Chapter 547 - THROW UP

The huge white Lycan's body trembling in Hope's embrace. His four legs gave in as he rested his big, bloody head on her laps. His breathing became shallow and his red eyes dimmed. 

"Kace… wake up…" Hope stammered. Her hand shakily scratched the back of the beast's ears and made him purr lightly, yet his eyes shut close. 

Even in her fear, Hope realized there was something more frightening compared to the horrible scene that surrounded her. 

Her mind worked so fast, as her eyes blinked rapidly to get rid of the tears that made her vision become blurry. 

Hope turned her head towards Ethan's direction and shouted as loud as she could, putting aside her turmoil emotion. "What… what should I do?" 

Ethan didn't have any idea what suggestions he had to give to Hope. "He is still breathing." He could see it from the movement on the beast's chest. "It's good, maybe he is just asleep."

Hope stroked the beast bloody fur until her hands were covered with blood. And only with that sight, made her head spin. She didn't have to be a shapeshifter to smell the thick metallic scent in the air since there was a lot of blood pooled around her.

"Hope. Hope," Ethan called her again until the girl gave him her attention. "Help me to get out of here." 

Hope didn't move for two seconds before her mind discerned his words. "Oh, right…" slowly, she put the beast's head on the ground and earned a small grunt from him. The beast disliked the absence of her presence, but Hope had to do something now. 

"I will be back soon," Hope whispered to the beast's ears and gave him a last stroke on his scruff before she got up and walked towards the second cage, where Ethan, Ian and Lana were. 

The cage was locked with, at least, ten padlocks, which each of it was as big as her palms. The metal bars were also thicker than the usual one.

When Hope looked into this closely, she wondered how the beast could break it, even on his current injured condition. It was impossible in any case for it to happen, yet the beast did it. 

"How am I supposed to open this with?" Hope looked at the padlocks helplessly. Those werewolves inside couldn't even touch it since it was made of silver. 

"You have to find the key," Ethan said firmly, but his expression turned unsightly. 

"How?" Hope knew the answer even before she asked. 

"You have to find the key…" Ethan gulped down, "Maybe… the key is somewhere inside the pocket of one of those hunters…" 

Hope was on the verge of crying when her guess was right. She didn't want to look at the scene behind her back, she really didn't want to turn around at all and, let alone going on a thorough search mission around this particular area only to look for some small keys.

"I am sorry," Ethan really meant his words, if he could, he wouldn't ask this from her. This was too cruel, even for him. 

"What happened to Lana?" Hope was trying to adjust her emotion by asking questions, maybe she was also buying time for herself, before she really had to go and do it.

"She… is fine… she got stabbed with spears a few times, she just needs some time to heal." Ethan nodded at Lana while his brother was quiet. This was the quietest that Ian had ever been in his entire existence.

"Where is Lidya?" Hope couldn't see her anywhere. If she was here, she could do her magic to open this cage without keys, right? Or, she could come up with a spell to retrieve the keys somehow for them.

"I don't know…" Ethan shook his head lightly. "The hunters separated us and the last time I saw her, she was fighting ten of them."

"She could be anywhere…" Hope mumbled, refusing to believe something bad happened to Lidya. "It needs more than ten hunters to take her down, right?" 

"Right," Ethan agreed. It was easier to convince themselves rather than went with whatever worse scenarios inside their mind. 

There was a moment of silence afterward. 

"Hope…"

"I know… give me a moment."

"Okay," Ethan didn't say anything again for another moment. 

"Is the scene behind my back really THAT bad?" Hope tried to ask this as casual as she could, but was not able to hide the shaking in her voice. 

"From one to ten?" Ethan was unsure how to describe it. 

"Give me a number, Ethan, what number?"

"Nine…?" Ethan grimaced. 

"That's bad." Hope mimicked his expression. 

"Well, everyone has different standards." Ethan tried to light her up, to make their situation less horrible, yet failed miserably. 

"I don't think I am above your standard." Hope took a deep breath. "Alright… let's do this."

Actually there was no 'us' in this finding key mission, there was only her, who had to roam around the dead bodies in their hideous unidentified form, after being mutilated by the beast. 

"Can't we take this cage down like what Kace did?" Ian finally spoke with his 'brilliant' idea. 

"You cannot even touch it," Ethan said this pronouncedly. "Not to mention break it."

"But, he did it…" Ian nodded at the beast not so far from them.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and spoke in a defeated tone. "He is more of a beast than all of us. The kind of beast we would never ever surpass in terms of power, even after the three of us joined force."

Ian moved to the side and stretched out his hand to touch the silver bars, but retracted his hand as soon as he touched them.

"I told you…" Ethan said.

Hope clenched her fists beside her body and, slower than ever, turned around to face the reality. She had prepared herself for the worst. She remembered all the gory scenes from all of the thriller movies that she liked so much. 

It wouldn't be that horrible, right? She had seen something similar like this, though it was only from a movie screen and she knew those were all fake. 

The moment Hope caught a sight of the scene behind her back, she threw up. Her legs gave in as she crouched down beside the cage to empty herself. Emptied her stomach until there was nothing left already.