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“Kill ourselves?” I snort. “I was thinking more along the lines of a bug-out vehicle and deterrent to stop them from following.”
“Nah, that’s boring.” Jai swings his legs. “Where’s the fun if you plan to live?”
“Wait, you plan to die?” I ask, confused.
“I’m always planning to die, big guy. The question is, which day?” He grabs a trap and saunters away as both Vale and I watch him.
“I’m glad he’s on our side,” Vale comments, and isn’t that the fucking truth?
Jai is a loose cannon at the best of times. He goes from happy to furious within seconds. He can be cruel and crazy, but he’s a good fucking hunter. He has better instincts than anyone I’ve ever seen—instincts that have saved our asses more than once. When we first met him, he was just a scarred, angry kid with a partially missing ear and a past so shrouded in darkness, nobody wanted to even train him.
Some still assume he is the enemy, like a sleeper spy, but I say it’s been too long.
If he was going to change, he would have done it when he turned eighteen.
No, Jai is as human as they come despite everything that happened to him.
Instead, it just made him hateful, angry, and vengeful towards wolves. He’s been waiting for the day he was allowed to hunt them, and God help the ones in our sights now.
“Brother,” I start.
Vale groans, folding the map and leaning into the car as he eyes me. “I know that tone. It will be fine.”
“I have a bad feeling,” I grumble.
“You always say that, and we’re fine. We’re doing this, Luc. Are you with us or not?” he demands.
“You know I am,” I snap, my brow furrowed. “I just want us to be careful. There is a reason so many hunters fall while hunting wolves. It might be the highest we can climb, but it’s not worth our lives.”
“If you’re not willing to die for what you believe in, then what’s the point?” Vale snaps. “This is our life, and if this is where we die, then I’m fine with that.”
I watch him leave, and for a moment, I see the little boy who walked away from me when I told him what happened to ourparents, but in his place now is a man. I cannot stop him, I can only protect him, so I haul up four traps and set out in the other direction to place them.
It’s been ten hours since we set the traps and killed the feral, and the crescent moon is high in the sky. The night drags on as I shove some emergency rations in my mouth, needing to stay fuelled even if my eyes are continually scanning the tree line. They could be watching even now.
The night is the wolves’ time. That isn’t to say they don’t come out during the day, but like most animals and predators, they are smart, and they know they are better equipped than we are to hunt at night.
Even with our goggles and sensors, we are basically sitting ducks, and I hate the feeling of eyes on my back even though I know it’s probably just my imagination.
“Anything?” Vale asks in my ear, the mic crackling with the sound. The shitty equipment could get us killed, but being a hunter doesn’t necessarily pay well, even at our level.
“Not yet. You?” I question as I shove more rations into my mouth.
“Nothing. Nothing on the sensors either,” Jai chimes in. “Maybe the feral was wrong or lying to us.”
“He wasn’t,” I comment, wiping my mouth. “At the end, he was too scared to lie. No, there is a pack around here, but they could be lying low or playing it smart. It takes time to hunt.”
“Very true. Remember when we waited three whole months to capture and kill that vampyr den? We’ve got all the time in the world. They will have to come out eventually,” Vale comments cruelly.
“I think we should plant some cameras and come back tomorrow night. Our scent could be throwing them off,” I murmur, scanning the area. “There is no point in us sitting here day and night without rest. We’ll get sloppy?—”
“And getting sloppy is what gets you killed,” they parrot back, making me glare into the night.
Vale sighs. “Alright, fine. We’ll wait another hour, and if nothing happens, we’ll come back tomorrow.”
The hour passes, and I’m packed up and waiting when Vale and Jai appear, both looking disgruntled, but they climb in without protest. I quickly reverse us out, leaving the forest behind and heading back down to the town we are staying in.
It takes us over two hours, and once we arrive, I collapse onto the cheap hotel bed. Our room has a door that opens to Jai’s adjoining room. Vale is in the shower, his bed perfectly made next to mine. Nobody shared with Jai, since he tends to stab in his sleep.
