(MxM) Tales of a Shifter (P4)- The Blood

Chapter 38 - Dark Game

Chapter 38

When both Jacob and Lander were gone....the silence was instantly filled.

Walter spoke first. He stood with his massive arms crossed before him and the tips of his fangs dancing behind his lips as he shook his head. "That Shifter is...dangerous." Walter quietly began. The sound of his deep voice after nearly days without hearing him speak was a shock and a pleasant inclusion.

Especially since if Walter wasn't speaking....it was impossible to know where he stood on the situation with Brandon.

"I cant see anything inside of him but greed." Walter said to Mantilo and Ezekiel and Nate. A rare and subtle expression of displeasure turned his handsome bearded features into a frown.

"I must admit. Brandon's father sure picked a fitting sociopath to hunt down his traumatized son." Walter sighed. "It's a wonder Brandon ever managed to escape their clutches. I wonder at the damage such a life has had on him."

With a pang of sadness Ezekiel didn't respond. It hurt him to think on Brandon's suffering.

Mantilo sighed as he walked around the table towards the door. "Men and Shifter alike kill for power. Power has always corrupted and it is too bad that Brandon's power is what they are after now. Brandon was brave enough to run, but there are still so many questions about him and the Alchemists role in all of this. Far too many questions. And it seems Brandon's enemies are holding all the cards right now." he said softly.

Stopping in the hall to look back at his son's. Mantilo suddenly began giving orders.

"Nate, I want you with me." He said with a nod toward his white eyed son. "Were taking a stroll around to the villages. I want to put everyone on alert." Mantilo told his Guardians. "Frankly there have been far too many incidents of unwanted visitors just walking onto our home. We can't afford to be so ill prepared again. I think I will place everything on lockdown and limit all travel between the Villages for the next few days."

"Why? What's wrong?" Ezekiel asked him. He could see the wheels in his father's mind spinning. The growl of a leopard just barley underlying his fathers every words. Something was bothering him, Ezekiel could sense it in the way that Mantilo's heart beat and in his shifting stance.

"I fear....That all of this is going to get very ugly, very soon." Mantilo hissed putting a hand to his chin. He slowly elaborated. "Jacobs dangerous and who knows what Hovel will do when he arrives here tomorrow to retrieve Brandon himself. He has always been a mad man. A powerful madman."

At his words everyone of Mantilo's son perked up and sent him surprised look. Nate was the one to ask the question that Ezekiel and Walter were suddenly thinking.

"Dad...?" Nate asked "You know Hovel? Have you ever met him before?"

"Clan heads from different Clans rarely if ever convene with each other...so no I haven't personally met him. But I do know of Hovel...and what I've seen and heard of the Alchemists hasn't been good at all." Mantilo informed them, before he smoothed a hand across his cheek in quiet exhaustion and slowly explained.

"You must understand. Hovel was once a powerful and elusive figure in the world of man and Shifter alike." Their father elaborated with calm black eyes focused somewhere in the past.

"Many years after the Dragons receded from the world...and left us with the Elders and the Sacred Laws to guide the Mortals and Shifters, Hovel seemed like a quiet shadow. He settled over Shifter and mortal Territory's like a spider in the darkness. Quite, but ultimately ignored and forgotten. The power of the Alchmists has always been felt, they are constantly pushing a dark agenda that has kept tension between man and shifters in flux." Mantilo sighed.