The Monster Within Me

Chapter 19

Maya

Sitting in the boardroom, surrounded by the men who would be leaving with me on a recovery mission in less than 2 hours to recover the kidnapped wolves was one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever done. All these men had been to battle, had already fought for their lives and pack. I had trained for it, but can you ever really prepare yourself to kill someone or something?

Dinner had been served some time ago, and we were awaiting the arrival of Alpha Fen to begin the briefing. I was at the head of the table, Quinn to me right and Nelle to my left. Quinn was introducing me to the men that I had yet to meet that were joining us tonight. Most of the wolves I had either met personally or I had spoken to in passing. There were two men that I had not met yet, but they were deep in conversation with Gareth and Marco, who I was more than glad to see were coming with us. It was important that the team was highly skilled, but I'm also happy that Quinn chose wolves that I get along and am comfortable with.

"Well, aren't you a sorry looking bunch. Koda take your feet off the table, were you raised by animals?" Ylva said striding into the room in front of Alpha Fen.

"Actually Skald Ylva, technically yes," Koda, a senior enforcer whom I had met and spoken to at dinner a few times, said with a laugh. The comment got the reaction he was looking for and soon we were all laughing.

"Alright, alright, we have business to discuss. I'm sure Quinn explained to you why you were chosen for this team," Fen began, sweeping his gaze across the room to meet that of every wolf present. "You have been chosen to recover the abducted wolves from the beast of a vampire king. The news of war will not shock you as I know Quinn explained why you were all getting additional training. This beast is apparently the first wave in their attacks and we need to destroy it before it becomes emboldened to do more damage than it already has." Fen said before coming to a stop beside my chair. Ylva came and stood on my other side, flanking me as I stood.

"As most of you have also heard, there is also a reason that Nelle and myself will be joining you. Though I do not have the experience that any of you have, the beast has explicitly asked for me, and it will be my goal to not only get our wolves back but to take care of this threat without losing any more wolves." I said while pushing in my chair and leaving my hands resting on the back of it.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but how exactly are you ladies going to help us? I understand that you feel like you need to be there because this beast is asking for you, but maybe it's just a trap?" said one of the wolves I hadn't gotten a chance to meet yet.

"It's most certainly a trap, which is why we'll need her Jordie. She's the strongest person in the room right now, and Nelle is not far behind her." Quinn said calmy.

"Strongest? Hate to break it to you Quinn, but she's gotta be no more than 150 lbs. She looks like she's had training, but not like she could take on whatever is capable of abducting werewolves without a single trace." Said the other new wolf, glancing at his friend with a satisfied smirk on his face.

I smiled at them and made my way around the table to stand on the opposite side of them. I c****d my head to the side as I examined them, deciding I knew exactly how to win this pissing contest. With a glance at Nelle, I could see that she agreed with the approach. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting my eyes change to the red that showed my hybrid status. When I opened them again, there was a collective gasp throughout the room. 

Today, when I was practicing with Nelle, I discovered that I could bounce lightning between my hands if I focused a small amount of my attention to not zapping myself. I decided to demonstrate my new trick to my new friends.

"What the hell are you?" the first one asked, forcing himself to stay very still. Predators knew when they were outmatched by another predator.

Using my newfound speed, I went around the table and draped my arms over the shoulders of the two gentlemen and tugged them close.

"We're on the same side, with the same goal. If you want to make it home tonight, gentlemen, then I suggest you show us ladies some respect." Nelle said, smirking from her place at the table. Her eyes told them that she could do some fun things to them too from her seat.

"Alright, ladies, that's quite enough. We don't need you scaring your own team." Ylva said with a small laugh. I chuckled along with her and let go of my new friends and made my way back to where Fen and Ylva were standing.

"I am hybrid, half-vampire, and half werewolf. I am the only person capable of killing the monster and the only person that can kill the vampire king before he wipes us wolves off the face of the planet. So instead of trying to demonstrate just how stupid you look while throwing your balls around, learn to shut up, listen, and not question your alpha." I said with a sarcastic grin.

"Castro and Abel, are we allowed to proceed, or do you still feel as though the women are unfit to go with you?" Fen asked, his voice demonstrating just how peeved he was at having his wolves outright question an order he had already sanctioned.

"No Alpha, sorry Alpha," they said in unison and bowed their head in submission.

"The plan is for you all to go in the vans. Four of you in each. When you arrive, Maya, Nelle, and Quinn will be going to take care of the beast. The job for the rest of you is to find and safely extract the wolves that he has captured." Fen explained

"We are expecting this to be a trap, so expect there to be others lurking around ready to kill you to prevent that from happening. You all have worked on an extraction team before, implement the same tactics that you used before and ensure the safety of the rest of your team as well," Quinn said.

"Once the wolves have been removed and are safely in the vans, one van will leave and one of you will remain to help Maya's team in case of injury and will be the driver of their vehicle as well." Ylva chimed in.

"I am not assigning any of you to this task in case there is an unforeseen circumstance that makes you unable to perform the task. Assess the team yourself once your primary mission has been completed. If you are experiencing difficulty, the vans are equipped with trackers and your new suits also have a distress signal that needs to be held for 7 seconds to be sent here. Once received, we will dispatch another small team to help and recover you and the abducted wolves." Fen said.

"Our primary mission is the abducted wolves, so we will be working to distract the beast and draw as much attention to us as possible to help you guys get to the wolves without worrying about the beast breathing down your necks. Get in and out as fast as you can, those wolves will need immediate care from the infirmary when they get here. They have already been briefed and are prepping for their arrival as we speak." Nelle said from her seat.

"We meet at the vans in an hour, grab your gear from the back table on your way out, don't be late," I said crossing my hands behind my back.

"Dismissed," Fen said with a clap. They all rose and made their way to the back table to grab their gear before they left. All except Castro and Abel, who made their way back to where I was now standing with Quinn and Nelle going over the fine details of what we would be doing on our side.

"Uhh excuse us, could we have a word with you ladies?" the one with curly blonde hair asked.

"I'll go double-check the vans and see you guys back at the room," Quinn said excusing himself.

"How may we help you, gentlemen?" Nelle asked folding her arms across her chest.

"We just wanted to apologize for earlier. Abel and I didn't mean to offend you, we have gone on countless missions with women before, we've just normally known them longer and had an opportunity to train with them as well." Castro said.

"We meant no disrespect, we just wanted to know that you ladies could handle yourselves. We weren't intentionally questioning any orders." Abel added.

"Look, guys, we're not upset or offended. I enjoyed freaking you guys out to be quite honest with you, and Nelle gets a kick out of seeing grown men almost pee themselves," I said with a warm smile.

"It's one of my guilty pleasures," Nelle added with a smile of her own.

"We trust that you were put on this team because you're good at what you do. Even if you thought we were incapable, you would have done your job. That's all we're looking for and hopefully, after this is over, you'll believe it because it's true and not just because I scared you." I said with a wink patting them both on the shoulder as I left the room.

At 8:55 pm we were all outside the vans, loading up and gearing up to go. I had just put my bag in the car and was making to get into the back of our van when Quinn pulled me aside.

"Ready for this?" he asked, his face betrayed no emotion, but his eyes were soft with his concern for me.

"I'm ready for this and I know those wolves are too. We can do this." I said with a determined nod.

"Nelle and I have your back Maya, we're not just there to stand and look pretty. You let us know if and when you need help. Your safety is as important as anyone else's, got it?" He asked his voice stern.

"Yes, I promise. I know I can't do this on my own, I'll need all the support I can get if this is going to work." I said to him.

"Good, then figure out where we're going, then get in the van and lead the way," Quinn said with a quick pat to my shoulder before getting in the driver's side of our van.

Figure out where we were going... How in the hell am I gonna do that?

Just call to the beast as you felt him do to you the last time it spoke to you.

Infest and destroy its mind? Even if I knew how to do that, I don't think I would.

Call to the vampire side of yourself and let it guide you to the beast, it's gonna be uncomfortable but it's necessary.

Kaia somehow always knew how things worked, a thought I was currently grateful for but would definitely look into later. I called my vampire side to the surface as I had done in the boardroom earlier and waited a moment to feel anything. 

I was about to give up the effort when I felt it. A small, but insistent tugging in the direction of town. I knew that this is what Kaia had meant because it wasn't distracting, but it wasn't the greatest feeling in the world either. I got into the van on the passenger side and we began our journey.

The tugging became stronger the closer that we got to the beast and after almost 40 minutes of driving, we were on the opposite side of town, just outside of the abandoned warehouse district. We decided to leave the truck and continue on foot to find the exact location of the wolves and the beast.

"Does anyone smell anything out of the ordinary to anyone?" Quinn asked once everyone was out of the vans.

"Nothing smells weird or out of the ordinary, just smells stale from being abandoned which is expected," Castro said.

"Let me put a spell on everyone except Maya, the beast is expecting her and maybe 2 others, but this will mask the scent of the rest of you and should help you guys go unnoticed for a lot longer," Nelle said stepping forward to put the incantation on the extraction team. After she was finished, she gave me a nod, we were ready to move on.

"We need to move this way, it's pulling me closer to the inner part of this area," I said walking in the direction that I was being pulled. As the others followed silently behind for several minutes as we wound our way through the different warehouse buildings, the air around me got sickeningly cold and I froze. 

"We're close now, it won't be much further. Be on alert and ready. Once we find the building, we'll scope it out and then split up for recovery. Do not enter the building until we've scoped it out." I said before continuing forward.

A minute later, we were standing inside a warehouse building across the street from our target.

"Alright, Maya and Marco, you guys go scope out the building. Maya, you take the east side of the building and Marco take the west, when you meet at the back, keep coming around so that you come out on opposite sides. That will allow for any changes that either of you didn't see to be accounted for." Quinn said urging the rest of the group to lay low and wait. Marco and I nodded to Quinn and then to each other before going our separate ways. Keeping a steady pace, we crossed the street in silence and went our respective ways.

There were windows at eye level, but the more important ones were higher up. Calling upon my earlier training, I used a small gust of wind to blow one of the windows that were higher up open and climbed one of the trees that were near that hung close to where the window was. I called upon both vampire and werewolf sides to enhance my vision and hearing to get a full picture of what I was seeing. Nine wolves, most of which either looked dead or very close to it, were chained to the wall, forcing them to stand on weak limbs.

If I wasn't angry before I was now. Before I could react without the rest of the team, I searched the rest of the room and then climbed down the tree and made my way around the building, looking in windows to get a clear layout of the building. I could feel that the beast was closer to the other side of the building, and I had a feeling that it knew that I was near.

At the rear of the building, I met up with Marco and we exchanged what we had seen in order to account for any changes or miscalculations that could have been made and then went around the west side of the building and back to the team just as Marco was doing the same.

"Nine wolves, most of which look dead or dying, in a locked room on the east side of the building. One guard inside and two posted outside the door. Two points of entry, one through the window by the tree on the east side and the other through the side door on the ground level." Marco stated while we sat down with the team.

"Twelve heartbeats outside of those of the wolves, which means that there will be minor trouble getting the wolves out. The guards are humans, and yet more, so be mindful of that." I said added to Marco's explanation.

"I read about this in the library with Skald Ylva, they have ingested vampire blood, it's disgusting to other supernatural creatures, but it can be as addictive as drugs to humans. They will have more strength and faster reflexes than normal humans because of this so be mindful of that when subduing them. Try not to kill them, the blood does not allow them to have a lot of free will outside of what they promised to do for their master before they ingested it. Incapacitate, do not kill, wolves have enough problems coming their way, we don't need more bad publicity on top of it." Nelle explained calmly.

"The beast and three more humans are on the west side of the building, waiting for us. I felt no movement or heartbeats outside of those, but be mindful that they have tricks of their own. We know that this is most likely a trap, so treat it like that. Do not kill unless you are in imminent danger or the captives are, understood?" I asked the group. Once they had all nodded, we all rose and broke off into our groups.

"Don't make your move to enter until you hear the signal," Quinn said.

"What's the signal?" Gareth asked.

"You'll hear it, and hopefully so will some of those guards," Nelle said before jogging off in the direction of the west side of the building.

"Goddess be with you," I said with a bow before following Nelle, Quinn close behind.

As the extraction team waited, we made our way into the building and I made my way into my first of many battles.