Heart Of The Lycan Queen

2. The Ruby Hunters

Sometimes, the hunter unknowingly becomes the prey.

~

2. The Ruby Hunters

Elian looked around the group of people, chattering, laughing, looking so carefree, and she felt the loneliness in her bones. It was freezing, like winter breath. She felt like she was standing at the top of a snowy cliff, naked.

She was the odd one out. She had always felt it, the disconnect with them, but today it was more than anything. Today, she knew they had never once considered her theirs. She had always been the lone soldier in their pack.

If they had for once thought about her as their own... could they have hunted her like an animal?

There were familiar faces all around. But she didn't know who to trust.

Any one of these people could have been the one behind the mask. Even Blake. Even Zoey.

"Hey El, you okay? You kinda look lost." Zoey asked as she leaned against the tree. Elian looked at Zoey and sighed. Could she trust her? Zoey had been her friend from the very first day, but so was Robyn. She nodded her head.

"Okay."

But she was far from okay. Elian knew what would come next after this. She would be punished by the elders for her attitude during the ceremony. The ceremony was sacred and... and then she would go around, patrolling the borders of the Amethyst lands and then she would meet the beast for the first time and she would freeze and- and the massive wolf would look at her for a swift second before it would bound off.

This time... she needed to unfreeze herself. This time, she needed to find answers, even if it was from the one thing she had hated all her life.

She was almost sure he was there as she died, or maybe it was a hallucination, but either way... she needed him.

She had so many questions, but the only answer she knew was...

Robyn and eight other people had hunted her, and killed her.

She needed the beast, now. The enemy of your enemy... something like that.

"Earth, El?" Zoey waved her hand in front of Elian's face and she blinked. "What are you thinking?"

She stared at Zoey. God, she wanted to tell her everything, but she was not sure.

"Ruby hunters?" Elian murmured and Zoey narrowed her eyes at her.

The people who had come to hunt her... they all wore red masks, and their Amethyst dagger had strange red metal on the tip. She had heard about them, The Ruby Hunters, the best of the best. They were only asked to go for a hunt when the supernatural was much stronger, uncontrollable—so why did they come for her?

The ruby hunters were like a best kept secret, it was almost a myth.

But in their lives, even myths were real. In this life, everything was real. The vampires looking for their next human juice bottle. The wolves going rampant during the full moon nights. Every damn thing was real here.

Elian shook her head as she tried to remember every little detail she could remember from last night. Her memory was still blurry. She knew she had to think a lot. She had to gather her bearings and formulate her plans.

Like the crazy voice said, she had only one more chance and she wasn't going to waste that chance, and die again. Nope. She hadn't liked dying the first time around.

"Ruby Hunters? What about them?"

Elian sighed as she rubbed a finger against her forehead. "Do you think they exist?"

"I don't know. It was like an extraordinary fable. I mean, the best of the best? With more power than can be imagined? Come on." Zoey said.

"But is it really that impossible to believe. After all, you have power, too, and the shifters and vampires and other creatures exist." Elian looked at Zoey and Zoey nodded.

"Maybe."

"Zoey... I- yesterday-"

"Zoey, darling, come over here for a second." Elian stopped talking when Zoey's mother called out to her.

"Just a second, mom. So, El, you were saying..."

"Nothing important, Z, you should go..." Elian smiled tightly as Zoey walked away.

There were too many people here, and yet she felt alone. She felt like she was stranded in the middle of a floating island, and she was drifting, slowly. There was no one to give her a hand.

Usually, whenever she felt alone amid the other hunters, she would tell herself that she had Blake and Zoey and her adoptive parents, but now, she felt really, truly alone. She didn't know who to trust. How could she, when she had been so badly betrayed, burned?

"Hey babe," Blake said as he wrapped a hand around her shoulders. "What are you doing here? Come and eat the cake, it tastes so damn good. You won't resist finishing the whole thing off."

She wanted to snuggle closer to him, but she didn't know why she was pulling back.

"What is it? Is it Lafayette? Did something happen?"

She wanted to tell him everything, but she couldn't. Something was stopping her.

"It's nothing new. I am just tired." Elian said as she took a step away from him, making sure he didn't notice it. "I need to go back."

"Hey, if you don't want to go on patrol today, I can do it for you." Blake said, looking concerned. She knew he was only saying it because he cared, but even that made her body tighten. Her lips were pressed tightly together as she looked up at him.

"What? Do you think I am not even good enough for it?" She snapped, her voice harsh. She knew she was being b*tchy, but she couldn't help it. She was not weak. She didn't need anyone to coddle her.

She was an amazing hunter and she knew it. They all did, too, but nobody ever wanted to accredit it.

She was only ever assigned one duty, mostly. Border patrol. No one had ever shown up during the patrol, though. No wolves, not even rogues, were stupid enough to come closer to the Hunters' territory, except that silver-eyed beast.

For a second, she was lost thinking about those silver eyes. There was something in those eyes that made her go crazy. Wild.

'Oh yes, those eyes. Damn... just a look at them and I am exploding already.' The voice moaned inside her head, and Elian almost wanted to moan along. But this wasn't the time for it, was it?!

Blake chuckled dryly, pulling her out of her daydreams. He looked offended. "I was just trying to be-"

"Don't try." She cut him off with a disinterested wave of her hand. His nostrils flared, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't.

"Take some rest, El." he muttered finally, as she kept staring at him. She nodded and crossed her arms. He waited for a second before he walked away. She didn't know why she was so angry at him, but she was. She was angry at everyone.

She looked around and her eyes honed in on the man talking with Lafee. His hair was white and he looked wrinkled with time. There were frown-lines on the side of his mouth. He was someone every hunter respected.

Elder Reuben Matthias was someone who would know about the Ruby Hunters. He knew everything that went around in the world of hunters, even hunters outside their territory. He was one of the council members of the OOA.

The Order of Amethyst was a worldwide organization, with small groups of hunters settling wherever supernaturals ran rampant.

Elian walked towards the frail looking man. "Hello, Elder Reuben," she greeted him and he smiled at her, his wrinkly face pulling up.

"Greetings, Elian." He bowed.

'Why is this man talking like he is in some odd period movie!' The voice said with a snarky smile and Elian snorted. The elderly man gave Elian a curious look.

"Sorry, just something Zoey said before the ceremony. Can I ask you something, Elder Reuben?" She knew she couldn't act suspicious, but she had to know.

"Yes, child."

'Nobody in their right mind would call a grown ass woman with a dirty mind, like you, a child! You are no child.'

'I don't have a dirty mind!' Elian retorted weakly. But maybe she did... After all those dreams, and all those wasted panties, how could she not be anything but dirty?!

'I see your dreams, Elian. I hear your thoughts.'

"The Ruby Hunters...I had heard my mom telling stories of them...but," she started and saw that Elder Reuben was looking at her suspiciously. "Do they really exist? I mean," she giggled, trying to act like it was silly. "It must be a myth, right?"

He smiled a little, giving her an indulgent look. His eyes sparkled in the sun as he shook his head. "If you trust they exist, they do."

That was the most useless answer he could have given her.

Before Elian could ask what the heck he was talking about, someone else called him and he gave her one last look before he walked away.

Elian sighed as she walked towards where her car was parked. She needed to get away from here and she needed to go back to her home and think.

She needed to fully understand what was going on.

She had to have a plan. She couldn't mess this up.

She was sure that she was given a second chance—or she was going crazy, and if she was going crazy, she couldn't do anything about it—and she was going to do things differently. Do things her own way. She had no desire to die yet another time.

No one should know what she was doing. She would see whether she could trust Zoey or Blake, but that was it.

She had to be vigilant. She had to unearth the secrets they had been keeping from her, and she had to be stealthy.

'Yeah, stealthy!' The voice said with a guffaw. 'You are the most ungraceful person I have ever seen.'

"You are back. Again. So, tell me, how many ungraceful people have you seen, you crazy thing inside my head?"

Again, there was radio silence. She didn't know how it worked. Was it her conscience? Was it more? Why was it only poking its head when it was not wanted and going back into hiding when she was talking to it?

"What was the debacle, Elian?" It was her grandmother. The woman was like lady Hitler. There was no better way to describe her. She had hated the sight of Elian from the time Elian could remember. "This was Lafayette's big day and you ruined it."

"Lafee looks quite happy. Nothing is ruined, grandmother. I need to go now." Elian said softly.

"We need to have a talk about manners." Grandmother said, her sturdy fingers pushing back her salt and pepper hair. For an old woman, she sure was scary and she was strong as an ox.

"I am twenty-three, and I don't need you to tell me what to do."

"You are twenty-three and you are still acting like a child. No wonder nobody respects you."

Elian glared at the woman and her vicious eyes. If it wasn't against the rule of etiquette to punch an old woman, she would already have done it.

"They act like they don't respect me, because they are all jealous that I am better at this than them, even without any power. Their puny little egos can't take it and that- grandmother, is not my problem. Go and eat some cake." Elian rolled her eyes and walked away, irritated.

This day was already turning out to be quite disastrous, and the night was still not done. There was still so much to do. The questions were still bothering her and...

She thought about yesterday night and the loud angry growl and the silver eyes. She was almost sure the beast was there... she had no idea why he was there, but he was there. And so... She had to meet the effing beast. Her life was beginning to feel like a circus, and she felt like a motorbike rider in the death cage.

F*ck her life!

Elian scoffed as she got in her car and leaned back against the seat. She had so many buzzing questions in her head... and no damn answers to any of them.

Who were the other eight hunters? Why did they kill her? Who ordered her assassination? Who was the beast? Why was she alive now?

He might have some answers. She thought to herself. But... won't he look at me like I am crazy ass b***h if I asked him these questions?

'Maybe, but you have got to ask him, anyway. He is our only option.'

"Yeah, like I am going to take advice from the voice in my damn head!!!"

But... crazily enough, she knew she was considering the voice.

"I love my life, so damn much."

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