War Claim (The Claim: Book 3)

Chapter 12 - Roma

"You got his mate?"

The Head Hunter's mud-covered face grinned beside the ass of the naked unconscious female slung over his shoulder with his cape of vines and twigs covered in moss hanging off the other.

Roma couldn't help staring in awe with his mouth hanging open at what this male was able to accomplish. His brother, Alpha Sergei, was most pleased.

"Excellent," his brother said, smiling with a glint in his eyes. "Come now, we don't have much time. No one can know about this. Roma, the latch."

Nodding his head, Roma obeyed his brother's order and lifted the latch to the trapdoor of the pit dug deep into the earth for prisoners such as this.

Tools for their takeover of surrounding packs, one-by-one.

Alpha Sergei went down the ladder into the pit first with an oil lamp to illuminate the dark space. The hunter climbed down after him with the female on his shoulder and Roma followed, closing the door—a wooden board under three inches of grass with an oddly shaped rock as its marker and "doorknob" to pull it open.

The hunter set the unconscious female down on the dirt floor and shackled her wrists and ankles connected to the four corners of the pit. It was crowded down there with the three of them and they got her shackled up fast. The iron chains were infused with silver so they could not be broken by their kind and also prohibited them from shifting into their wolves. A thin cloth covered the cuffs to cause minor irritation while disabling its ability to cut into their flesh and cause infection.

Alpha Sergei clapped the hunter on his shoulder, grinning broadly. "Come. I owe you a handsome reward for this find. I trust you covered your tracks?"

"Completely."

"Excellent. They will never find her now. Come, Roma. We will soon meet the Alpha and Luna of the Zhooniyaa Miskwi Pack and their son as they look for the female. They were fools for permitting her to run around alone." He turned to the hunter. "Was she difficult?"

The male grinned. "Piece of cake."

Alpha smirked. "In that case, we will take more prizes to weaken these lesser packs around us. Your skills are most becoming. Come, let us get out of here, wash her scent from us, and meet the Alpha and Luna. Later, we will celebrate your catch when the heat dies down."

They left, knowing that no one would be any wiser about what occurred if they played their cards well.

And Roma knew they would. His brother was brilliant.

***

Alpha Sergei knew how to play the game and fell into the role of being the sympathetic neighboring Alpha when the Alpha and Luna of the Zhooniyaa Miskwi Pack and their son met him at one of their designated meeting places in no-man's land between their borders. His mate, Luna Hazel, was genuinely shocked and concerned, for she was never to know the truth—to keep her safe from any possible harm. She was a strong and powerful female with a lust for power like her mate, but she was also sympathetic and empathetic in areas that her mate lacked. She supported him in his ambition to build an empire far greater than anything anyone imagined taking place in their region for hundreds of years. She saw her mate for what he was—greatness in both form and power. He would lead them all to victory and prosperity and crush anyone who stood in their way.

But she was never to know of the young female they had kidnapped—and any others they managed to smuggle in to meet their battle plans.

"How absolutely dreadful! Yes, of course, you may sniff around our lands for her," Luna Hazel said. "Have you brought anything with her scent on it for us to give to our hunters and trackers? We will have a search of our land for her."