Chapter 46: I'm The Superior Of The Guy You're Pretending To Be

'I'll cooperate,' Ran repeated to a dumbfounded Dingo.
She frowned at him when he didn't respond. She jangled her bonds. The silver burned her wrists, making her wince.
'Hello? Dingo? Are you there? I said I'll cooperate, so tell me about Caph.'
A sinister smile stretched across his handsome face. 'Ah, I've hit the sweet spot, haven't I? I was right,' he mused to himself. 'You don't really like Caph after all.'
Ran shrugged. 'Like you said, I'll do anything to achieve my goal. If Caph is behind my parents' death, then I will kill him myself.' The look she gave Dingo made his hackles rise. She meant it.
He smiled again. 'Good. We have a deal then.'
Slipping on a pair of gloves, he unlocked the silver handcuffs and began to undo the many knots tying Ran down to the arms and legs of the chair.
She watched him warily. 'How much do you know about what Cassiopeia has done?'
He glanced up at her and went back to work on the knots. 'I'm not telling you anything until you pledge to become my mistress and give Eridanus to me. You might still betray me.'
Ran nodded, rubbing her sore wrists where the silver scalded her. 'Yes, you should be careful. I don't like you very much. If you do anything repulsive, I might decide your information's not worth it.'
Dingo laughed. 'Oh Ran, it's worth it, believe me. My source is the horse's mouth.'
Just then, there was a beep and the door to the room opened. Nusha stormed in, slamming the door behind her, cursing under her breath.
She dropped the grocery bag on the bed and folded her arms.
'Why did you untie her?'
'Did you get my cigarettes?' Dingo asked.
Ran stared at the fairy-like female she had been forced to see on TV repeatedly kissing her boyfriend for hours on end. 'You got your information from Nusha?' she asked in disbelief. 'What does she know?'
Dingo dug through the grocery bag and pulled out a packet.
He lit a cigarette and sighed with pleasure, smoke filling the air. 'It's been a long night. Questions later.'
Nusha stalked up to Ran. 'Yeah, I know what happened to your daddy and mummy. Does that surprise you?'
Ran nodded, cracking her knuckles. 'No. It's disappointing actually.' With a quick motion, Nusha's head was jerked to the side. A red handprint glowing on her face. She flew backwards, crashing into the door of the hotel room.
Dingo's cigarette fell onto the white bedsheet as he gaped at Ran.
'What the hell—'
He was hauled from the bed and sent flying into Nusha, into the door. Ran had tossed Dingo through the air with enough strength to break down the fireproof door.
The two kidnappers fell into the hallway. Ran stalked after them.
Just as she stepped onto the carpeted corridor, the doors of the adjacent rooms were flung open and werewolves shifted into wolf form and leapt at Ran.

***

The hotelier uniform was too small for Caph. He was skinny to begin with, but apparently only in werewolf standards. This human male was much smaller than he. He resisted the urge to adjust the khaki vest for the hundredth time as he ascended with the lift and a few other staff members, a tray tucked under his arm.
The door opened on the eighth floor and he exited. After the other staff were whisked away, he let out a loud exhale that made the scratchy cloth of the shirt dig into his chest uncomfortably. He wandered down the corridor aimlessly, realising there was a major flaw in his plan.
There were only so many doors he could knock and shout, 'Room service!' before someone figured out he wasn't a hotelier at all.
Also, he thought morosely, returning to the staff elevator and pressing the button, it was unlikely Ran's kidnapper would order room service and attract unnecessary attention.
The lift door opened to reveal another hotelier. This man looked at his nametag and frowned.
Uh-oh.
Just before he was busted, a loud splintering sound startled them, followed by loud banging noises and snarling.
'Ran,' Caph breathed. He ordered the hotelier to inform security, and ran for the stairs.
The hotelier yelled after him, 'I'm the superior of the guy you're pretending to be!'
Blood roared in his ears as the sounds of conflict stopped abruptly.
Ran. Ran. Ran.
Caph checked floor after floor to no avail.
Each one was empty.
He had discarded the suffocating vest somewhere on the twelfth floor and was now on the sixteenth floor, drenched, his muscles pulsing with adrenaline.
Suddenly, snarling filled the air again, louder than before.
He burst out of the stairwell onto the seventeenth floor to see a Leo werewolf fly past his nose.
The air stank of metallic blood. It left ugly blotches on the patterned khaki carpet.
Caph stared at the carnage strewn along the corridor, his heart in his mouth.
'Of course, I lied!' Ran's voice rang out, a furious, commanding roar. He saw her, holding Dingo up against the wall by the neck, her arms half-shifted, claws bared.
Immediately, relief drenched him and he almost fell over from the overwhelming assurance.
'You became proud, Dingo. People change in ten years. I didn't surrender because I'm weak. I'm a hundred times stronger than you are.'
She scratched Dingo's face with her free hand, leaving a mark that would last forever. He roared in pain, blood running down his chin, his neck, drenching his shirt.
Ran bent over his crumpled form on the ground. 'One more thing. I love Caph, so I would never exchange my pack for something that would hurt him. You better leave him alone or I will kill you twice over.'