Wolf's Huntress

Chapter Six

Alastair's POV:

"Follow me," she said while walking past me. And so I did. I walked down the sidewalk for blocks until we came up to a warehouse building surrounded by a tall, wooden fence. The place gave off a bad vibe, and Rue was glowing dangerously. Ruth unlocked the chain on the door before heading inside. That uneasy feeling grew as I walked into the building, and everything within me was telling me to run. So, I focused on Ruth's back until she came to a stop. "Surprised you followed me this far."

"You said to follow you so we could talk, so I did." She turned around to face me, and she had a dark smile on her face.

"You don't even realize where you are, do you?" That was when I looked around for the first time and nearly became sick. There was a reason why I wanted to run away from that place. Within the large, open area were symbols to trap, torture, and kill supernatural beings of all kinds—old, blood-stained areas of the walls and floor. Though light was coming in from the morning sun, I saw that there were unique shutters to block out the light. There were chains, hooks, iron cuffs, tables, crosses, and tools of all kinds in different areas.

"A Hunter's Playroom," I muttered.

"That's right," she rejoiced with a twirl. "Many of your kind have come here to die. All screaming and begging for the sweet release of death. Do you get it now, mongrel?" As I looked around, I began to notice slight details that I missed at first glance. As much as this place stunk of blood, it was missing the stench of death. I walked over to the closest table of torture tools and touched one of the blades.

"This place is a fake."

"What do you mean a fake?" I turned around to face her and held up the blade I was holding.

"These are all made of steel. Sure, the chains are iron, but nothing here is made of silver. None of your tools are made of iron, either. If you tried to use any of these on me, yeah, it would hurt, but it wouldn't inflict the same pain as real hunter tools." I put the blade down and started to walk towards her. Ruth clicked her tongue and pulled out a knife from under her skirt. "Now, where did you get that?"

"Where do you think?" What she was holding was a silver blade, a true hunter's blade. The problem was that it was one given out to children when they were first learning. It was meant as nothing more than a training tool. After the last war against the hunters, there was an influx of such items on the market.

"What have I done to you, Ruth, for you to act like this?"

"Your kind is a parasite to the world! You ruined so many lives, and you need to pay!"

I took another step forward, and she got into a defensive stance. "That wasn't my question. What have I done to you?" She let out a growl but didn't say another word. I let out a sad sigh as I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it back as I looked to the ground. "What do you want, baby girl?"

"Don't call me that! And if I'm your mate, then I want to break our mate bond. I want no ties to a werewolf."

"And if I say no, what will you do?" I looked back up into her eyes, looking for a glimmer of hope that I could change her mind.

"Why do you want a human mate so bad?"

"I don't want a human mate. I want you."

"You don't know anything about me!" She seemed to get angrier the longer I denied her what she wanted, which was fine. Anger makes a person sloppy.

"That may be true, but I want to know everything about you. And the one thing I do know already is that I love you."

She scoffed while rolling her eyes. "Love, is that your claim?" I nodded my head yes, positive that I was in love with the woman before me. Even as she stood there, wanting to slice me to shreds, I was growing all the more fond of her. She was scrappy and looked like she could hold her own.

Ruth was willing to take me on alone when she could have easily called her bouncer Ox here to help. I wouldn't mind going a round with her just to see which of us could pin the other. "Have you already jerked off to the thought of me?" Her sudden question surprised me and, I think, made me blush slightly. "Pervert. That isn't love, that is your animal instinct to f**k anything that moves. I won't fall for your lies! Now start the rejection process."

Rue was a mix of emotions in my head. He was scared of the place we were in, sad that our mate was refusing to accept us, and more than a bit annoyed that she pulled a silver dagger on us. "I'll need your full name to do so."

"Livingston, my full name is Ruth Livingston."

I couldn't help but smirk at her as she didn’t even hesitate to give me her name. Like I said, sloppy. "Thanks, baby girl. I'll see you around then." Before she could process what I said, I made a mad dash to the door.

"Bastard!" She tried to come after me, but I was too quick. There was then a flash to my right, and I had enough time to see that she threw the dagger, and it got stuck in the door frame.

"I'll miss you too, baby!" As soon as I got outside, I jumped over the fence because there wasn't a straight line from the warehouse door to the fence door. Taking alleys and back roads, I made it back to pack lands with no trouble. Preston met me at the pack house lobby and knew something was up as soon as he sniffed me.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"With my mate and learning a few things."

He grabbed me and pulled me down the hall to his office. "Why do you smell like that? Where did you meet her at the morgue?"

"Not quite. Someone set up a fake Hunter's Playroom in this town." Preston quickly released my arm and wiped his hand on his slacks. "I said it was fake!"

"Doesn't matter! Those places are messed up. Why did you go there?"

"I didn't realize what it was until I got there, okay? I was able to get her to talk to me, and that's where she took me."

"I'm liking your mate less and less." I tried to hold back a growl, but a soft one still slipped out. "So, what did you learn? Better be good considering where you went."

"Her last name is Livingston, and she has a sister. I could be wrong about this, but I think something bad happened to the sister. And a supernatural might have been involved."

Preston grew serious and nodded his head. "I'll get our man started on the search then. We should know something soon enough." I left my alpha's office and went up to my room. There, I flopped face-first into my bed and instantly went to sleep. I got pulled out of the dark void I was floating in by a mindlink wishing to connect. Rolling over, I saw that it was just after three in the afternoon. "Alastair," called Preston as soon as I opened the mindlink.

"Yes, alpha," I answered, still groggy.

"Come to my office. I have the information." Pushing myself off the bed took a bit of work, but I was up and downstairs quickly enough. When I got to Preston's office, Gregory was also there waiting for me. Neither one looked happy.