Chapter 169
The little creature was talking a big game, saying things that could get his tongue ripped out and shipped to his mother as a warning for the others but that last bit- it couldn’t be true. Why on earth would werewolves team up with the filth that they spent so long getting rid of?
Blood was shed, warriors died- many lives were lost both their kind and ours.
He had to be playing an angle here that I couldn’t see yet but if he kept talking I would be able to piece it together.
His piercing blue eyes were burning with a sad determination.
I almost pitied him. Almost.
“Our kind wouldn’t help you,” I shook my head. Oh, the cocky glint in his eyes was making it hard to keep my claws retracted right now.
“They want the Lycan King dead, and to restore the leadership to werewolves. They very much want to help us,” his baritone voice sent an unknowing tension down my back and I locked my gaze on him to see if there was a shadow of doubt behind his venom-laced words.
Come on, show me just one speck of uncertainty so I can call his bluff. Angus cocked his head, we were the same height but at that moment it felt like he was looking down on me.
“How can you possibly care for a monster like him?” There was a deep disbelief in his voice that I let slide off my shoulders.
“Watch your tongue,” even I was surprised by my sudden defenses going up for Darian.
It was there, it had always been there, a tug for the man who caused me all that pain but we were working through it.
He was bettering himself and becoming the man that I wouldn’t mind being mated to.
The mark on my skin was gradually becoming a sign of intimate bonds and soulful ties, he wasn’t that same monster anymore. And I wasn’t about to let some lowlife human put a spike in that improvement.
“You should leave, and tell your friends that if they enjoy life, even a little, then they will stand down,”
He raised his head- there was something cocky about him and even though he stood in front of a werewolf who could snap his neck like a twig, he didn’t wince or cower as he should.
Where was the respect?
“I’ll leave, but I won’t do that. This life you’re talking about, do you know what that looks like for us?”
I scoffed. What was he trying to do- appeal to the humanity in me?
Ours wasn’t like theirs, it wasn’t a dominant part of our personality to care like they cared- especially not for humans. We weren’t the same and there was
no shame in that, they just needed to know their place, after all they had caused more damage than anyone else.
“Whatever you think your words of confession about the dreadful existence of humans will do- it won’t. Don’t waste your breath,”
His eyes narrowed and he stepped closer.
“We live in cottages, houses that are falling apart, barely food to cover every hungry stomach. Do you even know why there are humans on this island, to begin with?”
it’s a big part of our history, of course I knew. It was insulting that he thought any different.
“You followed when the Lycans sought shelter here for them and us, they wanted a safe haven for their kind and ours, you humans could’ve stayed put,” I
spat.
He chuckled darkly and it was followed by a raging glare that pinned mine down.
1/3
Chapter 169
Humans were fascinating. I’d never been so close to one before but now that I saw him and could study him it was like they were everything that we were
not.
“You kid yourself. All of you. Humans were here first, lived in peace and prosperity with a good ruling and a lively existence- enter you,” the disgust in his voice had me clenching my fists.
“You took over, shoved us aside, and slaughtered those that wouldn’t be controlled,”
The nerve of him, none of that was true. The humans came with the first werewolves and Lycans, they were the ones who insisted on inhabiting the island together with our kind- whatever propaganda his leaders have infused in their minds is not on my conscious.
“I will give you one chance to leave,” I stepped aside, he better take it.
He fixed his coat and his blonde hair fell in front of his face.
“I thought you’d know what it was like to be treated as less than the dirt they step on,” he said and walked past me.
“I’m them,” I said and he stopped in his tracks. Angus turned around, his blue eyes soft with a graceful expression relaxing his features.
“You’re not, you despise the ways of rulership as much as I do. Ours aren’t different, Hazel, they are just as much of a tyrant as the King, and we can do as little about it as you,”
“He’s not a tyrant,” I tilted my head and moistened my lips- when I realized what I’d said I chewed on my bottom lip and looked at him. “Only when he needs to be,”
“Then tell me, why hasn’t he ended that tradition of yours, the one where he found you? That thing you talked about where they hunt you girls down,”
Did he hear that? How had he not been caught for this long?
This was beyond weird, he should’ve been noticed.
“The Hunt,” I said.
He nodded and pointed.
“That’s the one. Guess you don’t mind that your sister will be participating,”
I gritted my teeth.
“She won’t,”
“You’re probably right, she has the protection of the King. But what about the girls that aren’t as lucky? I waited, hid in the walls, drank a potion that tasted like piss for the chance to talk to you. I thought…” his eyes fell, “…I guess your humanity only reaches to those with whom you share blood,”
The words were lost on my tongue and I pressed my lips together. I wanted to hit him, or kill him, anything to make him stop talking but I didn’t need to. Angus turned around and left, not one more word left his mouth- it was the most sane thing he’d done so far.
I walked back to find Kiera playing with Gabe and their laughs warmed the room more than the fire as they enjoyed a carefree time. Mathilda was watching the fire and all I could think was that she would be spared, there was no way that Darian would send her off to participate in the Hunt.
Kiera was also spared from that sick game.
But the other girls weren’t.
“There you are!” Nora hurried over with a cup of tea and took my hand- she pulled me over to the fire and I sat, circled my arm around my sister’s shoulder, and pulled her in against me. She was protected, should that be enough?
2/3
The Alpha’s Hunt
