Prey

**Peter’s POV**
The evening had been very enjoyable so far. I had found it funny watching my single pack mates get enspelled by the siren songstress. It was weird to think that not that long ago I was also prone to fall for a siren singer, now I looked at the girl on stage and she didn’t hold a candle to my Emma.

The food had been very enjoyable, and the troll group was… well troll-ish. Most people either love or hate it.

The evening is drawing to a close. I had noticed that Emma’s eyes had fluttered closed a few times, and she is still recovering from her ordeal. I smile softly at her, and when she turns to me sleepily. I think bedtime.

Suddenly all colour drains from my beloved, terror flows through the mate bond, here panic means I am only getting feelings.

She lifts her arm pointing at the window and screams ‘Burke’.

I turn quickly to see who or what she is pointing at, and no one is there. Quickly I pull her into my arms.

‘Hush, kitten,’ I try to calm her. ‘Tell me what it is?’

Her breathing is ragged; she is hyperventilating; and she is quivering like a leaf in a storm. I look across at Jess for help.

‘Deep breath in,’ Jess says calmly. ‘Hold it… hold it… breath out… In… and hold… and hold… and hold… and out…’

After a few minutes her breathing calms. I can still feel her shaking, and the terror in her. I pull back a little so I can look down into her face.

‘Hey, love,’ I ask. ‘Who’s Burke?’

There is a small pause. ‘That’s what I called the one who did this,’ she said with a small voice, indicating her bruised face. ‘The other one I called Hare…. As in Burke and Hare, they were body snatchers in Victorian times.’

‘What!?!’ It takes everything in me not to roar. ‘One of your attackers was outside?’

She nods, ‘Sorry’

‘What the fuck are you sorry for? This is not your fault. I am going to flay that bastard.’ My voice is getting louder and louder. Fear crosses through Emma’s eyes.

‘Sorry sweetness,’ I bring my voice back under control. ‘Jess will you take Emma to our room and stay with her until we get back. I trust you to look after her and guard her.’

‘Decebal I want you to guard the door in case his friend is around, or he loops round and comes back.’

‘Barlas, Onan, Griffin… you are with me. We have a familiar to capture. I want him alive for questioning, but if they are both about, we only need one.’

With my orders given I press a kiss into Emma’s forehead. ‘Go upstairs with Jess, kitten. That man won’t get anywhere near you. I promise.’

For a minute it looks like Emma might argue, but Jess grabs her hand and leads her away.

I scan the room and see the trolls band packing up their gear. An idea formulates.

‘Hey trolls,’ I yell at the group. ‘Fancy earning some extra cash?’

The drummer wanders over. ‘Sure, what for and how much?’ he asks me.

‘Four gold to make sure no one goes near my luna while I am hunting.’

‘That is a lot for a simple guard.’ He responds.

‘I know. She means a lot to me.’

The troll takes my proposal back to the band, and in seconds backup guards are in place to look after my love.
…
Less than five minutes later the four of us are outside the inn in wolf form. The night is dry and milder than it has been of late; almost as if the storm took the last of winter with it.

Braon sniffs around and finds the foul scent of that familiar right by the window that Emma had pointed at. The man had maybe a ten-minute head start on us, but in wolf form there was no reason we wouldn’t be able to track him down and capture him relatively quickly.

Smell here Braon tells Ci, Breech and Apollo, indicating the strongest patch of scent for the familiar. The wolves all recognise it from the chase they made the night we found Emma. This time they had every intention of capturing their quarry.

We follow the trail straight down the main street, where it collides and intermingles with another familiar and unpleasant odour… that of the other man who had attacked Emma that night.

Braon and I are of one mind, we want vengeance on these men, but we also need to find out who the puppet master is, and whether Emma is still in danger from them.

The scents cut down an alley and across another cobbled road. I am pleased that the lateness of the hour is making it easier to track them as there are no other tracks about.

We need to finish this quickly; I want to get back to my Emma.

**Third Person’s POV**

The wolves come to a large open area, a graveyard, and the two tracks separate. Braon, Breech and Apollo follow the original scent, and Ci tears after the other.

The group of wolves are running after a terrified human. The smell of fear adds an extra piquancy to their prey’s scent; it excites the bloodlust in these apex predators.

Josh knows they are coming for him; the sweat rolling off him is not just from exertion it is also fear. A limp is rapidly developing, as the part-healed wound from his punishment opens and the nerve endings shoot pain through him.

Josh has been fleeing for maybe twenty minutes and knows that if he doesn’t find somewhere to hide soon then his goose will be well and truly cooked. After meeting up with Brian on the road to the hostelry, they had run together as far as the church grounds, then split up in the hope that at least one would escape and report to their master.

The houses are smaller and more cramped together in this part of the town. Tiny passageways run between the buildings, leading to small courtyards and tiny terraces. Sometimes the alley is all stairs. It is a giant maze, and Josh is lost within it, desperately casting around for somewhere to hide when he spots blood runes on the exit to one of the courtyards.

The runes are from an associate of his master, visible only to those who bear the mark. He hopes that he can claim sanctuary, as those wolves will clearly tear him apart.

He tears through that exit. Hangs a left at the next one, then a right, following the magical marks. Two more turns and the runes lead him to a dark abandoned looking building, incongruous in the street.

He runs to the building and through the door. Ahead he can see a dark space in the shape of a doorway. Obviously leading to a stairway down to a basement. The wolves chasing him are almost snapping at his heels.

He has no time to check for alternatives.

With a small prayer he runs to the stairs and into the void. As he launches himself forward, he feels a tingle he is accustomed to run through his familiar mark. A gateway is activated, and he steps through into his master’s abode, landing in the same circular room from before.

Less than a minute after Josh goes through the portal, Braon, Apollo and Breech enter the house; following the trail left behind. They approach the doorway and find that it ends. Burke should be there, but he is gone.

*Magic* Braon mind-links the others. *We have lost him. Let’s go and see if Ci has more luck.*
…
Elsewhere the large lone brown wolf that is Ci barrels into the familiar he has managed to corner in a dead-end alley. Teeth bared he strikes at the man’s arm. First blood.

The man thrusts at Ci with a silvered knife, feints and then stabs with deadly intent. The knife grazes along the wolf’s ribs and a line of crimson appears through his fur. Ci backs off a little and circles his foe, tail swishing.

Brian is cackling, his eyes mad with bloodlust. ‘Here little dog,’ he taunts, licking the blood from his blade. ‘I am going to carve you up.’

Ci finds the behaviour of the human in front of him bizarre. This is a one-sided fight, but he is the one side.

Ci launches himself transforming mid-flight into Barlas. Fists pound into his opponent, and he breaks the man’s wrist as he disarms him.

Again and again, he punches the man, until he is no longer moving.

The rest of the pack round the bend to see Barlas in the middle of the lane. He stands naked and victorious… one familiar might have escaped, but the other… Brian, or Hare as Emma called him… is hanging bloodied and limp but living from the Beta’s grip.

*Let’s get back to the inn. We will take this scum with us to the pack house and interrogate him there*, orders Peter.