POV Devin
Oh bother. I was running out of time and this upstart was delaying me. That sister of his hadn't helped the situation having called me out as a challenger. Goodness, I didn't do anything except ask her name and try to help.
I was definitely going to get yelled at by my own crew for this mess up. I had to get them off the train and quickly. However, her brother wasn't even going to try and fight me fairly. He resorted to that weird powder Wolf Islanders used. I knew enough about it to know it was fairly dangerous if it got on me.
I really didn't have a choice. Crouching down to the ground, I knew what I had to do. I had been taught not to reveal who I was in any outside area unless I absolutely had to.
That moment had come.
I growled softly as my nose pushed against my skull. I could feel my clothes tear apart, and even my footwear would not stand a chance as my transformed feet broke them into pieces. My ripped clothes and shoes laid on the ground beneath me as I heaved one of my heavy paws forward.
"It's a . . ." Destiny's brother knew he was in trouble once I transformed. I didn't particularly enjoy frightening him, but if he gave up peacefully, then I wouldn't have to kill him.
"It's a real damn wolf!" Zoan couldn't control his voice. I knew he was frightened. To the Wolf Islands, we were just a myth. With one claw, I could rip him to shreds. "How is that even possible, full shifters are extinct!"
"That's my business," I confronted him. "Are you going to really try and dust me in this form? How do you even know it would work on me?"
"I don't, but it should." Zoan's voice wasn't confident.
"Zoan." Kyra's voice was panicky. "There's a wolf after me? I don't understand, how can a . . . ?"
Zoan's legs were shaking, but he was trying to hide it by holding up the dust like a weapon. "This is a mistake. Destiny isn't like you, she's just a weak woman with no knowledge of pleasure or anything. She won't be able to satisfy you."
Ugh. I took a step his way, and the fear increased in his voice.
"I will dust you and it could cause brain damage!"
He headed toward me. I could have dodged him and ripped at his flesh, but with the new knowledge I had about Destiny's vacation and her swarming with 'cretins'? There was no reason to hurt him. He was just a concerned brother. No different than an average person.
No different than I, if I had to be concerned about my sister.
I tried to keep dodging him, tried to keep him away while he kept trying to throw dust at me. It wasn't as easy to keep dodging on a small train though. I just wasn't left with any other choice.
POV Destiny
It felt like a part where I should be watching everything in slow motion considering how important and life changing it had been. But, real life didn't work that way. Everything was in real time as I watched the dust in Zoan's hand get swung in front of him. The wolf came from the left, much faster than I ever knew an animal could move.
"I am done with you, are you ready to end this?"
My brother. He was going to be sliced to bits because of his stupidity if he didn't stop. Zoan held up his arm to block him. "Just give it, it's not worth your life!"
"I'm sorry." Zoan grabbed his tablet out of the bag, went to her permissions page, and filled it out. He held it out toward the wolf, although his hands were trembling. I didn't blame him. A fabled shifter was going to kill him if he didn't obey.
The wolf wasn't appeased though, he just stared at the tablet. He knocked the tablet away, and still grabbed my brother and started to bite at him! "Zoan!" He didn't bite his skin though, he was ripping off his vest? Then-
"Give me your shirt, Cretin," the wolf yelled at him. Zoan took off his shirt.
The wolf had changed back, and had kept his back to me as he got my brother's shirt on, muttering. I couldn't hear what he was muttering about. He didn't seem pleased though that he had to dodge my brother. The only thing that gave me some light hope was that he never actually scratched my brother. He only dodged Zoan and took his vest and shirt for his own modesty apparently.
That was also a very high sign that I might be fine. Signs could be read wrong, but I would hold onto that hope.
"You absolutely stupid human," he yelled as he finished buttoning up his shirt. "Of all the absolute worst things." He could barely speak, mostly muttering again under his breath. He looked out from the train. "I am too far out now, I can't get you back to the station, and now? I have some insipid human mate donated to me by the world's dumbest brother."
What? What did he just say? "Donated to you?" I asked him. "What do you mean donated to you, you were ready to fight for-"
"For you two to get off of this train," he said as he gritted his teeth. "I don't have any choice. The others aren't going to be happy about this."
Human. He called her human.
"You just wanted me to take her off the train?" Now Zoan was getting into it again. "Then why didn't you just back down?"
"I wasn't the one who brought out the dust powder." Devin sighed, holding his head in his hands. "Okay, deep breath, Devin. Maybe this will work itself out," he spoke to himself out loud. "This won't be too bad I'm sure." He looked back toward me. "Okay. It's just a tablet. This can be reversed."
Reversed? Of course it couldn't. "That's iron clad, Mister Devin Oliv . . ." Shoot what was it?
"Devin Oliver Olivacea," he said for her gently. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get so angry with you," he apologized to her. "I was more angry at your brother, but you did say I was a challenger, and I believe that is what set him off."
Well? This guy scored points for still staying polite. "You asked for my entire name, and you gave me your entire name."
"That means you have to sick your brother on me?" he questioned me.
Where was this guy from? "That's how a challenger starts a challenge."
He seethed, but not real angrily afterwards as he gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Mads did warn me I should look closer into your rituals before taking this on. I guess I'm the real one to blame."
This guy. Who was this guy? Why did he talk like he didn't understand the most common things? Why did he treat us like we were somehow inferior to him, and then start apologizing? "Your own faux pas?"
"Yes, I guess it was my mistake," he said as he bowed. "Sorry. Anyhow. I, um?"
POV: Devin
Really, Mads didn't have to come swinging in to hit them that hard on the head. "Sorry again." Destiny was out, and her brother Zoan was tackled down into unconsciousness pretty fast too.
Mads just stood there, obviously disappointed.
"Catch a train, we've got special permissions, it won't be hard. One day here and one day back," Mads said to me with a side eyed glare. "This was the easiest mission to accomplish, Devin."
"She jumped on the train thinking her brother took off," I tried to explain, but he didn't want to hear it. "Her brother did something with his tablet saying I owned her."
"Then this is really the stupid halfies fault." Mads seemed to get it. "It's fine. What matters is, did you get it?"
Yes. I showed him the research and the specimens. Wolf Islands was the only place humans wouldn't look for it, so it made sense for their scientists to work undercover on Wolf Islands.
Now, the information was ours.