Nightclaw: Rampage

We last read Chapter 31, in which the werewolf villainess Carla Rosenblood a.k.a. Nightclaw bounds and darts through the thick woods in order to reach the main entrance of the Order of Blood's encampment, going over and under tree branches, through big puddles, and across towering tree stumps in the process. While on the way, she also takes on two regular wolves who issue a challenge to her; the rather one-sided fight is more of a curb-stomp, as Nightclaw initially lets them have their fun thinking that they're wounding her.....before grabbing one and throwing them against a tree stump—thus cracking their spine—and outright body-slamming the second one into the dirt. Then, she clamps her jaw around the neck of the one on the dirt and snaps it.....before leaping over to the one against the tree stump and ripping him in half, going to a rock perch afterwards and howling triumphantly after her victory.

She eventually reaches the entrance of the Order encampment.....but is initially surprised to see the bumbling werewolf guards Left and Right still standing at the entrance despite all of the other werewolves being asleep due to it being daytime. Left and Right explain that the alpha Remus had them work overtime—to keep an eye out for her ever since she left the Order momentarily a few nights ago—and promptly reveal that there is a hidden splinter faction within the Order of Blood that believes that Nightclaw is their true alpha rather than Remus, a revelation which the female werewolf is rather skeptical of at first.

According to Left, the splinter faction began forming all the way back in 2019, when Nightclaw first joined the Order as an official member. However, because they loved her so much, they respected her wishes, even when she took some time away from the Order to serve with the superhero team known as the Paragons. Since then, they've bided their time and remained in the shadows, feigning loyalty to Remus while they awaited her ultimate return.....and now, it may very well be that time.

Left brings Nightclaw to a rather unsettling and foreboding cavern, filled with hazardous acid pools and lingering gas geysers that tint the area in a combination of off blue and light green. At the very back of the cavern—where the entrance isn't even visible anymore—is a towering stone pillar likely meant for Nightclaw herself, as well as four brand-new werewolves idling in the center of the floor; one with serrated claws, one with an unusually-long left canine, one with dark gray fur, a slight underbite, and a whited-out left eye.....and one very filthy and mangy individual with visible fleas who constantly scratches.

The one with the long canine, the one with dark gray fur, the one with the filth, and Left all bow once again before Nightclaw, though the one with the serrated claws steps forward slightly before bowing. The chapter ended with him introducing the splinter faction as the Death Riders, and emphasizing that they view Nightclaw as their one and only alpha.

This time, Nightclaw gets to know her new minions a little bit more, and quickly develops a dislike for one of them.....

I'm settling in rather nicely—and quickly—to this new "alpha" shtick, I must say. It feels good to have my own little troop of minions helplessly at my beck and call.....and actually have them want to be under my care rather than me having to coerce them with fear, threats, and examples. We've already established that they revere me and see me as their alpha, after all.....not Remus.

I've sent the werewolf guard Left away from the cavern, giving him explicit instructions to rendezvous with his partner Right and bring the rest of the loyalists here at a later time. I don't exactly know how many other loyalists there are besides the four who are below me right now, but at the very least, things are looking up for me and my conquest.