Prologue
Shadow
I was silently jumping through the trees at lightning speed ensuring that none of the beasts below would notice me when I heard the sound of loud growls off in the distance. I knew that Night had been discovered and the battle started. That was my cue to attack on this side of the pack territory.
The Red Fang Pack, a notorious pack of werewolves, had been dealing in shady business for a while now, trafficking women and other transgressions. Due to that, we were hired to wipe them out, although we would spare them if they surrendered. You see, Night and I are hunters, and not just any, we’re the most feared, the best. Despite what our reputations may say, we only attack and kill the evil supernaturals. We let our notorious reputation spread since it worked in our favor to be feared, and may, or may not, have encouraged the rumors.
A loud howl just below me brought me back to the task at hand. I quickly jumped over to the tree just above the lone wolf and swung down, using my legs to hang upside down. As soon as I saw the wolf below me, I flipped out of the tree and slashed his throat open with my silver and wolfsbane coated knife. I feel an instant kill is more merciful, even if most of the ones we kill don’t deserve mercy.
I then realized that this wolf was definitely not alone. The howl he let out was to call his pack members to his aid, and about 10 of them were now surrounding me. I quickly reached to my sides and grabbed two of my silver throwing stars and released them with a flick of each wrist. 8 left. I saw out of my peripheral vision that one was trying to sneak up on me from behind. I carefully waited and as soon as he leapt, I dropped to the ground and sliced his stomach open as he flew over my head. 7 now. I could see the others were finally starting to realize what they were up against and decided to get serious, as three of them tried to come at me at once. The first tried to bite down on my leg, while the other two tried to use their massive claws to go for my stomach and back. Big mistake for all three. As soon as their paws and snout made contact with my black full-body suit, they all three instantly backed up yelping in pain. My entire suit is woven with silver and wolfsbane fibers, causing instant pain and burning for any werewolf that touches me. I internally laughed at their stupidity as they rolled on the ground trying to alleviate the pain.
Once again, I heard loud howls in the distance, I guess Night is still fighting. I better stop messing around and get over there to help him. I’d hate for the old man to get hurt because I was toying with some wolves. I jumped to the wolf closest to me as he was rubbing his injured snout into the dirt of the forest floor. I quickly grabbed his head and twisted it in a jerky motion, breaking his neck. I rolled across the ground towards the next closest wolf, one who hadn’t been injured by my suit. While mid-roll, I threw two more stars at the two remaining injured wolves. Once I completed my roll and reached the uninjured wolf, I used my momentum to flip him onto his back and sliced his throat with the knife that was still in my hand. After killing seven of the wolves, I stood up to end this fight and kill the remaining three. As I pulled out three more stars and turned to release them, I noticed they had shifted back to human form and were laying on their hands and knees bowed down.
“Please spare us, we were just following orders. The Alpha threatened to kill us and our families if we went against him.”
“Fine leave here and head north to the Silver River Pack. Tell the Alpha, and only the Alpha, that Shadow sent you. If anyone else knows, you will be instantly killed.” I replied firmly. I want them to have a chance to survive all of this but need to keep my reputation intact. The Silver River Pack Alpha is a friend and will ensure news of my kindness doesn’t get out.
Upon hearing my name, the three instantly changed to an expression of absolute fear, which was a little funny to see, since they were already scared before finding out who I was. They nodded quickly before shifting back to their wolf forms and running away, probably afraid I would change my mind about being merciful.
With that distraction dealt with, I was finally able to focus on getting back to the rest of the battle. After gathering and putting away all of my throwing stars, I crouched down and leapt high up to the top of the tree to start making my way over to the where I knew Night was still fighting. Peering through the trees, I could see the packhouse in the distance and what looked like a scene out of a horror movie between it and my hiding space. Night was definitely doing a number on their forces, I could see at least 20 dead wolves, with many more injured. What I didn’t see, however, was the Alpha or Beta. The cowards must be hiding inside somewhere with their “merchandise”.
I jumped down from the tree and ran over to Night, using my stars to take out six more wolves without even slowing down.
“So nice of you to finally join me Shadow, I was wondering if I was going to be taking out this entire pack by myself,” Night said in a teasing tone.
“Oh please, I know you can’t handle this without me,” I sassed right back to him.
“Seriously though, are you alright kiddo? It took you longer than planned to get here.”
“Yup, not a scratch on me. I was just momentarily detained taking out a small force on the other side of the territory. No need to worry about me,” I replied with a grin, not that he could see it since my suit covered my face completely.
“Great. So, here’s the rundown. From what I can tell we have the outside forces neutralized. The Alpha, Beta, and 3 warriors fled inside with 6 captive females, 4 of which are human. You climb up the brick on the back of the house and go in an upstairs window. I’m going to go through the front door. We find the wolves and get rid of them. No unnecessary risks got it?” he said with a serious tone, hinting a bit of worry under it.
“Night, you know this isn’t my first job, right? We’ve been surveilling this pack for months, you don’t have to worry, I’ve got this,” I tried to ensure him as I waved and ran towards the back of the house.
Once I reached the back, I silently cheered as I saw a window was left open during the chaos of our surprise attack. I was not looking forward to having to break one open. I used the silver claws attached to my gloves and shoes to dig into the brick and scale up the side of the house to the third story window and quietly slipped inside. I sure hope I didn’t dull the claws; Night would make me spend hours sharpening them if I had.
Looking around the room I landed in, I was in a very nice bedroom. Upon further inspection, I think I was actually in the Alpha’s room. That idiot didn’t even shut his own bedroom window when all of this mess started! Wow, just wow. Anyway, if all of our surveillance was accurate, the Alpha’s office should be on this floor, just a few doors down from where I am now. I really hope that is where they are hiding. I would love to beat Night to them and finally prove to him that he doesn’t have to worry about me so much.
With that thought, I crept over to the bedroom door and slowly cracked it open, while listening for noises outside. When I heard nothing, I opened the door a little further and peaked out. Just as I was hoping, standing just down the hall were three tall men standing guard. Since I couldn’t open the door enough to use my stars, I grabbed three darts full of a tranquilizer and liquid silver. I hate using darts, since they are a one-and-done weapon. I much prefer ones I can recycle and use multiple times. I guess I have no choice here, however, so I slipped just the tip of my dart gun out of the door and silently shot each guard in the neck. The tranquilizer will knock them out almost instantly, and the silver will kill them, while they are unconscious.
After all three guards fell to the ground, I made my way out of the bedroom and started heading towards the office door. I reached out to grab the handle when I was grabbed from behind and jerked backwards. I spun around in my attacker’s arms and was about to jab a knife into his throat when I saw that it was just Night. He really needs to know not to sneak up on me.
I was about to question what he was thinking when he put a finger to my mouth to shush me. He then pointed to the doorknob and that’s when I noticed it. There was a super thin wire running from it to inside of the room. They must have electrified the knob and, although that wouldn’t have killed me, it sure would have hurt, given all of the silver laced in my suit. In that case, I guess Night can sneak up on me if he wants.
Night managed to find some rubber gloves that we could use to open the door. He looked at me and held up three fingers, letting me know we were going to open the door and attack on three.
One…Two…Three…
Night opened the door in one swift motion and we both jumped in. I instantly noticed 2 things about this Alpha. One, he was beyond being a bad Alpha or bad person, he was horrid. Rather than using the women as hostages, he had brutally murdered all 6 of them in his office. Two, he was a complete coward. After murdering the women, he killed both his Beta and himself. He didn’t want to face us and the retribution that we brought, so he quickly and painlessly ended it all.
I have seen a lot of evil in the world, in my time working with Night as a hunter, but I am not sure I have ever seen anything as disturbing as the sight I saw that evening. We called our contact with the news of what happened, and he ensured us he would notify the family of each woman and make sure they received proper burials. With that information, and heavy hearts, we made our way home to shower and go to bed.
