Sapphire A Huntress no more (Sapphire Book 1)

Blood had a certain smell, you could not miss it even if you wanted to. The smell was too much as I run with full speed ahead. I should have accepted the witch’s′ offer to go through the portal in order to reach our base faster but it would have been too easy. The other packs needed to see that the royal wolves were thinking of them and that they were not forgotten. The streets were full of bodies of both werewolves and human hunters, the war had begun in the blink of an eye and there was nothing we could do but fight it out. As always, the idea of peace was far from our minds. We saw red as wolf after wolf fell to their death under the hunter’s attack and innocent people got caught in the middle - not only from our side. Like in any war there were not just this side and that side but there was a third side. The werewolves and their allies who wanted to survive and then there were the humans and werewolves alike who had no desire to participate in any kind of confrontation but were dragged into one anyway. The hunters, whose sole purpose was to annihilate the werewolf population were intent on destroying all of us and as things were now their wish was not far from realty.

I was right to take the long way home. The wolves in the pack houses I passed were pleased to see me. As I went on I saw pack after pack, some handled the hunters well while others barely survived the attacks. Other wolf packs were completely destroyed, burned to the ground faster than one could blink, the hunters had no mercy. I was now passing through the woods of Germany and something about those woods made my wolf stir. I took a break at the edge of a lake and opened the mind link. The voices were louder than I anticipated and what they said made no sense. Before I could shut the connection though Charles got through.

‘Our guests arrived, where are you?’

‘On my way. I thought it would be best if I came on foot, the packs around here appreciated that as well.’ I said looking around for a potential threat.

‘Saul, I know why you went on foot. I asked because I need you here faster. Cole arrived and I need you here to plan our next move.’ He said somewhat angry that I misunderstood him.

‘Well sorry about that, I had a long day. It would be good for me to be there too but it is not possible for me to arrive in time for the meeting. I am only in Germany at the moment, it would take a week or more for me to get back. You should start without me.’

‘There might be a way you could be here in time. Carme said the witches can open a portal near you. You have to tell me what you can about your location, anything will help.’

’There is nothing here but trees and a lake. How about you postpone that meeting a few days? It will give me time to reach the sea where it would be easier to describe the location.′

‘Very well, Cole is not in no rush so I see no harm in waiting. But please hurry, the sooner you are here the better.’

‘Charles, has that huntress given you any trouble?’ I said, still concerned about the fact that we had an enemy in our house, better yet an enemy near our King.

′Oh, she is actually one of us now. Forgot to tell you, sorry.′ He said cheerfully.

’What do you mean she is one of us? How can a hunter be anything but an enemy?′

’Saul it would take a lot of time for me to explain, time that we do not have at the moment. But long story short, she shifted into a wolf, that was the reason Lucy and the others brought her here.′

′So, she become the hunted one and needs our protection?′ I said bitterly.

‘Quite the other way around. She wanted to leave in order to protect us.’

‘You don’t say!’

′I have to go inform the others that you will be late. See you in a few days Saul. Stay safe’

A wolf turning against its own kind becoming a rouge is one thing, but a hunter betraying their own is unheard of. Or so I thought until just now. If that huntress left Cole’s side then Charles and the others were in danger. It was rare when a wolf turned on us but with human hunters you never know what might happen.

After another day of running I reached the edge of the woods, there I smelt something familiar. Very close to the forest there was a small shrine house, big enough for a person to fit into it. The scent came from inside it and as I went closer I shifted into my human self and went in. As I passed the door my foot hit the handle of a square door on the floor that revealed a tunnel. The smell of damp water was strong almost shrouding the one of dark chocolate and burned wood. ’Burned wood is a common scent among royal wolves. Do you think this scent is from one of our own?′ ‘I don’t know, the possibility is there. As you said burned wood is more common among us than in any other wolf.’ Luas agreed with me, the chance that this scent was not from one of our own was slim. Every pack had one distinct smell among their own, the smell of their Alpha. That very smell was one way of recognising who belonged to whom. As I reached the end of the tunnel, the only thing there was a cage and inside it some ragged clothes. The smell of burned wood came from those perforated clothes. ‘Someone had been incarcerated here.’ ‘It was one of us, but the question in whose scent is it?’ ’I might have an idea, but I need to confirm it with Charles and Selrahc first.’ If my intuition is spot-on then these clothes are an important piece of evidence that might help us figure out what Cole and his men are planning.

One of the things a hunter learns from an early age is that the best ally you could ever have is yourself. Later in the same life they learn that teamwork is crucial when hunting. Looking back now I realise that all I learned were contradictions. Do that without that but when you face an enemy do that that you are not supposed to do. In Cole’s community there is no concept of family, but we still thought to some degree that the people around us were indeed like family. I for one looked up to Cole as if he was my father. Today I resent him for what he made me become, but the fact remains I had a choice, not from the beginning of course, but later on I have had a lot of freedom and never did I stop to think that what I was doing was wrong and Cole was far from being family. As a matter of fact, my real family or birth family was far closer than I had imagined.

Cassidy Stewart was a pretty little thing with a big personality and even bigger heart. The first thing she did upon seeing me was to give me a hug. It did not matter to her that I had been a hunter or that I might attack her if she came too close, which I did not but the possibility was there. But being hugged gave me such a strange warm feeling that I never experienced before. It made me stay still in fear it will end if I moved, and it did after a few minutes. Cassidy’s long blond hair and slim figure was nothing like mine, but her eyes...they had the same colour as mine did. She was the daughter of my father’s sister, that was why we inherited the same eye colour. She said that my mother had ice blue eyes that could freeze you in place sometimes and that her and father fought a lot before they discovered they are mates. I listened to every word she said and pictured all the things she told me in my head. I was so into her words I nearly missed her question.

’So, tell me what colour your wolf is.′

‘Amber, my wolf has and amber colour.’

‘How strange.’ She said like a whisper.

‘How is it strange? What colour does your wolf have?’

‘Mine has the colour of my hair. That is why I find your colour odd, no other wolf in our family has amber fur...as I know of.’

The light was dim and the sky red, sunsets were always beautiful. Into the distance, smoke came out from the hunter camp, Cole and his men were most certainly there by now. He was planning something, I only wish I knew what it was. Cassidy went on with her story, something she said about my mother escaping and turning up dead sometime after seemed peculiar to me. A curious thing was the place she was found, a lake in the middle of the German woods. That reminded me of the place I first shifted, what would the chances be of it being the same place. That would be hell of a coincidence. ‘IT IS the same place. There is no such thing as coincidences in our world dear.’ Nire said. All this new information was a lot to take in. Cassidy’s hair sparkled under the last evening sunrays, her eyes filled with tears as she spoke about a time when my parents and hers used to travel together and fool around a lot. She was kind and charming, and only now do I realise that my opinion about werewolves turned completely upside down from what I knew and felt before coming here. Me becoming a werewolf was a powerful fact and had a big impact on any thoughts and actions regarding werewolves from that point on.

It was past midnight when Cassidy and I finished our conversation. The fortress was quiet and with every single step that I took passing hallway after hallway in the darkness I felt more tired. Every time I passed a window I made sure to look far into the distance, the only source of light was the moon and the stars. I reached my room and fell on the bed, but sleep was far from me. The night was young and so was my energy, Nire seemed restless for some reason. ‘There is a reason.’ ‘Is something wrong? Are we in danger?’ ‘No, we are not in any danger, not at the moment anyway.’ She said. ‘Then what is it that makes you so squirmy?’ ’I am not squirmy. And for your information that’s not even a word.′ What are you on about, of course squirmy is a word. It can be found it in a vocabulary’ ‘Not in mine it can’t.’ ‘You are hiding something aren’t you?’ ‘Ah...I will never do such a thing.’ ′Righhhtttt.′ I didn’t push further, she was clearly hiding something after all she kept me up all night. Only at day break did I manage to fall asleep and not even then did I have a peaceful sleep, something was about to happen that was the only certain thing.