Red Riding Hood Meets The Wolf: Book One (and Two) of The Hunted Series. (First Draft)

The Wolf's Mate Should Never Be Taken: Chapter 12

I arrived at the cities run down recreational center they deemed fit to call a club. I ran behind a tree to change into the clothes I had carried with me in my mouth before walking up to my sports car and leaning against it. The heat of the now setting sun was melting some of the knots in my back as the black car played the role of a giant heater. I stood there for ten minutes before deciding to go inside and look for my beautiful mate. I could smell her scent in the air and knew she had just been here recently, but it still seemed old, like she had already gone. I found the freshest scent of her to find it next to a open locker that had my car keys inside. At the base of the locker coated in a peeling yellow paint I found a rag that reeked of chloroform. I felt someone urgently knocking against my mind and let them in.

‘Alpha, something is wrong with the Protector, he is acting strangely.’ My beta James reported. ‘He thinks there is something wrong with Vanessa, he can’t feel her anymore. Tell him you are safely with her, you should be with her right now.’

‘No. He is right. I got here and found her locker open with my car keys inside and a rag with chloroform on the floor. They’ve got her James.’

‘Oh Shit. I’ll put up a high alert now. I will make sure that everyone is working double time on finding the Hunter’s training facility.’

‘You better, I will not be happy until she is in my arms again James.’

‘We will find her Caleb. We will.’ He sent comforting feelings to me through the link, but I shut him out. I needed to stew in my rage. I grabbed the only piece of evidence I had along with my keys and drove back to the pack house. I stormed into the house and ran my way up too her room. I needed to be surrounded by her scent to help calm my wolf down, but all he wanted was blood, to feel Vanessa’s captor between his teeth as he took their life from them slowly and painfully. His heart was seizing up and he knew it would continue until she was safe in our arms. He sniffed the room and found another scent. It was one he had barely picked up on while fighting her. It was Aretha. She had come and taken my mate from me. I stormed out of her room but paused when I realized something was missing. I looked back through at her dresser and found she had not only taken the Hunter box with her, but the werewolf box as well. She still had a choice seeing as she had her purse with her still.

I called everyone into a pack meeting. Since some of our members were not there they could either drop what they’re doing and head over or listen in through the pack link. James had set up a little podium in the dining room and moved the table to the far side out of the packs way. Chairs were set up for the older members to sit in and everyone else would either sit on the floor or stand. People started to file in slowly as the news spread of the meeting. Most people decided to sit down and chat while they waited for the meeting to start. A couple different groups of young middle school girls were set up in a corner playing hand games.

I decided to focus on their endless chanting so I closed my eyes and listened. “Down by the banks of the hanky panky where the bull frog jumps from bank to bank-y where the hip hop soda pop hey Mr. Willy and he went kerplop.” They continued chanting that and he listened until James came and slapped him on the back. I stood at attention and called everyone to order. The chanting stopped, the gossip stopped, the talking stopped. Every eye was upon me now.

“Your Luna, Vanessa Fence, has been taken.” I began. Every breath in the room stilled. One brave girl from the group of chanters raised her hand. “Yes Carrissa?”

“Why Alpha? Why was Vanessa Taken?” she asked to break the silence.

“Because we found out something upon our Warrior’s shift. Vanessa Fence is from a long line of Hunters. That side of her came out upon Sam’s first shift. Vanessa’s Grandmother is the Lead Huntress. Do not approach her. She is our only lead to find Vanessa. Vanessa was taken by her hunter self. Her Hunter is Named Aretha. Blond hair with brown eyes she looks almost exactly like your Luna. Since she is an Alpha’s Mate they probably put a headband of silver on her and will make sure she keeps it on until shes a huntress. We do have one hope for your Luna. She had both the Huntress and Werewolf box upon her dresser. Most of you witnessed the fact that she was a hunter when she broke Camilla’s nose this afternoon.”

“If she is a Hunter then she can’t be a werewolf or our Luna, why do we need to find her?” some boy who had recently shifted spoke up.

“Because she is not a full Hunter yet. She has yet to open the Huntress box or The Werewolf box. She can go to either side still and we have to find her before they force her to choose Hunter. Knowing her she is smart enough to figure something out and help us find her, we just have to wait for that sign.”

“In the meantime what are we supposed to do?” Connor frantically said.

“We search the places we already figured could hold Hunters.We have to find her and hopefully we shall. If she opens the Werewolf box she has an hour before she transforms. The Hunters will figure out before then that she did not become a hunter and look into why. I believe we only have two weeks at the most to find Vanessa before they make her into a Huntress. If that happens she will be lost to us, but not only that she will become their leader. We will not stop fighting for our Luna, and we will not give up looking for her. But our deadline to find her human is two weeks.” I stepped down from the podium and let James take over on how we were going to find her. I left the pack in his capable hands and went for a run. I needed to clear my head before searching for my mate. When I get her back I will make sure she never leaves my side again.

My wolf howled inside me since he couldn’t feel her presence. Every time he thought he found her she would disappear again. We both knew that this was the effect of a Silver head band. All we could do now was wait and hope Vanessa could get a signal to us or find a way to get the headband off and talk to us. All we can do is wait. I shifted into my midnight black wolf and ran off into the night, missing the feel of her silky hair under my hands as I kissed her soft lips.