Chapter 11: Laxon people

          A round of applause rolled over the insides of the mansion as the pact and taking an oath of the next leaders stood over Shadowstone pack. But as the celebration remained to be a cheerful one, a crashing sound suddenly shattered the party.

“Inauguration, huh?” voiced someone of a very familiar tone, a mocking one.

          A man in a cloaked blue suit leaped down from the shattered glass ceiling. Across his chest was a red satin sash with an embroidered figure of an eye.

‘The emblem of Laxon University… that filthy place again.’ Denise muttered inside her head while her eyes narrowed and the dagger in her hand slid off her grip.

“Greetings, Alpha Brandon,” droops the uninvited visitor with his left hand across his chest as he steps forth and faces the now-former Alpha of Shadowstone.

          Brandon nods in acknowledgment but the creased confused look on his face didn’t disappear. Why on Claveria would the Laxon’s commanding general be in his pack?

“I won’t take this for long,” the man uttered and quickly diverted his eyes from Brandon and toward his target from the beginning. The lady in a daring red gown. “I came here for something your daughter had stolen from Laxon.”

“Stolen?” Brandon confusedly repeated.

Causing the guy to grow a scornful smile. “Oh, why? Haven’t your daughter told you about it?” His head again turned and darted an insulting stare at the lady with an emotionless face. “You did not, Denise?”

          Everyone was shut baffled about the sudden topic. That even the Alpha asked his daughter in an authoritative tone. “What’s this all about, Denise?”

          Amidst the uneasy atmosphere, the look on her face changed hastily. From the emotionless one to her normal way of communicating. “The matter is between an old friend and me, Papa,” she calmly responded as his steps started traveling the distance between her and the guy. “Should we talk while we take a walk around the garden, Rocco?”

“Who am I to refuse?” grins the guy she called Rocco.

          Denise simply smiled and bid goodbye to her father and to the audience whose eyes all cast on them. She stretches out her hand and wrapped it around Rocco’s arm, dragging the guy out of the hall.

“There’s a lot of days you could’ve shown up. Why choose this night?”

          Rocco let out an arousing chuckle and gently unclasped Denise’s hand off his. “Get away from me. I know your tactic.”

          With that, the lady laughed ludicrously as she took back her hands and even raised them to prove she was not planning anything. Rocco once had experienced the most humiliating counter-attack from Denise during their University years.

          With her hands seductively clutching in his arms, Denise simply pulled the strings keeping his trousers in place. On the other side, little Rocco who was an itty-bitty infatuated with the only she-wolf in the class, stood stunned and couldn’t move because of how close the girl is to him.

          However, little did he know, Denise sees Rocco as a piece of dirt getting in her way. Thus, the second she pulled the strings on both sides, down falls his trousers while they were inside the training arena. In front of every werewolf cadet’s eyes, they saw what wasn’t supposed to be so needle-like.

          The greatest humiliation in his entire life!

“Eh? Rest assured I’m not doing anything,” Denise laughed and patted his shoulders which he raised his lips in response before dodging the lady’s hand.

“I said hands-off,” he warned.

“Whatever.” She resumed walking and so as the guy. Under the tall trees and the carved bushes, they talked and walked as if they have never chased each other to death back then. “By the way, your acting’s good in Rigidore.”

“It was—arrgghh.” His hands then embarrassedly covered his face and brushed up to his chocolate-colored hair. “I was drunk that night. And I didn’t know what I was doing.”

          Denise scoffed and lifted a side of her lips. “Right, drunk,” she repeated sarcastically. Causing Rocco to pout and cross his hands on his neck while treading his every step beside Denise.

“I was. I’m sorry, alright? I didn’t mean to shoot a bullet. But did any of the bullets hit you?”

          The lady irately extended her hands and tensely pinched Rocco’s belly making him groan aloud in pain. And Denise laughed hysterically. “Nothing got through me. You were bad at aiming, Rocco. Ever since,” she replied with her head shaking side to side.

“Really?” the guy frowned. “Aren’t you gonna thank me for not killing you then?”

          Denise shrugged, “You still aren’t on the level for my gratitude.”

“Tch. Arrogant,” he snickered and quickly raised his hand, hitting Denise’s forehead with his knuckles before running away from her now laughing happily.

“How dare you—"

          She lifted her long dress and was about to chase after him when a voice cut them both.

“Saavedra!”

          Rocco halted, pausing before he could even step his other foot on the grass. His head gradually turned to where the voice emanated from.

“You seem to forget what you’re here for,” Denise attested suddenly in an austere tone, gone is the smile on her face. Realized what Rocco was really here for.

          And that was to get the white wolf’s emblem from her… or perhaps, more accurate to say ‘take back the emblem from her’.

          Meeting her gaze, Rocco remained silent. And so as Denise to him. For, to be frank, they could’ve been the best of friends if it weren’t because of what position they are in. Literally like the day and the night, one’s in a place he couldn’t leave and the other’s on a quest that is against the high rulers.

“The emblem, Denise. May I?” Rocco started, taking steps towards and closer to her.

          Her head didn’t move until his hand was stretched afore her. Denise heaved a deep sigh as she looks down at his empty palm and back to Rocco’s dark eyes persuading her to do what she should do.

“The answer’s obvious but I still wonder why it should be you,” utters Denise with her hand trailing up her shoulder.

          Rocco’s fore creased to what she said, confused about what she meant. “W-What? What do you mean?”

“Here, you… chasing over what I have stolen,” she answered. “Hate me, but I will never surrender the white wolf to you.”

          Denise pivoted away and to the pavement back to the mansion when Rocco grabs her arm. “You’re going to,” he directed firmly and with a tiny gesture signaled by him, a dashing black arrow emerges out of nowhere towards her direction.

          Caught in her gape, she quickly broke through Rocco’s tight grip and sprinted up to a tree’s branch. “I only will if… you tell me why this was so important to Laxon.”

          The guy sneered, “That thing is not for you to know, Shadowstone.”

“You only gave me another reason not to return the emblem, Saavedra.”

          Spouting that, Denise leaped into the air and swiftly shifted into her wolf. Running off inside the forest of Luvinstri Deya, intending to lose them along the way. But seems like she’s not gonna make it seeing another squad waiting for her deep inside the heart of the forest.

          Cornered by five wolves in front of her and two behind, including Rocco and the other guy a while ago. All gnashing their teeth at her, she knew they were not ordinary warriors. That Saavedra led them here so perhaps, they’re from Laxon’s defense unit.

‘You’ve got nowhere to escape now, Shadowstone. Give the emblem back,” growls the one in a dark chocolate fur.

          Denise stepped back, lifting a side of her muzzle that revealed those razor-sharp teeth of hers before replying to them with the wolves’ type of communication. ‘There’s a lot of ways I can escape. Pick one to five and we’ll play at the same time.’

          But no one answered her question. They all growled in, perhaps, annoyance to her. Resulting for the arrogant Shadowstone to shrug her shoulder and answer her own question. ‘Well then, I myself pick four.’

          With that, she again leaped off the grassy ground and sprinted to the maze-like structure of the forest. She said five choices that in fact, there’s only one escape plan in her mind. No other than running away from them.

          ‘Geez, why didn’t I even think of these people showing up on this night?’ she whispered in her head. Truly, the thought of these Laxon people and the white wolf’s emblem she had stolen were all banished from her mind the second her attention went all into the inauguration.

‘What trouble have you gotten this time?’ asks another voice in her mind.

          It was Sydney.

‘Nothing new. Where are you at?’

‘Just near you.’

          Denise quickly looked around her but there is no chestnut wolf running around. ‘I am not asking for humor, Sydney.’

‘I am not joking, Denise. Mind if you look up the trees?’