{"id":127,"date":"2018-03-28T22:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T22:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/?page_id=127"},"modified":"2019-03-07T21:00:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T21:00:47","slug":"alpha-and-omega-part-of-the-unnaturalverse","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/short-stories\/part-of-the-unnaturalverse\/alpha-and-omega-part-of-the-unnaturalverse\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpha and Omega – part of the UnNaturalverse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alpha and Omega :- part of the Unnaturalverse<\/span><\/p>\n

The forest was still, peaceful. Even nature seemed to be sleeping, the nocturnal creatures unusually silent. It didn’t bother the shadowy figure, she preferred it in-fact. The blanket of silence made hunting her quarry a hell of a lot easier. The target was part of a larger group camping a few clicks north-east of her current position. Cassandra pauses running through the calculations in her head, at her current speed she’d reach their camp in just under an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

The moonlight shone down through the trees giving the forest an almost romantic atmosphere. The shadowy figure made a mental note to come back here once the vermin problem had been cleared up. She stops that kind of thinking immediately, she needed to focus. A mistake could get her killed, she had to remain calm, silent, stealthy and\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Crackle\u2026hisssss<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The static of the radio shatters the silence like glass and the shadowy figure curses.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Cassandra?” the radio says. “Cassandra! We’re detecting a burst of activity from the group\u2026”<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, thanks to you moron. Cassandra thinks bitterly. She is already reaching for her gun when she hears the first howl, followed by a second, and another, with more joining. Soon the silence is replaced by the howls of at least a dozen wolves.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Time for business,” Cassandra says cocking her rifle.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is already aiming when the first werewolf breaks\u00a0 free from the bushes and the crack of Cassandra’s rifle matches the angry wolf’s howl before the werewolf hits the ground dead. The next wolf is down before it even leaves the bushes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassandra takes out a further three wolves before a man comes strolling out the bushes hands held up.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Finally,” Cassandra says letting a smile play across her face as she lowers her rifle. “I wondered how long you’d make me wait Mr Alpha.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The man frown only lasts for a second and is soon replaced by a stern glare. A woman comes up from behind him and places a hand on his shoulder. Cassandra watches the woman’s fingers squeeze the man’s shoulder and is surprised to see all the tenseness simply flow out of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ah, that’s better. Thank you Talia,” the man acknowledges the woman who smiles at him and steps away. “Sorry, it is too easy to get lost up in emotions. I am Marley, the Alpha of the Boston pack. You don’t smell like one of us, so this isn’t some wolf rivalry. Nor did you shoot me on sight which eliminates you\u00a0 being a werewolf hunter. So tell me miss, who are you?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“My name is Cassandra, I work for the Supernatural Response Team Boston Branch. I am here because there have been several missing persons and our intelligence suggests your pack is involved somehow.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Why did you shoot the other wolves?” the female werewolf, Talia says calmly.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Natalia makes a good point, I have heard off the SRT. You are meant to capture werewolves aren’t you? Yet why\u2026” he pauses to motion to the five dead werewolves sprawled on the ground before her. “Are my kin dead?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassanda shrugs. “I was meant to aproach your den quietly and converse with you directly before any trouble occurred. But my colleague decided to radio me while I was approaching. I simply defended myself from werewolves who were howling for my blood.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlon’s hands clench, a grimace on his face.”They were defending their home, their family. Do not speak to me of it being in defence\u2026you brought a weapon loaded with silver bullets and tried to sneak into a den of werewolves. We are entitled to defend ourselves. Now state your purpose and either get lost or I will be forced\u00a0 to deal with you myself\u2026”<\/span><\/p>\n

“I just want to talk, if you aren’t responsible for the missing people then you have got nothing else to fear from me. But if you are responsible\u2026” Cassandra raises her rifle in a flash and squeezes the trigger. <\/span>The silver bullet accuracy is on point, the round whizzes right past Marlon’s head cutting is cheek which sizzles slightly. The werewolf cries out, a mixture of pain and surprise. Cassandra notices the anger beginning to bloom behind his grey eyes. “\u2026the next shot won’t miss.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The other wolves howl, demanding blood for blood. Marlon stops them with a single gesture, his authority dominated his pack. Cassandra made a note of that too. Slowly she lowers her rifle once more and sits down. The Alpha sits as well, with Natalia sitting besides him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassandra relaxes slightly, which is when Marlon strikes, his hands partial transformed into claws scratch across the bridge of her nose, enough to mark her but not enough to do lasting damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlon relaxes then. “I accept you wouldn’t miss your next shot Cassandra, and let that remind you that I could have killed you just as easily. Now, let us talk\u2026”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alpha and Omega :- part of the Unnaturalverse The forest was still, peaceful. Even nature seemed to be sleeping, the nocturnal creatures unusually silent. It didn’t bother the shadowy figure, she preferred it in-fact. The blanket of silence made hunting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":142,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127\/revisions\/129"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalstillness.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}