19 To Feel Absolutely Useless

"And fuck, I really wanted to kill someone," Korū muttered, extremely disappointed.

"We should go check out what's happening…" Alina said, glancing at the Beta family. You two stay here while Linda and I go check?"

"Mh, sure."

Alina and Linda made their way out of the dungeon, their ears greeted by the sound of fighting. They glanced at each other and Linda gave a nod. They started sprinting out as quickly as they could.

"Damn it." Alina muttered as chaos greeted them. Griffins. Always the griffins. This time, however, they weren't facing a small group of enemies, but an entire werewolf pack. They no longer spared the time to slash the abdomen of each foe, but Alina could tell from the scent: it was the same group of griffins, or at least part of the same group. She was almost confident that there were more at this point.

The Betas eyed the twins as their two other companions left. Once they were out of earshot, they attacked, the Male Beta occupying Hikari, while Jen and the Female Beta lunged at Korū.

Korū snarled, swiping at them with the katana. His blood boiled, the wolf-dragon in him surging forward with a roar, Hikari shifting right as he did. Two pairs of slitted, reptilian green eyes glared down at the Betas and Jen, and four sets of sharp black talons shot towards the werewolves. The katana clattered to the ground and the cats pounced on it, dragging it away.

The Male Beta made a grab at the paws that were swiping at him, before kicking Hikari in the stomach, whereas both Jen and the Female Beta shifted and met Korū mid-air, slamming him onto the floor of the cell.

"Just die already, fuckers," Korū screeched, sinking his teeth into the werewolves.

Jen snapped at Korū's neck unsuccessfully as he freed a paw and slashed her face with talons he willed to elongate.

This carved deep lines in her face, causing her to whimper in pain and back away instinctively as her warm blood dripped down her face. This left the Female Beta to wrestle him herself.

The Male Beta, on the other hand, was shocked as Hikari didn't collapse as he expected her to.

Hikari hissed, lunging at him with her jaws open in a roar. The cats were crouched over the sword in a corner, watching the fight with narrowed eyes.

He shifted and tried to dodge to the side but she still managed to latch onto his back, her momentum causing him to fall.

On the other hand, the Female Beta had already been knocked unconscious by Korū, leaving Jen to attempt to fend him off. Just as he was attacking, however, the sound of feet slapping on the ground entered their ears.

The Male Beta smiled evilly and said, "Reinforcements."

***

They got away. There were just too many opponents.

"Fuck!" Korū screeched.

"Oh god." Alina said, burying her head in her hands. All of them had sustained wounds of some sort, but Alina was glad that they at least managed to do their enemies justice, and many had run away with broken bones and multiple scratches, though 'lacerations' was probably closer. "I can't believe we let them slip past us."

"It's no one's fault that they got past us. Their numbers are surprisingly overwhelming. And they covered their scents, and those who didn't manage to get away have killed themselves." Linda said.

"The old poison in the mouth trick." Cayne said.

"Shut up, Moonlight bitch," Korū sneered.

"Well, we are kinda on the same side this time though," Cayne murmured thoughtfully. "Doesn't mean I hate you less either."

The five of them were lounged on the sofas in the Night Stalker pack house, while everyone else ran damage control. The four of them and the cats were considered visitors so the Alpha of Night Stalker thought he would be an even worse host than he already was if he accepted their offer to help with damage control. Cayne had been sent to keep the company.

"Game plan?" Alina asked.

"Kill people."

"Hunt them down, get answers, then kill people." Cayne said, partially agreeing with Korū.

"I think we should get some of Night Stalker's best trackers to see if they can find anything, before we go investigate some more." Linda said, apparently the most sensible.

"That's a shit ton of waiting." Alina commented.

"Yeah." Kagami, sitting on Korū's lap, narrowed her eyes at Cayne. Hikari reached over to pet her. "Let's just kill people."

"I mean, you've got to find them first. Look at it this way, if you get answers, you can find more people to kill." Linda reasoned.

"Mh."

"Ahah, I'm high-"

"Yeah you're high," Korū grunted. Cayne snickered.

"-ly certain that if Linda wasn't here we'd be dead." Hikari glared at Korū. "If anyone's high, it's you."

"I'm high for sure. Too much coffee." Alina said. "Man, I'm too lazy to think. I just wanna bounce off some walls." She was exhausted, and nursing a slashed arm.

"Give me the coffee," Hikari and Korū demanded at the same time, eyeing the cup in Alina's hand.

"Kids, you are amateurs. Every pack house kitchen has at least one coffee machine." Alina shook her head disappointedly, sipping some of her latte. She'd already gone through some cold brew, expresso, cappuccino, arabica, macchiato, and the like.

"I'm lazy." Hikari face-planted the couch. Korū sighed, lifted Kagami off his lap, and went off, coming back with a latte for Hikari and a mochaccino for himself.

Linda and Cayne sighed at the sight, and started quietly discussing plans while the others just lazed around. Their voices became a soft drone in the background as the twins and Alina continued to talk about unimportant things.

"No, Kagami, DON'T DRINK THAT!" Korū snapped at the cat who was sniffing at Hikari's coffee.

"Mrrrr." Kagami turned up her nose at Korū and stalked away to her siblings.

"Tell me about your grandfather." Alina asked quietly.