FicWad

Chapter One: Old Fights


Snarling echoed in the darkness, the cacophony of bodies being thrown to the ground, into walls, and against metal grating all resounded through the subterranean dwelling. Seneca rounded the corner, viewing the mayhem that had broken out since she had departed.

She had known this was going to happen, with Lucian gone, there was fighting over the Alpha position of the pack. Every testosterone laden male in the pack was shooting for the position. She snarled as she rounded the corner. The posturing and positioning had descended into a childish brawl. If one could consider fighting, with razor-sharp claws and flesh-rending fangs, childish.

"Stop it!" She bellowed. The sound echoed back and forth on the curved walls until it hurt even her ears. "This display is pitiful! Were he alive, Lucian would tear out your throats! I don't know why you all are fighting. None of your mongrels are suitable for Alpha. None of you are worthy of sharing my bed!"

She was satisfied to see some of the biggest males tucking their tails before they slipped their skins back to their more human appearances. Seneca stepped to the closest of them staring him down. His eyes slid to the gutter immediately. The big brown male she approached next tried to cow her, assert his dominance over her by glaring directly into her golden eyes. Beta male he may have been but that guaranteed no right of succession with her.

Seneca began growling, a tenor that grew more guttural as she assumed her true form. Her height towered over the other his human form. Her black hair gave way to the silver of her fur. It was a stark contrast against the midnight of her changed skin. She snarled, spittle drooling off of her long curled canines and dripping onto the Lycan's face. He didn't dare change to his more wolf-like form, not now.

Seneca wanted him to though, and hoped he read it in her body set.

Let him be stupid enough.

She only took one step and the man dropped his gaze and took several steps to the rear, but she wasn't letting him out of it. Assuming his ascension would he. She cleared the opening space in one leap, pinning the cretin to the slimy concrete. Her jaws were on his neck before he could even beg mercy, dark blood spilling and mixing with the murky water that ran down the center of the "hall."

Seneca stepped back, straightening and whirling at the same time. She heard the Lycan whimpering at her feet, and ignored him. Lesson meted out, hopefully lesson learned. She shifted back to human form, standing completely naked before them, unabashed in her fury. She glared at the dregs of Lucian's once proud pack.

"You all sicken me!"

With that she walked off.

Idiots, the lot of them.

She could remember when Lucian picked members of the pack for characteristics that had nothing to do with the amount of brute force they could wield against the vampires - when family unit was key, and balance paramount. She peered at the thinning crowd of Lycans as she headed for her quarters.

None of that existed now.

Werewolf packs never had so many males as this. Lucian's desperation to gain an edge had undermined his normal sensibilities. The pack was down to half a dozen women, hidden down here among the cul de sacs and mazes while the men took the war to the vampire covens.

Lucian wanted to protect them.

She wished that he had been a little more 21st century about it. The female Lycans were larger than the men in their true form, as capable and able in the fight as any of these dregs. But pure lines were prized, and Lucian's obsession had a lot to do with putting the fodder out for the vampires to tire on. That was why he had converted so many human men.

Seneca flopped down on the four poster bed Lucian had somehow managed to get down in the sewers without ruining it. She buried her head into one thick and soft pillow, hugging it tighter to her. She was comfortable to let her guard down here, allow her self to once again mourn.

"Lucian, I miss you," she whispered, breathing in the lingering scent of him. He had been the wily one, a sly nemesis against the covens. He had twisted and tweaked and adjusted the situation to his liking, all while staying out of sight for more than 600 years. He had been brilliant.

She opened her eyes again staring at the drab bricked ceiling.
She didn't want another Alpha male, not from the stock here. She knew she would have to pick someone, knowing that is she lingered too long her Betas would both challenge her for the right to lead. Yet, she saw weakness in each and every Lycan around her. More of them than not were converted. Most of the born lineage had died in that final assault on the tunnels by Viktor and his Death Dealers. Raze would have been a good choice. He hadn't been much on brains, but he was at least passionate and focused about his causes. He was just as dead as many of the warriors.

Then there were the rumors.

She focused sitting up again and taking enough time to draw a robe about her bare form. Survivors of the slaughter had claimed that there was a blue skinned warrior. One who had smelled Lycan, but fought and looked more like a vampire. The creature had taken on the vampire elder alone.

She hadn't seen the altercation, off on other errands at the time, and only found out about the rest of Lucian's scheme and its results upon her return. She scoffed; the warriors that reported it to her must have taken too much silver in the fight, because the details didn't make sense to her.

Seneca frowned. Lucian's plan had been a good one, a way to bring even a semblance of peace and balance between the two factions. He had contacted Kraven, convinced the power hungry vampire in some manner to help him stage his own death, and then worked at them with anonymity. They had kept their growing numbers a secret for a very long time. She knew about the plan to betray and kill the elders, prevent the awakening of Marcus, she had heard that it had been a partial success - Emilia had been killed. With the death of Viktor in the tunnels, the vampires were severely weakened.

Somehow that plan became mingled with the search for the Corvinus' heir, and in that tangle, her Alpha mate had been betrayed. Lucian had mentioned that he found the likely candidate and marked him. She had yet to see that creature come groveling to her for acceptance into the pack. She wondered if he ever found what he was looking for.

No one was witness to their Alpha's demise, so no details were available to her. Lucian had been shot through with a new weapon. She could see the ooze of silver nitrate in lines from his bullet wounds, the blackening of his veins that showed the poison's progress. She found him in the aftermath of that fight, and deduced the rest for herself.

More recently, it had filtered down through her contacts to the outside world, that Marcus had also lost his semblance of life. Seneca meant to take advantage of such a loss in the infrastructure of vampire society. The Alpha had gathered every dreg from the far flung "terror cells" and brought them here. Without the elders, she was sure that the remaining members of the coven were in disarray. She intended to cull a large number of them in the resulting chaos. The covens were owed so much for their cruelty to Lycans all these centuries.

That was if she could get her own mangy crew to behave like a team and not a bunch of horny drunkards.

Seneca sighed again, lowering herself once more to the softness of the mattress, knowing that she was going to get no such comfort in the coming days. She had to lead this pack of mongrels to war. She was going to honor Lucian's memory by continuing his quest.


Glory slipped through Seneca's door, already in a position of submissiveness.

"My lady," She whispered.

"Glory," Seneca sighed, rolling over onto her stomach, exposing her thighs and butt in the move, "Stop groveling, you are my second, nearly my equal."

"Yes, M'lady."

"What am I Queen Victoria?" She peered over at the Beta female.

In her dark loose clothing Glory nearly blended into the shadows surrounding them. Her auburn and black streaked hair was pulled into a bun, wispy ends sticking about here and there. With ice blue eyes she reflected her apologies.

"Sorry, Seneca."

"What do you have to report?"

"It is as you predicted. The coven is in a state of disarray, they have been caught off guard and don't seem to know just who to put in charge of the house."

"Good. Your team?"

"The Lycana are ready."

Secretly, Seneca had been forming her own arm of enforcement. With Lucian's longer and longer absences, and the idea that the covens knew exactly where this pack was at - and had been here numerous times - Seneca made sure that her women were going to be able to carry their own.

She-wolves are equals in the wild packs, and such was the case when she had first come to be Lucian's Alpha. But the mores of human society has slowly seeped into the pack's society, tainting that once equitable arrangement. It didn't help that the slaughter upon Lucian's first "death" had taken most of the females from their gene pool.

That was one facet of the decision that she hadn't liked, the price for him to glide under the radar had been too high. The vampires descended on them like locust before they could get free of their refuge.

After that loss, Lucian and the other males had decided that it was best for the bloodline if the women fell to the back of the pack, protected in the event the worst should happen. She had never liked it, always the warrior, the hunter, and able to take care of herself even when she was the lone wolf in her section of the woods.

"Now. Let me see if we can get the men to play nice with the vampires."

Seneca slipped from the bed, regretting that she would not get even a nap on it before mobilizing the pack, and headed for her wardrobe.

She needed something with a lot of give to it.