HOWL and HUNT the HEIR: HOWL 1-3 (Dark World)

by D. S. Wrights

  Will he notice when I lie?

  “Your hesitation is enough proof for me, Liala,” the man in the middle spoke, icily.

  “My brother for me, that’s the deal,” she ignored him.

  “Benjy,” Brenna’s father turned to his left and Liala’s little brother looked at him.

  He looks so small and fragile and terrified. It’s killing me.

  “You will go to your cousin Kiana in a straight line,” he continued talking to her little brother. “You will not run to your sister. Do you understand?”

  Benjy nodded, and he was trembling.

  “When your little half-brother starts walking, you will walk towards me,” Brenna’s father told Liala, staring at her with a glare that was burning her skin. “If you, Liala, don’t comply, if you hesitate or reach out to your brother, my man, Will, here will shoot him. Do you understand?”

  “Crystal clear,” Liala gave back.

  “Walk.”

  Benjy started moving and the guy to the right of Brenna’s dad brought up his rifle. Liala instantly made a step forward. She didn’t look to Nate or Kiana, just glued her glare to the man who stood in the middle. Matching her pace to her little brother’s, her nerves were taut and her muscles spasmed, as if she was expecting a shot to get fired every any second, but the forest stayed silent. Even the owl that had cried earlier held its breath.

  “Everything will be all right, Benjy,” Liala spoke softly when her brother and she met halfway; but little Benjy just nodded, his face white as a shroud, his body shaking like a leaf in a storm.

  It caused Liala physical pain to not reach out and pull her little brother into a tight and comforting embrace.

  “Everything will be all right,” she repeated, this time, however, for herself.

  Tearing her glance away from the boy, Liala pulled it back to her target: Brenna’s dad. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept all night, which he surely hadn’t. After all, he had lost his daughter. Liala didn’t want to imagine what he had in store for her, so she tried to focus on her little brother’s steps and how he reached Kiana’s embrace. She didn’t have to turn around to know that her cousin would bring her arms around Benjy and hug him tightly, turning her back towards their enemies, to shield him, because that was what Liala had asked of her.

  The moment Kiana embraced Benjy, Liala stopped in front of Brenna’s father, who slowly, with a strange and eerie smile, pulled a gun from behind his back.

  Liala froze, clenching her hands into painful fists. She knew that this would happen, she just wasn’t sure which of her countless theories would actually become true.

  It wasn't the thunderous crash of the gunshot, but what came after that, which etched itself into Liala’s memory. The crunching noise of bone breaking and the smacking sound as the bullet entered the brain, repeating itself a thousand times worse, as it broke through the back of the head. But the loudest to her ears was the thunking noise the body created when it fell to the ground, lifeless.

  Instinctively, Liala turned, and although she knew what she would see, she still wasn’t prepared for it. A few leaves were still dancing away from the impact as Nate’s body hit the ground. She wanted to move, wanted to run to him, lift him up, shake him back to life, but her legs were lead, not willing to obey her command.

  Just as fast she turned back towards Brenna’s dad.

  “Please,” she begged, knowing what would come next.

  “Your cousin, I mean your friend,” he glared at her, but didn’t address her. “Kiana, doesn’t need a silver bullet. After all, she’s just a human.”

  When he finished the sentence, the man with the rifle brought up his weapon and shot Kiana in the back.

  Liala closed her eyes, pushing tears from her lids, as she heard her best friend fall to the ground, creating almost the same muffled sound Nate’s body had.

  “Am I worth a silver bullet?” She asked, trying her best to distract the man in front of her from what he would see, if he cared to take a closer look.

  Brenna’s father glared at her, full of hate.

  “Boss…” It was the guy carrying the rifle, and Liala was able to smile, at least for a second.

  She knew that, when Kiana pulled Liala’s brother Benjy to embrace him and turned her back on them, she had pointed at the owl sitting on a low branch to her right, and told him to run and follow the bird. The same second Benjy did what his cousin asked of him the little owl Malia had taken possession of would guide Benjy into safety.

  Three lives for one.

  It was an unfair trade, but an acceptable one.

  Liala clenched her fists even harder, thinking of the two bodies that were lying on the forest ground behind her. She still couldn’t believe that the man actually had another human killed. Kiana herself had convinced her that it was unlikely that she would get hurt. The only comfort Liala had right then, was the hope that the shock of getting shot or the bullet itself hadn’t killed Kiana, and that her bite, which she had placed above her cousin’s hip, had already done its mysterious work. They hadn’t had the time to put a bandage on it, but from where she was standing, Liala didn’t see the wound shimmering through the fabric.

  “Leave it!” Her enemy growled, bringing her attention back to the here and now. “He will get lost out there. They probably won’t even try to find him because they either believe he’s dead or with us. He’ll starve to death.” And then, he turned towards the young woman in front of him. “Didn’t your mother tell you, Liala?” He glared down at her, picking up the conversation where he had dropped it. “That pure metals do not work on pure blooded shifters?”

  Liala tensed, her body shivering like a pulled string.

  “Yes, I know that you are a pureblood, I’ve known for quite some time, ever since you donated blood in high school,” her enemy told her. “I just waited for your mother to come and claim you, but she never did.” He reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her to take another step towards him. “So, she made me doubt, and that was my mistake. Trusting that they would be able to handle you was another mistake. But now, I got you, Liala, and I will make you suffer. I took your friend and your cousin.” He grinned, confusing her for a second, as she realized that he pointed at Nate when saying ‘cousin’. “Yes, I know that this one,” he pointed into Nate’s body’s direction, “is your cousin, and a mud-blood. No clue as to who his father was, but he came to your mother’s clan when he was older already, obviously not brought up in a pack.”

  “He killed your daughter’s boyfriend,” Liala managed to utter, despite the iron grip on her jaw, hoping that it would at least pang him to be reminded of Brenna’s death.

  If this man had known that it had been Nate who had snapped Jason’s neck, he wouldn’t have had him killed that quickly. She needed the satisfaction his reaction to her words were giving her. It dulled the ache she felt, knowing that Nate was dead. Everything was acceptable to her so long as it kept that image out of her head and the fact out of her heart

  “He was also my mate,” Liala added, trying to swallow the huge lump in her throat, which her own words created; but it was true, technically.

  Her enemy’s impulsiveness had cost him not only a proper revenge but another possibility of tormenting her.

  “But he’s a mud blood, how could he be your mate then?” He frowned.

  How in the hell does he know all that?

  “Seems like you don’t know as much as you think you know,” Liala gave back, thinking about the secrets she brought with her to this exchange.

  “It doesn’t change anything now,” her enemy said, and forced her to turn around, by grabbing her shoulders.

  It was the last thing she wanted to see. The bodies of both her best friend and the man who had made her feel alive for the very first time, who broke free her slumbering wolf.

  Where is it now? Why can’t I feel anything? Anything but this… this bottomless sorrow.

  Liala wasn’t able to stop swallowing, fighting against th
e burning tears in her eyes. It was Nate whom she couldn’t tear her eyes away from. She hadn’t expected for him to get shot in the head. No one and nothing could recover from that, especially since the myths about silver bullets were true and he was not pure blooded. Her enemy didn’t know about the owl, possessed by her half-sister Malia, which guided little Benjy to safety, and he didn’t know that Liala had bitten Kiana.

  Please, let me hear a heartbeat. Anything.

  Liala stood still, listening, harkening.

  “Let’s go,” the leader of the hunters yanked on her arm and pulled her with him, before she could perceive anything coming from Kiana’s body.

  “Can’t I say goodbye?” She whimpered.

  “Shut up, bitch.”

  Liala stumbled but managed to find her balance as she was forced to follow this man to who-knew-where, while she still was harkening for any sign of life.

  Instantly, she held her breath. There was one, weak, but steady, from a small heart, coming from where Kiana was lying. Even though Liala was relieved, this single heartbeat also taught her something she didn’t want to know, because there was another heart and it wasn’t beating. The silver bullet had gone right through his skull, through his brain. Silver didn’t hurt a pure blood, but Nate wasn’t one, was he? His father was a Wendigo.

  Again, Liala started swallowing against the giant lump in her throat, against the tears that were etching her lids. Nate was gone, dead, just like that. She hadn’t been able to do anything, no one had, not even that bastard of a black-furred, green-eyed dire wolf.

  A sob broke from her throat, resonating in her ears and not even the knowledge of her little half-brother and her best friend being alive could console her. Nate was gone, just like that. She wouldn’t have to fight with her mother about him, wouldn’t get the chance to secretly sneak away with him to have him fuck her brains out and kiss her like he just had this morning. She wouldn’t feel the heat of his skin against hers, or inside of her, anymore.

  I knew him for just a few hours. Why does it hurt so much?

  “Get going,” her captor pulled her along with him, making her stumble once more, but she managed to keep her balance.

  There was a car waiting between the trees, and as if the driver had read her thoughts, the headlights switched on. Looking up, Liala could see the full moon watching over everything, tinting the forest in shades of silver. Tonight, it had lost its eerie red glow, looking pure and pristine. But the moon's appearance was deceiving. It was a hunter's moon and she was still nothing more than prey. This time, she had been captured by a much less appealing hunter than Nate.

  Liala was forcing her feet to obey the pull on her body. These men had held their part of their bargain, even though they had killed Nate, and they thought Kiana as well.

  No one had said that the ones meeting them would stay unharmed. And even though Liala knew that she was supposed to fight and struggle, she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the image of Nate out of her head. Him lying on a bed of leaves and moss, eyes open, a hole on his forehead where the bullet had entered his skull. The noise of how it happened didn’t want to stop. It repeated itself over, and over, and over again.

  Nate is dead. He’s dead. He won’t come to save you.

  During the entire time she had tried to prepare herself for this exchange, she had imagined Nate coming after her and saving her. For whatever idiotic reason, she had completely ignored that he might get killed.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should have said no!

  But it was too late, now. The hope, the thought of her best friend Kiana surviving the shot was evaporated by the knowledge that a silver bullet had killed Nate. There was no chance, no possibility that he could have survived that shot.

  Another sob broke from her, as Brenna’s dad pushed her to the back seat of a SUV. This time her own sound shook her bones.

  Liala always did her best to compose herself, keep stronger emotions locked away, because she had no idea how to handle them out in the open for everyone to see. Ever since her mother ‘had died’ she didn’t share what she felt, she didn’t want her dad to worry and it had been the only way she knew how to live through that loss.

  “We haven’t started yet,” her enemy told her, but she didn’t listen to him; she didn’t care.

  Benjy was safe, being brought home by the half-sister he didn’t know existed. With enough luck, Kiana would survive the gunshot because she was about to change into a shifter. But somehow that didn’t console her, it didn’t matter, because all she could think of was Nate, lying on the forest ground, lifeless, dead. Dead. Because of her.

  Why was I so stupid? Anyone else but him, anyone, but him.

  Liala begged for this ride to be over, for them to finally arrive wherever the hunters had sat up camp, so that the torture would begin, and she didn’t have to see that image in her mind anymore, or hear the gunshot and the nasty, revolting sound of the bullet entering and exiting.

  It just won’t stop!

  “Cry all you want, you knew what you were getting yourself into, Liala,” Brenna’s father told her and of course he was right; yet she couldn’t stop the large tears from running down her cheeks as realization tumbled down on her just like a landslide.

  I don’t even know his fucking name.

  Liala did her best to be angry at this man, but no matter how hard she tried, her mind traveled back to the picture that had etched itself on the back of her skull. And while she was fighting against the images in her head, Liala was too distracted to try and break free. They were already riding on a road through the forest. Flinching, she reached out for the door handle but was held back by her captor.

  That’s what I’ll call him from now on. Captor.

  Liala knew perfectly well that she had no obligation to be an obedient prisoner, and yet she wasn’t able to rebel.

  “You do know what is waiting for you, don’t you?” He asked her and Liala didn’t react on purpose. “I still haven’t entirely wrapped my head around what I am going to do to you, Liala.” He continued, suddenly digging his fingers into her hair, yanking on her skull, harshly, and pulling her head towards him. “Maybe I’ll have our dogs fuck you,” he mused; the sound of his voice made her stomach churn. “You are nothing more than an animal, after all, right?”

  Liala didn’t react. Right then and there she was grateful for the image of Nate’s dead body holding her captive. She didn’t want to give this man the satisfaction of forcing an emotional reaction out of her. She could feel his breath rolling down from her cheek towards her neck and collarbone. He was so close that Liala could almost feel his lips brushing against her skin. She did her best to compose her body as her stomach started revolting even more.

  “When I found Jason’s body, I was angry, furious,” her captor told her. “Killed just like that, neck snapped. He didn’t look as if he had put up a fight. I was disappointed. I didn’t expect my daughter’s boyfriend to go out like that. But when we found Brenna. Oh, my little, sweet Brenna… there is no way to describe what I felt, or what I still feel, Liala.”

  Liala swallowed down the bile that had been creeping up her throat listening to this man. And he actually just placed his forehead against her temple.

  “Did you watch?” He asked. “Did you see what they did to my little princess?”

  Liala stayed silent and kept still.

  “Answer me, bitch!” He bellowed into her ear, pulling at her hair once more, harder.

  “Yes,” Liala answered honestly, regretting it instantly.

  “Yes,what?” This time his mouth really brushed her skin and made it crawl.

  “I watched what happened to her,” she responded, honestly.

  Silence spread throughout the entire car and Liala took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but continued to keep seeing the image of Nate, lifeless, on the ground.

  “Did you get off on it?” her captor asked.

  “What? No!” Liala shook her he
ad vehemently. “Fuck, no! I hated what happened to her! It was unforgivable! Sick and twisted! It makes me want to throw up knowing that my own mother let that happen!”

  “You’re only saying that to please me,” Brenna’s dad said, narrowing his eyes at her, as she could see from the corners of her eyes.

  “No,” she answered, “honestly, no. It was horrible. I do not understand why she let that happen, how she could just stand by and watch.”

  “It would be so pleasant if your words were true,” her captor gave back. “I would actually consider sparing you from at least parts of what will happen to you. But I don’t believe you, and I don’t trust you. You will have to earn my trust, if you are honest about this.”

  “I am,” Liala responded a tad too quick even for her own taste. “I honestly, truly am.”

  He pulled at her hair once more, purposefully causing pain, just to press his lips against her cheekbone.

  “That you’ll have to prove to me, little wolf,” he whispered straight into her ear.

  It wasn’t his lips brushing against her skin, or how he chose his words, but rather the tone that carried his words toward her that made her shudder. Liala wasn’t sure if it was disgust or something else. She felt repelled by her own confusion.

  “How about you prove your motivations to me right now?” he asked and this time Liala truly didn’t like his tone, because there was mischief in it.

  Before she could actively fight against the movement, he used his grip on her head and forced her down to his crotch; the scent of his manhood invaded her now heightened senses.

  “Blow me, little wolf,” he demanded.

  Liala was paralyzed just by the thought of it. All she could see and smell was what was now bulging beneath his fabric covered crotch.

  “Don’t tell me that you have never given a blow job,” he almost laughed. “Free him and suck on him, it can’t be that hard. And don’t you dare bite.”

  Liala’s stomach was churning once more.

  Really?!

  But what else was there but to obey this man?