Red Riding Hood Meets The Wolf: Book One (and Two) of The Hunted Series. (First Draft)

The Wolf Has to Take on a New Enemy: Chapter 20

Vanessa locked eyes with Aretha as James stood in the doorway of the fire escape. I could hear a cold laugh coming from behind her and saw Aretha slowly turning into a mist like form. Vanessa’s eyes had rolled into her head and all you could see was white. Aretha’s laughter stopped for a moment and she somehow came into greater clarity as no one had been able to grab hold of her.

“You see, I told you she wanted to be a Huntress. The power of playing God, choosing who lives and who dies, is to intoxicating for a simple girl like her to ignore. She was ours the moment she stepped foot inside the training facility the day her best friend turned. Its why she secretly wanted to be out alone where I could get her. She didn’t even realize it herself at first, but she knew. Why else would she have advocated to keep Aramina alive when she would’ve known that she never would have given you the Grand Master’s name. I bet Vanessa knows the name already and just didn’t know how to tell you she rejects you.” Aretha’s laughter came back before I could try and strangle her, but as I lunged for her throat, I toppled into the men behind her. She wasn’t really there anymore and Vanessa was shaking. I didn’t know how she could’ve betrayed me like that, but it also made me wonder why she didn’t tell where the pack house was hidden since she had been there. It would’ve been the first thing I would do in her situation if I really did want to be a Huntress.

I ran to Vanessa and tried to shake her out of her trance as she yelled out a few more nonsense words then she already had, but nothing happened. Aretha was completely gone now and I could smell the Huntress on her. Vanessa’s eyes came back for a moment before I heard to loud cracks. Her legs fell out from beneath her and I caught her, cradling what was left of my mate before I had to let her go for good. Her breath was caught in her mouth and I could see pain written across her face. My pack was yelling at me to kill her before she could do any damage, but my wolf was lying in wait, he could feel something happening. The Huntresses around the room knew something wasn’t right so I called out to them. “Is this normal? Is this supposed to happen when a Huntress joins together?” a girl with blond hair came over, her hands in the air as if she was surrendering. I recognized her as one of the girls who had become mate to one of my top fighters. She was in a traditional Huntress fighting armor herself and I knew she was a few years older then my Van.

“This is abnormal. She should have come out of the trance fighting if there were any werewolves around. No Heir has fallen after the trance. If there weren’t any werewolves about she would’ve fought the Grand Master for the Title unless the Grand Master had already fallen in which she would fight the General of the armies, which would have been me soon after Vanessa taking on her role as Grand Master. Either way she should have come out of this fighting so that she didn’t look weak.” Another audible crack was heard and I felt Vanessa’s arms go slack against my side, only her torso and legs were shaking as she slipped into unconciousness. Her breath finally let out and there was an ear piercing shriek coming from her. It suddenly dawned on me what was going on.

“She is going through the transformation. I need a large blanket and I need some fresh deer meat here yesterday! Men I want you to keep all of the Huntresses in the cafeteria and away from here and I need it now. I don’t need Vanessa going after her new friends or our new pack members let alone the others.” everyone seemed stunned for a second before people moved around in a rush trying to get out of the way of each other as they prepared for Vanessa’s first shift. Only the blond Huntress remained still and by our side as this started.

“I had a fear she might do something like this.” She said, holding tightly onto Vanessa’s hand as the bones in it broke slowly.

“What did she do? Didn’t she choose Huntress?” the girl looked into my eyes as if looking at something she couldn’t solve.