The Predator

Chapter 3

The Predator.

Lilian.

The pack hospital was brimming with hundreds of injured, healing and dead pack warriors and their family swarming over them.

The room was rowdy and filled with cries of agony for the dead and injured. It was the most painful and heart wrenching thing to watch.

“Lilian! You're alive!” Hailey said from afar, her eyes shone with tears as she rushed to gather me in her arms.

I winced and whimpered in pain as I felt some splinters digging deeper into my skin. Hailey noticed as well and her eyes started brimming with tears.

“Oh, Lilian! The doctors haven't looked at your wounds at all? For the goddess’ sake, you put your life on the line for the heir of the pack!”

I gave her a grim smile while I tried pulling out the remaining splinters from my body, wincing as the blood gushed out.

“You could get an infection, Lilian!” Hailey's voice cracked this time.

“It's not an issue, Hailey. My body will heal on its own, okay?”

Hailey looked at me with disbelief in her eyes. “You are the slowest when it comes to healing…”

“But I will heal eventually…” I cut her short as I stared ahead of her, taking in the whole sombre scene in front of me.

Gladly, no one was paying attention to the filths of the pack as they went around trying to save who they could. My eyes darted to where the Alpha lay.

Luna and little Cailan were crying over his slowly healing body.

“What did the doctors say about him?” Hailey asked after following my line of sight.

“It would take a couple of hours,” I managed to breathe out. “A couple of hours and his body will heal by itself. The doctor said it was a good thing that he was in human form when he was attacked, if not, there's no way he would be able to heal. Right now, his wolf is healing him.”

Hailey breathed out a sigh of relief and sat back, leaning into the wall.

“Call me selfish,” she whispered slowly, “Or call me wicked, but I wished everyone who ever treated us bad was killed.”

“Hailey!” I chided, turning to frown at her.

“Our lives would be much better without them, and I am unapologetic of what I said,” Hailey replied stubbornly, her dry brown hair–just like mine– falling to the side of her face.

“But what was that thing? I saw it speaking to you. What was it saying?”

An unexplainable fury welled up inside my chest as Hailey kept referring to my mate as an it!

“It made me so scared.” She continued which made me snap.

“We were all scared, Hailey. Hell, I was the closest in proximity with him so I was terrified. And that was a male wolf–a him not an it!” I spoke fast, gritting my teeth in anger.

“I'm sorry, Lilian.” Hailey said softly with deep remorse in her eyes, “I know you're the most traumatised. So, what did he say…” she was thankfully cut off when there was a shout of joy.

“The Alpha is waking up! I saw his hands move!”

Hailey and I bounded from the corner as did everyone around as we all rushed to surround the Alpha. I wanted him to see that I had kept Cailan alive as I promised. I was excited at the prospects of seeing my family. We reached the crowd and pushed past them to get to the frontline.

His hands were indeed moving. After what felt like hours, his eyes flew open and immediately, they landed on me. A look of surprise flashed across his face as he struggled to sit up.

“Alpha! You don't have to. Your body is still…” The pack doctor came over to him but was pushed away with so much brute force he hit his head on a pillar.

Everyone gasped in shock as they shuffled to keep their distance from the Alpha. All these while, his eyes never left mine.

Then, he suddenly opened his mouth to speak… but nothing came out. He tried again and again and again, his mouth opening and closing like a fish but no sound came out. It was then we came to our conclusion–the Alpha had lost his voice.

“Everyone!” Our minds were suddenly intruded by the Alpha's strong and angry voice. “In all our lives, have we ever seen this kind of massacre before? Just an out-of-the-blue attack? When we have made peace with the lands for the past few years…”

Each person turned their heads to each other, shaking their heads in response. This attack had really been strange.

I watched as the Alpha noted the look of confusion on our faces before he continued in the mindlink. “What does this tell you? This was a deliberate act! This was a betrayal by one of our own!”

Everyone gasped in shock, as did I. Who would do such a horrible thing? Who wasn't content with the peace of the pack? Everyone suddenly became wary of each other.

“That's right! Someone set the Predator on us!”

Predator?

That word rang over and over in my head. How was that even possible? Predators didn't exist. The Predator was supposed to be a myth told by parents to keep their children in line. But even as I thought that, everything in me said something different because I knew what I had witnessed.

My mate was the last living predator? But how was that even possible? Alpha Blackthorn's black hair whipped around as his eyes glowered at me before he thundered into the mindlink once again.

“And who would set the Predator on us if not his mate!”

“Mate? Predators don't have mates. That's their curse.” Someone from the crowd pointed out and everyone nodded in agreement.

“Oh. I thought that as well,” the Alpha nodded to everyone, my heart and mind was racing sporadically. I started feeling lightheaded, but the Alpha continued. “But I am not mistaken. His mate, somewhat disgruntled about how we've treated her in the pack, set him on us as a revenge,” the Alpha leered at me, and my heart dropped to my stomach.

He knew. How did he know? My palms had become really sweaty, my eyes wide I was so sure I reeked of fear. This wasn't going to end well.

“Who is this mate? Let us flush him or her out already!” An angry voice tore from the crowd.

“Who else but Lilian Hawthorn?”

The angry murmurs had subsided and turned to whispered hushes as everyone trained their eyes on me.

“That's not…” I tried to defend myself again when I was silenced.

“Shut up! What defence do you have? Are you calling me a liar? He had you pinned against the ground with your eyes looking defiantly at him, yet he did not kill you. No one, I repeat, no one makes eye contact with a predator and lives to tell the tale.”