Fight for Me

It’s late at night, and the man stumbles out of the bar with his comrades.

“Captain Graden, are you sure you should be driving?” One of his fellow hunters ask him, laughing at their own drunkenness.

“Don’t worry about me. You boys get some rest. Tomorrow’s an early and long day for us all. We have tracking to do.”

Though, Graden’s men start whining like children who want more play time.

“Do we have to? Can’t we at least get tomorrow off?”

“Yeah. We’ve already been tracking for months. And finally, we got a lead on our mark. One more day won’t be the end of it.”

“Enough!” Graden shouts, scrunching his face from how loud he actually is and stabling himself as he leans against his car. “We have a job to do.” He looks at his men straightening themselves as well. “Have your fun tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He waves them off as he fumbles into the driver’s seat.

It takes him a few tries before he manages to insert the car keys into the ignition and getting it started. He steps on the gas paddle and swerves into the road, focusing only on the colours of the traffic lights.

Seeing a red traffic light ahead, he quickly steps on the breaks, causing him to stumble forward and against the car horn. The sudden surprise has him pull back, but he quickly grabs onto the wheel and hits the breaks again once he feels the car moving forward.

“Dammit!” He pulls the handbrake and fumbles to get his seat-belt on. It clicks in place and and he straightens up and looks at the traffic lights again. Still red.

“I hear you’ve been looking for me.”

Graden suddenly looks in his backseat at the sound of someone’s voice behind him. But his sudden movement gets recoiled as his seatbelt locks him in place. Graden grunts from whiplash while his hands fumble his belt.

“Looking for these?” He hears her voice right next to his ear as she holds a silver dagger to his neck.

He suddenly stills, filling the quiet car with his heavy and shaky breaths.

“You come all this way, looking for me, and you bring silver daggers? You do know these won’t work on me, right?”

“A dagger is a dagger. It will still do the job.” Gradens grunts out annoyed as he stares at the raven-haired stranger through the rear-view mirror.

Why is she talking like she lured us out here?

“But I thought you were just supposed to capture me. Not kill me.”

“It’s not like you can die, right?” He looks at her questioningly. Hoping she can confirm his doubts.

Staring back at him through the mirror, she smirks.

“Where is he?”

Graden’s brows furrow. “Who?”

“You know who. The one giving you the orders. The alpha.”

Graden’s breaths quicken and he startles from the sudden honk from the car behind them. He hisses as he feels the dagger scratch his neck.

“Careful. Don’t die from your own stupidity before you can give me what I came for.”

“I-I have to drive. The car behind us will get suspicious.” He says trying to buy himself some time. Because now he knows, she didn’t come here just to kill him. She wants information.

“Let them drive around.”

Before he can retort, the car quickly drives past them. And his hope vanishes just as quickly as he realises that not only are the passengers of the passing car rowdy and drunk teenagers with not a care of their surroundings, but his own windows are tinted for no one to see inside it.

“So tell me. Where is he?”

“Hunters don’t take orders from wolves, let alone alphas. I don’t know what you’re talking abo- Ahh!”

He screams as she plunges one of his daggers into his thigh.

“Aaahhh! Fuck! You bitch!” He continues to scream as he punches the steering wheel, but keeping his neck securely behind the dagger.

“Let’s try this again.” She releases her grip on the dagger and he can’t help but stare at the blood dripping from his leg and staining his jeans. “That dagger in your leg just severed your femoral artery. That means, should you not remain calm, and should I decide to pull the dagger out, you will bleed out in the next couple of minutes. So, answer my question or I’ll find another place to put that dagger.”

He can hear the seriousness in her threat, in her calm tone.

“He will kill me.”

“I know.” She whispers gently to him, almost as if to console him.

“P-pl-please.” He begs with a shaky breath, already feeling the sweat on his forehead and the tingly warmth creeping up his leg.

“I’m not here to convince you into telling me, or to negotiate. You either tell me, or you don’t. Either way, you will die. You deserve it, after everything you’ve done.”

He dares to turn his head and glimpse at her face, recognition in both their expressions as they stare at each other. He sees her bright blue eyes looking at him with utter hatred, and her long black hair cascading down her shoulders, hiding her body like a reaper’s cloak. Tears form in his eyes as he knows he won’t escape her. She’s a killer, out for revenge, -for his blood. After all, he’s the one that chased after her family, after pretending he would have helped them, just to swerve their car off the road and killing them all. All but one. She was just a little girl then, but her features are still the same.

“I’m sorry.” His face scrunches as he tries to stop his tears from falling. “I did what I had to. To protect my people.”

He suddenly feels the pressure of the dagger off of his neck, but before he could take a breath of relief, he feels the dagger plunging into his chest, right below his collar bone.

He screams as his body shoves itself back deeper into his seat. He soon focuses on calming his screams and his heavy breathing as he stares at the changing traffic lights.

He looks at her, and she smirks at his attempt at keeping himself calm. But she slowly twists the dagger in his chest and he grunts out loudly as he clenches his jaw. He knows she is testing him. And the sooner he tells her the sooner his torment would stop. Hopefully.

“Erickson! Erickson. His name is Erickson.” He grunts out through the pain.

“I know that.” She finally stops twisting the dagger. “I need to know where to find him.”

Graden looks at her confused.

“If you know who he is, then you should know where to find him.”

Layla breathes out frustratedly.

“I haven’t found a single pack run by an alpha with that name.”

“You really don’t know.” He smirks slightly as if amused by this.

“You’re wasting your own time.” She says as she pulls the dagger from his chest, watching the blood paint his dark-grey shirt. He grumbles from the pain and starts coughing slightly, noticing how light-headed he’s becoming.

“You’re going to kill me anyways.” He says with a soft snicker. “AAAHHH!!!”

But he screams again as he feels her pressing her fingers into the wound on his chest, tearing the skin.

“I never said it would be painless.”

The sudden adrenaline has him wide awake and he puts his focus back on the traffic lights, which has just turned green again. He tries calming his breaths and not focus on the sudden coldness creeping up his wounded leg.

“You can’t stop him.” His voice grows soft. “He is too powerful. He already knows about you. He’s just waiting. Whether he gets you or you get to him. He’s already planned it all. You’re no match for him.”

“Who said I was alone.” She releases her fingers from his bleeding wound and wipes off the blood on his sleeve.

Graden smirks as he glimpses at her through his fading eyes.

“I think he would like a challenge. He did warn me not to get too close to you, or else I’ll be dead.” He chuckles through a choke as blood spatters from his lips.

But she doesn’t say anything as she watches him slowly fade away, with such a disappointed look on her face.

“Oh, what the hell. That fucker deserves it.” He mumbles out.

He takes a second to just look at her eyes, wondering how the dangerous monster Erickson told him about, could live inside this beautiful girl. Then again, she is slowly murdering him in cold blood, and in his own car. He can’t believe he’s going to die so pathetically.

“E-erickson,” he struggles with his words as his chest becomes heavier by the second, “is the alpha-king.” He finishes in a whisper.

He expected the shocked look on her face, but not so much the fury radiating off of her. He could have sworn he saw her eyes glow for a second.

But she suddenly pulls the dagger from his leg, making him grumble in pain and he hears the back door open. With the quiet breeze wafting through he figures she must have gotten out and left. His eyelids grow heavier and he fumbles his pockets for his phone, trying to avoid the bleeding wound in his leg. His fingers grip it out of his pocket with great difficulty. But he finally gets a hold of it. Though, he struggles to swipe the screen to unlock it, as his bloody fingers stain the screen.

The phone slips from his weak grip and as he reaches down for it, his vision fades and his heavy head falls on the steering wheel. And with his next breath, came his last, right before the traffic light coloured his dashboard with a bright green.