Chapter 25 – Meeting a dangerous pack – part 1

While Aniya was in her meeting with the High Council, Nick was in a car with Adrian Gordon, going to meet his pack of Werewolves. Adrian tried to make small talk the entire way, talking about sports, weather and women, but Nick answered with only a grunt or a nod, making him quit engaging in a conversation.

When they were already in the City, Adrian said, “I hope you lose your tongue a bit more when you meet the others, because you seem strangely suspicious.”

“I am sorry, but I tend to be overly cautious. I have been fleeing from Hunters since I was sixteen, and I have never stayed in one place for too long to make friends or get used to being near people. Normally, when I arrive somewhere, I search for Hunters or let them come after me. When I figure out who they are and how many, I get rid of them and go to another place to start all over. I normally don’t like to be around other Werewolves, because in high numbers, we are easily spotted, the Hunters arrive with a big group fully armed, and a lot of us die. If there are to be any killings, I want them to happen on the Hunters’ side.”

“Nice! I see we will get along just fine. What worries me is that friend of yours. Does he know you are a Werewolf?”

Nick nodded while trying to make his voice sound casual. “Of course. He is infiltrated in the Hunters and gives me a heads-up every time my name comes up on their radar.”

“No way! You have a spy in the Hunters? I know there are many people that do some spying for them but to have one among them… How did you do that?”

“I saved his father’s life some years ago. It took me a while to tell him what I am, especially when he told me he was applying for the Hunters. I thought I had to warn him about those crazy bastards, and I also told him about me when I was about to leave. He told me to stick around, and he has been helping me out ever since.”

Adrian Gordon grinned. “That is very useful, especially after what happened in that house. Do you think your friend can find some things about two of the Hunters that attacked me and killed my friends? There were two women in there, one blond and one red-headed. The blond looks familiar, but I have no idea who she is. I only know the ginger. Her name is Lisa McCarty, and I was in her house yesterday morning, and her father gathered in his office a bunch of cowards that preferred to tie themselves to beds instead of running free, and she was there, trying to convince everyone that she was a Werewolf. I was thinking we could go visit her when we meet with my group and pay her double for killing my friends.”

Nick thought in silence for two seconds, and spoke, “Yeah, better if you think a little better about that. She is a Werewolf, and after a lot of trouble, I got her into the Hunters. I now have my friend in their main base, and Lisa with a group of Hunters on the streets. I am sorry if she killed your friends, but she probably saw that it was the only way for her cover not to be found out. I know the blond is her friend, and she comes from a long line of Hunters. Lisa is taking an enormous risk to help me, and she certainly doesn’t need you messing around, considering she is surrounded by Hunters, watching her like a hawk. If you go after her, you will ruin all the planning that took me years to accomplish”

“I see… That could explain why she was wearing a wolf’s bane on her hair that made us so angry the moment she entered. She is probably using some kind of trick to not get affected by that blue flower. Or she is just immune to the smell. That would sound impossible, but hey, impossible is my middle name! I am impossible enough with my ability! But she still owes me for my friends’ deaths. I want the heads of six Hunters in exchange, and you will talk to her and arrange that, won’t you?”

Nick forced a big smile. “I think that can be arranged. We just need to set a trap in an abandoned house somewhere, have some of your friends inside and others outside in hiding. I tell my friend the location of a very dangerous group of Werewolves, and for him to tell the Hunters he got an anonymous tip, and when they come in all their glory, ten or twenty of them, thinking that they will only face five or six harmless Humans, they are suddenly surrounded by mean, flesh-eating Werewolves. Will twenty be enough to satisfy your thirst for revenge? We can repeat this manoeuvre as many times as necessary. It was my original plan, by infiltrating my friend and Lisa in the Hunters, but I lacked fighters on my side.”

“That’s a wonderful idea! When we get to my group, we discuss that plan. I will need to teach you how to change like me so that you can join us in getting rid of as many Hunters as we can. I want all of them dead…”

Nick noticed the anger in Adrian Gordon’s voice and asked, “You seem to hate them even more than I do. How come?”

“They killed my parents when I was young, right in front of me. They didn’t care about arresting them to confirm if they were Werewolves or not, they just came to our house and shot them while we were having dinner. It was the first time that I changed without a full moon, and I killed them all. I woke up in the morning in an alley with the half-eaten body of a homeless guy near me. Until this day, I still dream about my parents’ heads exploding all over the table and over me. I won’t rest until they are all dead!”

Nick slowly nodded, realising that he also hated the Hunters for ruining his peaceful life when he was young, and all the years running from them made him resentful. He wanted them dead as well, but apparently, Adrian’s hate was far deeper, probably because of the trauma of seeing the deaths of his parents.
The car then made a turn to the right and parked underneath the rooftop of a motel. Adrian signalled to Nick to follow him, and after glancing around to check if they were being followed, he walked around the main reception building and stopped in front of the door of a rented apartment.
He knocked on the door in a special way. Three knocks, a pause, and two knocks afterwards. The door opened after someone inside took a peek through the spy hole and Adrian entered, signalling with his head for Nick to follow him.
Inside, ten people were either seated at the table, or on a couch, with a group of three women standing near a wall, talking.

Everyone went silent and waited for Adrian to speak. “Hello, everyone. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. Our trap didn’t work. Well, it did, but I was the only one that survived. The last thing I remember is our friends being beheaded by a red-haired woman, but then my beast took over and the next thing I remember, I was already near the place where I had hidden some spare clothes and Nick Kerrish was following me. He has an interesting story to tell, but I will let him explain.”

Nick took one slow deep breath to calm his nervousness about being in a room with so many unknown Werewolves and told them what he had told Adrian. About him following that group of Hunters to kill them, about his friends working undercover in the Hunters, and about his idea of setting a trap for the Hunters, as payback for the deaths of the three Werewolves that were with Adrian Gordon in that house. He even told a bit of his story, about escaping and killing Hunters for years, never staying in one place for very long, so that he wasn’t caught and killed.

After he finished talking, one man, almost two metres tall, with a huge scar that went from his chin to his right cheek, got up from a chair at the table and stood in front of Nick, looking down at him, and said, “That is a pretty story, but you could have made all that up. You seem rather suspicious for someone that appeared when our friends were killed. Why didn’t you help them and go after our Alpha instead?”

Nick glanced at Adrian, who seemed amused by what he was seeing, as if he was waiting for Nick’s reaction. The big and scarred man kept on looking, and Nick spoke with a voice so full of power and anger that everyone in that room trembled. “How dare a mere Omega question me? Who told you that you were more than an underling, you faggot? Sit down before I make you swallow your balls!”

The tall man immediately looked down, as if he didn’t know what to do, overpowered by Nick’s presence and sheer raw power, and glanced at Adrian, who was grinning. As if that was the fuel he needed, he raised his eyes and faced Nick again. The moment he did that, Nick kicked his groins, and when that massive body bowed in pain, Nick delivered a right uppercut with such force that he flew across the room, hitting a wall at nearly three metres behind him.

When he was falling to the floor completely knocked out, Nick looked around and asked, “Do any of you, Betas or Omegas, want to say anything else? Your Alpha invited me here, but I won’t allow an underling to disrespect me! Understood, bitches?”

The silence around was overwhelming, with everyone looking down, unable to face Nick’s green eyes that were almost shooting bullets at them, and Adrian Gordon woke them up by clapping. “Very good, Nick! I wasn’t wrong about you. I sensed something in you, but I wasn’t sure. You are an Alpha like me, but unlike you, I have a pack. Where is yours? Dead, I presume?”

Nick faced the smiling man with so much anger that Adrian stopped smiling and said, “I grew up in a community of Werewolves in Ireland. The Hunters came in the middle of the night and killed everyone, women, children, and babies included. My parents fought them to give me time to flee, and I have been running and killing Hunters ever since. I didn’t have time for packs. I was too busy saving my life. You saw your parents dying. I saw dozens of family members, and the next time I see you mocking me, I will make you eat your heart.”

“You forget one thing. I can change into a Werewolf at will, while you can’t. If I do that, you won’t be alive for long, so it’s better if you remember that the next time you threaten me.”

Nick grinned and clenched his fists, making them crack. “While you and your City Werewolves here lived a peaceful life, I learned how to fight since I learned how to walk. The moment any of you make a move against me or begin to change, you will die even before completing the change. You are only eleven untrained Humans. Since I was eight years old, I have been beating the crap out of anyone that challenged me in fighting tournaments. If you were twenty, maybe you stood a chance against me, but only ten?”