Ayla: Always an Alpha

Chapter 1 - 300,000 Dollar Price on her Head

~Killian~

"There's a 300,000 dollar price on her head," Sir stated.

Minutes before, he had projected a female's face onto the board, and I had immediately lost interest. The young woman was pleasing to the eyes, yes, but she looked small and innocent - an easy kill. The boss knew I only took the interesting assignments, the ones with truly diabolical people as the target. They paid well and kept me entertained.

I had deemed that whoever the female was, probably an ex-lover of some crazed, now-mated wolf that was trying to get rid of her to please his new woman, wasn't worth my time, but as soon as he mentioned the payout, I started paying attention. For a price that high, she must've been somebody important, possibly the mate of somebody with a rank. I briefly wondered who she had pissed off.

It seemed everyone around the table had suddenly become interested. Even Ayush, who would often sit silent at these meetings until Sir directly gave him an assignment, appeared to be sitting a little straighter in his seat.

"Who is she?" Imani, the only female in our group, asked, likely wondering what we all were.

"Ayla Huxley, the alpha of Hatchie River in West Tennessee," Sir responded.

"I'll take the assignment," Luca piped up quickly.

Of course he would, I thought. Luca got a kick out of torturing women. He was sick. Nobody here liked him - not even Sir did, I think - but he would often take the jobs nobody else wanted. I had to work with him once, and I had quickly decided I would never do it again unless I was ordered to. Sure, we all were assassins, but not many of us enjoyed killing people we didn't think deserved it, especially because there were enough people out there in the werewolf world that did deserve it. Meanwhile, Luca didn't mind at all.

"The employer highlighted that he would like the job done quickly and cleanly," Sir noted, and I immediately knew what he was going to say next.

Out of all of us, I was the one that liked to finish things ahead of schedule. I hated having to draw someone's death out, so I did it promptly whenever I could.

"Killian," Sir continued. "It's your assignment."

Often, this was how the boss was. He'd usually accept whoever volunteered, but he didn't hesitate in simply telling us who would take which assignment if he felt strongly about something.

I looked up at the female's picture again, taking in the slight, amused smile on her face and the spark in her eyes. "What'd she do?" I asked, curious.

"That information was not shared by the employer," Sir replied tersely.

I kept my impression schooled but didn't remove my gaze from the photo. Most alphas had some dirty histories - killing rogues was practically in their job descriptions, but even for that large of a payout, I didn't like knowing that I would have to kill someone who probably had done nothing more than the average alpha does everyday.

Finally, I looked away from the warm brown eyes of the female in the photo. If I didn't take the assignment, Sir wouldn't be pleased with me. He'd also likely pass the case on to Luca, and the girl sure as hell didn't deserve to be tortured to death.

"I'll take it," I stated.

Having already known I wouldn't object, Sir nodded.

~~~

After studying up on the Hatchie River pack and its alpha, I arrived just outside the territory 24 hours later, found a weak spot at the border, climbed a tree nearby, and observed for the rest of the day. Late night came, and conditions were favorable. The weak spot was still weak, and the moon was almost done waning, making it a darker night than most.

Carefully, I snuck into the territory. Without letting my guard down once, I travelled to the main house and silently crept around the perimeter. Our sources said the alpha's quarters were in a wing on the third floor. However, I wanted to skip having to deal with the ground floor, where there would likely still be people awake, so I scaled the side of the house and crawled through a window on the second floor before making my way to the third.

The alpha of a pack carries the strongest version of a pack's scent, so once I found the correct wing on the third floor, it wasn't hard to find where the alpha female was. Unfortunately, the light shining from under the door told me she was still awake. I wasn't about to risk going into the room for her to see me immediately, so I waited silently in the shadows of a nook further down the hallway.

This pack's scent was distinctly herbal, almost like fresh rosemary. I had rubbed rosemary oil on all my pulse points earlier in the day, but it was likely fading by now. I needed this girl to go to sleep soon, or I'd have to camp out in a more hidden location to lessen the risk of someone finding me.

Of course, instead of the light turning off as I'd hoped, the door to the room opened, and, her scent wafting down the hall, the alpha female stepped out before heading in the direction opposite me.

After she went into the room at the end of the wing, she left the door open, so I softly tread down the hall while avoiding windows so as to not be seen by anyone outside. Using the wall around the door to cover myself, I ducked down and peered into the space. It was a large study with a couple of tall shelving units full of books, ones perfect for concealing someone.

The woman's back was turned towards me, so I pulled my silver knife from its sheath, stood, and cautiously went into the room. Creeping around the shelves, I observed her between the occasional space of the books.

Her scent was so strong now it was almost overpowering; the herbal, rosemary-like aroma combined with something almost spicy, like bergamot. She was leaning over to flip through some papers on the desk in the far side of the room, so her long, wavy hair cloaked her face. One of her hands lightly gripped the edge of the desk, and I could tell by the way her fingers tapped against the surface that she was irritated with something.

Although it would have been an easier job to plunge the knife through the back of her ribcage while she was distracted, I found myself wanting to look at her face, to examine the warm brown eyes from the photo in person before I extinguished the spark in them forever.

Unconsciously, my feet led me down the row of shelves to put me at an angle where I could see her face, but even at the edge of the line of bookcases, I still couldn't see anything but her hair. Unthinkingly, I stepped out of hiding, almost as if I was being drawn to her.

The allure of her had me so distracted that I let my guard down, and no sooner had I stepped past the shelves than she whipped her head around in my direction.

~~~

Please vote, follow, and/or comment!

Question of the week: Quite a few characters were introduced in this story. Other than our two main characters, which ones are you interested to learn more about?