Brotherhood of Cain (Werewolf/Mafia)

Chapter Eleven: Wolfie

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." - Don Corleone

Chapter Eleven

Ethel's POV

Towering trees with leaves the color of lemons formed a canopy above my head. Bright crimson Maples lined the road. Wild green brush climbed up thick trunks and grew along the rolling forest floor. The sun had lowered in the sky and faint shadows brushed through the leaves and glanced upon the windshield.

The Jeep rolled over the rough dirt path that led into Brotherhood of Cain territory. Their land encompassed thousands of acres through everlasting woods and deep rivers. I admired the beauty of their untarnished land as I steadily hit the gas. Tycho's head bobbed out of the window and his pink tongue pressed against the glass.

The Jeep gunned over a hill and suddenly the trees parted to reveal a stone mansion. Correction, a stone castle. A running river sloped along the east side of the house and curved to cut across the front of it. An old, rock bridge connected this side of the land to the clearing that adapted across a flat area affront green mountains.

Shock swept over me as I parked the Jeep and got out to crane my head and look at the castle. It had to have been built in the early thirteen hundreds with a hardy, ivy-covered fence that stopped me from seeing anything other than three enormous towers that were built as tall as the coniferous trees.

I grabbed the book bag and swung it over my back. Tycho jumped out of the car and we shared a look before bolting over the bridge. My boots clicked over the ancient stone and I grinned. The hour drive over here meant nothing compared to this beauty. It was hard to believe Citadel had this fortress just along its mountains, hidden away from the poverty and raging nightlife.

I listened to the river rush below my feet. The fence had an arched opening with two empty towers on either side and two wolves circling the moon in an engraving along the middle of the arch. I would come back and look over the gatehouse later but for know I raced to get a look at Draven's castle. Oh, I hated him. He could afford this frigid, stone haven while I was stuck with cold water and rats.

As I rushed through the tunnel, I finally got a full look at Draven's castle. It had to have been five stories, without even counting the towers. The stone that had been used to build it was a slate grey that had been worn by the elements and gave the castle an overall abandoned feeling.

There were no windows along the first few floors, presumably to stand up to assault. One tower shot to the heavens and connected to two smaller ones along the front of the castle by rough stone walls. My gaze wandered over the eroded walls and to the mountains behind it. The scene highlighted the centuries this castle had braved, the wars its fought, the people its killed.

A gravel path wove from the arch to travel through green grass and arrived at a broad wooden door. As I neared the castle I noticed a speared gate that rested over the door, making breaking in virtually impossible.

I brushed a hand over the freezing stone and marveled at the sheer power this castle emitted.

I didn't bother knocking and pulled the locks on the door. Yanking it up and to the right, I repeated the process with the lower one. When I pushed the door open, it gave a low groan and Tycho and I stepped in.

A chill slid down my spine. The floor was a pale marble that reflected everything in the room and seemed to suck up the light casted from twin braziers on each side of the door. A sprawling marble staircase stood fifty feet back and extended up to each wing of the house. The room was bare of any furniture save a dangling chandelier with fires lit on rods along the curve.