Ships Passing in the Night
I lifted the girl's body carefully. Her skin was already cold and well on its way to freezing. Her hair hung as red icicles from her head. If I had to guess the girl had been lying alone in the snow for at least an hour before I came across her. The snow was stained red. The girl bleed out.
I sighed sadly. She died cold and alone and knowing that she would die. What a tragic way to go, and so young. She couldn't be older than fourteen. I'd already linked a tracker about the sight but I couldn't bear to leave her there alone and by herself. I carried her out of the forest and to the pack house. No one was there but I wasn't worried. It wasn't unusual for pack houses to be empty on Christmas. Everyone would rather spend the day with their families.
I looked down at the girls face and wondered who her family was. Did they miss her? Where they looking for her? Did they even notice her disappearance? I gently laid her down in the foyer. I wish I could do more for the girl but I didn't have the time. I did grab a blanket and lay it over her body before darting upstairs to my bedroom.
I pulled out the suitcases from my closet. I never actually got around to unpacking them after returning to Fire Light so it was a simple matter of throwing them into the truck. I was more careful with my bow and arrows and swords as I put them in the passenger seat.
I had to hurry. I figured I had maybe an hour after alerting the tracker before anyone came to the pack house. At most I had an hour and a half if I was lucky. I didn't put my chips on being lucky.
I stopped at the girl's body and dipped my head in respect. "I'm sorry I was too late to save you. I caused this. I failed to do my job and you paid the price. You won't be the last to die before I set things right but I swear I will make him pay. I will rectify my mistake."
I lifted my head and left the pack house. I would be back one day if all went well. And if not... well maybe that was my punishment.
Once I was in the truck I pulled out the note the girl had been clutching in her hands. It was a message left there for me.
You should have finished the hunt.
After Blackwater I spent about six months hunting down and killing anyone close to Adrian. I was trying to find him to make him pay for Lenore and the others. I woke from my vengeance covered in blood and dirt and realized I couldn't recognize my own reflection anymore. So I stopped. I came home and left Adrian and Blackwater in the past.
He only bothered me in nightmares until now.
I forgot why I had to hunt him. He kills without reason, without thought, and without mercy. A man like that can't be left to wander the earth. I stopped hunting him so that girls blood, the blood of everyone he's killed since the moment I put myself first, it's on my hands.
My hand curled into a fist crumbling the note. I started the truck and took a final look at the pack house, at my home. "I'm sorry Jason, but this is something I have to do."
~*~*~*~
"Just let me-"
"No!" Tyler kept smacking at her hands. "My car, my music. Get back in your seat!"
"I don't wanna!" Alex whined. "I wanna sit up front. I don't get why I have to be in the back with Sir Douchebag."
"I'm still your Alpha, Alex," Grant muttered staring out the window.
"Fine," she huffed crossing her arms over her chest. "Alpha Douchebag."
Tyler sighed as a migraine pressed at his temple. "Children. Honestly I don't know how Katie could put up with either of for as long as she has."
"Yeah like you're such a prize," Alex replied. "The annoying kid brother."
"The overly eccentric best friend," Tyler shot back.
Grant let out an annoyed sigh. "Could we please shut up until I can see my mate again?" Both Alex and Tyler groaned. "That's unnecessary."
"Maybe the first time," Alex said. "But you've been saying 'until I can see my mate again' every five minutes since we left so the groans are completely necessary."
"Yes because neither of you are looking forward to see your mates," Grant fired back.
"I'd also like to apologize to my sister, you know, the same sister that you rejected and hurt repeatedly?" Tyler said.
Ales hissed dramatically, a small smile playing on her lips. "Should've seen that one coming."
"Thank you, Alex, for the commentary," Grant said. "Hey what's going on?"
The Fire Light pack house had come into view but it swarmed with people and they were loading a stretcher onto the back of an ambulance. A stretcher with a body bag on it. "Tyler, stop the car," Alex said. He complied and Alex almost threw herself out of the car. "Alpha Greyson! Luna Greyson!" She ran to the couple. "What's going on? Where's Katie?"
They both looked at her with sad eyes and she was joined by her Alpha and Beta. Lily Greyson in her infinite maternal instincts reached out to the girl. "There's something you should know."
~*~*~*~
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I sat up and groaned. What the hell is going on? I grabbed my phone on the bedside table and turned it on. I squeezed my eyes shut against the bright light. I waited a moment and opened my eyes to see the time. Just after midnight.
Who'd be banging on my door at midnight? Who'd be banging on my door period? No one knew where I was. I checked into a non-descript, two star motel using cash and an alias.
It must be a wrong door. I got up, grabbed the Glock from under the pillow and went to the door. There was no peephole so I had to open it to see who it was. I grabbed the doorknob with one hand and used the other the place the barrel of the gun against the door. The banging subsided as I twisted the knob and opened the door.
"No," I groaned when I saw who it was, who they were. I flipped the safety of the gun on.
Tristan shoved his way into the room, flipping the lights on as he did. Trina and Justin followed him. "What the hell!" Tristan yelled. I kept silent mostly because of shock. I rarely saw Tristen yell, at least I rarely saw him yell because of anger. Actually I think I could count the number of times on one hands. "What the hell were you think, Kate!" He wheeled around and glared at me. "Huh? Tell me! Just what were you thinking when you took off for the middle of nowhere all by yourself?!"
"How did find me?" I asked. I was avoiding the question of course, but I was curious.
He stepped forward and grabbed my face. He nose was barely an inch from mine and are chests were touching. "Do you really think there is anywhere you could go that I could not find you?"
Did he really think that I'd accept that even if it did make me want to swoon a little? My defense when a handsome man says something like that so close with passion burning in his eyes anyone would swoon a little. "How Tristan?" Was I breathless and was the room suddenly a little warmer?
"I put a tracker in your truck." And the room was icy cool again.
"You did what?" I demanded.
Trina pushed her way in between us. "Ignoring your somewhat unhealthy obsession with your truck. What are you doing, Kate?"
"I have something to take care of," I answer cryptically. "Go. Home."
"You're joking, right?" Justin butted in. "Kate we all get to the pack house and there is a body in the foyer and a letter on your desk saying that you had some unfinished business to take care of and you would be back as soon as possible."
"What's going on, Kate?" Trina asked.
I let out a deep breath. "It's a long story."
"Start talking," Tristan demanded still angry.
I scowled. "This is my job not yours."
"Your job is being the Beta of Fire Light," Tristan said with accusation dripping from every word. "You have a duty to the pack."
"I am doing my duty!" I snapped angry and offended. "That girl is dead because of me. It was my job to protect her and I failed."
"Kate, you can't blame yourself for every person that gets killed," Trina said.
I tried to dial back my anger. "I know that. But this one is my fault, Tree. I had a job to do years ago. I failed and now people are dead."
"What job?" she asked gently.
I looked at her sadly. "I failed to kill a rogue named Adrian Peltier. I messed up and because of that people are dead."
"So what are you doing now?" Trina asked.
"I'm going to hunt him down and I'm going to kill him," I answered.
Justin stepped towards me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Kate, I know you have a strong and sometimes weird sense of honor and nobility but how is going on some vengeful rampage going to solve anything?"
I shook off his hand. "This isn't about vengeance, Justin. Maybe it was a few years ago but I'm not a kid anymore. This is about protecting people. Adrian Peltier is... well for lack of a better word, he is a monster. As long as he's alive a lot of people could die."
"No one man is that dangerous," Justin said.
"This one man is," I told him. "This one man wiped out the Blackwater pack."
Tristan jerked. "Blackwater, as in..."
I nodded.
His anger came back with a new fury. "You are not doing this alone."
"Trist-"
"No!" he pulled me back to him. "You are not doing this alone, Kate. Do you understand me? Not alone. So don't try pulling that I have to this alone crap. Do you think that we left the pack to come out here in the middle of the night for nothing? We care about you, Kate. We aren't going to let you do this alone."
"There's nothing I could say to convince you to go home is there?"
The corners of his lips twitched upwards. "No."
"So where do we start?" Trina said shattering my moment with Tristan.
I couldn't help but smile. "Adrian has a network of rogues working for him. It's why there've been more and more organized rogue attacks over the past few years. I figure there has to be a rogue who knows where Adrian is."
"So we go where the rogues are," Justin interrupted.
I nodded. "So where is that?" Trina asked.
"The Blue Waters pack called yesterday about needing some reinforcements for an upsurge of rogues in the area. I hadn't had a chance to run it by Jason yet so..."
"So we can go and be the reinforcements," Trina finished brilliantly. "But they won't like a group of rogues, no matter who they are, coming onto their territory."
That was a complication. If it was just me I'd be fine but four of us?
"We need to form a pack," Tristan said looking at me. "Kate?"
My eyes went wide. "Oh no! Tristan you can't be serious!"
"You're the highest ranking wolf here by blood and your mate was an Alpha. You'd been a Luna. By all standards you could do it," he said logically.
"Start a pack?" I exclaimed. "Tristan do you have any idea how hard that is? No one has started a completely new pack in years!"
"You can do it," he said sounding so sure of himself and his words.
"You're crazy," I whispered shaking my head. "Tristan, I-"
"Try," he cut me off. "It can't hurt to try."
I look at him nervously. "How can you be so sure of this, Tristan?"
"Because I know you," he whispered. "Just try."
He knelt down in front of me and Trina and Justin followed his lead.
I knew how to do this, in theory. In theory anyone of rank in a pack knew how to do this. In theory all I had to do was to impose my will over theirs and make them submit. Sounds easy, right?
It's not. It's almost impossible. Passing the title down of a pack that is already in existence is easy but creating a new one requires focus, power, and an intricate knowledge of how a pack works.
First I need a name. I thought for a few seconds until the perfect name came to me. Justin would be my Beta and Trina my Theta. I picture my will as a near invisible force and pushed it out to the three of them.
I could almost feel them, their own will and it was like hitting a wall. I hated to do it and I almost pulled back but I didn't. I pushed forward against the walls. A thin sheet of sweat formed on my forehead. I felt mental muscled strain and pulse and tremble with the threat to give up then the walls broke.
I felt the three of them, I felt their strength in a way that I never could as an Alpha. I had their strength in me, in my muscles. It was incredible.
Tristan lifted his head and smiled up at me. "I knew you could do it, Alpha."
That makes one of us. Trina got to her feet and dusted imaginary dirt of her jeans. "So dear Alpha, what pack did I just join?"
I smiled. "Welcome to the Blood Hunter Pack, Tree."
She nodded. "Good name."
"Thanks," I said. "Well I should get dressed." They all looked down of my tank top and booty shorts for the first time. Trina's shoulders shook slightly as she held back a laugh. "We've got a hunt to start."
The End