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Chapter 6

Serenity was mistaken. Jou’s determinedly murderous stare was not meant for her.

“Get off of her!” Jou snarled, snatching his sister’s transport by the back of his collar and flinging him to the side.

“Forgive me, Alpha. I was afraid she was going to fall,” he tried to explain, but Jou silenced him with another death glare.

“I told you to bring her safely. What sort of treatment was that?”

“Forgive us, Alpha,” another werewolf chimed in. Jou transferred his murderous glance to each wolf in turn before he dismissed them all with a wave of his hand. They left with little protest, and Serenity soon found herself alone in the room with the blonde-haired man.

For a while, the two of them stared at each other in uneasy silence. Finally, Serenity got to her feet and tucked the green stone she had been carrying all this time discreetly into the front pocket of her jacket. She would use it later if necessary. For the moment, she only needed to find out why she had been snatched from the school grounds and taken so far away to some dark, underground corridor.

“Who are you?” Serenity asked. “Why am I here? Why are you looking at me like that?” Jou realized he had been staring intently at her with his arms crossed. He shifted into a more welcoming position and smiled.

“Welcome home, Shizuka. Now I know you’re really confused, but trust me. Everything will get sorted out. I’m Jou – your brother.”

“My brother?” Serenity echoed in disbelief. Jou nodded. Serenity’s eyes widened. “But you’re a werewolf! How is that possible?” she cried. Jou nodded slowly once again. Serenity waited for a few moments, thinking that her brother – as he called himself – would speak up to clear the matter. When he didn’t, the awkward pause continued, and she was forced to say something.

“Then why am I not a werewolf?” She and Jou stared at each other for another few moments before they both heard the shuffling of feet outside the room. Jou audibly sighed, and Serenity glared at him.

“Jou! The other werewolves have returned. Did they brink Shizuka?” Yugi ran into the room as he hurriedly voiced his question. He stopped short as he saw Serenity standing with his Alpha, and the three people with him slammed into his back.

“Whoa! Yug, watch it!” Honda complained. Anzu moaned and extracted herself from the uncomfortable position between him and the woman behind her.

“Sorry, Mai!” she apologized, but the blonde had already rushed forward to Jou’s side.

“She’s finally here!” Mai exclaimed. She wrapped her arm around her lover’s and waved at Serenity.

“Hi…” Serenity replied weakly. Now she was thoroughly confused. As she watched the couple in front of her, Mai turned and whispered to Jou,

“Did you tell her about all of us yet?” His reply was only to shake his head. Mai stared at him curiously. Jou looked at the ground in silence. She turned to glance back at Honda, Yugi, and Anzu with a shrug.

“Hey, Jou, are you alright?” Yugi asked. When the Alpha did not give an answer, Mai frowned.

“He’s been mostly silent since I got here,” Serenity surprisingly found herself saying. And besides the anger he had displayed towards the werewolf that had carried her, he hadn’t said much, so it was true.

Mai gave Jou a knowing look. “Now don’t tell me you’re upset because she hasn’t run into your arms and told you how happy she is to have you as her big brother,” she said, placing her hands on her hips. “You have to give the girl some time!”

“But she asked really difficult questions!” Jou complained. Mai laughed and punched him lightly on the arm.

“What, like what is your name?” she teased. Jou chuckled and put his arm around her.

“Very funny, Mai.” They laughed together, and even Honda, Anzu, and Yugi joined in. Serenity felt very alone, standing between all of them and not understanding the big joke.

“Excuse me…can someone tell me what is going on?” she asked timidly. The laughing abruptly stopped and Jou froze again. Mai rolled her eyes and stepped forward.

“Just ignore Jou for now. He’s not…very good at dealing with things he doesn’t expect,” she explained. “He thought you’d think of him as your hero for rescuing you from that big mess. But I know you’re very surprised by the whole situation.”

“You can say that,” Serenity replied softly.

“Anyway,” Anzu said. “We’re all here to help, so you can talk to us about anything, and we will tell you whatever you need to know. I’m sure we’ll be good friends in time.”

“Okay,” Serenity agreed unenthusiastically. The werewolves seemed to take that as a reasonable response, and they gathered behind Jou in loose formation. Serenity was about to ask why they had all moved, but suddenly she heard loud footsteps approach. She turned to see a group of men, also werewolves, enter into the room.

“Good evening, Alpha!” they all greeted simultaneously as they stood. Then, one by one, they noticed Serenity. She noticed that some stiffened in surprise, others smiled warmly, and still others stared blankly. Only one, Sugoroku, recovered enough to look at Jou.

“Sir, you are injured!” he exclaimed. Mai immediately started and stared down at the arm she was holding. When she noticed Jou try to squirm out of her grasp, she turned and grabbed his other arm. Her lover hissed in pain.

“It is a thin cut; I hardly noticed it,” she gasped. Jou growled, remembering the blade Kaiba had used against him.

“I’m fine. The rest of the werewolves with me were just as injured.” Jou turned to Sugoroku. “Did they go to the healing ward?”

“Yes,” Anzu replied, though she was not addressed. This caused quite a few of the members in the Pack to frown in annoyance. “I sent other healers to tend to them. Several were critically injured. They battled Isis and Malik…unsuccessfully.”

“I hope they will be okay,” Jou said. “But while we are here…these is something else that is more important.” He motioned with the arm that Mai was not holding to Serenity, who stood quietly apart from his group. “This is my sister. We have brought her back into our protection. I don’t know if all of you got that memo. It was decided out on the…battlefield.”

“The werewolves that you just dismissed from your presence told us about that,” Sugoroku replied. “That is why we have come with great haste.” He turned to Serenity and bowed to her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Shizuka.”

“My name is Serenity,” she returned. The other werewolves looked puzzled and turned to their Alpha. Serenity expected Jou to say something to defend her, but he stayed silent. She couldn’t take it any longer. “And you know what? I’m not going to answer to anything else, so you might as well get used to the name.”

“She speaks with such disrespect for her brother and his Pack,” one of the werewolves behind Sugoroku remarked. “She owes her life to him. Without him, she would surely be dead.”

“Well,” Serenity argued back to the man she could not see. “Without him, my best friend would still be alive.” She stopped short as she felt a calm hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Anzu give her a sad shake of her head.

“Shizuka – I mean, Serenity – you have only just come here, but there are certain rules you have to follow. You must not say a word against the Pack.” Serenity frowned but stayed silent.

“The Alpha’s sister does bring up a matter of importance,” Sugoroku said when he noticed that the other werewolves were not taking kindly to Serenity’s words. “We have yet to discuss what occurred tonight.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Jou muttered.

“Jou, we can’t avoid it just because you are bitter about Kaiba,” Yugi said, his long friendship with the Alpha helping him pinpoint the cause of his discomfort. “The things that happened today…we need to figure out what to do about them.”

“Yug’s right,” Honda agreed. “We especially have to talk about the strange monsters the vampires had with them.”

Jou nodded and sighed. “You are right.” He turned to Serenity. “I’ll answer all your questions later. Right now, I need to discuss some things with the others.”

“Then I’ll stay and watch,” Serenity replied. In truth, she had no desire to listen to any more of the werewolves’ conversation. She had so many unanswered questions, and every moment that she spent in their presence was agonizing. It had barely sunk in that she had truly left behind the people she knew and now was most likely stuck underground.

“That’s not such a good idea. Serenity.” Jou grimaced as he used the name. “I want you to go to the room that was prepared for you.”

“I don’t want to,” Serenity said. Again, she felt Anzu’s warm hand on her shoulder.

“As your brother and the Alpha, Jou has full authority. You have to do what he says. You can come out later after the meeting is over.”

“Please,” Jou added. Serenity sighed.

“Fine.”

“Mai and Anzu will take you and keep you company,” Jou said. He nodded to the women beside him. Mai quickly kissed him on the cheek and helped Anzu lead Serenity away from the room. Jou saw his sister turn her head as she walked away. He tried to smile at her, but she quickly turned back.

“Don’t worry,” Yugi reassured him. “She’ll learn to love you when she realizes what you have done for her.”

“I hope so,” Jou muttered. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his dark trousers and walked into the middle of the room. Yugi tried to mask his concern and joined Honda as they followed the Alpha. The rest of the werewolves waited attentively as Jou cleared his throat.

“I think it’s best if we handled one problem at a time,” he announced. The other werewolves murmured in agreement. “First of all, I need to make sure that my sister is protected here. There will be two members of the Pack guarding her room every night. But you can’t enter the room unless she is in danger. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Alpha,” the others said in near unison.

“Now, next, we have to decide what to do about Kaiba. I just want to ignore all that stuff about Mokuba and the humans. I think the most important thing to notice was that the vampire freaks were not alone.”

“Yeah, what were those things helping them?” Honda asked. A murmur went through the crowd of werewolves as they all discussed their impressions of the monsters they had encountered near the school.

“I have no idea,” Jou said. “But we have to figure out what they were and why they were helping Kaiba.” He pushed back the image of his sister and reminded himself of the different creatures he had seen.

“Are you sure they were helping him? They were attacking some of the vampires too,” Yugi pointed out. Jou gave him a confused glance.

“That’s weird, though. They had to have been helping him. We didn’t bring them, so they must have been on their side.”

“It is strange indeed,” Sugoroku remarked. “I have never before seen creatures such as the ones I laid my eyes upon today. Perhaps they are of an ancient breed that have not awoken until this day.”

“So you’re saying that Kaiba did some creepy ritual and brought back ancient, powerful creatures?” Jou exclaimed. “Sounds just like him! Creepy and…creepy.”

“Ancient?” Yugi echoed his grandfather’s previous words. “Do you really think so? So there are more than just three species? Humans…werewolves…vampires. You mean there’s more than that?”

“There could be,” Sugoroku responded mysteriously. “We will have to find out.”

“And who will we ask about ancient creatures?” a werewolf inquired. The other wolves whispered and gathered closer to the wise older wolf. Sugoroku simply smirked and turned to his grandson.

“I believe it is time we ask Yugi to use his Gift.”

My next update will be in August, probably around the 15th or 16th. Please review!