Someone From Howling Ridge

Keegan went over to the spared humans who were on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Simply because they were allowed to live didn't mean they were in a better shape. They had cuts and bruises all over their faces and bodies.

"Who is your leader?" He crouched in front of the first man and asked. 

They'd made sure to kill those who seemed 'ordinary' enough, and leave out the ones with the tendency of being in charge. 

The average - aged man hesitated, grounding his teeth. His rebellion was quickly doused by a surge of pain as Keegan's claws sank into his gut. 

He threw back his head and groaned in pains. 

"You better make use of those teeth and start talking. My patience wears thin as a cobweb," Keegan leaned closer, his breath hot and fetid against the man's ear. 

He didn't withdraw his claws from the man's stomach. 

"He...He is gone!" The man cried at last. "I.... I swear it! You are two days late. He already left."

"Who is 'he'?" Keegan sent his claws a little deeper. The claws of someone like him was bound to cause more damage. 

The man grunted more in pains. 

"I... I do not know!" He cried, his voice cracking with a desperate plea. "I... I swear! He just came to us with a lot of coins to work for him by accommodating the wolves he abducts. In addition, we get to sleep with any of them, any time and any how we want. It was... It was a tempting offer. I am sorry we took it."

Keegan lost it. His claws tore deeper until they touched the man's heart. His eyes bulged in shock as he felt the sharp claws reaching his very heart. It was the worst kind of experience. 

In a brutal motion, he ripped the man's heart free. The organ pulsated in his hand before he tossed it aside like it was a sour cake. 

Straightening up, he moved to the next human. Their faces were ashen with terror. Anyone would be that frightened after watching their 'friend's' heart get ripped out of his chest like it was nothing. At that point, Keegan knew it'd be very easy getting answers from them. 

"Who is he?" Was his first question to the next man as he dropped to a crouch in front of him. 

"Pl...Please, we...we had no idea t... they were w... wolves from your p...pack. I.... I swear it, we...we would never have...."

"Wrong answer." Keegan took his claws to the man's throat but didn't dig in. It was enough to shut him up - to say the right answer, of course. 

"He...He was telling th....the truth," he inclined his head at the 'heartless' corpse on the ground. "We...We d...d.... don't know wh..wh....who he..."

Keegan's claws digged in, blood sprouting from the man's throat and onto his face. The man gagged and choked as the life was being drawn from him. 

"I hate men that stutter. They make talk boring," Keegan spoke flippantly, sighing deeply. 

He stood up and moved to the next man. 

"Will you stutter too?" 

The man shook his head repeatedly before Keegan even finished the question. 

Calmly, as if he didn't have blood that wasn't his on his face and body, he stooped in front of him. 

"So?"

The man swallowed tersely. "We...We do not know who he is. But we do know he is a wolf. He looked and acted like them. And it is obvious since he led the capture himself." Keegan could see the struggle on the man's face not wanting to stutter. 

"Name?" He tilted his head to the side. 

"He never revealed his name. Nor did we deem it important. Even those who served as his fighters and always followed him around never addressed him by name. We simply imprisoned the wolves, as instructed, and… amused ourselves with them when the mood struck."

Keegan looked around, his gaze falling on the terrified teen wolves behind him. 

"Where are the others? They should be more than this." He looked back at the man. 

"He took them." The man gulped hard again. "Two days past, he returned with more captives. They stayed for a week, then he vanished with them. He left a large sum behind, enough to suggest a long absence. We have no clue where they went."

Keegan's irritation grew. "Why do you think he took them?"

"I ...We... We do not know for certain. But there was a pattern. All the captured wolves seemed to be the same age, on the cusp of becoming adults. From the few I questioned, they were all seventeen, nearing their eighteenth year."

Keegan looked over his shoulder to glance at Kalaril who's expression mirrored his own. Every wolf underwent their transformation on their eighteenth birthday. 

He turned back to the man. "Do you have any idea why he'd be interested in those nearing adulthood?"

"If I did, I would tell you. This man was secretive and spoke little. He only related to us whenever he was dishing out orders."

"Describe him."

The man spent the next minute describing him to the best of his abilities. Keegan had been hoping the person would seem familiar. But he didn't. 

He rolled his head forward, trying to calm the beast rising at the back of his neck. He hated loose ends, hated the feeling of a hunt left unfinished.

"There is something else, though," the man said after a minute silence, causing Keegan to lift his gaze back to him. "While he was here a few days ago, one of his people had come to him with a letter. I was nearby, but unseen. I… I overheard him say 'the letter from Howling Ridge' just before he passed it to him."

Ember embers flickered in Keegan's eyes, promising a coming inferno as a molten rage bubbled up in his chest. 

His claws twitched, drawn to the man's throat like a magnet, threatening a dig.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?" He gritted the words, the reality of it causing fury to coil around his heart. 

The man shrieked but couldn't pull back his throat. 

"I... I am certain of what I heard!" He said in deep breaths. "He mentioned the letter coming from someone from Howling Ridge. But he didn't say who. I swear it!"

Anger caused Keegan's brows to furrow as the words sank in. Someone from 'his' Pack was working with the wretch man?!