Chapter 3
1241 Words
The warehouse smells like oil and salt when I arrive.
The moment I step foot into the warehouse it goes quiet.
Wolves line the concrete floor and the upper catwalks, shoulders squared, spines straight and eyes lowered just enough to show respect without challenging me.
They part ways for me without being told.
Good.
Dixxy walks half a step behind me. She’s quiet but I can smell the quiet anger oozing off her.
Adam was already on his knees by the time I was past the entrance.
His hands were zip tied behind him as sweat soaked through his shirt.
He looked like he had already taken a few beatings before I arrived.
He looks up when he hears my heel clicking against the metal floor.
I stand a few meters away from him when his stench of betrayal feels my nostrils.
Disgusting.
I let the silence stretch longer than supposed to. I let it weigh on him.
Intimidated he looks up at me again, jaw tight.
He’s trying to be brave, trying to pretend he doesn’t feel the weight of my wolf rising to the surface, dominance flooding the space.
My canines slide out slowly.
His lack of reaction tells me he’s more than familiar with this type of thing.
So he’s either well trained to expect anything or he’s a…
“Wolf hunter.” I say out loud.
Around us the other wolves stiffen.
Low involuntary growls rumble through the room like distant thunder.
“Look at me.” I seethe as my eyes bore holes into the top of his head.
He doesn’t obey.
I tilt my head slightly, studying him as if he’s already dead and I’m just deciding how painful the process will be. “Intresting.” I murmur.
I take the gun from Dixxy’s hand, weighing it once, then crouch in front of him so we’re eye level.
“Do you know what fascinates me?” I ask calmly, twirling the gun in between my fingers.
“Everyone thinks betrayal will make them rich. But no one considers how short their lives become right after.”
His breathing turns frantic.
“I took you in from the streets! Made sure you aren't exposed to the werewolf side of things…” I remove the safety from the gun.
“Which is quiet generous seeing that you work in the werewolf district of my f*****g syndicate!”
I pull the trigger.
The sound echoes, sharp and piercing.
Adam screams as he collapses sideways, clutching his leg, blood spreading across the metal floor.
I stand smoothly, unfazed by his crying and wailing.
I hand the gun back to Dixxy.
“Now,” I say, voice even, “you’ll talk. And if you lie, I'll take the other one.”
He finally breaks. He laughs then, a shirt broken sound. “You think this ends with me?”
I move to where he lies on his side, crouching again so we’re eye level.
My eyes burn red, and I don’t bother hiding it.
“I think,” I say softly, “that you’re about to learn just how insignificant you are.”
With my claws I do my fingers inside the bullet hold I had just made in his leg.
“Arrgghh…” his gaze sharpens, defiant even as his pulse betrays him.
“They’re already watching you. Every move you make, every deal you strike. And your territory, your assets, your pack back in Lunaris?” He smirks, the dry blood on his lips cracking. “Doomed. You should be figuring out how to run, not wasting time on me. Alpha.”
“The storm is coming.” He adds.
Murmurs begin to ripple through the warehouse.
Run?
The word settles in for a moment.
My thoughts begin to crack, but I don’t let him see that. I don’t let any of them see that.
I laugh, low and humorless. “You mistake me for some low life i***t who barks and doesn’t bite.” I say effortlessly. “I don’t run from storms.”
I glance around the warehouse, meeting the eyes of my wolves one by one. They hold my gaze in sign of respect and devotion.
“I am the storm.”
Adam doesn’t buy my frantics.
“He said that you’d try to be boastful. He told us you’d pretend to have everything under control.” He laughs hysterically.
“Your end is near! And I was just the person sent to deliver the message!”
I turn to Dixxy. “Take him down, we’ll see how much he knows once the bravado wears off—“
“Hey what’s he got in his mouth?!”
Commotion begins to rise and I turn to see what the problem is.
“Cyanide!” One of my men yells.
Before they could reach him it was already too late. He had swallowed the drug.
While he was convulsing and slowly fading away he kept his eyes on me and a devilish grin played across his lips.
As his last breath left him, something new e termed me.
A feeling I had not felt for a very long time.
Discomfort. Fear.
“Do we know who sent him yet?” I ask Dixxy as we both make our way to cars.
Our location has been compromised and we need to move now.
“No, still we couldn’t trace his senders.”
“f**k!” My fist slams into the hood of a car with a crack of metal, the force denting steel like thin paper.
The car shudders from the impact as the alarms blare loudly.
I exhale continuously from my mouth.
“And where are the mole hunters? Where’s Aurora?!”
“She went to other warehouses to inspect, just in case.”
This had to be some kind of sick joke.
Me? They want to doom me?
“Ha!” I let out a humorless laugh.
They want to tear down all I’ve built, all my hard work and determination.
Many have tried, so many have tried to pull down my empire and they all failed.
So what makes them think they’ll be any different?
“Dixxy, schedule my flight for New York City. I need to visit Lunaris.”
“I can’t do that because you have a meeting with prime minister Duris Lotonik tomorrow morning.” Dixxy informs me.
I frown. “We’ll cancel it!….”
“As much as you’re the Alpha of Lunaris and the La Regina of Italy, you’re also the most powerful business woman in southern Europe. Meaning you have to attend this meeting if you want to continue business with the prime minister.”
I rub my hands against my temple already feeling a mean headache coming.
“What time?” I groan.
“It’s by 10:30a.m. But I can push it to 12:00p.m if it’s too early…”
“No, it's fine. Confirm the meeting.” I say through gritted teeth.
“Send word to Lunaris,” I exhale, “tell them to strengthen the borders, inform them that I’ll be coming in a week's time.”
She nods.
As we continue our walk to the cars I beckon on two men standing guard.
“Take care of that car. Toss it, burn it, I don’t care.”
This night should have ended in the club.
There’s no way this situation can get any worse than this.
- Writer
