A Werewolf Fantasy
Chapter 36

Inside Nikjin's luxurious longhouse, they sat opposite each other but said nothing. While Nikjin was immersed in his thoughts, Erin wondered why his entire community was eerily quiet.

She knew that the time was probably somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m. judging by the time she slept and when she woke up, and by the level of darkness outside. It has hard to tell the time accurately in a place that had no clocks or watches.

Still, why were there no sounds of owls hooting in the distance? Or dogs barking somewhere? Or a baby crying? Come to think of it, she didn't see any children when she came here yesterday. The place was teeming with adults but no children. Where were the kids?

She glanced at Nikjin and saw that he was still deep in thought, staring off into the distance while stroking his beardless chin as the wheels turned behind his eyes. Erin was tired of this creepy quietness.

She felt as if she was sitting in a graveyard and that thought bothered her. She needed to bring life back into this place by breaking the silence.

"Thank you for sending your servants to give my family some water to drink," she said, jolting him out of his thoughts. "I did not get a chance to express my gratitude to you earlier."

He stared at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. "Do you truly think that Zokman is trying to sabotage me, or did you just plant that seed of doubt in my heart to distract me?" He asked, ignoring her heartfelt vote of thanks.

The question caught her by surprise but she quickly recovered and came up with a diplomatic answer. She didn't want to throw Zokman under the bus without being certain that his intentions were indeed malicious.

"I cannot say for certain that he is trying to sabotage you, my lord," she said carefully.

"But I replace it strange that he believed that the warriors could survive for weeks without any kind of sustenance. That simply does not make any sense."

His eyes narrowed. "Is that a clever way of saying that I am stupid? Because I believed him."

She gasped. "No, my lord. I would never disrespect you like that."

"Stop with the 'my lord,' Luna. I know you do not mean it. You have been bold enough to call me by name since we met, why stop now?"

Erin didn't know what to say to that, so she remained quiet.

"I had thought that it would be exciting to crush your stubborn spirit and watch you wilt like Cheyenne and her sister-wives. But now that I am beginning to realize just how intelligent you are, I think your spunk will be an asset to me. I like a female who not only has guts but also wit, and you possess all of that, Luna."

"Why do you keep calling me Luna?"

"Because that is what you truly are, either as Edvana or Erin. Right now, you are both of them and that makes you even more dangerous. At least, Zokman was right about that part."

"People fear what they do not understand," she said solemnly. "I am not in any way dangerous, Nikjin."

He chuckled. "I do not expect you to admit to it if you indeed were. Where is the dream stone?"

The unexpected question caught her off guard. Was that one of his tactics for throwing people off balance mentally?

"Uh, I believe it is in my basket of clothing in Denai' Vena," she replied.

"How did you come by it?"

"My mother-in-law gave it to me on the night of my mating ceremony with Danshak."

"How did you come here then, if it was given to you here?"

"In the future, Danshak's reincarnated self gave it to me. He said it was passed down to him by his ancestors."

"I see," said Nikjin thoughtfully, stroking his chin again. "Tell me truthfully, why did you come to this era?"

She sighed. "What I said before is true. I came here because Danhsak's reincarnated self said he was my mate and that he could prove it to me.

"He gave me the dream stone and told me that it could take me to the past to confirm his claim. That's why I came here. I did not know that I was going to walk into a werewolf civil war."

"Interesting..." Nikjin mused. "Imagine returning to the future to see that Darren White is now the Chief of your clan, instead of Gary Silver. Would that not be something amazing?"

"Have you been to the future?" she asked in awe.

"Many times," he replied. "And I want my future self to occupy the position that he rightly deserves."

Erin was surprised. "Is that what this is about? Do you believe that you can change the future? From my perspective, all of this has happened before, I am only experiencing it for the first time because I don't have a memory of this time. And how do you know so much about the future?"

"I have been there once," he replied shortly.

"How? Do you also have a dream stone?"

He smirked. "Who needs a dream stone when there is Zokman with his amazing powers? Only now, I do not trust him fully anymore, thanks to you."

Her shoulders sagged. This conversation was all over the place - one minute he was thankful for her insight and intelligence, and the next minute he was expressing doubts about her intentions. She decided to use his tactics against him and catch him by surprise with a question.

"Why is your name Nikjin Whitehound and not Nikjin Smallchief?"

He smiled slowly. "I was right. You are very intelligent indeed. Not many people have asked me that question before."

She shrugged. "Perhaps they were too afraid to ask."

"I agree. You should be afraid of me too, Luna. There are many things that I am capable of that you do not know."

"Consider me warned," she said with a hint of a smile. She didn't know why she felt as if a kind of friendship was forming between her and Nikjin. She will tread carefully though because she knew deep down that she could not trust him to keep his word when the chips were down.

"Vak Smallchief is not my blood brother. My mother married his father after mine died when I was still a young boy. He came into his werewolf power in his youth when he had become a well-respected warrior in the land. I begged to be converted into a werewolf too and he obliged.

"I was made a white werewolf because of my fair hair, and so I thought it fitting to name myself Whitehound. That was how I became Nikjin Whitehound, but I was never a Smallchief. We are not related by blood."

"I see..." said Erin, intrigued by this new revelation from her captor. "Which means you now want your lineage to be the ruling Alphas."

He laughed. "I have no lineage, Luna. I shall become Alpha King and rule for as long as I want!"

Erin was confused by his declaration. "I don't understand. Don't you have children?"

"No. I have never wanted them and any female stupid enough to become pregnant by me has been put to death for it. Now they all know to take precautions before coming to me because they know that they will pay with their life if they do become pregnant."

Erin's confusion doubled. Was this man a raving lunatic? "How then do you intend to rule forever if you have no successors to continue your name?"

Nikjin grinned widely, looking very impressed with himself. "Only people who die need successors, not me. I am immortal."