The Hunters

Chapter Thirty-Three

Blood In Their Veins

My father is held back by two of Kane's betas. There's now five of them and four of us, but we're all restrained in one way or another. Hope. It seems like a far away thought. Something that I wouldn't imagine as existing anymore in this circumstance. This world no longer has hope. I know this because we would've won the war by now if there was such thing. I wonder if there was ever hope. I wonder if someone still needs to unbury hope. I wonder where I could find hope.

    Kane looks pleased as he looks around our tattered house. He has glory in his eyes for the destruction he has caused. That's all they do. That's all the werewolves do is destruct and create chaos. You will never find peace or happiness inside a mind of a werewolf. You will never find love.

    "It's such a shame to see this war end when we were just having so much fun," Kane smiles and looks at each of us, "I'll miss these days for a week and then I'll be able to move on."

    "You'll never- end this war," my father croaks and just then I realize how beaten up he really is, "there are a thousand different villages and leaders in the west."

    "And there are a thousand and more of us," Kane laughs and pushes my father down on his knees, "I've been waiting so long for the day I could kill you. It's been years of me wishing for this day. Finally, it has arrived."

    I hear a cough come from my left. My head turns to where Cyprian is waking. His eyes widen as he stares at my father's defeated position. He's just as shocked as all of us.

    "Promise me," my father grumbles, "that you won't kill those three. Swear it with the blood that runs through your veins."

    Kane's jaw tightens as he takes one finger and draws a deep horizontal gash on his wrist, so casually, and I watch as he drops his blood on the back of my father's neck, "I swear with the blood that runs through my veins that I won't kill Aramis, Cyprian, or Amaia."

    And I realize what card my father has just played. Kane couldn't deny my father's wish. My father used the werewolves' culture against him. You can have a dying wish in this world, my father told me once, if a werewolf ever threatens to kill you. You can have one last dying wish. Make them swear on it with the blood that runs through their veins and they can't deny you. My father's dying wish was to protect us. I can't believe what he has just done.

    My father smiles at me through my blurred vision. The smile that will be burned into my brain. I couldn't save him, I couldn't save the one person who has saved me over a million times. I watch in agony as Kane's claws deepen into the spinal cord of my father. It's a lot less painful than other deaths, I remind myself as I sob.

    "I- Thomas Kingsley-" my father coughs through the blood now running out of his mouth, "declare- Cyprian Lotharius- as- as- leader of this- village-"

    The last words that I will ever hear my father speak. And they were to declare a new leader, but it wasn't me. My jaw drops with stinging tears in my eyes and I look over at Cyprian, who sits in shock, just staring at my father's limp body.

    I hear Kane erupt in a growl, "Typical human! Making me swear with my own blood not to kill any of you and with his last breath he declared you leader. Betas, please tell me there's a loophole."

    I speak for them "There isn't one. My father made you swear with your own blood not to kill the three of us and he used the proper statement to declare a new leader. There aren't any loopholes."

    Kane stares daggers at me and then walks right over to me and stands barely an inch from me and whispers, "I would wipe that smirk off your face because last I heard your father declared Cyprian leader, not- his- own- daughter. I'd say you have some daddy issues."

    I stare right back at him and casually reply, "I wouldn't be surprised if you had a couple yourself."

    I made him twitch and that one twitch will give me glory for the rest of my life. I know what bruises him on the inside. I have a small weapon against him now. He bangs my head back on the wood, "Do not dare talk to me like that!"

    I groan in pain and hear the shouts of my friends before everything turns black.