Ferocious

Chapter 12

The Explanation

A few days after Astro's full recuperation, he had offered to start working for Dr. Darlan.

He had seen that the veterinarian really had a lot on his plate at his clinic but only had his daughter to help around and that's only when she came back from school.

Of course he had started helping out as much as he could immediately he could move around much better,

especially since he had to sleep in one of the unused stores of the clinic (after he'd politely refused to go stay with the family at their place).

So now he had officially started as an assistant in the clinic earning a little over minimum wage (he had wanted to refuse the payment as well but had been made to see reason with it by the doctor).

Work had been hectic at first since he had actually offered full day services,

Then there was the mysterious case of the animals showing how little they trusted him around them;

Cats yowl and arch their backs and some even spit at him,

Birds are next to impossible to deal with as they just keep fluttering about and some even screech as if they had been caught in a predator's jaw,

Dogs reactions vary though, Astro can never predict how a dog will react to him,

some yip and yap, some snap at him, some growl but some are outright submissive.

Over the course of a couple of days work, Astro realized a few things;

First, while most animals will run from him at the first whiff or sighting of him they get, their younglings on the other hand don't see him as a threat.

Puppies, kittens, baby birds and so on, he has absolutely no problem handling them.

Second, the adult females are usually the most feisty ones while the males are usually all but submissive,

He noticed he could usually make male animals submit to him when he shows a little part of his dominance as a werewolf (usually all it takes is a glow of his eyes; this has caused a few hiccups between Astro and Darlan, as the doctor always warns him off showing his aspect in front of human clients).

But female animals put up way more resistance against him,

On one occasion Dr. Darlan and Astro had been required to save a cougar in hard labour,

Astro's arrival there almost made matters worse for all parties involved,

But he had stood his ground and dominated over the cougars will.

These effects and incidents weren't lost on the doctor as he called Astro to have a "talk" about the situation.

"I can't help but notice the reactions between you and the animals sometimes" Dr. Darlan had started that day.

"Yeah, I'm sorry doc but it seems the animals sense the predator in me or something" Astro had answered initially,

But the doctor shook his head as he said "if it had been that, they'd react the same way with my daughter

But never have I once seen or heard her say animals react like that to her, well with the exception of some female dogs but that seemed more territorial than what I've seen with you" the doctor continued

"With you, its pure fright, they feel threatened, spooked, unsafe, its almost as if they see a dark side in you" he finished.

Astro had been partly surprised at how well the doctor could read the signs and also know what gave it off and why; he felt the doctor really knew more than he was letting off.

Then he had felt scared, not because he feared the doctor or something,

But because he feared losing the only place he could call home at the moment as the memories of his previous life keeps eluding him.

He decided to come clean and give up the rest of the details he had been withholding regardless of whether they would still want him around after he told them.

"Well, Doc, thing is, there is also one more thing I do remember about myself,

Just as I remember my name and the kind of being I am,

just as I remember I'm a werewolf, I remember I'm not just an ordinary werewolf, I am a demonwolf" Astro finished.

(For as long as Astro had been with the doctor and his daughter he had hardly seen things get an expression on the man's face,

either he was really hard to impress and just couldn't be surprised by anything or he had a really good poker face and he was excellent at hiding his emotions away from showing on his face).

But after he heard what Astro had said to him, his brows furrowed for a moment and he seemed a bit taken aback,

Astro suspected then that the case had to be the latter (the poker face theory).

"Whoa" was all the doctor said at first when he seemed to have regained his composure,

"You're sure of this?" The doc asked.

"Yes, doc, I don't remember why or how it came to be but I know that's what I am" Astro supplied.

"I don't suppose you could show me?" The doc had said then,

Now it was Astro's turn to be surprised but unlike the vet, he had no poker face and so couldn't keep his amazement from showing on his face.

The doctor smiled at his expression,

"Don't worry, it'll be absolutely safe, you must've guessed by now that I know my way around the supernatural well enough to handle dangerous situations" the vet reassured him,

And while Astro believed the doctor, it was the entity required of him to turn into that he didn't trust, for some reason he felt he had at one time placed a lock on the entity, never to be opened again,

but he wasn't about to deny his benefactor a simple request (even if his request in turn ended up getting his head ripped off) and since he couldn't really remember if he had really decided never to let the demonwolf out again, he felt it had to be okay.

The doctor had then taken him to a store a little ways at the back of the clinic,

Here also seemed like it was used for treatment but Astro had a feeling it wasn't for the ordinary animals but rather it was meant for the supernatural.

At his behest Astro started the turn straight into the demonwolf.

Thunder grumbled and rolled from the start till finish of the transformation

and standing a couple of feet away from the doctor was a werewolf black as night, smoky in form but absolutely solid with lava for veins and blood red glowing eyes.

Astro was in total control, but his head was ringing,

being in this form brought its own memories, b****y battle memories filled with c*****e.

There were flashes of hot battles streaming through his brain, he knew then that at a point in his previous life, he as the demonwolf had caused serious damage,

The form never wavered though, it stood tall and stoic.

When they got back to the office, Astro had wanted to launch into a full speech of how he would understand if they didn't want someone like him with them (especially the doctor since he had a daughter to worry about)

But Dr. Darlan had beaten him to it,

"No I'm not gonna send you off" the doc had started (again surprising Astro so much he couldn't keep it from showing on his face.. Again)

"Yes, in fact having you around might be the best thing for us here, we need both the help you offer as an assistant in the clinic and the protection you offer as a dominating werewolf

so long as you promise to always try as much as possible to keep your other side under control"

Now Astro had a couple of questions:

'Why won't he send me away' (he thought it best not to ask this since he had nowhere to go should the doctor change his mind).

So instead he asked "why do you think I offer protection?"

"Astro, I've seen the way animals react to you but I've also seen how you handle it,

You have the ability to make your will dominant over others, that's an alpha's ability and around here that's a very useful component

You have an alpha's ability hence you have the makings of an alpha hence you can become an alpha, no one goads an alpha, no one messes with an alpha without proper cause and that is what you offer, protection as an alpha"

the doctor finished his lengthy explanation which only brought up more questions from Astro,

"What's an alpha do you mean like the alpha in the normal wolf packs? and why is being that so important around here as you said" he asked going on to the part of the job required of him because its his ticket to staying,

"Wow Astro, you must not be from the cities then, if you don't know what an alpha is then you must be from the clans region then" the doctor supplied a bit surprised himself.

Astro's head hurt a bit again when he tried to think on the word 'clan', he'd definitely heard that before in fact he had a feeling he was very familiar with it,

but before he could dwell on it the doctor continued his explanation,

"While in the clans, the system is one, headed by one chieftain with multiple clan heads and then the subordinate members,

usually every member of a clan are all supernatural shapeshifters and there's no secrecy needed,

now I truly see why you make glow your eyes & bare your fangs easily, you even use your claws to help out in tasks without considering if there are people around or not and I had to keep you in check each time,

its most probably because you're not used to keeping yourself a secret" the doctor stated.

"Oh... I didn't realize that... I thought twas because you didn't want me cutting corners and using my abilities on the job, rather you want me to learn and work as a human" Astro supplied.

"No no not at all, here being any form of supernatural has to be kept a secret because the human population dominates marginally and while a few percentage of the human population is involved with the supernatural or at least knows about them, the remaining has to remain oblivious because most humans reactions to learning about supernatural existence is always really bad" the vet explained.

"hmm, So you're part of the "few percentage" in the know uhn" Astro stated.

"Yeah, that, and back to my initial explanation, the werewolves here associate in packs, not a whole system as large as a village like the clans -though some packs are just as large but those are few and only in the big cities -

just a handful of individuals make up a pack,

Some are related, some are not, some are mixed, but always they are united and together they're really powerful, to be in a pack is to have your power increased by the size of the pack,

or you might be few in a pack but still be as strong as those with large numbers but only because of the individual components of each member -that is what abilities they bring to the table as part of the pack,

A pack consists of an alpha and the rest are beta much like the ordinary wolves pack,

When a particular werewolf gains dominance and is able to bend others will to his or hers then such individual can become an alpha,

He or she could fight for the post of being alpha with the current alpha of the pack they're currently in or they may decide to break off and start their own pack,

Werewolves are mostly born while few are turned,

an alpha with a really potent dominance can turn a human into a werewolf, that means he bent the will of the human to become like him, although it involves biting as well, the venom of the alpha has to soak through the human and alter the DNA,

this is dangerous as some humans will is near unbendable unless they were willing to be turned initially,

Then there are the omegas, the lone wolfs, those without a pack, those like you and my daughter,

Being without a pack makes an omega susceptible to being preyed upon by packs, the betas scout them out and the alpha comes to give the invite,

usually its join or die because not joining their pack means you might probably be an addition to another pack whose alpha's dominance is more potent than theirs" the doctor explained filling Astro up with knowledge he'd lacked

"How will they know if one is an omega or beta or alpha?" Astro had to ask

"The same way you could tell I was human and my daughter was a werewolf, our auras dictate what we are, I see you're excellent at masking yours which is probably a good trait to have had in the clans but here no amount of masking would hide who or what you are to others who can read it,

Auras are depicted by cloudy smoky shadowy form of ourselves, colored at the core as a telltale of what we are.

Humans are usually neutral and nude colors,

the supernatural are all kinds of colors at their core,

but for werewolves, alphas are usually primary colors at the core of their auras, betas are secondary colors while omegas are shiny colors like gold, silver, bronze maybe" the doctor said

"Like a treasure saying pick me, pick me uhn" Astro attempted at humor,

"oh oh, too true" the vet replied catching on then continued,

"My daughter is an omega and it had taken my intervention for her not to get killed the two times she had been invited to join, I'm afraid that my influence and respect may not be enough to persuade the next pack that comes knocking,

which is why I must ask that you protect her, she's all I have and I can't bear the thought of losing her"

Astro never thought he could feel sorry for the vet mainly because he looked like a man who could go toe to toe with him in werewolf form and really cause him serious trouble,

But Astro saw beyond the burly man before him now and saw a vulnerable loving father.

"I swear to you sir, I will protect you and your daughter with my whole being, with everything I am and everything I've got" Astro pledged.

"Glad to hear that Astro, thanks, now prepare to enroll in school as well, you'll have your job as a part-time job, after school hours and half your payment will be directed to that effort as I'm going to fill in as your guardian" the doctor stated.

"Wait what?! School? Bb..but why school?" Astro asked really taken by surprise at the offer and the sheer generosity of it.

"Well you can't protect someone if you can't see her or don't know her whereabouts now, can you?" The doctor asked,

"Well no, but to take on such responsibility for me is probably asking too much from you,

I mean you treated me back to life from the brink of death, allowed me to stay with you and also gave me a job you're paying me for, and now you'd fill in as my guardian so I could go to school?" Astro pointed out, he felt he was gaining too much even as a bodyguard to be,

"Well, there are a lot of hazards in your job description both as a vet assistant and a werewolf guardian, danger on a lot of fronts, the little I can do for you in return is give you a chance to piece your life together as well and see how far you can go" the doctor supplied

"Thanks a lot doc, I'll try all my possible best and more to make sure you don't regret it" Astro replied tearing up.

Much later when the doctor was finally alone that day he brought out a file and studied it a while,

A tear rolled down his cheek as looked at the picture clipped to right corner top of the file,

"I've found your son Adeline, and I'll repay him the kindness you showed me, it is what fate wants".