Defiance: The Hybrid's Tale
Chapter 4: The Saved.

Nathan Underhill.

Joshua’s feet and mine hit the ground in front of a black utility van that the Hunters hid among the dense forest trees. A long graveled road led off until it bled into a busy road. Several cars whipped past. I turned around and sniffed to see if there were any other Hunters in the vicinity, luckily for us, there weren’t any. I secretly thanked the heavens because the wolfsbane was taking its toll on my body. I wasn’t in the best shape to fight another group of ignorant cocksuckers.

Joshua ran up to the vehicle and tried to open the back doors but they didn’t budge. He tried to open the lock with magic but it didn’t work either.

“Damn those assholes. They warded the car against magical attacks.” Joshua slammed his fists against the door and cursed as he shook the pain out of his hand. “How the hell are we going to get in?”

Joshua ran to the other doors and tried to open them but the Hunters locked them as well. No surprise there. He then picked up a rock and tried to smash the window open but it didn’t shatter. To me, the whole van looked like it was decked out with every security measure possible to keep supernaturals out.

I cautiously approached the back door and tapped the handle. My skin burned on contact. Silver, how bloody adorable. With my t-shirt still clutched in my hand, I proceeded to cover my right hand with it. I grabbed the handle, yanked the door off its hinges, and then threw the heavy door aside.

Joshua ran up to me and glanced at the damaged door. “What are you?”

I didn’t feel in the mood to give him a rundown of my life story. It was better that the warlock knew nothing about me. I couldn’t risk the local pack or my grandfather catching wind of me. I had already fallen into a trap two weeks after we arrived in a new town. I must have set a world record.

I walked up to the van. “I’m not here to be your friend. Let’s get them out of these cages.” I pointed to the two people held captive in the van.

I then climbed into the vehicle. The Hunters had bolted two silver-laced grates into the van, creating a cage wherein two unconscious and naked people lay. Locked into an embrace, Joshua’s friends laid in the middle of the cage, trying to avoid their naked skin touching the grates. Several nasty-looking burn scars ran down their backs.

“Stefanie! Blaick!” Joshua bolted past me. With a flick of his finger, he magically broke the lock of the cage and then swung open the door.

I walked out of the van just as one of the prisoners began to stir. Even though I was hesitant about leaving them alone with any backup, I couldn’t allow those wolves to see me. I had already allowed Joshua to see me. The risk was too much already. Another problem arose. My scent was all over the place. It wouldn’t take a talented tracker to sniff me out.

Uttering a set of ancient words, I conjured a thick white fog that burst out of my hands. The mist permeated the area in a heavy fog. I turned around and teleported to my first encounter with the Hunters and allowed the mist to flow over the forest floor. The mist would eliminate my scent from the incident, making it difficult to track me.

Before my conscious could pull me back to where Joshua and his friends were, Fenrus shouted. “Get out of here! The pack’s on their way!”

I had only a few seconds of warning before several wolves appeared out of the mist. I quickly turned on the spot and teleported home to my family. I couldn’t do anything more for Joshua and hoped that the young warlock had the wits about him to keep his mouth shut about what truly happened.

***

Adam Wick.

Out of the corner of my eye, a figure disappeared through the thick white fog that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, obscuring their identity. I pulled away from the group and ran over to the spot where the person stood, but I couldn’t smell anything.

“That’s impossible. There has to be a scent!” Bane sniffed the wet grass, trying to pick up a scent but there was none.

It was as if the fog came in and cleansed the area. I walked up to one of the dead Hunters, avoiding the pools of blood. The poor sap’s throat was ripped open. I made my way to the other one several feet away. Their heart was ripped out and discarded next to the body. The brutality of the attack told me that it was the work of a werewolf, a powerful one at that.

“Get your ass over here.” My father called me through our mind link.

I left the bodies to several of the sweepers we brought with us. They needed to clean up the mess before the local authorities outside of our town came sniffing around. Just as I was about to run off, a black leather collar caught my eyes. I picked it up with my mouth and ran to where my father stood. A black van came into view. Someone, probably the wolf that killed the Hunters, ripped off the hind door. It lay several feet away. My father and twin sister were among the pack members who joined them. I transitioned into my human form in mid sprint. One of my pack members threw me a pair of shorts, which I quickly put on.

“What do we have here?” I asked, approaching the group. To my shock, two of our own pack members sat on the lip of the van while the pack doctor treated them for the injuries they had sustained. “What happened?”

My father held up his hand. “I already asked... Go ahead with your story, Blaick.”

Blaick, still weak from the Hunter’s cage, sighed. “As Alpha already knows, we accompanied Joshua to get supplies for his mother’s shop in Houston. We thought it would make for an excellent road trip.” Blaick rubbed Stefanie’s back as she laid her head on her mate’s shoulder. He ran his fingers through her fiery-red hair. “We pulled up at a diner for some grub. Unfortunately, we didn’t pay attention to our surroundings. Joshua stood up to go to the loo, but didn’t return for a while. We became suspicious and started to search for him. That is when Joshua used a spell to knock us out. When we awoke, we were thrown into the cell by the Hunters.”

Everyone turned to Joshua. He sat wide-eyed on the stretcher.

“I promise! I didn’t mean to do it! They made me do it.” He lowered his head to the ground. “I’d never hurt my friends...”

“We know that,” Blaick said. “The Hunters applauded themselves at collaring a warlock, boasting that they’d use you to track down us mutts and use your magic to hunt us down.”

I lifted my hand. “When you mean ‘collaring’, you mean they used this?” Everyone stared at the black leather collar.

Blaick and Stephanie nodded.

“For the Guardian’s sake! Serena’s gonna freak out when she hears we allowed her son to be collared by those assholes!” My father roared, rubbing his scruffy beard. “This could have turned out much worse, but what baffles me is who killed those men. We know it was a werewolf, but somehow we can’t replace a single trace of their scent.”

My father’s words baffled me as well. It didn’t make sense. How could a werewolf mask its scent that well? My eyes caught something peculiar; Joshua was fidgeting too much and avoiding our gaze.

“He knows something. He reeks of deception.” Bane prowled anxiously inside of my head. I also sensed it. He was holding back, maybe protecting whoever did this. The collar was ripped off, and not taken off. Whoever did this freed him and helped to free Blaick and Stephanie as well.

I walked over to Joshua and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Tell us the truth, Joshua. Do you know who did this?” Joshua started shaking under my grasp. “Don’t be afraid. We won’t be mad.”

Joshua shook his head. “I can’t — sorry...”

My father rushed forward. “Tell us, boy! We can’t have such a dangerous person stalking around our territory.” Joshua flinched at the old alpha’s words.

“No,” Joshua stated defiantly, glaring up at my father. He’s got balls.

“I’m not asking you again!”

Ashley, my sister, rushed forward and pulled my father away. “Dad! Stop. This isn’t helping.”

I always admired my twin sister. She was short and curvaceous with a ton of gutsy attitude and unwavering loyalty. It made her the most beloved member of the pack and an irreplaceable right hand. A lot of wisdom hid behind those blue eyes as she stared up at her father. She was their voice of reason and mediator. She was also an alpha but my father chose me as his successor, not that I ever wanted to be. My sister was a better alpha, but my father was stubborn and set in the old ways.

I glanced over at Joshua. She was right. Now wasn’t the time to bulldoze him into the ground, he’d just crawl deeper into his shell. It would make my job much more difficult to track down the person who did this.

“Joshua, please.” I gently squeezed his shoulder.

“I don’t know who he is, alright. He never told me his name.”

“So it’s a he. Can you tell me more about what they looked like?”

Joshua tensed up and bit his lower lip. “What are you going to do? Are you going to kill him? Because if you are, I’m not saying anything further. He saved my friends and me. Even after I injured him, he didn’t kill me... So I owe him my life.”

“You injured him?” I asked.

Joshua nodded. “I hit him with a fireball and scorched his abdomen.” He began to blush.

I didn’t know why Joshua was blushing all of the sudden. However, I suspected that no matter how much they prodded him, he wasn’t about to betray his savior.

“Alpha, sir! We found something!” A sweeper shouted at them from the thrown door they were busy carrying off. The guy walked up to them carrying a blue workout t-shirt.

Joshua tried to mask his gasp with a yawn, making me wonder if the t-shirt belonged to their unknown superhero in spandex tights. I lifted the t-shirt up to my nose. The scent was familiar to me, very faint, but it was still there. I knew it from somewhere but couldn’t place the scent. It was human and that was about it.

“So?” My father asked.

“It’s weird. I’m picking up a human scent but not a werewolf’s. How can this be?”

My father took the t-shirt and threw it at one of his trackers. “See if you can track the scent. Maybe we’ll get lucky.” My father rubbed the bridge of his nose before dishing out more orders. “As for the rest of you, clean up this mess and get them to the hospital.” He pointed to Blaick and Stephanie. “Joshua, you’ll accompany us back to your mother. We’ll have to do some groveling to avert a fallout between your mother’s coven and us.”

“You heard my father. Come on.” I helped Joshua along the way to the SUV that drove up toward us.