HUNTED-Chapter 309: Preparations: Part Two

A.C

Aila groaned. Why did she leave her initials? She was on the damned wanted list of the hunters. It wouldn’t take the cops long to work out who A.C. was. Damn her blood lust!

At the time, Aila couldn’t help herself. The threat to kill all of the hunters, those that were especially like Clint, had overruled any other thought process. The hunters were a secret organisation; she assumed they would be the ones to clean up the mess and read her little message. Now, she looked like a serial killer!

"I mean.. not wrong there either, really," Malia remarked snarkily.

"Oh, shush!" Aila groaned aloud.

It was the worst possible timing. Once they acquired her identity, she really was going to be the ’poster child’, her face on the news everywhere.

"Bad time, boss?" Aila spun around to see Harry’s cheeky grin and sparkling eyes. He was amused at her expense. It really was her fault, though. She glanced out the windows expecting helicopters to find her real soon and to try and take her away for killing people. She shook her head and the notion.

"I was just on my way to see them," Aila replied, ignoring his comment as the pair continued to watch the T.V. from the doorway. "How are they?"

"Restless," Harry instantly replied. "Aldric is doing a decent job of keeping them in line."

At his comment, Aila looked away from the news and to the lycan whose arms were crossed, his expression serious, eyebrows knitted together. "Do you think.." Aila trailed off, glancing down the hallways before switching to a mind-link. "Do you think he is an Alpha?"

"Maybe. We didn’t talk much in the cells. What are you thinking?" Harry asked and jogged ahead to catch up to her as she beelined for the dungeons again. Her quick steps echoed down the tall hallways until they stepped outside again.

"Cass wants to use the lycans, but I think without them, he might be weaker than he appears," Aila continued with their mind-link as they descended the cool, dark corridor to the dungeon.

"We haven’t seen any weaknesses, though.." Harry trailed off as Aila rushed past some of the snarling lycans snapping at the bars, their eyes gleaming in the dark. It now smelt like many wet dogs down there, and where it had once been cold was now humid in the dungeons. It was from the number of lycans now packed in one area.

They were all large, ranging from standing on their hind legs and reaching out aggressively to standing on all fours. Others had shifted back to their human forms, and as she expected of Aldric, they were now in their own cell. They were like Harry. And there were at least five of them.

"Aldric." At her gentle voice, the snarling, snapping and growls directed at her quietened until all the lycans watched her with interest. Only a few had seen her on more occasions from where she tried to interact with them, and they knew from the times she’d conversed with them that Aila was powerful.

Somehow, she could tell from the invisible bond between them that they trusted her and remained loyal to her.

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How? She had no idea.

"My Queen." Aldric stepped forwards, and the other lycans, who had been nothing more than beasts acting violently and like untamed animals, moved away silently. They now sat, strangely like humans. Their backs leaned against the bars, their knees bent, arms resting on them. Their blue eyes sparkled as they watched her.

"How are they all? Is anyone injured or unable to run?" Aila asked, stepping up to the bars, ignoring Harry, who’d stepped forwards protectively. One side glance from her, and he cleared his throat, a slight red flushing his cheeks.

"Unable to run? Your majesty?" Aldric enquired, cocking his head to the side, which made one of his ears flop to the side. She had to stop herself from thinking that this beast suddenly looked cute from the motion.

Aldric wasn’t just this beast; he was also human, a man. She pitied him and the others for remaining in these forms and being unable to turn back. "We’ve been exposed to the world. All of us, and Cass is forming an army to take over.." She shuddered at the idea of the countless deaths. "Everyone. That includes using you and the others."

"We don’t follow his.." Aldric’s majestic voice trailed off as realisation dawned on him that she wouldn’t have a choice in controlling them. His eyes darkened, and a growl erupted, his lips pulling back, revealing his large, sharp teeth. "We’ll kill him," he added simply as though there was no debate.

Aila watched him silently, then followed his gaze to the others who seemed to agree in silence. It had never occurred to her to use them to kill Cassius. He was always so powerful in her mind. But these lycans were also powerful, and there were more than twenty in these cells.

"No," she replied calmly, hoping the sound of her voice through the mind-link to not only Aldric but the others would calm the rising tempers that had started to manifest. A few of the beasts began to pace in the cells, others growling and bristling, but they all paused at her answer. Confusion formed in the group as they watched her.

It wasn’t loyalty to Cassius holding her back from commanding them to kill him. Even if they were powerful enough in a large group to take him on, Aila feared it would only anger him more and injure them. They’d be nothing but an annoying distraction to Cassius, who would then make his threats a reality.

A slither of fear coiled in her stomach just at the thought of Damon’s death and the death of her pack members.

"No?" Aldric growled but lowered his blazing eyes in respect when she looked back at him. "Do you have a plan?"

Aila’s eyes flickered across her lycans nervously, but their gazes held no doubt towards her. Even in these forms, she could tell. "I do.." The plan formed in her mind with a new sense of hope. Hope she dared not douse out. "It requires just a little more patience, though."

"What do you need us to do?" Harry stepped forward, eagerness showing in his eyes as the surrounding lycans leaned closer to the bars, waiting for her orders.