by Stacey Mewse
Alfred paused for a moment and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as though he could shut out the awful reality of what he was about to impart. ‘When he was seen leaving a bar in town with a female friend of yours we decided that the time had come to involve you. She was seen to have trouble standing and the smell of alcohol on her was so potent that she was scented from over a mile away… There was also a faint taint of odour that could not be identified; and so we fear that he has drugged her to prevent her from being able to track where he was planning to take her.’
Feeling himself growing increasingly angry, but realising that he was surrounded by weres who could easily tear him limb from limb Hunter desperately tried to keep his cool. He knew it would not take a lot to set them all on edge and initiate an aggressive response. One man could not fight off a whole pack. He spoke through gritted teeth as he addressed the elderly pack alpha. ‘With all due respect to both you and your pack sir, why has nothing yet been done to apprehend him?’
A brief scowl marred Alfred’s features, and beside him Eve and Tobias visibly tensed as they sensed his agitation. Suddenly though, his time ravaged features snapped back to the emotionless visage he had presented for his entire speech thus far.
‘Many reasons prevented an interference from us before this point Mr. Dalton; not least of which being that the pack member who witnessed this was struck by a car when she ran across the road towards them in a blind panic. Hence Courtney’s absence at the table.’ He sounded curt, which given the condition of his pack member was justifiable, but irritated Hunter nonetheless. ‘Naturally Varulv used the commotion this caused as an opportunity to slip away inconspicuously. Thankfully Courtney’s injuries were relatively minor, and she was able to discharge herself from the hospital and just an hour after she was admitted. Though naturally this has slowed us down in our responses to the incident, as it took far longer than it otherwise might have for us to discover her abduction had occurred. We held a brief meeting to discern how it would be best to deal with the situation, and then Audra was sent to fetch you back to the pack house.’
Hunter’s anger flared, how was he supposed to remain calm in the face of such slow moving, red tape bound idiocy?! Meetings?! They should have been dispatched immediately! ‘Perhaps you could explain to me then why it took her a matter of hours to find me and muster up the courage to approach? My scent trail must be easy enough to follow?!’
Alfred turned his gaze upon his daughter who visibly wilted under it. The added tension of both the betas staring at her causing her to shrink down into her chair and gaze at the wooden tabletop, avoiding looking at them at all costs. Alfred’s voice boomed throughout the hall ‘Do you care to explain Audra?’ He questioned.
She replied so quietly that in his minds eye Hunter saw her as a trembling mouse. He rather enjoyed the visual intrusion of that particular mental image.
‘I first went to his home father and left a note. I waited for an hour before I left for the village thinking that he might return… Once I got there I struggled to pick up his scent and it took me a while to pinpoint his location.’
Alfred looked away from her without reply, turning his attention back to Hunter, the newcomer at his table. ‘I can only apologise for my daughter Mr. Dalton. I cannot excuse her for the length of time it took her to locate you. She knows I am disappointed, and that she should not have allowed herself to take so much time. As though there was nothing at stake here. But we must now focus on how we are going to deal with Nicolai Varulv.’
Hunter’s reply erupted from him without thought or even consciousness that he was about to talk, the beast in him seizing his vocal cords for its own. ‘Take me to him!’ A snarl followed the words, which were so heavily marred by rage, and obviously tainted by his inner wolf’s desire to tear the kidnapper to pieces.
Alfred’s eyebrows raised ‘you cannot expect that we will let you go against him unaided. What do you plan to do once you get there, tear him apart single-handed? This beast is much, much older than you or I Mr. Dalton and cunning beyond belief. He has a kind of cruelty intertwined very deeply with his soul… He is utterly unlike any other in existence. Many weres have tried to kill him and failed… He has a great deal of control over his changes and uses our condition as the unrivalled weapon it has come to be for him. You must be prepared not only for the possibility of an all out attack, but also the chance that he will elect to sneak up and kill you; and he will certainly use mind games to his advantage. The moment he scents you he will know what you are, and that you are of his making… We must use this to our advantage. He will be confused and enraged, and he will most certainly want to hear about you and your life as one of our kind. He will either want to take you under his wing or kill you; and we must use any moments of indecision he may have to ambush and kill him.’
Alfred took a deep breath before continuing, a kind of weary drawn out sigh which revealed his age. ‘For this to work you must act as though you have stumbled across him and are alone, do not give any indication that you have met with other weres or that you were his victim…. Though of course he will smell us on you once he has come to his senses after discovering your existence, so we will not have long to act…. Can you force the change Mr. Dalton?’
Hunter shook his head slightly, uncertain of his abilities ‘I don’t know, I’ve never tried but if I get angry enough I can feel it fighting to happen.’
Alfred turned to Eve and then to Tobias, muttering something inaudible to Tobias before shaking his head and looking back to him. ‘It’s not enough… If you have not honed the ability it will be too slow a transformation, and he will have ripped your throat out before you have sprouted a single strand of fur. You’ll have to take at least one of us with you to even find the place to begin with; and you’ll certainly need us there to help deal with him. I would recommend both Eve and Tobias as they have the most fighting experience out of all of us here present.’
Both betas nodded in agreement, Tobias speaking briefly to his alpha. ‘How would you like us to tackle this Alfred?’ The younger man ran a hand through his ash blonde hair, his agitation palpable.
Alfred addressed the room as a whole as he responded to his beta’s query, his words directed at no one in particular but instead informing all of how things were going to be played out.
‘Hunter will approach the front entrance of the barn alone regardless of wind direction; Eve and Tobias shall follow at a suitable distance and should position themselves so as to cover both entrances to the barn without revealing themselves via sight or scent. Both must stay conscious of the wind direction at all times to avoid detection, and neither must move until Hunter and Varulv are deep in conversation. Do not move to attack until Hunter utters the phrase “I am your only surviving victim”, and make certain that you are both transformed before you even begin to follow Mr. Dalton towards the barn. When the others attack, Hunter can use the opportunity to free his friend and take her back to the van. Then…’ And here he looked firmly at Hunter ‘he must head back and change away from where his human friend can see him; and help the others to finish off Varulv.’
Hunter nodded along with the rest of the room. Some distant rational part at the back of his brain screaming at him that this shouldn’t be happening, as his shocked mind numbly accepted the situation and what he was being instructed to do. He was angrier than he had ever thought possible, and yet somehow he was managing to hold it together. He would happily punish the beast who had taken his Lucy… His brain could struggle with the facts in the background whilst he focussed on the task at hand… It barely seemed possible that this was the same creature that had killed his parents all those years ago…
As Hunter lost himself in thoughts he would have much rather escaped, the people around him pushed back their chairs in a chorus of ear piercing scrapes and began to filter out of the room. Audra shot him a filthy look as she strutted past, but he didn’t even notice she had left the table let alone looked in his direction. He was
only vaguely aware of the movements around him as he stared at his hands with their fingers tightly interlaced upon the tabletop.
It was a lot of information for his mind to process, and with to many strong emotions flying around in his head he felt as though he might be coming dangerously close to some kind of meltdown. With his eyes glazed over he continued to stare at his hands as they began to tremble with the rage that was building within him. He was distraught and confused in equal measure; but his dominant emotion was a deep boiling anger. It rolled threateningly below the surface of the calm visage he was struggling to uphold.
This man… This beast had ruined his life. He had taken his mother and father from him; had scarred him for life and left him struggling with this curse alone for all those years… And suddenly he was back and taking away the only true companion he had. Not just stealing away but debasing and abusing, and almost certainly planning to murder.
He felt the growl rumble in his throat before he could prevent it; and with his vision slowly swimming into focus, he saw that his fingernails had lengthened and bitten deep enough into the flesh of his hands to draw blood. He felt the presence of another by his side and turned with wide, wild eyes to see that Eve had moved from her seat and that the room was empty but for them.
So wrapped up in his own rage and sorrow was he that he did not notice the look on her face as she gazed down at him. She struggled to appear firm and commanding, whilst battling with the desire to wind her arms around him and wrap him in a comforting hug. Her position as beta dictated that she not only keep the ranking between lower members in the pack, but also that she kept a balance within the pack… And this new wolf’s fluctuating moods and radiating anger were drawing out all kinds of different emotions in her. A part of her shouted loudly that he should be disciplined for causing anger amongst her fellows, and another dictated that she should comfort first and scold later.
Her lips parted slightly as she considered what to say to the man who sat almost broken before her, and she found herself looking him up and down without meaning to. As her eyes flickered over him she saw the tension in his slightly hunched shoulders and the way his hair hung unruly over his face in scraggy tendrils. How it curtained but did not hide the pain and anger in his striking green eyes… The way his lips were slack with the confusion that must have been feeling… With the scent of his blood fresh in the air offsetting the rich muskiness of his natural smell, she suddenly felt the dull throb of the blood in her veins intensify as she caught herself leaning towards him.
Scolding herself inwardly she fluidly turned the unplanned motion into a comforting grasp of his hands; wrapping her delicate fingers over the harsh angles of his tightly clenched hands.
‘We must go’ she said it so quietly it was almost a whisper. ‘Tobias has gone to start up one of the cars and we really do have no time to waste.’
Hunter looked down at the hand draped over his own and slowly unfolded his fingers beneath it; feeling an unexpected pang of desire as her fingertips trailed over his calloused skin when she lifted it away. Disgusted by the threat of stirring in his groin he looked her straight in the eyes as he replied, how could he be responding like that to so little? And when Lucy was in such grave danger?
‘I thought we were using my van? You’re right though, we need to leave.’ His voice was flat and emotionless by design, and he suspected he must have sounded very cold.
Eve returned his stare unflinchingly and held out a hand to help him from his seat. ‘We can if you prefer but I expect that ours is probably faster.’
Hunter nodded and elected to stand unaided, pushing his chair back under the table and following her out of the room at a pace so fast it was almost a jog. For a moment his eyes struggled to adjust to the gloom of the corridor and he disjointedly wondered why the lights were permanently off. But it was just seconds before they were both outside in the cool evening air, and he was quickly distracted by other thoughts.
Tobias had started the engine of the car they were set to travel in and was sat tensely behind the wheel watching them walk towards the vehicle. The rumble of the engine cut through the haze of Hunter’s mind, and as he lowered himself on to the back seat he felt the fog lift and his senses sharpen.
Slamming shut the door of the dark blue people carrier he clipped his seatbelt into place, and leaned between the two front seats to question the stony silent betas. ‘How far have we got to go?’
It was Tobias who answered ‘its fifteen minutes away from here but I’m confident I can make it in ten.’
Hunter nodded ‘push for five.’
A slight smile briefly curved the lips of the man behind the wheel at the blatant pushiness of the lone wolf’s statement.
‘Don’t worry’ he replied. ‘I will. Trust me when I say we don’t want him to get away any more than you do.’
Eve leaned forwards in her seat and glared at her co-beta. ‘Drive then Tobias!’ She barked.
He obliged with a screeching of tires and the car shot out of the clearing to be concealed by the blackness beneath the trees. Within it both Hunter and Eve both clung on tightly to their seats and Tobias clutched so tightly to the steering wheel that his knuckles were white.
He was pushing for five.
Chapter 11
Two hours previously.
Lucy’s head pounded, she wanted to open her eyes but somehow couldn’t get them to obey her.
She could hear something faintly behind her, quiet noises she could not discern.
She wanted to open her eyes but they refused to comply.
What was that sound…?
She couldn’t feel her limbs… was that important?
A quiet voice whispered into her ear ‘rest now sweet one.’
That seemed like a good idea… she did as she was told.
She could have sworn the world flipped upside down, but she had to rest…
That seemed important…
*****
An hour later.
Varulv sat watching the slow breathing of his newest catch in silent contentment. He loved that part of the game; those quiet, placid moments in the calm before the storm.
Settling back on his haunches he lent his back against the rough wall of the barn and sank comfortably into the shadows below the hayloft. He liked to sit and reflect on the actual ensnaring of his women whilst they recovered from their cocktails. To tick over in his mind how smoothly things had run thus far, before commencing with the later stages of his routine.
The fun stages.
He watched the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest as she hung suspended before him. A wicked smile crept across his lips at how beautifully he had arranged her limp and pliant body ready for his amusement. He had purchased a great length of harsh rope before arriving in the town; along with some heavy steel hooks, some thick chains and a variety of screws and plates in various sizes and lengths. The previous evening he had visited his newest playground and modified the old barn to suit his purpose. It had taken him a few hours to complete the task but he had worked happily, knowing that it would all be worth it in the end.
First he had donned a pair of think leather gloves, before clearing away the straw that was strewn across the floor. Eventually he had created a large clear space in the centre of the building. He had used a rickety old wooden ladder to access the old beams in the roof. He had been lucky enough to find that outside, half buried in the grass along the edge of the building. With an ease born of experience he had fixed two lengths of chain to the central beam that ran from one end of the barn to the other; then had attached one hook carefully to each dangling end. Next he had screwed into place two metal plates topped with heavy rings into the concrete floor. A Normal human man would never have managed this feat but Nicolai did not even break a sweat. He had smiled to himself as he had snapped the chain onto the set of police issue handcuffs he had bought online… He always marveled at how weak the connective chain was in comparison to the perfectly efficient cu
ffs. These he then soldered to the rings which he had bolted to the floor, before tugging on each to test their durability.
Varulv had returned to his hotel happy that night, content with the work he had done and anticipating the next evening of joyful cruelty.
He had been pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Lucy when he had first laid eyes on her. He had seen a photograph of her in a local paper but it had failed to do her beauty justice… Besides which he had always had a weakness for blondes.
She had also surprised him with how quickly she had succumbed to the effects of the drinks he had bought her. In his experience women from wealthy backgrounds tended to hold their liquor well as a general rule. Not that spending less of his dwindling resources displeased him in any way. Even without the drugs he suspected he still would have had to carry her into the taxi. Had he possessed even an ounce of empathy he might have guessed that she was over drinking thanks to a recent trauma; but he simply did not. He merely felt great pleasure that she had been so easy to capture.