Watch The Dark
II: thirteen

She stood in front of the alpha, whose eyes were fixed on her face. She didn't have a lovely face. Her mother made sure of that. Scarred skin was tight over half of her face, a constant reminder that she was not loveable.

But she didn't want to be loveable. She wanted to be feared, and that was exactly what she was going to be.

"I've heard about you. A hybrid. Half lycan and half werewolf. Insanely powerful," commented the alpha. He grimaced down at her with a look that reminded her of her father.

"I have a proposition for you. I think you'll replace the reward most enticing," he continued. She narrowed her eyes, the scarred skin becoming uncomfortable.

"I have no interest in money," she said lowly. He smiled. It was a cold, dark smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm well aware. But perhaps you have in interest in this," he said, producing a picture from his pocket. On it was a picture of her little brother and a young woman with silver hair. It looked like it had been taken without them knowing.

"If you bring Tana Ingrid to me, I'll make sure your brother isn't harmed in this war. Not one hair on his head will be touched," the alpha told her. The woman grimaced, her mouth set in a thin line. She hadn't seen her brother in years. He didn't know what their mother had done to her face. She wasn't even sure if he remembered her.

"How can I trust that you'll uphold this promise?" She said slowly. Her hands were clenched in tight fists at her sides. He knew she wasn't scared of him, so he had nothing to hold over her except her brother. He had no way to make her go after whoever Tana Ingrid was.

"I have my wolves under my complete control. They won't take one step without my say so. If I give them the word, they'll avoid your brother at all costs," he told her.

"What makes you think I care? I haven't seen my brother in years," she snarled. He chuckled, waving a flippant hand at her.

"If you didn't care your heartbeat wouldn't have sped up when you saw his picture. Now then, will you bring Tana Ingrid to me or not?" He inquired, his cold eyes set firmly on her.

The woman turned away for a moment, her scarred side out of his view.

"I'll do it."

***

Tana's P.O.V

Declan was asleep. His wounds had faded and the wolfsbane was completely out of his system. Since she didn't want to bother him, Tana decided to go down to the nursery to check on Icarus and Sincere.

Surprisingly enough, the two were playing with Asher, Jade, and Blake, all sitting in a circle while Sincere was explaining something.

"Hey, Tana. Asher came down and wanted to play so we offered to watch them while Lennox and Erica come up with a game plan. Look at little Rosie, isn't she cute?" Jade cooed, lifting up Lennox's youngest daughter that Tana hadn't even noticed was there.

"Adorable. How is Wynona's kid doing?" She asked, sitting next to Jade and Rosie.

"Noah is okay. One of the den mothers is taking care of him in the other room. No one knows where they took Wynona and the others yet," Jade explained. "Hows my brother?"

"Much better than before," Tana replied, flinching when Asher suddenly threw a teddy bear on the floor.

"I don't want to play with the teddy! Icarus has my truck!" He exclaimed, pointing at the baby who did, in fact, have a toy truck in his lap.

"You have to take turns, Asher. Icarus is a guest after all. You have to be nice," Blake said gruffly, tossing the teddy back to Asher.

"No fair. He's just a little baby. He doesn't even know how to play cars," Asher grumbled, his eyes lighting up when Sincere passed him a smaller car that was in her hand.

"Thanks Sincere," he said, his cheeks flushing when she smiled at him.

"Aw, they're so adorable. If they aren't mates when they grow up I'm going to be so disappointed," Jade whispered. Tana rolled her eyes.

"I don't see why I have to babysit with you when I could be doing patrols. We aren't safe just sitting around in the nursery," Blake huffed. "I should be out there taking over," he added.

"Stop being so grumpy. You're healing as well and if you go out there and pull your stitches all you'll do is bleed out in front of everyone. Lennox has this under control. It is his pack house after all," Jade huffed. Blake frowned and crossed his arms.

"They still haven't come back with the wolves who were in the safe house. What if they got attacked?" He said, sounding an awful lot like Declan when he was worried about something.

"There's a ton of Lennox's warriors with them. They're fine, Blake," Jade said again.

"Uncle Blake is the toughest wolf ever. He lets me sit on his shoulders when he trains the apprentices sometimes," Sincere stated proudly, bringing a twinge of a smile to Blake's face.

"You're the one scaring them into submission, Sin," Blake said. Sincere puffed out her chest and grinned.

"See? Keeping all the pups calm is what you should be doing. That's what you are doing. Don't worry so much," his mate told him, pulling her silver hair into a low ponytail.

"Fine. Who wants a piggyback ride?" Blake announced.

Sincere and Asher raised their hands immediately. Jade held up Rosie and Icarus's arms as well.

Blake actually smiled for once.

***

Unknown P.O.V

The South Bay pack wasn't by any means secure. Sure, they had patrols, but the woman could easily disguise herself into the thick underbrush that grew in the forest. Several guards had passed her and hadn't said a word. They hadn’t even looked in her direction.

That was just as well for her, but she wondered how they handled bigger threats.

She could smell Tana Ingrid. It was strong, which meant she wasn’t far. Even though the smell sample she had been given wasn’t very strong it was easy to detect her once she knew the general area Tana was in.

And, sure enough, her scent was mingling with that of her brother.

The woman never felt nervous. She had never hesitated. She hadn’t hesitated to slit her mother’s throat when she got burned and she wouldn’t hesitate now. However, the smell of her brother made her pause for just a split second. It took her back to the ranch they lived on and the way she and her brother would play for hours in the woods near by.

But things were different now. She was different now. She couldn’t let her past affection for him get in the way of her mission. She was doing this to protect him, after all.

There was no way the woman could make it into the pack house without being caught immediately. There were guards surrounding every inch of it which told her that they were more focused on protecting their wolves than their territory. This certainly didn’t work out in her favour.

Well, she thought grimly, I guess I’ll just have to be creative.