"Devin? Ha-ha! It's great to hear from you my lad." The voice said overjoyed. "Oh, and stop with that Alpha talk, you're my Second. Call me by name." He said on a hearty laugh.

"Yes Alpha... uh sir." Devin stuttered. The voice laughed on the other side of the phone.

"Hakan, there has been a development with Wogan..." Devin said sternly. He paused, knowing he had just ruined Hakan's good mood.

"You have dealt with him, yes?" Hakan said. His voice as serious as a heart attack. All the laughter before was now a distant memory.

"No, I came close... But then a bystander got in the way."

"Bystander? Is that supposed to mean something to me? I sent you to hunt down Wogan; he must be stopped." Hakan snapped.

"He wasn't normal; he was more powerful than me. I believe he's trying to make his own pack. He wants to take control of everything now, rule over the humans and start a war with the vampires and witches."

"Dammit!" Hakan growled. "For him to be stronger than you he must be at alpha level, but how?" Hakan was quiet for a moment as the sound of papers being shuffled filled Devin's ear.

"Hakan sir?"

"Was there a mark? A sort of symbol on him at all?" Hakan gasped.

Devin scratched his chin in deep thought, trying to focus his mind on the events of that night he fought Wogan. "There was a strange tattoo on his neck... I don't remember him having it before."

"A tattoo? Did it look like an upside down tree in a circle?"

"I don't recall seeing-" Devin began, but was cut off as Hakan let out a frustrated sigh.

"I need you here now Devin, dump the bystanders corpse in a river. Because if this tattoo is the mark I think it is, Wogan is messing around with dark twisted blood magic."Hakan said in a tone so serious that Devin had to loosen the collar on his shirt.

"The thing is the bystander survived the venom." Devin said nervously. If the boy was turned by a blood cursed wolf, how would it affect him?

"Wait, you don't mean..."

Devin could almost hear the sound of Hakan scratching his thick curly blonde beard in deep thought.

"It means I have his first made, Wogan's first made. If we could teach him our ways, so he doesn't become like Wogan, we might have a chance."

"Yes... yes, I like that. Ha-ha! Devin you have done it again, sometimes I wonder why I'm not your second! Ha-ha."

Devin chuckled, "You flatter me all too much, my Alpha. I am conducting the boy's death now, when I dig him up we shall make our way to Sanctuary."

"Yes," Hakan said, "Bring the boy to me. I need to examine him, if he is to be our savior. But if he bares the cursed mark, we'll send him to Roxelt's Academy to find out if we can use it to our advantage. We shall see if the banana falls from the tree."

"Um, you said that wrong. Its, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..." Devin corrected.

"Huh? Well, whatever. Just bring your furry behinds home!" Hakan screamed in the phone, making Devin hold the phone away from his ear.

"Yes, sir. I'll let you know when we are on our way" Devin clicked the phone off.

Taking a deep breath he got ready to follow the ambulance that had taken Mason's body. Devin had figured that his funeral would be held within a week or two, hopefully.

*****

A week and a half later. Devin stood in the far off shadows as he watched what he assumed to be Mason's family mourns over his grave. He felt a vague feeling of guilt flow through him, like the breeze that shifted the dead leaves at his feet. He shook the feeling off, it wasn't his fault Wogan had turned the boy. At least that's what Devin tried to convince himself as he watched Mason's mother drop to her knees sobbing. He too knew how it felt to lose a son, but that's a tale for another time.

The funeral was uncomfortably long for Devin's taste, what happened to the good old days when the preacher would say some holy words; you'll throw down some flowers on the grave and leave? Nowadays it seemed everyone had a tale to tell about the recently departed.

Even though he was far away sitting in his car; Devin could still clearly hear what they were saying. He was even able to identify Mason's Mother, she had a very sharp face. Her hair was even longer than Mason's, it was neatly woven in complicated looking braids down her back. Though her face was currently scrunched into body rocking sobs, Devin could clearly see that she was a very beautiful woman.

A small boy stood next to her, which must've been Mason's younger brother. The boy was a spitting image of Mason; he even had the same thick arched eyebrows and strong nose. Though his hair was haphazardly cut short. With his face strained the boy tossed a bundle of hair in the open coffin, tears cascading down his face. In some Native teachings many tribes cut their hair during the mourning process, which symbolizes the deep wound to ones sensibilities caused by the piercing hurt of a loved ones passing.

The rest just seemed to be friends of the family. Devin popped the trunk of his car and got out; he would need his tools to rescue Mason. 

Back when werewolves were servants to higher ranked beings, a number of experiments were run on them. One of these experiments was to see how many ways to kill a werewolf besides silver. A group of witches held a werewolf in a area without enough oxygen to fill it's lungs, to see the effects. the subject completely shut down and fell into a self induced coma. More test were run to see how long the subject would last still in a coma with no oxygen, the subject lasted for about a year. The witches were amazed when they found out that for that year without oxygen, the werewolf became like a vampire and didn't require air to survive but instead drew upon its own magical essence.

Devin shivered inwardly as he thought of the times when his kind were treated as lesser beings, witches and vampires would treat them as the scum underneath their feet. But that was centuries ago, he wouldn't let himself be fueled by a long aged grudge like Wogan.

Many hours and piles of dirt later, Devin's shovel finally smacked against the hard wood of Mason's coffin. Standing above it he could hear Mason's muffled screams from inside.

"Oh shush," Devin said as he wiped dirt from his brow. "I'll get you out in a jiffy; people still say that right, jiffy?"

He was answered by Mason's angry poundings against the coffin lid.

"Well, excuse me! Rude much?" Devin reached down and ripped the lid of the coffin.

Mason rose out of his coffin like a vampire. Coughing and spitting out dirt, sputtering curses as he did so. "You son of a b..."

"Tsk, to a werewolf that can be very offensive. Watch your tongue pup." Devin said as he swayed his finger in front of Mason's face. "Besides is that anyway to thank someone for saving you from suffocation?"

"How's this?" Mason raised his middle finger.                                                              

Slowly Mason managed to climb himself out of the grave with no help from Devin, who was already beginning to refill the hole. Mason was about to snap at him for not giving him a hand out of the hole, until he glanced at the tombstone, his tombstone.

Mason Spears, great son and brother. Gone too soon, but never forgotten.

The sight of it gave him chills, the kind of chills that made his fingertips tingle. To his family he was dead; there will be no going back. Tears began to swell in his eyes, flowing down his cheeks like small waterfalls.

"Is this really happening? Am I dreaming? Please tell me I'm dreaming." Mason said as he stared down at the stone.

"Denial. Hmm, yes. Yes this is real. You are dead, no; Mason Spears the human is dead now. Now you can be someone else, what shall I call you now?"

Mason looked over at Devin. Could he really just change his name and be someone else? Let the old him rot in the empty grave underneath him?

"No. Just call me Mason. It's the name my mother gave me... And I'll wear it proudly." He wiped the tears from his face.

A sad smile curled onto Devin's face. "Good, I like that name. Can I call you Macy?"

"No."

The only person in the world that could call him that was his younger brother, Jamie. Mason wiped away the tears and held down the sadness, knowing he'll never hear his little brother's voice again. His hand absently went to his neck. Feeling a small chain, he held it up to the light. It was his mother's necklace; she must've slipped it on him. His heart almost busted when he stared at the pendant, a turtle, green topaz shaped as a shell for the body. He let it fall, feeling its coolness on his chest.

"Hm. Fine. Let's get out of here. Come, we have a long drive ahead of us. Uh, is that necklace silver?" Devin said startled as he took a double take at the necklace around Mason's neck.

"Yes, my mom gave it to me and I'm taking it with." Mason said defensively as he tucked it underneath his shirt. There was no way he going to let anyone take away this small piece of his former life.

If that chain really is silver, it should be burning him like crazy. Devin thought to himself.

Devin quickly picked up his shovel and tools and began walking towards his car. Caught off guard, Mason had to jog to keep up.

"Hey, wait up! Where are we going?"

"Maine. To a wildlife sanctuary." Devin said as he opened the trunk.

"Maine, like the state!? Wouldn't taking a plane be faster?"

Devin threw the tools into the trunk of the car, and then popped the lock so they could get in.

"Ha-ha! Yeah, right. Bring a prepubescent werewolf onto a flying tin can, caged in with a group of innocent bystanders? Not gonna happen."

"...I'm not a prepubescent," Mason mumbled under his breath. "I'm 17 years old."

"Really? Then act like it." Devin said as he began to start the car.

Mason crossed his arms and pouted as he stared out the window. His eyes widened as he spotted a fading figure standing above his grave, the figure turned slightly as if sensing Mason's eyes on it.

As the car began to rumble to life and then started moving, the far off specter started to gain more detail. Slowly Mason found himself staring into the eyes of a kind elderly woman.

"What are you whimpering over there about?" Devin said. Mason didn't even know he was making sound.

Instead of saying anything he just pressed his finger against the window, pointing straight at the phantom.

"Oh yeah, sorry forgot to tell you. Now that you are a werewolf, your supernatural senses have been heightened. Remember what I said earlier? Your world is going to become a whole lot bigger. Do you know that women?"

"It's my grandmother..." Mason shrunk in on himself.

Had he angered his grandmother's spirit? Why was she here? The ghostly figure turned to him and gave him a kind yet saddened smile, the kind of smile that told him that she knew something he didn't. Then she was gone, blown away be the gentle night's breeze.

*****

When Devin had said that they were in for a long ride to get to the wildlife sanctuary, he wasn't joking. Mason wasn't actually sure but driving from Minnesota all the way to Maine had to be over a thousand miles taking over two whole days, at least if you were to drive without sleeping.

"Are you okay?" Devin prodded.

Mason blew his nose into a tissue, and then wiped his eyes. The tears just wouldn't stop no matter how much he tried to hold them back. "Am I okay? Oh yea, just got buried alive and visited by my dead grandmother! Oh I am freaking fantastic"

"Right," Devin said, then dug into his pocket and fished out a lengthy tangle of hair "Almost forgot, I think you brother wanted you to have this." He handed the bundle to Mason.

Mason just held the bundle of silky black hair, mouth hanging in disbelief.  "I'm coming back, Jamie. Once I'm done, I'll return this to you." He whispered into the bundle.

They drove in silence after that, with only the soft snivels to fill the background.

Devin understood what the boy was going through, he had experienced it himself but that was nearly a century ago. Times have changed, the rules have changed and the fact that Wogan just blatantly disregarded the laws, forcing the curse of lycanthropy upon a child filled Devin with anger. His grip on the steering wheel felt so powerful it could press coal into diamonds.

"You are growling" Mason said, finally speaking up in what felt like hours.

"Huh?" Devin wiped his head around. As if he could simply shake away the pure hatred he was now feeling towards Wogan.

"You were growling. Are you okay?" Mason asked. Placing the bundle of hair in tissue, then carefully tucked it in his pocket. The tears had stopped, though they left his eyes raw. He'd made a silent promise to one day return to his family, no matter the cost.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm freaking fantastic" he said with a kind smile.

Mason chuckled dryly when he noticed the joke.

"We can pull into a gas station to grab some snacks soon, if these air heads ever start moving!" Devin said leaning his head out the window to yell at the other drivers, who seemed to just honk in reply.

Mason wiped his eyes again; they were red and itchy with irritation. He muttered a silent prayer to himself.

"What was that pup?" Devin asked.

"No more tears, I've used them all up. I won't shed another tear." His mother had always told him that a man doesn't cry, he pushes forward and deals with his problems head on. So that's what he'll do, he will use that sadness and pain and turn it into fuel to push him forward.

Devin hesitantly raised his hand and placed it on Mason's shoulder, his paternal instincts kicking in. Mason flinched away slightly but then let the hand rest on his shoulder.

》》》》 Thanks everyone for reading my story! If you have any questions or if i made any spelling/grammar errors let me know! Also don't forget to ☆ ;) 《《《《