4 The wolf and the DEAD

I ran forwards, and leapt onto my first zombie. We crashed to the ground and I took a quick look at it. The body was a generic school guy, and I didn't pay it much mind. I sunk my claws into his head, killing him in moments.

With my first kill done, I used his body as a springboard and jumped towards my next prey.

There were 2 zombies making their way to me side by side, so I flexed my claws, and aimed for their heads as I came down on them. I got the kill on one of them, but the other grabbed me hard, and I knew it'd bruise later. (Oh yeah, theses fuckers can do shit like that.) It didn't hold onto me for long though, since I clamped my jaws down onto the arm it held me with and tore it off.

The zombie nicked me with his teeth though, but I didn't care. I ran my claws through his head and put him down. Looking for the next closest zombie, I saw maybe a good 30 or something make their way towards me.

Taking a glance at Shizuka and their group when I heard a shout, I saw they started to make their way towards the bus again. Takashi and Saeko were beating back the zombies, doing way better then they did in the anime. I internally nodded, and focused back on the zombies coming for me. There was a group of 6 bunched together, so I wasn't tackling them right away. There were more groups of 2 and even a group of 3, but I needed to deal with the stragglers.

There were 8 of them on their own, so I got ready to tear them apart.

Running from the zombies I killed, my target was a straggler girl in a gym uniform. Weaving through a pair of zombies that were in front of her, and going for a jump, I aimed my jaws at her neck. She tried to respond, but my jaws snapped shut around it, from there, I ripped her head off, and threw it away before she was able to do anything. Her body fell limp, and I could tell the pair I ran passed was coming my way, so I acted on the first idea that came into my mind.

I opened my mouth, then clamped down on the zombie girl's arm. I tensed my body, picked her up, and THREW it towards the incoming pair. A zombie from the group of 6 was in the way of the zombie pair and impromptu projectile, and was knocked down with them.

I ignored the rotten taste in my mouth, and grinned. I could take them without shifting, but I had to remember why I was here. Kills could wait, I needed to get to Shizuka.

Speaking of her, I checked where they were, and saw they had just made it to the bus. They had just started to file in. Good. I ran towards them, taking down zombies and jumping off of their corpses when I finished them off. Though I had to dodge a few zombies Saeko sent flying in my general direction. I growled in annoyance, and decided to fuck with her somehow later.

Another group of zombie's later, and I was getting close to Takashi and Saeko, who were getting inside the bus when they saw me coming, and tensed a little. Either because I was a wolf, a wolf covered in blood and gore, or both. I didn't really care which one.

I kept tearing through zombies, either dismembering ones that I didn't have the time to kill, or staggering a few more to slow them down. I realized I was close, and after I jumped from the back of a zombie, whose spine I bit into for the kill, I met up with them. But when we were all set to go, no one had said anything about me, probably because of shock, we heard another shout.

"Help us!" There was another group coming towards us, and I recognized the teacher in the group.

"Who's that?" Takashi somehow didn't know one of his schools teachers, which was weird and hilarious to me at the same time.

"That is Shidou. He teaches 3-A." Saeko explained, just like she did in the anime, and I heard Rei react and practically spit out his name. Takashi was about to get off the bus and help, but just like she did before, Rei grabbed him and begged Takashi to leave the snake to die. Which I was 100% behind, I even verbally agreed with her by barking. They turned to me, surprised that I'd agree with her, or that I just barked, didn't know which one, but they still looked at me.

"See! Even the wolf doesn't like him!" I didn't mind Rei using me to justify her hatred of Shidou, I barked for that reason in the first place. But Takashi didn't seem to care. He grabbed his bat and went out of the bus anyway. Saeko followed of course, and I reluctantly followed after them. I took center, Saeko took the left and Takashi took the right.

"Get to the bus! I promise you, you'll survive this!" Ugh... (The snake.) Koichi Shidou, the leader of his own little cult. I growled when I saw him getting closer, and went with the 1st plan to get rid of him that popped into my mind.

I went for the nearest zombie, bit onto its arm, ignoring it as it raked its claws against and into my hide, and treated it like a toy. Giving it a quick flail, I threw it in Shido's direction! Unfortunately, the guy was looking at me already so he saw the zombie flying his way, and avoided it. I clicked my tongue at that, and I'm pretty sure I heard Rei do the same.

We kept defending the bus, I got some more kills, and after everyone, including the snake, were on board, the kids got back in. Though I stayed outside, making sure nothing got too close. Shizuka saw this and I could hear how worried she was. "Silver! Get in the bus, we have to go!"

"Just drive Marikawa-Sensei, the dog seems to know what he's doing." Ugh, that snake already knew to aim for me, but I decided to spite him and run right in. The door closed behind me, and then we were off. And fucking hell were we OFF. For a bus, the damn thing had the acceleration of a sports car!

"They're not humans... They're not humans anymore!" Her statement made me wince a little. She was a bit more serious then I was used too, but I was too busy making sure I didn't fly out of the windshield to comfort her. She drove us out the lot and through the gate, and then we were off campus. I let out a sigh of relief, and checked my kills and other upgrade quests.

[Status]

Werewolf Strength 1/4 - 43/150

Regeneration stage 1/4- 7/200

Werewolf Senses stage 1/4 - 5/30

(Hmm... Just 43? Maybe I should've killed some more. Oh well.)

"Now then... Can we address the elephant in the room?!" Saya likes to shout... A lot. Though considering the situation, she's kind of justified.

Her shout made everyone stop whatever conversations were going on, and everyone turned to me. "Yeah... What do we do about the wolf on the bus?" Takashi asking the big questions I see. Though I saw Rei didn't dislike me, probably for trying to kill Shidou, and Saeko was just interested in me. Kohta and Saya were worried, and Shidou and his group were a little scared. But Shizuka?

"Silver, we need to get a bath! Your starting to stink."

(Excuse me? I don't stink!) I responded with an offended bark and went over to nudge her in the side with my snout. She started giggling at that.

"Stooop, I'm driving Silver!" Oh yeah...

(How the fuck have we not crashed yet?) I shook that thought off, and sat by her side, which I wasn't going to leave anytime soon.

Then one of the guys from Shidou's group, started to antagonize Takashi, and Rei dealt with it. Then Shidou opened his mouth, and did the whole 'I shall be the leader' spiel, and I growled at him. He stopped talking, then the rest of the bus focused back on me.

I looked at the rest of the bus, and saw their faces. Takashi and Rei were just blinking at me, Kohta was looking less guarded, even if he kept his grip on his gun, Shidous's group were still scared, and Saya was just in disbelief. "Back on topic, how!? That's not a dog, that's a Gray Wolf! How'd you domesticate it?! Where'd you even find it?! The Honshu went extinct decades ago and during the Meiji Restoration it was made national policy to kill wolves on sight! So how is there a Gray Wolf here?!"

The fuck? I didn't catch some of the middle, but I caught the last bits. I could've been killed on sight? What the fuck Japan?! Even the rest of the bus, Shizuka included, were looking at Saya. Though I had to nudge her to get her to focus back on the road. "Well I for one am happy he's here. He helped Takashi and the rest of us get to the bus faster. Besides, did you see how much he did for us?" I was starting to like Rei.

Saya grunted at Rei's response, but she didn't seem to be done yet. "Oh I saw alright. But he was bitten atleast once throughout the whole ordeal! It's a threat to us!" That made everyone else stiffen and turn to me again. If I was a normal person, I would too. Zombie wolves? I had enough of zombie dogs from CoD zombies and Resident Evil, zombie wolves would be a massive pain in the ass. But considering I was the wolf in question, I just rolled my eyes. Saya didn't seem to like that though. "Don't roll your eyes at me mutt! We... Did it just roll its eyes at me... Or am I seeing things?"

I saw Takashi and Saeko nod at her, and the way she looked at me changed. She narrowed her eyes at me and stared. I raised a brow at that, and she blinked. "It can understand me?" I rolled my eyes at her again, but nodded.

She widened her eyes at that, and just stared. "That's impossible! THEM, I can just chalk up to something beyond science. But that? Language comprehension should be beyond a canine's capability!" I should've worked more on the big words. Saya used big words for no reason.

"Rika always said Silver was a smart boy. I think she said he might be really old, which is rude because Silver's my cute little boy, there's no way he could be an old man.-"

(Old?! I'm fucking younger then the both of them!)

"-But I think Silver's just a smarty pants, aren't you Silver."

(She gets it!) I barked in agreement, and Shizuka took a hand off the wheel and scratched behind my ears.

Despite how much I liked it, I couldn't indulge in it. "Marikawa-Sensei, please focus on the road. We wouldn't want to get into an accident now." I was going to kill the snake for that.

"Ughhh! Anyway. The mutt's a threat! Who knows when he'll change!" She would have had a point, if I was a normal animal. And my 1st supporter came from Kohta.

"But wouldn't he have changed by now? We've been on the road for a few minutes now, a-and he hasn't coughed up blood or anything like that." And that was all true. And something Saeko, my 2nd supporter built off of.

"He's correct about that Takagi. There's also the fact he has yet to do anything against us. We can also cite his loyalty to Marikawa-sensei as another point towards him. Marikawa-sensei, how far do you live from the school?" Maybe I wouldn't fuck with her later.

Shizuka started to hum, and I watched her think... And I knew that was something she had no immediate answer for. Everyone watched as she tried to remember, and I just sighed. "Um, you do know how far your home is... Right Marikawa-sensei?" Saeko just seemed as exasperated as the rest of us.

"Uhhh... No? I just think about getting from there to school and then I'm there." Hah... Looks like I'd have to answer this.

"Wait, what's the mutt doing?" When I shifted in front of them, I'd have to remind Saya to not call me a mutt. But she had a good question. Why was it a good question? Well I was grabbing the supply bag Shizuka had filled, and was gently opening the zipper. When I opened the bag, I looked for her phone, and found it. I gently turned it on, and put in Shizuka's password.

Rika had set it for her because Shizuka kept forgetting the other ones, and I knew what the current one was. "Silver, can you show me the time?" I internally sighed at the fact she wasn't bothered that I could do this. The rest of the bus was silent, well except for Shidou and his group... So it was just Takashi's group that was silent. I nudged Shizuka's phone into her line of sight, and we saw the time. it was 4:30pm...

(Well damn... Shit hit the fan as fast as it did in the series.)

"It's not even close to midnight..." When Shizuka said that, the bus fell silent. It was so early... And the world was pretty much fucked already.

I sighed, and shook my head. I went back to looking at Shizuka's phone, and opened google. I typed in 'text to speech' ignoring the sound Saya made, and started typing.

-Firstly our home is atleast a half hour away if Shizuka took the usual route. Secondly, I'm immune. A king won't fall to a pathetic corpse.-

'Haaah?!' That was most of the buses response to me using the text to speech. I say most since Saeko, Saya and Shizuka responded differently. Saya just stared at me with her mouth wide open, Saeko just narrowed her eyes a bit and hummed, and Shizuka started to pet me again. "I KNEW YOU WERE THE SMARTEST BOY! I KNEW IT!" I basked in her praise, but nudged her to put her hand on the wheel so we didn't crash.

Shidou and his group were just staring at me, but I saw Shidou narrow his eyes at me, recognizing I was a threat. I looked back at him, and I started to work on my 2nd plan to fuck him over. But Saya was back to the living world. "A king? What do you mean a king? You're a mutt! And how're you immune? This infection appeared today!"

I felt my eye twitch as she said that, and I started to type again. It was stressful to do because I had to constantly go back in case my paw hit too many characters at the same time.

-I'm tempted to use you to clean off the gunk from my fur. But to answer your question, this infection appeared today, yes. But the undead existed long before this... They were just never this widespread.

I'd say more, but there's a snake among us. And I don't speak with snakes, I eat them.-

The bus fell silent at my answers. and I saw Rei look to Shidou after she processed the snake part. "He's got a point. ESPECIALLY after what just happened. I knew we shouldn't have saved Shidou! And after THAT? I say we kick him out!" I barked in agreement.

Shidou himself just seemed to 'smile' and wave his hand. "Oh come now Miyamoto, should we really be listening to an animal? Who knows if that thing truly has any information? All it's doing is splintering the group and turning us against each other."

"We were never with you in the first place. We're our own group Shidou-sensei. You'd do well to remember that." I heard Saeko back her up, and the others of Shizuka's group had varying levels of agreement. Shidou saw that, and I saw his eye subtly twitch. He 'smiled' again and just brought his hands together.

"I see we won't be reaching a compromise. Then what say we split? A cohesive group is necessary to survive after all." I grinned in my mind. We were coming up on the area Rei and Takashi split in the anime, and I had plans for this. He tried to 'negotiate' us leaving Shizuka with him, but I bared my fangs and growled at him when he did. It's easy to make people give in when your looking at them as if they're dinner if they make a wrong move.

Shizuka and her group were looking at each other, and I saw the reluctance on Kohta and Saya's faces. Shizuka didn't mind, Rei seemed ecstatic at the idea, and Takashi seemed to seriously consider it.

"It sounds perfect! Leaving you to die sounds like the best plan in the world." With Rei on board, Takashi gave in after, and so did the rest of Shizuka's...

(I guess they're my group now aren't they. Oh well.) My group agreed, and we all got off the bus a few minutes later. I managed to convince Saya this would be better, I had to bring up the traffic and how long we'd be stuck in it if we stayed on the bus, and we all got off.

I was the last one off, and as I got off, I lightly poked 1 of the tires, and met up with the rest of the group. "Now what?! Where do we go your majesty?"

(The sarcasm is strong in this one.) But it was fine. I was even starting to find it cute, the little fang she had was helping in that regard, and I just chortled. We were standing a bit away from the tunnel, so I pointed towards it. We got here early since Shizuka hadn't had to stop, I kept her calm and focused enough for her to ignore most of what was going on in the back.

The kids followed after me, I had Shizuka riding on my back so she wouldn't complain and would stay safe. And then a few minutes later, the other bus came flying in and blocked off the tunnel. We were already on the other side, so we heard and saw the explosion, but none of us weer hurt from it.

"Great. There goes our escape route." I just shook my head at Saya.

"Anyway, where are we going to go from here? We still need to find our parents, and we're nowhere near that goal." Takashi had a point, but I had a plan. I motioned for Shizuka to give me her phone, and I used the text to speech.

-Our home. Rika, our roommate, is in the S.A.T. Our home is a guarded mansionette, has an armored Humvee, and plenty of firearms and ammo. Easily defendable.-

"REALLY!? She has live ammunition and real guns?! We gotta gogogo!" Ah yes, the easiest to persuade. Say guns and Kohta's your bestfriend.

Saya seemed to be thinking about that, and I saw the gears going in her head. "That... That could work. We need supplies, a defendable position, actual weapons instead of these ramshackle things we've got, there should still be working water so we can get a bath and wash our clothes... Yes... That... That'll work! Alright mutt! Lead the way. But when we get there, you're giving us answers!" I huffed at her, but led the way.

One of the good things about this arrangement was we could probably get home before tomorrow night, so everyone would be able to take a shower, decompress this, and we could plan before Alice needed to be saved.

We ran through the streets, only fighting when someone either made a mistake, there were too many to sneak around, or we had to take a shortcut. We got into 2 fights and avoided everything else. It helped that the most we'd encounter at a time was a group of 8 at the same time. With me, Saeko and Takashi, we could split 3 between Saeko and I and Takashi could get the last 2, if we had to fight them. We didn't want to waste energy, so we avoided those, and only fought when we took a shortcut and to secure a building for the night.

We were starting to get tired, even I was, so we all chose a building to stay the night in, and killed any zombies that got in our way when we got there. When we checked the time, we saw it was 3 hours since we left the bus. It felt longer to us, but it was what it was. After that, we looked inside the house, found that it was empty and that the place was a mess, but it was a 3 story building with enough rooms a functioning bathroom, and electricity. After boarding up the windows and door, we did our own things.

Everyone started charging their phones, everyone being Shizuka and Takashi. After we all took a shower, which led me to be in a room full of naked women giving me a cleaning. Saya was the only one that seemed a little wary of having me in the room, but as soon as she felt my fur, which was softened from the ungodly amount of soap Shizuka and Rei poured on me, she stopped caring and cuddled with me for a bit.

After that, we broke off to get some sleep, and like usual, I curled up with Shizuka, and we went to sleep. Tomorrow, we'd go home, and decompress the apocalypse.

[Status]

Regeneration stage 1/4 - 7/200 - 10/200

Werewolf Strength stage 1/4 - 43/150 - 62/150

Wolf King's Wisdom stage 0/1 - 2/50

{The next day}

When I woke up, it was in Shizuka's grasp, which was normal. Though I had to blink a bit and remember why the room we were sleeping in was different. A few moments where I remembered Z-Day was yesterday, and I was all caught up.

I wriggled my way out of her grasp, which started to wake her up, and stepped out of bed. "Mhm... Silveeer... Come baaaaaack." I almost laughed at that, but I settled for grinning and a small bark. I needed Shizuka awake, but I couldn't be too loud. I watched as she started to stir more, and slowly open her eyes. She looked at me sitting outside of the bed, and started to reach for me. "Silveeer... Too far..."

I shook my head and let out an amused huff at that. I walked closer, and gently clamped her hand in my mouth. I gently pulled, and made sure she woke up. I couldn't let her sleep in today, we had to get home.

Shizuka started to giggle as I tried moving her, and I knew I had to step my game up. So I let go of her hand, and jumped back onto the bed. She immediately pulled me into a hug, and that's when I started to lick her cheek. "It tickles, Silver!" She kept giggling again, and I made sure she woke up all the way. When I knew she was, I stopped and made my way out of her grip.

She started to rub her eyes, and I saw her start to get up. I ignored the way her shirt gave me a ungodly amount of cleavage, and sat besides the bed as I waited for her to get up. After she stretched for a bit, she groggily got out of bed, and I led her towards the bathroom. I could smell someone cooking, so I didn't need to worry about that, so I just led Shizuka to the bathroom, and stood outside the door.

While Shizuka was doing that, I was wondering if I should shift back, I literally had no reason not too, so I decided to shift back and go grab Shizuka's phone. It was still early, and I'm pretty sure Saeko's the only person up aside from Shizuka and I, and I was going to tell them anyway, so this was fine. Though I did start to wonder about stuff.

"We're... What? 3-5 hours away from home? That's easy, and since I'll be fighting in human form, we'll roll through any zombies that get in our way... Unless it's a horde... I can't deal with a horde yet... Wonder if I just jinxed myself? Eh, fuck it. I'll deal with that later." And I would, no idea when later would be though. I didn't mind speaking outloud again, and I didn't care if anyone heard me.

I went back into the room we stayed in, and grabbed Shizuka's phone. I looked at it, and decided to call Rika myself... I texted her first, had to know if she was free to talk.

S.M - Are you free to talk?

Not even a few seconds after I sent that, Rika started calling. "Well... I should've seen that coming." I shrugged, and picked up.

~Shizuka! Are you ok?! Where are you!?~ I shouldn't of held the phone so close to my ear, I'm a fucking idiot.

"Rika for the love of god tone it down."

~Who the fuck are you!? Why do you have Shizuka's phone!?~ Oh yeah... The whole 'I haven't told you I'm a Werewolf thing.' Whoops. I'll just blame my stupidity on my low stats and it being too early for me to be awake.

"In order. Yes she's ok. We're... Somewhere. I don't fucking know. It's Silver. And she's in the bathroom so I'm calling you while I wait for her to be done." There was silence on the other end, well, silence from her, I heard alot of movement in the background though.

~Silver's a dog. I won't repeat myself after this, who are you and why do you have Shizuka's phone?~ I just clicked my tongue at her.

"I'm a fucking wolf. The only one that treats me like a dog is Shizuka." I heard her exhale through her nose, and just stay silent. A few seconds later, I heard her mumble something under her breath, but I didn't know what.

~Tell me something only Silver would know.~ Finally, progress.

"You stole my snake after I ran off and laughed at you."

~I FUCKING KNEW IT! YOU DID LAUGH AT ME YOU BASTARD!~

"FUCKING HELL RIKA! DON'T YELL IN MY GODDAMN EAR! IT'S TOO EARLY FOR THIS SHIT! AND OF COURSE I DID, YOU WERE DOING SOMETHING STUPID IN MY EYES."

~THEN DON'T YELL BACK AT ME YOU FLEABAG!~

"MAKE ME BITCH!"

~I'LL POP A ROUND IN YOUR ASS YOU LITTLE SHIT!~

"I'D LOVE TO SEE YOU TRY! AND I'M TALLER THEN YOU SHORT STACK!"

~SURE YOU ARE!~

I was about to shout back, but Saya burst into the room, followed by Saeko and Takashi. The girls were wearing their sleeping clothes, and Takashi was in a black tee and boxers while they carried their weapons. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?" With that, we all stared at each other. Saeko and Takashi tensed at seeing me, probably because they'd never seen me before, duh, and Saya was just glaring at me. Probably for shouting at... 7AM? I took a quick glance at the phone in my hand, and say it was 6:55am... Oops.

Takashi looked ready to start swinging, and Saeko did too, until she saw the scars. Then a lightbulb went off in her head. I saw the recognition in her widening eyes, and she said it. "Silver... You... You're a Werewolf?" The other 2 kids blinked, and snapped their heads towards her, and I grinned.

"Winner winner chicken dinner, fuck now I want chicken, but yup. And morning."

~YOU'RE A FUCKING WHAT?!~ Ah, she was still on the line.

"You heard the girl. I'm a Werewolf. The last Werewolf mind you."

And then there was silence, both in the room and on the line. I looked at the kids faces, and watched Saya go to war inside herself on whether to shout or just bash her head into the wall. Then Shizuka just comes in, looks at the kids, then at me. She looked at me for a second, just a single second, and walked over to my side and rubbed my head. "Silver, when did you get so big? Where'd my cute little boy go? Where is he hmm?"

She recognized me, and the fact literally nothing changed about how she viewed me shook off something I didn't know was there. I smiled at her, and just put my chin on her head. She made this happy hum, and just kept playing with my hair.

~I need someone to tell me what the fuck I missed.~ Rika broke the silence, and I decided we'd might as well talk about what we'd do soon.

"Wake the others, I'll go set up our breakfast." No one really moved, other then Shizuka since she was enjoying running her fingers through my hair, so I sighed.

"I'll hand you off to Shizuka, talk to you in... 5? 10? Minutes Rika." I heard her grunt, and handed the phone to Shizuka, who seemed to just realize it was hers and that I was talking to Rika. She started excitedly talking to her, and I walked out of the room. The kids were just staring at me, but I heard someone follow after a few seconds. I turned to see who, and saw it was Saeko. Her eyes had this interested gleam in them, and I was interested in seeing what she'd do about it.

I slowed down a bit, and let her catch up to me. "So... What should I call you? I'm assuming Silver isn't your real name?" She was right, and I grinned.

"You're right there little miss sadist. Name's Maccillian Zaka. Don't care what you call me so pick your poison." I saw her narrow her eyes when I called her a sadist.

"So you know." I snorted at that. I could easily explain how I knew about it.

"Of course I do. I'm a Werewolf. We know predators when we see them. Besides, all Werewolves love the thrill of the hunt. It's literally built into our being. If I couldn't recognize a predator then I'd be a failure of a Werewolf." She listened as I said that, and I saw her hum as we kept walking.

"Interesting... I think I'll save the rest of my questions for when the others are ready... But answer me this. Do you know how to cook?" Interesting.

"And yeah, I can cook." She nodded at that, and we kept going to the kitchen. I heard Rei and Kohta wake up and head to the bathrooms. Saeko and I cooked breakfast, and 10 minutes later, everyone was here. Shizuka moved her seat next to mine, and they dug into the meal, and Shizuka put Rika on speaker after they were all done eating.

When they were all done, Saya started it off. "Alright. Explain! EVERYTHING!" Everyone nodded to that, except Shizuka, she still seemed to not care, and I didn't know if Rika nodded but she probably did. I started to rub my chin, and decided to go with the 'use Muzaka's backstory as mine but change it a bit' plan.

"Alright. I already told the little samurai, but the name's Maccillian Zaka.-"

"Silver sounds better." I just turned to Shizuka and blinked. "It is. It's shorter too!" We all blinked at that, and I turned away and cleared my throat

"-Fine. Maccillian 'Silver' Zaka. Call me whatever you want, I don't really care. Anyway, like I confirmed earlier, I'm the last king as well as Werewolf.-"

"That! What do you mean by that! A king? The last Werewolf?" I need to make Saya understand that interrupting people is annoying.

"I'd get to that if you let me explain!" She looked embarrassed at me calling her out for it, and I nodded. "Good. Now then. Werewolves usually live for centuries or until someone or thing offs us. It depends on how strong we get. Centuries ago,-"

~CENTURIES?! YOU OLD BASTARD!~

"Ah shut it! I look fucking younger then you do ya old bitch!"

~YOU WANNA GO OLD MAN?!~

"BRING IT!" I almost growled at my phone, but Shizuka bonked me on the head and pouted at me.

"Bad Silver, no fighting!"

~Hah! Yeah, bad Silver!~

"You too Rika! Silver's a good boy!"

"HAH! SUCK IT!" I got another bonk for that, and clicked my tongue at that. The kids just watched this happen, and Saeko just looked amused. "Whatever. Anyway, back to the story. Centuries ago, I won the right to be king. Now before anyone interrupts me, Werewolves believe that only the strongest are fit to rule. And you've seen me fight in my wolf form. Not much better then a regular wolf, right?"

I saw them all nod, and hear Rika grunt in acknowledgement.

"And you've all seen my scars. Specifically the 3 claws on my chest. There's a reason that I, as a Werewolf as strong as I was, with a healing factor faster then any of my brethren was, still have them look this bad. As king, I was tough on anyone that broke the rules or started shit with the vampires.-"

"""""""VAMPIRES!?""""""""

I sighed. "Great. If the dead weren't gathering around here earlier, then they surely will be now." That made them blink, and realize 8 people yelled in a zombie apocalypse. "Don't worry. I'll deal with it with all of you later. I've been getting my power back as I kill zombies. I should be good enough to deal with them for long enough to get you guys safe or kill almost all of them. Depends on how many there are." That seemed to calm the rest of them down.

"Now... Where the hell was I..?"

"Vampires. Do they sparkle?" I snorted at that question, and then I blinked. (They made Raizel sparkle sometimes in the show.)

"No... Not in the way you're thinking anyway." The way her eyes lit up when I said that worried me. "Anyway, thanks. Vampires. We were at war with each other for who the fuck knows how long, until I and my... I guess you'd call him friend. Stepped up. I took the seat of king, and Raizel, the Noblesse, reigned our kind in."

"The Noblesse? As in Noblesse Oblige?" Saya just knows everything, I'm convinced of it.

"Sort of. I'm pretty sure that whole phrase ended up based on him." She just blinked and nodded.

~I get you. You were the 'king' but what about him? Was he their king or something?~

"You'd think that now wouldn't you. But no. Rai... Think of Rai as the Aegis and judge of their kind, and the Nuclear option for everyone else. If something threatened their continued existence? Call in Raizel. If a noble house fucks up? Call in Raizel. Werewolves destroy their territory? Call in Raizel. Though he never answered that last one. He helped me get peace, but he never fought me. They had a king, sure, but he was too chained down by the schemes of his own people to govern effectively. It got so bad that we almost destroyed the isles. Anyway, with the war getting too much, I challenged the king, and took the throne.

Raizel was pretty much a friend. A very socially awkward friend, but a friend nonetheless. That made it easier for us to reign our people in. Hell, it even worked. We had decades of peace... And then we were set up." I had to stop there, I had an idea on how to sell this, so I had to breath and act the right way. But for some reason, talking about this seemed... Natural? As if I was actually speaking about something I lived through... It was weird. After a few moments of breathing, I got ready to speak again.

"One day, I get a report from an advisor of mine. 'My liege... We've sustained casualties... The vampires have broken the peace.' When I heard that, I was confused as fuck. 'What?! Why? Where's Raizel?' My advisor just looked at me, and I should've known something was wrong then and there. But I didn't. 'The Noblesse has gone missing... We believe the Noblesse may have been killed.' I lost it. I took off from my throne, and ran towards Raizel's home. And he was gone. I tried to follow his or his servants trail. But I smelled blood when I did, and I saw red.

I didn't care where the trail led, I had to find my friend... He was damn near the closest thing I had to a bestfriend back then. As king, I either had advisors, subordinates, or friends. No one was able to bridge the gap from friend to bestfriend. ESPECIALLY after I became king. But Rai? He was it for me... And I smelled him bleeding. The fucker could level continents in his prime, and something hurt him!? I ran to him, but when I got to the end of his trail, I sprung their trap. Divisions of Vampires AND Werewolves ambushed me, and I fought for my life. I fought for days, never being allowed to breath. And eventually, after a week of constant battle... I got hit. The advisor I got the news from came out of the shadows, and with a vampiric curse on his claws, swiped them across my chest.

I felt it eat into me and I felt my strength leave me. I knew I was fucked. I was running out of energy, my healing was slowed, I was on my own against both races... And I thought I was going to die. And then Raizel came. He was hurt... Which was was an understatement. He was missing his eyes and arms, but he somehow managed to get to me, and save me. He yelled at me to retreat, which was really fucking hard to do. I had my pride, I cared for the guy, and I didn't want to lose either of those. But I didn't have a choice.

Rai blasted me, not enough to kill me, but enough to knock me out and fling me into the sea. I didn't know how long I was out for, but when I came too, I was in my wolf form, weaker then a freshly turned Werewolf. I had no idea where I was, but I tried too and eventually did, find my way back to the site of the battle... Well, I tried to get to the site... But the island was gone. If I guessed right, he sunk it. It's where you all get the legend of Atlantis from."

They were all silent throughout the whole thing, but that last part stunned everyone, including Shizuka. Though I think she was stunned for a different reason. Oh well. "Anyone want to comment so far? Or want to wait for the end?" They all looked around, and agreed for the end. Rika agreed too, and I nodded.

"So with our homeland gone, Vampires and Werewolves alike ran. Or fought in a war. It was either or. After that, I wandered around, didn't know for how long. But there was something I DID know. We were dying. The Vampires triple crossed the Werewolves, and used a race wide variant of the same curse that was used on me, on them. Whatever numbers my kind had left, were decimated. The only reason I'm still alive despite having a stronger version of that curse was because I could gather energy from the things I kill.

Other Werewolves were screwed in that department. Vampires got their energy from blood, duh, but then something happened that fucked them over. The big fuck you plague, the black death hit, and suddenly they were dropping like flies. Weakened as I was, I was still able to resist it, so I was fine. But whatever of my kind that was left, were done for. The vamps were done for. And I kept going. Refusing to die. And that brings us to here. In a zombie apocalypse 5 days after I met Shizuka and Rika in the forest."

They were all silent, and I let them take it in. Then a few seconds later, Shizuka slowly pulled me into a hug, and ran her fingers through my hair. "It must've been hard Silver." That just made me feel bad. It was all bullshit, even with the weird feeling that told me it wasn't, and she still loved me. Fucking hell, I definitely didn't deserve her in my life. But that made me triple down on making sure she lived... And maybe I could change her into one of mine later.

The living room was silent, Rika was silent, and the only thing that was heard were the groans of the zombies... And they were pissing me off since they were ruining the moment. Shizuka held me close, and I returned the hug. We stayed like that for a while, but I eventually got fed up with the zombies moaning and groaning outside the place. I slowly got out of her hug, and I stood up. "They're too loud and it's pissing me off. I'll go clear them out. I'll be right back." And so I stood up, and made my way to the front door.

I extended the claws of my left, they were like M-21's at stage 1, and I opened the door with my right. A zombie tried barging in, but I pierced it's brain in one motion, and used it to push back the other zombies behind it. I wanted to shut them up, relieve the guilt at lying to Shizuka, and ignore the weird feeling in my gut, and rank up my strength. Maybe make progress with Regeneration too. That'd be good.

{Rika's POV}

(What the fuck?) That was the only thing I could think after hearing about Silver's, no, Maccillian Silver Zaka's past. If it wasn't for the literal end of the world, I would've called bullshit. But the fact that I spent yesterday shooting zombies in the head, made me buy into it. That and the fact I knew he was a wolf and suddenly he's talking to me on the phone... And goddamn did he say a bunch of shit that made me question everything... But then I stopped. (The hell am I going to use any of that for? Fucker dropped this bomb on me and I can't do anything with it. It's not like we can enlist more Wer...- Wait a minute.)

"Hey kids! Didn't Silver say 'freshly turned' during his story?!" I knew not to ask Shizuka, so I was banking on one of the kids in her group caught what I did.

~Wait a minute, you're right! And in lore, Werewolves can change someone they bite!~ Saya? Said. I knew her since she was a Takagi, but I was pretty sure that was her who responded. Then the rest of the kids started to talk, but I just thought about it. (If Silver can turn people into Werewolves, then we can survive. We can win.) I had that thought stuck on repeat, and as soon as I heard Silver come back in... 15 minutes later? I just had to ask him.

"Silver! Can you change people?!" I think I heard something hit a wall, but I wasn't sure.

~Fucking dammit Rika! And yes, I can! But that's an entirely different thing then stories.~

"Then explain it fucker!"

~FINE! Werewolves have 2 different variants of the bite. If we bite someone in wolf form, they pretty much get a 50/50 chance on dying or not. If they live, they become a Werewolf yea, but they start out at the bottom of the ladder. Think of it like a fresh recruit in the army. Untrained, not able to understand or properly wield their power. They become Werewolves but they have to build up their foundations themselves.

Now there's the more personal variant. The one that NEEDS us to be in human form. This version is reserved for someone that's earned it. If I gave that bite, the person bitten WILL live. Different Werewolves define 'earn' in their own way. This bite links the biter and bitten in a way that makes it personal. Think of it like adoption. If I bit the 2 that earned it, it'd be like claiming them as family. As my pack. A pack is family and equal. We stand with each other, we live and die for each other. This variant gives them the whole kit and caboodle. Instincts on all powers we have, and a foundation similar to mine. If I bit someone with this bite, they'd get a healing factor that could grow like mine, just a bit stronger then the normal Werewolf as of right now, the knowledge of how to fight, to hunt as a Werewolf, and how to shift into and use our wolf form. They'd even get the instinctual knowledge of how to use our aura, but that's stuff that Werewolves usually take years to grasp properly.~

Oh... Well that somehow makes sense. Wait a second.

"Whose earned it then?" I had an idea, but I wanted to be sure.

~You and Shizuka. You because I know you're competent in battle. You're an alpha female and my senses back that up. That's usually what I base my bite around. Werewolves are strong, we fight till the last breath, if someone was strong enough and competent enough to impress me, then they'd earn my bite. Shizuka's different though. She's the first person to give me genuine and unconditional love in years. As weak as it sounds, that was something I missed.~

I was right... But that last part was kind of heavy. But I could understand it... (Let's just move on from that. The mood must've taken a dive since no one's saying anything. Uhh, come on girl, something to lighten the mood. You got this!) I had to think about it, what the hell would I say to bring the mood back up? Then I got it.

"So you really ARE old huh? Maybe I should bring you in for peeking on Shizuka and those girls in your group." I heard some spluttering going on, mostly from said girls, but I think I head those boys get embarrassed too. I think I heard Shizuka hum a bit, but Silver?

~They're not really my type. Sure they're all cute, even Saya with her little tiger cub act, but I'm no stranger to sex or seeing a woman naked. Sleeping by Shizuka's side would've numbed me to it a bit too. But the only person I'm into at the moment is you.~

Huh? What? I ignored Shizuka's squeal, and Saya's indignant shout, and just processed that. Maccillian Silver Zaka, the wolf I adopted with Shizuka, the Werewolf apparently king, and man older then probably my whole family line combined, was into me? The fuck? Should I feel flattered? Cause that was a fucking flattering thought. This fucking Werewolf king was into me? I think Shizuka said something, but I didn't catch it. But Silver said something, and I heard that loud and clear.

~Yes you're undeniably sexy Shizuka. A blind and braindead monkey could tell that. But you're kind of like a puppy. I want to protect it. Keep it from walking into the wall in the mornings. Make sure it doesn't trip on a corpse and hurt itself. My desire to see you safe beats out my lust for you as if I found a hyperactive rabbit and gave it crack and a jackhammer.~

My brain told me that was a funny image, but I was more focused on what he said. He saw Shizuka as a sexy woman, and he still liked me more? If that wasn't a confidence booster I wasn't sure what was. Hell... (Fuck it. I might as well give him a chance. Even if it doesn't check out, I can say I dated a Werewolf.)

"Alright Silver. Make sure you bring Shizuka and those kids my way, we're securing the airport so they'll all be safe. After that, the bite, and maybe a dinner, we'll see where this goes."

~Huh... Ok. Though that'll take a while. We're going to drop by and set up base at home, then start to check in with the kids families. I'm pretty sure we'll start with Saya's since I saw her families estate during my morning runs. I haven't seen the place going up in smoke and it's got a lot of ground, so it'll make a good 2nd base in case we need it. It'll be 2 birds with a single stone if they're there. From what Rei's told me, I should be able to get her families scents, but with all these literal corpses walking around spreading their stench, I'm not sure how reliable my nose might be. Kohta's and Takashi's aren't here, and we both know about yours and Shizuka's.~

He was still going to help the kids with that? Silver's doing himself good. "Alright. I'll probably still be stationed at the airport, that or on missions to clear out other areas to set up posts to start retaking the Providences. When you're all done with those, make sure you come here and check in. Got it old man?"

~You're so lucky I can't smack you upside the head right now.~

"Kinky. We'll see if you can smack anything later." I heard him snort, and Shizuka made another sound, but I didn't pay that much mind. She was always weird.

~Alright. Anyway, we gotta move out soon. We've wasted... 45 minutes? I want to get everyone to our house before nightfall, and we need to start moving. I'll call you when we get home. Try not to die short stack, I wouldn't want to rain check our dinner.~

"Asshole. Over and out, hear from you soon Silver. Keep Shizuka and those kids alive you hear me?"

~Already the plan, but gotcha.~

I nodded, and hung up. I let out a sigh, and just sunk into my chair. (The hell just happened?)

I just thought about the last 45 minutes and just zoned out.

I wasn't sure how long I was thinking about it for, but Tajima ended up coming in, and telling me I was going to clearing the airport landing strip, again. That was enough for me. Shooting zombies sounded like a good way to decompress what I was told.

{Maccillian's POV}

After we finished the call, I looked around the room, and took in everyone's faces. Shizuka seemed to be thinking about something, but I wasn't sure what. Takashi and Saya seemed to be seriously taking in everything I said. Kohta and Rei were just stunned. Then there was Saeko. The girl had a look of anticipation on her face, and I could take a few guesses about why.

"So, before we head out. Are there any questions you'd all want to know now?" That broke the silence, and they all turned to me.

"To earn the bite, how competent must we be? And are there other conditions that will make you believe we've earned it?" Oh yeah, I knew she was going with this. Saeko was a sadist, and hearing about a race that thrived off of battle and of the hunt, and that she could become one? She wanted to be a Werewolf right this moment.

"It depends. Competency in battle means more then knowing how to fight and kill something. We were more then just warriors after all. We had strategists, scientists, and like I said earlier, advisors. To me, you need to prove you will fight to the end. You won't run. You won't leave your pack behind. You'll see death through with them until you're running into hell with your pack. If you want to prove you're worthy, then show me you'll never surrender. As for other conditions, you have to prove to me you have the heart required to be a part of the pack. The will to never leave anyone behind, to care for the other as family.

That's what a pack is. We're family, and family does NOT leave the other behind. This applies to all of you. This is the apocalypse, but it's also a crucible. Lesser men have gone to war and proven their worth as warriors. But what about you? Can you all prove to me that you'll deserve the chance to become the 1st members of my pack in years?"

I had no idea where all this shit was coming from, but it felt right.

They were all looking at me, even Shizuka was, and she actually had a VERY serious look on her face. That was new to me. The rest of the kids were staring at me, and then something I never expected to happen, happened. Kohta, the gun nerd and fatty of the group, stood up, gripped his gun tight, and looked at me.

"I'll do it! I can't and WON'T RUN! I'LL BEGIN TO PROVE MYSELF STARTING HERE AND NOW!" Well damn. Who was I to say no to that? With Kohta, it was like dominoes went off. Takashi and Saeko stood up, followed by Rei and the finally Saya. They were all looking at me, and I saw a fire burning in their eyes. And then I heard another chair, and I saw Shizuka, my milkmaid, stand up and look at me.

"Silver... I want to prove myself too. I... I can't just leave it to you or Rika or my students to just take care of me. I need to prove that I earned that too!" I stared at Shizuka, and I had no words. In the series, she was the ditzy sexy nurse, and that was usually it. But this? She was serious, and the look in her eyes told me I couldn't get her to back down. So I gave in.

"Ok... Ok. Then to ALL of you. I'll be watching you all. I'll make sure you prove to me that you're worth becoming members of my pack. Show me you're worthy. It's a make or break situation, and none of you better break."

Kohta saluted me, Takashi and Saeko stood straighter and nodded, Rei and Saya stared at me and nodded, and Shizuka looked determined. I looked at them all, and I took it in. They would be different from the series. I'D make them different. Yeah... I'd do that.

Here in a livingroom of some random persons home, I accepted the pledge of people that would become my pack, and even of some who'd prowl the multiverse with me for the centuries to come

[Omake - Silver, don't dieee! Shizuka's POV the day before]

Silver was the best boy. I just knew it. He had the fluffiest fur, this cute little face and nose, and he was just the smartest thing ever. I didn't even trip in the mornings anymore thanks to him!

My mornings were usually lonely, Rika had to work, I knew it, but I was always a little sad about spending time in an empty house... And then Silver came along. Morning cuddles with a fluffy doggie were the best! Who needed pillows to hug when you could nuzzle against a big ol doggie huh?

Even though Silver's only been here for 2 days, he already made everything better. I woke up today, and buried my head into his fur. I could feel him nuzzle against me, and lick my cheek to start my day. I loved the affection first thing in the morning, and took it in. It was hard for me to get up, I wanted to drown in the fluff and stay in a comfy bed. Who'd want to give this up anyway? This was heaven.

But I had to get up, it was a school day after all. So after getting up and starting my day, I went to get Silver some breakfast. But it was while I did that, I heard something open. I stopped filling his bowl, and turned to look at Silver. And what I saw was adorable. Silver was digging into some pudding.

Then I saw it was chocolate. And then I panicked. "Silver! No, it's poison! Bad Silver bad!" I ran over to him, and he just took his snout out of the pudding. There was a look on his face, but there was too much pudding there for me to really look at it.

I pulled Silver into a hug, and shook him. "What do I do if you get sick? Do I do surgery? Do I take you to the vet? Can they even help a doggie as big as you?" He didn't mind me shacking him or panicking, but he just rolled his eyes at me as I did it. Rude. I shook him a little more for that, and he started to huff. I took that as a sign to stop and just looked at him. We looked at each other, and I watched him lick up the rest of the pudding, and then there was this look in his eyes. Rika would get that look sometimes.

I watched him close his eyes and 'fall' to the ground. He was playing dead! The smart boy that he was, and he was messing with me! I knew it, but it was fun, if he could play dead then he'd be fine... I think.

So I decided to play with him. I grabbed him and pulled him to me as I cradled him. "Silver, Silveeer!"

Now if if only I knew where the 'dun dun da dudun, dun dun dun.' Came from.

[Status]

Name - Maccillian 'Silver' Zaka (New)

Age - 19(?) (New)

Strength - E+

Dexterity - E

Vitality - D-

Intelligence - E

Wisdom - E+ (Advanced)

Charisma - D+ (Advanced)

Luck - E-

Werewolf Strength stage 1/4 - 62/150 -121/150

Regeneration stage 1/4 - 10/200 - 18/200

Werewolf Senses stage 1/4 - 5/30

Wolf King's Wisdom stage 0/1 - 2/50