CHAPTER 4

The freezing cold pool of water on the floor awakened Melisca. Her lips trembling, eyes blinking, studying where she was while slowly helping herself up. Just remembered what happened earlier. She turned off the shower and reached for the towel hooked beside the door and wrapped it around her. She felt much better than before. No more open wounds on her body, not even a scratch. Looking for a hair blower at least, but haven't seen any. Guess she would just let her waist-length wavy hair dry itself.

She stepped out of the bathroom and almost tripped from her clothes sprawled on the floor, right at the doorstep. Annoyed, she picked up her jeans and searched for her phone. When she found it, she heard something of a catcall. Looking around for where the noise came from, her eyes landed right straight ahead of her. Across the building, an old man with a telescope was eyeing her. She swiftly moved and closed her terrace door and its curtain.

"Pervert." She mumbled.

When she turned back, facing the room. She just realized her dilemma. "Oh hell, I don't have any spare clothes with me." Wanting to smack herself for being unprepared in her current state, "How exciting! He escaped. I got shot, twice at that, and then this! Why did it end up so badly?!" She let out her frustrations while walking back and forth.

At times like this, she wished she had someone to call, but she works alone, lives alone, and literally no one. Can't blame her. Upon witnessing how a friend could kill and how a family could murder, no thanks. She'd rather live alone for the rest of her life, for all eternity as it could be, as long as she lives.

Her hunt could have been accomplished if only no one interrupted them. Hands on her waist, staring at the blanket on the bed, her mind was cooking something. She can still use her jeans. Dried blood wasn't really visible on them, and her bra is good enough.

She can no longer use her jacket and the tank top, though. Cutting the straps of her bra with her knife, and then the blanket to make it a tube, then a belt-like piece to tie around her waist. Now, only her bare shoulders and arms would be seen enough.

She's confident with her body anyway. With toned muscles and a flat abdomen, she had all the curves a man would lust over. Her translucent skin added to her appeal, which makes her vulnerable on the outside, but her dead black eyes could take her as a snob bitch. She never mind though.

Done with her self-improvised clothing, she left some money on the table. A payment for the blanket she'd ripped into her attire. She was on the floor, looking for her gun. She saw it under the table.

"How to hide this thing?" Asking herself. She went back to the blanket, ripped it again, and wrapped the fabric around her pistol. A makeshift handbag. Nice.

Of all the hunting she'd done, this is the very first time she screwed up. Back to square one, investigating the last area where they had an encounter. People eyeing her with funny looks, women with insulting glances, men with lustful stares.

She sighed exasperatingly. She really needed to change to proper clothing. Aside from that, the glare of the afternoon sun was prickling her bare skin. Though hidden by her long hair, she's still not comfortable displaying some of her flesh. Especially when not in the mood.

Standing on the sidewalk, taking a shed in front of an old house. She brought with her the cigarette box and a lighter that would never be gone from her pockets anywhere she goes, knowing lung cancer would never be her concern or any other sickness and illness.

As she lit a stick, she looked at her surroundings. Only a few people in the streets, mostly wore close to rug-like clothes. Old automobiles entered the area. Street walls were covered with sloppy lettering. And vandalism didn't even fit the horrible drawings. Rusted roofs of the houses around, even in a coffee shop just across from her.

Then she saw the lamppost that had been shot earlier. Her mind goes back to what she had encountered in the break of dawn. Also, the syringe didn't just immobilize her. It attempted to make her heart stop beating. A thought that she could die there made her body tremble at the idea. Left with a feeling that maybe the content was not just a simple drug, her curiosity rises.

She also recalled how Greg had reacted when she suffered the effects. That she could be one of them. Indeed, she is one of them, well, the other half of her blood. She needs to find him soon so she can do her questioning.

The ringing of a phone startled her from the scenes she's stuck with. The sudden interruption made her drop the stick on her boots. "Fuck! That's the last one. Haven't even finished yet." She kicked it out of frustration.

Fishing the phone from her pocket, she saw it was Charles on the screen, the police chief at the city station. What could he be calling for? She wondered.

"Yes?" She answered.

"Lorwey, great job again. Your friend had sent your bounty in. He--"

"—Friend? What Friend? Who?" Her mind went to her friend list, which was zero, nada.

"The man who surrendered Gregor Tandel here. Wait, if you--"

"—Yes, yes, I now remember." The only guy she thought of was the werewolf before, Argon, if she got his name right. Besides, she doesn't want to involve any police or humans in her complications now.

"Anyway, he left a letter. He said you've got something else urgent to do. You can just come here anytime to pick it up and the money was already transferred to your account."

"Okay, Charles. Thanks, I'll head there when I get back to the city. Please keep the letter for me."

"Of course, no problem."

"Wait, is Gregor unharmed?" She wanted to make sure his tongue was still intact for him to answer her questions.

"He's in one piece. That only matters." Then the police chief ended the call.

Now, she needs to get back to the city, it takes an hour and a half to get there. The sun was about to set, so she'd be there by nighttime. She walked down the main road and called for a taxi.

********

Meanwhile, Ezekiel and Argon were sitting at the back of their van, across from the police station where Argon surrendered the criminal. They brought along a human driver. One of Ezekiel's trusted human workers. They've been waiting for almost two hours. Night had fallen.

"Why don't you just go there, compel someone and ask for the huntress' information." The beta suggested to his alpha.

"I would like to feel her presence."

"She got shot, twice. Maybe she's in some hospital now."

"Then I'll just have you investigate her and arrange for us to meet."

Only Argon and the pack general can talk to him in a very easy way. They were best friends for how many decades. They helped build and secure the pack with him. They stood by his side in everything that had happened in years. The pack is their family, so they all take care of one another.

"Is that necessary?" He pointed at the ring on Zek's left index finger. It's a pure silver ring with a ruby-red stone that covers the top. A century ago, Ezekiel asked a witch to make one that can conceal his powerful presence whenever he puts it on. Even in meters away, any supernatural could feel his energy.

"I don't want her to be on alert when she senses my whole presence," Zek replied. The ring does keep his aura at low, as human.

An alpha's mere presence could make other wolves surrender, and feel inferior in his dominance as the leader. They were naturally born with it. Also, he had another side that made him reek more of a devilish aura. People before him can feel that he's a threat to them, undeniable intimidation.

Melisca finally arrived at the station, she went home first to properly change herself. That made her even later to pick up the letter. She's excited but, at the same time nervous about what could it be for. As she was about to step up into the entrance, she felt another wolf in the area. That made her turn around and face the highway, eyes roaming, searching where it came from, then her instinct made her look at the black van, parked across the street.

Nervous, she just turned around again. Just get the letter and get out of the area, question Greg some other time. Whoever the wolf could be, he or she couldn't know anything about her.

"That's her." Argon pointed to the woman they had been waiting for two hours already, across the street, walking up the staircase.

Ezekiel felt his body stiffened. His heart thumped loudly, vibrating inside him, cold and hot sensations colliding. As he followed the woman's movement, his hand unconsciously tagged his necktie off, he could barely breathe when she looked their way. Even though she had a mask on, he never felt like this before.

"What now, alpha?" His friend somehow noticed Zek's reaction, he even ignored him.

She smelled of human but mixed with something else, something intoxicating, that got him bewitched. Primal instincts now surfacing, his green eyes had turned into an orange fire. Without taking his sight from her, he got out of the vehicle when she turned her back on them.

"Hey, Zek? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Argon was kind of confused about what his friend was doing. He had never seen him like this, reacted to any girl this way.

Ezekiel felt compelled just by looking at the woman from afar, ignoring his beta. He removed his ring to make her feel his presence. That he was there. That she's his to take. He wants to make her feel his dominance.

He saw her stop on her way up. Surely she felt him too. An unbreakable thread of desire pulled him towards her. The fire in his body made his mouth dry. Knowing that only she could satisfy the predator in him.

"Mine." He growled possessively. It takes all of his control not to leap on her right then and there.