Wolfblood

CHAPTER NINE

Page count: 11

They ate their food quickly with James sending Derek knowing looks and him replying with glares and growls, while Hermione remained quiet with a pillow held against her face. In all honestly, Derek thought she'd fallen asleep, but when she heard the rustling of wrappers being thrown into the bin, she removed the pillow from her face to see both werewolves having finished with dinner.

She cast a subtle and quick silent Ventilation Charm in the room to rid of the smell before pushing herself up in a sitting position and turning to plant her feet on the floor.

"So, got any gossip for me?" She asked. James looked confused and a chuckle escaped from Derek as he shook his head slightly.

"No gossip," he said.

Hermione frowned in disappointment. "Well, this was a wasted trip." He snorted at her. "So, what's the plan?"

"The plan?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, the plan. I'm here now and I gave you a few days to sort this out yourselves," she said, pointedly looking at Derek.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You want to involve your people," Derek spoke knowingly. She shrugged and James looked between the two of them confused.

"If I don't and someone finds out, I could lose my job, but I'm not thinking about me, I'm think about James and his family. How are you going to deal with the hunter? Do you plan on killing him? If you do, you've both harmed a human and regardless of the fact he's a hunter, he's still a human which means you'll lose the protection of my people and you'll be on your own and a known safety risk. Rather than having our protection you'll become our enemies."

Derek frowned. "And that's something we want to avoid, I don't want your people hunting us down, especially if they know who we are and where we are."

"Exactly, but if you let me take care of it, I can take the hunter into custody, he'll be charged and put on trial for his crimes and imprisoned. As for the werewolf, seeing as he's one of you and he's harmed a member of your pack, you have every legal right to kill him should you wish to. I could take him into custody but unless he's harmed a human, he'll probably walk free. The ones that were taken, are they werewolves?" Derek nodded. "I hate to say this, but the best option is to take him out of the equation permanently. He'll obviously just find another hunter to work with if we don't stop him, but his crimes aren't punishable by the laws of my people. We'll have to kill the werewolf and capture the hunter, it's the only option that allows you both to remain on the protection list."

"What the hell are you talking about?" James asked, his slightly narrowed eyes darting between them.

"None of your business," Hermione replied, while Derek said, "Nothing,"

"You two are starting to annoy me with all these secrets you're keeping," James complained.

"Tough," they both said, before looking to each other in surprise.

"Oh great, and you're speaking in unison. What's next, finishing each other's sentences?"

"Me breaking your nose," Derek answered, sending him a glare but James just look amused.

"Anyway," Hermione spoke, pulling their attention. "We should make a move tonight."

"It's too soon," James shook his head.

"Exactly, as far as they're aware, Derek was seriously injured and he needs a few days to heal, which means they know you won't be going after them again. Their guard will be down and it's unlikely they'll make another move, they'll be laying low. But we have an advantage, they don't know that Derek's fine and they certainly don't know you have me, and I'm your biggest player in this."