Chapter Two

I greeted the other members of the hunting squad: Nicole, the vivacious and friendly fellow. Miles and Bridget, the mated couple in the squad. Stiles, the withdrawn and yet fierce one. And then Hansel, the alpha's second son and the leader of the squad.

" Miles and Stiles, both of you should take positions at the north head-front. Malia and Bridget, take your positions at the woods end, Nicole and I will take positions at the south head-front ", Hansel addressed us, " now, to your positions, and you guys at the north head-front should send a signal to Malia and Bridget when you get there, got it?"

" Yeah" the guys said while some of us just nodded to his instructions.

He definitely wasn't the bossy type, unlike his elder brother, Hans, who was typically a tyrant and a dictator. I was so grateful to the Moon Goddess when I was assigned to the hunting squad instead of the warrior's squad. Only the Moon Goddess knew what the werewolves there were passing through in the hands of Hans.

I and Bridget walked to the woods end in silence. The night sounds were fading with the night and the crescent moon could barely be seen in the light grey sky that was threatened by the invasion of the sun.

We got there and waited. After a while, we heard a howl; the signal from Miles and Stiles. We quickly transformed, joining the howl and stimulating prey in the woods to run out of their hiding places. I and Bridget got into action, chasing after the game in a gathering manner. Bridget's wolf, a golden brown wolf with brown eyes and great speed, sped up on the game, but my wolf was faster, a thing of envy to Bridget while we were still undergoing training.

We kept our pace, with Bridget behind me. Miles and Stiles waited at their positions, and when the game got closer, they jumped on them, pressing their canines fast into the necks of the unlucky ones they preyed on. We left them to finish up their business and still chased after the rest, redirecting them to the south to give Hansel and Nicole something to prey on.

As we turned to the south and approached their positions, Hansel was the first to attack, targeting a large boar and finishing it off in seconds. Nicole had kept her eyes on a suitable deer, and succeeded in grabbing its neck with her fangs, but the grasp wasn't strong enough so the deer freed itself and ran away, bleeding from its neck and leaving blood tracks.

She chased the deer deeper into the woods with a determination to end what she had already started. I and Bridget continued with the chase but were particularly not directing the game to her, she already had her target so we just followed suit to make sure she catches her prey.

She out ran the bleeding deer and submerged it with her towering body, this time, pressing her fangs deeper into the poor guy's throat. As she finished off the prey, we all saw a wolf in the distance. The morning fog couldn't let us determine it's physical features but it seemed like a black wolf, and something strangely felt odd about him. The woods was our pack's hunting territory and the only other pack in the state was the Westlake pack which was actually miles away, so how could a werewolf be spotted at our hunting grounds? I pondered on this and I was sure that the other girls did, but then it dawned on us - it might be a rogue wolf.

I howled immediately to alert the guys of the threat and then got ready to deal with the ignoramus. I was so carried away with the thoughts of the wolf that I didn't notice Nicole's melting expression.

Bridget nudged at me, drawing my attention to Nicole who was at that point whimping like a puppy with amber eyes as she drew closer to the wolf. The wolf also drew closer. It's green eyes getting more visible and clear as he inched closer to Nicole, with a similar expression of hers.

The guys ran towards us but were blocked by Bridget who gestured them to observe the romantic scenery. She understood what was going on, she had already experienced it, and she knew what it felt like and what it meant - Nicole had found her mate.

For a moment I was reminded of how I met Diego. I had followed a sweet smelling fragrance into a convenience store in town, searching for whom the smell belonged to, for the smell alone made my heart race and jump. I didn't catch a glimpse of anyone and thought to myself that I must have been hallucinating. I then decided to pick a can of milk to excuse myself for abruptly storming into the store. As I picked out the can of milk from the counter, my eyes met with the clearest skyblue eyes I had ever seen. We stared at each other through the vacant spot of the can milk, feeling the urge to touch each other and at the same time, knowing that we were obligated to wrip each other's throats out.

Our encounter wasn't like the one I was witnessing, the slow and assured one, the right one in fact. It was at heartbreaking, for even though my heart was skipping a bit as I stared at the skies in his eyes, I knew who he was and he knew who I was, and we spent months denying ourselves of our feelings, of the strings in our hearts that were attached to each other.

Nicole and the wolf got closer and hugged each other with their necks. They stood before all of us - a black wolf whose silverly tip furs were noticable upclose, and a grey wolf with a few black stripes: a perfect picture. As they continued hugging, the black wolf suddenly fainted, landing in his side and shapeshifting to reveal a stunt young blonde man with bruises on every part of his body, there were even claw marks here and there. Nicole immediately shapeshifted too and tried to resuscitate him, almost crying and not minding that she was naked.

The wolf was immediately brought to the pack's clinic centre where he stayed to receive treatment, and for the two days he stayed unconscious, Nicole was by his side. Dr Pas confirmed that the injuries he sustained were from combat with a vampire, more than one vampire at that, because he found three vampires' DNA from the forensic test he carried out.

When he regained consciousness, Alpha Jace came to visit him. He disclosed to the alpha that he was from Westlake pack and they were attacked by vampires about three days ago, before he stumbled upon us. Their pack had tried their possible best to fight them off but they were outnumbered by the vampires. Most of them were killed while the rest ran away.

It was the first time the vampires declared open attack on werewolves in years, and it literally meant that an impending and unavoidable war was eminent, and I dreaded that. The last war of vampires against werewolves had claimed my parents lives and one would wonder how many lives it would claim again this time.