The rogue assassin

The first battle

I woke up because of a loud bang. Shocked, I turned around only to see Sander standing there with a smirk on his face. The sky was completely dark now which meant I slept longer than I thought I would sleep. I guess I needed a good sleep after all of these nightmares every night. I stretched out and got up on my feet. I looked up at the sky to determine the time of the day. It was hard to see as there were no visible stars in the sky. I lifted some stones to my left and found an old pocket watch. It was still ticking even though there was a large crack in the glass. The pocket watch used to be from my father. His initials are engraved at the back. The only reason I still have this thing is because of the elders. They retrieved it from my father's corps when I was elected as a group leader. I don't know if it was to torture me more or just because time was essential during missions. The watch told me it was 2:30 which meant we still had 30 minutes before the attack. I placed the watch back underneath the stones where it belonged. The other rogues were already at the campfire and ready to go. A sharp pain entered my mind followed by the high-pitched voice of the elder lady. “Make your team ready and leave in 5”. With that, the connection broke. Leaving me with the task to prepare the rogues. Taking a deep breath, I walked over to the fire. I stood there for a moment, just enjoying the heat it provided before facing the crowd. They were already waiting for me to speak. “We have 5 minutes left before our first task. We will leave directly after this briefing. We will break in and leave through the south side of the territory. Be careful of the north. They seem to have an alliance with the Daisy moon pack. Create a mind link if there are major issues. There is an upcoming gala that causes extra surveillance so stay in the shadows and hide your scent. The task is to exterminate everyone which means children and women included.” I created a silence in which I took the opportunity to glance around the circle. How many of us would make it through the night? I mentally shook my head. No, don’t sympathize with them. It will get you killed. I continued my story. “Make sure to use knives only. Other weapons will create noise and even shifting can get you exposed. Only shift if there is no other option left and let us know afterward. I want all of you back here within an hour. Don’t play hero and don’t die. Now let’s grab the gear and move out”. With that, everyone turned to check their gear and to get ready. I made my way to the middle of the field while staring at the treeline. I went over every detail in my head. No mistakes this time. I checked my knife collection in the belt around my waist. I never took them off just in case. There were five knives of different sizes.They were sharpened to perfection, just as I preferred. The belt itself was made from brown leather. Each knife was secured with a strap to minimize the chances of losing them. Footsteps stopped behind me and I knew everyone was ready to go. I started the run without even bothering to look back as the rest of the rogues followed my tracks. We stopped about 10 minutes from the border. We were close to another territory which meant we had to be careful and swift. We searched for mint, wolfsbane, and lemongrass to cover our scents to make sure that every rogue was impossible to smell. That was one less problem we had to deal with. The next thing was the visibility. We were all clothed in our basic black/brownish colors but I knew wolf eyes were great at spotting movement. This is why I gave the signal to climb the trees. Moving through the canopy took more time but was the best option here. No one would expect rogues to come out of the trees. We made our descends when we were already deep into the territory. The rogues began to spread out over the village and to start their slaughter. I took the first village to the right. The lights were out, just as expected. I crouched down and opened the unlocked door as quiet as possible. I wondered why anyone would leave their door unlocked at night. Maybe they thought being a werewolf was protection enough? The hall had a strong smell of Pinetree and pineapple which seemed like an odd combination but it was not that bad. I closed the door behind me in case someone noticed the open door and raised alarm. I grabbed my favorite knife from my belt as I gained excess to the bedroom. The bedroom was hot and showed an older couple, laying in a king-sized bed. I took a good grip on my knife and sliced the throat of the husband first. I guessed that he would’ve been the strongest of the two. He opened his eyes full of shock before he choked in his own blood. The woman woke up from the sounds and stifled a scream as the first thing she saw was her now-dead husband. The moment she realized I was in there too, it was already too late for her. I was already next to her head. She reached out for her husband's hand as I stabbed her into her heart. She fell back next to her husband and simply whispered the word 'why' before dying on the spot. It surprised me how easy killing became for me through the years. I went to the kitchen and searched the drawers for matches. Next, I searched for some flammable oil to light the house up in flames. This way, other packs would think, this pack went down by a horrible fire instead of an assassination. It would keep them off our backs for a while. I found some gasoline in the garage close to the car which is where I wanted to start the fire. The garage door went open to show Scar, one of my rogues. He nodded and then walked away.  I poured the gasoline over the car and threw a match at it from a distance making it burst into flames. I stepped outside to see other houses in flames as well except for one house. I created a mind link and told the rogues to pull back once they were done. I would handle the last house which seemed to be the house of the alpha. Sander replied and told me he would join me for this one and so we went together. A quick peek through the window showed movement in the living room. The alpha was already awakened by now. It took him long enough. He was about to run outside to see the damage, but Sander made sure the alpha never reached the end of the steps. Sander pulled the knife out of the alphas skull and cleaned it with his shirt. I walked inside and used my nose to find the other inhibitors. I found a mother with her little daughter hidden in a closet and I knew that there was another kid hidden in another chamber. Sander took the kid while I came closer to the closet. The mother lunged at me as soon as I opened the door. I dodged the attack and killed her in the same movement before grabbing the little girl by her shoulder. She was crying hard. She kind of reminded me of my baby sister. She looked me in the eyes and I froze. I couldn’t kill her? She deserved so much more! I weighed my options but came out with only one answer. Letting her go would still mean her death. One way or another. She could become one of us or die without the chance of a future. Sander came in to ask me why I was taking so long. He saw the kid and walked over to do the job for me. I couldn’t let anyone see me as vulnerable so I turned my back to him, closed my eyes, and broke her neck in a hug. A tear slid over my face which I quickly wiped away as I dropped the lifeless body. My face turned into a mask as I turned around and walked out of the door. Heat, soon enveloped my body and I knew Sander had set the house on fire. I stared at the flames for a second before retreating into the forest. The smell of wet fur and wolves came our way. The scent was different than that of my rogues. “s**t, the other pack is coming, Run now”. There was no time to climb the trees again so I spurted on the ground while praying not to get caught. I only slowed down when I was sure no one was following us. We made sure not to leave any tracks before entering the shed. The rogues all looked up with smiles on their faces. They survived which meant no more deaths this evening. Like a miracle,  everybody made it out alive. Well, except for the other pack of course. Some were seriously wounded from fighting but the wounds were shallow enough to heal in a couple of hours. I connected my mind to the elder woman and told the result of our mission. She never answered me. She just cut the connection instead. I guessed that meant everything was under control. I ordered everyone to wash the blood off them except for Sander. I took him away from the group and looked him straight in the eye. “Don’t tell anyone I hesitated or the next death will be yours.” With that said, I walked away. Leaving him to stand guard for the rest of the night.