"We have to wait."
Selena could hear her own heart thumping against her chest. Her hands slowly started trembling and she could feel the hyperventilation beginning.
A faint sense of dread and panic had started creeping into her very soul before she felt the calmness starting to take over.
'You aren't alone this time, darling,' she heard in her head accompanied by the growling sound of Izzy.
Slow, steady footsteps approached Selena as she remained kneeling on the floor beside Elijah. With the help of Inara and Izzy, Selena finally was able to stop her trembling hands before she opened her eyes.
Jayce growled and came forward to her, to stand in between her and the man. Evelyn remained on the side, with the warrior beside her, ready to attack on her command.
Four of the warriors who had gone to check on the dungeon were also back and standing by her side. However, the warriors from the meeting room were still not there. Evelyn couldn't help but wonder if they were caught already.
Selena finally stood up. Elijah was still groaning on the floor at her feet. She turned around and her eyes fell on the man evilly smirking at her. Selena held Jayce's arm and pushed him moved him aside slightly so that she could stand face to face with the man.
Inara and Izzy both provided her with as much comfort and strength as they could, all the while keeping their anger in check because if they could, they would have ripped the poor excuse of a man wide open right then.
"Leon," Selena said as she looked straight at the eyes of the man, ignoring the rage of her beasts trying to consume her.
Leon grinned evilly and smacked his lips. "Long time, sweetheart." He looked around the whole room, his eyes staying on the werewolves before they returned to her with a glint in them, "and you brought friends too."
Selena remained quiet. She was standing still and her eyes were calmly focused on Leon before she glimpsed past him. There were at least five hunters here with Leon. That was a relief because she was sure that ten werewolves were enough to take on them, especially if she could shield them with her magic against their bullets, form a barrier with the help of her control over air.
"I missed you," Leon whispered as he extended his hand. Just before he could touch her though, another voice spoke up.
"Stay the fuck away from her," Jayce said.
"Tchk..." Leon shook his head and dropped his hand before turning towards Jayce. He assessed Jayce, who was continued to keep his glare on the man, before turning to Selena with a small smile. "Is it a speciality of the Lunar Eclipse Pack? Were all of you so feisty?"
"You would have gotten to see our speciality if you hadn't attacked us like a coward," Selena said with a poker face, making Leon grin widen even more than before.
Leon chuckled, "Maybe so. However," he turned towards Jayce, the previous grin vanishing as his lips settled in a straight line and eyes turned lethal, "I hate it when you mutts interrupt me."
In the very next second, he was on the ground, screaming agonizingly while holding his head in his hands.
"What...?" Evelyn mumbled, her eyes frantically looking around.
'She's here,' Selena linked them as soon as she could feel the aura of someone immensely powerful in the room.
"We found these mutts in the back room," said someone as five more hunters brought in the four warriors. They were all beaten black and blue while bleeding profusely from more than just a few places in their bodies.
Her heart clenched as she saw these werewolves hanging on by a thin thread, almost on the verge of dying.
So there are actually ten hunters here with Leon, Selena thought.
Her mind was racing.
This was unexpected. Sure, she knew and expected a few hunters to be present here, but she didn't expect Leon. She was so sure that Leon and Max would both be present on the battlefield, so this was a shock that completely took her by surprise.
The only way out of it that Selena could see was that they needed to find Asteria, they needed her on their side.
Leon smiled widely and turned around. He walked to the spot where the four wounded werewolves were kneeling, observing the condition they were in.
"Pathetic creatures," he spat, "couldn't even land a hit huh?"
"They did actually," a guy with a gun said, as his hand went to his jaw, "We had a little help."
Leon closed his eyes and snorted, "Of courses, it was my mistake to expect that you lot will be able to overpower them." He rolled his eyes.
The hunter recoiled slightly and looked away.
"They look strong," Leon wondered out loud as he made them look up by pulling their hair back roughly and observing them with his calculative eyes, "They can be pretty strong candidates for Max's experiments." He turned around to look at the other werewolves in the room, "They all can be actually."
Selena took a step forward menacingly, and as Leon had moved away, Evelyn, Jayce and all the other warriors now also had the chance to stand by her side. They all guarded Elijah behind them. They didn't know the man, but the fact that he had helped their Luna survive was enough for them to help her.
"Aw, look at them!" Leon exclaimed dramatically when he noticed the werewolves all grouped together ready to fight, "Are you guys getting ready to fight?"
"You've had your fun, Leon," Selena spoke, "Enough is enough. You wanna fight? Fight with me, let them go."
"What?" Evelyn turned towards her with wide, surprised eyes.
"Selena," Leon chuckled, "It amazing truly, seeing you ready to give yourself in to protect these people," he walked until he was right in front of her, too close for her comfort, "Even though you know everything that you will have to go through once again," he whispered.
A shiver of disgust ran down her spine when she saw the lust in his eyes but no way was she going to cower in front of him.
"But," Leon continued, "I am offended."
The wolves were all very much confused by this man. Not Selena though, she remembered how weird and literally crazy Leon is.
"You came here, dared to spy on us and left without meeting me. It hurt my feelings, pretty face. I thought what he had was special," he pouted before running his up and down her face, stopping for more than a few seconds on her lips. "I wish you would have met me, we could have spent some..." he licked his lips, "quality time together."
Jayce gritted his teeth and Evelyn scrunched up her face, it wasn't too hard to understand what he was talking about.
For Selena though, the confusion was stronger than the disgust. How did he know? This wasn't supposed to happen.
Leon unzipped the chain of his jacket and pulled out a really thick and old book. One look at it, and Selena knew that it was the spellbook. She couldn't explain it, but she felt the book calling to her. Was this because she was the next in line to be the queen of witches, she couldn't help but wonder what it meant for her.
She looked between the book and Leon, his eyes though were constantly on her.
"Imagine my surprise," he said as he started walking around the room slowly, "When my dear old friend told me that my sweet little girl came to my house, snooped around, eavesdropped on our conversations, and left unnoticed. I thought, how rude. Do I really mean so little to her?" his grin widened. "So I wanted revenge and decided to take an eye for an eye. Hence, I sent this friend of mine to visit and snoop around your conversations."
"You miserable, wretched asshole," Selena gritted her teeth.
"You know what she saw?" Leon continued, the only sign of him hearing her was the smile struggling to take over his lips, "She found you, in the arms of someone else, planning to steal from me." His voice lowered towards the end of the line.
His whole face changed, the happy expression changed to anger and in that split second, Selena relived all of the angry tantrums that Leon had thrown which had led to her being beaten and broken.
"You should have remembered that you are mine," Leon whispered in a low, creepy voice that sent chills down the spine of Selena. Even Evelyn felt the danger radiating from this man.
"You should have remembered that I wouldn't like you spending the nights in someone else's arms." His eyes fell on the mark on her neck, "Marked and mated, huh?" Leon chuckled. The chuckle turned into laughter as he threw his head back and laughed loudly, the sounds reverberating throughout the cave, "You asked for this, bitch."
He raised his hand and signalled the hunters behind him. Instantly, loud shots were heard. The hunters didn't waste a single second as they shot the four downed werewolves. Their bodies spasmed as the silver bullets entered their system, bringing their breathing to a halt after a few seconds.
Evelyn screamed profanities at the hunters as the warriors and Jayce just stared at their downed friends with shock, horror and sadness. Selena had closed her eyes when she heard the gunshots.
"That's what you get for playing stupid games with me."
Selena opened her eyes. They were complete bright silver as Izzy was now furious but Selena made sure to keep her purples eyes in check. She had a feeling that Leon didn't know about her being a witch yet, and she'd rather use that little bit of information to her own advantage.
"I will kill you," she growled.
"Now that we have gotten rid of this lot of mutts, let me introduce you to my dear friend here." Leon ignored her yet again and turned towards the door.
"Come here, darling."
Everybody turned towards the door.
"Holy shit," Jayce whispered as they saw the woman levitating into the room.
Clothed in a red full sleeve dress, covering her from neck to feet, the woman looked like the definition of powerful. Her eyes were completely violet, which made it clear that her witch was in complete control and the human was nowhere near conscious anymore.
She floated in and came to a stop beside Leon. Her lips were set in a thin line and her eyes roamed over everyone in the room. She saw the four dead wolves on the floor first, her eyes shifted over a writhing Jayce and Evelyn, barely paying them or the other wolves any attention before they settled on Selena.
"Asteria, love, meet..."
"The girl you are obsessed with?" She asked with a raised brow as she critically observed every single feature of her.
"Now, now, don't be jealous," he grinned and Asteria rolled her eyes, "Why don't you show them a little of your magic?"
Asteria looked at the group of werewolves kneeling on the floor before she locked her gaze on Evelyn. She tilted her head slightly to the left and the purple in her eyes became brighter. Selena just watched the whole scene.
She saw as Evelyn's eyes widened, her face crumbled as she fell on her knees with her head in her hands.
"Stop, Stop! Please STOP!!" She screamed as she cried on the floor.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Selena shouted as Jayce now knelt by Evelyn, trying to figure out if he could help her in any way. Asteria raised her chin and looked at Selena.
Evelyn stayed on the floor but her screams now changed into sobs as she shook while Jayce tried to comfort her.
"You bastard!" Selena shouted at Leon and jumped on him to attack impulsively.
The hunters watched in awe as Leon took a step back to dodge her attack and returned her hit with a blow of his own. Selena barely dodged it.
Leon used his feet to make her stumble and lose balance. Selena, in her moment of rage and fury, missed his action and fell on the floor with Leon on top of her. The other hunters tried to keep the remaining werewolves from interfering in their leader's fight.
Evelyn was still down on the floor while Jayce did his best to fight off the hunters coming towards him. However, since the hunters didn't have their guns, the werewolves were easily dominating the fight. Three of the hunters were already dead.
Leon, even in the middle of his duel with Selena, had managed to see this. "Asteria, do it!" He screamed.
Asteria whispered something and pointed her hands towards the werewolf warriors. An invisible force that seemed to come off her hand pushed all the warriors against the wall, leaving only Jayce fighting off the remaining seven hunters.
She was just toying with them, exactly how Leon had ordered her to.
Selena was successful in changing their positions as now she was on top of him. She rained punches on Leon. He was able to avoid the first few punches but the speed with which she was attacking was too much for him. All the pain, humiliation, rage... Selena allowed it all in as she rained punches on her tormentor.
When Leon realised that he couldn't really overpower Selena when she was unrestrained, he brought out the knife he had hidden in his socks and stabbed her on her side.
She groaned and cried out in pain, falling sideways and sliding away from him as fast as possible. Leon stood up quickly and took deep breathes as he stared at her with anger and fury, wiping away the blood from his split lip and broken nose.
Jayce on the other hand was weakened by Asteria. He was now on the floor as the hunters took turns kicking him while a few of them kept an eye on Evelyn.
Asteria was leaning against the wall, observing the scene with zero interest. A speck of interest could only be seen in her eyes when it fell on Selena.
Leon picked Selena up and punched her in the face, twice, making her bleed from her nose. She couldn't even stand. She took a look at her wound and knew at an instance that it was laced in Wolfsbane, that part of her body was getting infected.
'You have to heal yourself!' Inara added hurriedly, worried about her human.
'We have to wait,' Selena said out of breath.
He was still holding on to her by her hair.
"Well that was interesting," Leon said as he spat some blood on the floor, "C'mon, let's give a sweet surprise to our Alpha Xavier Martinez."
Leon started dragging Selena out, two hunters by his two sides, making sure she won't run away.
Four of the hunters dragged the bodies of the four dead werewolf warriors. Behind them, three of them dragged Jayce, and two of them Evelyn, who was now bleeding from her ears and was barely conscious.
Asteria was walking behind them all, the remaining four warriors levitating in the air beside her as they groaned in pain. Her eyes often kept flitting to the girl in Leon's hands for some reason, along with on Leon. She had seen the old, thick book inside his jacket during the fight.
Sheknew very well that this might be her only opportunity. She would kill all ofthem if she had to, including the werewolves.
She would take her book back at any cost, no matter what.