The air errupted into terrifying screams and chaotic howls. You and Lucci clung to each other, ripping at fur and flesh ruthlessly. You'd never been in so much pain in your life but you'd never felt so driven to fight either.

It was clear with every attack from Lucci that he wasn't going to hold back, he was aiming to kill if the opportunity presented itself. You could feel wounds trying to stitch themselves back together but he was hitting too fast for your body to keep up. And while you were lashing out just as furiously, it was quickly becoming obvious that you lacked the experience he had.

Blood soon clouded your vision and coated your body at an alarming rate. You could barely see the wolves closing in further, the coppery scent of your blood exciting them to the point of losing their senses. No matter how much a supernatural tried to appear human, their beastly side always came up one way or another. The idea of something dying overpowered their humanity and drove them to only want to see a fresh kill, friendly or not.

As Lucci pinned you to the ground, they moved in even closer, howling and nipping at your haunches if you didn't squirm enough for their taste. You saw your chance for a break when Lucci dove in for your neck again and you raked your claws down from his chest to his belly. Your hind legs worked fast to shred him while your front ones began to shove him off of you. He screamed again, this time in a furious pain as he willingly threw himself off of you.

Now the wolves focus on him, yipping and inching closer in hopes of finding big enough of an opening to lunge at him all at once. You were unsure of who to be more scared of at this point; the pack turned feral or the leopard that had purposefully singled you out. But this gave you enough time to recover slightly.

While Lucci roared at the wolves to keep them at bay, your more shallow wounds closed enough to stop bleeding and the larger ones slowed. You shook yourself and took his moment of distraction to charge forward and turn the tables, or so you thought.

In a flash, he'd hit you hard enough with a single paw to send you tumbling across the ground and seperate the circle of wolves. Your head was spinning and you stumbled and slipped a few times as you tried to get back on your feet once again. Your saving grace came as a series of ferocious snarls and the alpha wolf himself came barreling through the trees. He was as much of a bloody mess as you were but he came to your rescue, snapping up Lucci by the nape of his neck and thrashing him about. That was about all that mattered right now.

With Bartolomeo now present, his pack seemed to come to its senses and the wolves lowered themselves to their bellies and made room for the growing fight. You stood frozen in place for a few seconds, both to give yourself time to regain your senses and watch in awe as the wolf battered the leopard. It was frightening watching him slam him into trees and against the hard packed ground again and again until blood began to fly.

But to your horror, Bartolomeo's moment of control was just that, a moment.

When he smashed Lucci into the ground yet again, the leopard twisted his body around and dug his claws into the wolf's temples, dragging them down over the center of his face. The wounds were deep and immediately began bleeding heavily, enough so to make Bartolomeo release him in shock.

They seperated for a second, just a breath before Lucci moved back in on you. The unbridled fury in his eyes kept you frozen in place. It somehow felt personal, like he blamed you for something out of your control.

You managed to come back to reality and move past his surge of anger to meet him halfway. Your bodies slammed together and once again you were tangled together with teeth and claws. No amount of supernatural healing could keep your body from aching or the blood loss from making you woozy, but you did your best to hold on. Bartolomeo was still here and he wouldn't be downed by one hit to the face. It was brutal but not fatal.

Just like you'd hoped, a third body entered the fray, one with thicker, green tinged fur. Now it was two on one, in your favor. While Lucci stuck to you like glue, Bartolomeo had the opportunity to rip into him mercilessly. If you weren't so focused on keeping the leopard from your neck, you would've noticed a couple entire strips of fur covered skin being torn from Lucci's body.

And just as soon as your canine help arrived, he disappeared, though that wasn't quite right.

A somehow even larger, grey wolf had practically plucked him away and tossed him to the side, falling on him in a way you didn't think was possible. Bartolomeo's snarls morphed into helpless yelps of pain and short howls and you knew he had to be completely outmatched. The rest of the wolves suddenly closed in once again, this time focusing on their alpha and his contester.

You didn't get to see anything else. Your sight was ovetaken by spotted fur and flashed fangs and you were once again locked in a fight with what had to be the last shifter you'd ever want to piss off. While you were technically fighting back and doing damage, it wasn't comparable to what he was doing to you.

But you still thought you were doing well, until he'd finally managed to sink his teeth into your neck. You roared louder than ever, more out of fear and pain than anything else.

He forced you to the ground as he held you in place with enough force to make you stop moving without pushing his fangs in enough to kill. You felt like the one thing keeping you from letting your animal instincts take over completely and make you thrash was that you understood he wasn't going to actually kill you. Not yet at least.

It didn't make it any less terrifying when he began to worry at the wound, his jaw working in an almost chewing motion while a rough, gurgley purr eminated from his throat. He was enjoying this.

But if he was hoping to only wound and scare you, you could tolerate this. Your head hit the ground as the dizziness became almost unbearable, you'd lost too much blood to fight back anyway. When your eyes lazily traveled across the scene in front of you, you could make out the different colored hides of the many wolves and past that, Bartolomeo, who was in a similar position to you. He was still putting up a fight though and you weren't sure if that was commendable or not.

And then to your right, almost out of sight, was the buck you'd taken down mere minutes ago. It's glassy, unhindered stare met yours, permanently caught with a look of fear in them. You'd made its death fast but it didn't mean dying was any less scary, especially when it was so unexpected. And here you thought supernaturals weren't supposed to be killed on sight or beaten within an inch of their life like monsters.

You were too out of it to feel a sudden rush of air and the release of weight from on top of your body, mindlessly staring your kill down like it just might blink instead. 

"(Y/n)? Holy shit that's a lot of blood...." Delicate hands hesitantly pressed against you. "(Y/n), can you move?"

"She just needs a push and then we can get her out of here." Someone else on the other side of you began lifting you off of the ground and as they said, you started to find your feet.

The scene had changed again, this time for the better. Nami was to your right while Zoro was the one who was in the middle of helping you to your feet on your left. You were leaning heavily on him but he didn't seem to mind.

Lucci had been overtaken by Shanks who'd gone half demon. His one arm had changed to pitch black and his fingers had lengthened out to claws. He bared sharp, pointed teeth at the cat as he went in for one brutal attack after another. The grey wolf, who at this point you assumed was with Lucci, was pinned by multiple arms that sprouted from the ground, courtesy of Robin. Luffy was taking advantage of the situation and pummeling it relentlessly. The rest of your friends gathered around you at a short distance. It was understandable, they were human and therefore, unable to really do much. It was honestly surprising to see Luffy go toe to toe with something supernatural.

"C'mon (Y/n), we need to clear out. Benn's waiting for you with a ride, says we're taking you back to a friend's place."

You groaned as you stood on shaky legs and continued to stare out into the fight, ignoring Zoro. Bartolomeo was working on regaining control of his pack, growling at most to send them away while occasionally snapping at the more stubborn ones. Everyone was doing something while you were stuck trying to nurse wounds. And it was made all the worse by Zoro suggesting you leaving. This mess was all for you, you weren't about to walk out on this now.

Not to mention, your cat was suddenly furious. Lucci had gotten the jump on you and without giving you much time to understand what was going on, practically tore you apart. Your pride was as wounded as your body and your cat wasn't about to leave it like that. And this time, you agreed with it.

A low growl worked it's way out of your throat and you stepped forward, towards the fight.

"Don't do it, you're in no shape for it." Zoro warned.

But you didn't hear him. You forced your body to continue forward and lunged at Lucci. Shanks was much stronger than you, he'd dealt with the supernatural world long enough to be, and that meant it took all of the leopard's focus to deal with him.

You landed on Lucci's back and tumbled over him, having overshot the attack but not without digging your claws into the middle of his back and dragging them down to his hip. He lost his balance and toppled over, quickly snapping around to go for you once again. Shanks grabbed him by the nape of his neck when he was a mere inches from your face and tossed him towards the grey wolf. Their bodies collided in a heavy thump and the wolf yelped.

As soon as they were recovered, they'd been surrounded. Shanks and Robin stood at either side of them with Luffy a few steps back and behind you. You had a feeling he would have run in if your bloodied body wasn't in the way. It was enough to make him hesitate.

Lucci raised his lips, showing off fangs in a silent warning but made no move to attack anyone further, or even escape for that matter. Instead he sighed, his body twisting and morphing unnaturally, accompanied by wet, popping and snapping sounds that made your fur stand on end. You were getting to see a shifter change back into a human for the first time.

It was as fast as the shift to the beast form and when it was done, Lucci was kneeling in the dirt, patches of discard fur around him. He was panting heavily as he took a moment to eye each individual person with a condescending sneer on his face.

"I didn't expect a party when I came to finish my job."

"I have half a mind to kill you." Shanks snarled, taking a threatening step forward. He was still half changed and easily now the most menacing person here.

"For what, doing my job? You and your little girlfriend are breaking quite the list of laws, though I'll admit most of them are your doing."

"What does he mean by that?" Sanji creeped forward to stand by you, close enough that you could lean your exhausted body against him.

"It means they're illegal supernaturals." Lucci's confident look gave way to an angry, almost bothered one, like the question was below him. "Neither of them are registered which means any supernatural activities done are illegal."

Your friends looked at you and back at him, unphased by the new information.

"So? They aren't hurting anyone. Everything was fine until you guys came along. You almost killed (Y/n)!" Nami snapped.

"Nonsense." He scoffed. "She's fine, I just made sure she knew who the top cat of the city is."

You growled at his obvious attempt at starting another fight. Honestly, you felt like you could go for round two, in pain or not. Nothing was bleeding anymore at least.

"So here's how this is going to go." Shanks crouched in front of him and stared coldly. "I don't want you or your friends messing with us again, you've take this too far. Come around again and the results won't be so pleasant."

"So now I'm supposed to be scared of an incubus and a new blood jaguar?" He threw his head back and laughed. "That's hardly a threat."

"I'm a demon before I'm an incubus." Shanks kept his composure though you noticed his fingers twitch. "And you better add city vampire to that list."

Lucci's eyes widened, but only briefly. "I thought you were only friendly with Mihawk."

"Exactly, we're friends. When we need help, he helps, even if he is one to complain the whole way." Shanks added the last bit under his breath. "And I can promise you, he already knows about tonight's events."

You knew nothing about the title of city vampire but it was important enough that Lucci shrank in on himself slightly. The wolf behind him cringed and whimpered, only to be cut short by an elbow to its gut from it's shifter partner.

"Then let's strike a deal."

"Let's just beat them up!" Luffy interjected. He looked pissed and wasn't wanting to end this without more violence. But his intentions were good, he was always hell-bent on defending his friends.

"No, a deal may be a better option." Shanks nodded. "We'll keep it simple; leave us alone. Don't come trying to stick any charges on us or make us register again. Ever."

"That's not a deal." Lucci went to stand and it seemed like everyone was suddenly reminded that he was naked.

Half of the human group quickly turned on their heels to look away while the rest were simply too taken aback to say or do anything.

"Sure it is." Shanks purred. "You follow through on your end and we'll follow through on ours. We won't work our magic to make your whole team disappear. Am I clear?" The only other time he'd been so assertive was when he stopped the werejaguar from killing you. It was almost scary.

The air was stiff as the men stared at each other, testing the waters to see who would give in first. In the end, it was Lucci who backed down. He relaxed and straightened out, unbothered by his own nudity in front of such a crowd. You envied his bravery.

"We're leaving Jabra, it seems our investigation brought up nothing of note."

The wolf huffed in complaint but obeyed when he was motioned to follow. Bartolomeo's pack parted for them, watching with keen eyes until they had completely disappeared into the woods.

"That ended well." Bartolomeo himself stood nearby, freshly changed back into his human form and covered almost head to toe in blood. Unlike you, it was probably only half his.

"We didn't get to beat them up!" Luffy was aggravated beyond belief but all things considered, you were glad he didn't try to pick up where he left off with beating Jabra senseless.

"It's for the better." Shanks shrugged and in a matter of seconds, his demonic features melted away. "The threat will be enough to keep their nose out of our business from now on."

"Why didn't you threaten them from the start then?" Usopp had walked up in front of you, standing a couple feet away to inspect you carefully.

"It wasn't necessary, it hadn't resulted in blood being spilt before. But I believe we have more important things to worry about now, like getting back to the cars."

All eyes fell on you as you swayed from side to side. You didn't dare move, knowing you'd fall over for sure. Adrenaline had kept you going but now that the fight was finished, it was too. All that lingered was a slowly dulling pain and a heavy exhaustion, accompanied by the dizziness of blood loss.

All your prior anger and fear were gone and you were left with nothing more than the hope that your next shifts would never be as complicated as this one.