Deceptions of Alpha Dubris

Chapter Two

There was once a Werewolf named Dubris who lived in a small quiet city called Dosar in the country of Deninois, located off the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Mister Dubris Stone loved being a werewolf because of the enormous power and speed he possessed whenever he transformed into a werewolf.

These attributes allowed him to do those things he couldn’t do as a mortal man – like settling scores with real or imagined enemies, being a vindictive person that hardly forgave offences – without being recognised or caught. He also used the attributes of a werewolf in that state to steal from the city's wealthy people and amassed a tidy sum of money and pieces of jewellery he had neatly stashed away.

He could control when he transformed into a werewolf but usually did the most significant damage during each full moon.

He could control his werewolf behaviour because of the training and mentoring he received when he first shape-shifted and turned into a werewolf under bizarre and painful circumstances whilst away from home at a university several hundreds of kilometres away.

After that, he became fully aware that he was a werewolf. His parents and grandparents were also werewolves.

Dubris was an extraordinarily handsome man of about twenty-six years of age, highly educated, well respected, and loved in Dosar. He was a one-point-eight-three metre tall individual, athletic and powerfully built with well-toned muscles.

His parents died in an auto crash when he was eight years old, and his grandparents, who were farmers, brought him up.

He was a great footballer in college and played for the school's first team. Most of his close friends thought he would be a professional footballer and, perhaps, would play for one of Europe's big professional football teams.

He returned to Dosar after completing his university education; he returned, becoming a quieter, more secretive recluse who was only interested in his job than he was before leaving for university.

He had no girlfriend and few friends, but the few that hovered around him were either classmates in school or colleagues at the office.

Dubris worked at the city post office, where he was the postmaster. He was hardworking, conscientious and almost without fault.

He was greatly loved by colleagues, especially the junior ones, because of his empathetic attitude towards them, always desiring to know how each was faring and if there was anything he could do to assist in resolving or alleviating any personal or official challenges and problems they might have.

Always punctual and dedicated to his duties, Dubris ensured things went smoothly in running postal services in the city of Dosar.

No one knew that this attitude of friendliness and generosity was a façade, a smoke-screen shielding from public view and knowledge, one of the greatest no-nonsense, sleek and sometimes dangerous Alpha Werewolves.

*****

The city of Dosar was very peaceful and quiet until the heavy infestation of werewolves in recent times.

The city's population was about ninety-five thousand, five hundred and eighty people. This figure comprised forty-nine thousand, two hundred and twenty-four or fifty-one-point-five per cent females and forty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty-six or forty-eight-point-five per cent males.

The city has been relatively prosperous compared to cities of similar size and within easy proximity. The main occupations of the people were farming in the South and hunting in the North.

The development of factories and cottage industries has sprung up along these lines to add value to these products by processing the raw materials into finished and semi-finished goods.

The finished goods were essentially for export, while other factories locally consumed the semi-finished goods within Dosar, though the manufacturers still exported some of them.

These economic activities and institutions meant that there were ancillary services which aided the process of manufacturing and trade.

These include banks, insurance companies, brokers and financiers and investors. The combination of all these institutions and activities has given the city its proper position as one of the most prosperous cities in the area.

There were property agents, investment bankers, insurance agents and marketers, teachers, doctors, and so many others, besides the farmers and hunters.

The residents of the city of Dosar were a mixed bag of prosperous people with different professional and vocational backgrounds.

It is, therefore, easy for some rogue werewolves like Dubris to steal from the wealthy in society once they, the rich, become threatened with death, injury or loss of one sort or another.

And with the continued growth and prosperity of the city came all the adverse effects of development. The crime rate rose very fast, necessitating that the police became stronger and stricter in discharging their duties.

*****

“Hi there, Mr Stone”, greeted one elegantly dressed brunette with hair neatly tied into a bun, standing close to him at the stadium where he had gone to watch his football club play as an ardent fan, a weekly ritual he never failed to observe.

“How’re you?” the lady continued.

“Hello”, he responded. “I’m alright, but I don’t seem to remember you. Have we met?”

“Yes, Mr Stone-“he interrupted, “just call me Dubris, as in Duubrees, OK? That's what friends call me", he said. “What should I call you?”

“Alicia, Alicia Brown”, the lady replied. She continued, “We were introduced a few weeks ago in your office by Janet Keys when she came to inquire about a possible job opening”.

“Oh, dear!” he shouted as he recollected the pleasant and amiable lady that accompanied Janet, his mate in college, to his office a couple of weeks ago.

“You must forgive me. I meet hundreds of customers daily and sometimes find it difficult to recollect faces," he said, beaming with a disarming smile.

"Are you always like this?" he teased, getting Alicia a bit confused. "I mean, you look gorgeous”, he quipped, making Alicia blush and relax.

“Thank you, Mr Sto-oh, sorry, Duubrees,” she laughed, with a genuine apology in her eyes.

“That’s okay,” he responded quickly as the football match was about to kick off, momentarily taking his attention away from the brunette to the field of play.

He took out a twelve-carat gold card box and handed his business card to Alicia, “Maybe, we can get together again soon for a cup of coffee, alright?”

“Hmmm”, Alicia grunted and took the card from him, diverting their attention to the football match, which was officially underway.

There were no goals at the end of the first half as both teams disappeared into the tunnel to the dressing room.

Dubris stood up, excusing himself, and briefly went out. He had two cups of brimming hot coffee when he returned. He handed one cup to Alicia while he slipped from the second one.

The second half of the game was already underway by the time they finished their coffee. And Dubris disposed of the two paper cups in the trash bin closest to them.

By the time the match ended after ninety minutes and injury time of four minutes, Dubris and Alicia had gotten comfortable in each other’s company.

Though the match ended in a draw, they discovered they were fans of the same football club. Exiting the stadium, they discussed their club's fortunes, failures and prospects in the current league season.