The Hunter and the Rogue Workers Union

Chapter 2

“Oh, Sweet Creator, Is She Counting?!”

Sally had been dozing off when her work truck came to a stop. There always seemed to be someone watching her just outside of her dreams. A figure she can almost make out, but not quite. Her brain was still dancing from the past to the present when reality finally caught up with her. She rolled her eyes as she got out of her work truck and walked into a large brightly colored building. The sounds of excitement and screams could be heard all around. A good-looking man smiled at her as she pushed her way through the crowd, rolling her eyes in response. She hated being noticed by anyone. It was part of her nature to dislike attention from strangers. Plus, she really had no time for this nonsense. They had a job site to get to but her boyfriend, Roger, decided that they needed to stop at the local rumble in order to watch the fights. He seemed to think that he was some kind of fighter, but he was nothing of the kind. He was really too soft for any real fighting. But he held strong to his delusions, and therein lies the problem. The thing he did not seem to understand was that being half wolf did not make him a good fighter. Poor man, he did not have any talent in the ring. But he still had his dreams and for now he could live out some of them through his girlfriend, regardless how Sally may have felt about it. The main attraction for that evening fight was the Pale Moon pack against the Silver Pack, which was about to start.

“This is ridiculous, Roger!” She tried to scream over the crowd. “You know how I feel about being late for work.”

“I have already cleared a couple of extra days for us to just relax. May, says you work too much anyway and that you need to let off some steam!” He screamed back.

“No, I do not work too much, and how dare you ask for time off for me! If I wanted time off, I would ask for it but I do not. I have plans, I have, you know, and this is not part of them.”

“Stop your belly aching and let’s get some drinks. I want to see if the Silver Pack is half as good as everyone says it is.”

“One!” said Sally before walking to the back of the arena. Roger was hot on her heels as she found a table as far in the back as was possible.

“Come on, Sal. Don’t be like that. I was just playing. Look, you just set down and I will get a couple of drinks and then something for you to eat.” Their friend Russell was looking at him funny.

“Oh, sweet Creator, is she counting again!? That is not good,” Said Russell.

“It is fine. She just said one. Sal just needs a drink. That will calm her down.”

“Whatever man, it is your head.” Russell shrugged before setting down next to Sally, pulling out his phone to play his favorite game.

As the night went on, Sally was somewhat impressed with a couple of the Silver Pack fighters. It was hard to say because the other pack was lacking any real talent. The great war had ended over four years ago, but the reconstruction projects were still going on. The damage had been so wide spread that it left half the continent destroyed. Being a union member had its benefits and Sally was a great construction worker, being extremely strong for a human. Most of the union’s members were made up of rogues, but a few humans had started to make their way into its ranks, especially in the war-torn Western half of the continent. To be honest, the Union was always looking out for strong wolves, but they would never pass up a good worker.. There was a pack-like aspect to them and they could not allow the traditional packs to overpower them. Once all the fights were over, the group made its way to a local bar. Roger started to have way too many drinks and that is when the problem began.

“I bet you 100 no, 200 dollars that my girl can bet your girl at arm wrestling.” Roger slurred out to a 20ish looking werewolf. The wolf just laughed.

“The Human against a wolf? I don’t see how that is fair, but it is your money.” He looked at his girl and she walked slowly over to the table where Sally was sitting. The she-wolf put her arm up on the table and looked Sally right in the eyes. “Eva,” the wolf said before making a kissing sound towards Sally and smiling. “I will be gentle, human.”

Sally just rolled her eyes again. “This is two Roger.”

“Come on, Sal. I know you are mad but she thinks you are weak. I know how you hate that.” Roger said back to her with half a smile.

Russell had stopped kissing some wolf he had just met when he heard Sally count again. “Just watch, this should be good.” He said to the lady but she only looked half interested.

“Look lady, I am just going to tell you straight. My soon-to-be ex thinks this is cute and I promise you it is not. But he is right about how I feel about winning.” Sally took the she-wolf’s hand and slammed it down on the table before looking at the male wolf. “Keep your money. He forgot to tell you I am a first generation Hunter. Please spend the money on your lovely lady. I am sorry, please excuse me, I really need to go before I do something stupid like bust my boyfriend in the mouth. Well, maybe that would really not be stupid at all.” She looked at her watch. “It is late, maybe I can do that tomorrow.”

The wolf smiled with delight. “I understand. But no hard feelings. I found this very entertaining and so did my mate. If you ever find yourself around the Silver Pack territory, stop by and join us in some training. I was trained by a hunter during the war. He loved to tell me about every kind of gifted being out there and, of course, being a hunter himself...that was one of his favorite topics. You see, he told me each Hunter has at least one gift. I see one of yours is normal human scent.” Said the wolf.

“Not necessarily. The first generation of hunters tend to have a human scent. There are several theories about how normal humans can produce a hunter child with a human scent, but none of them really matters. Look, it helps hide us until we are old enough to protect ourselves and our humans,” said Sally as she grabbed her purse.

“Where are your humans,” asked the she-wolf?

Sally just stopped and looked at the ground for a moment. “The War but I protect the Union and we are a force in ourselves.” Then she turned and walked out of the room with Roger following behind her. Russell returned his attention to his new lady friend for only a moment when he felt a hand grab him by the ear.

“I am not spending half of tomorrow looking for you. And May will never forgive me if I lose her baby boy” said Sally, dragging the now sad man out of the bar. The wolves in the room were almost howling with laughter at the young pup as the tiny human dragged him off.

The next morning, Roger was up way too early for someone who had been out drinking most of the night. He stopped by Sally’s room in order to apologise to her and sleepy Sally opened the door. He laughed because he enjoyed joking around with sleepy Sally. She looked at him and rolled her eyes, lying back down on her bed. “Made sure you lock the door on the way out.” She said, only wanting to go back to sleep again.

“I was thinking about maybe getting some food but I am short on cash. Last night did not turn out as well as I thought it would. I will pay you back on Friday.” He said, hoping sleepily Sally would bite.

“My card number is 7777. I want yogurt.” Was all she said before a light snore started to come from her direction. Roger took her billfold and ran out of the hotel room, making sure to lock the door behind him.

After Sally finally woke up, she knew her boyfriend was up to something but she was not sure what. She spent most of the morning reading in her room alone. It was a cheap motel but it was still good enough for a day of reading and eating junk food. Russell shared a room with Roger because Roger tended to stay on Sally’s bad side. She had no idea why she was still seeing Roger, but she could not stand the idea of being alone. But the more he acted out, the better the idea of being alone sounded. Russell showed up right before lunchtime and brought her some takeout which she loved. Noodles made everything better. Russell was a big child and his mom, May, was the closest thing Sally had as a friend, so her main job was to keep the oversize kid breathing. Sometime after lunch, Sally finally broke down and asked the question that she did not really want to hear the answer to.

“Where is he and how mad am I going to be?” Russell tried to play dumb but he knew she had heard the text messages going off.

“Well, the Silver Pack did an open training session today, so Roger wanted to go to that.”

“And? If that was the only reason, he would have told me but he did not, so it is not.” She said in almost a huff. “He is getting in on some side fights. Isn’t he?” Then she got up and started to look inside of her purse. “I am going to kill him. He took my money. This is the last straw. Where is he? Wait, never mind, I will hunt that mutt down myself.” She screamed.

“I did not know he took your money. Look, let’s just go. Mom and I will work something out with you. Those Silver Pack wolves are too dangerous. Mom will never forgive me if you get hurt. I will never forgive me if you get hurt.”

“I am not going after them. I am just going to show him what happens when I am done counting.” She said very calmly, as she ran out of the hotel.

Russell could not keep up with her when she ran at werewolf speed, so he just jumped into the truck and followed her. He most definitely did not want to shift into a wolf around such a powerful pack. Soon enough, he was back at the fight center from the night before and he could hear some yelling and laughter from inside the building. He ran inside and found that the center of the arena had been turned into a training facility for the Silver Pack. They were, after all, at the top of the fighting world. There were cat calls and sounds of great astonishment as he heard Sally scream “three” and then hit Rogers three times with the last one laying him flat out on the ground. Roger had just stood there knowing it would have been worse if he had fought back. Then she turned and looked hard at the wolf from the night before. “How much did he lose?”

“Why do you think that he lost?” asked the man.

“How much?” she asked again without blinking.

“Ten thousand,” he said with an almost sad look on his face.

Russell came running into the room. “I should have counted to ten before I started to correct him.” She said almost to herself. Then she seemed to be very attentive to the pack in the building. “My ride is here. We have to get back. He can find his own way back if boss lady even wants him back. But that is completely up to her. She is new but seems pretty tough for a shifter.”

As Sally turned to leave the man said, “He only gave us eight thousand and I will be needing the rest of that money.”

“I did not make any bets with you and you have enough of my hard-earned money.” She said back very quickly.

“I need something exciting for tonight’s show and a hunter/wolf fight will really take it up to a whole new level. Hunters are not easy to come by, you know. Trust me, we have tried. Look, you just fight and if you lose, I will give you back the eight thousand and if you win, I will put another ten thousand on top of that. I am not a monster, most of the time, and you have seen our fights. As long as you heal as fast as I think you can, then you will be perfectly fine. See what you got to lose. It will be a win-win for all of us.”

There had to be over twenty wolves inside the training center alone and Sally knew Russell was not a runner. She could outrun them but she would have to carry Russell; his wolf pride was damaged enough. “Look, I will give you a clean fight. And after that, Russell and I are leaving this place for good.”

“Yes, good. This is going to be so exciting. A hunter! How about that, boys? This will be a show. And on top of that, I have a rogue Alpha fighting tonight. I will put you against some of my greener fighters just to warm you up and then you can face off with the Alpha. Don’t worry, he is not a killer, just a good showman. Though he is an odd person with that mutt of a wolf, mate, girlfriend, whatever, that follows him around like he is her air.”

“Oh, but his little girl is just too cute, though I have never seen his mate so much as touch the child. She makes the cutest sounds from that monster of a stroller that she is always in. She seems rather too old for it, but she is still sweet. Starlit, I think is her name.” Eva said with softness in her voice. She may have been a powerful wolf, but there was a softness in her for little ones. Sally respected that sweetness in her nature.

“I will do this job for you, but you are not my boss and that thing sleeping on the floor is not my problem anymore.”

“Sounds good to me. Bob! Take Sleeping beauty to the woods outside of town.”

Sally dropped her shoulders and then decided to do the right thing even if he did not deserve it. “No, take him to the bus stop and send him back to Blackwood Creek. It is one of our training centers and that is where his boss is currently located. Take the money for the ticket from my winnings tonight.” Said Sally quickly.

“Very sure of yourself,” Said Eva.

“Yes, and that is one of the many things I love about Hunters. But you see, my dear, a hunter could have one special gift or a hundred. That is what makes them so unpredictable and the perfect protection for humans against the rest of us. Oh, by the way, I do not think I have introduced myself.” The grinning wolf extended his hand out to both Sally and Russell. “I am Carter Silver, the younger brother of Alpha Siman Silver.” He said with something very powerful in his eyes. His other half was very close to the surface for some reason. Sally started to feel this was a challenge to her.

“Let’s get this over with.” Sally got her billfold away from her still unconscious ex-boyfriend, double checking everything was in place, handing it to Russell and then got into the ring motioning for Carter.

Carter grimed at her and jumped into the ring trying to pin her down, but she used her vampire agility to gracefully move out of his way. He was testing her to see her true skill set. Sally knew better than to show all of her cards, so she stuck with the Hunter basics: Wolf speed/strength, vampire agility and Fae balance. And she used all of those to dance around him trying to tire him out, but it was not working. She finally had to land a few punches to show him that she could hurt him if she wanted to and that was all he wanted. He just wanted a taste. He needed her healthy for the fight with the Alpha later. But he was enjoying the fight too much to stop just yet, but as they moved around the ring, he suddenly noticed her necklace.

“Good, that was very exciting. I have so much to do to prepare for this match,” said Carter as he was getting out of the ring.

“You know we could really get a wonderful turn out if we had a few more days to promote the event,” said Eva.

“Yes, I can pit you and the Alpha against different fights and then end the week with both of you fighting each other. This is going to be wonderful!”

“Wait, did you forget that I work for the Rogue Union? Upsetting them will cause them to send a team to recover us and deal with you.” Said Sally quickly.

“Well, that would be a problem. Really not a good idea to get on their bad side, seeing how we need them. My brother is trying to get some money from the Great Shifter Council to rebuild some of our war-damaged buildings. The Rogue Union seems to be attached to all the money coming from the Council. Why don’t you talk to your boss and see if she will let you have some time off for this venture? It will help build relations between the packs and the Union. Come on, what do you say? I know you love a challenge and I promise you this will be a challenge.”

With the number of wolves in the room, Sally agreed to talk to her boss. She mainly wanted out of the building at this point. Their ideas seemed to just keep getting bigger and she needed some air in order to think.

Once she was back in her room, she called her boss, which soon caused her a headache. “Alright May, I am not following. How do you think this is such a great idea?” Asked Sally, frustrated.

“Boss Lady, wants a heads up on all the rogue alphas we come across. You know as well as I, we need to recover all the alphas we can.” Said May in a matter-of-fact manner.

“Just because they are alphas does not mean they are good. Some will not be recoverable.”

“She knows, she is just holding out hope that most will be. I already told her quite a few went feral during the war and had to be put down. There are still some out there that are borderline. There is work being done to hopefully reverse their condition. Those evil Queens and their twisted magic did a number on so many of them trying to destroy the packs. Look, let me just throw this out there, being a Hunter and all, you are our safest bet for analyzing the current rogue alpha population. This is your first assignment with the Great Shifter Council. Hopefully it works out and we can start to work with you more on recovery.

Sally thought about it for a minute before responding. “Yes, I would like to help with the recovery and I would hate to see some of our wolves hurt trying to make contact with a hostile Alphas. Once they go mad, they are hard for even a hunter to put down. But she needs to know if one of them has gone feral, and tries to kill innocents. Then, I will have no choice in putting them down.”

“Of course, you have to protect. That is in your nature and we respect you for that. You may not believe it, but there are many people out there that love and respect you. Few can do what you can do, even in the hunter community.” There was a pause as Sally got herself out of the past and tried to refocus on the task at hand. For a moment she had been back at the camp with that smell in the air. May's voice helped to pull her back. “Do you know where the Alpha is staying?”

She cleared her throat. “He is on the pack's land. The Silver Alpha wanted him close to him just in case.”

“He has the same fear we do. Now that is a good Alpha.” Sally shook her head at her friend. “Now, I will talk to Alpha Silver and I want you close to him to collect as much information as you can. You are going to hate me, but we also want a walkthrough of the land, a damage report from you, and a list of resources. We need to know if they are a good investment for expansion. More and more wolves are starting to want a pack. Plus see how they feel about other shifters. Their numbers are so low we may have to put some in wolf packs until we can get a better handle on them. It would be so much easier once we recover some of the hidden children. I think most of the royal shifters were killed, but who knows, shifters are like hunters, sometimes they just pop up in a normal family. One of the old protectors who survived the war said that he is starting to see signs that new royal protectors are starting to develop. It would take some very crazy powerful magic to keep a protector from their charge. It is like keeping a hunter from their humans or a wolf from their mate. The bond, though very different, is just as strong.”

“I thought the protectors were the first ones killed off during the war.”

“Most, but not all, anyway, is a calling, and any being can be a protector, even a vampire,” May said with a laugh.

“Does it come with gifts just like with hunters?”

“I think so, but my understanding that black and purple magic does not have any effect on them. I know it can affect hunters, but there has to be some high-level stuff but not so much with them.”

“Come on May, if someone used purple magic to pick up an object with their mind and hit them with it, that would affect them. And the same with a spell from black magic.”

“Of course, but they cannot use purple magic to enter their minds or black to curse them. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I am just giving you a hard time. I will do my best as always.”

“I know, give that knucklehead of a boy of mine a kiss for me, please. I will call you later with the details I worked out with the Silver Alpha.”

Sally took her book over to her bed and sat down with a smile on her face. She knew this was a promotion and that meant more money. Plus, she can take her winnings from the first few nights and use those to place bets on herself. She had big plans and she needed the money to get there and this was a step in the right direction. Oh, happy day. Maybe Roger was not so useless after all. But she still wished she had counted to ten before correcting him. Three hits were just not enough. Oh well, it was all good.