Tonight was officially screwed.

Osei and Nicholae shared a common enemy and as it appeared, Nicholae must have done something to piss off this shared threat.

The menacing snarls from the wolves on his flank alerted Nicholae on their incoming guests before he spotted them charging at them like rabid wolves.

Nicholae didn't have to be told, but their main agenda was to protect the Semi and Osei.

Exactly like before, their attackers were an unusual group of species that'll never work together. Werewolves, vampires and, ghouls.
Werewolves couldn't stand vampires and vampires hated their guts. The ghouls? They'd rather much kept to themselves since werewolves hated them for their nasty feeding habits.
They were in a small way similar to vampires because they drank blood. That's where the similarities ended.
Ghouls feasted on the flesh of the dead. Although they didn't care where their blood came from, their favorite was stale blood from the dead over blood from the loving. This was why vampires saw them as a lower class than them.

'There are twelve of them.' His ears caught Cayden's warning before he shifted.
'Take three.'

'They must have had a Kumbaya!'
Nicholae followed the wolves lead when they charged toward their assailants.

'Are you sure you counted right?' Nicholae asked Cayden.
He swerved a deadly blow and returned one of his own holding the still beating heart of a ghoul.
'There're more coming. We need to get back to Osei.'

With each step, they fought against the tide of pursuers. By the time they reached Semi and Osei they were all bloody.
As Nicholae had predicted, Semi and her mate were fending off attacks of their own.

Osei changed back and forth from both forms. His actions and reactions were labored and his attackers could see that too.
So they baited him and toyed with him.

The white one, Malaki, threw himself on the Were who pounced on Osei's back.
The rest of them were right behind him.

In spite of the chaos around him, Nicholae took a moment to reflect on the state of everyone around him.
They were bleeding. Cayden, Loki and Malaki.
How the hell.
They were supposed to be invincible!
It was why they made such promising allies! Osei snarled in pain and hugged his wounded side.
A light came on in Nicholae's head. It had to be whatever was going on with Osei.

'Semi look out.' Nicholae yelled.
She had been fighting distracted. The ghoul landed a blow to her temple sending her to the ground. Nicholae covered her body with his taking the brunt of the attack from two vampires and a damn ghoul.

He kicked the legs from right under the ghoul.
He ripped the Ghoul's heart out, stabbed the dumb blondie with his own stake and bit into the neck of the other vampire.

He held on for a second too long. His new obsession hooked him on the vamps neck and it took every once of his control to tear away.

'We need to get out of here and make it to wolf territory.'
Osei was in too much pain and therefore of no use to them and Semi was rendered unconscious. They had one too many distractions.

Nicholae carried Semi easily while Loki and Malaki struggled with the unstable Alpha.

That left Cayden doing most of the fending off.

They were close, but it felt like time was at a stand still with the seconds trickling by.

Then He spotted the one that got away.
The short mouthy one stepped out from behind of them with a fiendish smile on his ugly face shadowed by the forest leaves.
Nicholae grimaced at the gun trained on them.
Without thinking about the repercussions, Nicholae twisted his body and took the shots.

Pain sang through his nerves at the entry of wooden bullets made from scarlet wood. Nicholae thanked God the bastard has been a terrible shot.
Thankfully, they wouldn't kill him but they hurt like a bitch.

'I hope to damnation that you can hear me.' His eyes locked on the already retreating coward.
'You better be dead before I find you.'

Both their heads turned to Cayden howled at the moon.

It was a beautiful sight to behold when wolves of various colors bounded through the woods and desecrated the remainder of their assailants.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nicholae winced. 
Then he groaned.
He groaned, winced, and cursed Cayden.
'Well damn Cayden, just kill me.'
Cayden dropped the last scarlet bullet in the bloody tray beside Nicholae.

'Don't tempt me.' He responded.

'What is your problem Cayden? I'm not the bad guy here.'
Cayden wiped his bloody fingers. He flung the cloth to the ground with ferocity.

Cayden scoffed, 'Those rogues were after you. It seems to me Tchkovsky, that an alliance with you will be problematic and we have our own problems to deal with as it is.'

Nicholae shook his head at Cayden's words. Not because they weren't far from the truth.

'You're delusional if you think that.'
And Nicholae hoped that Cayden was not a voice of reason Osei held in high regard because then that would be a problem.

'Your family has been allies with us for hundreds of years. To keep the fragile peace. They also thought it would be more trouble than it was worth, at first. But you know how the story already ends. That's the same thing happening here. I'm trying to extend the olive branch to Osei, another member of the Lynch clan.'

'You have an ulterior motive and you know that.' Cayden sneered at him.

He's irritating. Shoot him.
Nicholae stifled his grin. Shooting Cayden with a silver bullet wouldn't solve his problem, but he found the thought amusing.

'I never hid my intentions. Alliances are formed in the pursuit of strength and support.'

'And power.' Cayden added.
Rip his throat out.
'You don't have to preach to me about your righteous cause. I call bullshit. I think you're doing this all for your own gain.'
Nicholae stood up and wore his soiled shirt.
'You've been pushed around for so long maybe you decided to play the black sheep.'

Nicholae gave Cayden a sly grin.
'I find it hard to believe someone as intelligent as you appear could be so... stupid.'
Nicholae didn't take a hint from the menacing growl.
Cayden had said his piece, and now it was his turn.

'I understand you suffered a few blows, maybe some to the head. But please, don't be an imbecile. Not all of us think as you do.'

Cayden moved and stood in Nicholae's path before he could walk away.
'You seem to forget who you're talking to.'
He said.

'And you seem to forget, that I am Tchkovsky. We made you.'
He tsked and wagged a finger in Cayden's face.
'Your arrogant bunch likes to forget a lot of things important things since you discovered clothes... and how the brain works.'

Cayden grabbed the front of his shirt, bringing his face close to Nicholae's so he could clearly see the change of color in his eyes.
He was not a happy wolf.

'I will not forget these insults.' He said.

'As I will not forget how you thanked me for saving your in-law.'
He roughly shoved Nicholae away. Nicholae grimaced at the pain, scarlet wounds took time to heal.

'You did nothing.' Cayden retorted.

'True. I find that it's a hobby of mine to take a bullet aimed at other people. It makes my insides all gooey. Really. Thank you for your wise observation O wise one.'

Cayden took hold of him again, and before he could start something, Osei walked in.
'Cayden.'

'Sorry.' Cayden apologized and let him go.
'The bastard had it coming.'

Nicholae rolled his eyes. All this time he'd thought Cayden to be the level headed Lynch member. Like all hypothesis without basis, he was easily proven wrong.

'Nicholae is right. He did save Semi. Malaki vouches for him.' He told Cayden and even he wasn't happy saying it. Osei gave Nicholae a look. Like 'you should know better.'

The famous Lynch pride showed when Cayden met Nicholae's eyes with unyielding ones.

'The roads are not safe, especially in your condition.'
Yeah, Nicholae saw that Osei looked much better. It was as if the ordeal had never happened. Nicholae was the only one carried the evidence of tonight's expedition. He was sure if he strolled out of the tent he'd find Malaki and Loki picture ready.

'Stay here till you heal.'
Nicholae thanked Osei. He was a wise man after all.
'Cayden will stay here with you.'
It wasn't too late to retract the thought, was it.
Cayden smiled and left the tent.
Nicholae was sure it was to sharpen his claws and teeth.

Nicholae waited for Osei to talk about his behavior towards Cayden. His look was all he needed.
He was absolutely right, Nicholae knew better than to egg a wolf on during a full moon. Even if dawn was breaking, the moon's effects would linger until the sun took its place in the sky.

He could kick himself for openly baiting Cayden. It was obvious that they were close.
Nicholae could only wish he hadn't messed up the already shaky alliance.
Yet knowing this, he would attempt to shatter it when he woke up.

''And you thought it was okay to keep this from us until now?' Osei's voice was low yet there undeniable rage still lurked beneath the surface.

'Per your reaction to only Semi being allowed in the Manor.'
Nicholae quickly came to his defense. He avoided Cayden gloating expression.

'I don't care if I'm allowed in your bat cave or not.' He glanced sideways at his mate and then added.
'No offense. I don't want her going in there alone.'

'She won't be alone. Fauna and the others will be by her side. You must understand why I kept this from you all until now. Then, there was a lack of trust.'

'Who says we trusts you now?'
Osei held in a grin but the two wolves failed. Poorly. Their snickers reminded Nicholae of Muttley in the origins Wacky Races.
How did Nicholae hammer that trust was an important factor without sounding needy?

'Cayden.' Semi looked at him.
She looked better thanks to her pack and her magic. Nicholae made a mental note, again, never to underestimate this pack.
'What I want to know is why can't this pact remain between us?' Osei tried.

'We, are going to the banquet.' Semi said. 'We are going to face your family and support him. He's helped us and so we'll help him.'
Nicholae shot her a grateful look.

' For this meeting to be successful, you will all need to be on your best behaviors. Knowing the Tchkovskys and the Lynch as well as I do, they'll try their best to undermine you. And you can't break.'

'So who, besides us, can we trust at the table?' Semi frowned.
'Sonya. She's the head of the clan.'

'Wow, the crone is still alive?' Cayden genuinely sounded surprised.

'She'll be hurt Cayden. You should stop by and say hi sometime.'
All eyes were on Cayden.
'She got me out of some tough ones. I'll explain later.'

So Nicholae continued, 'Everyone listens to her. And she will listen to us, after I talk to her. We'll tell her about the attacks.'

'A lot of people don't like my being here.'Osei countered.
'So who hates you so much to send demons?'
Nicholae made his point. Demons were not of the Valley, they belonged in hell and yet someone powerful had released them.

'Don't forget about yourself.' Cayden helpfully included.
'You're almost as bad as my boy here.' He pointed at Osei.

'So after tonight's kumbaya, What then?' Cayden nodded at Malaki. 'He's asking.'

Good question. But Nicholae really didn't know.

There was another question Nicholae was dying to ask, Where the hell was Valentina?