18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

“Alpha mate, Rome sent me prepared to take care of all of our needs.” Sheela pulled out a credit card and handed it to their server.

Amelia gave her a half-smile, her eyes darting around the open street and down to the market. Could she just be sensing a random hunter or was there one who was looking for her? She couldn’t zero in on anyone, that was making it harder for her to tell.

“Tell the chef that the food was delicious,” Amelia told the server as Sheela added a tip and signed the receipt.

“Amelia?” Sheela questioned with her name when they were away from the restaurant.

“Something’s wrong. I feel it.” She glanced at Sheela and Todd. They were both looking at her. Whatever she felt, they didn’t.

‘To be omega means Luna has blessed you.’ How many times has she heard Rome say that to her? Too many, and every time she waved the words off. What kind of blessing was it to be forced to leave her pack because they wanted her dead? To leave her father and Nicole behind. To run with her heart in her throat, wondering if the pack would be around the next corner. She hadn’t felt blessed and yes, she met her mate, that was a blessing. Did it really have anything to do with her being omega?

Was this feeling the blessing he was talking about?

“I’m going to ask you to do something you’re not going to like.” They were going to hate it. “I need you to go to the market without me. I know, and I can’t explain it but there is something I need to do. What, you ask? I have no idea, but this is for the goddess.”

Todd stepped forth to argue, but his mother caught his arm and pulled him back before taking his place.

“Listen and hear me, alpha mate. If you die, I will revive you and kill you myself. If you come back with one white strand of your hair singed, you will pray for the goddess’s intervention. Do you hear me?”

“Heard every word and I listened.” Amelia gave her a hug. “I’ll meet you at the market and then we’ll leave. Thank you.” She gave Sheela the big purse she was wearing and took off down the street at a moderate clip, not wanting to draw any attention to herself.

When she was sure no one was paying her any attention, she ducked into an alley and stopped to get a reading or a direction from where the sensations of danger were coming from. She closed her eyes, leaning against a brick wall that had ivy growing up it. It was also covered in ants; she stumbled away from the wall.

She fell, changing into a wolf. Her sense combined with her wolf’s, giving her a better understanding of what was happening. There was a hunter, but they weren’t looking for an omega. They were hunting someone else. Why? Was the world comprised of different groups of hunters. Maybe? She’d thought they were centered around omegas; now she knew differently. Who started the groups? Was it the goddess of the Black Night, or someone else?

She moved silently, realizing her white fur seemed to blend in instead of standing out. That was food for thought later. She stuck to the alleys as she maneuvered through the town. It was much bigger than Huntsville, but still wasn’t a city. The stink of urine and rotten food assaulted her wolf’s senses. It was hard at times to ignore them as she used every sense to locate the hunter.

When she came to a halt, she was in the older section of town. She could see lawns that were only partially cared for and cars on blocks in a few driveways. There were children running up and down the street. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until she saw one child running down the street yelling about beating the others to base.

This child had wolf eyes…sort of. There was something about him that was different. She didn’t know what it was, and she cursed her sheltered childhood. Could he be a dual citizen within the other society that Rome told her about? A wolf and something else? Maybe? She wasn’t here to judge or ask his mother who she’d been sleeping with.

The hunter felt closer. She slipped back into an alley and took the black scarf she started keeping on her out and tied up her hair. The scarf had a fringe of black hair that acted like bangs. From there, she started actively looking for the hunter until she pinpointed her.

The fact that females were hunters infuriated her. A woman could kill as easily as a man, but she’d hoped they wouldn’t go after infants and young children who were innocent. She never met children that were guilty of much. Stealing candy? Check. That might be the number one crime of a child.

“Aren’t they darling?” Amelia acted like she stumbled into the hunter, not knowing she was there. She also thickened her French accent.

“Disgusting. I hate children.”

Amelia could feel her brows raise and a frown take over her lips. It was difficult, but she turned the frown around. “Why? Have you lost a child or were told that you couldn’t have one?”

The hunter sneered. “That’s what all of you do-gooders say. You can’t believe a woman can hate children. Every time you get pregnant, you’re rolling the dice. You’ve no idea what you’re going to get. Maybe you’ll get a prodigy. Then again, maybe you’ll get a creature that will try to destroy civilization.”

“Are you talking about a child that turns into a mass murderer?”

The hunter shook her head, brown hair waving in the wind. “You’re so innocent. There are creatures that walk our world, born to unsuspecting parents who love them. When they grow up they turn around and kill them and everyone they knew.” The hunter’s voice dripped poison as she kept her eye on the boy.

“I think you’re wrong. Sure, there have been a lot of killings lately. It’s not because the children are creatures.” Amelia shook her head because she didn’t know why people killed each other. The same way, she didn’t understand why Julie tried to kill her or her pack wanted her dead.

“It was nice meeting you,” the hunter said before she moved along. Amelia knew by the censure that dripped from her voice that she hadn’t enjoyed the encounter.

Amelia slipped back into the alley, watching. The children were still playing and then decided they should play hide-and-seek. The little boy laughed, saying his hiding space would be the best. The girl, who was it, started counting, and the kids started running.

Amelia changed into her wolf and started hunting the hunter. She watched as the hunter decided the boy was far enough away. She grabbed him with one hand going around his neck and the other covering his mouth, muting his cry.

Amelia changed forms and climbed the fire escape to the top of a building. She tracked them that way.

The hunter pulled him away, taking the alleys until she was far enough away that no one would find him anytime soon.

Amelia was on top of a restaurant. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the scents coming from it weren’t the ones she associated with American food. She watched the hunter, wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“The world will thank me later, kid, and so will your parents.”

Amelia jumped down, landing softly on padded paws. She never thought all the tree climbing she did as a child when the others refused to play with her would come in handy. Creeping up behind the hunter, her form changed from wolf to woman, but her claws were still there. She placed one against the hunter’s throat.

“I suggest you let the boy go.” She pressed one into the hunter’s neck, drawing a bead of blood. The hunter slowly removed her hands, allowing the boy to drop to the ground.

“Don’t cry out,” Amelia cautioned him. “Can you find your way home?” She didn’t want him to be by himself, but he couldn’t be in this alley with them.

“I …can.” It was a stutter, but she would take it. “Go straight home, tell your parents they’ll be getting a visitor. Go now.” She put a little umph in her voice, making her think of Rome’s alpha voice.

“You’re making a mistake. That boy is a monster destined to destroy the world.”

“You don’t get to make that decision. If he turns into Godzilla, well, we have enough movies to know how to fight him, the same if he turns into King Kong. You don’t get to decide whether a six or seven-year-old child is a monster.”

“You’re right. I should leave him alone and go. It wasn’t like I planned to hurt him.” Her voice softened, and she erupted in a smile, even though Amelia couldn’t see it. “Thanks for educating me on the rights of others.”

“You were never going to hurt him?”

“Never.” The hunter tried to bob her head, but the prick of the claws on them quickly made her change her mind. “Like you said, he is nothing but a child. I just wanted to have a talk with him, scare him a little. It was more of you better do the right thing kind of talk.”

“Do you always carry a blade to talk with?” There was a smooth black blade attached to her thigh in a holder. Amelia hadn’t been able to see it when she first talked to her, or she wouldn’t have let her drag the child off. Now that she had spilled the hunter’s blood, she could see it. The blade was warded or enchanted and linked to the hunter’s blood.

“What are you talking about?” There was no way the woman holding her could see the blade attached to her thigh. It wasn’t like a hunter could just walk the streets carrying a blade, that’s why they were enchanted.

Amelia tightened her grip on the hunter’s throat and moved the hand on her waist to the blade. “Does this mean anything to you?” She released the weapon and held it up.

“Whatttt? How did that get there?”

“You’re funny. I almost believe you. Not. Why? Just tell me why?”

“How about you tell me what you are. You’re not one of them; I would be able to smell the filth on you, but you’re obviously something that should be dead.”

“Now you want to kill me too?”

“Not want, I will kill you,” the hunter tried to wrench free.

Amelia threw her towards the trash can. The hunter's back smacked into the edge, making her fall to her knees from the pain. Amelia jumped on her. Her wolf nails receded as she held the hunter down.

“What does the black dagger do?”

“Nothing, it’s the scrollwork that is important.” Amelia took a quick look, long enough to know it wasn’t the same as what was on Julie’s knife.

“What does the scroll work do?”

“It makes sure that whoever is killed with this knife will never be reborn. In other words, it’s one less monster in the world.”

“If I slit your throat with this knife, your soul will never be reborn?” The hunter began to fight.

“Scream, and I’ll cut you so fast the first sound won’t make it between your lips. Now, answer my question.”

“You should kill me with whatever sharp thing you had at my neck.” That answered Amelia’s question in a roundabout way.

Amelia released her hold enough to change her grip on the blade. Before the hunter could holler, she slit her neck. She lifted the lid to the trash can. The odor coming out of there was foul. With any luck, the truck would dump the container, and no one would ever discover the body.