HUNTED

[ WARNING: The following chapters contains acts of violence that some readers may find disturbing. ]

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Aila stopped dead in her tracks; a low growl erupted deep from her being at the sight of the four children with guns pointed at their heads. She took a step forwards, but Damon's black wolf jumped ahead of her and snapped his jaws towards her. His eyes flickered between his dark silver to bright luminous orbs. Aila's ears flicked back by his aggressiveness, but she knew he was warning her to stay back until they figured out what to do.

Kane was next to arrive along with Chiara and Finn, who also looked at the clearing where the lake met the mountain, and the peaks met the cold, graphite clouds in the ominous sky. Almost simultaneously, the three wolves growled at the mass of hunters set out in a protective stance surrounding their hostages. Each holding guns and wearing their black combat outfits. More were behind them, covering their backs, along with many more inside the big circle. 

"I count about forty-

"There's more than forty," Chiara interrupted Finn.

"I count sixty-five," Kane added. Their voices were strained, and their eyes set forward until Kane looked to Alpha Damon. "What do we do?"

Aila didn't bother looking at Damon; her eyes were searching for the man in charge as her heart became louder and louder inside her ears. Her gaze finally landed on the man; he was standing tall, his hands behind his back, sunglasses on his face as he turned his head slowly with a sly smile on his face. He, too, was searching, searching for her. 

"We find out what they want-"

"We already know what he wants," Aila snapped and began descending the slant, still keeping herself within the cover of trees. Damon was in front of her in an instant, growling at her, his eyes shining.

"DON'T. YOU. DARE. MOVE." Damon growled through the mind-link, and with it, she felt the surge of domineering power crash over her. Aila struggled against his command, but his following words were what made her heel. "We need to think smart about our actions. This pack can't lose you, and we can't lose the children either."

With Aila's head lowered, she raised her eyes to look past Damon's colossal form. Silas had walked forwards, showing his hands as though he was talking to an audience. A small crowd of the pack had formed by now, while others protected their young in their homes. The pack created their own semicircle behind the Alpha and Luna, looking down like the lake was their amphitheatre and the mountains their backdrop.

"LUUUUUUNA", Silas shouted in a mocking voice, "Ohhhhh Luuuuuuuunaaa Aiiiiila!"

A growl left not only her lips but the other pack members also. Their teeth were bare, almost making the forest vibrate from the impact of the Silver Crescent pack. Until Damon let out a mighty howl of his own. Birds fled their nests, and the small animals of the forest sprinted for cover. 

Aila watched as he tipped his head back again and howled; the rest of the pack followed, including herself. Her lungs inhaled deeply before her voice; her wolf's voice came through and let the forest know that the white wolf was among them. 

"Luna."

"Alpha."

"King."

"Princess."

The pack greeted them, and Aila felt the surge of power from them ripple through her as she felt the weight of them, her friends and the children below them, on her shoulders.

Silas laughed maniacally, it was low, but they picked up on it with their heightened senses. "Why, I do believe our lovely Aila is here. What do you think, Clint?" He turned his face to a tall man with short blonde hair slicked back. She could still see the emptiness and bottomless pit of death behind his icy blue gaze from her position. 

He was near the same age as Silas, just as tall, not as broad but lean. If he didn't look evil or his aura surrounded in darkness that made even his peers' inch further away from him, Aila would say he was handsome. He smirked at the boss, but his eyes never wavered from wandering the woods. His eyes briefly landed on her unknowingly, and she suddenly felt cold. There was no humanity inside of him.

"I'm going to talk normally because you can hear me anyway. I want to make a switch. I have something you want, and you have something I want.." He strolled forwards around one of the hunters who pointed a gun at the middle child. He pulled the hood back from the small child, revealing a brown-haired boy around the age of eight. 

The child's reddened cheeks were moist from the tears falling down his face. Silas stroked his head and shushed him from his crying. The sound of his cry tugged at Aila's heartstrings and made her form bristle that much more. 

But the sound of a woman's wailing caused her to snap her head to the side, to see a dark-haired woman collapsed onto her knees. Her sobs pierced through the silent forest and crowd as she clutched her chest and reached her other hand out towards her child. A man gripped onto her shoulder, but his gaze was hard, his jaw ticking as he looked upon the scene before him. 

Aila shifted her gaze back to the child, holding back the tears filling her eyes and causing her to swallow past the lump in her throat.

"I want to make a trade," Silas continued as he didn't look away from the child, "I think it's only fair. Four children for the price of one Luna."

Even though she knew that would be the case, her heart still stopped, and her body froze, as a veil of cold water seemed to pour over her body, and her veins shot icicles through her. Damon instantly growled in response to Silas and to where Aila's thoughts were beginning to go. 

Aila's icy body seemed to turn to stone as she suddenly started to feel numb. She realised there was no way out of her not going with the hunters. They had the four missing children in front of them as their hostages. There was no Gabriel to swoop her away, and even if there was, she knew he would risk the children's lives, just like how he did with Chase.

Aila automatically took another step forwards, but Damon was in her way again.

"I said not to move," He barked through to her, but she barged into his shoulder.

"And I'm not going to be the reason for their deaths!" Aila retorted with an iciness that made a few wolves behind them step back whining.

"Let me think!" Damon pleaded in a private mind-link. Aila stopped and watched Damon pace. For some reason, whenever he sounded more human, not angry or domineering, she seemed to obey him more. But her eyes kept flicking back to the children at the lake and to Damon.

"Fred, shoot him."

Damon and Aila snapped their head back to the lake at Silas' words. Aila took a few steps forwards without any interruptions this time, and a bark left her lips. 

"I said shoot him!" Silas roared to a man at the end of the line. The man, Fred, looked back at his boss with uncertainty.

"Boss, he's just a kid. I can't-"

A gunshot was fired, making everyone jump and hold their breaths. Clint shot the man in the head, then aimed his gun at the child whose face was still covered.

"No!" Aila screamed and escaped her lips as a wolf's cry. 

Another shot was fired into the back of the child's head. He fell to the ground next to the dead hunter. Another woman's cry split through the air, and before anyone could stop her, she sprinted forwards towards her child. Another gunshot echoed through the woods, and she fell to the ground, sobbing and spluttering, her hand still reaching out.

Clint lowered his gun again, and at that moment, Aila decided he was another Connor. Her heart was ripping into two at the mother and child on the ground. The woman was still fighting for her life and trying to escape her mate's hands, but he pulled her away from the clearing. His face is stricken with fury and pain as he, too, looked at his child on the ground.

"Thank you, Clint," Silas interrupted the rising tension and crying of the parents who were still with fear at their child being next. Clint nodded his head and began wiping his gun down without any emotion on his stone-cold face.

"Do I need to ask again?!" Silas shouted.

Suddenly, a black falcon swooped down and dropped a bag to the floor in front of Aila. Without needing an explanation, Aila shifted and searched through the pack for clothes.

"Hold on!" She screeched out. "I am coming!" 

Aila knew she needed to stay composed, but the panic was rising in her; she needed to do something, anything!

"What are you doing!?" Damon yanked at her arm, but she ripped it away from him as she pulled a sports bra on to match some shorts before throwing a baggy white top on she presumed was his.

"I'm buying us time!" Aila whisper-shouted before her eyes wandered to another naked man a little smaller than Damon strolling towards them. Ajax. He gestured for the bag. His face, for once, was serious. After rummaging through the bag, he pulled on some shorts and crossed his arms against his chest, not bothering with a top.

Aila stared back at Damon as Ajax shoved some shorts onto his chest. He caught them but never let his eyes move from her.

"If we don't do anything, they will all die. You saw what they just did," Aila whispered as a single teardrop trickled down her cheek. She wiped it away angrily before going on her tiptoes, her fingers sliding through his locks and crashed her lips into Damon's. His hands gripped onto her waist, his claws digging in as a growl erupted from his chest. Aila pulled back with a trembling breath leaving her lips as her eyes flickered between his. 

"I will come down with you," He replied as his eyes kept flickering between glowing and his usual striking orbs. 

"No! They won't hurt me, but they could to you-"

"I'm coming with you!" Damon growled, and at his command, Beta Kane, Gamma Chiara, Delta Finn, Ajax and a few other warriors circled them protectively. Aila relented with pursed lips, hoping and praying to the moon goddess that nothing else will go wrong.

The group left their spot and walked down to the clearing. Aila, Damon and Ajax were the only ones in their human form, but they were still regarded with sneers and deadly gazes as they approached the hunters.