Hunter Maximus

Isobel’s POV

The werewolf den is a huge underground space. It is like one massive living area with a huge kitchen on one end and one big table that ran half the length of the room where the wolves obviously ate together. But just the kitchen, though large, was a tiny section of this open planned living space. I see wolves in both wolf and human forms, lounging around a huge fire place. It’s where most of the werewolves are located and they all come to quick attention when Christian appears with both me and Maximus.

Some of the werewolves in their animal forms, rush over, growling and baring their teeth when they see Maximus, unconscious, at my feet. Christian transforms into his human form and snatches the jeans I am holding for him from my shoulder.

I realise the only reason he turned into a wolf was because that was the only way he could fit through the den’s entrance. He was one bulky guy, with more muscle than anyone else in the den. You didn’t have to wonder how he could be the alpha; he physically out shone the rest of the pack easily.

“Are these two intruders?” One fellow werewolf asks, walking up to stand in front of me and Maximus, looking us over with narrowed eyes. This werewolf has dark red hair that is strikingly similar to Ruby’s – I assume they must be brother and sister.

“Finn, get some rope – these two are our prisoners for the rest of the night. Though both human, I don’t trust either of them,” Christian orders and I notice everyone freeze. Finn, raises both his eyebrows and looks down at Maximus with curiosity.

“That’s impossible,” Finn says, “That leech is a vampire, how is he human?”

“Darrius and Xavier told the truth when they said Eddrick found a way to cure vampirism,” Christian announces, “What is said in the prophecy is coming to fruition, this is why Eddrick must die – his blood, his life, his existence is messing up the natural order of things. If vampires are in danger, so are we. Finn, get the rope. Julie, bring some chairs for these two to be tied down to. Search them for weapons first,” Christian orders the nearest werewolves to do his bidding and they don’t hesitate.

“We are trying to stop Eddrick too,” I complain, as one werewolf pats me down roughly, searching for weapons in my black leather pants and jacket. He takes my dagger off me and also takes my phone. Maximus is stripped of a sword he carried along with him, hanging from his belt in a sheath. He is still unconscious.

“No, it was more than that,” Christian snaps, “You were breaking the already weak alliance that was made. The vampires and their human followers had to make a plan with us before going after Eddrick, I don’t care that you were all human – you are in allegiance with the enemy and you approached Eddrick without consulting us first.”

“We were there because of an emergency. A friend of ours was being tortured and hurt – the little girl you took me and Maximus away from just because your anger was spiked. Now what are you going to do with us? We’re not here to cause you trouble.”

Christian laughs and the werewolves around me roughly shove me into a chair that the girl Julie brings over.

“Shut up, little runt,” One werewolf snaps at me, “What you have to say is meaningless and powerless. In this territory only the alpha’s command is law and truth.”

“That sounds pretty backward to me, argh,” I get a whiff of wet dog smell from a scruffy mane of dreadlocks from the guy who snapped at me. He leans down to tie my hands behind my back, “...gross...” I mutter under my breath.

A moment later I feel the tip of my own dagger, wielded by another wolf with dark shaggy hair, pushed up against my throat.

“Watch your mouth, girl,” he says, warningly pushing the tip in enough to break my skin’s barrier and I wince as a drop of warm blood trickles down my neck. I go quiet and look to Maximus to see him being even more roughly handled as they place him on a chair next to me.

My eyes widen as he awakens, his eyes snapping open. He instantly starts to try to push and shove the wolves touching him away from him. But he is overpowered. They grab both his arms in a tight hold and he is powerless to move, he spits at the feet of the wolf who is still wielding my dagger.

"Maximus, don’t,” I snap, and Maximus quickly turns to look at me. Both our wrists were tied behind our backs, our ankles tied to the chair’s legs. We were both utterly powerless now.

Maximus smirks despite this and ignores the wolf opposite him, holding the knife, looking like he wanted to draw some blood from such a famous, high ranking, prick of a vampire.

“Hello, beautiful,” Maximus says to me, “At least I have your lovely face to look at in a dirty, disgusting, rank hole like this one,” he then looks to the werewolf wielding the dagger, “What are you going to do, huh? Kill me while I’m tied to a chair? Why don’t we fight like real men?”

I can’t help it, I roll my eyes. Typical of him to want to cause trouble and let insults fly while he was in a completely vulnerable position.

“Don’t kill them,” Christian growls from the sidelines, watching the whole scene playing out before him, “I haven’t figured out what to do with them yet.”

“Hang on,” Julie says, looking like she just had a light-bulb moment, “Maximus is one of the Hunters for the vampires right? If he is human – then he has to be what he was before he was turned into a blood sucking leech!”

“Good pick up, Jules,” the smelly werewolf with the brown dreadlocks says from beside her, “He’s a vampire hunter.”

I watch as Christian starts laughing whole-heartedly.

“Good point!” Christian grins from ear to ear, “Maybe we’ll give him a taste of vampire, shall we? We should catch one and throw the leech and him together and see if he’ll kill the very thing he use to be.”

“Well, for one,” Maximus says calmly, “To do that you’d have to untie me, so...”

“I don’t think your banter is helping,” I whisper to Maximus, who just attempts to shrug.

“They won’t kill us, darling, they know Darrius and I are best buds, if they kill me they’ll start a war they don’t want to deal with, trust me,” Maximus says reassuringly, “We’ll get out of here, don’t worry.”

I nod, trying to convey to him through my eyes that I had already hopefully set a rescue plan in action.

Some of the werewolves listen into us, while Christian is handed a cordless landline phone from a fellow wolf.

“Who is this?” Christian growls into the phone, “... Luke?... Yes, we have a cute little blonde human girl and a sad-looking fake, wanna-be vampire in our ‘care’... money you say?... We’ll talk figures when you get here, goodbye.” After a short phone call, Christian hangs up with a smirk slowly growing on his face.

Maximus turns to me slowly, with one raised eyebrow.

“Did he say... Luke?” Maximus asks, accusingly, all amusement gone from his tone, “Did you ask your vampire-hunter friend for help, Isobel?”

“So what if I did?” I hiss quietly, looking at Christian instead as he walks over to us, he hands the phone over to a werewolf close by before he clasps his hands together and cracks his knuckles.

“The other two should be brought back by now,” Christian growls, to no-one in particular. It is at that very moment that a red vibrant wolf enters the den with a graceful gait and beautiful yellow-gold eyes. It was Ruby.

When no one else follows her into the den, I see Christian’s smirk drop into a scowl.

“Where are they?” He growls at her. Suddenly a smooth velvet voice filters through all of our minds.

They got away, she explains, without transforming she continues on her way past, ignoring the alpha’s furious glare.

Jennifer and Caitlin escaped! At least those two were safe!

“Where do you think you’re going, you have some explaining to do!” Christian yells out after her.

I’m going to have a bath, if you want an explanation, you’ll have to wait until I am done.

“Bloody vixen... or I will just join you and get the answer now,” he growls low under his breath, before turning and stalking off after her to a door at the end of the large spacious den, where I assumed the baths and possibly multiple other rooms were adjoined to this underground chamber.

Some of the werewolves snicker to each other at the interaction between wolf and alpha.

It suddenly occurs to me that maybe they were mates!

Just as Christian is about to leave the room he stops and turns around, looking flustered because he clearly forgot something.

“Put some scouts on the boundaries,” He orders, “We’ll be getting a visitor soon. I have allowed Luke Taylor to pass into our territory, check his ID, he is a full-time working vampire hunter looking for that girl. Find out how they know each other,” Christian snaps, “I’ll be right back...” he mutters the last part to himself but I can read his lips.

I can’t keep the smile from my mouth at Christian’s interactions around Ruby. He was clearly highly affected by her. They certainly had some sort of fiery connection that everyone felt and witnessed. I notice a lot of the werewolves are also smiling to themselves.

I almost forget about Maximus until I see him staring at the polished wooden floor-boards at his feet, looking majorly pissed off.

“What’s the matter?” I ask, trying not to sound too annoyed.

“Just shut up,” Maximus growls low under his breath, not as intimidating as when he was a vampire, but I could still tell he was furious about me contacting Luke for help.

“Just suck it up, you big cry baby,” I mutter.

“Both of you, Shut. Up,” The werewolf holding the dagger stands before us still, twirling the weapon around in his fingers, “We need to find out who this Luke guy is and why he wants to rescue you.”

“Let me do the talking,” Finn steps in from the group of werewolves still hanging around, “Go on, Bruce, you don’t have a high enough rank to do interrogations.”

“But... fine then, go ahead,” Bruce growls, not too happy but still obedient as he walks backwards, out of reach.

Finn comes to stand in front of me and I see Maximus glaring at him.

“Luke is your friend?” Finn asks me, and I nod, “It’s interesting you are friends with a vampire hunter, if you are also friends with vampires. Now, why don’t you explain that one to me? I’d love to know the answer.”

“Luke was –” I’m about to give away that Luke was my former vampire hunter trainer, but that would give away that I am like Maximus. I didn’t want to give the werewolves more reason to keep us and to use us against the vampire palace, so I quickly change my mind and say, “Luke was my ex-boyfriend.”

“That’s news,” Maximus growls, and I just glare at him. The idiot didn’t realise I was lying.

Suddenly the idea that I know this is affecting Maximus so negatively spurs me on to lie further.

“Yes, well, Luke and I use to think we were going to get married,” I say, “Those were the days... but sadly we parted ways and then Maximus enslaved me against my will and I’ve been by his side since. I don’t think you could say I’ve been by his side willingly however...” This last part was the biggest lie of all, because I had come back to Maximus willingly after Maximus had pretended to not want anything to do with me – when he started playing games with my emotions.

Now he was getting a taste of his own medicine.

“So there is still interest there and he still cares about your safety, obviously?” Finn agrees with me, believing every word I say. I must have been a pretty good liar.

“Sometimes, I wish I was still with Luke,” I add in, feeling all too satisfied by Maximus’ stone-cold silence. When I glance at Maximus I give Finn my best disgusted look, which was hard since Maximus was one of the most handsome men I had ever come across, “Maximus can’t seduce women the normal way, it’s all about control and kink with him.”

Finn gives me a half smile, looking sympathetic towards me.

“You have no idea, darling,” Maximus mutters under his breath.

“See what I mean?” I ask Finn, knowing I have come dangerously close to the edge with Maximus’ temper but hey, he was tied to a chair and was too weak to break out of the ropes.

“What’s wrong with wanting to fully possess the woman I love?” Maximus asks, and suddenly I feel a rush of guilt.

I had been running off a bunch of exaggerated truths and lies – and what Maximus just said then had so much genuine sincerity to it.

He meant it.

Just like how he said he loved me when we were about to die and he had tried to save me from that monster and gotten so badly injured that he would have passed away with me.

“That’s all I need to know,” Finn says, standing up and walking away, nodding at me in thanks for my co-operation.

I glance at Maximus but he isn’t looking at me.

I can’t help it, I know I’ve gone too far but I want to continue to be defensive.

“Suck it up,” I snap at him for the second time, and then under my breath really quietly I add, “... you deserved it anyway.” Even though part of me didn’t really believe that and another part did.

Maximus stays silent.

I know the arrival of Luke will just make the situation all the more intense.

We just had to pull through until we were both freed and alive. I would convince Luke to free Maximus as well because Maximus was, after all, a fellow vampire-hunter. Luke had an obligation to help fellow vampire hunters no matter what, it was in their code of practice as he had taught me so many times.

So, Luke would have to save both of us.

Hopefully Maximus kept his temper under control while we were being rescued.

It occurs to me suddenly that before when Maximus was a Hunter, he was stronger than Luke. Now they were on equal grounds and if they got into a fight, the odds were now even.

I know they hated each other, I just hoped they didn’t try to kill each other.