They Are Always Listening

Ian saw the anger in Kevin's face and panicked for a moment. He quickly raised one of his hands up in front of himself, and said, "Okay, now wait just a moment. I told you not to freak out so let me explain myself." Ian paused for a moment before continuing, "When my dad told me to kill the pups, I managed to do so… mostly. When I was about to kill this pup, I stopped. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The way it looked when we found it was too much for me so I let it live to a degree."

Kevin's face did not change as Ian talked. He patiently waited for Ian to finish before saying anything.

"Basically, I left the black pup after killing the others to see if it would survive. If it did, I would bring it with me. If it didn't, then I'd collect its body with the rest of them. As you can see, it survived so I brought it back with me. But I knew I couldn't keep it at my house so I found this place and planned on hiding it here. Then you had to go and follow me." After Ian finished, he waited to hear Kevin's response.

Kevin took a moment to process what Ian said. His face looked serious but his mind was buffering. After a few seconds, Kevin finally said, "So basically, you went against your father's orders and brought a stupid dog back with you. Why would I freak out over something like that?"

"Well… you see… the problem about this pup and the reason I wanted to keep it away from you is because it's the child of the wolf leader… My dad was the one who made the connection," Ian said as a cold sweat started to form on his forehead.

Upon hearing this, Kevin was left buffering once more. His mind slowly processed what he was just told. After a moment, and without warning, Kevin punched Ian in the face and said, "Okay, now that I have that out of the way. I understand why you would keep this away from me, especially with what I went through. But, I've already made peace with that side of me so I have no reason to overreact."

Kevin looked at the pup before continuing, "My concern is not that this is the wolf leader's kid. My concern is that you went against your dad's direct order. You must have some balls to do something like that. You know that not even Roy or Klev would go against his orders. If he finds out about it, I can only imagine what he will do to you."

Ian was rubbing his cheek as Kevin spoke. The sudden strike surprised him so he wasn't able to put his guard up. Thankfully, Kevin didn't put much strength behind that punch.

"I understand what you mean, but I don't understand why you punched me," Ian said.

"Oh, that. Even though I made peace with the darker side of my past, that doesn't mean that I'm not mad about what you said. I just needed to give a quick punch to calm my nerves," Kevin said before turning around to leave.

But before he exited the hideout, Kevin said, "However, I'll say this last thing. Knowing you, you'll try to train and raise that pup so it's not a threat to people. I'll keep your secret safe for now, but if that thing steps one foot out of line, I'll personally kill it with my bare hands." After speaking, Kevin left the hideout and returned to the village.

Ian was left stunned. He had no idea how to feel about what just happened. He expected Kevin to blow up over everything, but since he didn't, he had no idea what to do. 

Ian held on to the pup and softly petted it, wondering what to do next. After sitting on the ground with the pup on his lap, he started to think about how Kevin now knew about the black pup, but he trusted him not to tell anyone.

While Ian just sat on the ground thinking about the future, he finally realized that he needed to give the black pup a name. He sat there for a couple more minutes, thinking of a name. Since he sucked at coming up with names, Ian would take a while to figure it out.

Eventually, Ian finally thought of a name. He picked up the black pup, turned it around so it could face him, and said, "I got it. From now on, your name will be… Lucky."

The black pup may not know what Ian was saying, but somehow it knew what he meant. Upon hearing its new name, Lucky started to wag its tail. It slipped out of Ian's grip and jumped on him to lick his face.

Ian was also overjoyed with the outcome of the situation. But he wasn't entirely sure about everything. Since Kevin was able to find out his secret so easily, it would only be a matter of time before someone else did so too. However, that would be a problem to solve later. For now, Ian was going to do his best to keep Lucky hidden while also training him to not attack humans.

Over the next few weeks, Ian would visit Lucky to give him food and water, while also trying to train him. Whenever he had an opportunity or free time, Ian would make the trip to stop by the hideout. He would spend at least two hours every day training Lucky while also training with his gauntlets. Even on the days he worked, Ian would still visit Lucky

Thankfully no one has been too curious about why he's been going to the woods so much. If some asked him why he was going to the forest so often, Ian would just tell them he was training with his new gauntlets. This was enough to keep people at bay.

After over a month since the attack on the wolf territory, Ian had finally taught Lucky a few simple commands. He would even respond to his name, making it easier for Ian to train him. However, Lucky was still too young and was still a null rank so he wouldn't be able to fight for a while.

Out of all the commands Ian taught Lucky, follow and stay are the ones he's most proud of. It may have taken some time for Lucky to learn these commands, but thanks to the reward system Ian was using, Lucky learned them much faster. 

Ian still had a long way to go with training Lucky but he was confident in his ability to do so. Time was one of the few things he had plenty of. Or so he thought.

One day while Ian was off from work, he sat down with Emmett and Erik to enjoy their breakfast while chatting. At some point, Erik asked, "So, are you two ready to go to school soon? If I'm not mistaken, you two have less than two months left before they finish remodeling the school and open up again. Have you talked with Liam yet?"

Ian and Emmett look at each other before Ian says, "No, we haven't."

Erik took a long sip of his coffee, and then said, "Well, you should go do that. You guys are slowly running out of time, so it's best if you talk with him and get everything done now rather than later."

Erik was going to say something more but was suddenly interrupted by Kevin walking into the house and saying, "I don't think you guys are going to be able to talk with Liam anytime soon. I tried stopping by his place and heard a lot of screaming and moaning. I didn't want to interrupt whatever he was doing so I decided to come here instead."

Ian and Emmett's eyes went wide after hearing what Kevin just said. Even though he didn't say it, they knew what he meant. Erik's eyes also went wide but then he said, "I don't blame him. With the type of wife he has, it only makes sense for that to happen."

Kevin agrees with Erik and says, "I feel bad for him though. We all know who wears the pants in that relationship. But at the same time, I envy him. If I were in his shoes, I would make the most of it and have the time of my life." 

Kevin laughed for a moment after making his comment, but it was soon cut short. He suddenly felt a dangerous presence coming from behind him. Even Ian, Erik, and Emmett could feel it. A cold sweat slowly started to form on Kevin's forehead. He knew he messed up.

Standing behind him was an Extremely angry Ellie. The aura that emanated from her filled the atmosphere with dread. Even Erik, who was crystal rank, felt a sense of danger. One wrong move from any of them would lead to disaster.

Kevin wasn't sure what to do. Even without looking, he knew who stood behind him. His heart was beating so hard that he could hear it in his ears. The cold sweat on his forehead started to stream down his face.

Eventually, he managed to compose himself and said, "Hey… there… Ellie. I'm sure you must have a good reason to be angry but–" Before Kevin could finish speaking, Ellie grabbed him by his shoulder and started to drag him away.

However, Kevin managed to grab onto the door frame before saying, "Help! Save me! I don't want to go. Please, Ian, Emmett, Erik, one of you, HELP ME!"

"Sorry man, but you brought this upon yourself. There's nothing we can do to help," Erik said as he took a sip from his cup. Internally though, Erik felt bad for Kevin. He wished he could do something to help him, but he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it from Ellie and his wife.

Once Kevin lost his grip on the door frame, he screamed out in fear, pleading for some help. But all Emmett and Ian did was salute him as he got dragged away into the distance.

After Kevin vanished into the horizon, Emmett, Erik, and Ian let out a sigh of relief. Now that the danger was gone, Erik said, "I may be crystal rank and have the capability to fight extremely dangerous creatures, but even I wouldn't dare challenge the women in my life. They can be more fierce than some monsters."

As Erik spoke, he failed to notice both the fear on Ian and Emmett's faces and the intense presence behind him. When he saw the faces Ian and Emmett were making, he finally noticed the danger emanating behind him. Erik slowly turned his head only to see Crystal standing behind him.

Her face had a smile on it but it wasn't a pleasant one. Looking at the smile, one could tell that she was angry. Not only that, but she was also giving off a terrifying aura. But this was not an elemental aura. This was an aura that came from pure unbridled anger.

"Oh, hi dear. How long have you been standing there?" Erik's face was now covered in a cold sweat.

"Long enough," Crystal angrily said through her teeth.

After Crystal spoke, Erik tried to make a run for the back door. But Crystal was one step ahead of him. She blocked off the doorway with a giant stone pillar, not giving Erik a sliver of a chance.

Upon seeing the back door blocked, Erik tried to jump out of the window. Sadly, He was too late. Crystal held him down with her earth element. Then she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and proceeded to drag him upstairs.

Erik's face was filled with defeat as he accepted his fate. Once they reached the top of the stairs, Ian and Emmett heard a door slam, followed by Erik screaming something.

Ian and Emmett knew something was going to happen to Erik, but they did not want to stick around and find out what was going to happen.

The two brothers agreed to leave the house and go talk to Liam about the academy.