Chuck silently stepped over to the door and turned his ear toward the entranceway. He heard nothing beyond the door, which actually worried him more than if there had been a crowd of werewolves on the other side. He sniffed the air, but unfortunately the entire place was so permeated with the smell of werewolf that it was impossible for him to tell if any were nearby. Stephanie moved to stand at his side, and she was worried about the delay.
"Is something wrong?" she whispered to Chuck.
Her werewolf companion shook his head and he cautiously took the knob in hand. Chuck opened the door a crack and peaked into the next room. The space was dark because there were no windows either to the hall or to the outside, but his eyes could make out the door which led to the hallway. He slowly crept inside, but Stephanie hesitated to follow when she realized there were no lights inside there. Stephanie noticed Chuck was even more tense now than when he'd been prepared for battle. She couldn't blame him, there definitely felt like something was wrong.
Suddenly a practically invisible slit in the wall against the passage opened up. Gunshots rang out and several large projectiles shot into the room. Chuck tried to dodge them, but at so close a range one of them struck him in the shoulder. He howled in rage and rushed at the door leading to the hall. His hard fists pounded against the entrance, but he found the door was made of metal. He managed to make a few dents before he felt strangely weak.
Stephanie watched in horror was Chuck stumbled and then slid down the door.
"Chuck!" Stephanie shouted.
She rushed over to his side as he collapsed to the floor. He was now fully human, and very much unconscious. Stephanie desperately shook his shoulders, but he didn't even make a sound. She noticed there was a dart in his back and she yanked it out, hoping that would wake him. It didn't work, though, and she frantically glanced around for a way to escape. She could carry him over her shoulder and jump out a window if she needed to.
The young woman's turned toward the door opposite them when it opened, and her breath caught in her throat as Gregory stepped inside the room. He was flanked by two fully transformed werewolves, and she shrunk back from the wide grin on his face.
"Good evening, Stephanie," Gregory greeted, and he gave her a low bow. "Funny meeting you here."
"Not funny at all," she shot back. Some of her courage returned when Chuck shifted on the floor and groaned.
"Sorry to see you're in such poor humor, but maybe we can fix that."
Gregory looked to his men and nodded toward the pair of intruders. They stepped forward and one of them grabbed at Stephanie. She struggled and kicked at him when he pulled her away from Chuck. Her arms were painfully pinned behind her back and she dared not even squirm when her captor tightened his grip as a warning. The other guard pulled one of Chuck's limp arms over his shoulders and lifted him off the floor.
Then they silently followed Gregory out of the trap room and up a flight of stairs to the very top floor. The rooms which had originally been built into the structure had all been removed save for their load-bearing walls. That still left most of the area open. At the far end was a large, comfortable seat which was raised on a short platform and small steps led up to the cushioned piece of furniture. Several dozen werewolves stood on either side of the carpeted walk which led to the seat. They were all in their human forms and were a mix of well-clothed socialites and scruffy hobos. It was a veritable court of the entire social strata of the werewolf gang. The crowd watched as the prisoners were marched down to the end of the room, and many of them whispered together. She could only catch bits and pieces, but many recognized Chuck and others were very curious about her.
They reached the chair and Stephanie noticed that Seville and Ivanovich each stood on one side of the seat. Gregory planted himself into the chair and waved away her guard. Chuck was set on the ground to kneel before the seat and his guard pulled the captive's arms behind him. She was relieved to feel the pressure leave her arms, but not happy when she watched her guard help the keeper other fit Chuck's wrists into shackles.
"Leave him alone!" she yelled at them. She jumped at the two men and tried to pull their hands away before they could finish the job. The guards had a hard time pulling her small, clenched fingers away from the metal braces, but finally one of them grabbed her around her chest and pinned her arms to her sides. The other guard managed to get one of the cuffs on a wrist.
That's when Chuck's eyes shot open.
Chuck twisted himself around and wrenched the shackles from the other werewolf's hands. He rolled onto his back and kicked one of his legs out toward the guard. It landed squarely with the captor's chin and there was a resounding crack as his jaw was broken. The werewolf howled in pain and stumbled back as he clutched at his face. Chuck pulled his arms forward and wrapped his strong fingers around the shackles which trapped his other hand. He wrenched the clasp open and freed himself, then went for the guard holding Stephanie.
Her captor tried to use Stephanie as a human shield, but that only made Chuck angry. In a blink of an eye Chuck had swiftly gotten in back of the other werewolf and grabbed him around the neck. The captor released Stephanie so he could grab onto Chuck's arms and pull him off. Chuck hardly gave him a chance before he twisted the man's neck with a very audible snap. The guard's arms dropped to his side and his open eyes were now lifeless. Chuck opened his arms and let the body drop to the floor. He'd snapped his neck.
Stephanie backed up from the corpse, but Chuck quickly stepped over the body and wrapped her in his strong, comforting arms. Then Chuck turned to Gregory with a deep glare. For his part, Gregory was all smiles.
"Very well done," Gregory applauded their efforts. He clapped his hands to further show his admiration. "I almost didn't think you'd see through my trap before I had a chance to spring it, but I managed to fool you just long enough."
"It had your style written all over it," Chuck shot back. "Simple and unoriginal."
"I'd be hurt, but I'm not the one trapped by my enemies," their captor commented. He gestured around the room to the dozens of silent werewolves, but Chuck was not intimidated.
"I have no qualms with them, I only need to deal with you," Chuck pointed out.
"Are you sure?" Gregory asked him. He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers.
Two fully transformed werewolves jumped out of the crowd and landed on the carpet. They turned sharply and rushed the partners with their teeth bared and their eyes flashing with malice. Chuck pushed Stephanie back toward the chair while he engaged the two opponents. The first werewolf to reach him threw a punch at Chuck's head, but he deftly ducked and rammed into the werewolf's stomach. That knocked the transformed beast back into his fellow attacker and both of them fell to the floor. Chuck pushed off from his opponent at the last moment and landed a few yards back toward the seat.
"Bravo! Bravo!" Gregory complimented. He was enjoying the show immensely. "I'd call more for you to play with, but I don't believe there would be any other outcome. Well, unless I ordered the entire room to join in the fun," he mused, and his eyes wandered around the area.
The werewolves who stood in front nervously glanced at him and than each other. None of them wanted to be the first to rush Chuck, especially since he had taken out two werewolves who had been fully transformed while he was in his human state. His opponent who still lived, the one with the broken jaw, was escorted out of the room to be cared for.
"Enough of this," Chuck called out. He turned to Gregory with a deep scowl and his eyes shining with anger. "We didn't come here to fight you, we came here to order you to leave us alone."
"Oh?" Gregory replied. He stood up from his seat and sauntered down the short flight of stairs in front of it. "I don't know what you can possibly mean."
"You killed Stephanie's husband, or had someone carry it out for you," Chuck accused him.
"So what if I ordered his death? He wasn't one of us, and you needed to be taught a lesson about pushing aside the fold," Gregory argued. A murm
ur went up from the crowd, and he turned to them with a bright smile. "I humbly submit myself to your justice but I plead for you to remember this." He pointed at Chuck, and his lips turned down in disgust. "This werewolf was more than happy to abandon us in our greatest time of need. He turned his back on us during our darkest hour, and only I and our departed leader stopped the tide. Only we stood against the other groups and fought them, in some cases to the bitter end."
"What are you talking about?" Chuck questioned the leader. Gregory glanced over to Chuck with a scowl on his face.
"You left us, and our rivals saw an opportunity to strike. Without you we were made to look weak and helpless," Gregory accused him. Chuck was almost as surprised as Stephanie to hear of this terrible news. "Our dear deceased leader, Peter Stubbe, gave his life against their forced when they attacked our headquarters." He turned and swept his hand over the crowd. "You all lost someone in the battle, and that's why I've asked you all to come here."
"Do you intend to put me on trial for circumstances that were outside my control?" Chuck angrily asked both Gregory and the crowd. He looked out onto the faces, many of which he knew or was at least familiar with. "If what Gregory saws here is true, then he's focusing on the wrong point. My leaving might have done something to make the other groups attack us, but you without me held them off. You didn't need me to help you there any more than you needed my help before I left." The crowd murmured amongst themselves, and Gregory was not pleased to hear many appreciative compliments for Chuck's uplifting remark.
"We're not here to listen to you speak, Charles Taylor," their opponent argued. "I've already decided the sentence for your traitorous acts, and for the heinous crime of committing a human to one of us without their knowledge." A great gasp rose up from the onlookers, but Stephanie emphatically shook her head.
"That's not true!" Stephanie argued. She tried to step forward but Seville quickly moved to catch one of her arms and hold her back. "He didn't mean to!"
"That's right, I didn't. None of it would have happened at all if Gregory wouldn't have attacked her," Chuck raised his voice above the buzzing of the crowd. "Enough of you still remember me to know I would never curse anyone to this existence except if it was an accident. Even when I was climbing my way to the top I always promised myself I'd never bring anyone into this world of ours, not on purpose."
"He's right," someone spoke up. Stephanie turned to look at Miss Seville, for it was she who had spoken. "He never wanted anyone to get involved with all this trouble and pain."
"Traitor," Chuck heard Gregory mumble underneath his breath. He raised his voice when he addressed the crowd. "This may be true, but the matter needs to be looked into. Be that as it may, Mr. Taylor here insists she not join our group, nor does he give her all the information she needs to make the decision on her own."
"I call you out on your lies, George Gregory!" Chuck challenged. "You've dragged Stephanie and me through enough pain and suffering, and because of that I challenge you to a match."
The room hushed at the challenge. Stephanie swallowed hard. Deep down she always hoped it wouldn't come to this duel, but Gregory really was going to try his hardest to ruin their lives through any lie he could manage.
"Is that what this is about? You want to overthrow me and gain power for yourself?" Gregory asked, but Chuck shook his head.
"I can't think of a more effective way to get you to leave us alone than killing you. After that the gang can choose their own leader or dissolve themselves, it doesn't make any difference to me."
Gregory didn't look too eager to take up Chuck's challenge, but the mood of the crowd wasn't friend. If their dear leader refused the duel than he would lose face, but if he accepted he had the chance of getting hurt, or worse. The onlookers pressed menacingly behind Chuck, who patiently waited for his reply. Gregory scowled and straightened himself.
"Fine, I accept your challenge," he spoke up in a clear, loud voice. Many of the werewolves nodded their head in approval, but others merely stared straight at him. He would earn back their respect when he defeated the challenger. "But I demand we perform this fight as wolves, otherwise we'll never know who is truly the strongest."
Stephanie winced when Gregory made the condition. She wasn't sure Chuck was that physically able to transform, and from the look on his face he was also uncertain about performing the change.
"All right, I accept your condition," Chuck agreed. He could have declined, but that would have lost him his moral high-ground. Werewolves respected and feared those with the most power, and right now he wanted the crowd on his side.
"Then we have ourselves a duel, ladies and gentlemen!" Gregory called out. His face showed his triumph, as Stephanie, Chuck and he knew that the mixture in the dart would weight the battle in his favor.
The whole room was in an excited uproar. People pushed each other back against the walls and Seville leaned in beside Stephanie's ear.
"Come on, girl, we need to give these boys some room," Miss Seville commanded her captive. She pulled Stephanie away from the two men and against the wall beside the chair. Ivanovich still stood on the other side of the seat and carefully watched the pair with curious eyes.
Gregory stepped passed Chuck and for a moment their eyes met. There was a look of triumph in Gregory's eyes that Chuck vowed to knock down. Then Gregory moved on to the far end of the room. Near the entrance he turned around so that both opponents faced each other. The crowd gave them a good twenty feet to work with on the width, and the entire length of the building was also theirs.
"As a sign of goodwill I'll give you the opportunity of the first strike," Gregory called out to his opponent.
Chuck frowned but concentrated on transforming. He could feel things shift inside his body, but his beastly persona did not reveal itself to either him or the crowd. Gregory put on a false face of concern.
"Is something wrong?" he asked Chuck. "Did you need some practice changing?"
Chuck didn't deign to reply, but Stephanie looked on with an expression of fear. The woman at her side was very confused.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked Stephanie.
"When we were captured, Gregory shot Chuck with some dart," Stephanie answered. She felt she had to do something, and in a quick moment she twisted her arm and broke free from Seville's grasp. The other woman tried to catch her, but Stephanie jumped out of her reach and rushed to Chuck.
He was surprised when someone grabbed his shoulders from behind. Chuck stiffened and jerked his head to glance over his shoulder. Stephanie smiled back at him.
"I don't want you to do this," she whispered to him so only he could hear. "You don't have to do this."
"It's the only way we're getting out of this now," he regretted to inform her. He nodded at the crowd of werewolves which surrounded them. "They're not going to let us leave until they've seen which one of us is stronger."
"But he's cheating! You can't transform with that stuff inside you!" she argued with him. He smiled at her, and she was confused when he lifted her hands on his shoulders.
"You just watch what I can do, but don't try this at home, okay?" he joked. Stephanie shook her head, but he gave a wink and then pushed her away from him. His strength was enough that she stumbled back far enough to be caught by Miss Seville.
"How touching," Gregory commented in a cooing tone. "Did you two need any longer or do you need to call your forfeit at your pathetic display of affection?" Chuck turned around and narrowed his eyes at his opponent.
"No need. I'll show you what a true werewolf warrior can do," Chuck shot back.
Chuck closed his eyes, but this time he didn't search for the wolf inside of him. Instead he focused on a picture of Stephanie in all her beauty. A soft smile slid across his lips, and Gregory was not pleased to see that expression. Then Chuck felt something pulse inside of him, that familiar feeling of power and control over himself and the beast inside of him. That's when external changes began to take place, and Gregory watched
in dismay as Chuck's body began to transform into the werewolf. With a feeling of desperation and fear, Gregory followed suit and also morphed into his wolf form.
In less than a minute both challengers rose up on their hind legs and growled at each other. Their hands were now long claws with dagger-like nails and their bodies were covered in thick, matted fur. Stephanie noticed how much larger Gregory was than Chuck, but she recalled how that hadn't given Gregory the advantage when the two had fought at her home. Unfortunately it had given him the upper hand in the alley, so she couldn't be sure Chuck would come out on top based purely on physical appearances.
Though Gregory had promised the first attempt at a strike, he now reneged on his agreement and was the first to rush at his opponent. However, Chuck was prepared for his betrayal of his words, so he tensed up and awaited the strike. When Gregory was a few yards from the other werewolf he suddenly jumped into the air and swiped down one of his sharp hands. Chuck easily dodged the blow with a side-step, and landed a punch into the side of Gregory's rib cage. The momentum shoved him away from Chuck, and he skidded across the ground before he managed to grab some of the floor boards. He came to a sudden halt and glared up at Chuck.
Chuck gave his opponent a toothy grin, and Gregory pushed off from the floor toward him. Stephanie watched her partner also propel himself forward using the floor and they collided near the center of the room. With their teeth bared and their claws out, the two werewolves bit and tore into one another. They cut deep, long gashes into one another and blood flew out from the tumbling mess of fighting fur.
Chuck, being the smaller of the two, was more adept at close range combat. He could dodge the attacks, but Gregory was better able to block his own. That meant they were sooner tired out than weakened from their wounds. However, Chuck managed to get a good, long swipe along Gregory's side, and the blood freely poured forth onto the floor. Gregory howled in anger and slammed his paw into Chuck's head. That caused him to go tumbling back a few yards, but he quickly righted himself. Then the combatants glared at each other from afar.