THE FIEND

 

 

Fraternizing with clients was prohibited by The Agency. Fraternizing with targets? Now, that would be treason.

‘I don’t do treason,’ Hajime steeled himself. True, he was beguiled by this green-eyed therian in its human form. True, he entertained the possibility of a forbidden romance that he could cover up later on, only try for experience’s sake. True, seeing her helpless and scared spurred him to protect her and her son. And seeing her stark naked spurred his manly urges, he admitted. However, he knew in his honorable heart that this was wrong.

So wrong.

Those were his thoughts at the brief moment she pulled him to her. In his mind, he stayed a gentleman. Ironically, his body didn’t want to push her away. Instead, he poised and drew his lips closer to hers.

‘What are you doing, Hajime?!’

His body moving on its own, his heart thumping loudly, he screamed internally. ‘Stop!’ He was about to kiss her when she…

…placed a finger over his lips.

“Magick,” she whispered. Her keen sense of smell detected an iota of the unmistakable scent of a sorceress upon him. Despite that, she wanted to express her gratitude… only not in the stereotypical-of-werewolves kind of way. With respect to whom she assumed was his girlfriend or wife, she held his warm cheeks and neatly pressed her forehead against his.

“You found me at my worst yet showed me kindness despite our warring races. I will not forget this act for the rest of my life, Kind Hunter. I will return it to the best of my ability and extend it to your family.” Her sincere voice sounded angelic. Her words pierced through him like a hot knife through butter. “This I swear by the goddess Luna herself.”

His heart stopped racing as they slowly inched away from each other. His head fully back on his mission, thanks to that wholesome moment he shared with his supposed target. “Don’t sweat it, Miss Wolf.”

‘Thank her goddess it wasn’t Ryuuji who found her in this state,’ he muttered to himself. Mustering his own will was hard enough. Hajime couldn’t imagine what would have happened if his openly perverted hunting partner saw her.

But he was still a veteran agent, so he had some faith that his old, wise co-agent wouldn’t be what he initially imagined toward the she-werewolf.

He checked the gunshot wound on her arm and the stake wound on her thigh. He was relieved to see the bleeding had stopped and her tissues starting to recuperate. Her healing speed was way slower than that of a typical beta or omega under the light of a full moon, but it was still quick compared to mortal healing.

He began wondering if she was some other type of werewolf. ‘One of those commander types? A pack alpha? Or is it just her gender that makes her different? All werewolf accounts I know were of… males.’

‘Doesn’t matter now.’ Before he got lost in his thoughts again, he stood coolly, “You don’t qualify as the monster we’re looking for. That one’s a savage, mindless mass murderer.”

Puzzled, she looked straight at him. A question popped over her head, he could almost hear her, ‘A what, now?’ Despite appearing to hear it for the first time, she had an idea who it could be. Someone in particular framed for such a heinous crime. Someone she knew. Too. Well. She wanted to sigh but it came out as a slightly wolfish groan.

“Time for me to go.” Waving goodbye, he turned his back to her, “I’ll tell my fellow hunters to cease scouring this area. Take care of yourself and your little one, Miss Wolf.”

She tried to stand but was unable to. Her thigh was still in pain. She could only call out to him upon the realization that he hadn’t answered her question, “W-wait…”

She wanted to ask him why he was kind to her. She wanted a reason. Wanted to know if she did anything different, aiming to use it again should she meet another mortal. She desired to know the secret ingredient to effectively having a peaceful encounter. “Why—”

The loud rustling of bushes nearby took both of their attention. From the shadows emerged a man with a beanie, taller than the Kind Hunter who was especially surprised when he saw the fellow.

“Hey, I didn’t expect you’d be here,” the man in the shadows said. His voice was loud as the rustles he caused.

He extended his gloved hand into the light of the moon, revealing a particular shiny, pointed and bloodied object he held. “Found this silver stake a bit far from here… which means our target managed to take it out and threw it hard as it could to pretend it’s over there. The beast is actually close by, Hajime.”

She heard the gentlemanly hunter named Hajime curse in a hushed tone, “Shit.”

The man cleared his throat, “I heard from the others that they were able to stake it on the thigh.”

Her heart sank at the same time she heard the Kind Hunter’s beat in anxiety.

Sadistically and proudly, he put his hands onto his hips. “Don’t worry about those other hunters now, neophyte. We’ve got no more competition. Hehe…” The man who brazenly just admitted to killing his fellow mortals stepped into the light. She didn’t know this old, full-bearded man who wore the same cloak she was made to cover herself with, but she did know he was bad news. She could smell the stink of malice from him even at a distance, she almost gagged.

“Um, Ryuuji…” Hajime held up his hands, stepping in front of her in an attempt to block his view of her.

Ryuuji directed his dark gaze on Miss Wolf, “Is she wearing your cloak? Ah, Hajime Saitou, a gentleman to naked girls.” He let out a scoff, “And who might this young woman with arousing legs be?”

“Nobody!” Nervous, Hajime almost shouted. “Let’s go back to the tavern. I have something to report to our client.”

She held her sleeping son close to her, hiding him under her cloak… but it was too late. The much older man called Ryuuji not only spotted her son, but also the recuperating gunshot wound on her arm and the deep, bloody hole bored on her thigh.

He smirked. “That looks like a stake wound, don’t you think? Where did she get that from?” His smile turned wider by the second, “And what a healthy wolf pup she’s holding in her arms. I take it that’s not just a dearly beloved pet.”

Hajime and Miss Wolf both gulped hard the instant Ryuuji showed her that grin that was more wolfish than an actual wolf’s.

“You’re a werewolf, aren’t you?”

“Luther…” she uttered her young’s name as he rolled and hummed. She anxiously petted his head, trying to lull him back to sleep and let him skip the experience of staring into the black eyes of the scruffy-haired man. Eyes that terrified the she-werewolf to the core.

Hajime stepped back, moving closer to her. His hands now to his sides, spread open and signaling that he had no intention to fight, “She isn’t our target, I assure you! She doesn’t fit the description of a killer, Ryuuji.” He extended an arm toward her, “Just take a look at her. You don’t see a savage fiend, right?”

Miss Wolf looked as harmless as she could. Far from the creature they were hunting for.

“I see…” Ryuuji stashed the stake into one of his pouches hanging on his belt, “…a deceptive woman in its place though.”

Upon seeing his partner take out his own firearm, a Ruger SR 1911, The Kind Hunter cautiously inched forward, now extending both arms toward her, “Please, Ryuuji. She has a child! Y-you are a veteran! Surely, you have…” He gulped hard again when he pulled the trigger safety and aimed at her, “…encountered werewolves that are tame and–”

“Shut the fuck up.”

A loud bang. A sharp pang in the knee. A bullet lodged in him.

It happened so fast, Hajime didn’t catch Ryuuji shifting his aim toward him. The gunshot pain from his leg though did catch him, sent him to a stagger. Downed him instantly. “MOTHERFUCKER! How dare you… shoot a fellow agent!”

“Why not?” With a smirk, the veteran smoothed his long beard, “For fame, for money, for a woman.” Feeling mighty, he cast Hajime an arrogant side glance as he walked to Miss Wolf, “For this point on, I shall do what I want. Those stupid rules of the agency do not matter to me now.”

The moon behind his tall frame, she was at the mercy of the hunter in front of her. He beheld her radiant emerald gaze, her weakened state, and silently mouthed profanity at the cloth she recoiled behind.

Hajime pleaded for her welfare, “Don’t! Don’t hurt her! Please!”

“I’m not your target, G… Good Hunter,” she supplemented, hoping he would leave them alone.

“Heh. Alright. Change of plans.” Ryuuji’s smirk was gone. And then it crept back to his face, accompanied by a sadistic laugh, “You and I can make half-blood werewolves together. Be my whore and bear me your monstrous children. So when I am hired to hunt down some werewolves… I can just present your litters’ heads for an easy reward.”

Hajime couldn’t believe what his old partner, supposed-to-be role model for a hunter, just proposed.

Cold, sharp tingling sensation filled Miss Wolf’s insides. Doom and despair, she was presented with. A quick death, she’d choose.

Luther, her month-old son, picked up the stink of malice from him. He jumped down, ears back, snarling at his mother’s assailant who had knelt down and grabbed her ankles.

“Let’s begin, shall we?”

“NO! Please… NO!” Whimpering, she hadn’t fully recovered from her silver poisoning yet and couldn’t get away nor try to subdue him. Helplessly, she was made to spread her bare legs when he pointed his gun at her protective, snarling son.

“Yeah, spread your legs and I’ll do the rest. Or I’ll kill your little pup.”

‘No… Please! Obsecro te..!’ She pleaded to her goddess in a forgotten language. She pleaded to the moon. ‘Non iterum!’

Luther growled and puffed the fur on his back as much as he could but with his small size, he was not fearsome enough for the scruffy hunter. He bit down on his clothes and swiped at him with his claws to no avail.

Trembling at his malicious touch and kicking him in the face with strength that ever so slowly returned to her, she pulled her reluctant son by his hind leg and slid him away from her and her assailant. Her growing struggles against Ryuuji’s clutches annoyed him.

He grunted in frustration, “HAJIME! IF YOU WANT TO REDEEM YOURSELF, HOLD HER DOWN FOR ME!”