Chapter 24 #2
He pointed toward the alley's dead end.
If I had to, I would fight to protect myself and my loved ones, but I didn’t want to make anyone’s heart stop beating. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a werewolf Queen in the history of supernaturals who’d avoided a fight.
“What are you…” I started to ask Hayden, but his movements made my body flinch.
He jumped inhumanly high and hung from the metal bars on the bottom of a balcony.
I dropped my gaze to the entrance of the small street as the other assassins appeared. I pointed my gun at them but waited.
I wasn’t ready to return to the kingdom since I couldn’t pull the trigger on the men who wanted to hurt me. That was the difference between me and the rest of the kingdom. My humanity overtook any urges of aggression.
I wasn’t built in the same way as Hayden or Torin. I couldn’t send a bullet into someone’s forehead or tear someone’s limbs off.
I tried to steady my breathing and keep my arm steady.
The men hesitated, observing me, and didn’t rush to get to me. They also drew their guns, glancing at the two bodies on the ground.
Don’t look at Hayden. Don’t give away his position.
“Put your guns away,” I said in my most authoritative voice. Thank goodness I didn’t sound like a squeaky dog toy. “I don’t have the book anymore.”
The ninja in the middle exchanged strange looks with the other two.
He took a few slow steps ahead of his friends. “Where is the book?”
“I don’t know,” I said, tightening my finger around the trigger.
Would I be able to pull it?
Hayden swung himself and jumped on top of the first man. Before the other two ninjas pulled their triggers, I shot two times as if my finger worked on autopilot. I missed one and got the other in the shoulder.
But it was enough to distract them and slow them down. Hayden dropped one unmoving body to the ground, turned as fast as a flash, and snapped the necks of the other two ninjas.
My bodyguard’s movements were so efficient and lethal that my body jerked in fright. I’d seen him fight before and was in awe of how he moved every time. Not like the rest of Dad’s warriors. What kind of training had he been doing in the kingdom?
With his back still toward me, Hayden mumbled something under his breath that sounded like “humans and their guns.” The ninjas had no chance against my bodyguard—five professional human killers against a supernatural bodyguard.
When Hayden turned to face me, he grinned. “Sweetheart, your aim is shit. Now I know what we need to practice more.”
I blinked and tried to calm my breathing. “Did they have silver bullets?”
“Yes. They were prepared. Of course they knew of us. These assassins must be the vampires’ minions.”
But why would these relentless vampires keep dispatching their human underlings to pursue their missions, especially since the vampires seemed to want the magic book so badly? Suspicion unfurled within my chest, causing it to tighten uncomfortably.
The only reasonable explanation I could concoct was that the vampires were entangled in some other disastrous venture, which could have negative consequences for the unsuspecting humans and werewolves.
Hayden walked up to me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “But I don’t understand what they want from my book.”
“For decades, the vampire Queen has searched for a book. Supposedly, it’s a book that could give the user powers. But no one really knows. Even Torin doesn’t know what the book is that the Queen is so desperate to have.”
Could it be that the book could give its owner immortality? My eyebrows furrowed. Hayden had said even Torin didn’t know. Torin was turned by the vampire Queen, but why would he be involved in her affairs?
“So the vampire woman thinks my book is the one she wants?” I paused.
“She found out, probably from the vampire master in the fake vamp club, who I was. My identity was compromised. Then I could only imagine that the Queen thought that since I worked in a library, I was searching for the same book for the werewolf King—to give him more power. But she’s mistaken. ”
Hayden nodded. “The book is obviously meant for you since it has your birthmark on it, and you haven’t worked for the King. You even lived away from the royals for seven years, but I can see how the vampire Queen makes assumptions. You are the werewolf King’s daughter, after all.”
He gently pried the gun from my hand, wiped it on his shirt, and tossed it into the garbage bin a couple feet behind us.
“We could ask your father what special book the vampires are after. They are already immortal and powerful. But the vampire Queen seemed greedy for more,” Hayden said.
For some reason, I didn’t like the idea of the vampire Queen switching her attacks from me to Torin when she found out he had the magic book. I needed to retrieve my book from the Alpha and open it as soon as possible to avoid more attacks and confusion among the supernaturals.
Suddenly, my bodyguard growled. My body froze, and my heart dropped into my stomach.
I peered around him and was greeted by four bulky men blocking the alley's exit where the ninjas had stood a moment ago.
Their auras filled the small space, and the tiny hairs on my neck rose. Their supernatural presence washed over me. Werewolves.
I snapped my gaze to Hayden. His body was tense, his facial features sharp and alert.
These werewolves would be on our side, wouldn’t they?
But doubt crept up my throat after seeing Hayden’s deadly gaze aimed at the men.
I wished we still had the gun with silver bullets, but then, peering from behind Hayden’s enormous body, I recognized one of the men from the cleaning crew that had come to my office.
Alpha Torin’s men.
“Shit,” I said.
“That’s exactly right, sweetheart. The Alpha was more cunning than I gave him credit for.”
I didn’t completely understand Hayden’s comment. Why did Torin leave his men behind? And where were they five minutes ago?
Hayden pushed me gently behind him, but I sidestepped him. I didn’t want to hide. The man I recognized put his hands up in a defensive manner. Not armed. But he was a werewolf—he was born a deadly weapon.
“We saw that you were in trouble and came to help,” he said.
I pressed my lips together to stifle my snort.
“No need for help. We handled it,” my bodyguard said through a clenched jaw.
Hayden’s guard was up, making me wary, but these men were not the enemy.
Something still felt off. Hayden didn’t trust them.
“Why are you still here? Your Alpha already left,” Hayden said, sending me a sideways glance.
“He left us behind knowing this kind of thing would happen,” the werewolf said.
“Everything is fine. You can go back to your pack.” Hayden let out a low growl as if warning them not to cross some invisible line.
Torin’s pack was the most lethal of the five in the US. His warriors were the best-trained ones. It was four against one werewolf. But Hayden fought four vampires at the same time and prevailed.
Our chances of running away from these men looked good.
The man closed the distance and stood before us, testing us. Hayden didn’t move a muscle.
The man grabbed my forearm and pulled me toward him. “She comes with us.”
“Don’t,” was all Hayden said before he grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him like he was as light as a balloon filled with helium.
The man lost his hold on me. His face turned a shade of red.
A whistling sound like the flutter of hummingbird wings zipped past my ears. Hayden dropped the man on the ground. He scurried away immediately while Hayden’s body swayed.
My bodyguard groaned, and his hand flew to the side of his neck. A tranquilizer dart stuck out of his flesh, and I gasped.
Hayden’s eyes rolled back, and his knees gave out. The sedative must have been concentrated to take down a supernatural. At the last moment, I caught him by the shoulders, but he was so heavy that I went down with him, lessening the impact of his body hitting the ground.
I made sure he didn’t hit his head on the hard, cold cement. Then I sprang to my feet, extra adrenaline fueling my rage, ignoring the dull pain in my butt and legs.
“Did your Alpha order you to sedate my bodyguard? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” I glared at the four men who now blocked the exit completely.
My dad said Torin was a loyal Alpha and the best one. Once I freed myself from these goons, I would find out what had transpired between Torin and my dad years ago. Obviously, the Alpha wasn’t afraid of the King.
The one with red hair and a beard walked closer to me. “You need to come with us, Princess, or we’ll have to sedate you too.”
I gaped at him. He must have been joking, right?
“Isn’t your Alpha afraid of the consequences when the King learns that he sedated my bodyguard and that you are responsible for my kidnapping?”
Because that was what these werewolves were going to do. Take me away somewhere under Torin’s orders.
I hated using my father’s name as a threat, but the werewolves from Torin’s pack had just crossed a line.
The man shrugged, and when he smiled, deep wrinkles appeared around his green eyes.
“What are you going to do with Hayden?” I asked.
Hayden’s limp body rested on the cold ground, and my heart clenched.
“Well, we still want to live, so we won’t hurt him, of course,” the red-haired man said and nodded toward the men behind him.
Two of his friends lifted Hayden under his armpits and dragged his body toward the alley exit, where I assumed they had a car waiting.
“Where are you taking him?” I pressed.
The red-haired man snapped his gaze to me, and annoyance flashed behind his eyes. Good.
“To your apartment. He’ll wake up well-rested, so don’t worry, Princess,” he said flatly.
Hayden and two of the jerks disappeared while the red-haired man and another younger guy stayed behind, watching me carefully. They didn’t seem to want to manhandle me but needed me to get moving.
I narrowed my eyes at them. I wouldn’t make this easy on them.
“So I’m your prisoner now?”