Chapter 6-Meeting With a Hunter

“We? You were involved?” I ask him, slowly taking a step towards him. 

“Oh, I was involved, alright. I was there. The entire pack should have been wiped out of existence. But I’ll give your father one thing; he trained his warriors well. Too bad he wasn’t up to the task himself, though,” he says with a cruel sneer, and then laughs.

I tremble with rage as I slowly move towards the old hunter. A low growl escapes my throat, and he stops laughing, his cold eyes locking with mine, as I struggle to keep Enyo at bay.

‘Calm down, Enyo!’

“That’s close enough, mutt. Now get out of here before I put you down too,” he says as he points the shotgun back at me.

‘If he says one more thing about Dad, I’ll rip his throat out!’

‘We can’t hurt him. We need whatever information he has.’

“How do you know anything about me or my father?” I ask, trying to get him to talk more.

He scoffs. “I was involved in one of the greatest operations to occur in over a century,” he says proudly. “We studied your pack for nearly three years before we attacked. We had to make sure we were ready.”

“Who’s we? What are you talking about?” I ask, growing more and more confused.

“There was a job to complete, and we were tasked with completing it.”

“None of this makes sense. It was a rival pack that attacked us.”

“A rival pack that uses wolfsbane bullets?” He smirks, and I stiffen. “But you are right, in a sense. It was a rival pack alright, just one you have never even dreamed of before. One that included lycans, werewolves, and hunters, all working side by side.”   

I gasp. “You’re lying… There’s no way lycans and werewolves would work together. And there’s no way in hell hunters would work with the very things you loathe and hunt,” I say with a low growl. “Tell me the truth.”

“Outcasts and rogues would work together. Our leader worked for years to bring us together. And your pack was a threat. We had to take you down before… Well. Let’s just say that the threat was so great that it couldn’t be ignored. So, we put our differences aside to work together,” he says with a shrug.

“What threat?” I ask angrily. “We weren’t a threat to anyone!” I yell, losing my temper, as my world starts crashing down around me. “And doesn’t that mean you failed? You said yourself that our warriors were trained too well. Our pack survived.”

“I’ve said enough. Now fuck off,” he says and shoots the shotgun in the air above my head. “Last warn…” 

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as I scream with rage and charge him, knocking him to the ground, causing him to drop the shotgun, and it slides across the porch. Before he can move, I put my knee on his chest and press down hard, then I extend my sharp claws and dig them into the side of his chest as I growl in his shocked face. 

“Please, don’t kill me,” he begs, his eyes wide with panic.

“WHY DID YOU ATTACK US?” I growl and dig my claws deeper into his chest, the smell of his blood reaching my nostrils. 

“I already told you! Please! We were just following orders!” He cries in pain, his eyes pleading with me as he coughs, and blood fills his mouth.

“ORDERS FROM WHO?”

“I don’t know who! It wasn’t just your pack that we attacked. It was all set up by a third party. Ask Derek. He knows,” he says.  

I pull back slightly, shocked. 

‘SEE! I told you he couldn’t be trusted!’ Enyo growls. 

I yelp when I feel a sharp pain in my side, and I whip my head around and see a knife in his hand, covered in blood. 

‘He stabbed us!’ Enyo growls. 

She takes over, pushing herself forward, and we shift completely. I try to take back control, but she blocks me out. Everything feels like it’s happening in slow motion as Enyo clamps her jaw around his throat, her teeth tearing into his carotid artery, causing blood to spray everywhere. Then she shakes her head and snaps his neck. Enyo steps back and stares down at his lifeless body, and I quickly take control of Enyo while she’s distracted and shift back.

‘Enyo… What have you done?!’ I yell, shocked. I wipe the blood from around my mouth with the back of my hand. The metallic taste of his blood in my mouth makes me gag as I stare down at Bill Stokes’ lifeless body. 

‘He stabbed us! And he said he was there that day! Anyone involved in killing Dad needs to die!’ She snarls. 

‘We’re not killers, Enyo!’

‘We’ve killed before!’ She says aggressively.

“That was different,” I mumble. ‘What the hell do I do now?’ I think to myself.

‘You wanted revenge? THIS is our revenge! How else did you think we were going to avenge Dad?’

“Not like this!” I yell as I shiver, a cool breeze washing over me, and I remember my clothes were shredded when we shifted. “We need to take them to the council,” I say as I run over to my truck, get the backpack out that I carry spare clothes in, and grab a pair of boots off the floor.

‘The council is useless, Athena! If what the hunter said is true, this is so much bigger than what we thought!’ she says as I quickly get dressed in a pair of track pants and a t-shirt. I slide the boots on and find a spare jumper in the bag, then I put the bag back in the truck and head back to the body.

‘I know you’re scared, Athena, but we need to agree on this,’ Enyo says softly. ‘We left our pack to find the truth and to avenge Dad. How else did you think we were going to do that?’

‘I told you. By finding out who was behind it and taking them to the council,’ I say as I cross my arms, trying to keep myself warm.

‘The council will never believe any of this. We have to do this ourselves.’

“Maybe…” I sigh as I look down at Bill Stokes, and I gag again as his blood spreads on the porch from the gaping wound in his neck.

‘Just leave him. We need to speak to Derek,’ Enyo says with a growl.

‘Why, so you can kill him too?’ I say harshly as I look around, trying to figure out a plan. Derek said he lives alone, so maybe I should just leave him.

‘Look, Derek knows more than he is telling us. He clearly sent us here, hoping the hunter would kill us. I know you’re pissed, but we need to find out what he knows.’

She has a point. Derek has clearly been playing me. We need answers. I lean down and pick up the knife the hunter stabbed me with and walk back to my truck, getting in. Digging through my bag, I find a towel to wrap the knife in, then put it back in my bag. I start the truck and drive back around the circular driveway. Looking in my rear-view mirror as I drive away from the house, I can see Bill Stokes’ body lying on the porch as snow starts to fall again.