Surprisingly things happened pretty fast once everyone had a sense of the plan.
Julius still wasn't happy with it, but he knew there was no viable plan and that I would not change my mind so he dived head on in the planning and making sure everything would go as planned.
The plan was simple.
We know my father wants me dead but we also know that he wants to do it himself. Just as he did my brother. Now it was only a matter of drawing him in.
It didn't take us long to set the scene. An empty cabin just outside the pack limits was chosen for the confrontation. Then an all-star make-up team, made me look beat up as if I had just gotten myself beaten repeatedly. The end result was truly terrifying in how authentic it looked. Julius did not like seeing me with that on. But alas it was necessary for the plan to work. I was locked up tight in a metal chair, ready to set the bait and get this over with.
"You doing alright?" Julius asked me as he gives me a sip of water to drink from. He was never far away during his entire process. Always hovering, shadowing me as we conclude everything.
"Perfect." I reassure him "I just want to get this over with"
"Me too." he agrees looking concerned "I don't like exposing you like this."
I had to fight not to roll my eyes at him. He had made his thoughts quite clear during this entire process.
"I know. But it is what's necessary for this to work." I remind him.
"I know it is." he says gently placing a lock of my hair behind my left ear. "Every inch of me is fighting not to pick you up and run far away from here, far from danger, but then I remember you would fight me tooth and nail if I ever did that."
"You know me so well already." I tease him trying to lighten the mood.
He smiles sadly "Not nearly enough." he responds but then he got a determinate look on his face "When this is all over, we are spending an entire day in bed, no interruptions. Just you and me for an entire day."
I feel shivers running up my spine in anticipation.
"And we will spend all day talking?" I ask teasingly feeling immense desire to do just as he described. A day spent just the two of us in bed sounded like heaven to me.
"Some moments." he says with a smug smile leaning down, so our faces were very much near one another. His hands were on the chairs arms, so I didn't have to strain my neck too much to look at him. "I plan on spending many other moments discovering all there is to know about your body...." he whispers kissing my cheek tenderly "...all of your deepest desires..." he continues this time rubbing his nose in mine with a tenderness that I was very much unfamiliar receiving but was starting to enjoy when it came from him "...your hopes and fears." he says our lips just inches apart. His breath mingling with mine. "I want to know everything until there is no other person in the word who knows you like I do. No other who loves you like I do."
"Julius..." he kisses me tenderly, softly but with enough passion for me to feel his love deep in my heart. This man loved me with his entire soul and surprisingly I loved him just as much. Never in a million years would I have thought I would ever feel like this towards another person, but then again no one had ever loved me like he did. Not even my brother.
Our moment was broken by a large shout, breaking us apart.
"Alright everybody! Into positions!" Jordan yells "You ready, hunter?" he asks all serious and moody.
"Ready." I assure him.
"I'll be right next to the camera, sweetcakes." Julius says with a forced teasing smile.
"Fuck off." I reply with a roll of eyes at his horrible nickname.
"Just follow the script Hayls."
I nod focused. I won't screw this up. For Ollie.
I see the person behind the camera count down from three and once he hit the end, the red light of the camera went on, and the show began.
A guy named Sam was playing my torturer and the guy holding the camera. We were counting on the hunters not caring about him but so much as me, since he would never show up on screen.
"Look what I got here, little McKenna." He starts taunting me, approaching me with the camera. I gave him my best hateful and fuck off look. "I thought we could send a little present to your father. Show him how much you miss him; he certainly has been looking for you for quite a while. I am sure he would like to see how much fun we are having together."
"Fuck you" I curse him spitting on the ground at his feet.
He punches me. Just like we practiced. Hopefully it would look convincing.
"Your wolf buddies aren't here to protect you anymore gorgeous. Tell me did you enjoy betraying your family? Acting like nothing more than a slut and opening your legs for the enemy? Your father is very disappointed in you..." he says with a disappointed voice.
I chuckle as if he had just said the funniest thing ever.
"My father? AH! My father is a coward. Can't even finish the job himself, he has to send his lackeys to do it for him." I say chuckling with a defying look "But then again the mighty General is only good to shoot people while they are tied down. What a mighty hunter...can't even kill his daughter himself. I guess I should be flattered, his face is definitely not the last I would want to see before I die, although there would be something poetic about it, no? He definitely didn't seem to mind killing his son with his own weapon."
"I guess being wolf lovers must run in the family," he says with a sneer "You are all a fucking disgrace."
"Maybe. But at least I got to spit in his face before I died." I taunt him "The weak General, who couldn't control his own children. He will be the mocking stock of the organization, and I'm sure as hell going to be laughing then."
He punches me again.
I fake a couple of seconds as if I am recovering.
"Is this how you get your groove on? Does beating up girls make you feel powerful? Like a man?" I taunt him
"It could be." He says coming closer and running his fingers softly through my dirty messy hair. "In fact we might just have some other kind of fun if you keep misbehaving." He threatens "You already know what is like to take an animal between your legs, perhaps it's time to show you what a real man feels like."
"Do let me know when you find one." I taunt him, letting in a little bit of fear to be shown in my eyes.
"You have such a smarty mouth...perhaps we ought to make other good use of it." He says sounding intrigued.
"Try it, I'll be sure to bite anything that comes near it."
"Feisty." He says with a sneer "Let's see if you continue to be like that after we are done with you. You will wish for the sweet relief of death before we are done with you. Now say, bye, bye to daddy because he won't be able to recognize his daughter next time he sets his eyes on your pretty face."
I don't say anything just sneer hatefully at him.
He shuts down the camera after that.
"That should do it." He says "You okay?" he asks concerned "That was.... rough."
"I'm fine." I reassured him. Not traumatic at all, I add in my head knowing I would most likely suffer from nightmares for the next couple of days.
Julius is on me the second he can, untying me and holding me close to him. Normally I would scoff at such an act in such a public place, but after knowing him for months now, I knew that it had been hard on him to see me like this and not be able to do anything about it. His arms around me made me feel safe and anchored in the real world when all I wanted was to drift back to the memories of the past or the dangers of the future. I wrap my arms around him, soaking in on his warmth and the comfort he provided.
"I'm okay." I remind him
"I know." He says "I hated that."
"I know"
"Do you think he will take the bait?" he asks taking a step back but still leaving me secure in his hold.
"He will. He won't be able to stop himself."
I was sure of this.
One thing you could always count on when it came to my father was that he took pride on his position as General and he doesn't like to be questioned. His ego doesn't let him; neither does his pride.
An hour later they received news that Rollins had called informing my "torturers" that my father and a team of hunters were joining us in two days, and to make sure I wouldn't die until then.
Charming.
Everything was set and ready to go.
There was a feel of anticipation in the air and for the next two days we went over every detail and every possible situation we could think off. Everything had to go according to plan. If not, then we risk more casualties than we can afford.
They came quietly, in the dead of night.
Perhaps they thought they would be less likely to be noticed if they travelled at night. I don't know. We got a pin on their location the second they crossed over into the pack's territory. Two military style black trucks crossed over and were currently being followed by a small group of pack members. All remaining undetected.
One could never guess that such a large animal as a wolf could go unseen and deathly silent, and yet I was often reminded that they weren't just family/pack oriented, they were predators and they lived of the hunt.
Everybody was holding their breaths as they parked the cars.
Nobody moved.
Nobody made a sound.
The first person out of the car was Rollins, followed by three of his team who he sent to secure the premises. Only after getting the go ahead did the man of the hour came out of the car.
At this point I was in the room where I was being "secured" and wasn't able to see what was happening, but Julius had given me a tiny almost microscopic earpiece that allowed me to remain in contact with the team, and know first-hand what was happening as it was happening.
They enter the building.
I hear voices approaching. I knew that they were currently being lead to where I was staying by two people. Mary Loo and Sam, who they think work for the organization. We knew how to answer their phrase code correctly since the infiltrated hunters grew too confident and never deleting anything in their personal computers.
Amateurs.
They grew so confident in their ability to fool us all and blend in that they forgot that the danger could come from one of their own.
It didn't take long to hear footsteps approaching.
I was being held in complete darkness, so when the door opens all I see is a silhouette of a man. A silhouette I knew too well.
"Did you come here for another round?" I ask faking ignorance of his identity "I think we were really getting somewhere last time. I was just starting to enjoy it before you left."
"You always did have a smart mouth on you daughter. A shame how you never learn when to keep it shut." he says finally taking a few steps into the room.
He stops by the light switch and not a second after, light blinds my eyesight. I blink a couple of times to get used to it. And there he was. The man of the hour. My father. Coronel Harrold Johnson.
"Ahh...father. How nice of you to visit." I say "Sorry for not getting up to salute you, I'm a little tied up at the moment."
"Do you think this is funny?" he asks serious, although I could detect a little bit of rage in his eyes.
"That you came here to put me down as if I was a mad dog? Tell me, will you make it seem as if it was a werewolf attack like you did to Ollie? You remember Ollie, right? Your son? Of course this sight might just be bringing up some memories of the past. Didn't you keep Ollie tied up like this? Beaten and starved?"
"We are moving in on their team. We will take them out one by one. We will try to keep things as quiet as we can. Just keep the Coronel busy as long as you can" I hear from the earpiece.
"You are just as pathetic and weak as he was" my father says
"It says something, doesn't it? That both your children chose to leave the institution?"
"Ah but they didn't, now did they? My son was killed on a mission by werewolves, and you, my daughter...you were killed on that failed attacked a few months ago against the Capulet and Montague packs." he explains making a show of removing his gun from behind his back. "A terrible thing to happen to a Coronel, who already lost his wife and son, and now to lose his only remaining child, I think I might even get a promotion..."
"Of course you would use the death of your children to promote yourself" I scoff not even perplexed by his reasoning "You know what the sad thing is? I was fully committed to the cause and to you, but then you gave the order to kill me instead of rescuing me. At first I thought, he's just thinking about protecting the group, you couldn't risk anything leaking out, it hurt my feelings that you thought I would betray you. But in a way, deep down, I understood."
"Then you should have killed yourself and saved me the trouble." he says
"You cleared don't know me very well if you think I would ever take the coward's way out Coronel." I taunt him "You're the coward in this family after all, you should know."
"Shut up you ungrateful brat!" he says enraged slapping me harshly on the cheek.
I chuckled "Did I touch a nerve? Does the big bad Coronel doesn't like being called a coward? What else do you think you are? Even a rookie could pick up a gun and shoot somebody point blank. You're not special, father. It is not a great achievement. It actually just proves how useless you are, always counting on others to do the dirty work for you."
This eyes were full of rage as he stares me down.
I never dared to speak like that to the General. We always had to speak with him with the respect he deserved, there would be consequences if we misspoke.
It was freeing in a way.
To not be afraid.
Liberating even.
Except, as I watch the General take a knife from his side pocket, it was about to get me killed.
The end is almost here!
Don't forget!
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