The Wolf's Huntress

by Alessa Langley

  “Take a seat,” ordered Leonard as he gestured to the empty space next to him. Clara just shrugged and flipped an extra light switch that highlighted the rest of the room. Looking around from where she stood, she eyed the other three men that had been standing in the shadows of the room. They were nothing special. To her they looked like the generic recruits The Order would hire to do their dirty work. All of them were fit and healthy, with height that would rival some of the men she had met in her lifetime, and seemingly matching shades of brown hair. Only their scents differed. Clara eyes widened slightly as her mind told her of that difference.

  “Please take a seat,” Leonard pushed again, the urgency in his eyes pulled at her sympathy but it did little else.

  “I’m happy to stand,” Clara replied turning her gaze to the two Enforcers that stood by Caleb. Michael was smiling to himself whilst the other was brooding over something. “Are you going to tell me why you’ve been in here all morning?” she pushed feeling slightly unsettled by the fact everyone’s eyes were on her.

  “We wanted to meet the only female to exist in the past fifty years,” stated one of the three unknown men, “especially as she was once a killer of our kind”. Clara turned on him. Her eyes took his appearance in a much greater detail. The man looked a little older than herself, yet something told her that he had lived for many more years than he appeared to be. His hair was dirt brown with a small patch of grey by his left ear. A small number of whiskers along his jaw hinted that he hadn’t shaved for at least twelve hours. Her mind started to list things about him she couldn’t possibly know from just a close inspection. Like the fact he favoured his left leg hinted at a recent injury to his right leg, and that his hands kept flexing which showed he had held back some anger when speaking to her, or the fact that something in his scent told her that he was confused and all of his emotions were on a high making him the most volatile in the room.

  Being the woman she was, Clara just smiled at him. Something in her brain told her that she was baring her teeth, but she didn’t care. “How’s the leg?” she asked sweetly gaining a growl of displeasure in return.

  “I’m sure you would know about that, wouldn’t you?” he growled in returned. Clara instantly knew he had had a run in with a hunter a short while ago. Her head tilted looking directly at his leg. The most basic attack a hunter would pull is to trap a Lycan in wolf form with a silver laced trap.

  “Was it basic silver twine or a snapper?” she asked intrigued by the fact he had escaped the trap mostly in one piece. Most Lycans were trapped in them for hours, or if they were stupid enough only for a few minutes because they thought to sneak up on the hunter. “Or maybe you were lucky enough to only get a shot to the leg instead of getting caught in a trap?” She added keeping her voice sweet and innocent sounding.

  He growled back in returned but stayed where he was. Something inside her reprimanded her for her words and told her she was meant to stay pleasant towards this people, but something new felt victorious for finding a true and useable weakness.

  “Enough,” ordered Caleb, causing everyone to turn their gaze to him. Clara was the last one turn to him and the only one to meet his dark eyes with her own. “I called you all here to meet Clara and to discuss bringing her into the Pack, permanently” his voice carried throughout the room. A growl past Clara’s lips, as something inside her told her she had a rightful place in the Pack without their consent. “Something wrong?” Caleb questioned narrowing his gaze.

  “Nothing,” Clara said, although the bitter taste of a lie sank into her mouth causing her to practically chock on it. A side of her was lying, that side of her hated the fact they didn’t instantly welcome her into their fold. That side of her believe she was above all of them, except the man who sat on the furthest side of the room.

  “Are you sure something isn’t wrong?” Michael pushed, causing her to look towards him. His eyes were full of sympathy as if he knew the anguish going on in her mind.

  “No, I’m fine,” she growled out, once again she started to choke from the bitter taste of a lie. Suddenly she was aware of everyone staring at her. She felt like she was under attack, they were looking for weakness, for anything that they could use against her. Her skin itched and a rumble echoed from her chest. “Stop staring at me!” she bellowed through her growl.

  Caleb watched as Clara struggled to hide the changes happening to her. She choked on every lie that left her mouth, because she hadn’t worked out which side of herself to listen to. Her body gradually bent over as she struggled to lie. Her mind and body were struggling with the other side of the Bite. Usually the toxins took longer to take full effect. It would start with heightened hearing, then over a matter of days the person’s sight and smell with gradually increase. It was all barely noticeable. Then over the space of a week they would experience a problem with lying, hiding their emotions, and start to notice the unnoticeable in people around them. Yet Clara was showing all of those symptoms now, only after two days of being bitten. Her body was accepting the poison too quickly.

  Suddenly her head lifted. Her once sky-blue eyes were now pure gold. Her lips were pulled back to reveal that her canines had lengthened and seemed sharper. The tips of her fingers were clawed. “Stop staring at me!” she growled. Power filled the room. Everyone looked anywhere but her except Michael, Caleb and the broody Joseph. Alarm bells rang in Caleb’s mind. She shouldn’t have even been close to shifting for another week at the least. No human changed this quickly. No woman ever survived the bite, the poison killed them instantly, and yet the one in front of him had survived the initial contact with the poison and was now going through an accelerated Change, which even born wolf didn’t go through the first time.

  Her eyes closed and a groan escaped her. Caleb stood up and slowly made his way towards her. “Get away from me!” she roared stopping him in his tracks. The one that spoke now wasn’t the human woman, but the creature born from her spirit. Her golden eyes opened and glared at him. There was no malice or anger he thought that he would see in them. Instead it was fear that shone out. The wolf was acting as it was outnumbered and being attack from all sides.

  Instantly Caleb held his arms out with his palms facing her as he lowered himself so that he knelt before her. The others in the room lowered themselves as not to hold their heads higher than his. “We’re not going to hurt you,” he said softly to her, trying to reassure the beast within.

  “Get away from me!” Clara roared again before a deafening scream of pain escaped her. Her knees met the ground and her head fell forwards. Her clawed hands scratched at the hard wood floor. Caleb could do nothing to help and found himself struggling to watch the woman go through something that came naturally to every man in the room.

  Michael rushed forwards, ignoring the growls that escaped Caleb. He quickly ripped the t-shirt from Clara’s body then created a tear at the clasp of her bra and the waistline of her jeans. “What do you think you are doing?” yelled Mary, shocked at the fact Michael had practically undressed a woman in a room full of men.

  “If she Changes in her clothes, she will strangle herself to death” Michael pushed causing Mary to gasp and lean into Edmund. Michael moved behind Caleb and stayed standing. If Clara’s animal side attacked blindly as soon as she shifted, he would have to put her down.

  The sounds of bones cracking filled the room. Clara’s fingers cracked as the bones moved in to new positions. The flesh fattened and started to take shape. Her body moved quickly as fur radiated from the base of her neck downwards. Instantly her head shot up. The nose and jaw were lengthening. A whine escaped her as more bones cracked into their new places. Whatever clothing had been left on her body tore off her transforming body. Fur now covered her fully. Finally, a tail grew, and her golden eyes opened.

  A honey-coloured she-wolf stood before them with no sign of human rationality in her almost camouflaged eyes. It snapped its jaws together bearing its deadly fangs in warning. All of them watched as the she-w
olf tried to push herself further and further into the wall. Her whole body was shaking. The blinding scent of fear and anger bellowed to life in the room. No one moved. No one spoke. All of them watched the she-wolf.

  Michael instantly stepped closer. He knew every sign she was giving off extremely well. His own half-brother had shown the same symptoms. His brother had lived his life with an abusive step-father and mother before Michael’s father had found him. The spirit inside him had been beaten, broken and abused beyond belief. Clara was snapping and growling as she tried to back away. Her body shook with fear. Her eyes watched everyone; the wolf knew it was outnumbered even if it somehow knew no one was going to attack her.

  “Everyone leave the room,” Michael ordered without looking at the crowd of spectators. No one answered back as they slowly and silently left the room. The she-wolf watched them closely. Michael looked towards Caleb, “You have to shift,” he stated as he tried to hold back the memories of his own brother. “You have to shift and convince the wolf it doesn’t need to protect its human side”.

  “She just shifted; it’ll take a little while to…” Caleb tried to argue back.

  “Just change!” Michael ordered. His eyes glowed in his anger and frustration. Caleb took note of the fact that his subordinate wolf had just given him an order, which had never happened before, he nodded and braced himself to shift.

  Caleb pulled his shirt up over his head and quickly stripped off his jeans before letting his wolf take over. In a blink of an eye his wolf stood facing the growling she-wolf. He was at least a head taller than her with black and brown mottled fur. The she-wolf snapped her jaws and growled at him as he stood mere inches away from her. He slowly lowered his head slightly, so he didn’t tower over her. The she-wolf flicked her tongue nervously eyeing the rest surrounding her. Caleb stepped closely nudging her with his nose in a friendly greeting. She grumbled but allowed it. He pushed further forwards brushing his muzzle against hers before placing his head on top of her. A grumble left her, but it stilled.

  Shortly she rubbed her muzzle against his before stepping closer. The wolf eyed the others, but her growling had ceased until her eyes landed on Edmund. Michael moved to stand in her way of sight, but the wolf shot past him towards Edmund. She launched herself at him until she stood over him as his chair toppled back onto the floor. She growled and bared her teeth at him. Her tongue peeked out as if tasting the air around him. Caleb hurried over to her and shoved his head under hers to shove her back. She snapped and wriggled against his hold. He gave up and stood up over her. He bit down on the back of her neck causing her to yelp and struggle to get away. As he released her, the she-wolf back away and rolled over on the floor trying to appease him. Caleb licked her muzzle and walked away back to his clothes.

  The she-wolf sat up and watched him shift back but made no movement to follow suit.

  Chapter 5

  It took twelve hours for the wolf to show any sign of human consciousness and another two days until Clara finally shifted back. This gave Mary the perfect amount of time to go clothes shopping for Clara without any arguments over what she picked out. The closest she got to an argument was Clara grumbling as Mary showed her each garment. The other upside is that Clara could watch everyone without them knowing what she was thinking. She watched and listened to every conversation amongst the pack members. Some whispered about why Caleb was being blinded about her crimes against their kind, whilst the majority couldn’t believe how she stood up against Caleb or how she had shifted so fast after being bitten. But no one threatened her existence or seemed wary of her presence.

  Finally feeling safe around most of the people in the house, Clara went up to her room and pushed herself to shift back. She stayed on the floor with eyes closed trying to work out how for a couple of hours. The wolf within seemed to take pity on her and eased back. When she shifted back Clara changed into loose summer dress which Mary had deemed too cute to turn down. Clara looked at herself in the mirror. The last time she had worn a dress had been when she was fifteen and way before she joined The Order. She smoothed out invisible creases and brushed out her hair. She felt like a different person although she wasn’t sure whether dresses suited her.

  Barefooted she walked downstairs and walked straight into the kitchen where Mary was preparing lunch for everyone. “What are you making?” Clara asked catching Mary off guard. Wide-eyed Mary turned seeing Clara in human form and grinned.

  “Oh, I’m so happy you changed back. I was starting to think you were going to stay like that,” Mary gushed before pulling Clara into a strong embrace. Clara stood stock still as the small woman hugged her, it was something she wasn’t used to. All her life she had to earn affection and praise; she wasn’t quite sure how she had earned Mary’s affection.

  “Well, don’t you look good when you’re not growling and covered in blood,” said a deep voice from the doorway. Clara turned to see Michael leaning against the door frame. Mary released Clara and waved her finger at Michael, “Where were you when I needed help in the garden earlier?” she lectured him.

  “Caleb asked me…”

  “You listen to me young man. Caleb may be your alpha, but I keep this house running, if I ask you to do chores you come running” Mary said sternly. Clara stifled a giggle and perched herself up at the countertop. For the past day she had watched Mary fling wooden spoons at Michael when he hadn’t listened to her and even drag Leonard away by the ear when he tried to chat up the pizza delivery girl. It was refreshing to see after Clara had spent years picturing shifters as monsters since she started her training, and here they were being lectured by a five-foot-nothing woman as if they were no more than unruly children.

  Mary turned back to her food preparation as Michael cosied up to Clara, “She’s nice now but wait until you spill wine on her favourite table cloth” he joked.

  “I only yelled at you because you did it on purpose,” Mary argued back without turning around.

  “and tried to blame it on me, if I remember correctly” Caleb said as he walked in from the garden.

  Clara watched him closely as he walked in with low rise jeans on and his T-shirt flung over his shoulder. “The building work you wanted done is almost finished” Caleb said with a smile before kissing Mary on the cheek. He turned to Clara and Michael, “Good to see that you shifted back,” he grinned before glaring at Michael, “Did you do the research I asked for?”

  “Just finished,” Michael grinned.

  “What research?” Clara asked her eyes flicking between the two.

  “To see if you truly are the only she-wolf around,” Michael answered.

  “And?”

  “It seems you’re the first in the last fifty years, so the only thing left to do is to work out why,” Michael shrugged.

  “And how,” Clara added solemnly.

  “You listen here,” Mary shoved Caleb out of the way, “You can stay here as long as you want, even if we find out how you become a Lycan, it doesn’t mean we’ll no longer want you around. Do you understand?” Mary eyed her closely as Clara just stared at her. The women didn’t need a super sniffer or added instincts because she could hint a nail on the head without fully paying attention. How she knew Clara had felt a small distress at the thought of them no longer wanting her around was beyond her.

  “Anyway, the fact that you’re the only female wolf here, makes you an alpha” Michael grinned over at Caleb, who glared back.

  “Alpha?”

  “Apart from little old me no one has been able to look Caleb in the eye for longer than a few seconds let alone argue back,” he nudged her, “that makes you alpha material”.

  Clara just stared at them all. She had gone from being just a tool to being almost at the top of a wolf pack in a matter of days. In other words, she mattered. Her fist tightened as she looked down at her lap. Suddenly she felt too awkward and envious. The dress had to go, she had to find something she was used to. Something that made her feel like she used to, confident,
in control, and a soldier. She jumped down from her perch and without a word to the others she raced off her to room to search through her clothes.

  She threw clothes around the room trying to find anything that resembled what she usually wore. A pair of jeans, a plain t-shirt or something leather but everything had something feminine to do with them. Her breathing became ragged as she struggled to get over everything. She had gone from being just a grunt and someone’s on-and-off relationship to being someone that could matter to people. She couldn’t understand how. She had never truly mattered to anyone since her parents died. The foster home had given up on her after the tenth lot of foster parents handed her back. School hadn’t cared if she failed or passed, she just slipped through their system. Then The Order found her, and they wanted her as a weapon. Howard had loved her in his own way but never more than his ingrained rules. That was the reason they broke up so many times. But their jobs kept them too close to get over each other. Now she was in a house where there was at least one person, Mary, who wanted to keep her around for good after just a few days of knowing her. “Give it a week,” a memorised voice trickled in her head from a conversation she had overheard at the foster home when she was given to her last foster family, “they’ll have enough of her by then”.

  “Redecorating already?” said a voice from the doorway. Clara looked up to see Caleb walking in looking at the clothes she had thrown across the room.

  “I couldn’t find something to wear,” she answered moving to pick some of the mess up.

  “I think you look good in what you’ve already got on,” confusion written on his face.

  “It’s just not what I’m used to,” she whispered shoving thing back in draws.

  “What’s wrong? You were fine a minute ago,” he stated sitting down on her bed. Clara finally looked straight at him. He was still topless as he held his t-shirt in his hands. The beast in her mind told her to go over to him and to rub herself against him. Her eyes widened that the thought and shoved the beast back.