Chapter 5: The Hunter's Blade

​The click of a dozen crossbow mechanisms locking into place cut through the fog like a frostbite wind.

​Selene instinctively threw herself in front of Kael, her hands outstretched despite having no weapon left to defend them. Kael slammed his fist into the muddy earth, fighting the black veins crawling up his neck, but his strength was rapidly failing. His body buckled, a ragged cough tearing from his throat as black blood flecked his lips.

​"Get... back, Selene..." Kael rasped, his voice barely audible. "They're not... pack."

​The hooded figures glided forward in terrifying unison. Their long, ash-grey cloaks absorbed the faint moonlight, trimmed with strange, runic embroidery that hummed with a sickly yellow glow. None of them spoke. No demands were made, no warnings given. They were cold, efficient executioners.

​The lead hunter raised a hand. The iron tip of his heavy crossbow pointed straight at Selene's throat.

​They don't want a ransom, Selene realized, her pulse racing in her ears. They were sent to finish what the poison started.

​"Who sent you?" Selene demanded, stepping closer to Kael's trembling form. "Elder William? Beta Thomas?"

​The lead hunter made a sharp, hand-sign gesture. Three hunters stepped forward, drawing curved, blackened steel blades from their sashes.

​Before the metal could fully clear its scabbard, Kael exploded upward with a raw, feral roar.

​Defying the black venom sloshing through his bloodstream, the Alpha lunged. His hand caught the lead hunter by the throat, the sheer force of his momentum slamming the figure against a jagged stone outcrop. The hunter's crossbow discharged wildly into the canopy above, snapping a thick pine branch.

​"Run, Selene!" Kael bellowed, turning his head just long enough for her to see the terrifying war going on inside him—one eye pure, fierce silver, the other completely swallowed by ink-black darkness.

​"I am not leaving you!" she shouted back.

​Two hunters charged Kael from his flank, their dark blades flashing. Kael caught one blade with his bare palm, silver blood spraying as he twisted the weapon out of the hunter's grip and drove it through the attacker's chest. But the second hunter swept Kael’s legs out from under him. Kael hit the frozen mud hard, his muscles seizing up as the poison surged once more toward his heart.

​Selene didn't think. She sprinted toward the fallen hunter’s discarded crossbow, snatched it up, and pulled the heavy trigger.

​The bolt snapped loose, catching the hunter looming over Kael right in the shoulder. The figure recoiled with a metallic hiss, stumbling back into the dark mist.

​Selene rushed to Kael's side, throwing his heavy arm over her shoulder. His skin felt like burning iron, yet he was shivering violently.

​"The cave... up the ridgeline..." Kael ground out through clenched teeth, pointing a trembling hand toward a dark fissure in the cliffside fifty yards away. "The runes... they can't cross... ancient warding..."

​"Hold on," Selene whispered, bracing herself against his massive weight. Step by agonizing step, she dragged the Alpha through the wet underbrush while bolts whistled past their ears, embedding themselves into the ancient trunks around them.

​They reached the cave entrance just as another volley of iron bolts rained down. Selene tumbled inward, pulling Kael over the threshold.

​The moment Kael’s boots crossed the mossy entrance, a hidden barrier flared to life. Carved runic stones lining the archway glowed with a soft, silvery radiance. Outside, the black-cloaked hunters skidded to a halt at the threshold, their shadowy hands flinching back as if scorched by an invisible flame.

​Selene collapsed onto the stone floor, her chest heaving as she watched the hunters slowly back away into the fog, fading like bad dreams.

​Silence settled over the damp cave, save for the ragged, rattling breaths coming from Kael.

​Selene scrambled over to him on her hands and knees. The black veins had reached his jawline, threatening to creep toward his face. Kael was semi-conscious, his jaw locked tight in agony, his hand clutching the front of her torn tunic in a desperate, iron grip.

​"Kael, look at me!" she pleaded, pressing her hands against his cheeks. "How do I stop it? Where is the antidote?"

​Kael opened his eyes, the silver light in them dimming fast under the shroud of black darkness. He reached up with a weak, trembling hand, his thumb brushing against the strange, silver mark etched onto her collarbone.

​"He... he doesn't know," Kael choked out, his voice slipping into a barely audible whisper.

​Selene froze, her mind snapping back to the ancient White Wolf’s words. "What? Who doesn't know?"

​"William... Thomas... none of them," Kael gasped, a tear of silver blood tracking down his pale cheek. "They think... they poisoned me to take the pack... but this poison... it isn't wolf-made..."

​He grabbed her hand, forcing her fingers against his chest right over his pounding, corrupted heart.

​"It's a hunter's curse, Selene..." Kael whispered, his eyes searching hers with heartbreak and horror. "And the man who gave it to Thomas... is the same man who killed your parents."