste his time.
“Who are you, cut to the chase, and explain to me, what do you mean you can help us win this fight? You know we’re going up against the Phoenix Gang, right?” Kai mentioned.
“Correct, firstly, the name is Dean, Dean Dem.”
“Dem,” Kai muttered, as he was starting to realize who this might be. Now that the name had been mentioned, he could see some of the similarities.
“I must thank you for looking after my son and helping him on his journey,” Dean mentioned. “From the looks of it, he seems to have changed you as well.”
Kai was trying to figure out what he meant by that. Changed Kai, in what way, and that’s when he could only think of one thing, the fact that Kai was now a werewolf. That was the major change Gary had done to him.
“You know about what happened, but how... are you the same?” Kai asked.
Xin wasn’t following along because she didn’t really understand everything that had occurred either.
“That is a complicated matter,” Dean replied. “One that would take too long to explain. Right now, you are in trouble and against one of the biggest gangs out there. If you want to beat them, then you will have to go through extraordinary measures.”
“Otherwise, you will lose everyone and will lose everything. To win this fight, I suggest that you and everyone else like you start adding to your pack as much as possible. Turn your regular fighters into monsters; that is how you will win this fight.”
*****