NovelBarAlpha On The Hunt Chapter 6
Elena POV
After picking up Sondra’s pain medication, I race home to my sons. The women are out working the ranch and tending to the
animals or picking fruit and vegetables from the fields, and it’s hard to wrap my head around the knowledge that we’ ve created
this peaceful little piece of tranquility out here. It was once a rundown ranch, the fields of vegetation dying out, the cattle not
being tended to the way they needed, and the main house has since received an uplift and everything is now flourishing out
here.
Pulling up, Sondra is waiting on the porch in her rocking chair, my mother staring at her worriedly, which makes my brows furrow
in confusion as I climb out of the car. Luke is up the side of the house, chucking wood into a wheelbarrow to take to the women
and inside the packhouse.
“Hey, El,” Luke calls out, and I give him a brief wave before climbing the few steps to my mother.
“What’s wrong?” I ask my mother, nervously glancing at Sondra. She frowns. Worry is etched into her facial features, and I
wander over to Sondra. Her eyes are closed, and her face is peacefully relaxed. Just as my hand reaches out to touch her to
ensure she is breathing, she speaks, scaring the living daylights out of me.
“I know you weren’t about to check if I was breathing. If I am dying, it will be dramatic and preferably with your father’s head
resting in my lap as I croak my last breath.”
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“Geez, Sondra, did you have to play dead right until I
touched you?”
“You were the one going to poke the dead if I was. Serves you right to sneak up on an old woman like that!” She smiles, opening
her eyes, yet even I can see the pain pooling in their depths. Her eyes don’t crinkle the same way. They’re also a lit- tle glassy,
making me wonder if that is why she had them closed, not wanting my mother to see how watery they are.
“You old bat, I have been watching you for the past ten minutes and not one word, not even when I called out to you!” my mother
“Aren’t you werewolves supposed to have good hearing? Can’t you hear my old ticker pumping the blood through my body? I
may look like I have one foot in the grave, but I can as- sure you, dear, I still have good balance. I won’t be tipping over that edge
to the afterlife quite yet.” Sondra retorts.
I smirk and shake my head, turning to look at my mother, who throws her hands up in frustration before stalking back into the
house. “Kinda creepy, the way your mother watches me while I am resting like she was waiting for a new wrinkle to appear,”
Sondra huffs, reaching for the paper bag in my hand, and I pull it away.
“You scared her.”
“I scare many people, though no one here needs to fear me. I owe these women for my past failures. I’m the last per- son they
need to fear,” she states. My brows furrow, wonder- ing what she means. Sondra owes us nothing. We all owe her. So I have no
idea why she would think she owes any of us.
“Care to tell me what you mean?” I ask her.
Sondra tilts her head to the side, looking at me. “We all make mistakes. Some are just bigger than others, some are redeemable,
and some aren’t. I just hope I have done enough when the day comes and I finally meet my maker.” She states, looking out at
the women working, sad smiles pulls at her lips.
“What could you have possibly done that needs redeem- ing?” I ask her.
“A lot of things, things I am not proud of. I should have spoken up. Then maybe there wouldn’t be all this mess. Fear makes
people react differently. I was scared then. But I’m not now.”
“Sondra, are you alright?” I ask her, beginning to worry. She rarely talks likes this, yet when she does, she gets in these weird
moods.
Sondra sighs, turning her attention back to me. “Promise me that when you take down your father. You make sure he hurts. I
want him to hurt like he hurt all of you.”
“My father? Sondra, what is going on?”
4
“Nothing you need to worry about now. But I know that monster, just like I know your mate. The apple doesn’t fall far from the
tree with that one, but I’m glad to see you aren’t made from the same roots your father is.”
“I have said enough for now. You have places to be and people to destroy. Don’t feel guilty for ruining them. I can as- sure you,
Elena, that those you do destroy, deserve it.”
She takes her pills from my hand before I take them back from her when she fumbles to pop them from the foil cover- ing. I hand
her two, and she raises a very thin brow at me.
“You’re only allowed two,” I tell her, checking the packet.
“Those doctors are all quacks. Besides, they’re weak as shit,” she says, clicking her fingers at me.
I sigh and roll my eyes, popping another out and handing it to her. “No more, you’ll be high as a kite,” I tell her.
She narrows her eyes at me but relents when she realizes I wasn’t giving her anymore. “Spoil my fun then.” She huffs, reaching
for her tea. I watch as she chews her tablets before swallowing a mouthful of tea.
“Don’t you have to take the boys back to your mate for his weekend visit? Why are you loitering? I can ward off the grim reaper
myself, stop fussing and get ready.” she waves me off dismissively. I turn to head inside.
“And tell your mother if I catch her holding a mirror below my nose again, I will whack her with it. I don’t like holding my breath.
It’s short these days.” She huffs.
“And you wonder why she was watching you?” I retort. Sondra smiles wickedly. The crazy old lady I love returning to.
“Well, she thought I was dead. Figured I would act the part.” She chuckles, and I laugh, walking inside to check on the boys.
As I double-check their baby bag, ensuring they have ev- ery little thing they could possibly need, my anxiety reaches an entirely
new magnitude. Lexa ripples beneath my skin ner-
vously, not liking what we are about to do but also under- standing it is necessary.
“Why don’t you stay in the city for the night? That way, you’re close, and it may help your anxiety?” my mother sug- gests..
“And stay where, at one of his hotels, or should I ask dad if I can sleep at home?” I snap at her without meaning to. My anxiety
comes off in waves of anger, and for the past hour, anyone that has crossed my path has copped a mouthful of my snappy
mood.
“We can manage a few nights without you, besides you need to reclaim your old pack back. Why not work from the city? The
council chambers are right there, which is where you need to be to get whatever it is you’re looking for. We can manage; we did
for years,” Noleen tells me.
“Doesn’t matter where I am. It’s them being in his care that has me nervous.”
“More reason to stay in the city!” Michelle adds, and I róll my eyes, scooping Bane out of his rocker while my mother grabs Kyan.
She follows me out to the car, and I buckle them into their capsules and toss the baby bag onto the passenger
seat.
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