"Tchk... Surprise, pretty face!"
While escaping from the southern side of the pack, Selena was on high alert. She knew the attack came from the north and east side but she knew she could never be too sure. Just as they hay left she had linked all the wolves going with her that someone could try to come in from the backside of the pack as well.
And much to her dismay, she was right.
When they had almost reached the border of the pack, she noticed two men sneaking in just a few meters away from them. She couldn't help but roll her eyes when she noticed how loud the two humans were, scrunching leaves and breaking branches under their feet. She pointed towards them and spoke to Jayce.
"Now would you look at that? They never change their deceiving ways."
Jayce pointed his chin towards them, "Do we take them out?"
The squad had stopped and Selena observed them.
"What if there are more of them? If they see us and send news back our mission will fail before we even start," one of the warriors voiced.
"Then we should take them out," Evelyn added while popping her knuckles, an evil and enthusiastic glint in her eyes.
"We should help them out from here as much as we can," Selena said thoughtfully as she bit the inside of her lips, something she does when she is thinking too hard. She then looked at both Jayce and Evelyn, a silent order in her eyes before she spoke, "We cannot afford them let Leon or Max know..."
"Don't worry," Evelyn smirked, "They won't... right Jayce?"
"Let's do it," Jayce said as he shook his hands.
"Do it then," Selena nodded.
With Selena's approval, the squad remained hidden, keeping a lookout for any other hunters lurking around, Evelyn and Jayce sneaked towards the two men oblivious of their surroundings.
Selena observed the movements of the hunters. It didn't take her more than five seconds to realise that these men were not there while she was held captive.
They are new and inexperienced.
Selena found it weird... why would they send such inexperienced men? But she wasn't too surprised either. Max and Leon were capable of anything, even pushing one of their own to its death.
Evelyn and Jayce took on the two men at the exact same time. Both of them jumped on their backs before breaking their necks.
"Do we have to kill them all?" one of the warriors asked her.
Selena sighed, "I wish we didn't. But these hunters," she shook her head, "You let them go once, they will come back again. They won't stop until they kill us or we end them."
Both of them walked back, Evelyn with a jump in her step and Jayce with a stoic face. Seeing Evelyn, Selena was almost sure that she was getting a thrill from the fight.
"Two other men are also walking towards the pack from another route," Jayce said, "I heard them whispering."
"Contact the pack and let them know."
"Tried already," Evelyn said, "They are completely focused on the battle. There is no response."
Selena frowned but nodded, "Keep trying then. C'mon, we gotta go fast."
The walk through the forest was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Jayce and Selena were working with the same mindset, the ones they were trained to have while in the Lunar Eclipse Pack. Only shared glances were enough to convey messages, just as the bond that alphas and their betas share.
While Jayce decided to stay towards the end to make sure that no one was following them, Selena led the way as she would be able to recognize where the hunter's cave was.
Evelyn stayed at the front with Selena. She was observing their surroundings as well as Selena. She knew how hard this is for her brother's mate and she wanted to be there for her as much as she could.
When they were out of the pack borders, and Jayce was sure that no one was following them, they shifted into their wolf form.
The wolves all ran at their full speeds and followed Selena. She was leading the group with great confidence, completely in her element.
After a run of nearly twenty minutes, the wolves came to a halt as they saw Selena had stopped.
The large brownish red wolf stopped and took a step backwards, her eyes were locked on the entrance to a cave right in front of her face.
'Wait,' Selena whispered, 'This can't be... we ran for barely half an hour. We cannot already have reached the cave.'
'What do you mean?' Izzy asked back.
'Don't you remember? We ran for three days before I crossed into the Ferocious Shadows Pack when I ran from them!'
'Sel,' Izzy's voice was sympathetic, 'You must have been weak. Remember I wasn't fully active?'
Selena scoffed, 'How slow Izzy? It took me three days, not three hours.'
'Then you must have run around in circles.'
'How come we didn't run into them then?' Selena asked bewildered.
Izzy remained silent for a few seconds, contemplating whether or not to express her thoughts. If she was right, then the hunters have been observing this pack much longer than they had earlier predicted.
'Maybe you did,' the wolf finally whispered back in a small and thoughtful voice, 'Maybe they were watching you run around, hoping you will lead them to another pack.'
Selena's blood ran cold as Izzy's words washed through her, 'And I gave them exactly what they wanted. Oh my god...'
'Don't go there right now. Focus, this team needs you to lead them. It's not the time for rebuking yourself.'
Selena let out a low warning growl and silenced Izzy. She shifted into her human form and took a deep breath. This was her nightmare, coming back to this place.
She was terrified but there were no signs of it on her face. However, that didn't stop Evelyn and Jayce from knowing exactly what was going on in her head.
"Hey," Evelyn came next to her, "It is okay. You're not alone this time. We are all here with you."
Jayce too came beside her, "It's time to make them pay."
Selena nodded with a fire in her eyes that didn't go unnoticed by any wolf there.
Taking another deep breath and exhaling slowly, she said, "Let's get this done with."
"Do you think there are hunters in there?" Jayce asked.
"Surely," she nodded, "They wouldn't leave Asteria all alone in this whole place."
Evelyn took the first step in and took a peek.
"Looks clear."
Everyone took slow and steady steps, making sure to not step on branches and keeping it quiet.
"Luna, we weren't able to study the map properly."
"Don't worry," Selena said as she carefully looked in every direction before stepping into the cave, "I know we had planned to stick together and that would be better than risking giving them one on one fights. But we don't have time and we have to cover a large area. So we break into groups and check every room, okay?"
Everyone voiced their approval without any hesitation. Selena hoped she wasn't making a mistake.
As soon as they all entered the cave, the air turned chilly, making the tense atmosphere even more creepy and blood-curdling. The whole corridor after entering the cave was eerily silent.
The hunters had put in great effort to make the cave their workplace. In the first three-way, one of the ways was a dead end, and the other one was a place barely visible, hidden by leaves and twigs.
Evelyn was heading towards the dead-end but Selena held her back and pointed towards the other side. Evelyn looked at her confused.
"There is no place to go!" Evelyn said.
"Shh!" Selena silenced her urgently. 'Sounds echo in these caves, and even the whispered can be really loud,' she said in the mind link to everyone who came with her, 'Communicate through the mind link.' Then she looked at Evelyn, 'That is the dead-end,' she pointed towards the left side, and then removed the vines and branches hiding their way, 'This is our path.'
Selena removed the branches and leaves as silently as she could. They kept going until they came to the second three-way.
'The left side leads to their sleeping and sitting quarters, the right side is the dungeon, torture room, meeting room and all that,' Selena informed them just as she remembered.
'Which way do we go?' One of the warriors asked.
'Let's go left first,' Evelyn spoke, 'That way we can also be sure that there is no backstabbing.'
'Good idea,' Selena agreed, 'Some of you still keep an eye out at the back just in case.'
'Let's go then.' Jayce said and looked at Selena, 'Do you want me to clear the way first?'
'No,' she said instantly, 'Let me.'
Jayce smiled supportively at her, 'Then after you, Alpha.'
Selena smiled back at her beta, 'Just in case, I am damn proud to have a beta like you, Jayce.'
'So do me a favour and stay alive. I cannot bear to lose my best friend twice.'
She nodded turned forward, finally and entered the left corridor.
While she was escaping this place, Selena had her complete focus on the escape route, to get out of their alive. She had not noticed the amount of work these hunters had put into making the basement in the middle of the forest like an actual house.
As soon as they walked out of the corridor, they found that this one met another hallway like a 'T' and there are four doors there.
'One of the room's is for Leon and the other one for Max. The other two rooms are for the others to camp in.'
Selena turned around to look at the men that came with her. There were ten warriors there with her except Jayce and Evelyn, making her group a total of thirteen werewolves.
'Two of you and two of you,' she pointed as she paired four werewolves in groups of two, 'Check out these two rooms. Evelyn, Jayce and I will enter Leon's room, and you three,' she pointed at another three, 'Check Max's room. Be very thorough, there's a high chance that it's hidden there. The rest, make sure to alert us in case any hunter walks in.'
When no one objected, she spoke again, 'Don't take too much time but don't leave anything out. Check every corner, every small space. I am pretty sure they have hidden the spellbook in one of these rooms.'
The three men stood out in watch and the rest of them entered their respective rooms.
'Do we really need three men in each room?' Evelyn asked as she started checking the closet. Jayce got to the bed and the bedside table and Selena hit the study table.
'Not really. However, more eyes mean more chances of not missing anything.'
Selena shuffled through the books, opening them and checking what each of them are. Most of the books are on weapons and grenades and ammunition. However, there were a few books that were apparently based on mythical creatures... fairies, witches, werewolves, vampires, even demons and angels.
'What in the world...' she whispered as she jumbled through the pages. They had events that dated centuries back, which were apparently the story of the origin of all these creatures.
'What is it?' Jayce said as he took a peek at the books in her hand.
Selena put them away and focused on the loose pages now.
'Boy do these men need to wash their freaking clothes. This closet reeks.' Evelyn gagged, her heightened sense of smell not working in her favour at all.
Selena ignored her cries as well as Jayce's question and opened the loose sheets.
Maps, they were all maps of the different werewolf packs in America.
'They plan on continuing with their rampage...'
Evelyn scoffed, 'If they survive that is.'
'Look at this,' Selena said as she opened another few of the bundles of paper stapled together.
'Did he write all these?' Evelyn asked as she and Jayce circled around her.
'He...' Selena's voice broke before she cleared her throat as silently as possible, 'He wrote his experiences here.'
'Pity we don't have the time to go through his masterpiece,' Jayce muttered with disgust.
'It might contain the location of the spellbook,' Evelyn pointed out.
'It's hundreds of pages. We have a better chance at checking this whole place.'
'What are you thinking?' Jayce asked when he saw her just staring at the book.
'The first few pages are about his life before he became a hunter.' Selena looked up at Evelyn and Jayce, 'This isn't Leon's. It is Max's.'
'Then why is it here?' Evelyn asked.
Selena closed her eyes. After a second, the book started to levitate in her hand. Her hands floated in the air, and the book rose above it. It started turning into dust as the pages burned until it completely disappeared.
'You destroyed it?' Jayce asked shocked. He thought his alpha would be more eager to read through it.
'Nope,' she said as she turned to look at her empty hands, 'at least I didn't try to. I think I sent it back to my room in the packhouse. I wanna look into it later.'
'Figures,' Jayce said with a small smile and Evelyn just nodded.
By the time they left the room after thoroughly checking it, the others were already out.
'Anything?'
'Nothing except dirty laundry, rotten food and porn magazines,' one of the warriors said.
'What did we expect?' Evelyn scoffed and looked at Selena, 'Now what?'
'The dungeon area is still left.'
The cave was still eerily silent, too silent to be real. There was not even a sound of crickets. However, the silence broke as soon as Selena opened the steel door blocking the dungeon.
The sound of someone's laboured, heavy breathing was heard.
'Luna, we spent too much time on the sleeping quarters, we need to hurry.'
'Okay, spread up then, four of you check the meeting room for any secret chambers or any locker. Four of you check the dungeons, each and every cell. Two of you stand guard at this point.' She then looked at Jayce and Evelyn, 'We will check the room where the torture took place.'
'Are you sure that is a good idea?' Evelyn asked now slightly worried.
'Need to face it. Let's go. Link me if anything, and I mean, Anything, goes wrong.'
'Yes, ma'am.'
Selena didn't wait a single more second, she pointed the respected groups towards their respected rooms and headed where the torture room was with her own group.
As they took steps closer to the curtained door, the sound of harsh, heavy breathing sound became louder. Selena slowly moved the curtain to one side, Evelyn and Jayce ready for a fight just in case. Selena's eyes widened when they fell on the source of the sound.
She looked around the room really fast before hurrying in to help the boy hanging from the ceiling by chains.
"Elijah!" She called in whispered as she rushed up to him, "Oh my god, what happened?"
Elijah was still just breathing heavily. His head hung low, he didn't even have the strength to look up at her.
"Guys, help me get him down, fast!"
Jayce went ahead to help as the other warrior did too. Evelyn stood still as he stared at the man with curiosity.
Evelyn waited until they had got him out of the chains and lay his battered body on the floor.
"Who is he, Selena?" Evelyn asked as she too knelt down beside her, looking at him. Evelyn was suspicious that this was a trap by the hunters. However, she couldn't ignore that the bruises on his body were not fake.
"Elijah," Selena said, his eyes still on him, as his hands assessed the bruises over his body, making him groan loudly occasionally. "I am so sorry, I am so sorry."
"Why..." Jayce looked at her and then Evelyn with confusion who returned his look, "Why are you apologizing? What's going on, Selena?"
"It's all because of me..." she whispered as she placed her hands over his body, "They must have gotten to know he helped me escape."
"He did?" Evelyn asked now with surprise and Selena nodded.
'Can I heal him?' She asked Inara.
'Wouldn't hurt to try...' the witch said as she focused on getting her energy completely in focus.
"Okay, move a step back, you all."
Selena raised her hands as her eyes turned bright purple, indicating Inara making an appearance. She took a deep breath and focused on Elijah when...
"Tchk... Surprise, pretty face!"
Selena stilled.
She had hoped it wouldn't come to this, that none of the leaders would stay back at the cave.
At least, she had hoped it wouldn't be him.
'Fuck!' She whispered as she closed her eyes.