Tempting the Huntress

Chapter 5- Blood in the water

Lilith was running. Something… someone was chasing after her.

Snow cracked beneath her boots as the forest blurred around her. The wind tore at her lungs, sharp and cold, but she couldn’t stop.

Behind her…

A howl split the night. It was low, deep, and familiar.

She stumbled into a clearing. The snow there was red. She followed the blood to find…

Her mother lay in the center of it.

Anastasia Rothwell’s hair fanned across the ground like spilled ink, her dress soaked through, her chest unmoving. The moonlight made her skin look almost blue.

“Mom?” Lilith’s voice came out small. Six years old again.

Her legs refused to move. The snow turned into a familiar floorboard. Blood seeped between the wooden floorboards beneath her bare feet.

No. No. No….

She looked down at her hands, which were covered in blood, then something moved behind her mother’s body. She tried to leap forward to hold her mother close to her heart. She can’t let her go again.

A massive black wolf stepped forward from the trees. Moonlight caught its fur like polished obsidian. Its eyes burned gold.

The Alpha.

He stopped a few feet from her, and once he wasn’t attacking, but only watching. Confusion twisted inside her chest. Why wasn’t he killing her? Why was he just…

A wet sound came from behind him. Lilith’s gaze shifted.

Another wolf lay sprawled in the snow. Its chest is riddled with silver bullets. The fur began to recede. The bones cracked, skin stretched until a man lay there.

Young. Too young. Probably the same age as hers.

His brown eyes stared blankly at the sky.

But then his head turned slowly toward her. His lips moved.

“It’s all because of you…”

Lilith staggered back. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I am sorry.” She didn’t know who she was apologizing to, her mom or the werewolf.

The blood around her feet thickened, rising higher, creeping up her ankles. The black wolf stepped closer.

Closer.

Golden eyes burning into hers.

Then it opened its mouth…

And her mother screamed.

The sound ripped through the clearing.

Lilith spun. Her mother was alive again. But something was wrong. There were dozens of glowing eyes in the dark. And every single one of them was looking at Lilith.

The black wolf stepped between them.

“No,” Lilith whispered, shaking her head. The snow beneath her feet melted into thick red liquid.

Blood.

Up to her knees. Up to her waist.

Her mother’s voice echoed again, distant now.

“Run, Lilith!”

But the Alpha only stared at her… with hatred. His eyes burned brighter. And suddenly the blood was on her hands again.

She started to hear voices. The dead wolf and her mother’s voice whispered in her ear repeatedly.

“You killed us.”

—

Lilith jolted upright with a gasp. Her sheets were tangled around her legs, soaked with sweat. Her chest heaved as if she had actually been running. Darkness filled the room. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, then the familiar shape of the compound ceiling came into focus.

Her heartbeat thundered against her ribs. Slowly, she lifted her hands. They trembled but were clean. But she could still feel it.

The blood.

Her stomach twisted violently. She swung her legs off the bed and stood too quickly, dizziness washing over her. The nightmare clung to her like cobwebs.

Her mother. The Alpha. The werewolf.

Everyone burned behind her eyes. She needed to wash it off.

The shower water hit her skin in a scorching stream. Steam filled the small bathroom as Lilith leaned her hands against the tile wall, letting the heat soak into her muscles. Her breathing finally began to slow.

It was just a dream. Nothing more.

She closed her eyes.

Instantly… brown eyes stared up at her from the snow.

Lilith’s eyes snapped open. Her pulse jumped again. She forced herself to breathe.

You killed a monster, she reminded herself. That was what her father had always said. That’s what she has learned. Monsters didn’t deserve mercy.

But the memory of the report surfaced like a knife twisting deeper. Earlier that day, she and Elias had stood in the medical wing while the body lay on the steel table.

The doctors had examined everything: blood, bones, organs, and DNA.

Nothing. No trace of a wolf. No supernatural mutation. Just… human.

Except stronger. Faster. Denser muscle structure.

But still human.

Which meant the truth was unavoidable…

She hadn’t killed a beast. She had killed a man. Her father had hidden this reality from her, and now she had the blood of another human on her hands.

Does it not make her a monster, too?

Lilith squeezed her eyes shut again. The water suddenly felt thicker on her skin. She glanced down. The clear stream running over her arms had turned red. Blood spiraled toward the drain. Her breath caught in her throat. Thick crimson dripping between her fingers.

Lilith stumbled backward with a choked gasp… then blinked.

The water ran clear again.

No blood.

The steam curls toward the ceiling. Her reflection in the fogged mirror looked pale and shaken. Her conscience was turning her mind against her. She shut the water off abruptly.

—

By the time she stepped into the war room an hour later, the compound was already buzzing. Hunters moved through the halls with quiet efficiency, boots echoing against concrete. Lilith entered to find her father standing over the central table, studying a map.

He didn’t look up immediately.

“You’re late,” he said flatly.

“I ran a bit longer today,” she replied.

That earned a glance. Brief, though. He knew she was lying. Her father knew the look on her face.

The same one she had worn every morning since the night her mother died. He just didn’t know how to deal with his daughter’s nightmare.

So, instead, he slid a folder across the table toward her.

“All biological indicators are human,” she said quietly. “Enhanced strength and bone density, but structurally human.” Her father’s jaw tightened.

“Which means?”

“They aren’t animals,” she finished. Silence filled the room. Then he closed the folder.

“They’re still monsters.” He wasn’t really convincing anyone, but that was her father. He said and believed in something long enough to make it true. “There is no other explanation.” The finality in his voice left no room for argument. He turned back to the map.

“How much did you know about werewolves before that night?”

“You don’t need to worry about that for now,” he continued. “Something more important is happening.”

Lilith frowned slightly. “What?”

He finally looked at her fully. “Your grandfather is coming.”

The word felt strange in the air.

“When?” she asked.

“One week.”

Her pulse quickened.

“That soon?”

“He insisted.” Her father’s expression hardened slightly.

“He says the time has come to begin your training.”

Lilith felt the weight of the ring in her pocket. Her father studied her for a moment.

“Get rest while you can,” he said. “Once he arrives, things will change. And we will get more answers about the werewolves from him.”

Lilith nodded stiffly. But rest was the last thing her mind was capable of.

The compound felt suffocating to her. The constant hum of generators annoyed her to no end today. Lilith slipped out through the side exit and into the night air.

Cold wind hit her face instantly. She inhaled deeply. The forest stretched out beyond the compound’s outer fences, dark and endless beneath the moon. For a few moments, she simply stood there, letting the silence settle.

Then something shifted.

A scent brushed past her.

Faint; unfamiliar but oddly familiar.

Her body went rigid. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. An uneasy feeling spread slowly through her chest.

She was being watched. She knew this feeling well, but the unease never went away. It was her normal, but tonight, it didn’t feel normal. Lilith turned slowly toward the treeline. The forest stood perfectly still. But the sensation didn’t leave.

If anything, it grew stronger.

Somewhere in the darkness beyond the fence…something was there; and it was looking straight at her.

—

Lucien stood at the edge of the clearing, the night wind pulling through his dark hair. Around him, the search party spread through the trees, moving quietly but urgently.

Torches flickered. Wolves paced. The scent of silver still hung heavy in the air. Lucien’s jaw tightened as he stared at the ground.

He could smell Rowan. The metallic scent of blood and burnt silver. The lingering trace of fear and fury that clung to the frozen earth. One of the wolves shifted behind him. Bones cracked softly as the massive grey wolf collapsed inward, reforming into human skin.

Kael stepped forward, breath fogging in the cold.

“The body should be here,” he said quietly.

Lucien didn’t answer. Because he already knew. The drag marks ended abruptly.

Nobody. No blood trail leading away.

Lucien crouched slowly, gloved fingers brushing the frozen snow. Beneath the surface, the scent was unmistakable.

Hunters. Her.

His wolf stirred violently beneath his skin. A low growl vibrated in his chest.

“They took him,” Kael stated, his voice darkening.

Lucien’s eyes lifted. Gold flickered briefly in the darkness of his irises. His hand curled into the snow.

Rowan had always been too reckless, too curious about the world beyond the pack; always asking questions, Lucien never had the patience to answer.

And now he was gone, taken like an animal. Something cold and merciless settled into Lucien’s chest.

“Alpha,” another wolf called softly from the treeline. “There’s a scent trail.”

They followed it for miles, across frozen rivers and through narrow ridges and silent valleys. The scent grew stronger the closer they came. Lucien recognized the smell long before the others spoke it.

Her…