LUNA: Reborn as The White Wolf

CHAPTER2

Rachel stared blankly at the arrow, dazed…

Why were hunters after her? She wondered. But this was no time to process internal thoughts.

THWACK!

Another arrow whooshed passed, striking the tree behind her. That was all the motivation she needed…

She immediately took off to her heels as she evaded yet another arrow, which had missed her by a hair’s breath as well. Straining her ears, she could make out the hunters' voices in the distance as they came closer.

She navigated another turn, picking up speed with the little strength she had left. She had no idea where she was going, but there was only one thought that lingered in her mind…

Survive…

With that thought in mind, her irises shifted from their normal blue color to a fiery green color, signifying her partial shift into her wolf form. The fiery green color was proof of her rank as a Delta wolf.

She picked up speed once more, running on all fours as her partial shift had boosted her speed. She breezed through the forest, navigating the entire path and not stopping in her tracks until she was sure that no one was following her. She slowed down a bit, taking the time to properly scan her surroundings….

To see if the hunters were still following her…

No one…

She was safe now…

Or so she thought….

BANG!

The sound of a gunshot could be heard from a distance. The bullet whistled through the air, its trajectory aimed directly at Rachel's leg

“Agh!” Rachel grunted, dropping to the floor as the bullet found its mark.

She groaned in pain, taking a look at her body to see where the bullet had it…

The bullet had struck her in her right leg….

She winced as she looked at the bullet wound. For the bullet to have been able to pierce her, it had to have been made of Silver, the ONE material that could pierce through a werewolf’s near invulnerable skin. However, a mere bullet to the leg was not nearly enough to take down a werewolf, even a Delta such as herself. However, Rachel could feel that something ELSE was wrong….

She was not healing. And worse, she was slowly losing feeling in her leg, where the bullet had originally struck….

That could only mean…

Poison….

She struggled to get up, dragging herself as she winced in pain. She could feel the poison begin to spread from her leg to other parts of her body….

In the world of the supernatural such as this one, Werewolves stood at the top of the food chain. They were the fastest, strongest and fiercest creatures one could possibly encounter. They were nigh invincible as weapons which were made by man could barely break through their skin, they were also immune to diseases and could heal from almost all mortal wounds. However, in spite of all of these, there were two major objects that could affect them.

Silver… and wolfsbane…

The former was the only possible material that could pierce through the skin of a werewolf. As a result, hunters usually made their weapons out of silver as it gave them a chance at harming the werewolf. But the impressive healing factor of a werewolf made it so that only an arrow to the chest or a bullet to the head could kill one, as striking anywhere else would be pointless due to the healing factor.

Then the latter, wolfsbane, was a poison made from a rare herb known as monkshood. Monkshood was EXTREMELY rare and these were usually expensive.

And currently, she had been shot in the leg with a silver bullet that had been laced with wolfsbane…

She dragged herself into the woods, taking shade in one of the trees, where she waited in ambush for the hunters to follow her. She still wasn't sure why hunters would come after her as there had been an over a century-year-old peace treaty between werewolves and what was left of the human race….

Then that meant that the hunters coming after her were not bound by the treaty… They were outlawed contractors…

Meaning that somebody out there must have put a hit on her…

But who…?

She is removed from her thoughts as one of the hunters approaches, edging closer to the tree she had climbed up. His confused gaze showed that he had not noticed her yet, as he kept looking around the tree…

But not up…

This was her moment to strike…

ROAR!

Rachel growled, quickly descending from the tree and landing directly on the man’s back. Both of them went down, tumbling around in the heap of snow as Rachel tried to wrestle his gun off his hand. Being much stronger due to being a werewolf, even though she was poisoned, Rachel manages to successfully wrestle the gun from him and knock him out with a clean punch to the face…

“There she is…”

She heard another voice close by call out, and in no time, she was surrounded by a band of at least 8 hunters, who closed in on her almost immediately.

THWACK! WHACK!! WHACK!!!

They swung, repeatedly hitting her with the hilt of their gun, knives and other weapons they possessed. Of course, all of these had also been made out of silver. Rachel, in pain, curled up into a ball, trying her best to protect her vital organs as the beat down intensified. One of the hunters produced a small taser, which crackled with electricity as soon as he turned it on.

BZZT!

“Agh!” Rachel groaned again, as the electricity made contact with her body. The hunters stepped aside, and a still shivering Rachel dropped helplessly on to the ground. The pain was too much, she thought, trying to steady her breath as she struggled to crawl to her feet. From the corner of her eyes, she could sense the hunters all stepping aside, giving room for someone else to walk through…

Their leader…? Or the person that contracted them perhaps…?

Wait… she could hear two footsteps…

“Hello Rae,” a voice called from behind her…

Rachel froze. That voice was unmistakable, but it couldn't be… she couldn't be there…

Rachel slowly turned around, and sure enough, there she was, that auburn brown hair with brown eyes, that face that she had grown so accustomed to seeing….

The person in front of her was… her best friend… Trina Sampson?

And beside her was… Her fated mate… Edward Garrett?

Rachel stared blankly, unable to make sense of what she was seeing. Perhaps she was hallucinating, she thought, as she simply moped at them, too dazed to even come up with any words.

“Surprised to see us?” Trina simply smirked. However, they didn't seem all that surprised by her current predicament, even though the last time she had seen either of them was over two weeks ago….

Could it be that they were the ones who…

No… it couldn't be….

She didn't want to believe it….

But she couldn't deny the truth in front of her.

“Why?” Rachel whispered, more to herself than to them. She still couldn't believe her eyes, as the million-dollar question lingered in her mind….

Why would her best friend and her fated mate want to do something like this to her?

“Isn't it obvious…?” Trina laughed, as if reading Rachel's thoughts. She then shrugged, and looked at Rachel square in the face “Well, I guess it isn't. So let me put it like this…” She leaned in close, her eyes locking with Rachel’s. “I’ve never liked you Rachel…. Not once.”

Rachel just moped, still unable to make sense of anything…

She could remember vividly the way Trina had cried uncontrollably, swearing to the high heavens that her best friend could not have done such a thing. Now that same girl who had vehemently kicked around back then was currently standing in front of her, looking at her with scorn she had never seen before…

Not to mention that she had apparently hired contracted hunters to take her out…

Apparently her whole life was all a lie…?

She still refused to believe it. She turned to look at Edward, her fated mate, who had not said anything throughout the entire exchange.

If anyone had told her that these two people in front of her would look at her with such scorn, or go to the lengths of hiring contractors to kill her, she would never have believed it…

Yet here she was, witnessing it with her own eyes right now…

Could that also mean—

“If your also wondering,” Edward finally opened his mouth for the first time since he showed up. “ Yes, we DID frame you for stealing the Twin Spiral Medallion.”

Rachel’s heart dropped, He.. Actually said it….

She had already suspected it since the minute she saw them here, but she didn't want to believe it.

Heck, she STILL didn't want to believe what she had just heard…

“You never loved me, did you?” Rachel looked at Edward, her eyes pleading with him to tell her otherwise….

Edward simply shook his head. “No Rachel, I’ve just been using you this whole time, to get what I truly wanted.” His lips parted into a smirk. “To become an alpha…”

Rachel’s heart dropped…

Noticing her expression, Edward simply scoffed, moving to take a seat on a nearby tree stump. “You know…” He began, barely even looking at Rachel. “Deltas can evolve into gammas, and gammas can evolve into Betas. But betas can't just evolve into alphas.” He stopped talking for a bit, his eyes taking on an orange hue, proof of his rank as a beta. He turned his gaze back to Rachel, “For a beta to become an alpha, they either have to be born with that innate ability, or they have to kill another alpha. Did you know that?”

He wasn't asking her, he knew she knew that already. Even in her weakened state, she could understand the meaning behind his rhetorical question…

He was going to kill her father… The alpha of the Silver Falls pack….

And there was nothing she could do about it…

Edward raised an eyebrow, noticing how dark Rachel's expression had gotten. He simply laughed, leaning closer to Rachel. "Don't worry, Rae,” playfully stroking her hair, an act he knew she used to like. “I’m not going to kill him just yet… I still need him." He met her gaze, and for a split second, his expression grew dark as well. “You, on the other hand, I have no further use for…”

He released her, stepping aside and giving room for Trina to take charge…

Trina motioned to two of the hunters, who immediately picked up Rachel, holding her up against a cliff. She then took the pistol, which had been presented to her by one of the hunters and raised it up, pointing it directly at Rachel's heart.

“For the record,” Trina smirked. “I did enjoy our time together,” she shrugged. “It helped me get to know how gullible you truly were. Say hi to your mother in the afterlife.”

She added that last part as an insult to injury… and it worked…

At the mention of her mother’s name, something rippled through Rachel. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew for certain she felt anger within her.

“I'm going to stop you…” Rachel whispered, still very weakened by the poison, which had spread to almost every part of her body. However, the anger in her voice was unmistakable. “Both of you…”

Trina laughed. This girl was being ridiculous. She was about to get shot in the heart with a laced bullet while already poisoned with a lethal dose of wolfsbane, and then thrown off a cliff after that. In her current state, any one of these things would kill her. There was no chance of her surviving….

So how was she POSSIBLY going to stop them…

Chuckling Trina said, "Good luck with that." Then, pulling the trigger…

BANG!

The last thing Rachel heard was the sound of a gunshot as her body fell backwards….

Down the cliff…

She could feel her body go limp as her eyes fluttered shut just before hitting rock bottom….

Darkness…..