Ch. 8

In a neighborhood, near a one story white house, four weredogs were hiding in some bushes waiting for their prey to be brought out. There was Riley the German Shepherd, Gregory the Husky, Fifi the white Poodle and Jose the black and brown long haired Chihuahua. They saw movement in the house, the movement of small humans. The door suddenly opened and two children suddenly came out of the house, they were about 12 years old. There was one boy and one girl, both had large backpacks with them. They began to walk down the driveway together.
The weredogs all licked their chops as they eyed the backpacks. Jose started to step toward the children. Riley put a paw on his tail and stopped him. "Not yet." The German Shepherd whispered.
The kids stepped onto the sidewalk, but stopped as they heard a loud howl that sounded like a wolf's.
Devon suddenly jumped out of some other bushes and landed in front of the kids, he was in his weredog form and had crimson eyes. He growled at the kids, curling his lips back.
The children started to back away, they were terrified.
The other weredogs jumped out of the bushes and landed behind the kids, blocking their escape.
"I see you made it after all, chief." Riley said.
"Didn't think I'd miss a hunt like this, right?" Devon asked.
"Robert, what are they?!" Asked the girl, hiding behind the boy.
"They're homework eating weredogs... Don't worry, Pricilla, I won't let them near your homework." The boy said.
Devon laughed. "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby... Trying to be tough for your girl, eh?"
"My name is Robert, dog!" Robert tried to say it boldly, with his chest puffed out, his knees meanwhile were shaking.
Devon sniffed the air. "Smell that, Bobby? That's your fear. Also your knees are shaking and I believe you will lose control of your bladder in just a minute." He laughed.
The other weredogs laughed.
"So why not make it less embarrassing and just hand over the homework?" Fifi asked.
"Yeah, our alpha needs sustenance. He's very hungry..." Gregory said.
"And so are we!" Jose said, growling.
Robert took off his backpack.
"Robert, don't! Your teacher said that if you show up without homework again she'll only give you a 4.5 GPA instead of the 5.0 you've been working on!" Pricilla said.
"That's it kid, give us that homework. A grade is counting on it, which makes it all the more sweeter..." Devon said, getting closer to the large backpack Robert was holding in front of him.
Robert then hit Devon in the side of the head with the backpack.
The weredog alpha yelped and fell over, feeling like he was just hit with a bag of bricks. His pack crowded around him, asking if he was alright. Devon opened his eyes, they were fully red and slightly aglow with rage. He stood up and growled. He looked and saw the kids trying to escape down the street. "GET THEM! Bring me that homework!" Devon ordered.
The entire pack began to run after the kids. Devon was at the front, snarling as he pursued.
Robert was leading Pricilla away from them, running as fast as he could. He could hear the sounds of angry dogs barking and snarling. They ran out of the neighborhood. Soon they tried to duck in an alleyway, but stopped as they saw a dead end. There was no way out. The two kids turned around and saw the five dogs walking slowly toward them, slightly crouched, fur standing on end and canines bared.
"I did not ask for my meal to be taken back... Now, don't try to run, we're tired and we'd prefer to savor our meal now..." Devon said.
Suddenly a large cloud of smoke separated the weredogs from the children. The wind howled, the sky grew dark with clouds as thunder and lightning was heard and seen. "You will not eat the homeworks of these innocent childrens!" Said the voice of Count Spankulot.
"Huh?" Asked Devon as he looked up and saw the Count perched on a small building looking down at them ominously. Devon backed up a bit. "Run!" He said as all the weredogs tried to run out of the alley.
The Count flew down and landed in front of them, blocking their way. The vampire walked toward them as they backed away. "Do you honestly think I would not know where you went? Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He asked Devon.
Devon didn't answer as he backed up, he regretted listening to his hunger, if only for a second at the back of his mind in his subconscious.
"I had to use magic to track you down. Do you know how much that'll put me behind on traveling to hunt naughty childrens!? Hopefully I can get some power back from giving you and your friends a good spanking!" Said the Count as he raised a hand. Black hands made out of energy came up out of the ground and restrained each weredog. They tried to break free, but it was useless.
Over the next few minutes, Devon had to watch each of his pack members be spanked. It hurt him so much to hear their yelps of pain, and to hear Count Spankulot's laughter as he spanked them was just chilling.
Count Spankulot released the last weredog after he finished spanking him. Everyone else had already run off and it was just the Count and Devon left in the alley. The vampire raised his hand again and the magic hand from around Devon disappeared. "I won't punish you here. Let's go!" He said, grabbing Devon by the ear and yanking him to his feet.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ear..." Devon complained as he was walked out of the alley by the ear.
Someone was watching the vampire and weredog from above the alley, a larger female wolf-like weredog with dark brown fur was standing on top of a small building. She had a gold necklace with an emerald gem around her neck, gold earrings in her ears and human-like brown hair with slightly grey tips on top of her head. She looked on with displeasure as Count Spankulot disappeared from view with Devon.
The Count and Devon eventually got back to the castle when the sun was going down. They got to the courtyard and the Count let Devon go.
Devon turned back into his human form and held his ear, massaging it a bit. "OW! You could have torn my ear off!" He said, over exaggerating.
"You deliberately disobeyed me not even one day after I ordered you not to eat homework! You put innocent children's grades at risk!" The vampire scolded.
"I'm surprised you didn't say 'childrenses'." Devon commented. He was quickly smacked across the rear. "OW!" He said as he put a hand on his own rear.
"Come on!" Said the Count, grabbing hold of his other ear and dragging him into the castle. He dragged him into a spare bedroom and let him go. "Stay!" The Count commanded sternly and left the room.
Devon rubbed his other ear as he watched the Count leave. He didn't know what the Count was going to do, but he had a feeling to prepare himself for the worst, the vampire was mad at him and he knew it. Why would he stay to get punished? He could just go out the window and escape, never seeing the vampire again. Why was he putting up with all this? He somehow felt as if he couldn't leave. That nagging feeling to stay again he guessed.
Count Spankulot came back into the room again. He raised his right hand and Devon saw something written on his glove. The vampire had written something incorrect on his glove and had the intent to spank Devon while wearing the glove.
Devon started to back up. "No, no, no, no... Please! That's going to hurt! Correct that..." He begged.
"No! You deserve this for disobeying me. You must be punished!" The Count said, making a grab for Devon.
Devon jumped back and tried to open the window to jump out of it. He was grabbed by the back of the shirt, dragged over to the vampire and put over his waiting knee. Devon was terrified and tried to struggle, until the first swat landed. "OW!" He cried as he felt a sting unlike any other. The other swats he received were just as bad. They were rapid and hard. "Plea-... Ah!... Please, stop!... AH!... It hurts!"
"You have been bad and must be punished for your naughtiness!" The Count said, continuing to spank him.
Devon yelled in pain, but he soon felt weaker. Feeling his brain go numb. This is what happen when weredogs got hit with incorrectness that was written down, his entire body felt numb then and he soon drifted into the sweet painless embrace of unconsciousness.
Devon woke up a few hours later on the floor, slowly regaining his senses. He heard a faint howl that grew louder as his mind and senses regained clarity again. The pain in his rear completely vanished. He stood, a bit shakily at first, but quickly regained his strength as he heard the howl echo in his mind. His eyes turned red as he felt the primal power in him again, he had to answer the call. He transformed into a weredog and walked into the backyard, opened the door to his dog house and grabbed the sack of homework with his jaws. He left the castle grounds without a hinderance and proceeded to walk down the street, he thought of nothing else but taking that homework to the source of the howl as he walked the streets under the light of the full moon in an almost trance-like state. Within a few minutes he passed by the Kids Next Door treehouse and made his way towards another house on a hill. This was a large house with multiple floors. The entrance was a large open doorway shaped like an arch with the word 'Rover' written above it. As soon as Devon stepped into the house he was greeted with the sight of many weredogs. Most of them were young, like still in grade school. His own pack was also there, it seemed like this evening's earlier events hadn't deterred them from heeding the call either. They said nothing to each other. As soon as Devon walked farther into the house all the weredogs stopped what they were doing and made room for him to pass by. He walked up a flight of stairs and to the second floor. There were bundles, stacks, sacks and boxes of homework all over. He saw a couple of weredogs sitting near a throne. There was a separate pile of homework near the throne. On the throne was the same female weredog that had been near the alley that evening. Devon walked up to her, dropped his sack of homework at her feet and bowed his head.
She leaned forward and put her paw under his chin and lifted his head up. "No need to bow. You've done enough bowing to someone's will today." She said.
"Thank you, mother." Devon says in a respectful tone. He opened the sack and took a few sheets of homework out and put it on the pile of homework near the throne.
"By tradition, the queen eats first. But why don't you join me this time, you are going to be future king someday." Said Devon's mother.
"I would be honored, mother." Devon said.
The weredog queen got off the throne and she and her son began to eat the pile of homework set aside. Devon had never tasted from the offering before. Some of the best homework had been set aside for the queen only. He should savor this, he would get no opportunity to hunt or forage for homework with Count Spankulot around. They soon finished eating every scrap of homework from the pile.
The queen looked at two guards. "Feed the rest of the pack." She commanded.
The two began to take the sacks and bundles of homework and empty them from the second floor. The pages of homework fell down to the awaiting weredogs on the first floor. They ate whatever was tossed to them without squabble, they knew there was plenty of homework for everyone.
Devon and his mother watched the feasting weredogs from the second floor. "They're going to be your subjects one day." The queen said.
Devon was silent for a minute. "I don't think I'll be able to give them much due to my current living arrangement. You know I went to go work and live with Count Spankulot."
"I know... I watched him drag you away after he interrupted your hunt... I wanted to rip him apart..." Said his mother.
"So why did you not help me?" Devon asked.
"I knew he wasn't going to do any more than spank you. You have dealt with his spankings before." Said his mother.
"He has done worse, he has forbidden me and all weredogs from hunting or eating homework." Devon said.
"Did you tell him why we hunt?" Asked his mother.
"Whenever I could speak to him, yes. He seems to still favor his rules over peace with us..." Devon said.
"It's only been a few days, maybe if you stay with him for a while longer he'll begin to learn more about us." His mother said.
"That's the feeling I've been getting whenever I want to leave him. Do you really think he's going to accept us?" Devon asked.
"He accepted you, didn't he?" Asked his mother.
"He accepted me into his castle, yes. But as far as accepting me as a weredog and letting me hunt as I wish, no." Devon said.
"I'll give you some of my students' homework." His mother said.
"But what about the pack?" Devon asked.
"They've survived worse, the vampire can't be everywhere at once, so as long as the humans don't see them stealing any homework in human form they should be fine to continue hunting as they please." Said his mother.
"Good... Maybe in time Count Spankulot will see we need to eat homework just as much as he needs to spank." Devon said.
"Yes, we can only hope that your time spent with him is worth it..." Said his mother.
Devon looked down over the railing at the weredogs below. He hoped that for their sake it will all be worth it. He suddenly heard growling and snarling from his mother, he looked and saw her looking straight ahead with white canines bared and crimson eyes. Devon looked too and saw a figure floating in the air near the second floor.
The queen suddenly leapt from the second floor and pounced on the figure, taking it down to the first floor. She stood over the tall figure, growling.
"No! No! Don't hurt me! I did not mean to intrude." Begged a voice that sounded like Count Spankulot's.