A boom went inside Killian’s head as a terrifying silence stretched in the office. Killian had thought of many possibilities, and this one was at the bottom of his list. Even though he had considered it, he thought that the possibilities would be really low. Thus, even though he expected it, he was still surprised.
Ajax, who had followed Killian, paused and said, "Can you repeat that?"
"A hit list." Killian’s voice hardened. He was quick to accept the fact, as he had been expecting it ever since they started hunting down the witches and their clients in the shifter community; even if they didn’t know that they had tracked down N.M.H., they must have found out that they were nosing into their business. "It seems like the witches want us dead."
"Not just us," Finn corrected. "They are after the Venus pack as well. There is also a hit on the Venus pack."
This time around, Killian frowned because he didn’t expect the Venus pack to be put on the hit list as well. Was it because Dominic was with him when he was interrogating Remy?
A series of curses rang out in the office.
"Does Dominic know of this?" Matt asked.
"I don’t think he does," remarked Killian with a hint of annoyance in his tone. "He has been looking for his mate, whom he chased out; I don’t believe he is on track with things at the moment."
"Now I understand what’s going on," muttered Henley. He was looking at the floor as he spoke, "The reason the entire mall was blown up by the witches was because they didn’t want Selene and Laxus to escape. They wanted the two of them to die together with the other shifters because that would definitely deal a blow to our pack."
"I believe it must be the halflings. They often do things ," Fenric added his own two bits of wisdom. "For the sake of getting accepted into the circle of the pureblood witches, they would do anything as long as they could get the recognition that they want and desire."
"Then why did they put a hit list on the Venus pack?" questioned Laxus from the corner of the office. "It makes no sense; they are chasing after us because we tried to hunt them down, but Dominic hasn’t. It doesn’t make sense."
"But he was with Kill," pointed out Finn sagely. "They must be trying to bury the secret of N.M.H. altogether."
"Did you find anything?" Ryder turned and looked at Levi. With his shirt thrown to one side, the man had crossed his arms in front of his chest and was now looking at their pack’s tracker with a hint of a frown on his face.
"No," Levi replied. With his brows furrowed just as hard as the rest, he was sitting on the couch with his arms resting on his knees. "I only found out about this after tracking down one of the elders. There is a website that allows witches and wizards to put a bounty on packs and people. Anyone interested in the bounty can take the bounty and simply do the deed and prove it afterwards."
He paused and added, "The problem is that this site is even trickier than N.M.H., as the identities of those who have posted the bounties are fiercely protective. Matt is trying to crack the code of this site, but the more he tries, the more traps he faces. It seems like the witches are worried that we will crack the site open, and thus they added more security."
"What about N.M.H.? Would it be affected?" asked Miles.
"No, for better or worse, the witches are overly conceited creatures; they think that with their threats and warnings, no one would dare to tell us anything. Plus, they are confident in their small magic tricks," Matt smirked. "They don’t know that I learnt these tricks when I was in prison."
Killian glanced at Matt. When the enforcer was sixteen, he was sent to prison by his own parents; no one knew the reason behind his arrest, but Killian trusted his own gut to know that Matt had been innocent. After all, he knew firsthand that there were times when parents could be wrong, too.
"So we need to find the person behind the site?" Ajax groaned as he threw his head back. "Come on! I am getting tired of this shit. Why can’t we do this the old-school way? Hand-to-hand combat."
"Witches don’t have the courage to do so," stated Killian as he took his seat. He rubbed the tips of his fingers as if he were trying to draw strength from Inez’s lingering warmth. "But it still doesn’t explain why they would want every single person in the pack dead."
Laxus glanced at Killian. "I believe that this is more of a personal grudge than just a stupid reason for trying to track them. We have done it many times before, but we have never been placed on a hit list before."
"You mean that someone pissed the witches off quite thoroughly?" Matt exhaled heavily. "If that’s what you are trying to say, then we can narrow down the list."
"It’s not that simple." Killian tapped his knuckles on the table and stated, "We can narrow down the list regarding those we know were witches and wizards but what about the ones we don’t know?"
"The Zealots could be behind this as well," stated Ryder with a tilt of his head. "Think about how they find the presence of shifters an abomination."
"They dislike the witches and wizards just as much. What makes you think that they would take their help?"
"The elders of the council could be behind it as well," remarked Finn coldly as he glanced at Killian, whose fingers were still tapping on the surface of the table. "They hate that you have too much power, Killian."
Upon hearing his beta’s remark, Killian smirked. "Well, that’s right. They must be missing their little minion." He was talking about the halfling that he had killed a few days ago, but then again, they should have known better than to target his sister and poison her with such a deadly poison.