He hit me in the face, which caused me to stagger back, and he clawed at my face, taking a big slice of my flesh. The pain burned into my brain, but I was free to move away from him now, and we stood facing each other.
It has been a fair fight.
But I have to focus. I was thinking of the other two werewolves and them getting closer to Hayley. I didn’t want that to happen, and it was distracting me. I made the next attack, and this time, I didn’t make the same mistake. I didn’t keep any of my feet stamped to the ground for stability. I took the fight to him fully.
I jumped at him, aiming for his neck, and he caught on to my movement. He moved back and attacked with his right hand, causing me to change my direction at the last moment, but it was just what I wanted. I let him relax a bit because he thought he had me. I clawed at his stomach instead, which caused him to move further back, but I grabbed onto it with my claws and pulled at him, He growled out in pain as he tried to swipe my hand off, but he persevered through the pain, pulled him even closer and stuck my claws into his throat. I pulled at it and dragged his larynx out, catching his scream halfway. He looked at me, surprised, caught in his eyes and mouth. I let go of him. He staggered on his feet for a while but then stumbled back and fell to the ground.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
The stench of blood and death filled the air, but I caught a whiff of something else. There was someone else behind me. I turned around, ready to fight, but he didn’t attack.
I could make out his outline on a tree, and he looked very familiar. I glowed my eyes, which I had turned off to better focus on Veron earlier on. I could see him better now. He was a member of the pack, and it was him I smelled earlier on. That meant Veron didn’t throw the scent.
I remember the boy on the tree. He was the smallest of them all. He looked shy and sickly.
“What do you want?” I asked him as he jumped down from the tree. The agility of his movement surprised me. I had expected something shaky with his look.
“I have a message for you from Viper,” he said.
“Go on,” I told him.
“He wants you to bring Hayley in, in two days. Dead or alive, he doesn’t care. He says he would sign over the reservation to you. Your kind. Lone wolves will have legal backing to own the reservation.”
“Two days?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The boy shook his head. He didn’t know.
“Did you tell the other hunters this?”
“No,” the boy said. “This is just for you.”
I found that rather strange. Why the sudden hurry, and why use a lone wolf? There was something going on. Something the new Alpha wants to keep hidden, and Hayley being alive will make that very hard.
“Can I ask you for something?” the boy spoke up after a while.
“Yes? Go ahead.”
“Kill her,” he said, but it wasn’t in a callous manner. There was compassion in his voice. “It is better for her. Kill her fast, don’tlet her feel any pain. If you bring her to Viper, he will make her life hell. Drag out her pain before he kills her.”
“You like her,” I said to him.
“She was good to me. She was the only one good to me.”
“Do you have any idea why she killed your other alpha?”
“No,” the boy said. “Hayley liked him. He saved her from the street and added her to us even when we were ten already, and he was grooming her to become the leader, you know, compete with Viper. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, could you—” I started, but the boy cut me short.
“I have to go,” he said and jumped to the tree. He was just like me, too, keeping to the trees.
“How did you find me?” I asked him as he got to the top of the tree.
“I have my tricks, too,” he said and jumped away.