It’s a Wolf-Eat-Hume World - Deadlier Than The Male – Exclusive for Steemit

Some of the science behind how a werewolf makes its kill and part of the hierarchy of the werewolf society.

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The next morning as Red was sitting on the bottom of the bed, getting dressed, she talked to Luke.

“You remember I showed you those cuts on the neck of the body?” She asked, nudging him.

“Uh? What body? Who?” Luke was shaken awake.

“I said, do you remember the body in the wood, the other night. Come on, wake up!” She shook him again.

“Babe?”

“Yes darling?”

“Fuck off will you? I’m tired.” He buried his head under his pillows.

“Oh. I thought you might be interested in my new theory on the murder of your mate that’s all.”

“Oh for god’s sake, what are you, a tour-guide for Guilt Trips?”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway, those cuts on the body, remember?”

“The ones you pointed out as unusual because there weren’t any other deep cuts anywhere else?”

“You do remember; you’re a clever boy.”

Luke sat up; wide awake all of a sudden. “Actually, I have my own theory on that, what about if the body was an older Wolf and his glands have been harvested? From what Richard told me, I gather his glands should have a lot of residual and concentrated gland juice, far more than a Hume!”

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“Hey, well done. I was about to tell you that.”

Luke’s expression altered and he said: “I’ve got up to where you’re in France in your book. I’d forgotten about the wars, what we used to get up to. The account is very accurate to say it was written by a third party.”

“Yes, I agree, it’s creepy the way The Scribe seems to know what happens. I’ve never met him, have you?”

“No and I’ve not heard much about him either.”

Well never mind that now. You’re a long way into it then if you’re past the wars.”

“I’m not past the wars; we’d just defeated King Henry. Darius was a bloody hero and it’s all because of what he did to you, the bastard! I can’t believe Victoria actually rewarded him for that.” Luke’s mood grew dark. “And Phillipe’s a prick!”

“What about Phillipe? How do you know?” Red asked.

“It’s in your book. What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know. What are you talking about?”

“Obviously not the same things as you are. Phillipe tried to come on to you, tried to seduce you in the stables.” Luke reached for the book and showed it to Red, as he got dressed.

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, now your turn to explain.”

Red told him the events of Jervais’s execution and just after at the autopsy.

“Oh, he’s not got a thing for you any more then?” Luke grinned.

“I doubt it.” Red matched Luke’s grin.

“You were telling me about the harvested glands in the woods…” Luke prompted.

“Yeah, well I asked for a copy of the autopsy.”

“They’ll not autopsy will they? I thought they only did that when the Wolf died in human form?”

“That’s right, usually. In this case it’s different. We think Richard was somehow forced into Wolf because the murderer was counting on no autopsy.”

“So he’s been double-sixed then? What are you hoping they’ll find in an autopsy?”

“They hope to find the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, the lymph glands and the adrenal gland, to be honest.”

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“Why? What will finding them prove?”

“Well if they did find them, it would prove who the murderer was, because he has them.”

“Why does he want those glands though?”

“Well I’ve been going further into Richard’s research on why we kill.”

“I know why we kill, it’s because we can.” Luke grinned.

“Don’t be thick; Richard was trying to explain this to you. A human’s glands produce secretions or as you put it, gland-juice with different glands for different secretions and different effects. For example, the adrenal glands produce adrenalin which makes humans able to perform to a higher degree, if only for a short time. When our adrenalin kicks in, it boosts us higher and now we’re Ancients, it also boosts us for longer. That’s why adrenalin-flavoured meat is tastier than ‘flat’ or calm meat, putting a scare into a kill is not just for fun, is it?”

“Hey that’s true now I come to think of it.”

“Think about this too, our bodies are craving the glands. The chemicals help us in all sorts of ways, healing for example. I’ve noticed over the years, that I can control my healing. Take this black eye,” Red waved a hand up to her face, “it would have been gone by now if I had allowed my body to sort it on its own but everyone at the club saw the bruise start and so if it’s gone they’ll notice. So I have to sport this for about a week, that’s about right isn’t it? I don’t really remember - the last time I had a black eye was when Darius broke my nose.”

“Listen, about that…” Luke said.

“It’s done with, there’s no point getting angry about it now. It spoiled our relationship once; I don’t want to do that again.”

“I just need you to know, the first time I knew anything about that bastard raping you was last night. I swear!” Luke said, his misery evident.

Red looked into his eyes; she couldn’t tell if he was lying or not, so she decided, for the sake of her sanity, if nothing else, she was going to believe him.

“Red, I swear it!” Luke took hold of Red’s elbows and made her face him again. She nodded and he let go of her a second later.

“Enough now, this is more important. I’ve just thought of something else. When you hunt, which part of the body do you always go for if say, the prey is facing away from you?”

“I always go for the back of the head, the neck.” Luke said without needing to think about the answer.

“And if the prey is facing you then?”

“It’s the same again, the neck, throat and either to the side or upwards.” Luke was picking it up now, she could tell by his enthusiasm.

“On either side of the neck are the thyroid glands. But further in at the base of the brain is the pituitary gland. So you see, Humes produce this stuff naturally, so do we, but our bodies are more highly-tuned, we need more of it.”

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“If that was right then we’d get less of a boost from an adrenalin dump, not more. You’ve just said it lasts longer, you must be wrong on your theory.” Luke said, puzzled.

“I know that’s what I said, but it’s true, it’s also true that we last longer on one hit. So where does the extra come from?”

“If Richard’s theory that we need to kill less is right, then we get the added boost from our own glands.” He paused and Red smiled at him, waiting for him to realise by himself what her point was. “Oh! Of course! The murderer wants to harvest glands again, but there’s more profit in glands that have residual capacities!”

“I knew you’d get there in the end. That’s what Richard was trying to tell you in America. You may get a nice hit of adrenalin in one gland from a Hume, but if you manage to get a Wolf’s adrenal gland, depending on how old or even how Ancient it is, you’re going to get a mega hit.”

“Yeah but that’s weird, why would a Wolf want that? It’s not like there’s any call for the hyper-boost an Ancient’s adrenalin would give, especially if he was already an Ancient.”

“Are you sure? If an Ancient gave himself a hit of another Ancient’s adrenalin, he’d be far more hyper than we could ever dream, if he gave a whelp a boost of Ancient’s adrenalin, what would that do? There are two possibilities I can think of off-hand, over-dose or power to match an Ancient but with the unthinking discipline of a well-trained soldier. Oh Fuck! What if he’s raising an army?” Red grabbed her trainers and went to the bathroom, washing and brushing her teeth with haste. She didn’t even mind when Luke came in as she was on the toilet. “Hurry up; I want to talk this over with Victoria and Oscar.”

“What if it’s Victoria that’s at the bottom of this?” Luke asked.

“Why would she want an army? She’s at the top of the tree, there’s nowhere higher for her, but someone in her bloodline, someone who can’t wait for natural causes to make him Lycaeon would possibly make good use of an army - to overthrow her and take control. Fetch the book, you can continue reading if you have any spare time and I’d rather not leave it here.”

She let Rom out for a few minutes and then took him to the car, folding the back seats down so the dog could get in.

On the way through Derbyshire towards Victoria’s house, Luke used Red’s phone to call ahead and make sure that Victoria and Oscar were at the house.

When they arrived, the butler took Rom and let him out into the grounds where he wouldn’t stray too far. Then they were ushered up one flight of stairs to a conference room where Red began to outline her theories again. After a short time, it became obvious that the conversation was of no more interest to Luke and he had no more contribution to make so he took Red’s book and disappeared upstairs.

When the Sentinel had gone through the same points she had with Luke earlier, she sat back and waited for it to sink in with Victoria and Oscar.

“You say that Richard Stainsby was also working on a private enterprise outside of his ministry work? And you think this work has something to do with his murderer?” Oscar asked.

“I can’t prove any of this; that’s why I’ve come to you. In my opinion, Victoria as Lycaeon has much more to lose than to gain, which is why I don’t think either of you are commissioning this kind of work. It’s dangerous stuff, playing with glands which have the capacity to over-dose – if indeed one of our kind actually can overdose?”

“I don’t remember anything like this happening in my memory. I think we should have heard about it if it had.” Victoria looked worried. “I think this may be a foundation for one of the First Laws though.”

“Would your Grandfather know?” Red ventured.

“If there is anything to be known of this kind of experimentation, then yes, Grandfather would know about it, but please, do not speak of him outside of this present company, no-one else even supposes he still lives. That is why I am undisputed as Lycaeon, if anyone suspected I’m just a stand-in then I would be removed quickly and easily by this usurper in order to go for the last remaining hurdle. Why do you think Juliet and Diana were murdered? Not to mention countless others.” Victoria said.

“I promise not to, not even to Luke.” Red assured.

After a short pause, Red started pacing and as she paced, she began thinking out-loud: “But I wonder how long he has been hoarding glands for? Can they be kept for any length of time? Is there any way of taking the secretion from the gland – milking it - or does the gland have to be consumed? Is it only good for a one-time use? Can the gland be grafted onto or into another body and milked indefinitely? More important, can the chemicals be created artificially and was Richard murdered because he found a way to do this or because he found conclusive evidence that it can’t be done? I’d tend to go for the idea that he’d found a way to do it because no matter how ‘conclusive’ his work was, they could never be sure it really was and therefore it would be more beneficial to keep him alive to continue his work. Unless of course, Richard told them that there was no way and he was giving up or was going to tell the Ministry? It looks like there’s more than one reason that it’s illegal for one Wolf to kill another. Cannibalism could be the end result and then we’d have Wolves killed left, right and centre until there’s one left. There’s also about five months which can’t be accounted for regarding Richard. From the last time I saw him alive to when he was discovered without his skin. Oh and another thing, David Rosscourt still hasn’t forwarded the autopsy report to me.”

“Good grief, you’ve been thinking hard about this, haven’t you? I’ll get onto Rosscourt right away.” Oscar said.

“You’d better tell him his Lycaeon wants to be copied in on everything too and I do mean everything!” Victoria said. “Now, Sentinel, where do you think whoever it is would be raising an army?”

“Shall we just call him Phillipe? That’s who I think it is, so I may as well call a spade a spade. I also think his father will be in on it too.” Red said. Victoria nodded her agreement and Red continued: “I think he will raise an army here, in England.”

“Why do you think England, why not Scotland?” Victoria asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“The Scottish Wolves are too wild for him; they follow who they want to. Always have; always will. They follow tradition much closer than even we do and Lycaeonship is important to them, as we saw at the last summit. If he were raising an army, he would not want to have to transport vast numbers overseas in order to attack you. Your main homes are here and you don’t travel as much as you used to plus he would never know where you were planning on going, or when.” Red said.

“Correct! So we now need his base.” Oscar said.

“I think that would be local, even if my reasoning behind it is only to make us look stupid when he brings them out into the open. His research facilities were – are - in Nottingham, the Loop HQ is there, you two spend most of your time in Derbyshire and I’m now based in Nottinghamshire. We have all our eggs in one basket I’m afraid, one clean sweep and he has us. Our only hope is that he doesn’t realise we know what he’s doing. But is he recruiting existing Wolves or making new Wolves, or both?”

“One thing puzzles me however.” Oscar said. “Francois is not heir to the Lycaeon so therefore he would have nothing to gain and so he cannot be suspected. But Phillipe and his daughter Claudia are and so suspicion is laid firmly at their door. Yet why set this in motion now?”

“All of a sudden, Claudia has no heir. Her only son was killed by me and his execution was sanctioned by the Lycaeon. Both his mother and his grandfather could well have been pushed over the edge by his death. It’s only a theory, but it could be right. There is no proof that Claudia or Francoise has anything to do with this plot.”

“Yet that doesn’t explain the possibility of armed forces being rallied, does it?”

“No, but if Claudia has no heir then the whole Putus bloodline stops with her. Therefore the Eldest Surviving Wolf would be crowned, is that right?” Red continued.

“And neither of them has another heir, that is certain.” Victoria mused. “But that also rules out Francois as the instigator. Oscar is older by at least a century than Francois and there are many more that are yet older.”

Suddenly both Victoria and Oscar came to the same conclusion.

“Emilio Lovari!” They both said.

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“Emilio? But he’s no older than Oscar, surely? I remember him before the War of the Roses and he was a youngster then.” Red said, puzzled.

“He wasn’t as young as you assumed Red, but anyway, we are not speaking of him, we mean his father.” Victoria said. “He is a cousin of my Grandfather, the split in bloodlines occurred when Grandfather’s uncle – Emilio senior’s father - mated with an Imp and one of their offspring was married off to my Great-Grandfather. ‘Imp’ is what we used to call the impure-blood Aeger Wolves, those that survived at any rate.” Victoria said. “Well, it is even more complicated than that, but if you want to know the whole history, you will have to research it yourself, but the training and recruitment of Sentinels began perhaps a century after the first mating. Grandfather says that it was hell on earth at that time, Throwbacks and malicious Wolves set on the destruction of all Wolfkind were in abundance. Wars between the differing factions were commonplace and terrifically bloody. They had to gain some kind of order, which was when the alliance and First Laws came into being. Emilio Lovari senior was always dead set against the way it was handled. He wanted eldest first, no matter what the pedigree. He took off in a sulk and no-one saw him for centuries after he was overruled. I would think that he’s had time to think on it by now, but whether he has changed his mind or not is anyone’s guess.”

“Alliance?” Red asked.

Victoria nodded. “The agreement between Putus and Macero bloodlines became known as the Alliance. Macero was by far the most prolific but even they felt that Putus had more right to rule as they were bred only from Wolves that had been born Wolf and their bloodstock were just that little bit stronger and healthier. Of the two brothers, one bit the others mate for him and waited until the cubs were grown before taking his own mate from one of them. Even back then it was known that Throwbacks were dangerous to our kind. Now we keep the knowledge secret in case of malicious intent. Putus and Macero joined together to eradicate all the Throwbacks and most of the Aeger Wolves. The only Impure Wolves that survived were the Piaculum, those that had been chosen as a mate. It was after this war that it was decided that under no circumstances should Wolf kill Wolf again without dire consequences.”

“I know a lot of the history, but given time, I should like to go back further. Hopefully, after all this is finished with, I’ll get chance to do that. I presume that Wolves went on an unchecked blood spree at the time of the full moon, I also presume that was where the majority of the legends and myths have sprung from.” Hazel said.

“Most stories are based on an element of truth aren’t they?” Victoria said.

“Yes, but I was led to believe that Romulus and Remus were the first, are those the two brothers which you refer to?” Red said.

“You think that Romulus and Remus were the first, oh dear god, no.” Oscar could not help but laugh at that. “Centuries - millennia passed before those two arrived. It is true that they were responsible for bringing culture and a more reasonable method of organisation to us but credit them with nothing more than the foundation of an Empire. Wolves had been created long before the birth of the Roman Empire, although not so very far away from there. I suppose that in those times, we were more a danger to ourselves than Humes were and until a stop was put to Wolf killing Wolf, we were decimating our own numbers far more efficiently than even the might of the Roman army could have done.”

“Ok, but the Putus bloodline is now all but at an end? We have Victoria, Phillipe and Claudia left to perpetuate it? That means, to me at any rate, that in just three deaths we could be plunged into civil war again.” Red said.

“On the face of it, yes, you would be right, but if you go deeper than what everyone else sees, past the hierarchy, you would find many, many more Putus who stand a damned fine chance of inheriting the Lycaeonship. Not that it would be easy to find one who would accept the responsibility of course.” Victoria said.

“So what you are saying is that if the three of you who are in the forefront of this hierarchy were to die, then we would still have a Lycaeon from the Putus bloodline and therefore no civil war?”

“In a nutshell, yes, but the bigger picture is that not many Wolves know that fact either. For example, the three of us know but no-one in the forefront of our society knows. None of the current heirs and not in any Ministry – not even the Italian Ministry. The few that know about our heritage with any certainty as to heirs apparent – or rather not apparent – are hardly seen by any of us. I would hazard a guess that Anton is the youngest of those that do know. You see, none of the heirs want to take on the responsibility. What did my grandfather say when you asked him about being Lycaeon again?”

“He certainly did not want to take it on again. He wanted to go off and enjoy himself. But Victoria, he’s the youngest?” Hazel was surprised.

Victoria nodded. “There is a whole other society hidden from the eyes of this one and I hope that situation will continue for a long time to come, because if there is any cause for those Wolves to be brought back into full view of our society, it will mean that we have failed and that this society as we know it has collapsed. Now, we must get back to matters at hand.”