The rogue assassin

The first assignment

I woke up, scared, and all sweaty. This wasn't the first time I had this nightmare. It was like my past was haunting me on repeat every night. Even though it wasn't always about my parents. Sometimes it was about my baby sister or the people who had to die because of me. I stretched and got back on my feet. I was about to wake up the others when I felt the familiar headache coming through. This time, I opened my mind immediately. Words echoed in mind. “You chose to answer?" I felt her smirk through the mind link. "Very wise now listen carefully. We are hired to attack the Black moon pack. Hide and kill swiftly, no survivors. I recommend 3 am as everybody will be asleep except for the normal patrol. It should be a piece of cake.” With that, the connection broke. I felt anger rise through me but knowing there was nothing else I could do made me calm again. I decided to wake everyone up for another training in the field. Hopefully this time without any deaths. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone on the field. Some were complaining about being hungry as we never got the chance to finish the deer. I ignored the comment and started to explain some new techniques. This time I chose combat with knives. This particular kind of weapon would suffice for this assignment as guns made to much noise and wolf forms were easier to smell. The rogues learned fast this time. Maybe the deaths of the previous night were enough to get their motivation to a higher level. This delivered a smile on my face which I corrected soon enough. Never. Show. Any. Emotion. This made it easier to read as well as easier to kill. The last thing I wanted was an appearance of vulnerability. After what felt like one hour, I called the rogues for the second exercise. I called it one against the others. In case of emergency, one needs to be able to fight against multiple werewolves at once so they started with one-to-one combat. After 1 minute, one fighter joins the fight until the defender is eliminated or in this case K.O.  To show them how it’s done, I started as the first defender. I was able to control five at once when I was kicked to the ground. Here I gave the stop sign. I was down on the ground but that didn’t mean I wasn’t able to deliver some damage. Two of them were suffering severe wounds and one of them was trying to move his leg but failed. I set up groups for them to practice some more before evaluating each group. The sun was standing in the middle of the sky when I announced the end of the training. I gave two rogues the task to cook up the rest of the deer while others bathed in the river close by. I kept on training for another 30 minutes until the food was ready. We all ate in silence and I enjoyed it that way. It gave me time to think about what to do next. I asked for their attention before I told them about our first assignment as a team. Afterward, I ordered them to rest, as they needed all of their energy for the night. Another headache appeared. Luckily the pain lessens each time. This time, I saw a map of what looked like the enemy’s territory. Great, this made the mission a bit easier but I still decided to check out the location beforehand. I rubbed my skin and clothes with herbs like mint, wolfsbane, and lemongrass to cover my scent before heading out. I ran the first piece of the route but slowed down when I got closer to the border. Here I started to climb the tree close to me to avoid being seen. I jumped from one branch to another, getting even closer to the patrol. I stopped when I heard their voices. They were talking about some gala which was coming in a week. s**t, this meant a slightly heavier patrol than usual. Good to know. I also figured out they switched their patrols every 4 hours. This meant 3 o’clock was indeed the perfect timing. Knowing this, I turned around to retreat to my team. I came to a halt after someone yelled ‘hey you, stop’. I held in my breathing and lowered my heartbeat just to be sure. Did they spot me? But no, another person was running from the pack into the woods. The patrol chased it before realizing it to be the beta. The result was some growls in their direction before the wolf headed deeper into the forest. My curiosity took the better of me as I went on to follow him through the tree canopies. I stopped when I smelled I was closing into another border. I smelled the scent of another pack. The name daisy moon pack shot through my mind as my wolf recognized the place from my childhood memories. Unfortunately, I did not recognize anything. People say that you are born with your wolf. In the first years of your life, the wolf is dormant but still able to collect information via the person it is bound to. I retreated to the rogues and adjusted the plan of attack. The knowledge of the possible alliance told me that attacking via the northern border of the pack could result in a battle with two packs. So an attack via the south would have a higher survival rate. I found one rogue who was still awake. I made way to him to discuss the details of the plan. He helped me with the forming of groups before wandering off to sleep. I looked at the sun as it was lowering behind the horizon. We would still have some hours to spare so I went for a quick nap to regain as much strength as possible for the upcoming battle. I really hoped everything went according to plan.