Chapter 34 - Aftermath

Nick faced Aniya and made a low growl, and she answered with a big smile. “Thanks for the help. They were way more than we expected and really hard to kill. What about their leader, that big grey Werewolf?”

Nick made a weird smile and made the movement of his hands squashing Adrian’s head. Aniya nodded and asked, “What do you want to do with them?”

Aniya bit her lower lip when she saw Nick slowly shaking his head. She understood what he meant. Then, the noise of a gun being clutched made her look around. There was a line of Hunters pointing their guns at the dark Werewolf in front of Aniya, and she immediately raised one open hand. “Hold on everyone! He just saved us! You want to shoot him like an animal?”

From behind her, her father’s voice asked, “What do you want to do then, Aniya? Let him go? Even if he looks smarter than the others, he is just a beast, and he can’t be allowed to live.”

Aniya turned to face his father, putting herself in front of the big dark Werewolf who was making a low growl, while Lisa went to his back, looking at the Hunters with her sword pointing forward. Aniya noticed more Hunters arriving, and she said, “I can’t let you do this, father. Those Werewolves on the ground, you can do whatever you like with them, but him, no one touches him.”

“I am sorry, Aniya…”

Without a word, Aniya took her phone from a pouch on her belt and dialled a number. “Hi. Shoot anyone that moves. Protect the dark Werewolf.”

She then hung up and shouted, “No one shoots the only Werewolf that protected us!”

A scream came from Aniya’s left, and a Hunter fell on the floor after being hit on his shoulder.
Another Hunter followed the first, and in two seconds, there were already three Hunters down. The other Hunters crouched and looked around, pointing their guns at the trees and trying to find the sniper that was taking them down one by one.

A fourth Hunter got hit, and Aniya shouted, “Anyone else, morons?”

Using the distraction, Nick ran to the woods, pushing three hunters to the side. While the others tried to shoot Nick, Davis kept on hitting Hunters one after the other, protecting his escape.
Aniya and Lisa watched as the Hunters kept on shooting at the trees and bushes when Nick was far gone, judging by the trees he was taking down on his escape.

She then shouted while pointing to the group of Werewolves that were now raising their heads and growling, getting up slowly and approaching the nearest Hunter. “What about if you worry about those guys, father? Without the dark Werewolf to control them, they look pretty mad to me!”

Dan Rossi began shouting orders for the Hunters to kill the Werewolves, and Aniya grabbed Lisa’s hand and went in the direction of the log cabin, leaving behind the Hunters killing the Werewolves.

Lisa asked while looking back, “Shouldn’t we help them? What if one of those Werewolves escapes?”

Aniya shrugged. “There are too many Hunters for only four Werewolves, they won’t escape. Ouch… My body hurts all over...”

“Yeah, but at least my wounds already healed. Being a Werewolf sure is handy. You know, I kind of feel sorry for those Werewolves. They were just ordinary people that Adrian fooled. Perhaps they could join us, if-“

Aniya interrupted her friend. “No, I don’t want anyone near me that likes to eat Humans. I could never trust them. Maybe they had their reasons for hating the Hunters so much, but that was no excuse to eat people. And… did you have to kill Violet? She was our friend, and…”

“A friend who tried to shoot you in the back. You heard her, Aniya. She would bite us to death if she could. For crying out loud, she almost stabbed you! Stupid cuntwaffle! After everything we went through these years, the moment she found out we were Werewolves, she forgot everything and just wanted us dead.”

Aniya cried, remembering all the birthdays they had together, all the laughter and tears they shared, and all the nights they slept at each other’s houses while growing up.
When they entered the log cabin again, Aniya kneeled on the floor and caressed the head of her dead friend, with Lisa near her, not knowing what to say or do.
Lisa had her things with Violet, but despite the times when she made her angry, Violet was still a friend. All that disappeared the moment Lisa saw her pointing a gun at Aniya. Worse was to see her jumping at Aniya while holding a knife and losing blood from the amputated limb as if pain and blood were not important as long as Aniya died.
At that moment, Lisa’s instincts were to protect Aniya. But seeing her once friend on the floor, lifeless, was taking a toll on Lisa. She hugged herself, trying to stop the trembling in her body.
Aniya slowly got up and went to the back door. Lisa followed her while looking back at the pool of blood around Violet’s body. Outside, she saw Aniya looking at the woods, and noticed that she was signalling someone to approach.

Nick ran to them, already dressed, and he hugged them both. He looked at the two crying girls and asked, “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”

Aniya made an effort and spoke in between the sobbing, “Everything… went wrong… But you can’t stay here… Go to my place and wait for us… I need to warn Davis…”

Nick nodded and faced Lisa before running to the woods again. “Take care of her!”

Lisa nodded while thinking about who would take care of her and help her get free of all the remorse from killing Violet.

Aniya noticed Lisa trembling nonstop while still hugging herself. She approached her red-headed friend and, after quickly wiping her tears, said, “Let’s get out of here. We need to take a bath and change clothes. Everything will look better after a warm bath, you will see.”

Lisa slowly nodded and followed her inside the cabin. Dan Rossi was there, kneeling on the floor near Violet’s dead body. He looked back at them and asked with an expressionless face, “What happened here, Aniya? Why Violet is…”

Aniya answered without even thinking. “She tried to kill my friend, even after I told her not to do it. She then tried to kill me instead, and Lisa took her down to protect me. Violet said she had her orders from someone, and it seemed someone important. It is probably one of your friends in the High Council. What will happen now? Her adoptive parents can’t see her like that. It won’t be fair to them.”

“The Hunters will take care of that. They will think of a cover story, like a car accident or a robbery that went wrong. Violet was not the only one that died today. There are many people dead outside, Werewolves and Hunters, and they also need a cover story for their death.”

Aniya asked while looking at the three men that were on the floor, the ones that Nick had shot. “How high was the dead tool? At least all the Werewolves died?”

“Twenty-three Werewolves from Adrian Gordon’s group, and twenty-one Hunters out of the forty-five that came. The number of dead Hunters would be higher if you and Lisa weren’t here. Or that black Werewolf. He seemed to have escaped. And your friend, where is he?”

“He left through that back door after killing those three that were at the table. The moment he saw me, he killed them. They didn’t even have time to change, and Violet tried to shoot me when I was talking with him.”

Dan Rossi stared at the pool of blood on the floor near him, and he asked in a trembling voice. “That black Werewolf, was he your friend?”

Aniya held Lisa’s hand and went to the door, leaving her father behind, waiting for an answer. Before exiting, she glanced at him and said, “If it wasn’t for that black Werewolf, Adrian would have disappeared and probably gather a bigger group for his next plan. That Werewolf, a scary beast that you seem to hate so much, saved every Hunter out there, instead of killing them. The last time I was near Hunters, two of them made a trap to kill me. This time, one of my friends, who was also a Hunter, tried again. Who is the monster, father? Tell me. Because Werewolves are mindless beasts, so they have an excuse, but what is the Hunters’ excuse? I am done with the Hunters. Like I thought, you are all nothing but killers that disguise your taste for killing innocent people behind a sacred code. Count me out of that bunch, and forget the idea of a continuation of our Hunter bloodline, because there is no way I will let my son or daughter have anything to do with your stupid group.”

“You… can’t be serious…”

Aniya pointed at her dead friend on the ground. “I swear over Violet’s body that if you or any Hunter ever approaches me or my kids, I will kill them all. No matter how many come after me, they will all die.”

Aniya left, pulling Lisa with her. Dan Rossi kept on staring at her daughter’s back, lost in deep thought. He clenched his fists and mumbled, “Violet Rossi, my dear wife… You have a lot to explain…”

Aniya followed the path that led to the cars parked near the side street while being glanced at by the Hunters that were around, wondering where she was going.
When there was no one around, Aniya dialled Davis’ number, and told him to contact Nick, and that she would wait with Lisa at her secret house.

Lisa was silent the entire time until Aniya spoke to her, a little hesitant at first. “Lisa, I… don’t know what to say, besides thanks. I wasn’t counting on Violet to turn on us. I guess she was lost for a very long time, and none of us noticed. Maybe we could help her if we knew she was a Werewolf, but…”

“I think I knew, Aniya. I felt stupid when we were in that clearing, waiting, because I understood why she always annoyed me so much. She had the same smell that Davis has, but the stupid me thought they were a couple, for all these years. I didn’t know the smell was from a Werewolf, and not because they were meeting in secret. I saw the way she was looking at you as we were approaching the cabin, and I could clearly see that she was up to no good, but I never expected that she would try to shoot you in the back. And when I saw her going at you with a knife, my body moved on itself. It was as if I wasn’t in control of my body. All I knew was that I had to protect you. Was that a Werewolf thing?”

“Maybe. Nick said that Deltas and Omegas were supposed to protect the Luna and the Alpha. You think it was instinct?”

Lisa trembled a little and said, “I don’t know, but whatever it was, it scared me. All I know was that I was aware of the hate that Violet felt for you and me, the moment she found out we were Werewolves, and it was as if all my senses were pointed at her, waiting for her next move. I could never move at that speed, Aniya! Violet was darn fast when she rotated her body to peek through the door to shoot you, but I was even faster. The same thing happened when she jumped at you. I could barely see my arm moving when I shot her!”

“Well, whatever it was, thanks. Maybe Nick knows more, we just need to ask him.”

Lisa nodded and then she signalled with her head at the two women that were near the parked cars, staring at them. “Now what? Should we call a taxi or steal one of those cars?”

“Steal is such an ugly word. We borrow. We need to leave the car in the City and take a taxi or an Uber to my place because I bet the Headquarters tracks those cars.”

“And the women? They might not like the idea of one of us stealing a car, you know?”

“Knock yourself out. They are just two stupid submissive administratives that came here to fulfil the orders of the Hunters back there. Punch them for me, will you?”

Lisa grinned as she cracked her knuckles. “Two bruised cuntwaffles coming right up, boss!”