The scent of fear hung thick in the Royal Galaxy auditorium like copper pennies and broken dreams, but it was the predatory hunger radiating from the lighting booth that made every instinct Ethan possessed scream *danger*.
**[ALPHA THREAT DETECTED]**
**[SNIPER POSITIONED: REAR BALCONY]**
**[SILVER BULLETS CONFIRMED]**
**[TARGET: ELIMINATION PRIORITY ALPHA]**
**[PACK SAFETY: COMPROMISED]**
The banner stretched across the auditorium like a declaration of war: "REJECT THE LOW-CLASS BOARD MEMBER!" But beneath the human hatred, something far more ancient stirred—the kind of malice that belonged to creatures who hunted in moonlight and fed on terror.
Board Member Sun Zhiqiang stood behind the podium like an alpha marking territory, his expensive suit unable to mask the predatory gleam in eyes that reflected light just a fraction too brightly. When he smiled, his canines seemed sharper than they should be.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Sun's voice carried an undertone that made the hair on every neck stand at attention, "we face an unprecedented threat to our pack—I mean, our institution. This *mongrel* claims ownership while parading his whelp like some kind of prize."
The crowd's laughter held an edge of howling that echoed off marble walls, their voices creating a symphony of cruelty that would have made demons take notes. But underneath the human mockery, Ethan caught something else—the subtle scent markers of a supernatural community protecting its territory.
Lily pressed against his leg, her small hand gripping his pants with desperate strength. Her new dress—the first pretty thing she'd ever owned—suddenly felt too bright, too hopeful for this den of predators who looked at her like fresh meat.
"Daddy," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the pack mentality surrounding them, "they smell angry. Like the scary dogs from my nightmares."
That innocent observation—a child's natural sensitivity to supernatural auras—detonated something primal in Ethan's carefully controlled human facade.
**[DING!]**
**[MATE PROTECTION PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED]**
**[ALPHA DOMINANCE CHALLENGE: DETECTED]**
**[BLOODLINE THREAT ASSESSMENT: CRITICAL]**
**[SHIFTING RESTRAINTS: REMOVED]**
**[PERMISSION TO HUNT: GRANTED]**
---
Sun wasn't finished establishing dominance. Following whispered instructions crackling through his earpiece—orders from the sniper who needed chaos to mask an assassination—he grabbed a bottle of what looked like Red Bull but smelled wrong, metallic and sharp.
He hurled it at Lily's feet with predatory precision, the crimson liquid exploding across her white sneakers like drops of blood marking territory.
"There!" Sun's laugh carried the undertone of a snarl, "Now the little bitch looks more appropriate for her breeding! Maybe she can practice scavenging while she's down there with the other strays!"
The auditorium erupted with sounds that were too harsh, too wild to be entirely human—a cacophony of pack mentality that would have made wolves ask them to keep it down.
Lily stared at her ruined shoes—the shoes that had made her feel like a princess—and tears gathered in eyes that suddenly seemed to catch the light with an otherworldly shimmer.
"Daddy," she whispered, her voice carrying a tremor that spoke of awakening power, "my pretty shoes... and they smell like the bad dreams. The ones with teeth."
Ethan knelt with movements so controlled they were terrifying, each gesture calculated with predatory precision. He pulled out a pristine handkerchief and began cleaning his daughter's shoes, his touch gentle enough to handle butterfly wings despite the claws threatening to extend from his fingertips.
"It's okay, little moon," his voice was soft as summer rain despite the storm building in his chest like molten silver, "This is just a game called Truth or Dare. And the people who lose this game..."
He looked up at Sun with eyes that flashed gold in the stage lights, his smile revealing teeth that seemed sharper than they had moments before. "Well, they become prey."
He lifted Lily with infinite gentleness, covering her ears with hands that trembled with barely restrained transformation. "Close your eyes, sweetheart. Daddy's going to show everyone what happens when you threaten a wolf's cub."
**[LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED]**
**[BUILDING SECURITY OVERRIDE: COMPLETE]**
**[HUNT PERIMETER: ESTABLISHED]**
**[NO ESCAPE ROUTES: CONFIRMED]**
Every door sealed with the finality of a trap closing, magnetic locks engaging like the sound of bones snapping. The auditorium transformed from gathering place to hunting ground, where the only way out was through Ethan's mercy.
And mercy was not in a wolf's nature when his pack was threatened.
---
Ethan walked onto the stage with the fluid grace of an apex predator claiming territory, his presence somehow making the massive space feel like a den where he was the undisputed alpha.
"Ladies and gentlemen," his voice carried through the sound system with a resonance that made every supernatural in the room freeze in recognition, "let's play a little game. I'm going to tell you some truths about what you really are. Uncomfortable truths. Deadly truths."
His smile revealed canines that were definitely longer than human normal. "And if you don't like what you hear... well, that's what makes it a hunt."
The crowd shifted with the restless energy of a pack sensing a stronger alpha, their earlier confidence evaporating like morning mist before the rising sun.
**[THE HUNTER'S SIGHT: MAXIMUM POWER]**
**[SCANNING ALL SUPERNATURAL SIGNATURES]**
**[ACCESSING PACK HIERARCHIES, TERRITORIAL DISPUTES, BLOOD DEBTS]**
**[COMPILING LEVERAGE MATERIAL]**
Ethan's gaze swept across the crowd like moonlight revealing hidden monsters, and suddenly he could see everything—every shifted form, every supernatural alliance, every blood oath that bound them to darker powers.
"Mrs. Chen," he said, pointing to a woman whose designer pearls couldn't hide the faint scent of grave dirt, "tell everyone about your midnight feeding habits. Specifically, how you've been draining the life force from hospice patients. Their families think they died peacefully in their sleep."
Mrs. Chen's face went corpse-pale, her glamour flickering to reveal hollow cheeks and eyes like empty graves. "That's impossible. No one could know about the feeding contracts—"
"Mr. Rodriguez," Ethan continued, his voice carrying the authority of an alpha addressing subordinates, "your Harvard MBA is impressive, but not as impressive as your ability to phase through bank vaults. The FBI thinks they're hunting a ghost. They have no idea they're tracking a wraith."
Rodriguez's solid form wavered like heat shimmer, his wife staring at him with the horror of someone discovering their spouse was literally a monster.
"And you, Mrs. Patterson," Ethan's gaze found a woman whose phone had been recording Lily's humiliation, "those 'book club meetings' you attend? I don't think your husband knows you're actually participating in blood rituals that would make vampires jealous."
One by one, he stripped away their human facades with surgical precision. Exposed the supernatural predators hiding among the elite. Revealed the feeding territories that carved up the city like a butcher's map. The auditorium fell silent except for the sound of carefully constructed lives crashing and the soft whimpering of creatures who'd just met something higher on the food chain.
---
Finally, his attention settled on Sun Zhiqiang, who was sweating with the acrid scent of a beta facing an alpha's judgment.
"And you, Sun. The star of tonight's hunt. Tell everyone about the silver bullets in that sniper's rifle. The ones specifically designed to kill something that isn't entirely human."
Sun's knees buckled like a wolf submitting to pack dominance. "Please, Alpha—I mean, sir—it wasn't my choice. The Abyss Watcher has my pack's bloodline contracts—"
"Can you explain why you were planning to disappear after my assassination? Why your escape route leads directly to a supernatural sanctuary that doesn't extradite to human authorities?"
The man's wife—whose scent now revealed her as something that hunted in swamps and fed on fear—let out a shriek that shattered three windows. She launched herself at him with claws extended, screaming about pack loyalty and blood oaths in a language that predated human civilization.
In the chaos that followed—supernatural creatures dropping their human masks, the sound of furniture splintering under inhuman strength, panic spreading through the crowd like wildfire—Ethan looked up at the lighting booth where death waited with silver bullets.
He mouthed two words that carried the weight of an alpha's command, his lips moving with the precision of someone delivering a death sentence:
"Kill him. Now."
The choice was simple: eliminate the compromised asset, or face the wrath of something that made government black ops look like children playing dress-up.
The muffled crack of a suppressed rifle cut through supernatural chaos like thunder announcing the apocalypse.
Sun Zhiqiang's head exploded in a spray of silver-tainted blood that painted the backdrop like abstract art created by a madman with a brush made of violence and betrayal.
---
In that instant, as blood misted through the air and supernatural screams reached frequencies that shattered glass, Ethan covered Lily's eyes with hands that trembled on the edge of transformation.
"Wow, little moon! Did you see that amazing magic trick? The mean man just performed the most spectacular disappearing act! Isn't that the most incredible thing you've ever seen?"
Lily giggled against his chest, completely shielded from the supernatural horror unfolding around them. "Really, Daddy? That was just pretend? It smelled so scary!"
"The very best magic always smells a little scary," Ethan said, his voice warm with unconditional love even as creatures of nightmare fled around them like the end of the world. "Now let's count to ten while everyone cleans up from the magic show, okay?"
"Ten... nine... eight... seven..."
Her innocent voice counting down while supernatural beings trampled each other in panic, while silver-poisoned blood pooled on marble like spilled moonlight, while the hidden world's elite discovered what real terror felt like when the apex predator decided to hunt.
"Six... five... four... three..."
Security guards pounded on sealed doors like prisoners trying to escape their own execution. Parents clutched children who were starting to show signs of awakening supernatural heritage. The wealthy and powerful reduced to prey animals by the simple realization that money couldn't buy safety from something that rewrote the natural order with a thought.
"Two... one... zero!"
By the time she reached zero, Ethan had carried her out through an exit that unlocked itself at his approach, leaving behind a scene that would haunt survivors for the rest of their unnaturally long lives.
---
That night, after Lily was safely asleep, dreaming of magic shows and disappearing acts, Ethan's phone buzzed with a message that made his blood sing with anticipation:
*"Impressive display of dominance tonight, Lord Polaris. But the hunt isn't over. If you want to see your mate again—what's left of her after five years of our... hospitality—come to Wonderland Amusement Park. Midnight. Come alone, or I start turning cubs into the same kind of art your daughter enjoyed watching tonight. The moon will be full. Perfect hunting weather. - Ghost"*
Ethan crushed the phone in his bare hand, plastic and metal crumbling like bones between fingers that had sprouted claws without his conscious permission.
Then he knelt beside his bed and pulled out a black case that hadn't been opened in five years, its surface scarred by battles against things that officially didn't exist. Inside, wrapped in silk like religious relics, lay the tools of his former hunt: an ancient katana whose blade was etched with silver runes that glowed faintly in moonlight, and a mask carved from obsidian to resemble something that hunted gods.
Five years ago, these items had belonged to Lord Polaris, the apex predator who walked between worlds and left no survivors to tell tales.
Tonight, they belonged to a father whose cub had been threatened by creatures who'd forgotten that some bloodlines should never be challenged.
Ethan lifted the mask, feeling its familiar weight like greeting a pack brother who specialized in ending supernatural threats permanently. The moment he put it on, the gentle father would disappear, replaced by something that made ancient monsters check under their beds.
"An amusement park," he murmured, his voice already changing as the mask settled into place, transforming from human warmth to predatory precision. "How perfectly poetic. I've always enjoyed burying monsters where children used to laugh."
The Supreme Dad System hummed with deadly anticipation:
**[HUNT MODE: FULLY ACTIVATED]**
**[MERCY PROTOCOLS: DELETED]**
**[MORAL CONSTRAINTS: OVERRIDDEN]**
**[OBJECTIVE: TOTAL PACK ELIMINATION]**
**[WELCOME BACK, ALPHA POLARIS]**
**[LET THE BLOOD MOON RISE]**
The war was about to end in the most spectacular way possible.
And only one alpha would be howling at the sunrise.