Un.Wavering (Claimed Series Book 3) (13 page)

Joined with Celeste, Nicolas once possessed an unlimited amount of power.

Hayden didn’t know the whole story, but she knew Nicolas could have harnessed a status with Celeste. He’d manipulated her enough to gain her trust and receive a prominent standing. Yet, when he believed it was time to rejoin Cole, he’d given it all away.

It was frustrating that Cole couldn’t acknowledge it. According to him, Nicolas killed his mother to destroy Xavier. All over a silly tradition of who became beta of the Slayter pack, who received the name, the status.

Cole refused to see the bigger picture.

Hayden’s father once told her that she shouldn’t worry over things she couldn’t control. While the advice was rational, it suddenly made her reminisce about her father. Grudgingly, she remembered the good times and then the bad times.

She turned on her side, staring wide-eyed into the forest.

Her mind wouldn’t stop racing. She blamed the approaching full moon for being the cause of her current frenzied state.

She strained her eyes upward, surveying Cole’s relaxed expression. He was probably at ease, the most relaxed he’d been in days. In sleep, his sickness didn’t seem so prominent.

Beyond Cole, Nicolas leaned against the tree, his eyes closed and his breathing deep and even. Even in sleep, he retained an aura of superiority. His shoulders were straight and his neck arched superiorly. She doubted he was in a deep sleep, but his steadied breathing proved otherwise.

Slowly, she moved into a sitting position, watching Nicolas for signs of wakefulness.

Despite her anxiety over things she couldn’t control, there was one, primary concern that ate viciously away at her resolve. No matter how much she tried to ignore the persistent itch, it continued to aggravate her.

Fortunately, this burden happened to be something she
could
control.

Nicolas had sacrificed the lives of Amber Beard’s impromptu pack. As a result, Hayden hadn’t been able to do anything to prevent it. There were countless of lives ruined because of the eldest Slayter’s actions, yet, Hayden could not muster up hate for the man.

Though she didn’t harbor justifiable animosity for Nicolas, a part of her still felt guilty and responsible. She couldn’t save them,
but
she still had a chance to save the unfortunate werewolf back in town.

Detecting no movement from either Cole or Nicolas, Hayden stood up in one fluid motion. As silent as her canine counterpart, she traveled over the soft ground without disruption. Fortunately, with the warmer climate, she did not have to battle with earsplitting snow and ice. 

Neither Alpha male would approve of her actions, Hayden knew.

If she waited until morning and asked them to assist her, she had a general idea that neither of the two would agree to her plan. They wanted to travel through town undetected, and covertness was more important than rescuing a meager werewolf.

She’d seen the werewolf chained up. If she didn’t act, if she didn’t save him, the memory would haunt her forever and stain her hands crimson.

Brushing her fingers across her knives for reassurance, Hayden crept through the woods and towards town. She retraced the path Nicolas had led her earlier that evening, all the while, keeping her ears open. So far, no one had charged after her.

She had a head start.

If the werewolf wasn’t already dead from the silver lesions across his body, Hayden planned to release him. That was all. For what she had in mind, it wouldn’t take long. Though her two male companions would label her rescue mission brash and stupid, she hoped she’d make up for it by practicing caution with the wounded werewolf.

She would not lead him back to Nicolas and Cole, no matter how vulnerable he was. She’d offer him just enough help so he could escape on his own.

Hayden took a steady breath as she emerged from the trees. As expected, the crowd had dispersed due to the late hour. The vast majority of the town was quiet, dark, and asleep. She gazed around, eventually spying the werewolf in one of the surrounding shops.

It was truly an alarming sight.

The humans had placed the werewolf in a shop’s display window. A small light was on, just bright enough to eliminate the half-naked body. Though it was a late hour, the werewolf had his back turned to possible spectators. Even from afar, she witnessed the open wounds across the man’s body.

Nausea curled sadistically in her stomach. She’d been human for most her life, and yet, she couldn’t fathom the ugliness of their souls.

Crouching down, she surveyed the town with sharp eyes. The overwhelming smell of human made it difficult to discern if there were any in close proximity. The tantalizing scent masked the sidewalks, the roads, and even the shops. Just beyond the downtown area, houses were quiet and dark, hardly any activity from what she could observe.

Hayden sprinted across the road and crouched down next to a brick building. A lone human sat inside the shop, a rifle laying securely across his lap. Other than him, there was no other visible threat.

Turning her eyes back towards the werewolf, she stopped short, taking note of his absolute stillness. Maybe they’d already killed him and wanted to keep his corpse as an example for other werewolves. Alternatively, maybe he had succumbed to the silver poisoning in his system just minutes earlier and she’d been too late.

Before the devastation could set in, Hayden witnessed the werewolf shiver. She slumped in relief. There was still time.

Those many nights ago, on the night of the full moon, Hayden and Asher had been too late to save the newborn rogues from the Hunters. She’d been too late to save Rachel. She hadn’t been able to save Jax, nor had she been able to save those men and women inside Celeste’s hideout.

One human, one rifle stood in her way of saving an innocent. Even if it were just
one,
she’d preferred to use her abilities to protect a life instead of always ending one.

Consequences be damned, Hayden wouldn’t fail this time around.

Pushing off from the side of the building, Hayden hunkered towards the shop, her boots silent on the pavement. Quietly, she twisted the handle to the shop and peeked inside. All she could see was the lone human nodding off in his chair.

Keeping in mind there might be another threat behind the door, Hayden slipped inside stealthily, her stance defensive. Much to her surprise, there wasn’t another attacker on the other side of the door.

At her arrival, the solitary human jerked awake, fumbling with his rifle. Before he had a chance to aim, Hayden was upon him, jerking the weapon easily from his hands. Using the butt end of the rifle, she slammed it into his head, knocking him out cold.

Briefly, she examined the unconscious man. It was her first physical confrontation with a human since her transformation. A realization hit her hard. Humans really
were
weak. They truly had no chance of standing against werewolves if they chose extermination as their endgame.

“P-please.”

Hayden whirled around, staring at the pleading and desperate werewolf. She couldn’t smell his wolf, but she acknowledged that silver poisoning essentially snuffed out the canine attributes in a werewolf.

He was trembling all over, his eyes so wide Hayden could see the entirety of their whites. His curls were damp and limp from several days of built up grease. His body odor was offensive to her nose, yet she did not allow it to show on her face.

Her heart mourned for him.

As she took a step closer, hoping to gently sooth his racing pulse, he instinctively cowered and pointed shakily at the fallen guard. Grime caked underneath his fingernails.

“The keys.” He licked his chapped lips nervously, taking her appearance in with shock. His heart quickened even further and he avoided further eye contact. “H-he has the keys.” The werewolf tugged at the silver chain around his neck. “I… I need the keys.”

The keys…
right.

Backtracking, Hayden crouched next to the unconscious guard and quickly searched his pockets. Her own hands were a bit clammy, perhaps out of adrenaline or even out of fear. She was eager to get out of the shop.

Underneath the mildew from age, the old shop smelt like urine, silver, and death.

Considering the anxious werewolf at her back was still alive, Hayden wondered how many innocents died before him. Did the humans display all of them in the windows for the werewolves and the town’s occupants to see? As warning?

Her fingers groped cold metal and she withdrew a small key.

“I found it,” she said unnecessarily, her voice a bit strained. “You’re almost free.”

As she approached the werewolf, she noticed his insistence to avoid eye contact. She’d never met such a submissive male before, with the exception of Fergus. But Fergus was an Omega, a silly and kind-hearted wolf who did not submit out of fear, but because he simply did not care to establish dominance.

Guarded eyes watched her as she unlocked the chain.

“Thank you,” he whispered, clutching the open chain and caressing his sore neck. “I… I haven’t seen you before. W-what is your pack alliance? Where do you come from?”

Hayden paused, feeling uncertainty creep in. While she hadn’t expected a sobbing and delirious damsel, she definitely hadn’t expected him to be alert and chatty, asking about pack names and allegiances.

As she peered at him closely, she noticed his eyes were sharper than a werewolf undergoing a dose of silver poisoning.

Unsettled, she grasped his arm, scrutinizing his
wounds.
They did smell like silver, and they were real, yet, the man’s body was not in the fevered state it should have been. This… this was not a werewolf. This was a human.

The side entrance to the shop suddenly opened and men piled inside, their rifles already aimed and ready. Hayden panicked, realization setting in horribly.

This had been a trap. A trap meant to lure werewolves into their domain.

Just as she was about to escape through the front door, men also arrived there, blocking her escape route with their sheer numbers alone. They too held rifles, and their cruel expressions told Hayden they would not hesitate to shoot and kill.

A cold chain suddenly wrapped around her neck from behind and the werewolf-turned-human brought her down to her knees. She could have fought against the human’s weak strength, yet she kept absolutely still. There were over a dozen men inside the small shop and all of them had their weapons aimed at her.

“She’s young.”

“A pretty little thing,” one said with appreciation.

Hayden stared listlessly at the humans, her eyes vacant and her face carved from stone. Inside, though, shame and despondency flourished. She should have been smarter about her actions. Not as reckless. Isn’t that what Cole had always tried to preach?

She had just wanted to save an innocent.

“She doesn’t look like much of a threat.”

Snapping out of her despair, Hayden grabbed the chain around her neck, and by proxy, the human who held it with white-knuckles. She flipped the man over her head and onto the ground in front of her. Using the remainder of the chain, she wrapped it around his neck, holding him in front of her as a shield.

The humans shifted uneasily, unable to react with how quickly she’d moved.

“Let me go,” she ordered. “Or I’ll… kill him.”

One of them men chuckled heartlessly in response, no doubt reading her hesitation. Either that, or he just didn’t care about the man struggling in front of her. Desperation licked at Hayden as she considered her options. Would she have to kill all these people? Could she somehow escape unscathed without harming anyone?

Taking one look at their aimed weapons, Hayden knew they had killed before. They had her cornered like an animal. She would need to fight to survive.

“Kill her.”

Suddenly, the window Hayden kneeled in front of shattered loudly. At first, she thought it was one of the humans firing at her. However, one glance through the shower of glass made her stiffen in both relief and horror.

Nicolas was the personification of a vengeful savior as he flung himself through the window. Hayden would identify his grace anywhere as he twisted his body into a faultless flip. Before he landed on his feet, he already took down two men.

If the humans had been Hunters, they would have anticipated the possibility of a nearby male werewolf. Hunters intentionally ensnared female werewolves in order to lure out the more difficult predator, the male.

Only, unlike their Hunter counterpart, these humans were unprepared for Nicolas.

She kept a tight hold on the human in front of her, watching in hopelessness as Nicolas not only knocked the humans unconscious, but killed them without any sort of hesitancy. The blood spilt easily and the humans barely had a chance to decide whether they wanted to retreat, or to turn their weapons on the new target.

Shards of glass glittered Nicolas’ hair and clothes as he battled an inept army. As he flung a human to the ground, and engaged another, his eyes met Hayden’s unwaveringly, as if the mass of bodies standing between them were insignificant.