Hugh learned about the half-brother of Tom. Called Zep, he founded his own gang. When Tom perished during the civil war, Zep carried out for the lost cause—harassments, murder, and women who were sympathetic to the cause of wolf-alien marriage were tagged. They didn't like assertive women. He said they were best left in the kitchen, instead, dishing out meals for their husbands and children, or tidying up the house. There was nothing wrong with the idea of women at home helping the husbands and children. Problem was there were reported abuses.
Zep grew up with his own mother. As he was a child, destiny had groomed him for gangster-hood. Even as a boy, he already enjoyed certain notoriety. He hated his father. The emotion ripened, grew worse when he became a man. He grew up a smug; would display contemptuous behavior towards women. He courted women, threw them away when he had no more use for them; he couldn't count.
Now, after they lost to Tatin and Isabella, they'd studied to mob, and mob well, they did, leaving their prey on the ground, either immobilized, or lifeless. They were the renegades during the incumbency of Tatin and Isabella. Zep also knew about Isabella's wealth, his half-brother had told him.
One day, Zep went in the wilds and was attracted by a light that emanated from the opening of a cave. He got inside. An old woman asked for water. He refused.
"I'm in a hurry," he said tersely.
"A little sympathy," she begged.
Zep ignored the old woman's words. He left, but while leaving, he was changing, developing into a creature that he, himself, had never known nor seen in his life. He felt his head swelling up and as he looked at his arms it was transforming into the limbs of an octopus of a great size that he would use to kill. His eyes became three, and he was confused as to how to use them.
In the process of his investigation, Hugh also learned about Rep whose group also enjoyed notoriety for downing wolves who didn't bow to or pay him respect. He thought himself a god. Whatever he wanted, he wanted done his way. Wolves who didn't sympathize with him heard themselves wailing for a child, a wife, a husband, a mother, a father. He didn't care who's on his way. He gets things done and he gets things just as he wanted.
Rep came to the forest one day. An old man tripped and fell on the road with his face down. He passed, ignoring him.
When he was about to leave, he felt himself turned into a reptile. He grew scales all over his body. He became as amphibious as a lizard and a crocodile; and as reptilian as a snake, with a very long tail that he used to whip his enemies. He had eyes wild and red that could penetrate and turn an enemy into the same creature that he was as a form of vengeance. Rep had his own group and they voted for him as their leader.
As they listened, the friends swallowed. They hadn't encountered such kinds of creatures in their life. They were looking at each other.
It turned out that tales abound in the wolf-dom about that enchanted lady. They also said that he could turn into a man at times. It was said that these mystical persons tried the hearts of those who passed along that enchanted way. If they hurdled the test, a reward was given, and to those who failed, a curse.
Tatin carefully listened to Hugh's story, so did Isabella, Andrea, Apollo II, Lobo, Matthias, Andrew, Michael, and Gabriel.
As friends, Tatin told them about his own secret.
"As a man lives, he just have to live with his principles. Who knows there are more enemies out there?"
Hugh shook his head, "Tsk tsk… we are facing challenges from many fronts and sides."