Chapter 5

“So, she’s a regular here?” Liam repeated it.

For the past five minutes, he already interrogated the three women who joined them at the booth. Cohen took no interest in the women. He didn‘t take any interest in any woman. He had his needs, but it didn’t mean he would do it with a string attached. It was better to not have a string attached to all the women he had bedded just in case his true mate showed up in his life. 

He had what he wished for with a little twist.

“Yeah, I think she has a thing with Mr. Grover,” The blonde replied.

The Alpha’s hands curled into fists underneath the table. His eyes fixated on his Beta who just shrugged it off like it was nothing.

“They have a thing,” another one added, fueling the rage inside Cohen. “One time, they left in the same car.”

“How long has she been here?” Brandon’s turn to ask. “In the town, I mean.”

The woman thought for a second. “About two months, give or take. She was always with Mr. Grover. They talked. Sometimes, they argued. Whenever they’re in the office, nobody is allowed to enter.”

“The other day, she hurled a knife to him,” the first woman added. 

The Alpha almost smirked at the statement. He glanced up to the glass-walled office. Mira stood by the glass wall, looking down at him. Her red lips were moving as she was talking to the club owner. The Alpha couldn’t hear anything from the office as he knew they made the walls with sound-proofed glass walls.

The redheaded huntress gazed to somewhere else in the nightclub. He followed her gaze. There were many reasons Cohen refused to attend human’s premises as crowded as a nightclub. One of those reasons was that the place was crawling with outlaws. Something made Mira’s electric blue eyes fixated on the two booths at the upper level.

A minute later, the redheaded huntress turned around, breaking the eye contact to reach something on the desk. Mira was checking something in an envelope before her lips stretched into a grin. Whatever in the envelope, it caught her attention.

“What are you looking at, honey?” the blonde girl asked as she trailed her hands on Cohen’s bicep.

Liam and Brandon would enjoy such entertainment, but not for Cohen. Although his pack members would host a party at the pack mansion, he limited his interaction with the females unless official business. He could count how many women he ever interacted for non-business related.

Sure, an Alpha like him could have a wild lifestyle as he did during his teenage years. But, since he replaced his father as Alpha, Cohen threw himself into work. His duty was much more important than getting wasted in a party.

Ignoring the question made by the blonde woman next to him, Cohen’s eyes caught up on the same redhead as she walked down the stairs. It was hard for him to read her emotions, but he could tell the women were familiar with her except that they knew nothing of her. Did he even know about this redheaded huntress? Anything written in the reports about her could be lies.

“Ladies, would you mind giving us some privacy?” Mira asked the women.

“Go away,” the blonde woman snarled.

Mira grabbed something from behind her and placed it on the table. It was a hunting knife with a red gem on the hilt. “Don’t make me ask you twice because if I do, neither of you girls would be breathing.”

“Mr. Grover won’t tolerate this if he hears about it.”

“Threaten me all you wanted, but you and I both know who would win.”

The three women glared at her in defeat. They stood up and bumped their shoulders against hers. For a supernatural species with inhuman abilities, the bumps didn’t even budge her.

Liam and Brandon left the booth after they exchanged glances with the Alpha. The way her eyes traveled on his figure was a pure hint she was checking him out. Cohen suppressed himself from smirking right in front of her. For a moment, there was a glint of mischief in her electric blue orbs.

“Thanks for the tab.” She began because he had his lips sealed. “Cat got your tongue, darling?”

She used an endearment on their first official conversation.

“You broke the law of my pack.”

Breaking a law of his pack was a colossal ‘no’ in his book. He hated it when someone disrespected the laws. Yet, who was he to say such to a huntress who spent her entire life breaking the laws? If she was already dared enough to break the laws implemented by the Werewolf’s Council, what else could he say when she broke his pack’s laws?

A smirk plastered on her red lips. “Isn’t that what people like me do? Breaking the law? Not listening to the commands?”

“You seemed proud of what you did earlier.” Cohen swallowed his drink down as he kept his eyes on her.

Was this how he supposed to act in front of his mate? He wasn’t even talking to her. He was demanding answers—demanding an apology from her. Who was he to question her like this? He had no rights even if she brought in for an interrogation. From what he had read on her file, she went through a lot during her childhood. It was a miracle she didn’t turn to the feral way.

Mira leaned forward to rest her elbows on the glass table. Her chin rested on her clasped hands. “What are you going to do about it? Chain me? Punish me for all my wrongdoings?”

If it wasn’t because of the loud music, everyone would have misinterpreted her words. It would have been a kinky conversation.

“Is it amusing you to kill your own kind for money?”

“My kind?” Her eyes flickered with a brief emotion.

Hatred.

She went on, “You know nothing of my kind.” She leaned closer to his face. “Aren’t you doing the same? Catching rogues for your beloved Council? For what? To train them to be soldiers? To force them to follow commands?”

“It’s for the best.”

She laughed half-heartedly. “It’s for the best,” She repeated his words.

She leaned back to her chair. Arms crossed her chest as her electric orbs focused on him. She was reading him—anticipating his next moves. A true predator never made their movement known. That was why she was at the top of the food chain. If anyone contracted her to kill him, he doubted he would survive the ordeal.

Never had he ever met someone like this. The hunters he had captured for the past few years never made their movement like her. He could predict what they would do. Yet, he couldn’t predict hers. His years of experience in reading body languages and emotions vanished just like that.

“You’d rather see them stay as a rogue for the rest of their lives?” he asked. He kept watching her. “Endangering themselves and those around them?”

People knew her for her killing and rescuing history. It proved that she didn’t hesitate to save the two pups from his grip. Perhaps, she didn’t hunt all the rogues. The victims who died in her hands often involved in heavy crimes like murders and rapes. She was an outlaw, but she didn’t follow the outlaw’s way.

“Did you ever think about it?” She questioned him. “Maybe they’re like being rogues. Following the laws could be tiresome.”

“Is that what you wanted to do?”

The redheaded huntress chuckled. “I’m not good at following orders and laws. So yes, that’s what I wanted to do.”

Cohen’s jaw tightened. For no reason, he was angry at her statements. She was his mate. There was no way he would let her live her life as an outlaw forever.

“Besides, a girl got to earn a living,” She went on. “The only difference between your method and mine is you do by the Council’s book while I do by my book.”

Cohen tried not to inhale the air around when her face was only inches away from his. If he inhaled the surrounding air, he would end up pulling her into his embrace.

Her cheek brushed against his as she whispered, “Don’t you hunt your own species too?”

He had a clear view of her neck where his mark would be one day. Rogue or not, he was already hell-bent to make her as his. He didn’t wait this long to let his mate slip from his fingers just because the Werewolf’s Council wanted her for trials.

“They threatened to hurt my people,” He replied. “I do what I have to protect my people.”

She withdrew her face from his face, smiling. “All Alphas think the same even if it’s just a pup trespassing their territory.” She straightened her posture. “It’s all about threats.”

Venom. 

Too much venom in her words. Her eyes filled with hatred while her words filled with venom. Not even the slightest hint of fear. She knew what she was doing. Cohen realized that. What made her turn into this way? Everything seemed to be radiating reasons for her to hate them. But why? Cohen brainstormed the answers. Nothing. Just a pure emptiness. He couldn’t read her actions or anticipate anything from her. 

“Maybe you should have asked them why they’ve turned rogue,” Mira said. “Not all of them did it for the purpose of fun. Some did it for the purpose of survival. I’d guess you don’t know that since you’re busy hunting them down.”

Cohen’s jaw clenched by her statement. She was right. He was too busy hunting down rogues every day. But he never asked questions. He left the questioning to the Werewolf’s Council. He hunted down rogues and delivered them to the Werewolf’s Council. The rest was up to the Supreme Commander, Dalton Forest, to handle it.

The club bouncer came to the booth and bent down to whisper something to her. Cohen watched as a smile formed on her lips. Something intrigued the redheaded huntress once more. She replied something else that the Alpha couldn’t make out what. The bouncer nodded and walked away.

“Just don’t get in my way, Alpha. I don’t like obstacles,” she warned him.

Mira walked past him, tracing her index finger up his arm. Cohen saw her talking to the bouncer by the front exit before he passed something to her. The Alpha felt she would do another job.

“We’ve already asked everyone in the club,” Liam said, sliding to the seat. “Except for those men.”

He nodded his head toward the two booths. The same booths that Mira kept her eyes on earlier. 

“According to some people, the big guns in those booths are bounty hunters. They had been in the town for quite a while,” Brandon revealed. “Every night, they would be here.”

“Probably looking for a target to hunt,” Liam added in.

“They’re looking for her,” Cohen said calmly.

“They’d outnumber her,” Brandon said.

But Cohen thought differently. Mira wasn’t someone who was scared of getting outnumbered by her opponent. Earlier that night, she was outnumbered by his Enforcers, still she managed to escape with the rogues.

If anything he had learned so far, Mira would never walk away from a fight. If she did walk away, she wouldn’t have stayed for a long time in one place. She should already be on the move after saving the two rogues earlier. But, no, she came to a nightclub where there was a big chance someone would recognize her.

“It’s not the men who would outnumber her that  we should worry about.” Cohen grabbed his jacket. “It’s what she would do before they could outnumber her that we should worry about.”

He doubted those men would survive the night. Mira didn’t seem worried at all. She looked like she knew about those bounty hunters. Otherwise, she wouldn’t just look at them for no reasons.

As she exited through the front door, the men on both booths got up and followed her direction.

Bad feeling unsettled inside Cohen before he followed them.