Escaping Duty

Chapter 31

"We know there's a pack outside of town no more than 50 miles away. If we move quickly, we can catch them before any possible runaways go and alert the others about our coming. We plan to keep them contained and prevent them from running any further." Valentina heard her mother's voice call out to the group of hunters.

There had to be at least 30 of them standing around in the room now, which was more than Valentina thought they'd gather in such a short amount of time.

"I've been looking for you; are you alright?" a voice asked her, making her jump in her seat. "Your parents won't share much detail, but they've said enough for us to someone close to them got attacked."

Valentina looked up to see Cole York standing next to her, worriedly eyeing her ankle. He looked a little more beat up than the last time she saw him and wondered what the hunters had been up to while she was gone.

"My brother and friend are still in the hospital, I guess I got off easy with the injuries," Valentina said not wanting to elaborate much on that.

"What was it like? I've never encountered wolves before I had training. You must've been terrified."

"Yeah no kidding, but its definitely not something I'd want to go through again," she said sarcastically.

Valentina thought back to that night in the woods, the darkness, and screams. Just thinking about it made her heart speed up and hands shake.

"I never stop being amazed by the wolves, for them to do something like this...I guess they're as our parent tell us huh" Cole asked green eyes glancing her way.

"Not all of them" Valentina muttered without realizing it, but quickly changed the topic when she saw Cole give her an odd look. "What's been happening while I was gone. You look a little worse for wear yourself," she acknowledged.

"4 of us were in the woods trying to catch the wolves. I'll admit they can definitely put up a fight even with the wolfbane. If it weren't for my daggers and the others, I would've had some close calls." Cole said shrugging as if the fight were nothing.

Valentina recalled seeing a bandage on Mason and wondered if Cole had been trying to catch him, but wait why were they trying to catch wolves? She thought her parents wanted to deal with them another way.

"You guys were trying to catch them?"

"Yeah, they wanted us to try getting the wolves that attacked you guys. I'm not sure if they're the same ones, but Will's group brought back two of them."

"What are they going to do with them?"

"We haven't been fully informed yet but we figured they'd be used as leverage to bring out the Alpha. Once he's out the picture the rest of the pack should fall." Cole explained indifferently.

Hunters gathered listening, while on the other side she saw hunters lay out weapons. ranging from guns to arrows, and knives to swords. She hadn't even thought about needing a weapon.

"Your parents are trying to make sure what happened to you guys doesn't happen again to anyone else," Cole said leaning closer to Valentina.

"Do you have any idea how they plan to go about that?" She asked him, taking advantage of the way he kept talking to her.

"I'm not into the science of it, but the Sumners branch has been working on an airborne biological type of weapon. Wait they're assigning groups." Cale said turning his attention back to the front of the room.

"We will need to split out forces up in 4 group. Two will be assigned to guard the perimeter of the forest and set up components so that they're trapped inside the radius. The Theta group will be provided with masks and the enhanced weapons our California branch have been toying with. The last group will move in behind that one in case the wolves break through our line. Every position is crucial even if it may not sound like. The Theta squad may face the most casualties so if there are any switches that need to be made, or final requests then now is the time." Lara's voice projected.