The Wolves of London Book 2: The House of Striker

(Chapter song ‘Worlds Collide' by League of Legends)

ZEN

“Say that again.” I look at the king like he’s nuts as he explains what he’s talking about.

We all stand around him as he tries to hurry his story. “I told you. My father was apparently abducted, and they… they did something to him. I don’t know. I can’t explain until we capture him and we can investigate. Right now, he’s rampaging through Cambridge and we need to stop him.”

Cora grabs his arm. “Zander. I must speak with you.”

“Not now, Cora. Let me deal with my father first.” He says in a concerned tone.

“I realize this, but it’s very important I speak with you in private. Please.” She insists.

He pushes her hand away. “Cora… I will speak with you after we contain my father. We can’t waste another minute. People are being hurt.”

Dorian nods. “Lead the way.” He motions to Zander and I see Cora’s shoulders slump.

Zander turns and leads us out of the council room. “The rest are already headed over. It’s going to take all of us.”

“What are we walking into, Zan?” I ask to his back.

“You'll see.” He says low.

****

After traveling through Cora’s shadow realm, we exited the shadow tunnel in an alley in the middle of the town of Cambridge. The screams were heard the minute we ran out of the tunnel. The roars of some sort of big cat came next.

People ran down the street in mass panic as a car rolls and smashes down the street.

“Zander?” Dorian questions as we watch the car roll past us.

“Let’s go.” He growls.

We take off, exit the alley, and skid to a stop.

“Oh my God. Are you serious?” My jaw hits the floor, and my eyes bug out as I try to process what’s in front of me.

In the middle of a busy main street stands a tiger. Not just any tiger. A 10 foot tall Saber-toothed tiger. It has a spiked mane from the middle of his ears to the tip of his long, thin tail. His dinner plate sized paws swipe the side of cars and they slide across the road into buildings.

“He looks pissed.” Dorian says.

“Well, when you wake up in modern times and find that life has changed, that tends to make one angry.” Demetri mutters.

“True enough.” Dorian ticks his head.

“OK. We go in. Subdue him, and take him back to the labs to be tested. I need to know what’s going on with him.” Zander instructs.

I turn to him. “Excuse me. I think you just said we need to contain that! Are you kidding?”

He scowls at me. “No, Zen. I’m not kidding. Minimal injury. Am I clear?”

I take a deep breath. “if you say so. Dorian. I got your six.”

He pulls his gun. “Let’s go, Lady.” He smiles and I pull my gun.

Zayden Maximus, father of our leader, who has technically been dead now for over 60 years. Somewhere along the way, he was changed into this prehistoric cat. What the hell is going on?

As we charge to the fight, the big cat turns and a Syrian brown bear is hanging off his side. In front of him, a Lycan roars and tries to grab him. Darius Koda and Giovanni Conti. Two of our other council members were already in the thick of fighting.

Zayden opens his jaws wide and snaps at Darius' brown bear. The bear digs his claws in and tries to tear at the thick fur without being bitten. Zayden uses his 8 inch canine tusks to pry the bear off him, but they both go down when Giovanni slams into Zayden’s side, knocking him over. Zayden’s retractable claws come out and try to grab Giovanni, but the Lycan jumps on his side and tries to rip into him. Darius grabs his neck and tries to tear that way. Both are thrown off when Zayden stands and claws them off.

We round the cat, and come in, guns blazing. I fire shots and the bullets bounce off his fur. “Uh. Dorian?”

“We need another way!” He yells over a group of people who run away screaming.

“ZEN!”

I whip my head and Cora throws me a knife. I catch the hilt and smirk. “Now, we're talking.”

Zander shifts to his white wolf and goes in for the attack. Cora jumps and lands a knife into his side and proceeds to climb up the animal. I try to get to the underbelly to hit him there. As legs stomp and move, I run around the cat. His large head turns with mouth open and I nearly get bit in half. I backhand his nose and he rears back in pain and anger. He tries to bite me again and swipe the knife across the air. He roars a whine as I clips his nose with the blade.

Cora gets to his back, just as Krestin roars his dinosaur sounding call. He circles above the cat. His dragon takes a deep breath and opens his mouth. His stomach and neck glow red hot as a column of fire sprays out and hits the ground. He blows the fire in a large circle, surrounding us all in a ring. The flames are taller than Zayden. The ground shakes as Krestin lands. I look up and see Krestin adjust his wings and side eye the cat in the circle.

As I try to avoid teeth and claws, the wall of fire parts and Krestin’s gigantic reptile head fills the hole and snaps his teeth at Zayden. Zayden hisses a roar and swipes at Krestin. He spins around, and just as I was going in, his leg hit me and I went flying into Dorian. We both get tossed through the fire onto the street.

“OH, SHIT!” We both yell as we cover ourselves when Krestin’s large foot barely misses us. We scramble to our feet and back off. Darius jumps through the fire wall and Krestin stalks around it. He stops and shoves his head into the flames. He squeals and lifts his head out as he shakes it. He paws his nose. It looks like Zayden clawed him.

As Krestin walks around the flames, I run for the tip of his tail. I leap and grab a curved spike.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Dorian yells.

I grab spike after spike as I climb up the lizards back. I get to the shoulders and watch the wings as they slightly flap when he walks. He stops and sticks his head in the fire again. Again, Zayden bats him away.

I look over the flames and pull out my gun as I stand on the spikes at the base of Krestin's neck. “KRESTIN! I’LL DISTRACT HIM! YOU DO YOU!” I yell up to his head.

His gold eye turns to me and he huffs a growl. He nods and turns to the circle. He walks around and I take aim. “CORA, MOVE!” She jumps off Zayden, lands, and tries to slice the cat as he snaps at her.

I fire shots around Zayden and get him to focus on me. He looks up and hisses as my bullets hit around him.

Cora tries to use Zayden’s shadow against him, but the cat doesn’t seem to be affected. He bites the shadows that grab him and makes them disappear. None of that makes any sense.

Krestin stops and dips his head in. As Zayden bites and claws at Krestin’s head, the dragon whips his tail into the fire and it hits Zayden directly on his side. The tiger cat flies through air, hits a building, crumbles the wall with his body, and disappears inside it.

Cora jumps out of the fire ring as I leap off of Krestin. We all stand in a line waiting for Zayden to come out. When he doesn’t, we all slowly walk to the hole in the building. Zander shifts and runs in as we climb the debris.

“Dad!” Zander falls to his father’s naked human form on the floor. Zayden’s breathing heavy and clearly exhausted.

“Where is she?... Where… is she…” He pants as Zander leans down to his dad, and then looks to us. He stares at us, then turns back to his father.

“It's OK, dad. I got you. You’re safe.” He whispers as we all try to understand exactly what happened here.

Dorian holsters his gun and joins my side. “That was a pretty amazing thing to do. Climbing on Krestin like that. He’d never let me do that.”

“He likes me.” I shrug. I holster my gun and cross my arms as I think. “Why? What’s going on?”

He looks at me. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” I pull out my communicator for the Sentinel. “I have to make a call.”

As the rest talk to Zander and help with his father, I run across the street to the alley we came in and push the communicator.

“Jolen.”

‘Zen. My God. What happened?’

I look back to the building as they organize themselves. “I’m not sure. But I have a really good suspicion that Miranda does. You see it all?”

‘Yeah. It’s not good, Zen. Whatever’s in that thing, it’s dangerous. Its left a trail of destruction from the Midwest, United States to where you guys just caught him. The guy can move and shift to whatever the hell he wants.’

I stop and look to the other wall. “Did you say the Midwest?”

‘Yeah.’

“How many active labs are in the area of the first sighting of it?” I glance to make sure no ones coming just yet. “Give or take 50 miles.”

‘Uh…12… That we know of.’

“When was the last delivery?” I ask.

‘Last month. The shifter to lab 8.’

“The shape shifter.” I confirm.

‘Yeah. What are you thinking?’

I peek around the building and watch Zayden looking confused and Zander trying to comfort him. “I’m thinking I just found the reason why Miranda wants us to collect monsters.” I swallow and look to the wall. “The question is why?”

‘We still have no known location on her.’

“Keep looking. She’s probably in hiding now that her little experiment has been exposed. This is…”

A can or something falls in the back of the alley and I turn with a yelp. I pull out my gun and stand ready for anything as I stare into the dim light between the buildings.

‘Zen?’

“Stand by.” I mutter and hold my gun to the side at my thigh. I take light steps as I walk down the middle of the pavement. I listen and watch the shadows closely.

As I cross the end of one building and the connection to the next, a shadow at the very end of the alley moves. The black silhouette turns and looks to be on all fours. I cinch my brow and step closer as it jogs off around a corner.

My skin rises in goosebumps and I quickly put my gun back. I run to the end of the alley and stop at the corner the shadow ran into. I scan the darkness between those buildings and see nothing.

‘Zen?’

I press the answer button on my ear piece. “False alarm.” I stare at the alley for anything to ease me. This weird feeling of being watched is really starting to creep me out. “Find Miranda Williams and get me some damn answers.” I order as I spin around and walk back the way I came.