The Indifferent Luna 1 - Austan wolf
CHAPTER 53

My first victim was a man who was pressed, I watched as he stood from among the chattering group and walked into the forest, I followed, I had just shifted back and was pretty much naked so I didn’t venture out in the open.

Standing not very far from him, I crouched behind the shrubs that surrounded the area, watching as he unzipped his pants and began to relieve himself. I picked up a small stone and threw to my left, in a direction away from the camp. He turned towards the sound and frowned.

“Anyone there?” he asked, when he received no response, he focused again on his business, “just some stupid animal,” he muttered to himself as he zipped up his pants.

I threw the stone again and he turned around now and said, “Rohan! I’m not in the mood for a prank!”

Seeing that there was someone in the camp who likes to play pranks, I quietly moved away, towards the area and threw another stone,

“Stupid idiot,” the man muttered and walked in the direction of the noise, a little further away from the camp. I smiled as I watch him take the bait and followed behind him.

He slowly walked into a clearing and looked around. The trees here were tall, creating a large canopy, with each branch meeting that of its neighbor. The moon’s light filtered in between the leaves and branches, slightly illuminating the bare forest floor.

The man stopped and looked around, seeing there was no one there, “This isn’t funny Rohan,” he said with a sigh, as he decided to go back. At that moment, I snuck up on him from behind and twisted his neck to the side forcefully, breaking his cervical bone in the process. He fell to the ground dead.

“Someone else is coming.” Rieka suddenly said, and I ran for the shadows of a tree and hid behind it, having stayed in the lair for more than a year now. I have learned to conceal my scent perfectly, even if I stood behind him, he wouldn’t be able to perceive me.

The new guy looked around, he was the same man who had earlier been whispering sweet nothing into Rosie’s ear. He walked slowly into the clearing and I watched him look around briefly. I knew he was following the other man’s scent. In a moment now, he would see his body and alert the others, thereby ruining my surprise attack.

“Don’t kill him.” Rieka suddenly said again, and I frowned.

“And why would I let him live?” I asked angrily.

“Because we don’t know the way to Alpha Dante’s pack,” she said matter-of-factly, and my brows raised.

Oh! That was true. How was I supposed to replace Alpha Dante if I killed them all?

“Good job, Rieka.” I said, but she only rolled her eyes at me and cut off the link.

I chuckled slightly as I dashed out of my hiding place.

The man walked forward and saw the dead body of the first guy. He immediately turned around to rush back to the camp. The moment he turned around, I was standing in front of him in my full glory, naked under the filtering moonlight, giving him a sinister smile.

Suddenly, seeing me behind him, startled him into taking a step back. The moment he tried to take the step, I attacked, hand chopping the carotid artery in his neck and knocking him out.

I took one step back and sighed.

“We have to hurry up, or he’ll be awake before we get back,” I said aloud, and rushed back towards the camp.

……………………

“What do you think is taking them so long?” I heard Rosie ask, when I got to the tree behind the camp.

“I don’t know, maybe they decided to hunt for more food, this meat tastes really good.” another lady replied.

“Fool.” Rieka suddenly said and I smiled,

“My, don’t insult them, even they deserve a last meal,” I said as I released my concealed scent.

Because I was in blood rage, my scent, when released, usually made the hair of other wolves stand on edge, it created the illusion that there was a superior predator around and gripped them with fear. That was always the response.

“Do you feel that?” one of the men suddenly asked as he stood up, throwing the meat aside,

Rosie stood up, “Yeah, there is someone here, try to reach Rohan and Geris.” she ordered, as they all stood up ready for battle, their wolf-bane laced weapons drawn.

I shifted silently, I was going to do this in my wolf form.

“I can’t reach them!” One of the men shouted in panic as they looked around the dark forest.

The bond fire they had created was a disadvantage to them now. It illuminated their camp, making other parts of the forest seem darker than it actually was.

I watched like an apex predator, picking the one closest to the dark forest edge and farther away from the fire.

I went for him, running as fast as I could, I jumped on him, sinking my teeth in his neck before running back for the cover of the forest.

“Ahhhhh!” the man screamed and the others turned around quickly to see his lifeless body fall to the ground, one hand clutching his bleeding neck.

“What the hell!” someone whispered as they all looked around in the direction where the man had once stood.

I watched them closely behind a tree. I made my move again, taking the second, third and fourth victims the same way and scaring them senseless. What was scarier than an enemy you could neither see nor fight?

There weren’t many of them, just ten of them were camped there that night and I could see for the first time that Selene and the others had really done a good job protecting the lair, many of the enemy’s comrades had their lifeless bodies lying on the floor of the lair.

There were more than fifty of them, I heard before I left. If not for the wolf bane in their weapons, I am sure, none of them would have made it out alive.

“Stay close together! Stay away from the edge!” Rosie shouted and a few survivors obeyed, gathering around the bonfire.

I watched them and ran around the woods noisily making them hear the sound of my paws against the forest floor. They turned around towards the sound and one of them, with a gunshot, hysterically, but I shifted back immediately, sneaking up on them and slitting open the throat of the closest guy before fleeing again. Almost like a shadow.

“Shit!” one of them shouted when they saw what had just happened.

“It’s so fast!” he screamed.

Their fear was now evident in their gaze.

“Show yourself, you coward!” Rosie shouted as they all looked around, holding onto their knives tightly as if letting it go would mean their death.

There were just three of them left.

Show myself? I could do that, I thought as I shifted again and silently stepped out from behind a tree watching them,

One of them saw me first, “there it is!” he shouted.

And they all turned to look at me but trembled with fear, because all they could see in the dark was my glowing red eyes.

“Shoot it down!” Rosie said, and the guy with the gun shot in my direction but I moved away as swiftly as I had come. They stopped when they saw I no longer stood there.

I stayed in the shadows and ran around the camp. Once someone saw my shadow and shouted, ‘there it is’, they shot in that direction, then I was in a different place and they shouted again. I continued to play with them like this for a few minutes but one of the bullets grazed my shoulders, so I stopped.

“Where did it go?” one of them asked.

I shifted back to my human form and rested my back against a tree to take a good look at the injury. It was a flesh wound but, it hurt badly, probably because of the wolf bane or silver bullet they used.

Blood slowly tickled down my injured arm, the presence of wolf-bane or silver slows our healing process as werewolves, so I knew that it would take some time before it could heal.

“Do you smell that? It’s injured.” one of them announced as he sniffed the air.

“Should we follow its scent?” one of them asked.

“Let’s wait a little bit, it might be luring us out into the dark,” Rosie said and I smiled faintly,

Not bad, she was a pretty good leader, except on the wrong side.

I watched as they looked around in search of me and I smiled, they missed me already.

I also looked around and saw the dead men close to the forest had knives on them. I wouldn’t be able to take them down with the shooter still alive, so I ran soundlessly to the man and grabbed the knife but not fast enough, one of them noticed me, probably due to my scent.

“There it is!” He shouted and I froze.

I watched the shooter turn around quickly. I immediately threw the knife.

It went straight for his skull, but not before he shot the gun and I couldn’t dodge it either, so I was pushed back in pain as I held my abdomen, then looked down at it. The bullet was embedded in my lower left quadrant and it hurt like hell.

I ignored the pain and the sting and walked out of the shadows with a smile on my face.

“Hello Rosie.”