A hunter to hunt
~
Tala
~
The Beta tipped her head forward, a spurge of blood spilling out and falling to the ground in a waterfall of blood rain.
She cringed at the pain, the infliction to the bridge down to the tip of her nose and crimson liquid continued to ooze out. But, to her luck, it was healing.
"Wretched hunters," Tala Avan spat with disgust.
The blow her nose had endured was beginning the healing process now. The bleeding was becoming tiny red droplets and she was finally able to stand up straight, no longer trying to choke up the blood and wheezing for air.
Tala huffed in relief. She had to admit, it could've been worse for her and she supposed she had one specific person to thank for that. The very person that did this to her.
As a Beta, the second in command to the Alpha, her duty is to abide by the leader's commands and orders, all the while having her own power due to her ranking. A ranking Tala believed she'd surely lose now.
One job. One order she had to follow and that went straight to the darkest pits of hell.
In all her years of being a Beta, not once has Tala failed the Alpha, but with one of the biggest challenges he threw on her shoulders, she cracked in a matter of days.
Tala's duty was to enforce commands as well as follow them, and she failed.
She wouldn't be surprised if her head would be on a stick in the next few minutes as she stumbled along the long and winding driveway leading up to his home.
The last thing she wanted to do was report this. Tala was already imagining the conversation they'd share before her blood splattered along his office walls. The Alpha wouldn't be pleased, after all, he gave this challenge to Tala because he deemed her fit enough to take it on.
But who could possibly take on two huntresses that had intended to flee the moment they got here?
But within all of this, Tala stood well and sound, alive. For now ...
They hadn't killed her, although one of them was about to, leaving Tala to rot like an animal carcass.
"That's it, I'm killing her!" Tala recounted hearing when her back met the floor when trying to stop the two hunters. Since then, she had no idea how much time had passed but she could still hear the threat of the huntress drill into her ears.
But someone stopped her. The other huntress. The Alpha's mate.
"No, Cadence, you don't need more blood on your hands. Let's just go." Her voice was gentler. Soft and ... kind, almost.
"The dog will report it back to him. He'll find us!" The other huntress, Cadence, claimed.
Tala had seen a fierce look sharpen across the Alpha's mate. "He can damn well try."
Right then and there, the hunter landed a punch to Tala's face, jabbing her square in the nose as those final words were muttered into the air and Tala felt her body become numb, head swaying to the side from the hit.
She had been knocked out.
When she came to her senses, a throbbing sensation pained her nose and something worse pained her. The huntresses had escaped after trespassing into the Alpha's territory.
She was still stumped by their plan and how skilfully they devised it. They weren't supposed to do that. They weren't supposed to leave.
And yet, they did. With great success and flair, the car they stole left marks in the dirt roads where it lead up towards a hill. It was clear they would've left the territory by now, the sun spoke that to Tala of where it was now positioned. Tala didn't know how much of a head start they had, an hour or two maybe, but they had the ultimate advantage.
Wincing as she tried not to clasp her nose, Tala found the front door to the Alpha's home and stumbled in, trying not to fall off her feet.
Her legs were giving up on her and it wasn't because of the hit she received, but the absolute exhaustion waging through her. She was up before the sun was today, to watch over the two hunters and now, her body craved rest. She knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon.
Walking down a dark hall that had wooden flooring that creaked beneath each step she took, Tala came to the front door of her Alpha's study that he informed her he'd be working in for the day and immediately felt queasy.
Breathless and throaty moans met her ears before she could register and she stiffened to the spot, the lustful sounds growing louder with each second passing.
The carnal sounds coming from the other side of the door could only initiate the one act Tala hoped he wouldn't be committing right now and if so, the rhetorical question filtered through her mind like a comet, ushering in, why me?
Tala withheld a growl that wanted to slip out of her mouth from her chest and reminded herself of the matters that needed to be dealt with. A matter that could potentially urge the Alpha to snap and shift, and with this news, he most likely would and do more damage than required.
Tala knocked and almost laughed at the sudden quietness chilling through the other side of the door. A loud growl echoed through the wooden barrier and Tala resisted the urge to jump; the growl only spoke of displeasure and annoyance.
Tala took a step back, swallowing and flinched when she could taste her blood in the back of her throat.
"Come in," a voice ordered.
Grinding her teeth together angrily, Tala waltzed in and scrunched her nose up at the sight.
Sex loitered the air and suffocated Tala's senses as she locked onto the two bare bodies that were entangled. She immediately dropped her gaze.
A red-headed she-wolf unlatched her legs around the Alpha's waist and went to toss her dress on. Hooking it over her naked and slender form, Tala looked to the side, finding the empty bookshelf the most interesting thing in the world and not wanting a reminder of what she just walked in on.
The she-wolf flicked her long red hair out of her dress, the locks cascading down her body as she bade the Alpha an unfulfilled look.
"Get out, Cora." Lycus gritted out with command.
She huffed with furious eyes, grabbing her heels and wanting more than what she got. But it seemed the Alpha was done with her, giving her nothing but a command that should be listened to.
Realising the Alpha wasn't going to give the attention she wanted, Cora mustered whatever ounce of dignity she had left and placed a hand on her hip rather confidently before heading for the door.
"Nice nose," Cora said snidely, walking past the Beta.
"Want me to break yours?"
Tala slammed the door in her face before the she-wolf could come up with a comeback and turned to the Alpha.
He looked tousled. Buttons unclipped revealing a dewy glow and toned body, black hair in a mess and eyes searing with amber. He zipped the fly of his jeans up.
"Really?" Tala muttered to him, not helping herself as she looked to the floor.
"What?"
"You just found your mate, Alpha Lycus," that sentence slipped out before Tala could take it back. But Tala found herself not regretting it. It rang with the truth that even the Beta wouldn't bother denying.
Lycus has found his mate, although in the worst of situations and even worst of individuals. A hunter of all things. But the fact remained, he was paired and bound to someone else that tied his soul to hers.
And fucking someone else wouldn't work in anyone's favour.
Tala guessed she was traditional in those terms, valuing a mate even though she had yet to find her own. That's if a female could ever be paired with another female.
A mate that has disappeared if you cared to know, Tala thought slyly. Maybe he wouldn't care, just brush the issue under the rug and have it out of sight, therefore, out of mine.
But from being his right-hand woman for many years, Tala hoped after observing the many sides to Lycus that an ounce of him would care.
Care to realise that the mate he has found just disappeared from under his nose.
"She's a hunter." Lycus bit out and nestled up towards the seat, buttoning his buttons up. "But how is my mate, anyway?"
The question made Tala's throat close up and went silent, the muteness more defining than words.
"Well?" Lycus growled, brows knitting together as he tried to pick apart the Beta that stood before him with a fearful expression.
Tala gulped, struggling to find her words as she knew what would become of her because of this.
Lose her title, be banished or even killed. Her instruction was to watch over the cellars and if anything were to happen, to alert Lycus.
That command went down the drain.
The two girls, hunters, had been down there for nearly four days by this point. After they trespassed onto the lands of Fenris, a fight ensued, but it was quickly handled when they lost after Lycus arrived.
As he crossed her path, Lycus commanded his warriors to lock the both of them up and to do nothing with them.
The only instruction was for no one to go near them but the Beta who had to take watch.
The two feisty girls were spitfires and caused nothing but a ruckus, attempting to initiate fight after a fight with the Beta. But when it came to four days, the day they escaped, something within the hunters had snapped. Like a light and wispy feather was heavy enough to tip them over the edge.
Supposedly.
After being locked in the dungeon like animals, it was evident to Tala they were mastering a plan of escape and had every intention of fleeing.
It was nearing afternoon when they took the silver metal door down in whatever way they did. It must've been the rock that lay sharpened like a dagger that set them free because when Tala went to check in them, they weren't there.
Moments later she found them heading to the car when their altercation ensued.
It was, from what Tala knew of, hers and Lycus's knowledge as to who his mate is. And from what the Alpha has made of things, being discreet and sly, he wanted no one else to know. After all, no Alpha would want to know that a hunter that crossed his borders, that put up a fight was now his.
Tala took in Lycus's eyes that suddenly chilled into blackness at her quietness, the primal and beastly side of him wanting to rip from his human skin.
His teeth bared at his Beta, a wave of dominance rolling off him and demanding the truth.
Tala bit her lips and tried not to cower. "Your human mate and her cousin fled. They ran away."
Lycus made no attempt at moving, but his gaze spoke of his actions. His lip switched as he leaned against the table, all attention on his Beta. "I told you to watch them."
"I did! They just — the Larren hunters are persistent, Alpha Lycus. On the final day, they acted nothing short of pathetic and acted weak to lower my guard to escape." Tala fumbled with her words and calmed her racing heart with steady breaths.
Lycus slowly rose to his feet, his Adam's apple bobbing as he clenched his teeth together that were now sharpened into canines.
"And your nose?" Lycus asked of all things.
"Your mate knocked me out, I thought she broke my nose," she tried to resist the urge to touch it. It was healing, healing painfully slow and bruises were already appearing.
It wouldn't completely heal until tonight.
"You'll heal," Lycus grumbled carelessly and stalked around his desk, towering over his Beta. "I'll have a few warriors find them. If that doesn't work then ..." He trailed off with a growl.
"You want to find her?" Tala said, surprised.
Fisting his hands together, Lycus tried to regulate his breathing, "I felt a sudden loss today, a hollowness in my chest and I didn't realise it was because she escaped."
Tala believed that's what happens when two souls are tethered as one. A Mate is a person to balance out the humanity and brutality of a Lycan. They're supposed to bind them to their humane side, not allowing the Lycanthrope virus to sink them in entirely and leaving them with nothing but a beast.
A Mate stops that from happening and even after decades of being consumed to the beastly side of oneself, they can still pull you back from it without realising. They can redeem a lycan.
"You can sense her," said Tala, "the Mate bond is pulling the two of you together whether you like it or not."
A rumble rippled in Lycus's chest and he ran a hand through his hair before it found his face, showing an emotionless shell of a person unable to feel anything remotely profound.
"Have a certain number of wolves to track them down. She's related to the Larren family, so she's most likely heading back to them, but they couldn't have gone far, maybe a nearby town, so start there." The Alpha muttered.
Tala nodded eagerly, writing his sentence down in her head to not forget them. To not fail him.
"Do not utter to anyone who the Larren hunter is to me, Tala," Alpha Lycus said after a dawning moment, his eyes slicing daggers at her, the threat prominent between the both of them. "And it's best you keep her identity to a minimum. Inform the wolves they trespassed onto our territory and need to be dealt with by bringing them back here unharmed. Now get out." Lycus declared to his Beta.
Tala bowed lowly, backing away to the door before slipping out with a breath of relief.
But the image of a man battling with the beast inside of him still haunted her as she stalked down the hall to leave Lycus's home. His lycan side wanted to rip the skin apart and play into the bloodlust filling his senses as he felt a hunt on the tip of his tongue.
Lycus needed to find his mate. He needs to find his prey.
——
This was re-written and completely changed from what the previous first chapter was.
I apologise if there are any mistakes.
But I'm liking this one more as it sets up ... a game of cat and mouse which will be enjoyable to write and hopefully, read.
The entire story is completed, just needs to be edited and fixed before it will all be up. May take time.
Happy reading.
— Caranyx.