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“What’s your name?” I yelled at him.
“Ilad,” he said in almost a whisper.
I watched him go, and now I was thrown into confusion. She had her life planned out before her. She had led the pack to the reservation to chase me, and my friends off, which means what the boy said was true. Why did she throw all that away?
She had begun to throw it all away when she made that move at me. But I know this didn’t start with her. There was something bigger going on here. Something that links to why the other Alpha wanted the lone wolves out of the reservation and whythis new one suddenly wanted them to stay, but he wanted Hayley dead as a price. I had a sick feeling in my stomach and didn’t like it at all.
I jumped back to the tree and took a sniff in the air. I had lost the other two wolves, but I could still sense her in my head.
It was time to meet her.
Chapter Thirteen (Hayley)
I could hear them catching up with me. They were three before, but now I could only sense the two of them. I had tried to shake them off, but they were very persistent, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to come up against them.
I could still sense Luke, but he was far back. He’d been on my tail for miles but didn’t move any closer. He maintained a distance behind the three werewolves tracking, no doubt, tracking them too. He had stopped me from killing Buff, and it took me a while to figure out why, but it soon became clear. He wanted to use Buff as a decoy because I had sensed Buff behind me again for a short while after he escaped. He kept his distance, too, and since it didn’t appear like he was going to attack me again, I let him be.
It seemed I had strayed further from the road than I had gauged earlier, and it was taking me too long to get back there. I had hoped before it got dark, I would be back on the road, find a town to go to, and I could mix with the people. It would be easier to stay hidden that way. The city with all its stench. But it had gotten dark over an hour ago, and these werewolves were gaining on me. They were behind Buff before, but now, I couldn’t even sense him. He must have retreated when he sensed them around.
Viper must have known there would be conflicts between the hunters he sent after me. So much confusion that they might not even get the job done. So, what game was he playing?
Maybe he wasn’t playing any game at all and just made a foolish decision. Viper, after all, has never been the sharpest knife in the block. I continued through the woods, acting like I couldn’t sense the werewolves behind me.
It was pointless running now. Besides, with so many trees around, there isn’t much ground I will be able to cover. I would have to face them sooner or later, and I better do that on my own terms. I was moving toward a denser part of the forest, and which seemed like the right move for me. The trees would come in handy.
I soon found a spot with trees in almost every spot, leaving barely enough space to stand. I stopped there and turned around. I glowed my eyes and extended my claws to tell them the time for games and tracking was over. It was time to move to the next stage of the hunt. Fight.
“Why don’t you come on out now,” I said and waited.
The first came out with glowing brown eyes, a long claw, and a gentle smile. He looked a bit like a school teacher with the smile on his face, but his eyes were calculating. He looked around and took in his environment immediately, still smiling at me.
“It doesn’t put you at an advantage,” he told me.
I said nothing and waited for the other to show, but he didn’t. I had assumed they were working together because the two seemed to have been walking at the same pace and at the same distance behind me. So, maybe I was wrong about that.
“We are not together,” he told me. “He wants me to go first so he can pick up the spoils of the battle. But there won’t be spoils, will there? Just two dead werewolves when this is over.”
“Just two dead wolves when this over,” I repeated at him and tracked back a bit—staying close to a tree and my heel pushing against it.
There was something I found constant in all hunters so far. They are all cocky and so self-assured. I guess it is important to believe in oneself in their type of business. They are always likely to make the first attack. I wanted to take that privilege away from this one, so I pushed myself against the tree, using my heel to push me forward. I flew at him, my claws going for his neck. He reacted fast. Moving to the side to get out of the way, but I turned mid-air and came at him again, my claws got his face this time, but they didn’t go as deep as I wanted them to. He moved away just in time. When I landed and looked at him, the smile was gone from his face, replaced by slight apprehension
Good.
He could see the rumors he had about me were true.
He came at me next, wanting to control the tempo of the fight, but I wouldn’t give him that. I backed away from him and hid behind a tree. I wrapped my hands around it and used it to launch myself forward. He was yet to recover from his attack and didn’t protect himself from my kick. I buried my boot in his side, causing him to stumble to the floor with a groan. He shook his head and stood up immediately.
He had lost control of the fight already.
I took a quick sniff of the air to get the position of the other werewolf. He was closer now, a couple of feet to my left, and I didn’t need to look in that direction to know that I could attack him if I chose to. He was watching the fight closely and wouldwant to swoop in when I had tired the first werewolf out or killed him.
I wasn’t going to give him that luxury either.
If they want me, they must both come get me now.
I have lived most of my life getting controlled by people who thought they were bigger or better than me. Never again.
The first werewolf was making a dash at me, and I moved away from him but also closed the distance between me and the second werewolf in that manner. The first werewolf didn’t stop, though. He kept coming, and I had to attack right back. He threw his hand at me, his claws looking to grab at my throat. I moved away from him and tried to pull him by his hands closer to me, but he recovered fast; he brushed my hands off, and pushed me against a tree. But I didn’t stop moving. I grabbed onto the tree and used it to push myself forward.
