Discovery II.

"Can we really do nothing?" Kristensen asked for the second time.

What they were watching wasn't simply a ritual, they watching as people got suck dry little by little and couldn't stop it because they were afraid their interruption would be dire yet...

The situation wasn't any better.

Kristensen's eyes had long turned cold and reddened in frustration. She wasn't one to play hero, but as things were, if she ignored it, it would be the worst thing she'd ever done coming to Crandale.

Who even thought of such a thing?

She and Casey had been going up and down, from the underground chamber to the room the mural was placed, or simply watching as pictures on the mural changed.

From the time when it was the veiled woman to the people having their powers sucked by the pseudo alpha's symbol and as it was now, the people at the outer circle of the crowd in the whole mural had fallen down, their auras - their powers - they were gone.

Their whole selves had shriveled, and they looked like skeletons wearing human skin.

They were nothing short of mummies.

They watched the whole thing but did nothing, couldn't do anything.

Kristensen gripped the hem of her shirt in frustration as she watched the mural.

Those people... did they even know what was happening to them?

"We need to find Ocean." Casey asserted, breaking the heavy silence. "He might be able to stop the ritual."

Kristensen ran out of the mural room without responding to Casey to the underground chamber.

She stood in the middle, at the center of the combs, the pits that each had a person in them they were draining.

It wasn't just her meddling. She had a bad feeling about the ritual that was going on. Maybe it was because of what Isaac had done, but looking at what was happening, she couldn't help but want to do something - somehow.

Kristensen was desperate. While the others in the room were busy inspecting each corner of the room, she stood there in the middle of the room and started to radiate off her aura.

She imitated what the pseudo alpha's symbol was doing but did it voluntarily. If she could find out how and where the connection was with those people, perhaps she'd find a clue how to break the connection and stop the ritual.

Kristensen did her utmost best to release her aura, her total focus was on the task at hand - her eyes closed and her senses solemnly on making a connection with the pseudo alpha's symbol - she didn't see that as soon as she started radiating, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

"She...she..." Tate and Winnie murmured as they tried to shield themselves from the oppressive aura coming from Kristensen.

They weren't the only ones shocked, Vince and Trudy looked at her with their eyes wide open in wonder and shock.

Kristensen whole being shone crimson red. The pressure she gave off was jo less than Casey's when he wanted to take her by force from the central hall.

Vince's eyes shone as he looked at her. It was as though he'd found what he'd been looking for all along. He was immersed in joy.

Until he realized what Kristensen's intention was, then he broke out in cold sweat as he panicked. Vince ran towards he but couldn't get anywhere near as he got blocked by an invisible wall.

He tried a couple of times to reach her, transformed into a wolf but was still blocked, radiated the power of his alpha-ism in his human form but still couldn't. He beat the wall for more tries and still, to no avail, couldn't get through.

Vince panted heavily as he watched Kristensen with dread in his eyes. He was heartbroken to have only found treasure and loose it before he could hold it in his hands.

None of that was noticed by Kristensen, though, as she found herself in the middle of a sea of people, roaring. The noise was so loud she couldn't hear herself think or remember who she was and what it was she was there to do.

The people around her, with glowing eyes and fangs, were looking up at a crimson howling in a worshipping manner, as though offering themselves as tribute.

She started to squeeze in between people, walking in the direction they were all facing, and each time she touched someone, the weight on her mind increased.

Where was she? She couldn't remember, but it didn't stop her from moving forward.

Kristensen forced herself to endure as she breathed heavily and sweat trailing all over her face and her back. Her determination to reach the front didn't increase one bit. She somehow had an inkling that when she reached the front and closer to that moon, she might find what she was looking for.

What was she looking for?

It took her many stops and breaks, but she did it, and she reached the front.

The crimson moon stood proudly right in front of her.

The feeling of belonging and worship came to her too strongly and abruptly that she howled as her eyes started to glow crimson silver. She had the urge to kneel and offer herself to the moon.

It was instinctive, and the more she fought the feeling, the louder she howled.

"Kristensen..!"

She heard the shout, but it seemed to come from far away. Her head turned to look at who was calling and who they were calling, but all she saw were those people who seemed to have been bewitched. Their eyes were overly glazed, though they shone.

"Kristensen..!"

The voice was nearer and louder than before.

"Kristensen..!"

The third time, the voice sounded right beside her ear, and she was startled. It woke her up.

"So, so annoying. Who is it?" Came from behind the moon.

Kristensen watched vigilantly, and the memories of where and who she was had come back.

This, it was inside the pseudo alpha's symbol or her consciousness?

She'd been trying to make a connection with the pseudo alpha's symbol and ended up in a crowd she saw in the mural?

Had she, did she too become one of them, getting sucked dry without knowing?

As she was contemplating, a masked figure slowly emerged from behind the moon.

"It was you? You woke me up?" Said the masked figure as it made its way towards her. "No, that isn't it. But, how are you awake?"

Kristensen stared in the masked figure warily, realizing the space she was in was similar to that of when she met Mara Ryson. So, the pseudo alpha's symbol could do what the real alpha's symbol could do?

How could it, though? The real alpha's symbol was the symbolic power of an alpha and had been fed by that alpha for as long as they lived. How did the pseudo alpha's symbol get power? From those sacrificed?

"Who are you?" Kristensen demanded, her instincts urging her to be cautious.

The masked figure chuckled, and the surroundings shifted from the crimson moon and the worshippers to a crimson room where the masked figure stood before her.

"Who am I?" The masked figure quipped, "How rude. You came here and are asking me who I am. Say, shouldn't I be the one asking that question, Kristensen?"

Hearing her name from that person sent shivers down her spine. It took all her willpower to not step back and keep her eyes on it.

"You know who I am." Kristensen mumbled.

"How can I not? It seems Isaac wasn't wrong about you." The masked figure tilted its head, the mask revealing no emotions. "You were able to wake up before the ritual completed. No, no... that's not right. You broke free from the ritual or were never part of it yet somehow got inside the circle? Incredible."

Kristensen clenched her fist. Isaac, Isaac, Isaac! It was him again. If she hadn't been determined to make him suffer a fate worse than death before, she was now.

She didn't understand it at all. Just why had she entered that bastard's eyes?

"It's good though, it's good that you came in yourself." The masked figure continued. "I thought I lost a good deal, yet you came in yourself. How should I thank you?"

The figure circled her, its steps echoing in the surreal space. "Is he willing to lose you by letting you be free?" Said the figure cryptically with a laugh. "Well, I can understand why he'd wait. What a pity."

Kristensen narrowed her eyes. "Who? What are you talking about?"

The masked figure leaned in, its face inches away from her. The eyes on the mask glowed suddenly as it looked into Kristensen's eyes and growled, "Show yourself. Turn!"

Kristensen felt countless stabs in her head, and her hands subconsciously held her head. She went down on her knees as she screamed.

The pain was similar to her first transformation. Countless stabs from her head to her toes that she writhed in pain and her screams in agony bounced of the surreal room.

"Turn. Let me see it. Turn." Said the masked figure.

Kristensen lifted her head and bared her teeth at the figure, her glowing crimson silver eyes glaring at it.

She twisted and twitched, bit her bottom lip until it bled but did not give way to her wolf form. She couldn't. It wasn't a matter of pride or resistance, but there seemed to be a thick wall standing between her and her wolf form that she couldn't break.

"Interesting. How interesting!" Kristensen heard from above her head. "To think, you have a shield protecting you from being controlled. Interesting."

She didn't miss the intrigue in the masked figure's voice, and that gave her chills. It seemed she was in deep trouble.

"Alright. Let's stop here."

The force that had been trying wove itself in her disappeared, and so did the pain.

Kristensen stayed on her knees, panting heavily. She hated it, she hated it, she hated it so much.

"I see now why he'd let you roam around freely. Besides inflicting you with so much you'd wish for death, there doesn't seem to be anything we can do."

The masked figure crouched down until it was level with Kristensen. The eyes on the mask no longer glowed and were soot black, like the endless bottom pit as they roamed all over her face.

The figure out its gloved hand on her chin as it raised her face towards the masked figure. "But I want to break that shield even if you'll turn stupid. What do you think?"

Kristensen gulped nervously, and her eyes flickered. "Enough. Enough." She weakly said. "I just want to know how to stop the ritual."

The masked figure chuckled again, and the intensity in which it stared at Kristensen increased. "Stop? People of my pack, even if they're sacrificed, they do it willingly. Why would you want to stop the ritual?"

Anger welled up in Kristensen and told herself to calm down a lot of times in her head.

She hated it... she hated it... she hated it...

Kristensen shook her head repeatedly to clear her mind. She couldn't get angry, she thought, she couldn't get angry.

"There are recruits in there with all those people. How are they people of your pack?!" Said Kristensen through gritted teeth.

"If I say they are, then they are." The masked figure responded in a tyrannical manner.

It took Kristensen everything in her power to not lung at the figure in front of her as a haze of anger flashed through her mind before it disappeared just as quickly.

Who was he, who were they, who did he think he was?

She hated it...