Wolf Dominion Volume 2
Chapter 43

The Elite humans’ spaceship has landed on the outside half of Destor, on the top of a plateau, confidently above us. Literally towering above the crumbling city, their ship looks like a small advanced city of it’s own.

With the Dominator’s quick words upon our return, to each Alliant Dominion, the word spread quickly – we had to obey.

Them. The new arrivals.

No Dominion believed Skye was joking, so in shock and confusion – they follow his basic order, which is to congregate together.

Everyone is starving, weak and not able to fight anyway. They stand bewildered in the streets.

While a relatively handsome human comes toward us, with a battalion of soldiers protecting him at all times. They are dwarfed by the crowds, who part and make way.

This man coming to us is Enrique, he is dressed like an emperor, with very fine silk navy clothes and a cloak of his own that shimmers almost invisible with certain movements, even with the sun gone and the moon high.

Enrique with his small escort from the ship is albeit ready – and we are not.

All we can do is stand to face him, united and together. He wanted to see Wolf Dominion’s leaders, and that’s what he was getting. The rest of the Dominions are scattered together on the street in one big crowd of anticipation.

If anything, perhaps the starving Genesis think there will be the promise of food in that ship.

My own sudden appearance, to say the least, was so shocking and fast – barely any member of Wolf Dominion could react, let alone any of my Alphas. I just choose to stand between Hades and Skye, where I feel, strangely enough, safest for this moment.

Skye has informed Vastian, Mila and Raygar as much as he could, but they stand behind us, with Fyre and Ryder behind them.

Skye, Hades and I needed to improvise so we decided to take charge and face Enrique together.

Enrique speaks quietly to his guards from a small distance away from us, across the main road dotted with growing weeds out of cracks in the asphalt. All the human entourage smile and look friendly enough – while their leader also grins as he turns toward us, making the final approach on his own without his backup.

“Alpha Skye, look at you!” Enrique calls out, his eyes sparkling, “Hello, hello,” he turns to the crowd, “Everyone, hello! I’m the founder of Wolf Dominion,” he turns to Skye again, “And I’m here to welcome you into our arms. This is a monumental moment in history. And also expense,” he chuckles at his own joke.

“Why did you create us to be this way?” Skye asks Enrique, pointing at him, “Different from you,” Skye looks Enrique up and down.

Think of a small child sized human, who is actually a relatively tall adult, dressed as a king, talking to a giant almost two and a half times his size.

“Great question,” Enrique clasps his hands together, as he looks up at all of us in awe at our size from up close, though he keeps a reasonable distance of about twenty feet, as he licks his lips nervously all of a sudden, he eventually comes up with a quiet response for Skye, “…although gene manipulation is a very easy thing for us – we wanted old souls, learnt resilience, experience… with a taste for victory… the Elite are excited to meet you all...” Enrique gulps, and looks at the ship, “Founders, like I, created your Dominions. I’m an engineer you see, but individual sponsors have spent trillions to build each of you. Although we never expected all Dominions to be… alive on Earth,” he chuckles nervously and thumps his chest and clears his throat.

“It’s an alliance,” Skye explains, “I am the Dominator.”

Enrique raises both his brows and goes silent. He’s stunned. And I hear a little buzzing in the air, coming from his ear. Skye, Hades and I all look at Enrique’s face, and he quickly covers his ear with his hand, smiling slyly at us.

“You never asked for our consent,” Skye adds, a bit more aggressively, just to test out the level of fear in Enrique.

Enrique’s whole body seems impacted by the death drawl that hits him now, and he backs up multiple steps, swaying a bit dramatically, before answering, “Any legal matter 14,000 years prior to the present, is no legal matter at all,” with a friendly manner, straightening his back, he adds, “Do not ruminate on that past. Here we are, we –”

“Here we are,” Skye interrupts him, simply repeating his statement, far more powerfully, “What do you want from us, Enrique?” Skye asks, boldly.

“We had a vote,” Enrique motions to the spaceship, “I mean it doesn’t matter to you but…” Enrique sees the flare in Skye’s eyes, so he quickly pulls out a official scroll from his pocket, “These are your rights.”

Skye is visibly confused, but reaches for it anyway, “I suggest you read them out, in your loud voice?” Enrique immediately runs backwards after Skye snatches the scroll.

He opens it up.

And he turns to the expectant crowd.

“GENESIS BEASTS,” Skye begins, then immediately falls silent, as he keeps reading, eyes fast – mouth still.

“Read them out,” I tell Skye, “Tell everyone what they want. They want to know.”

“YOUR RIGHT IS TO BE CORDIAL… DUTIFUL… RIGHTEOUS… and VISCIOUS FOR YOUR… ELD-RS.”

Eld-Rs.

Fucking hell.

They were the ones who manipulated us in the first place, guiding us to make awful decisions, somehow infiltrating us – while living in safety with the Elite humans, with whatever technology kept them separate from Genesis in the first place.

Transcendence for them, I speculate, could cross the universe. They had been advisors in Meridian form – small Genesis forms, more human-like.

If they had lived 14,000 years past the Greatest War Earth had ever seen back in the 3000s, and we arrived into the future, not their past to fight their war… how the hell did they live so many millennia, in that ship. They’re probably immortal like us.

Skye continues, after letting the first line sink in, “CREATION BY ELD-RS IS YOUR PRIVILEGE. SERVE YOUR ELD-RS FAITHFULLY. GENESIS, THE ONE FORM, MESSIERS, THE TWO FORM, MERIDIAN, THE HALF FORM, ZYRE, THE ORIGINAL FORM, BEASTS, THE PETS… SHOW US RESPECT, GET DOWN ON YOUR FAITHFUL KNEES,” Skye finishes the paper and scrunches it up in his hand. He drops the paper onto the floor and turns to Enrique, “No.”

“Mortar Skye,” Enrique says carefully, some kind of code language. Here we go. He comes a surprise.

We all wait in anticipation.

When nothing happens, Enrique whispers under his breath, “Messiers don’t succumb... Who of you are Messier already?”

“Don’t tell him,” Hades suggests to Skye.

“Please get on your knees,” Enrique asks, “Please, I don’t want to damage anyone,” when no one moves, he rolls his eyes and faces the crowd, screaming out, “MORTAR. MORTAR. MORTAR.”

Like a wave – the crowd fall back upon each other, as they all start to have seizures one by one.

Behind us, even Raygar, Mila, Vastian, Fyre and my son have all collapsed from the code.

The only ones standing are Skye, Hades and I.

“Two Messier and a Zyre,” Enrique talks into his ear piece, “Please put your aim on them now. DON’T MOVE,” he puts out a hand, fingers straight – no tremble.

Every ounce of kindness in his voice and feigned nerves was an act from before.

Enrique is in total control.

Skye, Hades and I stand still, choosing not to show emotion.

If we move.

We’ll die.

Maybe.

We’re not sure how valuable we were.

Skye, Hades and I start to hear marching boots, from far away – it starts to get loud.

As we look around the city – thousands of human soldiers appear from out of nowhere, and start to march forward with equipment to pick up the fallen Genesis and haul them back into the ship.

Enrique is still standing back, hand up at us.

Eventually after facing away from us and communicating quietly to his Elite friends back in his ship, he turns back around to us and his eyes finally focus on me.

“Come forward please,” he asks me, ice cold.

I walk past Hades and Skye before they can stop me, and I drag my metal foot a little because I’m still weak and getting weaker. Could the promise of food be worth all this shit right now? Maybe.

My hand is scabbed from where I cut it on the metal pipe in the Acklen wreckage. I’m covered in dust and my hair is a mangy mess. I couldn’t look anymore dishevelled. Barely fearsome, just very wiry and still far taller than Enrique.

As I stand before him now, he takes a single step toward me, his brown eyes cunning.

Upon that look, we all hear a growl permeate the air.

It comes from the basement behind us, where Xrat was the only one chained up.

Enrique looks past me to see the eyes of the beast staring out from the basement of one of the crumbling buildings. He tries to ignore my wolf’s warning.

“Zyres are kind of like mistakes,” Enrique tells me, “You and your wolf – you have too many defects. So many that Skye remade you, so according to our way of rights, you are his creation. However, he has no rights. They belong to me. So now you belong to me. But I know you won’t obey me, like they will learn to, they’re fast learners afterall,” Enrique speaks fast, “You, you’re slow. So I have a special proposition for you, Luna… make Skye and Hades kneel for me – because it’s an embarrassment it’s taking this long… and in return I’ll give you special consideration. Since you have a different kind of influence. I’ll need your help to keep these two Messier in line. They’ve been woken too early.”

“Why won’t they seize like the rest of them?” I ask.

“Messier don’t succumb to anything, they’re the best and immune from any kind of control – but we were only going to wake all Messier forms when they were inclined to obey and understand the nature of their position,” Enrique hopes I catch on, but when I say nothing, he loses his patience with me, “You want power, take it as it’s offered,” he snaps at me.

That wasn’t what I wanted.

That’s not what someone like me wanted.

But.

I smile anyway.

“Deal,” I hold out my hand – and Enrique just looks at it in disgust, refuses to shake it, and instead he inclines his head.

“Deal,” he murmurs.

Enrique returns to his soldiers, the army of Elite humans run around us like ants – while Skye and Hades wait for me.

I walk back up to them.

“Kneel for them,” I tell them.

I don’t explain why.

Now was not the time for explanations or discussions.

Skye and Hades both watch me, then share a small look with each other, then watch me again.

I look at the ground, then back at their eyes.

Without hesitation, their knees touch dirt.

There.

“Good,” I add, smiling just a little at the look on Skye’s face. He’s trying very hard not to let a single expression slip.

Hades? With his ripped pants raised up in the middle; he’s hard. Yep.

Let’s just ignore that.

I turn to Enrique, and now, he’s impressed.

“Thank you, Ryder, now you come with us,” Enrique walks off, leading the way.

The soldiers flank me but keep a large distance.

I am alien to them.

But right now, being different was all I had left to bargain with apparently.

When I look over my shoulder, Skye and Hades have weighted nets thrown over them.

Then they too, are hauled away.

“There are human survivors out in the forest,” I tell Enrique.

“Survivors?” Enrique looks back at me, “What do you mean?”

I stay respectfully behind as I warn him, “We were killing them all before you came.”

“Skye was designed to be vicious,” Enrique laughs sharply, “I’m not surprised.”

“A word of advice, Enrique,” I take his silence as an offer to continue, “If you fail to contain them – humans will face extinction. You’ve created your own demise.”

“Ryder, we know more than you, about all of you. We’ve watched your progress on Genesis. It’s been great entertainment. We’ve heard every word. We’ve seen everything. It’s been a hell of a drama. So I am aware of Skye’s tendency for dominion. That’s the point.”

“Drama?” I pick out that word. Their drama has been hell to us.

“We’re bored creatures. We like to watch destruction. It’s even better to control the cycle of life, death and even some romance.”

“So you don’t just want us to kill for you,” which I already speculated, but I pretend to be oblivious.

“Your sponsors want to fuck you,” Enrique smiles back at me, creepy, “You all represent sex and power… and of course protection. There is the Elite and there is the general populace on board. As always. Oh, you know how it goes. The Elite need to show our dominance as well.”

I don’t respond, he’s said all I needed to hear.

Slaves to all their desires. It doesn’t scare me. Because I know exactly how it’s going to end.

“Why are you so quiet now?” Enrique asks, “Resigned? Maybe a little scared? There’s nothing to be afraid of. All we’re doing now, is segregating them all to their sponsors, and then they’ll be let free, I assure you.”

“Okay, but how are you going to control Skye and Hades?”

“I’ll admit it’s a surprise to me,” Enrique looks back at me and motions me forward, “You’re also surprisingly easy to talk to. Walk with me.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve only ever wanted peace.”

“Ha,” Enrique isn’t sure he can believe that, so he goes on to what he’s thinking about, “I may need your continued help with the two Messier.”

“You want me to train them?”

“Yes… keep them calm, distracted, please. Can you do that? I’ll provide you with your own accommodation. In fact, we can have a lengthy discussion about what you’d need to make all this happen.”

Huh.

Okay.

Interesting.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“I’m listening.”