"You were so quiet during the meeting," Sous acknowledged.
Shadow adjusted himself in his seat. Making sure him and his guns were comfortable. Just like Sous, he too was getting older.
More and more of his fur was turning white or gray and he was reaching his forties.
Shadow blushed a little. He wanted to be direct but it was hard for him to say that he was falling behind Sous instinctively. Yes, he was older but it was she who was coming into puberty and she who was the Alpha.
Still, Shadow went on ahead, being transparent with her. "Two Alphas were speaking." He paused for a moment. "At the tavern one night, I could smell your musk and I could smell the scent of an Omega ready to mate. Who were they?"
"It was in the gardens," Sous answered. "She came to me. She was about my age, maybe younger and she told me she was to mate with her Alpha."
"Awee! Some packs, the Omegas mate young."
Sous nodded her head. "She said her Alpha was about two years older than her. That she was lucky."
"Omegas don't always have freedom of autonomy. If we're lucky, we're born into a pack that grants us some ownership." He pulled back the curtain of the window to look out. "Apex does a decent job at giving Omegas opportunities. That I do like about the pack."
Shadow was never one to submit to an Alpha. Hating the way they spoke to him especially back in Nadia. They were so entitled to his body; it was disgusting to him. So that was why it made it such a surprised for him to allow Sous to lead. That's how much respect he had for the Alpha.
Sous and Shadow rode a carriage once they crossed the border upon presenting their paperwork. The meeting with Doureena felt forced with very little need for it. What was said or rather what wasn't said, could have been placed in a letter even a text if Sous had a cell phone.
A car would have been a faster choice but Shadow wanted to make stops along the way to Thornside. One stop being Antonia and the village of Usa.
They stepped out of the carriage and Sous took her wand out. Shadow looked at it.
"How are you getting along with that thing?" Sous shrugged to his question and looked outward.
As they walked to the village of Antonia, it was quiet. Upon the main road that led to the now dilapidated castle, Sous nor Shadow saw anyone present.
The air felt stiff and heavy, rotten flesh, and decay was the only thing coming through to them.
"Hello!" Shadow called out. He cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed out again.
"Kip!" Sous yelled out, remembering the name of the young boy who appoarched her.
Come to find out, Shadow had no idea the town had been going through so much. When he gave the mission to Sous, he expected her to easily get the supplies then go to Usapolis, and come back to Thornside.
They walked the main road, looking into shops and windows of houses, and still they saw no one.
"So it was a witch that did this?" Shadow stood with his hands on his hips. "I don't think its was the wolves who burnt the girl. Its humans who are known for burning witches at the stake."
"She was violated though. Alphas are known to do that to other species."
Shadow nodded his head. Sous was right. Some Alphas were brutes like that.
Slash!
Shadow turned around and shot his gun. The beast that snuck up behind them, flew to the top of a house and flapped its wings.
The beast dove down to them once more. Shadow remained standing and switched out his colt for the two barrel shot gun. His arms moving at the same amount of speed as that one vampire on the train.
The beast made them duck but not before Shadow shot the gun. It hit one of the wings of the beast. The injury caused the beast to tilt to the side and fall onto a house.
Sous extracted her claws and jumped on top of the roof. When the beast tried to get up, Sous slashed it neck. The beast tried to stop the bleeding by holding on to its neck. Shadow jumped into the air, twisting his body. He pointed the barrel at the beast.
BLAST!
The entire right side of the beast's face melted off. The beast screamed out, howled out and soon the two wolves could hear the flapping of wings.
They looked up to see more beast coming their way, their seals burning bright.
"Let me show you what I can do," Sous said to Shadow.
She jumped off the roof into the air. She used her wand to poke one side of her neck. The first seal she obtained in means of the three sisters unleashed. A blinding light and soon Sous was coming from the smoke that trailed behind her.
Her arms were that of the several sharp blades. She charged at the beast.
SLICE, SLASH!
Her blades cut through their skin and muscle like it was paper. Their bones cracked under her onslaught.
She flipped over one and stabbed it in the heart. She performed a flip kick off of its chest and stabbed her blades into the head of another. She twisted her body around and soared forward, cutting off the legs of another.
Shadow had never seen her with this power before. This dark magic gifted to her. He didn't agree with it nor did he scold Sous for it.
Sous tapped out of the seal and then used her wand to stab herself in the neck to unless the newest seal. Her claws came to, her horns came to be seen, her mouth wide like a frog.
She slammed her tongue on a house, causing the roof to break and the beast to fall down.
She jumped into the house house and used her tongue to throw the beast in the air. She jumped upward and used her claws to cut right through their bodies.
It rained blood on top of Shadow, the bodies falling to the ground.
One beast tried to fly away but Sous ran on top of the roofs and jumped forward. Her tongue slashed out and wrapped around the legs of the beast. She slammed the beast head first into a pike that was sticking out of the walls of one of the rubbled houses.
Sous landed upon the ground and got out of her second seal. She smiled at Shadow as she walked to him.
"How many seals do you have?"
"Two."
"That's it. You don't need anymore. Focus on casting spells. Get stronger with that."
Sous twisted her face at Shadow. She followed next to him as they made their way to the castle.
"Why not have more?" Sous asked.
Shadow quickly turned to Sous. "Sous, that's black magic!"
There was a beat of silence.
"Faye does voodoo and hoodoo."
"Voodoo and hoodoo takes power from spirits. There is no black or non black to it. It just is." Shadow walked up the crumbled steps to the entrance of the castle.
Sous quickly trailed behind him. "But Faye was able to literally open the ground so the dead could come from hell."
"That just means she's a good priestess. Using the dead for good doesn't, isn't the same as bringing the dead back to life." It was a reference to the three sisters.
Sous slumped her shoulders, shaking her head. She wasn't buying what Shadow was telling her.
"I think you're making black magic to be something scary. That its wrong. Its not," Sous argued. "These seals helped me save Dimona from the witch."
"SOUS! LOOK AROUND YOU. LOOK AT THE DEAD BODIES OF THE HEXED!"
"THERE WAS NO SAVING THESE WOLVES, SHADOW! THEY WERE HEXED BY A WITCH WHO IS LONG GONE. IT WAS THEIR PROBLEM. THEIR JUSTICE!"
There was a time when they argued when Shadow glared down at Sous and Sous glared up at him. But now, they glared at one another eye to eye.
Upset, Sous walked to a turn over barrel and sat on it. She rubbed her hands on her knees.
Shadow walked to her, standing to his side with his profile to her. "You think that using black magic and the dark arts for good is what counts. Even Hacate turned into a monster in the end with all the seals she drained from people." He turned to look at the growing Alpha. "All I'm saying, Sous, is to not rely on the power of those seals but try to learn more spell casting. From what I heard, Kara has become a great spell caster."
After the meeting with Doureena, Sous was going to see Kara, only to discovered she was still in school.
"Tany too! There two girls are excellent at spell casting."
"Tany uses the instant kill spell," Sous said.
Shadow's mouth flopped and turned into a hanging 3.
"Well," he started. "She is the prodigy of the three sisters."