The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Ten: Ribbons of Light

Doyen had kept me back, asking me to remove the white faced blonde lady out of the room. He was being lenient with her, allowing her to leave with very little harm. Although the look in her eyes spoke of something she could never forget and the sourness of fear had saturated her skin so deeply I doubted she would have been able to clean it off, much like the darkness that shrouded her.

My Doyen had been satisfied with the killing of the dark haired woman I had found for him. He had revelled in it, enjoyed destroying her. Her screams still rang in my ears slightly and the smell of her blood was still in my nose. My beast and I didn't enjoy her death, we had simply enjoyed finding her, hunting our prey for our Doyen. I finished my walk and stared at the mutilated body the two men had left in the alley. They hadn't finished what they had been ordered to do. It didn't surprise me and my beast rumbled his agreement. They were useless unless they were watched full time.

"She had a nice ass." The voice echoed in the alley way and I crossed my arms over my chest as we waited for them to come back. Doyen would not appreciate their lack of caring for his message.

"Skinny though." They came around the corner and moved towards me. I narrowed my eyes and growled at them. The sound was heavy in the air as it bounced off the concrete walls. "Fuck." They froze as I moved around the mess of the woman on the pavement.

"Work not done. Doyen will be unimpressed." He would be more than unimpressed. He would kill them slowly. He didn't tell people things more than once. Especially if they messed up his messages.

"Fuck you, we had someone stumble on us." The longer haired man scowled at me darkly and I shrugged. I didn't care if someone stumbled anywhere near our Doyen's message. The message came first and foremost

"Scare then continue." I moved closer to them and the longer haired man puffed himself up.

"Where the fuck were you, huh?" His attempts at dominance were getting on my nerves. We put up with a lot from this fodder our Doyen controlled but we were reaching our end point.

"Don't test, mutt." I gave a small snarl, baring my teeth. We wouldn't be challenged by such an insignificant person. We felt rather insulted by it.

"You weren't anywhere close, you just take your sweet time gettin-"

"Don't test." I took another step forward. We were on out last nerve with the puny man.

"Ben, just drop it." The other man glanced at me as I held myself straighter, growling low in my throat. He was smart, he could live for the time being.

"I ain't gunna drop it! This is bullshit. Why do we have to listen to this fuck?" He jerked his hand at me and I snapped my teeth at him, my face shifting slightly with my beast's want to tear him apart. There was the sound of feet slapping against pavement further away, barely discernible in my ears but I recognized it all the same.

"Listen, we had this chick come on the scene. She ran and we chased her." The other man was attempting to smooth over my bristled fur but he wasn't going to make a dent in my current mood. We had enough of the long haired man's attitude. He needed a lesson in dominance.

"Should stay and finish." I pointed at the mutilated corpse and the other man nodded, holding his hands out.

"I know but we reacted." He shrugged slightly and I narrowed my eyes before turning my head slightly.

"React now." I could hear the footsteps growing closer, there were quite a few people heading our way. They were running and would arrive shortly and I doubted they wanted to welcome us to the lady's territory. I moved passed the two pieces of animal fodder, snapping my teeth in the longer haired man's face. Despite the fact we needed to run, we wanted to assert our dominance in the hierarchy. He flinched away from us, his neck bared in his submission. My beast and I felt satisfied with the reaction and we started running down the alley.