Instinct

Instinct

Chapter 6

Aki Jounouchi whimpered as he curled up in a ball. His leader, Pegasus, was angry at him. He didn't blame him. His son had gotten away and the rumors were that his son had joined the Brotherhood.

-Dumb mutt. Don't you realize you just signed your death sentence.- he thought to himself as he whimpered again. Aki was bleeding from the side and his head.

-I wonder why I was left alive?- He tried to look around.

Pegasus backed away from the second-in-command, the boy's father, with an angry snarl as he considered him.

"Listen to me, Aki. You WILL get your boy back, at whatever cost. You've got the resident attack dog, Keith, at your beck and call. Have him find your boy, and bring him back. He's far too strong to just go astray." he replied silkily.

"I will not have a member of the pack in the Brotherhood, and I won't let the boy slip through our fingers. You will do as you're told. Or next time, I won't be so merciful."

Aki nodded to his leader. "I just need a bit of time to gather some information, sir." He sat up to gaze earnestly at the other man. "I will find my son." He thought for a moment. "He has some friends...I will track them down and find out what they know."

Pegasus crossed his arms, glaring at the man with ambeamber eye as his silver hair hid the other.

"They'd better. Or else, you'll be expendable." he snarled, then stalked away.

Aki shivered at the thought. His son would pay for this. He would be black and blue. He wished he could just kill the boy, but Pegasus needed that blond punk of a son. He shook his head and went off to find Keith.

As the silver-haired man stalked away from the area, the amber eye glowered as the wind rippled the silver hair, revealing the scarred eye socket that was sealed over with magic. As he felt the breeze touch it, Pegasus snarled and raised a hand to his eye.

"Blasted human and wolf team. I'll find them yet and make them pay.." he swore softly. All just for grabbing a rare silver-haired wolf in the forest..

******

Ryou was giggling as he ran through the woods. He knew he wouldn't outrun his partner, but it was the fun of the chase that made his were-parter happy.

Bakura leapt at Ryou's waist and brought the boy down. He was panting and the white fur was sticking to his skin.

"You got to learn how to run faster...some Brotherhood member you are...I'm the one with the strength and speed." He snickered.

Ryou smiled up at his partner, trailing his fingers over the white hair matching his.

"That's 'cause you're the one with the strength and speed, I'm the one with the intelligence, so there.." he chuckled, dark eyes gazing up at him.

Bakura smirked. "But you've got to get some strength on your bones or the wild packs will kill you in a flash...my love..."

Bakura started to nip Ryou's neck. His hands dipped into the boy's pants.

"Or worse..."

Ryou gasped and arched his body, dark eyes closing in pleasure.

"I-I'm not as st-strong as you, Bakura..." he whispered, shivering in delight.

"But you wouldn't let anything h-happen to me, right?" he murmured, smoothing his hands over the other's shoulders.

"How could I...You are my light."

Bakura nipped Ryou's neck. His hand kept rubbing Ryou's manhood.

Ryou purred, shivering as his hands settled into his hair.

"That's good to...hear..!" he managed to murmur, then stiffened when the sound of a stick snapping erupted the stillness. He blinked open dazed eyes, then gazed up at his lover, his mate, his partner.

"...B...Bakura..?" he whispered, feeling the hairs on his neck stand on end.

Bakura hiss and his body start to change.

"Ryou, hide while I check this out." He growled as he became a silver wolf.

Ryou nodded and got to his feet, pulling himself up swiftly and quietly as he darted towards cover. What he didn't expect was another silver wolf to tackle him, bowling him over before he could cry out, and sink his fangs into his neck in a threatening manner. Ryou drew a hissing gasp and froze.

~...K...'Kura..!~ He managed to send out inir rir rapport, remaining perfectly still.

~Ryou!!!~

Bakura whirled around and the Ring around the wolf's neck glowed. With the extra strength, Bakura head butted the other silver wolf.

~RUN....NOW....!~

Ryou whimpered lightly and scrambled to his feet, bolting for it as the other silver wolf snarled, then gave a decided smirk.

*A silver wolf and his mate. Very rare indeed. You'll make a fine prize.* The amber eyes of the wolf glinted, attacking the other wolf with fangs bared.

~Not this night!~ The gold Ring glowed again and lighting flashed suddenly. Bakura's claws slashed down into the other's wolf's face.

~OR EVER!!!~

The silver wolf yelped, falling to the side and burying his muzzle against the ground, blood streaking the silver fur.

*You...you will pay for that..!*

The other wolf's teeth bared in a snarl, and the now-one-eyed wolf glared from one furious amber eye before bolting away.

~Only if you catch me off guard.~ Bakura huffed.

He changeed quickly and hurried over to Ryou's side.

"Are you okay?"

Ryou nodded shakily, wrapping his arms around the other. "You?" he asked softly as he nuzzled against him.

"I'm not the one that lost the eye, my love. Let's get you out of here." Bakura picked up Ryou and hurried out of the woods.

****

Pegasus traced the scar with his fingertips, scowling.

"I'll find that pair yet. It was bad enough they were a rare pair, but to take my eye..that was the last of it. I'll make sure he gets the same." he growled to himself.

"Find the pair, find the little blond mutt. Simple." A smirk tilted his lips.

"I won't be deprived of my plans again."

****

Aki cleaned himself up the best he could, then looked around. "Keith!!!" he called.

A tall, stocky blond with a permanent smirk to his features stalked out to the shout, sneering at the man who called his name as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"You bellowed?" he snarled as blue eyes narrowed at Aki.

"It seems you and I must work together to find the mistake I brought into the world." He huffed. Aki growled at himself.

Keith smirked.

"You mean the dweeb? About time that I can get my hands on the pup. You don't mind, of course, if he gets a little bruised along the way?"

The blue eyes glinted. No, Keith didn't like Jou at all. Not when his boss deemed him more powerful than himself, and not when he plain didn't like the mutt.

"Now, if there was a mishap, it's not either your or my fault the boy was dumb enough to get himself killed." Aki smirked.

"Heh." Keith's grin widened sadistically. "Sounds fine to me."

"But if the boy is smart enough to come when he's told to,havehave no choice but to bring him in." Aki huffed.

"Understand? It must look like an accident." Aki waved his hand at Keith. "Or we both end up dead."

"Should be easy enough. He's just a pup, he doesn't know any better than to avoid any traps. Even if he is with the Brotherhood, now, he's not that smart to weasel out of something tricky."

"The question of the hour is who will be his parter in the Brotherhood?"

Keith snorted. "Does it matter? Even for goartnartners, the mutt can still be taken aside."

"It does matter. I want to kill his new parter in front of him. So he knows that he doesn't have any hope in the world at all." Aki growled.

"Should be simple enough." Keith drawled. "Especially if he's fond of his partner."

"But first, we should shake down some of my boy's friends. Starting with Honda and then Yugi." He showed his canines in an evil grin.

Keith nodded in agreement. "Just point me in the right direction."

"I need to go home first and clean up a bit. Can't go and scare any of the children before we get our hands on them, eh?" he snickered.

Aki headed towards his home. Plans were running through his head on how to get his hands on his son and maybe Pegasus' neck as well.

****

At the Turtle Shop, upstairs in the living room. Yami, Yugi, Ishtar, Malik, Ryou and Bakura had gathered. More or less, they had found out that a wild pack of were-wolves had been attacking people. Then also finding out that Jounouchi was a gold were-wolf. And then the fact that Seto Kaiba wanted to be the boy's partner. Yami banged the table with a makeshift gavel.

"Now, the meeting of members of the Brotherhood in Domino City." Yami rubbed his head, then glanced around the room. "Is in order."

Yugi glanced around at Yami, Bakura and Ryou, then Malik and Ishtar as he crossed a leg under him, shaking his head mentally. He dn'dn't believe that Jou, his friefriend, was a werewolf. Worse, that his father was a leader of one of the packs trying to hurt people. It seemed so surreal, especially that Kaiba was to be Jou's partner. There was something that he didn't see coming at all. Violet eyes tilted up to a similiar set of violet eyes as Malik sighed in impatience, slouching slightly against his partner, head resting on Ishtar's shoulder.

"What will this meeting prove, Yami? We're only a faction of the Brotherhood, we can't possibly take on all that's happening, can we?"

"I know that, Malik. This meeting is to inform us all we know about this pack that is terrorizing our city and the facts about Jou." Yami replied. "I should have seen the signs..."

Bakura snickered. "You can't see everything, Yami. Jou is every good at hiding things. I should have checked him out, as well."

Ishtar rubbed Malik's shoulder. "Bakura is right, we all should haved mod more attention to Jou the past month." He kissed Malik's forehead.

Yugi gave a slight smile at the sound of Malik's purr, then nodded at Bakura's words. "You can't blame yourself, Yami. Even I didn't know, and I'm Jou's best friend. You know that Jou easily hides things happening to him. It's like, sometimes, he's a whole different person than what we see. And even with the news that we've found out about him and his father, no one would have known, not even Honda."

Ryou nodded in agreement. "Jou showed all the signs, being able to hide it so well. That's a tendency of a were's status, isn't it? To be able to seem so normal? What really shocks me is that Kaiba is part of the Brotherhood, becoming Jou's partner. Who even saw THAT coming..?"

"I found out about Kaiba when he saved an out of town team, but wanting to be Jou's partner.." Yami chuckled. "I would never have put a bet on that." Bakura and Ishtar joined Yami's laughter.

"At least now Jou is at the training camp and out of danger from his father." Ishtar nibbled on Malik's ear, now.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Can't you wait until after the meeting for that, Ishtar?"

Malik smiled and tilted his head for more. "I'm not complaining." he smirked.

Ryou rolled his eyes and laughed. "Like you would, anyways." He frowned thoughtfully. "I know that Jou always hated to talk about his father, but as to the reason why..it staggers reason."

"I don't know why, Ryou." Yami sighed. "But the problem at hand is to protect us from this rogue pack." Bakura pulled Ryou closer.

Malik nodded, cuddling closer to Ishtar as Ryou sighed and wrapped his arms around Bakura. "Agreed. But how are we to do that?"

Yami glanced at the pair of weres. "We keep our partners together for a start. I will cast a protection spell on our homes."

Ishtar roll his . ". "But what about that mutt?" Yami glared at Ishtar.

"That mutt, as you call him, is our friend, Ishtar."

"Don't mind him, he means it in the kindest of terms." Malik replied, nudging an elbow against Ishtar.

"The funny thing is Kaiba kept calling him that, and he ends up as a were." Ishtar rubbed his side. Bakura glanced at Yami.

"He does have a point. Does this mean Kaiba has second sight or something like that?"

Yami thought for a moment. "I can't say, but I will look into that for sure, now."

"Hmm.." Yugi replied thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "It would make sense..if Kaiba's been calling him this since they first met, for no reason, and he's part of the Brotherhood..maybe he could sense something about Jou that the rest of us couldn't.."

"I would have to check Kaiba's stars and his family's history." Yami stood up. "I'm going to get some snacks, any requests?"

Bakura glanced at Ishtar thenthen at Yami. "Cookies."

Malik bit his lip on a snicker as Ryou mock-glared at him and hugged Bakura protectively.

Yugi shook his head in amusement, then winked at Yami. "Anything with chocolate for me."

"Chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, and milk coming up." Yami then left the group to go downstairs to get the food.

Ishtar sighed. "The world is coming to an end. Who would elieelieved that Jou would be a werewolf?"

"I can't be really surprised.." Ryou replied softly. "Sure, it's unexpected, but there always was something different about Jou."

Ishtar lowered his head. "It's worse than you think...."

Bakura look at the lighter blond. "What?"

Yugi blinked at Ishtar. "What is it? What do you mean?"

"I was having a run a few weeks ago." Ishtar pulled Malik closer to him. "Once I was done, I was walking back when I heard some shouting. I went to see what it was about." Ishtar lowered headhead. "I saw Jou being beaten by his father....I just couldn't believe it."

Yugi's and Ryou's eyes widened before the violet-eyed younger gasped softly.

"He hurt Jou..? Well..that explains all the bruises he always came to school with..but Jou always told us that they were caused by fights with bullies and such." he murmured. "Gods.."

Ishtar gripped Malik. "It was horrible." He lowered his head. "I wanted to rip that old man's head off, bometomething inside me told me not to."

Yugi nodded. "It wouldn't have helped. Not without backup. We can't charge in, no matter how much we know.." he sighed.

Yami was standing there listening to Ishtar's tale. The cookies and milk were propped on a tray against his hip.

"Time to eat." He walked into the room. Bakura leapt up and grabbed a cookie.

"Thanks."

Yugi gave a small smile at Bakura's eagerness, then pulled Yami down with him to cuddle against his side.

Yami put the plate and the glasses on the table. "Dig in." He took his own cookie. Isthar got his cookie and glass of milk.

Watching Ryou and Malik do the same, Yugi nibbled absently at his own as he glanced at Yami. "Yami..you think that Jou'll be okay..right?"

"He's being trained by one of the best right now. Then, strangely, he'sng tng to be with Kaiba...I have to admit, Kaiba's home is like a fort."

Bakura wolfed down the cookie. "Can't argue with you on that note, Yami."

Ryou nodded. "But even a fortress like that could be vulnerable. But it must be good..Jou must be good..if he's getting trained by the best, taken in and protected.."

"Away from that monster..." Ishtar growled. He took a sip of the milk and munched on the cookie pensively.

Yami kissed Yugi's forehead. "Yes, that very true, but is Kaiba the right person..I will check out his stars and his family past for sure."

****

Far from the worries of the Brotherhood, and out in the middle of nowhere, Honda was kissing his boyfriend, Otogi. His hands move along the other's back.

"Mmm.." Otogi purre ple pleasure, one hand sliding up the other's neck as he kissed him back, blue-green eyes half-closed in pleasure as he arched against his touch.

Aki was coming closer and closer to the area of the lovers. He shook his muzzle. -They better have the information on my son, or they might not live through the night.-

Keith trotted closer as well, then sneered, his muzzle wrinkling with a smirk. Blue eyes considered the pair.

-They should have the information, I've seen them hanging around the dweeb. And if they don't, then we can just leave them as a present for your boy to remember us by.-

-At the most, we'll have some fun.- Aki bared his fangs.

Honda broke the kiss for air. "Having a good time?" He look into those green eyes.

Otogi sighed and glanced up at him, smiling. "Oh, you know it." he teased, tapping a fingertip against Honda's nose.

Honda smiled and kissed Otogi again. There was a growl from ne, an, and Honda stopped. "What was that?" he asked softly.

Otogi frowned and looked around, feeling a shiver travel over his back.

"I..I don't know.." he murmured, clinging on to Honda a li mor more tighter nervously.

Another growl filled the air and a wolf came into the light. Drool hung out of its mouth and it showed its huge fangs. It took a step towards the pair.

Otogi gasped, eyes widening at the sight. A shocked squeak left his lips, and he ed hed his head at another growl from another direction to see another wolf.

"H-Honda..?!" he stammered.

"I don't know if we should run, climb a tree or remain still..." Honda glanced at both wolves.

The wolf moved in closer.

Otogi gulped. "I think it's too late to find out.." he murmured, hugging Honda close as he heard the other wolf close in as well.

The sound of bones cracking and popping was heard as the wolf stood up on its back legs, shifting into a humanoid shape. "Hello, boys."

Otogi gasped, then whirled when the other wolf changed, as well. "Wh-what the..?!"

"Have we entered a bad horror flick?" Honda held on to Otogi.

"So sorry, but this is real, boy. Now the question is easy to answer. Where is Jounouchi?"

"And no stalling. Or you might regret it." the other man replied, then smirked. "On second thought, delay all you want. Means that we get to have fun."

Honda trembled at the words. "Jou? I haven't seen Jou for a couple of days, it's the truth..." He gripped Otogi tighter.

Aki growled. "Then we have a problem, don't we?"

Keith sneered, grinning. "Well, not a problem for us, but a problem for you. Maybe you'd like to watch the pretty boy first?" He grabbed Otogi's ponytail in a cruel grip and yanked hard, sniggering at his cry of pain.

"Hold on..I might be able to find out...but I need some time. I got to check out some of Jou's haunts." Honda was scared out his mind.

Aki glanced at Keith with a triumphant grin, then back to Honda. "Don't run or you die." He waved at Keith to come over to him.

Keith nodded and yanked Otogi with him by his ponytail. "An insurance, by the way. So you don't forget."

Honda nodded. He quickly opened up his cell phone and started to call people that knew Jou.

"If that Honda can't find my son, it means one thing." Aki growled angrily.

Keith glanced over to him as he kept a tight grip on the trembling green-eyed boy. "The Brotherhood?"

"It's the only place the brat could run too." Aki's anger grew. "There was another's scent with him when we lost him...and there were those weapons."

Keith nodded. "Only a hunter of their register has those kinds of weapons." he snarled. "He won't like this, you know.."

"Not in the least..." Aki glanced over at the other boy.

Honda came over to the pair. "The last thing any one heard about Jou was he was with Kaiba..." He lowered his head in defeat.

"Kaiba..!" Keith hissed, as that name ran fear through the packs at its notoriety.

"He's the one, I bet. This is trouble.." he murmured to Aki.

"Let's leave a reminder to my so-called pup who really owns him." Aki smirked.

"Heh." Keith grinned sadistically as Otogi's eyes widened at their words. "Read my mind."

“But there isn’t any real reason to kill them...at least they're giving us the right information.” Aki grabbed Honda. “Isn’t that right?”

"I suppose." Keith sighed a bit in disappointment. "But no one said anything about hurting.."

“That's what I mean...” He threw Honda into a tree, grinning when the teen cried out in pain.

“And to make sure, we called 911 for them after we're done.” He changed into a werewolf. He rose on two legs. Aki growled and his clawed hands raked over Honda’s chest.

"Honda!" Otogi cried out in horror, struggling against Keith, then yelped when the blond shifted suddenly and raked his side, falling to his knees. He tried to crawl away, but the werewolf seized hold of his ponytail and flung him with it to the ground several feet away before attacking, gouging across his leg as blood frenzy attacked the wolf's mind.

Aki attacked Honda one more time, and then picked up the cell phone. He dialed ‘911’.

“Help...I've been attacked by a wolf in the park near lover’s lane...” He dropped the phone. “Come on, time to hunt Kaiba...”

Keith gave a snort of disappointment that he couldn't kill, but nodded. If he disobeyed, Pegasus would have his head. He sneered at the two teens, then followed after Aki.