A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Slowly, and with every step closer to the guards, Erik changed back to his human form. Tension build among the guards as they watched him cautiously. When he was back into human form, he remained naked for a second, just to mess with the guards, who all had various reactions, from annoyance to interest.

Although, when he realized the interest wasn't only coming from the female guards, he quickly had Elora conjure a casual combat outfit on him.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Finally, he stopped a few feet in front of them, but before he could say anything, the guard captain took the intiative. "You must be Erik Gunnulf," the man grumbled. "We've heard about you, although that was at least a year ago by now."

It wasn't much of a surprise that news had spread about the powerful, second-ranked werewolf who had more abilities than he should. And now that he came closer, it was easy to recognize him from his description.

"But I was under the impression you were a rogue element," he continued. "So, what could you possibly want from the residence of a Councillor?"

Behind Erik, Emma and Emily came traipsing towards them, who both earned some wary, frustrated, and even awed looks from the guards. Meanwhile, Astrid and Seraphina continued taking up positions on the guard's sides for intimidation purposes.

Alice and Eira, however, had already disappeared. He had sent Alice back into his dimension to clean herself up and get some rest, outside of anyone's view, of course, and Eira had returned to her core, as her energy was already running low.

"Your reputation proceeds you, Master!" Emily grinned wickedly as she revelled in the guard's reactions.

"Only of the mysteriousness of his origins, and the rumour that he has more abilities than he should," the captain continued without taking his eye of Erik. "We don't know anything of his personality…"

Then, he looked around sombrely at the many dead first-rankers, "But you clearly don't have an issue with death."

Erik frowned, and his expression became a little more serious. "Death is a part of life, and while I don't revel in it, I believe that when someone takes up their weapons, they should be prepared to die with it in their hand."

The guard captain snorted, although whether that was out of uninterest in Erik's beliefs, or simply disbelief in general, was unclear. "Regardless," he grumbled grumpily. "I doubt you came her to debate philosophy, so what is it? And what is to be our fate?"

Erik shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't care about your lives. Don't do anything stupid, and the rest of you can keep yours. So, first of all, tell me, does Alexandre already know about our attack? Don't bother trying to lie, it won't work."

To second rankers, Elora's omnisense was no worse than a powerful lie detector.

At first, the man stared at him silently for a moment, but then shook his head. "Not yet. I've told his personal guards to warn Lord Alexandre when we don't respond back in time, but that time hasn't come yet."

At that point, Erik raised an eyebrow as he stared at the man, his meaning was clear. He wanted the captain to signal Brussels and tell them everything was fine.

Unfortunately, the guard captain's gaze hardened, and he shook his head, "Forget it. I may not be willing to die needlessly, but I won't betray our lord completely, even if you do end up killing us. He's a good man. The same counts for the others."

He didn't look behind him at his fellow guards, apparently sure in the knowledge that they will agree with him. And, indeed, when Erik panned a curious gaze across the other five second-ranked guards, they all showed the same level of conviction.

'I guess this Alexandre knows how to inspire loyalty in his people… they don't seem to be doing this out of fear either,' he thought curiously to himself. But then he shrugged, 'Whatever. Not like I care what kind of person he is.'

Instead, he started panning his gaze towards the surrounding, incapacitated first-rankers. Surely one of them would be amenable to help, with a little bit of pressure of course. But the captain quickly shot those thoughts down. "It's pointless," he said. "They will only accept our assurances."

Erik turned back towards him and sighed wryly, "Well, whatever. I suppose we got plenty of time. Should be at least another three and a half hours, before this Alexandre shows up here."

Theoretically he could have Emily take control of one of them, but that would take too long. These guards were far from completely subdued, and there was no way they'd let her enslave one of them without a fight.

They would obviously win if it came to that, but they might not be able to subdue them in time. Not to mention that Alexandre's personal guard might not even be fooled by the somewhat robotic voice that all of Emily's slaves shared.

Besides, some of these second rankers would obviously die at that point, and it just wasn't worth it. Those who managed to get into the second rank were a precious resource, that Erik wasn't ready to squander just to give himself a little extra time which he likely didn't need.

Of course, the guards immediately tensed up a little, thinking he might lash out at their unwillingness to help, but Erik had no intentions of doing so. He appreciated loyalty, and it wasn't overly important anyway.

"So, let's get on with why we're here," he continued sternly. "You're holding an Eastern European man here. We want him."

The captain's eyebrows shot up in surprise, before he quickly calmed down and almost seemed relieved.

But then he snorted disdainfully, "I guess that sleazeball wasn't lying when he said people would come for him. I don't know what relationship you have with him, but I'd keep all these women away from him if I were you, assuming you care about them."

At the same time, every female guard behind that captain started blushing a little. Noticing their reactions, an amused smirk formed on Erik's lips, "Oh? Why's that?"

"He's a rake!" the captain cursed; his face distorted in anger. "All he's done since coming here is seduce the guards, or even the lord's wife! To be honest, I'll be glad to be rid of him. I don't even know why Lord Alexandre was keeping him here!"

In his head, Elora giggled, "Sounds like an interesting character. I doubt he'd have much luck with my dear sister's however, but maybe you'll want to keep Seraphina way from him?"

All the other women reacted much the same way. The idea that anyone might seduce them away from Erik was anathema, while Seraphina just scoffed with disdain. Clearly, she already had a bad opinion of this man.

Meanwhile, Erik was, of course, not even a little worried. His women were his, and it was impossible for anyone to steal them away from him.

Still, his curiosity for Katya's brother grew, and so he indicated toward the entrance of the castle. "Well, then I'll be happy to take him of your hands. Why don't you lead the way, while my wives keep the others company."

"Wives my ass!" Seraphina immediately exclaimed angrily, which just caused her allies to chuckle, and the guards to look confused.