Hunting the Hunter (Second in Lone Wolf series)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

She had been so sure that Brendon was going to die. Each time those guards had struck him with the handles of their axes, Ella had felt the pain herself. Each cracking of his bones like a knife straight through her heart.

But Brendon was strong, already his body was healing and while Ella knew his body had to be hurting from the massive about of bruises he was covered in, he didn’t show any of that pain on his face.

She loved him. She loved him with everything that she had. He was her miracle.

His hand reached out and took hers, squeezing it tightly as if he could read her mind as they made their way through the tight winding tunnels.

The pack could be heard ahead of them, their claws echoing off the stone walls and their panting breaths and growls filling the silence.

Ella could smell the council men. They were close and they were scared.

Suddenly screams split the air, so loud in this tight tunnel, they were nearly painful to Ella’s sensitive ears. Growls soon joined the screams and then the scent of blood.

It was clear that Grange’s pack was succumbing to the blood lust that was inside every immortal. A lust to kill. To end the life of those weaker than themselves.

Brendon charged ahead and Ella simply followed. Following him is what she would do from now on. Never again would she let this man from her sight. Whenever she did, bad things seemed to happen to them both.

They rushed past the pack, Ella noticed that the pack was toying with their prey and Ella longed to join them but she knew that Brendon was chasing something else.

The councilman named Farris. Grange and the pack had let him run on. He was the only councilman still running.

Ella saw him then. His run had become more of a shuffling fast walk and she could hear him sobbing. He looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened when he saw she and Brendon closing in.

It had been a mistake for the old man to take his eyes from his path, which was barely lit by torches ever thirty to forty feet. His feet became tangled in themselves and he was sent crashing to the ground, his body sliding across the damp stone.

Ella stood back, allowing her mate to approach their fallen victim. She knew this was Brendon’s kill to make.

“Brendon…” Farris whispered hoarsely, his voice breaking. “Please just let me go…”

“You know I can’t do that, sir.” Brendon replied, his voice different than Ella had ever heard it before. Gone was any gentleness or caring. Gone was that lightheartedness and teasing nature. He sounded cold and callous as he spoke to the stuttering quivering coward on the cold stone floor.

“You can’t kill me Brendon. I am your master.”

Brendon was standing over him now, his legs on either side of Farris’s prone frame lying on the floor. “I have no master. Not anymore.”

“You won’t kill me…” Farris himself sounded as if he knew he was lying. The desperation in his voice and the tears on his wrinkled cheeks giving away his own doubts.

“You created me, Farris. You and men like you. You know what I’m capable of because many times you’ve used my skills to your advantage. I am what you Councilmen always trained me to be.” Brendon paused, a humorless grin passing over his face. “A mindless killing machine. No questions, no thought to whether it’s right or wrong. No wondering if the prey deserves to die. I am a Hunter and this is what I do.”

“Brendon, please… I’m an old man, what threat am I to you? Your wolves have killed the rest of the council and the prisoners are tearing down this compound brick by brick. Just let me go. I won’t live long outside these walls…”

Ella saw the tension in Brendon’s jaw. She saw his grip tighten around the axe he held in his hands. She willed him to kill the man but she could tell by the look in his eyes that he was not going to. For all of Brendon’s tough talk Ella knew him to be a kindhearted man.

Killing a defenseless old man who was lying on the ground at his feet with tears soaking his cheeks just wasn’t something that Brendon would ever do.

Brendon took several steps back and spit at the ground beside Farris with disgust.

“You are a coward. A worthless coward. No better than the evil you send your Hunters out to destroy. You take children and you abuse them, torture them, twist their minds until they are blindly obedient to you and your Council and then you send them out to do your dirty work and make yourselves look pure and good while you keep dungeons full of prisoners, some innocent, some not, and you starve and torture them just for the hell of it. You disgust me. The world will be a better place without you and your council.”

Brendon turned to Ella then.

“Let’s go, honey. This tunnel will lead us out of here if we keep following it. We’ll leave Farris to find his own way out. With any luck his own creations will find and kill him.”

Ella nodded and they began to walk away from Farris. The sound of movement behind them stopped them in their tracks and then a gun cocked. Ella and Brendon turned to see Farris sitting up now with the gun pointed at Brendon’s head.

“That won’t kill me, Farris.” Brendon stated, sounding almost bored and yet happy, as if he had hoped Farris would do this. Ella knew that Farris being armed would give Brendon the excuse his conscience needed to kill the man. Farris laughed, the sound more than a little crazy.

“No, but it will hurt like hell.” Ella smiled when she saw the black figure moving through the shadows behind Farris.

“Not as badly as what is about to happen will hurt you.” she whispered, her voice void of emotion. Farris seemed confused and then he felt the breath on the back of his neck.

He turned to see the monstrous wolf, his black muzzle dripping blood and his eyes flashing golden in the firelight.

He let out a scream that was cut short as Grange lunged and closed his powerful jaws around the old man’s windpipe, sinking his teeth in deeper and deeper and then jerking his head back with a ripping sound that sprayed blood across the narrow passageway.

Grange loped up to Brendon, and Ella would have sworn it sounded as if the giant wolf was laughing as he swatted the Hunter in the face with his tail. Then with a yip Grange took off through the tunnel and the rest of the pack followed him, furry shadows, moving silently down the tunnel toward the exit that the Council had been trying desperately to reach.

“Damn you, Grange!” Brendon called out, his voice echoing off the walls. “I told you Farris was mine!”