CHAPTER 32: A Betrayal

Aria

I hear footsteps above our heads.

A door slams, and a moment later, voices drift in, followed by heavy footsteps. These are not wolves, at least not in their wolf forms. The way they move, they are men. Hunters. And wolves.

We all remain quiet, as quiet as one can get. Even our breaths seem to be a bit hushed, and we can hear almost everything.

"You told us they'd be here!" Someone exclaims, anger clear in his voice. "Where are they?"

"They were supposed to be here," The next person who speaks, Darius recognizes that voice because I can see it from his face. "I heard them talking about it today morning."

"Check the place. Every fucking nook," the man says, his footsteps heading in another direction. "And if you find the girl, bring her to me."

That isn't my father—no. I'd recognise his voice anywhere and everywhere. But this time, it isn't him. It's someone else, someone among his men, his hunters. It has been so long that I can't even recall all the men he had under his command anymore. But if I did, I'd know who it is.

"Check upstairs too. See the rooms so we'll know if they were here or not."

Another moment passes. I hear boots clanking across wooden floorboards and doors slamming open. They aren't looking. They're searching, tearing the place apart in the hope of finding me.

"Find anything?"

There's a shuffle from upstairs as the hunters come back down.

"Nothing," one of the men answers the head guy. "There's nothing. The lodge looks completely untouched and it seems like nobody has been here in months, sir."

More shuffling and more silence. They're leaving. Or not.

"The fireplace is warm." One of them comments.

"Really? Well then, that means someone must have been here until a while ago." the head hunter mutters. "Check outside for trails or tracks of anything, anything at all. They must've left in haste."

"And if we find the girl?"

"Bring her to me. If it is the one, then she is valuable."

"Yes, sir." the man responds.

What am I?

"What about the wolves?"

"What about them?"

"Do they need to be eliminated?"

The head hunter doesn't respond right away.

"If you come across any, eliminate them." There's some more movement that I can hear upstairs. "You told us that she'd be here. And she's not."

"She must've left. But I am certain that she was here, I heard it so myself," The man, the one from the pack, continues. "So they cannot have gotten far."

"They? Who else?"

"As far as I know it's only the Beta that was meant to be with her here." the man replies.

A pause, and then. "Fine. If we find the girl, then you'll receive what I promised. But if we don't, then we'll have an issue that'll need solving."

The threat in the hunter's words is hard to ignore. But I'm far more terrified about who might betray this pack.

Whoever this is, he's made a terrible deal.

There was a reason why Lucian wanted me here, it was because he didn't want the other members of the pack to give me up to my father to avoid all of this. He wasn't wrong.

I look at Darius who gestures me to remain quiet, and I do. We all do.

More footsteps above, moving toward what sounds like the front door. Are they leaving? I doubt so. They'll look around the surrounding area for us—for me and once they know that we aren't there, then they'll leave.

But for now, they do leave the lodge because we hear the door slamming shut.

We wait for a few minutes to be sure.

"That's Magnus, isn't it?" Ally looks at her brother and questions.

He just nods.

"Who's Magnus?" I ask.

"He's a high-ranked wolf, mostly in charge of the security and the warriors when they're on shift outside," Ally explains.

"He must've heard Lucian and I talking earlier in the day." Darius sighs.

"What do we do?" Mara turns to Darius, her eyes gleaming with a hound's readiness. "From what I can tell, they are just a few hunters and one wolf. We can take them down?"

"No, it's too dangerous. There'll be more coming if we take one down. It's better if we stay here until they can confirm themselves that we aren't here anymore," Darius replies, and from his fac,e it's clear that there's a little more to it than just that. "Who knows how many more hunters have surrounded this place in search of us? Once they don't find our scents in the woods, they'll leave."

"But that will take long." Mara argues.

"We wait."

I release a breath that I've been holding back before turning away and sitting down with Henry, who's just staring at the door in front.

In the silence, the minutes crawl by and the panic inside slowly begins to lessen. The men—the hunters, they don't return to the lodge. They remain outside, where I assume they're trying to watch my trail, or my scent.

We wait, for as long as we can.

I'm not sure how much time passes by, but at one point, Darius gets off the ground and starts heading to the door.

"Wait till I return," He says to the four of us. "I'll see if I can catch their scents or not. If they've left, we'll leave too."

"Leave for where?" Ally questions.

"Back to the pack house." He replies. "This place has been compromised now. It's no longer safe. They can return anytime, with more men and maybe even rogues and then it'll be far more harder to hide—or fight." His eyes look around and land on each and every one of our faces.

And with that Darius steps outside, closing the door behind.

Once he's gone, it's quiet against. All I can hear is his distant footsteps along with the wind rustling outside. I try to sense if the hunters are still out there, but I'm not getting anything. Usually, my wolf has an amazing sense, but for some reason, nothing.

"They must've left." Ally confirms after about five minutes.

Darius has been gone for a while, but we all sit and wait till he returns to make any kind of move.

Mara, growing restless, rises from her crouched position. "He's taking too long."

"Give him a few more minutes. He needs to be sure." Ally tells her.

Mara exhales sharply and paces around the small basement. I swallow, my throat dry. The hunters' words keep repeating in my head.

'She is valuable.'

For what?

*Could it be that my father wants me for what I possess? Does he know about it now?*

A few more minutes pass before the door opens in the basement. I nearly jolt but sit back when I see Darius.

"They're gone. I can't sense them around. But we need to move fast. I'll bring the car to the front from the back. You four wait outside."

We get on our feet immediately, prepared to leave. When we head upstairs, I first take notice of the time. It's almost four. In a few hours, the sun will be up.

Is it over?

I'm not sure, but I'll know soon when we reach the pack house. Knowing that I'm going back brings me a sort of relief I didn't expect.