Hunters in Darkness

By: Ashley H.

Authors Note: This story is about an ancient feud between two werewolf tribes. The Hunters in Darkness and the Pure. The entire story, however, is told by one particular werewolf, me. I am in the Hunters in Darkness tribe, the Pure are full-blooded werewolves who want to destroy the impure. Sort of a Romeo and Juliet concept.

Chapter 1/ Stalking the Night

The night was cool, damp and the moon was full, meaning the Rage wolves were about, looking for anything to kill. I sat upon an old fallen tree trunk, watching and listening for anything that might be a threat. I was assigned to stand and watch over the sacred grounds, were rituals are preformed; if anything should to happen to it, Victor would have my head.

Victor, yes, the alpha male of my tribe. He’s a wonderful leader, never leaves any one behind, no matter how wounded they may be. He took me in as a pup, taught me everything I know. Though I don’t exactly get along with the alpha female, Sharia, Victor occasionally lets me get away with telling her off when he knows she’s out of line, which happens pretty often. She once told me I was nothing, a worthless scrap of flesh…I bit her in the face, her “beautiful face.” Victor only punished me by way of being the one to gather wood for the fire, small price to pay to see the look on that bitches face.

The night was getting darker, I wondered when everyone would be back from hunting, soon I hoped. And then, as I was staring into the full moon, something came into my field of smell, something quite unfamiliar. I imminently took my Urhan form, the full wolf form. I could now sense the smells a lot better, my ears quirked up, trying to hear anything that sounded like footsteps.

Suddenly, there was a rustling of leaves, my head jerked to the right, but all that I could see was a small harmless white rabbit standing on its hind legs, staring at me with a worried expression. I sighed, perhaps I was too alert this night, and maybe there was nothing to worry about.

I shifted into Hishu form, mostly human, but with wolf like characteristics, to be still alert, just in case. Still, as I sat back down, something didn’t feel right, like someone was watching me. I looked all around, but I couldn’t see anything, nor could I hear or smell. Out of pure boredom or maybe nervousness, I began to hum, no real tune, just random notes, that’s when I was struck to the ground by something pouncing on my back. It didn’t hurt, but caught me by surprise.

“Hey! What gives?” I growled, instantly getting up to see my offender. Behind me was a bald, muscular, evilly grinning man sitting arms crossed where I had been.

“Hello,” he said, still grinning.

“Ben! What are you doing here? You know your not allowed in this territory, do want to get killed?” I scolded, my arms on my hips, now back in human form.

“I had to see you,” he said, pitifully pouting. I had to giggle, the look was priceless and all ways got me.

“What if my tribe gets back? I could get in trouble too, but your punishment would be a lot more severe,” I explained as I walked over to him. He reached out and took my waist into his hands, pulling me to his chest.

“It would be worth it,” he smiled, leaning in to snuggle my abdomen with his nose. I bent down and kissed his baldhead. “My tribe thinks I’m hunting, that always gets them, never fails.”

“Well, my tribe knows where I am and they will be back very soon. If I were you, I’d get out of here before they get back,” I glared at him from above, but still couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“But your not me and I’ll do what I want,” he said with an attitude, quirking a slightly annoyed brow.

“You won’t be saying that when your dead,” I growled as I walked away, taking wolf form and running off, stopping about two yards away to wait for him. He followed, also taking wolf form and chased me around my territory. Though I was worried for his safety, I loved when was around me. He was one of the Pure, “the enemy” according to Victor, who band me from seeing him ever again. But as you can see, that didn’t last long; Ben came to see me whenever he could get away from the ever-watching eyes of his tribe.

We played like that for over an hour, but immediately stopped when I caught the sent of Victor coming from up wind. The sell stopped us both in our tracts and we took human form. “Guess its time for me to go,” Ben said as he leaned down and kissed me on the lips.

“Bye,” I called out as I watched him run away in wolf form. Not long after, my leader, Victor faced me with a look upon his face that meant he was angry about something.

“Want to tell me what that smell is? Hmmm?” he snarled, staring down at me in his Hishu form, yellow eyes burning my own.

“Um, rabbit?” I grinned nervously.

“Don’t play stupid with me, it was that wretched boy again, wasn’t it?” he bared his fangs, the lines on his fore head growing deeper. I didn’t say anything, just hung my head down, trying not to look directly at him. “Ash, you know your not allowed to see him, why do you continue to disobey me?” he said, his voice suddenly compassionate.

“I can’t help it, I love him,” I whispered, still looking at the ground.

“Ash, you are still very young and there are other beings that would be more than happy to take you as there mate, besides, it’s against the code of the moon to take another Uratha (werewolf) as a lover, you know that,” he explained, but every word pouring from his mouth I had already heard, over and over again and not from just him, others in my tribe lectured me, but I didn’t care what they said, never will.

I sighed and began to silently cry, I couldn’t help it, every time Victor or anyone else talked to me about Ben I started to cry. All I ever wanted was to be with him, even if it meant pissing off every one, in both of our tribes. Though Ben was one of the Pure and I was one of the Forsaken, his tribe didn’t seem to care as much about this as I thought they would. Wouldn’t be surprised if his tribe actually did know where he was every night.

Victor sent me to my den, which is where I wanted to be in the first place, alone. But when I knew everyone was sleeping in there own dens, I got up and snuck out. The night was cool, maybe too cool. I shivered before taking wolf form and ran as fast as I could into the forest. I had no idea where I was going, all I new is that I had to get away.