Filed to story: The Alphas Contract Novel by Taylor West
“I’ve already killed you once. Why would I do that if we were mates?” Klaus challenges. I was really starting to see a different side of Klaus. He has always been the voice of reason, but piss him off and it brings out a different side.
*I know you can smell me.” Cooper
“You are right, I can. At first I believed what you were saying was true until I spoke to another Hunter. What I was smelling is what tells me that I’m supposed to kill you. It was okay at first and then the more time we were together, it grew vile.”
Cooper’s lips almost become non-existent as he presses them together. I’m sure that if he wasn’t blindfolded, I would be able to see the fury in his eyes.
We drag him forward and he starts calling for Eris. She glances over her shoulder at him, but then her eyes shift to me before she catches up to Neah.
“Eris, I saved you!” Cooper called out
The words stop her in her tracks. But this time, she doesn’t look back.
“You took away her abilities.” Klaus growls at him.
*Two birds, one stone. She was on the run and she needed to be punished. I punished her and they couldn’t find her. I saved her. I save them all.”
“Is that what you think you are doing, saving them?” Klaus demands. “Taking away their abilities is not saving them.”
Cooper doesn’t answer. And I glance up to Eris who has shoved her hands in her pockets and dropped her head forward as she followed the others. Was it an agreement? Klaus had said she had been Cooper’s prisoner, but what if it hadn’t started that way?
“No more.” I mutter to Klaus. We quicken our pace, lifting Cooper so his feet can’t touch the floor. He tries desperately to get us to talk, making threats, asking questions, but mostly pleading with Klaus to help him. The realisation that it wasn’t working was soon becoming reality.
The women disappear around the corner that leads up to Black Shadow’s gates. By the time we get there, the gates are wide open and I could already see a huge number of shifted Wolves and Lycans waiting with Neah and Dane standing at the front ready to hunt.
“What’s happening?” Cooper demands as we come to a stop. Klaus and I lower him until his feet are firmly on the ground. He struggles against us and Neah nods at me.
Letting go of his shoulders, I release the belt locking his wrists together. He frantically pulls off the blindfold and stills.
*You think this scares me?” His eyes move across the waiting creatures. He starts muttering something beneath his breath. I slam my fist into his jaw for a second time.
“Fucker!” He growls as he holds his jaw
“It seems that you enjoy playing games.” Neah’s voice is cold and her eyes are dark. “So let’s play a game.” *You will have five seconds.” Dane smiles at him
*For what?” Cooper demands
“A head start. I will start counting the moment you enter the forest and then, well, I will let you figure out the rest.” Cooper snorts. “You can’t find me if you can’t scent me.”
Brax creeps up behind him and slices a blade down the length of his back. He takes a piece of fabric and rubs it over Cooper’s blood.
“Bastard.” Cooper growls
*Thanks.” Brax smiles at him as he takes the bloodied cloth to the crowd and passes it around. Everyone inhalesthe bloody scent.
“Can’t hide the scent of blood.” Dane mutters. “I wouldn’t bother trying to wash it off either. It lingers.”
Cooper looks to Klaus. “He can’t be serious.”
“It was mine and Neah’s idea.” Klaus steps up to him. “You should have stayed dead. This is going to be painful and this time, there is no survival.”
“Whenever you are ready.” Dane tells him
Cooper scans the crowd, settling on his sister. “Sam. Don’t let them do this.”
She doesn’t answer and moves to stand next to Neah.
*Control is a funny thing.” I mutter. “You have it right up until you don’t and when you take it for granted, that’s when you lose it, and you lose all of it.”
He glares at me.
*And going by Eris, the moment Klaus snapped your neck, everyone you screwed over gained their abilities back. If by some miracle, someone here doesn’t kill you. Those prisoners of yours will come for you and I will be happy to help them.”
He spits at me and looks back at Neah.
*Run.” She growls
He turns towards the open gate. Ryken and a few others including Blair block his way. His choice was the forest or nothing.
He starts walking backwards in the direction of the forest. Keeping an eye on us, he pauses just before he reaches the trees
“Fuck you!” He bolt’s into the trees as Dane calls out “Five.”
Everyone crouches ready to charge.
*Four”
Dane starts stripping, ready to shift.
*Three.”
Eris stares at me looking completely confused about what is happening. I need to know more on how she came across Cooper.
“Two.”
The Lycans and Wolves are growling and I turn to face the forest. There was no way I was letting him get away.
*One.”
Dane
The others race forward. It was standard. They hunt, I give them a chance to track the prey down before I join in. Neah’s blue eyes flicker to me. She is more than ready to go.
‘Let them have their fun. He will still die.’ I link her
She nods as howls and growls erupt from the forest. Birds frantically fly up into the sky, desperate to escape the camage that is about to unfold.
Silently I count to ten, as Blair comes running to Neah. “Please let me go after him!”
*You have your abilities back. Can you shift without going Rogue?” Neah asks. Blair doesn’t answer. “Then I suggest you stay here.”
‘It’s time for us to go.’ I link Neah.
As she runs next to me, she shifts. Her clothes fall to the ground in tatters as her body fills out. Each and every time, it amazed me. And the fact she could still do it while pregnant was something else.
She rips through the trees with ease. Her feet barely made a sound as she moved. She pauses a few times and regularly changes direction. I let her take the lead. She hadn’t been a part of a hunt before, but I knew how much she was ready to rip Cooper apart and I was more than happy to watch her do it.
‘He’s cut himself.” Neah murmurs as she stops at a bush with fresh blood. ‘He’s trying to lure us a certain way.’ ‘Trying to survive.’ I mutter back, pressing my nose to the ground. ‘And it’s fresh, so he is nearby.’
Nearby howl’s call for us. Winding through the trees, we find two Wolves standing over a dead female. One that had already shifted back to Human form. A sharpened branch sticking out of her chest.
‘She was one of mine.’ Neah growls
That’s not all.’ One of the wolves mutters. They both use their heads to roll her over onto her stomach. Written on her back in Cooper’s blood is the number two.
‘Two?’ Neah asks
‘He’s killed someone else. He’s trying to take control by taking each one of us out.” I tell the Wolves and Neah. He’s marking his kill count.’
‘Stick together’ I add. Splitting up was a bad idea, any individual could become Cooper’s victim and they wouldn’t necessarily see him coming.
Neah and I head in a different direction to the Wolves and it wasn’t long before I’m linked by another to say they had found a dead Wolf, this time with the number three on their back.
I knew there would likely be casualties, but three people this early in the hunt, is concerning. He was marking his kills and that pissed me off even more. And there could be more yet. We hadn’t even found the first one.
Moving deeper into the forest, his tracks become difficult to follow. They went off in different directions, trying to confuse whoever came across them, but the smell of his blood is strong here. He couldn’t be far.
Neah watches me alarmed as I shift back to Human form and step out into the small clearing. “Cooper!” I call out. As expected, there is no answer.
*I know you are near. I can smell your blood.” I speak to the forest. “You try to deceive us but it is becoming more obvious that you are nearby.”
*Killing two members of the pack is a bold move, Cooper. When it is your turn, the pack will make you pay for the lives you took. I’m thinking we start at your feet. Maybe a couple of toes and then we switch to your fingers. Taking them off one by one.”
I see movement, but it’s just the Wolves and Lycans showing me their positioning. They had all figured out the same thing.
“Are you scared, Cooper? You know you can’t outrun this.” I wondered if he realised there were people placed all along the edge of my border. He could run the length of the forest, but he will never get out.
‘You don’t need to go far.’ Damien links me and Cooper falls from the trees, landing flat on his back with a heavy groan. He’s inches from me and there are already healing bruises on his chest. It was definitely him and not a projection.
I look up to see Damien in Lycan form, squatting on a branch. He casually puts a hand up to me.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?