CHAPTER 5: HIS WEAKNESS

“It wasn’t a normal assassin. I’m sure that the assassin knew about Anastacia’s true identity,” Anastagio said as he slammed his fist on the table and stood up in anger. He took deep breaths to control his wolf as much as he could.

One of the things that can get him to lose control was when his sister was at stake. It was the first time that he actually felt like rampaging when the doctor said she died. It took him a while to process it, but he was glad that a single look from him made the doctors and nurses understand that he didn’t take no for an answer. They began reviving her, and he thanked God that it worked. He knew that she could make it. But now, it was his turn to find the fucker who tried to take his twin from him.

Anastagio began pacing in his office when he realized that the bullet used to shoot his little sister was not just an ordinary bullet from a typical gun that a person can acquire from a store. It was a bullet made up of silver and was laced with poison herbs that were known to be lethal to werewolves.

“Don,” Jerome, his head scientist, said while he frantically typed on his laptop placed above his office table, “According to my research, the herd is only available in certain mountains near Southeast Asia. It would be impossible for a typical mafia man to infuse that herb to a bullet if they didn’t know that the Sotto Capo was not a regular human being.”

Anastagio agreed. His sister was known as the underboss, his right-hand man, and his twin sister. The mafia world knew that she was a force to be reckoned with, but he also knows that the mafia world is not that knowledgeable enough to know about the world of the wolves. It was forbidden for them to harm humans who are innocent, as it would drive their wolves mad with every kill, unless the human is already fully aware of their world.

“Jerome, make sure that you get the full data from any of the guards that were with Anastacia during the shooting. Make sure that all the information that we can get on this bastard shooter can be traced. I don’t care if you have to use every ounce of influence we have, I want you to bring that man or woman to me. I don’t care what kind of person that shooter is. Make sure that your Sotto Capo will be avenged.”

Anastagio was not someone who was usually hot headed, and he was normally the one who is more into the calm and collected persona. However, it was the kind of situation where he knew he could never dismiss the bastard responsible for it without anyone paying for what happened to his sister. 

Anastagio Pantazis was a man with a collected mind, but a thirst for vengeance. It was the thirst for justice and for blood that he knew he shared with his twin, even though he tried his best to deny it. One menacing hybrid was enough for the world, and he knew that his sister was worse. He needed to be better than her, because she needed more help than him. The thought of his sister and decided to calm down quickly.

“Ana,” Anastagio whispered beside his sister as he noticed her regain her consciousness. She had been asleep for over two days, but he was glad when he saw that her results were showing remarkable recovery from her wounds.

“Hey, sis, how are you doing?” He said again as he sat on the chair beside her bed. Ana gave him a confused look and tried to sit up, but she hissed in pain from the healing wounds.

“Wait,” he said and tried guiding her back to lay down again, “you’re still healing from the bullet wounds that you got. You need to make sure you’re fully healed before you even try to sit up.” 

He proceeded to pour a glass of water and helped her take a sip using the metal straw he specifically asked his men to provide in case his twin woke up and needed to drink. He was extra worried knowing that the moment she got hurt again, he might not be able to control his wolf.

“Gio,” Anastacia called as she looked more closely to her worried twin’s face, “wh-what happened? Why does my entire body hurt like hell?” she asked and closed her eyes again. She felt like her head was throbbing and it would explode at any moment.

“Tacia, don’t you remember anything?” he asked as he proceeded to turn off the lights. It was dark in the room, but being part wolves, they both didn’t need the light to see each other clearly.

“Well,” she began and cleared her throat, “I remember the shooting, and the fights before a masked bastard rained bullets on me.” She summed up the story in annoyance. She was beyond pissed at what had happened, because she vaguely remembers that a lot of her men were shot, and she already assumed that some of them didn’t make it out alive from the ambush.

“Gio, they were only bullets. I’ve been shot multiple times, but this is the first time that I feel like I’m dying, what kind of fucked up arsenals did those bastards use?” she asked angrily as she winced again when the pain went through her again like electricity.

“I’m guessing that whoever shot you and our men had an idea that you are a werewolf,” he explained to her about the herb that Jeremy had explained him. He also explained that the four bullets that were embedded in her leg, hand, abdomen, and side should have killed a regular werewolf. However, due to being a hybrid, she had increased recovery, more than a regular wolf in their pack.

“But brother…” Ana was confused again, “the only ones that know about our identities are our men and the monsters that helped make us. As far as I remember, our identities have not yet reached the Lykaios family’ radars. No one outside of our family should have known about us, nor about that damned herb.” She was annoyed that the pain was trying to cloud her thinking, but she was sure her anger was helping her focus more on the situation than the excruciating pain.

“Yeah, that’s what me and our men have been trying to find out until now. You’ve been asleep for two days and a half now, sis,” he said before sitting back on the b=chair beside her and releasing a deep and frustrated breath.

“Brother, what happened to the five people I’m with? What happened to our men?” His brother looked at her dead in the eye and she fought back the urge to stand up and destroy the room.

“None of them survived, Ana, I’m so sorry,” he said. The five people that were with her were a few of the men and women that she had trained herself. However, based on the footage that they got from the cameras on the cars, there were more than a dozen enemies, and all of them were armed with silver bullets coated by the moon herb.

“Gio, three of them were wolves and two of them were human. None of them even reached the age of thirty and they’re dead. They died protecting me,” she said as he saw her eyes turn a bit red. He wasn’t sure if it was from the tears that were trying to get out, or if it was from the rage building inside of her.

“Sotto Capo Anastacia Pantazis, shut the hell up!” Anastagio announced in a booming voice that made Ana feel like the room shook for a split second.

In an instant, Anastacia cooled down a bit and looked directly at her brother. Anastagio’s eyes looked at her and it glowed in its gold color, and she knew that her brother was serious. No matter how powerful Ana is, she submits to her Alpha and her Don, also, he is her older brother, and she had the natural urge to submit, but part of her wanted to fight as well.

Neither of the twins spoke, but Anastagio held his ground as he sat straighter and looked at his underboss, his beta, and his little sister with all the authority that he could muster. He didn’t want to shut her up, but when she gets too caught up in her emotions, she tends to be both reckless and untamable by anyone but him. He didn’t want to fight her beast, especially in her state. For now, all he could think of was to insist on his dominance.

Anastagio remembered that when they trained, it was Anastagio’s dominance that enabled him to handle a more powerful hybrid like his sister. The power of authority would always overcome her. However, as they both grew mature, he saw that his sister was growing more mature and he didn’t need to set his foot down as often, only when her life was in danger, or when the situation called for it.

Anastacia took a deep breath and released it before closing her eyes and looking back at her brother with her golden eyes. Her beast was attempting to challenge his authority, but she felt like even her beast knew when to bow down to the Alpha. The alpha growled a bit to her as a warning, and she returned the growl for about five seconds before she closed her eyes again for a few seconds and stopped growling. When Ana opened her eyes, it was back to its normal emerald, green eyes.

Her brother’s eyes still glowed gold, but he stopped growling. However, he still kept his pissed off expression to show her how serious he was and how much he hated her beast’s attempt on challenging his authority as an alpha. Anastagio took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes before opening it again with a calmer yet more serious expression.

“Alpha, I’m so sorry,” Anastacia said, “I didn’t mean to challenge you. Forgive me for my rash actions.” she said in a submissive tone as the tension between them instantly disappeared.

Ana only called her brother her Boss at work, her Don when surrounded by the mafia, and her Alpha when in the pack. She never wanted to challenge her brother, and she tried her best to suppress her beast. She knew that she was only the beta of the pack, and becoming the Alpha of a pack is not something she can do due to her tendency to rampage uncontrollably.

“Tacia,” Gio said, and he held his sister’s hand in his, “We couldn’t find any other information about the shooters and the ones that ambushed you because all of our men are gone, and most of the evidence was destroyed. The backup was too late, and with the number of people that attacked you, I’m just happy that you didn’t completely die on me.” He was frustrated.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she tried to think of what had happened.

Three days ago…

Anastacia was tasked to go to one of their hidden properties to train the new recruits that had begun transforming to their wolf state. Ana’s task was to discipline them and train them to increase their power of survival and offense. As for the other human recruits that she was supposed to train, she had two more men with her that could help her train them.

As the Sotto Capo of the mafia family and the Beta of the pack, she was the best fit to train all the men and women in their family. She and her five-men-team were traveling using three cars, and an explosion made two of the cars’ engines explode.

Thankfully, their cars were bullet proof, and as the engine exploded, they were all ready to fight. However, as the enemy approached at the end of the open road, Ana cursed when she realized that there were more than five cars approaching them, and there was only a total of six of them including Anastacia. 

“Attention,” she said through their earpieces, “I want all of you to run. We need to get out of here. Of the three cars, only my car in the middle is not damaged. I want all of us to be in the car and escape. I already sent a distress signal to the Don to help us, but we need to stay alive before help comes.” She said quickly and moved as she gave the orders.

More explosions happened, and she gave more instructions to her team. It took the enemy about three minutes to catch up, but Ana and her team were ready. They gave it their best shot until an explosion caused the car to crash, as all of them instinctively got out of the exploding car.

Ana saw how her five men fought every enemy that slowly arrived. She looked up and there was a man who had reached her. He was tall, but she realized all of them were covering their entire body with black clothes and masks.

Ana was fighting using her werewolf strength, but she couldn’t right rampaging or else, she might kill everyone including herself. The sounds of gunshots and screams rang in her ears as she realized that the enemies had the upper hand.

A few more seconds of fighting and she heard a loud chuckle behind her, and as she looked towards the voice, a gun pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger multiple times. Anastacia didn’t expect her body to fall. She gasped in pain, and as she bent forward, her eyes saw the man’s gun. It had a gold rose on it, and the exposed wrist of the man had a black rose tattoo on it.

Present day…

“That’s it, boss,” she said to her brother, “For now, that’s all I can remember. My head and my entire body still hurt. I’ll tell you more when I remember anything,” she said.

Whatever family tried to kill her made the mistake of not killing her. Anastacia felt her beast growl inside of her, and for the first time, her beast inside of her, Asteria, agreed.