Alpha Attack

Dormach leaped to her feet, her body glowing for a moment before shifting into her hound form. She growled at the cave entrance where the howl came from. Her hackles were raised, and her teeth bared. She looked ready to tear anything that came into view apart.

Carn swept in front of Cayna in a protective stance. Gwyn stepped to Dormach's side.

"You two stay here. Dormach and I will take care of this." He said.

Cayna could hardly pay attention to any of this. A message was displayed in front of her this whole time.

*Ding!*

*Hostile Werewolf pack detected. Quest: Complete Lycan Matriarch System Tutorial. Task One: Activate Matriarch's Command one time. Status: Incomplete.*

"What is this?" Cayna said. No one heard her as the howling of the werewolves filled the air.

Dormach and Gwyn ran out into the open air. Gwyn looked from side to side as Dormach growled at his side.

"It is a whole pack. Where did all these werewolves come from? They should be extinct in this land." He said, getting a very bad feeling. "This should not be."

Shapes stood amongst the trees. Furred bodies rippling with muscle, red eyes staring out and snapping jaws full of long, sharp teeth.

The werewolves circled their targets so there could be no escape. They were being more patient than he was used to. Normally they charged in without a second thought.

"They have an alpha link." Gwyn said. He prepared himself to fight. He and Dormach could handle the beasts no problem but he still wondered how they had found him so easily. He was sure that Nuka could not have possibly imprinted on Cayna. He was making sure anything like that had happened. He needed answers or this would become a problem.

Then, to his shock, Cayna stepped in front of him.

"What are you doing?" he said, grabbing her shoulder. "It isn't safe." She turned to him and there was a look of determination on her face.

"I have to do this." She said.

"What? No you don't."

She shook him off of her and raised her hands towards the werewolves who howled in response. They grew more agitated as their prey stood before them.

"Just trust me." Cayna said. She tried and succeeded to sound confident on the outside. On the inside she was trembling. Gina suddenly appeared at her side.

"It is time to begin your journey with the system. Automated systems are green. Do you wish to proceed?" Gina said. Cayna answered with a mental yes.

"Very well. Activating Matriarch's Command!" she said.

Cayna's pentalpha flared and power surged through her. It came off her in waves, moving through the air until it passed through the werewolves.

Cayna felt something odd when her comman came in contact with the mindless beasts. Then she realized some things. First, they were not mindless but in a state of being overstimulated. Their senses were overloaded and their need to obey their animal instincts in overdrive. There was something else. Someone was controlling them. She felt an intelligent presence, sending out signals of command similar to hers. She knew they were from an alpha but it wasn't Nuka. Though Nuka must have sent this assassin.

The werewolves howled and grabbed at their heads, becoming confused at who they should follow. She felt the alpha exert more command force, sending the werewolves into a frenzy. They charged towards them, Gwyn and Dormach prepared to kill them but Cayna waved them back.

"No!" she said. She pushed against the alpha's command waves. "I can do this!"

She didn't understand it. Why didn't she just let her companions kill these wretched creatures? Was it because, underneath their ferocious exterior, she still felt their humanity underneath? She felt their minds crying out, hating themselves for losing control, being compelled against their wills. She wanted to help those crying voices.

"Stop!" Cayna said, screaming at the top of her voice and sending out a massive command wave. The wolves howled and crashed to the ground at her feet. There were over a dozen of them. They weren't as big as she expected though. The tales made them seem huge, taller than a full grown man at least but these barely came to her chest. Were these really the ferocious werewolves of ancient tales?

The alpha link was severed completely. Cayna fell to one knee, suddenly exhausted. Gina nodded her head.

"They are under your command now."

*Ding!*

*Task One: Activate Matriarch's Command one time. Status: Complete.*

*Ding!*

*Deed Activated: Use Matriarch's Command fifty times*

*Ding!*

*Hint: Use of the Lycan Matriarch System will level up skills and attributes of the user. Train daily to level up quickly and grow stronger.*

Cayna sighed. "Gina, why does this sound like a game?"

Gina for once looked abashed. "Well…"

Cayna rolled her eyes. "Are you telling me my how many greats ancestor was a video game nerd?"

Gina hid a smile behind her hand offered the peace sign as a reply. Cayna sighed again.

"Who are you talking to?" Carn said, making Cayna remember herself.

"Um." She said but she didn't have time to answer. The werewolves were now stirring. Where once they were mindless and snarling, now they all orderly. They lined up in rows and bowed themselves on one knew, heads turned down and ears standing at attention.

Cayna looked at Gwyn and Carn but they only looked back, not able to be of any help.

"Now what?" Cayna said mentally to Gina but her ancestor's eyes were squinted in suspicion.

"Something isn't right." She said.

Suddenly the werewolves all grasped at their necks. They howled in choked gasping breaths. Blood began to pulse from wounds in their necks. Before any of them could react, thin razor wire contracted and sliced off all their heads. Blood sprayed everywhere as their wounds gushed out in thick, red bursts.

Cayna screamed, even as the blood sprayed all over her body. She fell to her knees, grabbing her head as the link she shared with them was violently severed. She felt every loss as if it were a psychological blow.

Then it was over, their voices were gone. There was silence in her mind again but she hated it. It was the knowledge that each one of them were dead, ripped from this world by a cruel and twisted orchestrator.

She screamed again, this time in horror as she looked at the bodies strewn in front of her. They were changed, no longer wolf-like. They had returned to their original human forms. Each one was a child no more than the age of twelve.

In confused despair, she reach out her hands to them, grasping a little girl's hands and in the other a boy's. Their headless bodies lying twisted and lifeless. Cayna screamed again as tears spilled down her cheeks.

She had heard their pleas for help. They didn't want to be beasts. In the short time the link was established, she had gotten a glimpse into each of their lives. They had similar stories. Orphans who were kidnapped off the streets and turned into monsters in order to kill and hunt and terrorize the enemies of the alphas. No, not all of them. Just one.

"Nuka!" she said, rage filling her. Her aura came back, crackling with red power. The wind around the area swelled, making the trees sway.

She held on to the cold hands, unable to stop the flow of her tears. For a moment, she thought she could save those kids. She was their mother in a way. She was responsible for them. Then they were ripped away.

"I will never forgive you!" she said, her eyes now crying blood. "Never!"

The others had backed away.

"Gwyn!" Carn said, shielding her eyes. "We have to stop her!"

"I know!" he said. "We can't get close. Something is going haywire with her godnote! We might do damage if we try to interfere!" he was busy holding Dormach back. She was back in her humanoid form, trying to go and save her friend.

The overflow of power surged through Cayna. She felt swallowed by her rage. She couldn't stop it! No, she didn't want to stop it! She would eat this whole world. She would drown it in blood and death. A world that can do this to her children. It doesn't deserve to exist any longer.

Gina walked in front of her, her face solemn. "Yes, this is the fate of the lycans, dear daughter. Their rage, their appetite for destruction grows. This is what we must defeat. We must undo the curse. This is why I created the system. One day, you will rise up and conquer this curse but for now, you must sleep."

She placed a hand on Cayna's head as she continued to scream her vows to destroy Nuka. To destroy them all.

*Ding!*

*Emergency System Reset activated. In five, four, three, two, one. Shutting down*

Cayna's aura fizzled and dissipated, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards as if dead.

Gwyn finally let Dormach go who rushed to Cayna's side. She whimpered and licked and kissed her all over but the lycan did not stir. He supposed she would be unconscious for a while.

"So it is true after all." A soft voice said from within the trees.

The three of them stiffened and turned their attention to the trees. Each of their eyes began to glow and their pentalphas and auras flared.

"Come forth assassin and face your fate." Gwyn said in his anger.

"No need for more death. I had to see with my own eyes if a matriarch was truly come again into the world. It seems Nuka has not been lying. There is hope again for us." The man said, still hiding beyond their sight.

"A hope you will never see bear fruit." Carn said, her joints cracking and popping as she curled her fingers into fists.

"What if I told you I had no joy in this needless bloodshed. I too am compelled as these poor souls were." The voice indeed seemed genuine in their sadness but the others were slow to listen, their blood still boiling in their veins against such wanton injustice.

"You are not blameless, coward." Gwyn said.

"Be careful where you lay your blame, failed king. If anything, we are a company of cowards." He said.

Gwyn's wives snarled and hissed, their auras bristling.

Gwyn stepped forward. "You were a fool to come here. Did you think you would leave alive?" he motioned his wives to be ready to attack. They waited for his signal.

"I did not come to fight or to die. I came in fact," he said as he stepped out into the open. "I came to offer you my help."

He stood in front of them with no aura, completely naked, with a hand on one hip. He narrowed his eyes at them.

"Listen. I understand that you are outraged." He said and looked down at the faces of the kids he had just killed. "This brings my godnote no pleasure. I deserve a thousand horrible deaths. I know this. One day, I know I will pay for my sins, but right now I need you to listen to me, because you have no idea what Nuka is really planning. I promise you, it is worse than you imagine."

"Why should we believe you." Gwyn said, him and his wives not letting their guard down for even a moment.

"You may not, but that will not make my words any less true. Though I will say that these are just my suspicions as Nuka trusts no one with his deepest secrets." He said. Then he looked down at Cayna. "Well, before all that. We should get her cleaned up and back inside your hideout. Don't worry, only I know you're here." He looked down at the bodies again, sadness in his eyes. "I'll take care of this."

Dormach, impatient, barked and snapped about to lunge at the man and tear his throat out.

"Dormach, stand down!" Gwyn said with unquestioning authority. She turned on him, her eyes hurt and confused. "I know, my love." He walked over to her and scratched her behind the ears. "Cayna needs you right now. Will you help her?"

Dormach whined and turned back into her humanoid form. She kissed her husband and then gathered Cayna into her arms. She threw back one more murderous look at the lycan alpha before heading off to the river so wash off the blood.

"I will go help her, husband." Carn said, also throwing him a murderous glance before turning around. With her back turned to the lycan , she said to him, "You may be a victim in your elder's game but I will never forgive you for this. If you ever hurt Cayna again, not even my husband will stop me from killing you." She exited the scene, leaving an ominous silence in her wake.

Gwyn stood with his arms folded, glaring at the lycan who continued to stare down into the faces of the children. He relaxed and sighed.

"What you did. Was it truly necessary?"

"No." The lycan said. "Of course it wasn't, but it was beyond my control. Nuka had me under certain controls and parameters about the children. I placed the ESRs around their necks myself and set the trigger. I had no choice in the matter. Eventually, he will dispose of me after I have outlived my usefulness." He clenched his clawed fists. "Believe me, I want Nuka dead just like the rest of you, but none of us are strong enough."

Gwyn nodded. He knew what it was like to be powerless against a cruel master, though he kept that to himself.

"So, what of your master now?" he said. "What control does he have over you now?"

"None at the moment. He will have noticed of course. The matriarch's command severed his connection with me. No one has ever done that before. She is truly remarkable." The lycan said. "I should begin cleansing this area,"

He pointed his palm at the bodies and one body at a time, they disintegrated into nothingness. After a few cleansings, Gwyn helped him in the same fashion. Soon, all traces of the dead were vanished. Only the metal wire remained.

Gwyn picked one up, studying it. The quality was industrial grade. Very high quality and not cheap. Military surplus type hardware. He looked at the lycan.

"Where did Nuka get this type of equipment? Only a well equipped assassin would have Evidence Suppression Runes like this." He said. The lycan gave him a wry, humorless smile.

"Like I said, Nuka is not who you think he is. His plans for the matriarch are only beginning." He said.

"What plans?" Gwyn said.

"Like I said, I only have suspicions." The lycan said.

"What are they?"

"In the last century Nuka has inserted himself into the Sycadian government. That's how he got his hands on ESRs like this." The lycan said, indicating to the wire.

"Why didn't they kill him? Aren't they obsessed with exterminating your kind?"

The lycan shook his head. "Everyone has the Sycadians all wrong. What they are really obsessed with, is power."

"But what do they need Nuka for?"

"It's for-" the lycan's eyes suddenly bulged. Froth burst from his mouth and he clutched his throat. Lesions appeared all over his skin. Soon he was covered in bleeding sores. He fell to his knees, his eyes turning to jelly, running down his face. He fell on his face, his body continuing to twitch for a while before it finally became still. His blood ran black from his ruined body.

"Nuka." Gwyn said as he disintegrated the lycan's body. "What are you planning?"