— a highrise building in portland, oregon, september 2022

  A low, rumbling growl had every surface in the apartment tremble slightly, as a big men knelt in fear in front of the one before him. The monster showed it's razor sharp teeth, gripping the armrest of the chair it sat on with it claws.

  It had been custom made to carry his weight in the form of a wolf, so he had tried to treat it with more care, but the anger rising inside of him kept him on the edge of getting up and throwing it at the other.

  "Where is she now?"

  "She would be at the human organization's headquarters."

  With a huff, the Alpha shook his head. "You had one job."

  The tall man looked small in this moment, as his buzz cut made his goosebumps and sweat especially easy to spot. He had been tasked with looking after the Vampires, as they had closed in on the preacher.

  Had he known he hadn't been following just anyone but a Hunter, he wouldn't have tried to follow him. But one thing lead to another, and instead of gaining the upper hand on the Vampires, it led to the preacher being detained. On top of that, he had lost a fight against lowly human and a filthy parasite.

  "I will go and return her."

  "No, my Lord, you can't!" Garth intervened, "Please, sent me, I will make up for my mistake!"

  He couldn't understand why that female human had such an influence on their leader, but he wouldn't let this go overboard. If the Alpha himself went to safe her, it would send the wrong message to their fellow Werewolves.

  They might think the Clan had gotten weak. It wouldn't help if there were internal unrest at this uncertain time, when they constantly had to mind humanity and the Vampires infringing on their territories and hunting grounds.

  He had to hold back gritting his teeth, thinking that he didn't know what it had to be such a brat that was chosen to become the next Alpha. There was no rhyme or reason why the power had been flourishing in him of all people.

  Annoyed, but susceptible to reason, Damian transformed back, as his naked, sweat covered body was glistening in the evening lights shining in through an open door to the adjacent room.

  "Very well, I will not go myself," he conceited, "but you have been causing enough trouble for today, there will be someone else going – and you will be the one to decide who it is, so choose wisely. Do not disappoint me again, Garth."

  It was the Alpha who was the only one to understand the meaning and worth of the one whom the others simply called "the preacher". However, he still had matters regarding the Vampires to take care of, so it was better for someone else to do menial work such as breaking into a human confinement facility.

  "I will redeem myself for sure, my Lord."

  — a.h.a. headquaters of the oregon state, portland, oregon, september 2022

  "I'm terribly sorry, Agents, I didn't think another one of them would show up. It must have followed us from the abandoned district."

  A black haired Asian male stood in front of them, unusually tall with his close to 5'7" in height, sporting clear features and an athletic build. He was truly an idol worthy of his fan base, looking not too lean and not too muscular – the perfect picture of a man with the reputation that fit his appearance.

  Hayden hadn't felt any jealousy of course. Instead, he felt invigorated, nervous like a child, and had his head filled with things he wanted to say and ask. Only after the initial shock, did they realize what he had dragged along from inside the room.

  To In-Sung Choi, this whole scenario had been blown quite a bit out of proportion. In front of him, there was someone seemingly ready to pounce on him, eyes sparkling with a hint of love reflecting in them.

  Her blond head of curly hair was bobbing up and down as she nervously hopped from one foot to the other. It was surrounding the soft face of a teenage girl behind a pair of glasses and a choker covering the entire length of her neck. An appearance he was oddly familiar with.

  "It's you," he said, without thinking.

  So they hadn't sent those children home yet? He had heard they had been taken in, for they had likely seen more of the fight than any of the other witnesses, since they were left behind.

  The world famous Hunter had barely arrived back at the Association and the first thing he had heard was that a Werewolf had attacked them in order to retrieve one of their witnesses. The one who had been holding the "Lecture" which he was sent to attend by the Vampires.

  Of course, he hadn't though the whole ordeal would have such an aftermath!

  "You know me?" Rue Seo replied to the Hunter as her mind went blank and her face turned pale with lack of oxygen.

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  "Breathe," a brown haired, emotionless looking boy commented while giving her a neutral sideways glance, focusing more on his phone than on anything else.

  "Now that the chaos has subsided, we will need to wrap this up. You three will come with me."

  "No!" Hayden instantly replied as he finally managed to "meet" his idol.

  "Well, you don't have a say in this matter, if I may remind you. Is it okay if we ask you to move right now, Hunter Choi?"

  "I'm fine. I assume you need to sort this out?" His English was very clear and almost free of any accent.

  "Just how did this monster get in here?" Isaac heard Lane question from the sidelines, as he eyed the damage to the building.

  He was right to question it, because even he didn't know how the canine got in without causing trouble, seeing as it had to emulate a wrecking ball in order to get back out.

  "It could have been in there for a while. Remember when the birds caused that ruckus and the children went missing initially, we all left the room for and were distracted a short while," the woman said, holding an ice pack to her forehead with a tired expression on her face.

  "That, and my 'Heightened Senses' Skill won't work properly on their kind," Kilmer added as he turned to the guard with the Spanish accent, "Javier, take Jessie and Kyle and have them lie down. I will take care of the rest."

  'The rest' entailed them moving to yet another room, since this one was no longer in a safe location. Therefore, they were moved to another floor, into a room with windows, a table and several chairs.

  Lane, Kilmer and Hunter Choi sat down on one side of said table, facing the three teenagers opposite of them. Ron brought out a piece of paper as well as a pen and put them down on the smooth metal surface, sliding them over toward the youngsters.

  "Write down your name, address and phone numbers. We are going to call your parents to come here and pick you up."

  While Ron was talking to them, Lane got up and searched through a drawer at the side of the room. The only thing that actually looked used in this place.

  "My parents wouldn't come anyway," Hayden said.

  "We will need a legal guardian to come, otherwise you won't be able to go home."

  "You can't detain us forever."

  "We can't," Ron admitted, "but the police can. You realize you broke the law, right? You were caught trespassing on a construction site."

  This time, Hayden didn't say a word. He had been aware of that himself.

  "Children, let's try to solve this issue in peace. Why did you even attend such a shady meeting? What if someone had tried to kidnap you?"

  It was unexpected to hear the one with the highest degree at the table talk so casually with them. Even just sitting with him was too much for some of them already.

  "We're not children, we are young adults soon," Rue reminded him, "also, could I have your number, please? Or could you safe mine?"

  Rue Seo, the girl who had likely wanted to meet this specific Hunter more than anyone else, felt delighted by what transpired. She knew that her mother was going to raise all hell about it, yet she didn't care when writing down her contact info.

  "I wanted to meet you. I truly love you."

  She didn't feel any shame or embarrassment uttering those words. All she wanted was to say hello to him once in person, while both of them were wide awake.

  "That's… Huh. Well, uhm ... I feel honored, really. Does that mean you knew I would be there?"

  For the Hunter, on the other hand, her answer was neither new nor old, but there was something that didn't add up. His stay with the Vampires was a secret and he had only found out about today's afternoon plans a day earlier.

  "I also wanted to meet you. I want to become a Hunter like you," someone else interrupted before an answer to his question could have been given.

  To Hayden, admitting that didn't come as easily though. At the same time: When would he ever get the chance to say something like this to "the" Hunter Choi In-Sung?

  And since it had now come to this, saying all of this was part of a bet would have only overcomplicated things further.

  "I also wanted to meet you, as I'm your biggest fan." He smiled at the Hunter as he said that, earning a curious sideways glance from the older boy next to him.

  'That's definitely bull,' Hayden commented in his mind while writing down his address.

  The one addressed seemed to feel more and more uncomfortable. "So you all appeared there because of me. It seems I'm the reason for all of this."

  But Ron reassured him right away. "There's no way. We are grateful to you."

  "It's those three Stooges that caused the problems, not you, Hunter Choi." With those words, Lane through a stack of paper on the table, which he had been looking for the entire time.

  "And yet I still can't tell how you knew I would be there."

  "Oh," Isaac started, "we watched a video made in your honor at the school hallway just yesterday. And shortly after that, someone approached me about how I could be meeting you, if I really wanted to." Of course, no such person existed.

  But it was always better to hide some truth in all your lies, he assumed. Especially since the story had Rue nodding fervently.

  "Exactly," she confirmed, "I was the one who played the video. I was approached as well."

  Isaac wasn't surprise about her jumping on his excuse to hitch a ride. In fact, it was as expected and it would only help their case.

  The adults in the room were exchanging glances, feeling unsure of who would go so far in order to bring a bunch of kids into a potentially dangerous situation. Was it one of the wolves?

  "Please, describe the person who had approached you."

  Looking puzzled, both teenagers seemed to think deeply. "I don't remember faces very well and he was wearing a cap that overshadowed his face."

  "It was a woman in my case," Rue added to the confusion, "with almost golden eyes. But aside from that, nothing got stuck in my memory."

  'Nice one,' Isaac thought at her words and almost chuckled.

  And here he had thought he had a grudge against the old Man, but the little lady was apparently hated more deeply. In In-Sung Choi's mind, the picture of the perpetrators also gained some more details upon her words.

  "Thank you for sharing that information," he said, "of course, we will divulge the news about the two Gates to the public by tomorrow, so rest assured and refrain from spreading details that would cause a panic until then."

  The teenagers unanimously and returned the sheet with all their info on it, as Ron readied himself to get someone in deep trouble. Isaac on the other hand kept sizing up the Hunter in front of him.

  They both sat in their respective middle, evaluating each other. He could feel it now, so he knew. The man in front of him might be the scale to measure every other human being against.

  It wasn't like this with Hayden Chase or Ron Kilmer. Only now could he feel how insignificant his own presence truly was. His pride had taken a hit, realizing this, despite the fact that he had always been comfortably on the weaker side of the spectrum in his current place.

  'What did it say my Rank was? F?' In other words: It was laughable.

  Had he not already started to change his way of looking at this whole situation before, he would have done so now. A challenge had emerged right in front of him and he had to suppress the left corner of his mouth from smirking.

  This was going to be a very long day for them.