My Werewolf System

Chapter 1516: Aftermath of Victory

After Marie had converted Luzen, the process became surprisingly smooth.

Luzen stood beside Xin like a looming shadow, calling up the remaining members of the Lupus pack one by one. Xin placed her hand on each of them, drawing them into the Howlers with quiet focus. It felt strange to her. The process didn’t seem to take any of her energy, and none of the wolves showed any resistance.

Part of her suspected it had nothing to do with her skill as a Luna and everything to do with the unsettling figure standing next to her. Luzen watched them with that same thin, eerie smile. She could imagine the silent threat in his stare, that if any of them showed even a hint of reluctance, he would crush their will with pain until they broke.

Even the Ironmasked Werewolf had been turned while still being passed out, hopefully, since Ylva was able to control him, now Xin could do the same.

Only one among them hesitated.

Slit had been hovering at the edges, weaving through the chaos, unsure if he even wanted to reveal himself. The thought of becoming an Omega Wolf gnawed at him. The idea of being loyal to Lupus, if Lupus even returned, felt hollow. What pack would Lupus even have left?

Most of his army had been killed. The few token wolves left behind in Ruin City were scattered, leaderless. The majority of what had once been Lupus’s force was gone... and what remained had now joined the Howlers.

So Slit stepped forward at last and bowed his head.

Xin touched him, and he too crossed over.

Once the last of the Lupus wolves had been converted, the tension in the air seemed to dissolve. The hostility between the two groups faded as if it had never been there. The newly joined wolves looked different, calmer, steadier, no longer bristling or growling.

“I’ve called one of the hotels the Howlers own,” Marie said as she brushed dust off her arms. “We can have the Lupus group stay there for now. Once things settle, we can figure out their place from there.”

Before they could even start discussing the future, the cleanup began.

Transport was arranged for the bodies of the Lupus dead, gathering them into one area to be claimed. They had to work quickly, before the public began pressing for access to the park again. The entire battlefield had already been marked as a no-go zone by the authorities, and the Howlers who had survived were allowed to return home to rest.

Meanwhile, the critically injured were rushed to treatment. Adam was still alive but barely. The news of Don’s death, and Kanu’s, had begun to spread quietly among the Howlers, leaving an empty hollowness in their chest.

There was no time to grieve.

The White Rose members had agreed to stay in Slough for a while before heading back. They still needed to renegotiate the terms of the deal Kai had made with them, and that could not be done while the leadership of both packs was reeling from blood loss and exhaustion.

Eventually, once the field had been cleared and the first layer of chaos smoothed over, the surviving core members of the Howlers gathered again.

Luzen and Slit came too, both of them strangely subdued.

They met inside the restaurant, what was left of it. The place had been partially cleaned, though glass still crunched underfoot, and the air carried the sour smell of burned wood and blood. Tables had been dragged together in the center so they could all sit and talk.

“It feels... strange,” Luzen admitted as he looked across the table at Midwak. “To be part of the same pack as you again.”

“Likewise,” Midwak replied, his expression grim. “I don’t think either of us could have predicted any of this. But for the sake of everyone who’s left standing, we need to move past it, and figure out what the hell we do next.”

The others nodded in weary agreement. Even though their bodies ached, even though every one of them wanted to collapse into a bed for a week, there was still too much that needed to be discussed.

“I have a suggestion,” Luzen said suddenly, before anyone else could speak.

That in itself was surprising. Most of them had assumed they, the victors, would lead this conversation.

“There’s a major concern that’s going to be hanging over all of us,” Luzen continued, “and it’s the vampires.”

Innu blinked, then slammed his fist into his open palm. “Oh, right. I completely forgot about them. But... they agreed not to attack us, didn’t they?”

“They agreed not to attack us,” Marie said, “because they wanted our groups to kill each other first. That was one of Kai’s biggest concerns, remember.”

Just in case the vampires moved, or if the Dark Guild attacked, the Howlers had always known there was still that massive force of werewolves hidden away in another city. But after what Gary had unleashed here, they weren’t even sure those reinforcements could stand up to anything now.

“On our side,” Luzen said, “we’ll try to contact our allies in the Dark Guild to see if they’ve spotted any movement. I don’t know what type of contact Lupus had made with them beforehand, but they are quite good at gathering information with us, I wonder if they will even answer me. But no matter what, there’s one thing we must do above everything else: keep the fact that Gary, Lupus, and the other Alpha who appeared today are all missing... a secret.

“They must not find out. Not at any cost.”

He let his words hang, heavy and final, before finishing.

“So I think we need to spread it to the entire world: the Howlers have won this fight, and there’s a reason for that.”

******

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