Chapter 2 – Monsters

RHETT

I trek from the Bordello house back to the motel. Passing the house, I grew up in. Another family lived there now, but the small house still looked the same - with worn outer walls that were once white, fading over time.

Much like my memories of a happy time that seem so far away now.

When I was eleven and Ria was only six, my father was attacked by a wild bear. His injuries were so severe that he bled out in the woods behind our house. There was no chance for him even if he could have called or crawled for help. Two years later our mother died. Her health had slowly declined, and her wolf began to fade until she left our mother for good.

We were told she died of a broken heart. I believe she just gave up. Gave up on life and gave up on us. From then on it was just Ria and I. I helped around the village, picking up odd jobs here and there while still trying to get some kind of education and raise my little sister.

Times were tough but we saw them through.

“Didn’t know if we would see you until morning.” I nod at Eli, a hunter I recruited two years ago for INE. He was fast and strong but young and a little too eager.

I take up a seat next to him on the wooden bench outside the motel. “Just needed to work off some energy,” I reply staring out into the night. The silence of the town was almost annoying.

“I would like to take some leave, Rhett. If that would be, okay?” Eli says leaning forward and bracing his head in his palms.

“You wanna go back home?” I ask warily.

“Yeah,” He sighs back. “My father isn't well.”

“Once we get back to MacTire, you have my permission to go see your family.” After a beat, I ask “You coming back?”

“I'm coming back.” He says with determination.

I picked Eli up two years ago in Avon Wilts. A mixed-race town on the border of Lewe and MacTire. It was one of the original cities under Queen Lamia's empire, known now for its pharmaceutical factories. Not that shifters really needed drugs but omegas, humans, and hybrids did. Infection and disease easily attack our bodies.

Though I couldn’t recall the last time I had been sick in the past five years.

That was something Queen Lamia put in place. One of her first ventures since building her empire. And one of her first bids was to include all races and take care of her subjects. Before Lamia, there was no readily available market for drugs for humans or hybrids. She saw to it that all people had access to needed medicines.

Of course, not all humans trusted her, and some stood against her reign no matter what she did. Nevertheless, she didn’t care what they thought of her, her mission was to include everyone. Every race. Spirit animal or not.

Then there were half-breeds like me. The ones who believed in her and her mission. The ones who had seen and been by her side to witness what she had and was accomplishing.

That was until she and Kellen fell through a hole into another dimension or realm.

“Does the council have another mission for us?” Eli asks, leaning back with me now.

I scoff. The council. What was left of it, that is, had the INE running all over the kingdoms chasing monsters and hideous creatures from the lands.

Aodh’s creatures had taken over and in the last three years had attempted to wipe out all wild animals including our livestock. Hitting us where it hurts the most.

Kingdoms were finding it hard to feed their people and anyone who didn’t belong or was outside of a kingdom was essentially screwed.

That’s where we came in.

When the high council fell to war, a few stepped up. Abner Brooks was still kicking it, but now Mike's father Michael Pike Sr., the former royal beta held a seat on the council. Along with Tristan ScarClaw and Marcus Langley, Lamia’s father.

It was King Mathias who essentially ran things if we wanted to get technical.

And it was the old Beta who originally approached me. Giving the Intermediate National Enforcers their missions. Tasked us with hunting down every dark beast that passed through those rips in our realm.

See, the animals within the shifter went crazy around the devil dogs and nightmare horses. That was what we called them. And the birds well they were just nasty evil things that we dubbed bleaks.

Us hybrids were immune to the pheromones they put out that would send a shifter's spirit animal crazy. Somehow higher-ranking shifters, those who were more than a shifter like Mike, Hunji, Mathias, Finn, and even Travis, along with others, were also immune to their loopy inducing pheromones to an extent.

This is why we have lost so many over the past years. Sending units out to face them had worked against us.

Taking into account what would happen to warriors and soldiers of all races, and seeing how unaffected us spiritless hybrids were – That’s when I was approached by the newly formed council to have the teams, I had built up over the years track and hunt the creatures down.

I shake my head at Eli to answer his question. “They haven't given us a mission yet, but you know there's always something to hunt down.”

Senko's beasts were another story, they may not drive a shifter insane to be around, but they were fast and strong. Coordinated too.

“For now, we’re to head back to MacTire,” I tell Eli. My voice lacked excitement. Even though I should be happy about going home and seeing my little Angelica.

I chew on the inside of my lip as I think about my daughter. I should be happy to see her. And I will be. But always a form of guilt that most of the time I can bury down will rise up. Guilt that I should be a better father, knowing that I’m not.

Excuses always fill my head. Like, I’m out here doing my job. Or she won't be safe until I’ve hunted every living dead creature out here and rid the realm of them. When in truth, she would be safer with me by her side. Not in the Kodiak Kingdom or at New Moon with Tala.

I stand ready to retire to my room for the evening. “Make sure we have enough gas to get home with,” I tell Eli, patting him on the shoulder and turning to walk away.

Gas had become scarce. Oil fields and rigs had begun to dry up. There was no one left to work them, and the bleaks had come and nested on the offshore rig and the fields burned day and night.

The realm was in a bad way and if things became worse or carried on in this fashion, we could see the end of us all if the scales didn’t magically tip in our favor soon.

Opening the door to my room, I let it slam shut behind me and saunter into the bathroom. Stripping off and turning the shower on. I glance towards the mirror and pause when I see my face.

Dark circles lined my eyes, my blond hair a mass mess and the scruff on my face had grown into a rough beard. Scars marred my body some deep and long. Others - small and scattered. I felt old and worn. I looked older than the twenty-eight years I was.

Like a shifter, my body healed on its own, but not at the same speed or as effectively. Memories of my battles were left behind to tell a story.

My hand lifts, my forefinger tracing the raised scar of the sword that sits over my heart. The only scar that matters. Or did matter.

There hasn’t been a day gone by that I haven't prayed to one god or another for Lamia and Kellen's return. Do I think their presence in this new realm would make a difference? Possibly.

Without Lamia, King Mathias has become darker, and colder. His search to bring her back in between fighting Aodh's dark army has taken over his priorities.

I can't say I blame the guy. We all want her back. Both of them. Except we, collectively, were starting to lose hope.

Their disappearance hasn’t only affected Mathias and Tala. But Mike, Hunji and Travis too. And everyone who has met them.

I turn away from the mirror and step underneath the mild warm water. Letting it wash away the day's grime as well as the scent of Suzie's sickly-sweet perfume.

Switching off the water, I grab a towel, wrapping it around my waist. Without drying off I let myself flop back onto the bed. I wasn’t tired but it seemed like the likely thing to do. So, I lay there staring up at the peeling ceiling trying to quiet my mind of all the thoughts that plagued me.

Suzie had been a distraction. A somewhat good distraction, however, I had nothing to avert my attention to now. Instead, memories came flooding back, crashing into my head like a tidal wave.

Around and around like a merry go round the thoughts swam about.

Three years ago, Tala had lost the most. Not just her mate but her sister too. She took Jonda’s suicide the hardest. Though we all know Jonda’s mind had been tampered with. Twisted with darkness that sent her insane.

The one thing that bothered me that I couldn’t let go of and neither could Mike, was why Jonda’s wolf hadn't surfaced when I bit her. The doctor had said they could find no trace of her spirit animal as if she never had one. If she didn’t have one, then the curse couldn’t have been broken. And that was the thing… Before Senko had plagued her mind with his shadows, she had had a spirit animal, one that was dormant and not fully connected to her. But there was one there.

I was startled from my thoughts when the town bell began to ring. Bringing me back to the night I met Lamia.

I flew up from the bed, dragged on my pants and shoes. No sooner had I done so there was a loud rapping on the door to my room. “Rhett, we got movement!” I heard Eli’s hurried voice on the other side.

Gone were my fleeting thoughts and my brain had switched gears.

I flung the door open to greet a wide-eyed Eli. “What we got?” I ask, turning my back and grabbing gear from the duffle bag that sat on the floor.

“A pack of nightmare horses,” Eli responds with a shudder in his voice.

I throw my quiver with arrows over my shoulder along with my bow. I grab the whip, and in incase these don’t do the trick, the swords that were gifted to me by Hunji.

Damon, New Moon’s genius omega, Alpha Xander, and Lyric had tried to replicate Senko’s static electrical weapons but unfortunately none, so far, have figured out to hold a charge or create the combined elements of silver and the charged electrical force that he used. Even using Mike and his newfound powers to charge them hadn't worked.

They worked. But only once and couldn’t be recharged. It was mind-boggling.

Finn had theorized that it was because they were a combination of Senko's blood magic and Shayna's Alchemy gift. And the smart arsed werebear was probably right.

“Let's go,” I order, pushing past him back into the night. My head turns every which way until I see Dana, another one of my INE officers.

She waves me on, “This way, they were spotted on the eastern side of town.” She yells beckoning me before she takes off in a run in that direction.

There was no way we could catch them on foot if they started running. I was fast but not as fast as the nightmare horses.

Instead, I turn back and jump on one of the dirt bikes we travel on. They are fast and easy to maneuver over all types of terrain and through forests. Plus, they are a lot more efficient on gas seeing as that commodity was becoming more scarce by the day. 

I kick the bike into action and take off towards where the beasts had been spotted. Eli followed suit and I could hear the putt of the bike engine behind me.

I quickly caught up to Dana and slowed down, “Grab on!” I shouted, reaching for her arm.

Without missing a beat, Dana swings herself up behind me with ease. Once situated, I haul ass ready to hunt the fuckers down and send them back to hell.

“Slow down,” Dana says in my ear, a few minutes later, tapping my shoulder.

I bring the bike to a rolling halt, the small motor rumbling between my legs.

I sense the presence of evil and I narrow my eyes at the tree line. I feel the power of being the queen's knight come forward and know my eyes are shifting from green to black. The hidden beast inside me came forth to lend me its senses.

Through my gifted ears, I hear the shuffle of hooves. With my eyes, I see the dark shadows of the large beasts looming behind the trees.

One snorts as if sensing us, then comes the eerie glow of their red eyes. I count five pairs staring back at me. “They’re gonna charge and then scatter,” I say lowly to Dana. “Take the bike, I’ll try and sneak up on their flank.”

I step off the bike and Dana scoots up taking the handles. There's a good chance the beasts will notice what I’m doing as they are quite aware of our presence. But I have found over the years this is the best way to effectively take them down.

I was faster than any of my officers. My night vision was better, and my aim was true.

Dana nods at me and I motion to Eli I was on the move. He too nods with acknowledgement, knowing the play.

Either the nightmare horses were playing coy, or they genuinely didn’t notice me quickly run around and into the forest tree line. I peek from behind the tree I positioned myself at. Watching them watching my two officers. One, the largest and blackest whose eyes were a deeper red, snorted black smoke from their nose. His hoof pounded and scraped at the dry ground beneath him. The other four hovered, black manes swinging as they bobbed their heads. Their horns sparkled under the moonlight as if they had been dipped in black glitter.

If they weren't so evil and fed on flesh, they would make a beautiful creature.

Ancient texts once described them as magnificent white creatures that held magic beyond measure. They were the embodiment of purity until the gods of the underworld claimed them for themselves and enslaved the creatures. Turning them into something dark and sinister.

They had once been named unicorns. Creatures that roamed the lands of this realm freely. Hunted only by those who wished to use their magic for evil. Driven into the depths of darkness with fear, they were captured by Aodh and Anubis. Their very essence was ripped from them according to lore and became what they are now. Nightmare horses.

The largest reared up snorting and neighing, Kicking his front hooves up. The beast began to charge, and I took this as my opportunity.

The hunt was on.