Undercover Mate

Chapter 1 - Retrieve and Deliver. Unharmed. **

Chapter 1 - Retrieve and Deliver. Unharmed.

Let me paint you a picture. Imagine having front row seats to five wolves, well werewolves but that's beside the point, surrounding three young bleeding and bruised children. Each child futilely attempting to cover their cries and cowering behind the other though difficult to do so, as they have been limited to the area of the top of a tree stump.

Now, what do you imagine an average eighteen-year-old girl to do? The kind whose lives revolve around their studies, parties, and boys. Run? Scream? Faint?

Perhaps if I was any other teenage girl I would be running for help. However thanks to my strange concoction of genes that is not the case and instead, I, Malice Betts, am the help.

So it's from my sheltered view on top of a tree in the forest canopy, that I study the scene in front of me. Summoning my few witch powers to conceal my scent, making my presence unbeknownst until I wish otherwise. It is only when the group's green eyed leader arrives from the darkness that I plunge to the ground.

I adore making an entrance and I know that I have achieved it when the wolves, who had previously begun bowing to their chief, snap their heads in my direction.

"Ello boys." My greeting is met with a chorus of growls and the attention of the young juveniles. I recognise the green eyed man almost instantaneously. "Hi Lee," I wave. Lee is a short, scruffy haired man who has a tendency to be behind small rogue attacks, though he always manages to elude being captured or killed. The same can not be said for his lackeys. "You know kidnapping children is really getting old. Maybe start applying for real jobs. I heard the local McDonalds is hiring." Though I am aware that riling up a man who has gigantic beasts at his command and is holding three children hostage may not be the wisest of options, approximately ninety percent of what comes out of my mouth is coarse comments.

Before he has a chance to open his mouth to form what I'm sure would've been a very vulgar response, I spot a flash of brown fur to my right. Faint as it was, my werewolf genes heighten my sense of smell, sight, and hearing, so it was difficult to miss. "I'm appalled that you think so lowly of me Lee. You may as well order them to come out." It is this comment that has Lee's usually consistent demeanor faltering. His lip twitches, his pulse quickens, his posture straightens, and with an exasperated sigh and the tilt of his head, another three wolves join the already formed circle. Nine wolves, three children, Lee and myself. Well isn't this a fair fight?

"You know Malice, this can all be avoided if you just leave me and these irrelevant children. No one needs to get hurt, but I can't promise to stand by that courteous offer if you do not take it now," Lee threatened. Irrelevant? I wish. Not only were these the children of a nearby pack, one of whom was the alpha's child, but they were my mission. Retrieve and deliver the children. Unharmed. And missions are all I have in this world.

"If only that was a possibility," I whisper. While Lee struggles to decode my words, I immediately take the small moment of confusion to begin my attack. I'll spare you the gory details, but within a few minutes my arm has a gash running from my shoulder to my elbow and seven of the nine wolves are scattered across the forest floor. A few are missing their hearts, some their throat and one's head is no longer attached. My reason to suddenly halt does not stem from my wound. Though I do not heal as quickly as most werewolves and it feels as if my arm is on fire, adrenaline keeps me active. It is a whistle that has caused me to cease.

My eyes zero in on the sound which I discover to be coming from Lee, who is standing beside the tree stump, holding the only girl in his arms with a knife pressed against her throat. With every sob that wracked the young girl's body, the knife inched closer and closer. "Leave. Or she dies." For a split second, I debate my decision. If I simply raced towards the other two kids and took them that would be good enough right? Sure one might be a casualty but two out of three would do, right? By the thought leaves quicker than it appeared. The mission specifically said all THREE, all unharmed.