The Hunted

Nine

Strange to think that only a few days ago, Lucy had been pestering him to leave. To search the world to find his Mate. Red had never thought that she'd show up here. Especially not like this.

Red flung the door open and stepped inside of the building. He prowled across the floor towards a second heavy metal door on the far side of the office space. Six inches thick of solid, impenetrable metal – a precaution in case the cells ever housed anything more dangerous than a drunk pack member.

The secondary door opened easily beneath Red's grip, revealing an old wooden staircase. A few of the planks creaked when stepped on. Red had been meaning to replace them for years but had never gotten around to it. Each step he took could be heard echoing throughout the cell block and the murmured conversation below fell silent.

His warriors had put her in the cell that was the farthest away from the door. On the complete opposite side of the hallway was the cell housing the human man. Red was able to scent him too but there was nothing remarkable there. Licorice and terror.

Henry had ordered two wolves on each human at all time. At the far end of the cellblock where the man was were Deacon and Evander. Both of them looked bored, as if they may fall asleep at any moment.

Guarding the woman were Phillip and Li – two of Red's best. Strong fighters with good instincts who never backed down despite their young age. Phillip, at twenty-two, was so naturally skilled that he often outpaced fighters with twenty-years-experience and training. Li was two years older than Phillip and though he lacked in natural skill, he made up for it with pure determination. It wasn't uncommon to find him training earlier and longer than others.

Li nodded to him as he approached. "Hey."

Red jerked his head to the door they were guarding. It was just as thick as the door at the top of the stairs and opened from the outside only. There was a sliding plate on the door that could be moved in order to see inside. His heart began to thunder in his chest, knowing that she was on the other side of that door.

Even if Henry hadn't asked him to come and talk to her, Red's primal instincts would have ordered him inside. Her scent was worse here, thick and all-consuming. It infiltrated his lungs, settled into his blood.

"How is she?" Red asked them.

Phillip snorted and leaned against the wall. "Feral."

"What?" He looked from Phillip to Li.

Li's face was solemn and a grave look entered his brown eyes. "Feral is a good word to describe her. This one is worse than a rogue. She didn't eat or drink anything we gave her and she's got all these injuries from the fighting that she won't let us heal. The girl's gotta be in pain, Red. Some of the wounds look serious. Vic cut her up pretty bad. Her arm smells like it's infected but she won't let us help. She mostly just stalks around the cell snarling at anyone who gets too close or tries to talk to her."

"Have you seen the Alpha today?" Phillip asked and Red shook his head. Phillip grinned, teeth flashing. "That's probably a good thing. Li and I went in with her this morning to give her food and see if she'd warm up to us. No dice. So, the Alpha decided that he'd give it a shot about an hour ago but she's stubborn. He was asking her questions and she was saying nothing but he got too close and she raked her nails right across his face. I swear to the goddess, Red, if she wasn't your Mate, she'd be dead right now."

"Henry had us cuff her hands together after she scratched him so she can't do it again to anyone," Li added.

"She's that much of a problem?" Red asked, surprised. "She's just a human. And an injured one at that."