When I saw the device in his hand I shivered slightly at the thought of what he was prepared to do to his own people, to kill them all and destroy his own house to achieve his own mad goals, but that didn't stop me as I moved at the speed only an Alpha Level Were could manage. My right hand, which was already close to the holstered pistol grabbed the butt of the pistol, releasing it from it's kydex holster, deactivating the safety and a fraction of a second later pulling the trigger.

The first shot amputated Vladimir's right hand, taking with it the detonator, the second and third effectively removed his brains as the semi-jacketed hollow point bullets expanded blowing huge holes in his head, causing the body to drop like a sack of wet cement.

Both Rolf and Fedor yanked their swords from their scabbards and dove at the remote before I bulled into them, knocking them away as I drew my own sword. "Somebody secure that remote!" I roared engaging the two mad-cats in a furious duel of steel while the cats that had surrounded the rogues gave us space to fight.

I pushed them away from the remote, fighting furiously to keep the two away from destroying this place and killing everyone in the clearing. Neither of them was really a match for me in a one on one fight, but together they were more challenging as they moved to cover each other's weaknesses and worked together to try and get through my own defenses.

The times they did manage to get through my defenses my armour did save me, though I knew not to rely on it too heavily. During my charge at them both Rolf and Fedor had been injured, Rolf by a crossbow hit to the hip and Fedor by a bullet to the shoulder and I tried to focus my attacks on their weak sides while doing my best to defend against their attacks.

While I fought with the two mad-cats one of the braver cats who was wearing a collar dashed in and grabbed the dismembered hand, and the remote and pulled back before either of the Rogues could make a move towards him. As soon as I saw that I knew that there was less risk of one of the rogues retrieving the device and setting off the bombs I changed my focus to eliminating either rogue.

When I saw my chance to eliminate Rolf I took it, making a slash that unmanned him, causing him to issue forth a thin scream of agony before I finished him by removing his head, cutting of the scream of pain. With him dealt with I focused my attention on Fedor, who was now being engaged by two wolves, one who was wielding a khopesh and the other a falchion.

"Fedor, your time has passed, it passed many years ago, and now you are simply a disease to be cured." I growled as I approached him, though I was panting from the sustained effort of the fight. By Were-Cat standards this was already a long fight and I was beginning to tire, though Fedor was looking, and sounding even more fatigued.

"You are a disease, you brought foul new ideas to pollute the ancient traditions of the Pride!" He gasped, blocking yet another strike from the wolf with the khopesh.

I shook my head slightly as I advanced with studied practice. Fedor was a skilled swordsman, he was well versed in his chosen weapon, and he'd had decades of practical experience with it. However, age and fatigue were working against him as I closed and made three quick, precise strikes against him. One disarmed him, removing his hand at the same time, the second unmanned him in the same manner as I'd unmanned Rolf, and the third removed his stinking stain of insanity from the land of the living.

As soon as I finished him I tilted my head back, shifting my throat slightly so that I could roar out to the Pride in triumph. Into that roar I pushed out my mental call to all cats of the Pride here at Shadow Valley that they now had a true Pride Lord.

As one the cats that had, up until this point, been observing the fight, knelt down and bowed their heads in submission.

I knelt down, cleaned my blade on Rolf's corpse before I stood, pausing for a moment to spit at Vladimir's corpse before I walked over to where Phil was already dealing with the collar on the neck of the young cat who'd grabbed the remote from the ground.

"How long do you think it will take to get all of these collars off Phil?" I asked him, gesturing to the rest of the cats, who by now were huddled in a tight huddle hugging each other.

He looked up at me and offered a grim smile, "These things are not easy to remove sir, whichever of those mad-cats put them on was a bloody paranoid piece of shit, but I should have them all off within the next few hours." He commented without looking up from what he was doing. "I have control of the remote, though it does look like that if I turned it off, all of these damned bombs will go off... and Goddess only knows what that insane cat installed into the house."

"I understand Phil, do the best you can. We're going to secure the perimeter, we also need to look for the cubs. I can feel them, they are terrified and there's a rogue with them..." I told him, the security of the cubs was of paramount concern to me now.

"Wait until I get done here sir, we don't know what kind of booby traps they have inside of that house. I would rather have somebody who's trained to deal with explosives go in first, so they can spot whatever is left behind." He told me roughly as he pulled the collar off of the cat who sighed and almost collapsed on the spot his entire body shivering in relief. I knelt down to give him a comforting hug, along with an attractive female wolf who looked at me with a degree of protectiveness.

The cat looked at the wolf and sighed softly and I could sense he was trying to ignore his cat for the moment, "Is your Alpha anything like... like he was?" He pointed over to where Vladimir's corpse was lying.

She looked him in the eyes and shook her head hugging him warmly, "No, he isn't at all." She said softly rubbing his back. "He would never do anything this horrifying to his people. I work for a wolf named Zane, and he's a damned good wolf. He cares, even if he doesn't show it very much. My Alpha, Adam is his name, is one of the best wolves I've ever met, and his mate, Brook, is also a great wolf." She told him.

I could feel, and even smell his fear as I realized that he was terrified of being rejected, or worse. "Easy there Sergi, she's got you, I don't think she will reject you simply because you aren't a wolf like she is." I told him while I stepped back slightly, not wanting to interfere in what was happening between the two.

The wolf glared up at me, the challenge evident in her eyes before she growled, almost possessively, "This isn't going to become some sad rejection story. Why would I even think to reject him now that I've only just found him? Mine!" she finished hugging Sergi tightly.

Sergi sobbed in relief as he hugged her tightly and finally found his voice and said, "Mine!" In a tone that I took some joy in, during this awful morning something wonderful had been forged between the two.

That wonderful thing would strengthen our bonds between wolves and tigers, but also between our Pride and Wild Valley, though there would be some difficulties that would come from that bond.

I turned and smiled as Simone and several of the other wolves from Wild Valley handed out some water and jerky to those survivors who were sitting in a tight circle looking out at all of the armed cats and wolves warily.

After considering them for a moment I walked over and carefully made my way to the middle of the circle before I sat down and gently laid my hands on two of the cats. I didn't care that they were still wearing explosive collars I knew that they needed some reassurance that everything would be okay. The female that I'd laid one of my hands turned and looked at me, her face was thin, thinner than any cat should ever be and her golden hair looked limp and almost lifeless.

"Ivana, you're free from him now, we will take care of you now." I closed my eyes and reached out to ever cat that was inside the circle, as well as those that we'd already rescued and pushed slightly on their minds. Filling a hole in their minds that was probably gnawing at them like an infected tooth. When I did that, I shivered as I began to understand the true horror these cats had been through.

Ivana looked at me, her eyes wide as for the first time since she was a cub she felt the beginnings of a proper Pride Bond in her mind. "Sir, the last eleven years have been... horrible. Oh, sure at first it seemed like a wonderful adventure, but as the years passed things began to get worse and worse. Mom and Dad said that this would be a way for us to escape the corruption of the modern world, but instead it led us into hell!" She growled before hugging me tightly, crying.

I soon found myself in the middle of a cat-pile of my fellow tigers as they expressed their relief at finally being released from a life of torment at the hands of Vlad and his cronies. The fact that I was their Pride Lord, and I wanted to spend time with them made their relief all that much more enlivening.

After more than an hour and a half Phil finished with the collars and I handed him a flask from my hip after he growled, "I need a drink, something hard, smooth, and old."

"I think this will do Phil, it's rye, as much as us Siberians like vodka I still personally prefer a really good rye." I told him as he undid the lid and took a stiff drink before looking at me and smiling

"Thank you, sir I needed that. Whoever made those collars was a damned paranoid son of a whore." He growled capping my flask and handing it back to me. "Now I suspect there's more work for me to do inside." He said gathering his tools and putting them back into his belt pouch before picking up the little M1 Carbine that he carried.

I nodded and stood before nodding to Alex and Simone. "Let's get inside, we need to find that last rogue and our cubs." I told them before we headed to the doors.

The two of them nodded and then gestured to four other wolves to join myself and two cats as we stalked into the house.

On opening the doors, I had to admit that whoever designed this place did have an eye for awe inspiring design as the foyer was roughly ten meters wide by seventy-five long and at the front door it was one story high. The floor had a gentle slope to it that lead down. At the end of the foyer we reached a huge plaza that was about twenty-five meters in diameter with the center being dominated by a huge wooden carving of Vladimir that reached up roughly five stories to the very peak of the plaza. At the base of the feet of the statue was a suitcase that looked rather odd.

Jerome, who was walking beside me growled, "Vlad said that if we had a death wish we could try and open that suitcase, though he did mention that it would kill all of us." He said placing a hand on my shoulder.

I nodded to Phil and he approached the case before he looked at me with wide eyes, "Sir, you need to see this. I don't read Russian, but if one of these stickers is telling the truth... I don't know how that mad-cat got this into the country."

I walked over and looked over the case. One of the most prominent stickers was the symbol for nuclear while the Russian script identified the case as an RA-115. "Phil give me a moment I need to do a check." I told him pulling my phone from it's case and confirming that I had a stable satellite connection before I searched the term RA-115. After a few moments, I shivered slightly before I finally nodded to Phil. "This one should be in military hands." I finally said, how on earth Vladimir had gotten a Russian Suitcase Device into Canada was beyond me.

"What the hell is it?" Phil asked, though from his expression he could tell that I was a bit rattled.

I looked at him before I finally replied. "It's a Russian Suitcase Device with a blast yield around 20 tonnes of TNT." I replied, "It's a damned suitcase nuke!"

He staggered back for a moment and I could see that he was also shivering a bit. "What the actual fuck? How the hell did he get that thing into this country?" He growled before stepping back. "I want a cordon around this device. Nobody is touch it under any circumstances!"

I nodded and confirmed that order, placing my own Alpha seal on the order. "As soon as this house is secure I am going to put in the call to the Edmonton base and contact their local Were to see if we can get this thing moved... For now, Phil I want you to deactivate any more explosives you find around this House, not that they are really necessary with that damned nuke here."

"Yes, sir!" He growled as we headed for one of the sets of stairs that lead up to the next level of the Plaza Promenade.

I was following my instincts and my senses to locate the Pride's cubs, though from what I'd sensed there were a lot more cubs than there were adults to give birth to them. What that meant made me shiver since that could mean that there were probably a lot of orphans.

As we walked through the western wing of the house one of the wolves in our group growled. "Whoever put this together didn't know the first thing about doing good work."

I looked back at him though I'd already guessed why he said that, "Care to elaborate?" I asked.

He seemed a bit shocked that I was asking his opinion and he nodded, "Yeah," He pointed to a light sconce on the wall, "That's the cheapest fixture that you can find online and look at the doors, cheap again. Hell, this flooring ain't what I'd call even garbage grade material." He stepped over and rapped a knuckle on the wall and nodded. "Feels like damned 3/8 drywall, probably the cheapest stuff they could possibly buy, probably won't last much longer than a decade."

I nodded, "I'm guessing that when you aren't doing Enforcer jobs you're a general contractor?" I asked, sensing his knowledge about the materials.

"Yeah, before I found my mate I did renovations. I was visiting Westbank Pack and doing some work for them when I found her." He sighed and I could tell that he was remembering the time when he found his mate.

"Guess after this is all done I'm going to be calling Jerome and Paul to see if I can borrow you for a while, since I want this house to stand the test of time." I told him with a smile.

"I'd be glad to sir, though it won't be easy or cheap. This is going to be a damned expensive project to carry out, due to the size of the place." He answered me before he paused and carried on, "This place is a palace to assuage that power-mad maniac's delusions of grandeur. I mean the sheer size of this damned place is, quite frankly... insane."

I nodded in reply, "Well he was rogue... but yes, this is a rather oversized Pride House... but if it was renovated I think it could do us rather well. From my research, most Prides with over 100 cats don't make them all live in the same structure... but in the case, it might work because of the size of this place."

"I see." He responded before I held up my hand and closed my eyes.

"The Crèche is just ahead, there are nineteen cubs in there along with one rogue." I paused for a moment while gently gaining an impression of the room. "She has her back to the exterior windows and doors, though they are covered over in brown paper. She's holding a cub in her arms with a handgun in her free hand... I think that she is thinking of using the cub as a hostage." I said after opening my eyes. "We have to come up with a way to distract her so that she's not ready when we breach the door."

"How complete is the coverage of the paper?" Simone asked.

"Some of it is torn, cubs are rough on things, though she's got them all terrified of her for the time being." I replied carefully.

"Is it torn enough for somebody to get a shot into if a person was good enough?" She persisted, her voice was insistent as she pressed for an answer.

I nodded, understanding her plan. "Who do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Jasmine, she's one of the finest shots in the Pack with that firearm of hers." She replied, "Though I will have to get her to leave her mate for a few minutes, and it will take her some time to get into position."

With a curt nod I surmised, "I take it that she's Sergi's mate?"

"She knows her job, she's an Enforcer, and under the circumstances I can't suggest anything else."

"I understand Simone, get her moving, we're just going to have to wait for her to get in position." I replied sitting down, "I can't even project a calming influence on the cubs because she might get wind of what is really going on."

"I know this is frustrating Mark, perhaps you can take the time now to call the Armed Forces and tell them about that damned nuke." Phil commented to me as I pulled out my flask and took a sip.

I nodded handing him my phone, "You know who to talk to, and what to say, as long as they don't destroy our home I will be all too glad to get rid of that damned thing."

"I will specify that they aren't to play with it till they are a long way from here." He replied, "Though I think it is set to go off if this remote gets too far away."

"That sounds like something he'd do all right, though before they move it I want you to make sure that the rest of the explosives in this house are disabled." I told him as he dialed a number on the phone and talked to somebody concerning our rather nasty surprise.

From the sounds of what I was hearing on the phone the army was going to have a professional EOD squad come out here on a Griffon to take possession of the bomb and fly it out, the leader of the squad would be aware of what we were, and all of our people were to put away the guns and other weapons and stay in human form for the time being until the helicopter had left.

Almost as soon as Phil got off of my phone and handed it back Simone stood up. "She's in position and has a clear sighting on the last of the rogues... you say the word and that rogue won't have a brain."

I nodded standing up as well, "Very well, let's get in position, I want this quick clean and with a minimum of fuss, those cubs are already frightened enough."

When we were in position around the door we heard a harsh growl from the other side, "I know that you're here... and if you want me... you will pay for it in blood!"

As soon as she spoke, the harsh grating voice told me that this was Yasmira, Vladimir's mate, the one who Sergey had once referred to as a real harridan. I nodded to Simone as I stood on the opposite side of the hall, ready to charge in when Jasmine took the shot with her K98-k Sniper.

At the sound of the shot, I charged at the door and slammed through it with my shoulder and seeing the frozen, shocked look on Yasmira's face as her forehead had developed a small round hole in it from the 7.92mm bullet that had ended her life. I managed to yank the cub that she'd been holding in her arms as she began to fall to the floor, as dead as last week's fish as I quickly scanned the room for threats with my eyes and the Eagle in my free hand.

The cub that I'd grabbed was maybe seven and a half years old and she clung to me desperately as I finally relaxed and holstered my weapon. Already I was surrounded by the cubs as most of them were still whimpering in fear at the sudden change in the room.

"Simone, I want you to coordinate with Alex and secure the compound and get everyone to at least make sure that their weapons aren't obvious for when the Army gets here. I'd also like you to arrange for somebody to police up the bodies and get them into