Chapter 2: The Next Hunt

"Figuring things out for yourself is practically the only freedom anyone really has nowadays. Use that freedom."

-Michael Ironside-

***

Alpha Maximillian had just returned from his training for the day. Besides hunting animals and ripping rogues apart, he always practiced his physical strength even though he was in human form. He learnt how to use swords and guns during these times. His loyal friend and beta, Jayden North was always on his side during these times.

These two had been a working pair since they were children and had developed close friendship with each other, beside his own family, his beta was the man he trusted the most.

Jayden handed him over some towel to wipe his sweat after their training was over, although it was not necessary as his body would dry out on its own eventually, he still took it and thanked him. They returned back to the manor and grabbed some water and cooled their body down.

During that time, Reinhart stepped into the kitchen to find them. The man himself had also finished his hunting for the day and caught a deer for their dinner. Although it was unnecessary to traditionally hunt other animals for them, they still did it from time to time to keep in touch with their innate nature as werewolves.

“Reinhart, it has been a while since you joined us for training.” Jayden started as he placed his glass on the table. Reinhart stared at the two of them, especially his brother who did not seem bothered at all.

“I just have been busy with a few things. However, I won’t be hunting for a few days. I’ll go training with you next time before the rogue hunting.” Reinhart declared, trying to find out if his brother had any reaction at all, but as he had expected, Maximillian remained silent.

It agitated him a little bit. Unlike Maximillian who possessed raven hair and cold, tough, rough edged, killer persona, Reinhart had always been the more even-tempered and passive son in the family. Although he had a striking resemblance to their father with his blonde hair and paler skin, he had a completely different personality to him.

He did not really enjoy the whole murder thing, hence why he stayed behind most of the times during rogue hunting. His job was to protect the family. At least it was an excuse Maxi had allowed him to have.

Once he was done with his business, Maxi was about to head to his office room, but before he left, he patted his brother on the shoulder and whispered.

“You don’t have to lie to yourself. If you don’t want to go on the next rogue hunt you should tell me. Don’t be a burden later in the field.” His voice was calm but there was a hint of mockery within it. A dark, deep mockery. The way his eyes gazed at him made him appear as if he was a pathetic coward who could not make himself useful.

With that, Maxi and Jayden left, but Reinhart remained in the kitchen. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. He was upset that his brother still did not have that confidence on him. He knew he was not as strong as Maxi was, but he hated when his brother looked down on him like that.

Among the two of them, Reinhart was always the less favored son because he lost to Maxi on almost everything, whether it’s strength, looks and charisma. The only thing he won over him was his ability in creative fields like art and music, but those fields were deemed unnecessary for the wolves. They took pride in strength and ability to socialize well with others.

When will he finally recognize my strength? He stared down to his hand and was determined to prove Maxi wrong. He would definitely join them in the next rogue hunting and prove his own worth to them.

Meanwhile, Maxi and Jayden cleaned themselves up and after they were done, he invited him to his office room. Taking a seat, Maxi conveyed a theory that had been bothering him these past few days regarding the rogues.

“Something is strange. Lately, the number of rogues around the area has increased. After we executed them, I went to check on them and found they were not from this area. In fact, for the past two rogue hunting, all of the rogues we hunted were the abandoned ones from other clans. It’s strange, they were never supposed to be here. So why?” Jayden noticed the concern on his leader’s face and they could only come to one conclusion.

“Someone must have led them here.” Both of them stated at the same time. That was the only possible answer. Rogues were wolves that used to belong to a certain pack until they were abandoned or exiled from the pack. After they were excommunicated from the rest, they would form connections with other rogues and created mess in their ex pack’s area as a form of revenge.

Some weaker rogues would choose a more peaceful and quiet life and went into hiding. Yet the ones they faced last time, all of them were definitely trying to actively destroy the area. During a hunt, they would go in packs of twenty to twenty-five to destroy the rogues, last time they had roughly the same number. Yet the rogues outnumbered them.

Such thing was barely seen.

Something was definitely not right around there.

“Who do you think is capable of doing such a thing?” Jayden questioned. It was rather difficult for him to come to any conclusion considering the amount of allies and enemies they had. It was different for Maxi, who already formed his own opinion since the beginning.

“There is only one party who could do something like this. Those annoying witches. The Vichell.” Upon the mention of the name of the Vichell family, a frown appeared on Jayden’s face. It had been a while since anyone mentioned their names.

They had never had any issues with that witch family for nearly ten years, but of course, their silence was perhaps only their way to prepare for revenge. It would be foolish if they thought they could have peace with them, considering the history between the two family.

In the realm of the mortals, there were other man-like creatures lurking among humans. Three of the most well-known were the trio. First the vampires, one of the most ancient creatures on earth who have evolved overtime to modernize themselves and blended among humans.

Most modern vampires left the rural life behind and resided in city among humans. Plenty of them had developed immunity against sunlight due to the latest innovations their community developed. Most vampires held important positions in modern society and barely had any issues with humans.

The second was the werewolves. Due to their beastly nature, a lot of them still chose to reside in secluded areas like the mountains and anywhere close to nature. It allowed them better opportunity to hunt and shifted without any fear of humans.

They are less exposed to the modern world because they knew among all of the creatures, humans would be the most terrified of them. They were also still heavily reliant on their packs and their alphas and had a much stricter hierarchy order than the vampires.

Last but not least, there were the witches, their existence occurred around the same time as the werewolves. They were the easiest to blend in with humans, since physically they were humans with a few magical abilities.

A lot of powerful witch family chose to reside in developing countries instead of modern developed city just because it would make things a lot easier for them. Although the three of them generally despised each other and tried to stay clear of each other’s lane, there was one witch family who had a long complicated affair with his own clan. It was The Vichell.

There was a war between the two family around a century ago, where one member of the family was accidentally killed by a wolf from their clan and they ended up fighting each other since they refused to take compensation in any other forms. Since then the two family had done many unthinkable things for revenge.

The last time they had encounter with each other was roughly ten years ago, when their late father, the alpha, killed the previous heads of the family. Since then the family was left with the children, but nothing had happened in the past years, they thought they would eventually give up on the war, but it seemed like they were merely gathering their strength to launch an attack on them.

“They seemed to lead the rogues here on purpose because they are planning to attack our clan. It would be much easier to get ourselves exhausted dealing with these pests than attacking us with magic ourselves. After all among us we also have our own wolf mages. Our houses have been protected with magic but we are not strong enough to put the shield all over the forest.” It all made perfect sense. They must have gotten themselves involved with this.

“Then what are we supposed to do? We know where they live now but it is quite far away from us. They must have used magic to transport themselves here and open the gate for the rogues. We cannot do the same to them.” Jayden reasoned.

“Getting rid of these rogues would be meaningless if they keep on opening the gates. We need to get to the core of the problems. If that meant getting rid of that family once and for all. So be it.” Maxi’s eyes darkened as protective instinct overwhelmed him. He had a strong desire to ensure everyone in his pack was safe, if he had to destroy the witch family, he would definitely do it.

“We’ll go early on the next rogue hunt. Next time, I am sure one of them will appear.”