Ray smiled as his mother left him in the house, putting on the extra security measures, alone as wild thoughts started to infiltrate his mind, wondering what other men or women... for that matter... were being transformed into. It was a fiendish and devilish thought for sure, but one Ray didn't seem to mind. What Ray didn't know was that the lycanthropy spread into him by Mugrel's pack was still working on him, albeit slowly, since he wasn't in the game. The game's lycanthropy timer was only active while the game was on and running... regardless if he was in the game world or not... something Ray also wasn't aware of, but others of the pack were. Ray wondered what his father Bruce was up to. Was he gaming the same game as him with his friends like he was with Sam? Then the thoughts of Sam returned, kind of liking what he heard the news reporter had said about him. Before, they were loving and caring boyfriends, but now... now Ray had other ideas and wants blooming. He could feel himself wanting Sam to be there, right now, forcing him to submit and serve both Sam and the Alpha Mugrel... whoever that was. Suddenly, however, there was a loud, thumping knock at the front door that snapped Ray out of his mind-altering daydream fantasies courtesy of the werewolf pack and the lycanthropy they had spread to him. As he went to the door, the pounding knocks became more demanding and forceful, sounding very aggressive and insistent.
"Hold on, hold on! I am coming! I heard your knocking the first time!" Ray shouted as he approached the door, peering through the peephole and noticed two men were standing at the door. A man he knew was Sam from the general look of him, but far more wild, brooding, menacing and aggressive looking... as well as his father who was definitely looking slightly younger, but also looked the same as his boyfriend! Immediately Ray wondered what in the hell was going on?! Was his father gaming with "the boys"... perhaps that were inflicted with lycanthropy as well? Was his father also inflicted with lycanthropy!? The possibilities and what they meant were staggering!
"Well boy, I hear you on the other side of that door! Are you going to open up for us or are me and your boyfriend going to have to beat the door down and in to get to you? I know your bitch mom and my wife had you put up the extra security features on the door and Sam tells me her scent isn't in the house... so we know you're alone. Open the fucking door and let us in!" Ray's father boomed, as an aggressive growl could be heard at the end of his demands.
"Y-yes dad..." Ray responded. He wanted to help Sam and he wanted to know what was going on with his father because from what Ray could see... there were definitely changes in them both, but the amount, detail and so on were obscured by the fisheye vision of the peephole.
"Good boy! Now... get that door open and let us in. We have plans for you pup and gifts for you from the Alpha..." He growled, confirming Ray's suspicions that his father Bruce was indeed a part of the pack... along with Sam and made Ray wonder if there was more going on than what Ray knew.
Initially, the quest was given to him and Sam to take down Mugrel, ending the lycanthropic menace and then get the experience and reward from the quest in the game. However, Ray knew his father had been playing a little bit before Ray and Sam started. In fact... his father was the one who gifted them both a bracelet and the game that went with it. He couldn't help suspecting that Mugrel had corrupted his father and turned him into a werewolf first, then when asked about helping to spread the pack, Bruce offered up his boy and his son's boyfriend... which from what has been seen thus far... Mugrel was up for. Thinking even deeper in terms of conspiracy theory, he wondered if his father orchestrated the whole bounty quest in the first place, knowing his boy wouldn't be able to resist a challenge that would wind up giving him enormous clout and renown if he was able to succeed. Of course, knowing what he knew now, there was no way a couple of new adventurers would be able to take a player like Mugrel down even with the help of dozens of men. The beastly monster was far too powerful and from the news broadcast earlier... Ray knew that the game was the culprit of the physical changes to everyone shown... which meant Mugrel was a real person in the real world... and apparently either the alpha of the pack in the area OR the original father of all werewolves... a creature thought to be legend or myth. Ray realized that everything he had heard about the werewolf... it all stemmed from Mugrel... if his theory held true, but that would be preposterous. It was most likely that the game itself made the man playing Mugrel into a werewolf and of course gave him the desire to grow the pack and infect everyone willing or unwilling... turning them into monsters like him.
"Wh-what do you mean you have gifts from the Alpha?" Ray asked his father, knowing the reason he had been called pup and not needing to have clarification on that subject.
"Well... I know you watched Sam become a werewolf, having lost himself to the Alpha with the Alpha's call. I know because I watched you watching Sam... such a pervert you've become, but you're our pervert and there's nothing wrong with that... is there Sam?" Bruce could be heard through the door as Ray could be heard undoing all the security features, as if compelled for some reason and by some unknown force.
"No Sir, none at all and in fact, since the Alpha knows this... he has ordained to have you be our first initiate. That's right, Alpha Mugrel has determined it is time for a new branch of the pack to form and your father is our Alpha Ray... and I am your beta... an enforcer of the Alpha's will... your father's will to be precise." Sam could be heard growling through the door as Ray finally opened it for them both, opening the door and walking backward with the doorknob in hand to pull the door inwardly toward him.
"Thanks pup! I know you don't understand what is going on and you're probably wondering to yourself... if not screaming in your own head... why you let in two self proclaimed werewolves into the house when you are trying to fight what you think is the affliction of the werewolf. What is going on in reality is your mind and body wanting the gift of the werewolf... the gift the Alpha has given to all of us... and you're wanting to see it be fulfilled in all its glory. Not to mention... you are wanting to submit to me... don't you? Go ahead... get close to me pup, smell me and know your Alpha as Sam did with Mugrel! However unlike with Mugrel... if you don't, I will force you and just so everyone knows who you belong to... you're going to get my marking scent in and on you! How does that sound pup?!" Bruce growled as he grinned menacingly, lifting his arms to go behind his head, exposing his pits to the air and his musk wafting into the air, filling it, and toying with Ray's head in the process. "C'mon pup... I am not going to wait for you to obey... and this will be your only warning. You either obey outright or you make me force you... the decision is yours."
As Ray toyed around with the idea of either submitting to his father, apparently a new Alpha of Mugrel's making, forwarding and advancing whatever plans Mugrel may have had... Ray noticed that Sam had gone missing, not knowing that Sam was progressing Ray's lycanthropy in the game by turning it on, leaving him in an area already decided in advance to wait the lycanthropy to advance and knew no one would bother him in the cavernous maze as all there were either werewolves already or they were going to be soon.
"A-alright dad, but where did Sam go?" Ray asked as he walked toward his father as the scent of the musky pits seemed to get stronger as his nostrils neared the source.
"Don't worry about your boyfriend Ray, my boy, he's only doing what I have told him to do. Even though he answered the call of Mugrel... Sam is one of mine... just like you are. I was given Sam as a reward for my loyalty to Mugrel for quite some time. See... I have been playing this game since the early days and was made a werewolf by Mugrel pretty early on. Mugrel, on the other hand, as made into the first werewolf by the game after he stumbled upon a cursed artifact that he wasn't supposed to open and return to the Minister of Cursed Antiquities. Well... given that Mugrel's player was curious and thought that no harm would come of opening a silly box... but he was wrong. The game turned him into a werewolf, THE first werewolf... both in the game and in real life outside of it... as you already have seen for youself being a "thing". From there, he created a pack with me and a few of the others he ran across in real life and in the game. So... with a pack as a decent size now, he wanted me to head the new branch of the pack, starting with Sam and you, but it was our duty to convert you and subdue you into a werewolf just like us." Bruce explained a bit more of the backstory, clarifying the whys, hows and so forth.
The only thing left for Ray was to: Submit to his father and Sam; fight and fail; fight and succeed, but find a way out of the nightmare that was developing; or Find and Stop Sam, then flee them both.