Ursanthropy
58. Arrival of the King

Heads up! It’s hunter King Damien’s point of view:

Damien

From the moment that Doreen had seen me kill a man, in cold blood, as it had seem to her that way, she had been disgusted by my actions. I had been angry that she couldn’t understand my motives, even after I had told her that her mother had been killed by one of those bear-controlling men. It didn’t matter to her, what kind of creature had killed her mother. Whether it would have been a bunny or a demon, she scolded me for being both the judge and executor of my own ruling.

But, on the other hand, I had been happy that Doreen had been a daughter, not a son, as the men in the shifter world were the only ones to be able to shift into those animals. And because of that, it had been the only reason for her to be alive. She was my daughter and I wasn’t going to let her get defiled by those creatures that call themselves ‘ones with nature’! They are abominations, stupid creatures that can’t control their own emotions!

So, for over three and a half years, I have been chasing Doreen, endlessly trying to find her and take her back to her rightful home. I had been both amazed as well as angry that she had managed to get away from my hunters each and every single time, that they came close to her. She had never taken the liking of staying anywhere longer than necessary, never created links towards herself, never returned to the same place twice and never gotten attached to any single person that she had met.

Until a few months ago that is.

When they had found and captured her, and my lieutenant had been trying to rape her as that is what this Dennis had told me, I had been angered by my lieutenant but was happy to hear that he had suffered a suiting fate for what he tried to do to her. But it had also infuriated me, to know that my hunters had been overruled by that pack of bears!

But, I would make sure that once she was back, I would crack that little mind of hers, into the way I wanted her to think! I hadn’t spent all this money on her, for her to become this smart, to let it go in vain now!

Of course, I had known that Doreen was special, as she has the same genes as my late wife Ophelia had. Not knowing what those genes would contain, as that was never shown to me, but I knew that it was something important. So important that I wanted Doreen to be under my care, until I could find out what it was that makes her so special.

But when I found out that my wife had been cheating on me, when Doreen had been six, with whatever it was that she was calling her ‘destined mate’, my mind had gone feral. The little story I had told Doreen, about a bear killing her mother, hadn’t been true at all. Oh, she was dead, but not before giving birth to my bastard son. I had put her in a comatose state, then let the monster in her womb grow, and when her body had fulfilled its nine month lapse of time, I had ordered for the boy to be born and for her to be killed.

The boy was never my own, as he was that of a visiting Alpha at the McCormack’s pack, close to my house! But even so, I had manipulated him to grow and be trained under my careful eye. At first in a different house, but when Doreen had disappeared I had put him in her room, spoiling him with all he wanted, just to grant him some sort of love that he wanted to have. Craved for even. But there was no love towards him, he is a mindless creature of whom I have trained to never shift, brainwashed him into thinking of becoming a demon should he succumb to his primal urges. I had even shown him his bad side, when I angered him in close range of that little pack far away from here.

Of course, I had given him plenty of experimental steroids, ever since he had been born, so he was much stronger than any Alpha he had met so far. But when he shifted into that bear of his, in a full blown out rage of fury, he had massacred all those pack members with ease!

I had my revenge on that bastard who made my wife a cheating whore, a long time ago already, as I had killed him when he was near our house. And then within the year that I had found out that she cheated on me, I had erased the McCormack pack from the face of the earth, with my first military contract I got as well. But when my ‘son’ never had the urge anymore to shift into that rabid bear again, at the sight of what he had done to that little pack on the other side of the planet, I knew I had my revenge completely, as I had broken down the son of an Alpha!

I looked at my phone, that I had in my hand now, while standing in Dennis’ office. The arrogant prick had made me wait for half an hour already and I was getting restless. The moment he had made that ‘deal’ with me, I had known that he had an ulterior motive. I knew somehow that he was going to do something to surprise me, so I had made preparations.

Justin, my adopted son, had been standing outside on the west border, with a bunch of my hunters. Ready to await my orders, into attacking this wooden house, once I gave them the signal. But that could wait for a little longer, as I was now stalking my way in the halls, eager to find out what this Dennis was doing now.

Doreen

I had winced at the sounds of a fist colliding with something solid, as Jack had accepted a massive hit on the jaw, from the strongest leopard that was present here. Then I had given him a kiss on the forehead, pouting at the blood that gushed out of the corner of his mouth.

“You look adorable when you crave to take care of me. Don’t worry love, this will heal soon.” Jack said while pointing to his jaw.

“Adorable? You are going into the lion’s den, on your own, with no actual plan!” I shouted to him, worry lacing my voice.

Jack sighed, not wanting to go through this again, as we had gone through the thing that he called a plan, over a few times already. He wrapped his fingers in my hair and then brushed my cheek with his thumbs. I closed my eyes and leaned my face into his hands, until I could feel them slip away.

“We should go now, Alpha.” One of Jack’s former warriors said.

I didn’t want to look at how four of those warriors took Jack away from me, pretending to be unconsciously hanging in between the arms of them, but I forced myself to see it anyway, as if I wanted to make sure that he would arrive at the pack house in one piece.

Jack

Finally, things would proceed. I knew that Doreen didn’t like this at all, but I have to get through with this, before my chance of ever getting back to my pack again, would be lost. I let myself hang in between the four warrior’s arms which included my lead warrior, and even had to keep a chuckle inward, as they huffed from carrying my limp body.

I tried to keep my heartrate as low as possible, to keep my fainting as fake as I could. But I kept my senses open for anything, as I wanted to know what happened around me at all times. But we had to hurry, as Maxwell had been accused almost two hours ago, and if it was up to Dennis, his sentence for it would be taken care off very soon.

“You can’t go in now. Alpha has commanded us to keep the doors closed.” I heard one of my other former warriors say, when we stood in front of the doors of the ballroom. This warrior’s voice however, sounded as if he was scolding the men that were holding me. It was as if he was talking to a low ranked soldier, as if he were superior to other warriors.

I remembered my lead warrior say that Dennis kept his closest men with him, and that the least loyal of the bunch were send outside to guard the women. So, when this all would be over, and I hope it would be soon, I’d have to shift through all of my people and find out where their loyalties lie.

“You don’t seem to realise who I have here, do you?” My lead warrior asked him, as he lifted my chin and showed him my face. I heard the other warrior gasp for a moment, but after a few seconds of silence, a few locks were heard and the door creaked open.

“Well, well, well. It seems that your loyalty towards me, is more than I suspected after all!” I heard Dennis chuckle towards my lead warrior, for bringing me in. I felt my body being dragged again, assumedly towards the front of the room, and as rehearsed they threw me on the floor.

It was hard to maintain a straight, unconscious face while they did that, but I had to do it. I needed to wait for the right time, for Dennis to come close to me, before I would let him know that I was wide awake.

“How did you exactly do this?” Dennis asked my lead warrior, with a hint of disbelief.

“He came at the barn, alone, thinking that he could fight against us all there. But eventually we managed to knock him out. The others are recuperating outside though.” He explained and Dennis scoffed.

“Well, people, this is the supposed Alpha of this pack! The traitor that let his own Luna communicate with the hunter King himself, who almost managed to get us wiped off the planet!” Dennis laughed as he moved himself forward.

I could hear his footsteps come closer and closer, and when he was right near my body he leaned down and started to whisper in my ear. “You really think, that I believe you to be unconscious? How stupid do you think I am?” He said and I instantly used my energy to leap up, wrap my wrist around his neck and push him against a wall.

All ‘his’ warriors came speeding towards us, as I could hear them approach us from every different angle. But all Dennis did was smile, as he lifted his hand up for the warriors to stop their attack on me.

“We don’t need all this violation. We can let the crowd speak for this event, don’t we Jack?” Dennis said, trying to be all political in this dire situation.

I know that this room is filled with Alphas from pretty much all of the races and packs from all around the world, but it didn’t matter to me, all I wanted was to challenge Dennis for my right as Alpha and not being judged by all these people!

“I hereby challenge Alpha Dennis into a one on one fight, for the title of Alpha for this pack.” I managed to bring out, while recognising him in his current rank. It was the most difficult thing to say, to the fact that the pack was his, but it was necessary to do it this formal, as it wouldn’t have been seen as an official challenge.

“I’m sorry Jack, but we can’t allow you to do just that.” I heard a man with a French accent say behind me. “You are being accused of treason, and so far, we haven’t heard any counter evidence of you not being one, together with that Luna of yours of course. So, we can’t let you become a ruler of a pack, until the accusations have been proven to be false.” He continued to explain what was going on and I growled in anger!

I looked towards Dennis and even though I still had my claws around his neck, I could swear that in between him fearing for his life, he also lifted the corner of his mouth, smiling lightly at what was being said. I know that Dennis had accused Maxwell of treason, but I never thought that the room filled with Alphas could stop me from challenging him into a duel. Since when do we follow the rules? We haven’t had a council in our lives for years, and we haven’t been upholding any laws that was once set in stone by the original Queen! So, why should we do this now?

My hand let go of Dennis his throat and only then I turned myself around, to look into the room. I wanted to see if all the Alphas were thinking the same as the French Alpha did, and some of them either had lowered their heads in shame or were looking at me with anger written on their faces.

“You all believe this Beta? This man who managed to tore my pack away from me?” I yelled to all of them. “You would never think of him being the one that has committed treason? Of him being the one that communicated with the hunter King?” I continued while pointing towards Dennis.

No single Alpha, Luna or Beta said a word. They all stood there, silent as a grave. “Why aren’t you saying anything? You! You’re a rhino shifter, why are you quiet? And you, you’re one of the feistiest bears I have met, I remember you from a few years ago, why aren’t you speaking up?” I asked them, but I got no response, nothing!

What the hell is going on here?

“Like I just said- “Bullshit!” I interrupted the French man. “Ever since our last Queen has perished, we stopped following the laws! The only thing we ever kept going now, is the way we challenge others, so I have every right to challenge him!” I yelled, fury lacing my words.

“True, but ever since I have been announced King of the shifters, I have reinstated the old laws again.” Dennis said and my jaw dropped.

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