I held his stare even though every part of me screamed to run. He couldn’t have known, could he? There was no way.
He finally averted his gaze after what might have been the longest minutes of my life.
“Who sent you?” Alpha Raymond's voice was hard but low. He glanced around at the omegas in the dining room.
“He said that you would know.” The man spoke, his voice like churning, velvety thunder.
Alpha Raymond's mouth hung open for a split second. He stood up so fast that his chair fell behind him. He brushed past the man and slammed the doors wide open, so they hit the unwavering stone walls.
I jumped, not having to fake it.
This couldn’t be happening. I tried to process it all. Who was this man, and who sent him? I couldn’t have others sniffing around; I was so close. I should have swallowed my pride and just finished them off sooner. I shouldn’t have made it a game.
“The fuck are you looking at?” Hunter spat towards the man. The man didn’t speak, just held Hunter’s stare with an impassive one of his own.
Luna Natalie looked like she was going to say something but thought better of it. She stood up and walked the other way. I rose as soon as her back was turned, not sparing the Alpha’s sons or that man a backward glance. I needed to find Alpha Raymond.
I inched towards The Alpha’s office door. It was risky, but I also knew this was the only chance I would get to try to make sense of this new puzzle. There was so much I still didn’t know even though I listened to the gossip of the omegas, and the ranked members spoke freely in front of me.
I was sure Alpha Raymond didn’t even tell his mate everything. I rarely even saw his Beta and Gamma; they lived away from the packhouse. Any dealing that he had with them was hidden from me entirely.
This was the one chance I had to find out more about the newest name on my list, the hired hunter, to find a killer- a new enemy whose name I didn’t even know, not that it mattered.
“Our alliance still stands,” Alpha Raymond roared, and I paused as close as I was willing to get to the open door. “But you do not get to meddle in my affairs.”
A calm, yet hard, voice came slightly muffled from the phone. “I do when they affect mine. We control the story now. Or did you want outside interference?”
“How did you ever hear?”
“I have my sources, but even if I didn’t, people talk.” There was a short pause. “Two dead at your pack, Raymond. An Alphas son,” the mystery voice stressed.
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Stop being naive. Maybe it's nothing, but I intend to find out. You don’t have to tell anyone. He will blend in.”
“This looks weak-”
“You made yourself look weak, Raymond. It's done. The contract is signed.”
“But sending one of them one of his men? You have crossed the line-”
“They serve a new master. I have protected my own interests. And yours.”
It took me too long of a moment to realize that the other man hung up. “Fuck.” Alpha Raymond shouted, and I jumped.
I backed away on the carpet as quickly as I dared and raced away down the opposite hallway from where he entered. I stopped only when I was back on the main floor of the new packhouse.
I hated this addition; it felt wrong and jarring compared to the castle-like features of the main packhouse. I had grown used to the calming effect the cool stone had under my hands. This bright glass place felt wrong; I felt exposed.
I rounded the corner, nearing the familiar stone of the old packhouse. I had to take a longer way so that if I ran into anyone, I wasn’t seen anywhere I wasn’t supposed to be.
My breath caught, and I fought to suppress my shock as I almost ran into the assassin hunter, or whatever he was claiming to be. He stood motionless, seeming to tower over me. His calm, assured presence made my skin crawl. He was unearthly still.
“What are you doing here?” he asked in a deep baritone voice devoid of all inflection; it might have not even been a question.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I shot back, surprising myself.
I swallowed and looked down at the floor, playing with the hem of my sleeve. I slid back into my mask that I was just startled out of.
“I meant, what are you doing at this pack, not in the hallway.”
I kept my gaze downcast; it wasn’t hard because his presence put me on edge. It was easier to study the bit of familiar carpet instead of his blazing mismatched stare. “They saved me.” I swallowed. Twice. “Alpha Raymond and Luna Addison saved me from an attack on my pack.” Those words were hard to get out, but I had to play the girl that believed her captors. I had to play the girl that could be kept.
“What pack are you from?” he asked. I shifted on my feet. “Look at me,” he commanded, and I slowly lifted my head to meet his stare.
“Blood Moon,” I answered, speaking the name out loud for the first time since my pack was slaughtered.
His eyes seemed to widen slightly; he whistled low when I said the name of my pack, my old pack. “I’m sorry.”
“Save it,” I barked, but it was the first time that someone voiced that concern, and I couldn’t help the pit that formed in my stomach.
Even if he was pretending, those made my throat constrict against all of my will. I blinked a few times and brushed past him. I didn’t trust myself, even under my mask. The sympathy was something I didn’t realize that I needed, and it cleaved something open in me that I took years to suppress.
I took deep breaths as I walked back to my room. I needed to think. He was sent to find me, but I would take care of him first. He would be hard, harder than I even wanted to admit to myself, but I still had the element of surprise. I hoped, at least.
There was something about him that seemed to see right through you, and I wasn’t sure if it was a scare tactic. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could see the blood-red stains on my soul.
The poison worked last time, but I wasn’t there to witness exactly what happened, and I couldn’t risk the same thing twice, not after this place was apparently being watched.
I was safer when Alpha Raymond kept denying the possibility that these deaths weren’t a coincidence. However, I never knew when reality would catch up to him, so I had to be smart.
I would study this new threat and find his weakness because there always was one. Some people were just better at hiding theirs, and most people weren’t looking anyways.