Hunter Maximus

Maximus’ POV

I hated being human because right now the situation called for me to be at my best. If I was a Hunter again I could kick these werewolves’ asses, I could save Isobel and myself from their capture... I could return to the palace and show Isobel exactly what I thought of her feelings towards her ex-boyfriend. I honestly didn’t know if she was joking on that point but she sounded pretty damn sincere when she was blabbering away about Luke and how she missed him.

Letting him go free when I had him cornered in that alleyway was the biggest mistake I’d ever made.

I should have killed him.

“You can say your goodbyes, boy,” Bruce, the nasty smelling werewolf with brown messy dreadlocks circles us with a little smug grin on his stupid dog face, “Once this Luke Taylor arrives you’ll be dragged back to the people who hate you the most.”

“Have you ever heard of deodorant?” I ask, changing the subject and trying to keep my anger in check.

“The great thing about this is you’re all just talk now,” Bruce isn’t affected by my insult as he points the dagger at me threateningly, “You’re nothing but a mortal, brittle boned body with a soul that needed to pass on from this world at least two centuries ago.”

“Kill me then, I’m sure Hell will smell better than your disgusting odour,” I grin when I see Bruce getting more and more frustrated. I could tell he wanted to attack but to do that would be to disobey the alpha – which he wouldn’t do.

“Would you two quit trying to insult each other?” Isobel asks, glaring at both of us, “I’d rather sit here and wait in silence than listen to the two of you fire each other up.”

“Right now I’d prefer to talk to big, fat and hairy,” I look towards her, watching her cheeks go red in frustration, “I’ll deal with you later.”

“If you’re not careful,” she says slowly, “You’ll be dead and there will be no later. Bruce, don’t fall for his heckling, you’re better than that,” even in her response, she sounds demeaning and sarcastic towards the werewolf.

“Go do something useful,” The alpha enters the room from where he chased off Ruby, looking tense and fed up. He probably got interrupted by the young wolf that ran in not long ago from the outside, looking for him.

“I’ve already done my duties today,” Bruce complains.

“I said go do something useful,” Christian growls this with a whole lot more venom so that Bruce doesn’t hesitate to comply, “Luke Taylor is about to arrive.”

When Christian approaches, smelling much better than Bruce, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you for getting that smelly beast away from me,” I thank the alpha, only to be met with a glare in return.

“Soon,” Isobel mutters beside me, “Soon we’ll be out of here.”

I glance over at her hopeful expression and my hand twitches. I wanted to spank, kiss and fuck her all at the same time – until she never thought of that damn Luke ever again.

There is some shuffling at the den’s entrance and I watch as Luke crawls through, white blonde hair the first dead give-away that it was him. Another wolf escorts him inside.

“Luke!” Isobel calls out, making my skin instantly crawl with jealousy.

He stands to his full height and when he sees her he instantly runs forward and puts a hand on her cheek, his thumb running along her cheekbone.

“Are you hurt?” He asks. If I could growl or snarl – it’s exactly what I would be doing right now.

“Step back,” Christian snaps at him, going forward to place a hand on his shoulder, shoving him away from her. Suddenly Christian was my favourite person in the whole wide world.

“Relax,” Luke snaps, “I was making sure she wasn’t seriously injured.” Yeah right, by caressing her cheek? She was my fucking girl, not his. He could back the fuck off.

Now all I wanted to do was kill him slowly. His eyes almost instantly meet mine next.

He smiles.

I’m momentarily distracted as I realise Isobel is staring at me.

“Be nice,” she whispers to me and I just ignore her.

“You and I both know,” Christian begins, “That you can’t leave here without both of them. So I suggest you offer me a pretty good deal. I assume Finn told you the details about these two?”

“I know they are both human, yes,” Luke agrees, “I will need to return with both under my care and I have more than enough money to satisfy you,” he holds up the briefcase towards the alpha, who steps away from it and looks over his shoulder, looking over the wolves who are gathering around to watch the action.

“Bruce,” Christian calls out, “Come here, take the briefcase outside and check the money for its exact amount and authenticity.”

Bruce comes over quickly, eager to take the briefcase.

“Outside, alpha?” Bruce asks, confused.

“On the off chance it’s some sort of bomb, at least it’ll explode outside and not in, right?” Christian explains dryly, ”Go,” he snaps, when Bruce hesitates.

“That’s one way to take care of your pack,” Luke says with a hint of sarcasm to the alpha.

“How much is in the case?” Christian asks, as Bruce disappears outside with the money, looking uncertain about what he had to do.

“It should be about ten thousand,” Luke says.

“Since you brought that for the girl only, I expect another ten for Maximus,” Christian bargains, “Which you can send electronically I’m sure.” Luke goes a little red in the face, a little anger starting to show.

“I’m worth a lot more than that,” I add in.

“Fine,” Luke mutters quietly, ignoring me, “I’ll send the rest tomorrow.”

“I’ll entrust you to do so, because if you do not, you and your vampire hunter friends will not be considered allies,” Christian growls, “Considering none of us have heard a terrible explosion from outside, let’s assume the briefcase did contain the money and Bruce is counting it as we speak.”

Some of the werewolves laugh while Luke, Isobel and I remain tense and stony faced.

The bastard better have brought enough money with him.

“What will you do with Maximus when you have him?” Christian asks Luke curiously.

“He will be put on trial for his crimes,” Luke explains, “Probably a very short trial, if he isn’t killed before then, however.”

I watch Isobel to see her looking down at her feet, silent.

She doesn’t look too happy about this. At least she cared a little.

Bruce comes crawling into the den, a sly grin on his face.

“Eleven thousand,” he pronounces, holding a wad of cash in his hand as he hands the briefcase over to Christian, “Make that ten thousand,” he waves the one thousand he is holding in front of the alpha’s face, “Because of my accountancy and risking death –” Christian all too quickly snatches the money from Bruce and pockets the money.

“No way you’re getting a thousand,” Christian gives Bruce a one hundred dollar note instead, “Take it and go buy yourself some new clothes – like I’ve been trying to tell you for the last month since you joined my pack.”

"Fine,” Bruce growls, walking away, not at all happy and looking highly embarrassed. Most of the other wolves are trying not to laugh at his attempt to get some money for himself.

“Don’t walk away yet,” The alpha orders, “Untie our prisoners, they are free to go,” as Bruce pauses and turns back around to do his next chore, a door opens at the end of the room and Ruby enters, in with fresh clothes and a towel around her hair, “That’s how it works,” Christian adds, pretending to talk to everyone but raising his voice so obviously Ruby catches on, “I’m the alpha, so I give commands and you all follow without hesitation. Got it?" He glares this last part at Bruce, despite the whole rest of his speech where he was simply staring down Ruby.

Bruce finishes untying Isobel, muttering under his breath, before getting started on me.

I watch Isobel stand and run to Luke, giving him a tight bear hug and whispering thankyou over and over again in his ear.

“Keep his hands tied,” Luke calls out over Isobel’s shoulder, looking straight at me.

“Do it, Bruce,” the alpha seconds the command and it isn’t long before Bruce follows that order as well.

“Afraid you can’t handle me?” I ask Luke.

“I’m ensuring I get you back in one piece, actually,” Luke explains, slowly letting Isobel out of the hug. She turns to face me, with a blank expression. I can’t read Isobel’s thoughts – simply another thing that pissed me off.

“You lot have to leave my territory within the hour,” Christian says as Bruce stands me up and shoves me towards Isobel and Luke, “Leave.”

“Ladies first,” Luke puts a hand on the small of Isobel’s back, leading her to the exit. If he touched her one more time I was going to rip his fucking head off.

If only my hands were free.

If only I was a vampire and had my fangs.

I could do nothing but wait. If I wanted to get away from Luke with Isobel safely, and return to the palace, I had to start using my brain.

I had to expel all emotion, because if I didn’t get out of this situation soon – I would be on the path to certain death.

And this time, it would be permanent.