The Alpha's Hunter

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Chase

We walked back to the school, Hailey and I, the same as we came-- in silence. But this was a more comfortable silence, one where I could tell she was much more at ease with me. Sadly, we came upon her car and our little time together was over. 

She smiled, "Thanks, Chase." 

I nodded, "Yeah, uh, thank you for listening." 

She copied my nod and opened her car door, tossing her bag across to the passenger's seat. Turning back around I faced her, "Hey, you wouldn't want to go out with me tomorrow, would you?" 

"Go out where?" She questioned, leaning her arms atop the door, a small smile playing at her lips. 

Grinning, I rubbed the back of my neck, "I was thinking of showing you around town and stuff. Hit up all the places that you should know." 

Hailey smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I think I'd like that." 

"Great-- that's great! So I'll pick you up at six?" I questioned and she nodded, sliding into her car and starting it up. She waved and drove away from the building and myself, and I stood in my spot, unbelievably happy. Not only had I gotten Hailey to finally talk to me, I got to explain everything to her and even scored a date with her tomorrow night. Man, tomorrow night couldn't come any sooner. 

Sighing, I headed to my own car and made my way to my own house, unsurprisingly finding Luke waiting for me, "I want to do something." 

"Do what? And hello to you, too," I answered as I had just walked through the door. 

Luke rolled his eyes, "Listen, I know you've sort of been out of it lately because of the whole Hailey situation, but now that it's fixed, we need to focus on a new situation. Artemis. She's killing more and more of us and we don't even know who she is! Not really, anyway. We haven't even landed a single blow to her and she already has us cowering in the corner begging for mercy." 

I nodded, "Alright, so what do you want to do?" 

"Well, I've sort of been formulating this plan for a while now and the more I think about it and the more we learn about Artemis' patterns, the more I think it will actually work," He explained. 

Groaning, I sat down in my chair behind my desk and he sat down across from me, "Just get on with it Luke, what's your plan?" 

He pulled out a map of the territory and laid it out in front of me. There were markings all over it, but mainly concentrated at three points, "I've been tracking where we've been finding her victims. Now, you can see there are a few odd ones here and there, but a majority of them are found at one of these three locations," he gestured to the three heavily marked areas on the map. "I think that these are the areas she's comfortable with, the ones she knows well enough to beat us in." 

"So what do you plan to do with that information?" I question. 

Holding up a finger to me, he smiled, "That's the great part. Nine times out of ten, she kills people in one of these three spots. So all we need, are wolves stationed at all three of these places." 

I furrowed my brow, "But you said it yourself, she knows these places, well enough to beat us, the ones who live on the territory." 

"That's where the rest of the plan comes into play," he explained. "You see, if we have enough wolves in each region, there's no way that we won't find her. As for beating her, we need to drive her out of her comfort zone. We need to corral her, almost, into a trap, essentially. I want to wait her out to come to one of the three locations, and drive her into more wolves." 

"Is that the whole plan?" I questioned and he nodded in response. I pursed my lips and leaned back in my chair, taking in the view of the map. I sighed, "And what if she just kills all of the wolves who are there waiting for her?" 

"We'll have plenty of wolves, so that even when she's engaging three wolves, there are four charging at her," He responded confidently. 

I shook my head, "So no matter what, people are going to die tonight, if we do go through with this plan of yours?" 

He sighed, hanging his head and bracing himself on the desk before looking back up at me, a hard look in his eyes, "We sacrifice the few now, to save the many later. If ten wolves die tonight but we catch her and our hunter problem is solved, then it's worth it." 

"Is it?" I intervened. 

Luke plopped down in his chair, shaking his head at me, "She's changing you. Hailey, I mean. You never used to be soft, you didn't care about a few lives if it meant eliminating the threat." 

Clenching my jaw, I exhaled, "I like myself better this way. All lives matter, and I don't want to risk anyone's just to catch her. We can think of something else." 

His eyes brightened and he stood back up, "What if we get volunteers?" 

"What?" 

"I mean, you don't want to risk other's lives in order to catch Artemis, but what if others want to risk their lives to catch her," he explains. "If there are enough volunteers, will you go through with this plan?" 

Staring at the map in front of me, chin in my hand, I nodded and looked at my Beta, my best friend, "If you get the volunteers, we'll do it. We'll capture Artemis." 

~

a/n: so I know it's a little shorter than usual, but I really just needed something to happen so I could get to the next chapter :) so yeah, hope you enjoy and remember to vote and comment!!