Chapter 89: On The Hunt: Part One

The following morning Esme woke to the sun rising and the light pouring through the windows. She stared at the few for a moment, clutching the pillow as she lay on her side and enjoyed this moment of serenity before her mind would fully awaken and her thoughts would invade her peace. She stretched her arms out and yawned, feeling refreshed even if it was the early hours of the morning.

Wrapping the white silk covers around her body, she padded across to the bathroom, where she left her clothes and began to redress. She should use this time when nobody was around to collect her bag from Gabriel's room. But just as she put her bra on, she noticed her phone was blinking with an unread message. Esme reached for her phone and sprawled out on her untidy bed in nothing but her lingerie, and flipped the phone open.

[ 3:00am Message from Gabriel ]

Esme's heart beat a little quicker at reading the vampire's name, and she rolled her eyes at herself for acting like a teenager with a crush. 

"Nothing wrong with acting like that. He is mighty fine.." Isana almost drooled in a whisper. 

"That he is.." Esme replied to her wolf, deciding to dismiss the butterflies in her stomach. 

[ 3:00am Message from Gabriel ]

[ 3:00am: Vincent has returned your bag. So don't be freaked out when you find it. Also, come to the VIP room like usual. I might need your help with something. ]

Esme didn't know how she was meant to help someone like Gabriel, especially with the situation he had to go deal with the night before, but it beat cleaning a bar and speaking to customers all the time. Not that she was doing much of that anyway, since working as Gabriel's personal bartender, she didn't spend much time in the human bar and was in many meetings the King and Luther held. Esme was surprised by how much he had been letting her listen into, but she presumed it had something to do with the amount of power Gabriel held. Nobody dared to go against him, and if she was one to reveal anything from the meetings, then it could be as easy as clicking his fingers to get rid of her. 

Not that she would do that before their relationship became.. intimate. Even if Gabriel declared war on the werewolves, she wouldn't tell anyone; Esme was a lone wolf, a survivor first and preferred to stay hidden. Now, she and Gabriel had crossed a line and slept with one another; she was a little nervous about how things would go from here. There was still that question hovering over her, 'What were they? Who was she to someone like him?' but she tried not to think too much about it.

Esme stood back up and wandered into the living room where her bag was. They'd only slept with each other over a short period of a day and granted, they'd had a little fun before that, but even by revealing her dark past, she shouldn't expect much from Gabriel. It wouldn't be fair to, especially when she already had a mate. Esme had noted how he acted towards Lenny, Leo and Niko, who were all a different standard of friendship to her, so how could she expect him to be okay with her actual mate? 

These were things she had to consider and respect if it was only a 24 hour period of having fun with the rogue she-wolf. She knew she had some trust issues, and they wouldn't just go away after spending some intimate time with Gabriel and hearing him speak sweet words in her ear and sexily speaking to her in a language she still had yet to ask about. All in all, though, she would keep her head on her shoulders no matter what the outcome was.

For now, she had to get changed into some clean clothes, eat a bunch of food and go to work. Maybe she could even go for a run, it was early enough, and she hadn't shifted in a while; all of her fights had been in human form. With a grin on her face, she pulled on some black jeans, a black blouse that she tucked in and some high-heeled boots before tidying up the bathroom and arranging her bed neatly. She set off with her backpack on her shoulders towards the direction of where she chilled by herself before meeting Lenny and then Gabriel. It felt like a few weeks had passed since then as she escaped from the concrete pavements and towering buildings to a hill that overlooked Chester, and beyond it was the forest and trees. 

Esme stripped, but she was still alert to any noises and smells. She hid her backpack and inhaled deeply as she let her bones begin to break and the skin on her back tear apart as her brown fur sprouted out, she took a step forwards, and she looked down her snout to see her paw. Shaking her head from side to side, she relaxed and sprinted towards the valley, her intent to hunt the deer that seemed to evade her and Gabriel the day before. 

Usually, Esme would let Isana take over so she could hunt, but she wanted to enjoy her time in wolf form; she would let Isana take the reins at a later time. Esme let her senses overtake as she sniffed the air and the ground, tracking the hoof prints in the earth, following the scent of her meal that led her further down the river and away from Chester. Esme heard the small steps of the herd of deer ahead; they were so quiet that it would be hard to hear them. But Esme was in hunting mode, and everything was heightened, so she did not alert her prey to her presence. 

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Esme was just as quiet, keeping her paws to carefully feel the dirt beneath her feet. She hid behind a tree, her amber eyes glowing as she looked for a weakness in the deer's formation. There were a few fawns, but even though Esme was a werewolf, her human side still couldn't handle killing baby deer. 

"They would be easy.." Isana murmured; she was in killer mode, and to her, the fawns were just an easier meal. 

"They should be easy anyway. We're not just your everyday wolf but a werewolf. Hmm.." Esme groaned then licked her lips as she eyed one of the stags on the side. "Let's see how he will do."

With that, Esme burst forwards past the trees and set off towards the stag. The young were kept in the middle of the herd, and they tried to scurry away. But as Esme predicted, she took down the stag within a few seconds, sinking her canines into his jugular and making it as swift as possible. 

"Nothing beats a morning hunt!" Esme chirped to her wolf and let Isana take over, who started eating their breakfast. This little spout of exercise also cleared her mind further about everything that seemed to be building up in her life. She would have to take on each challenge at a time. But while Isana munched on her stag, Esme took a moment to try and search her thoughts, but her wolf instantly booted her out. She was held in some kind of mental prison.

"Serves you right for trying to read my thoughts," Isana remarked; her voice was like an echo in Esme's mind, and although she could see and hear everything her wolf was doing, she couldn't reach out to her thoughts.

"Just tell me!? What's the issue? We are partners. What did you mean last night? What's impossible?" She exclaimed but was met with silence as her words bounced back to her. 

After watching Isana control her body and eat another deer, Esme was finally allowed the reins again, but her wolf hid in the corners of her mind. The only thing she said, so she didn't feel bad about withholding information from her, was, "I need to double-check first. I don't want to say something, put our hopes up, and then boom.. It wasn't what we thought." And then she was gone. 

Esme shook her head and sat down, licking her nose from the blood left there. Isana could really be messy sometimes. But as she started to walk back towards her bag she caught sight of her head in the river, Esme was still bloodied and so jumped into it, splashing the water everywhere, and when she came up for air, her body had transformed back into her human self. She bathed quickly in the cold water, removing any traces of blood from her body before she shifted again and continued walking along the side of the river, water dripping down her dark fur. That was when she stopped as lavender filled her nostrils.

Esme swivelled her head to the side, and there near the edges of the woods was a black wolf with glowing amber eyes. She took a step towards it, her body acting before her chaotic mind as she came to the realisation that he was alive all along.

The lavender smell that only they used.

The black werewolf was smaller than the other male wolf's but was still bigger than her form.

His body was never found..

Marcus was alive and, for some reason, had turned his back to her and started running away.. Without thinking, Esme sprinted after him.

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