Fangless: The Alpha's Vampire Mate-Chapter 135: The Ultimate Face-Off

Werewolves might have excellent senses, sure—sniffing out anything from miles away and spotting stuff in the dark like it’s broad daylight—but let’s be honest, nobody does darkness like vampires.

Darkness was a vampire’s domain, a place where they thrived. Riona was sure this would make her the MVP of the hunt. Easy game, right? Wrong.

The problem with werewolves was they’re all about teamwork. Apparently, the concept of personal space is completely lost on them. Everything’s a group activity, even hunting.

It was like Riona had stumbled into some bizarre team-building retreat where ’unity’ was the key to success. Totally not her vibe.

The chaos started the moment they entered the forest. The werewolves split up like some well-oiled machine that had practiced this routine since birth. Each of them knew exactly where to go, like they’d been given secret blueprints Riona didn’t know of.

It was organized, efficient.

Riona, on the other hand, was used to being alone, slipping silently through the night on solo hunts. Here, that isolation made her feel more like an outsider than ever.

While the werewolves were busy playing group scouts, Riona did what any sane vampire would do—found herself a nice spot to watch from. You can’t just dive into a hunt without scoping things out first. That would be reckless.

But the werewolves had it all worked out, naturally.

One was sniffing the ground like it lost its keys, another climbed up a tree for the scenic view, and the rest of them were basically standing there like some furry army, ready to strike the moment the prey was within reach.

Every high ground was occupied by a territorial werewolf, leaving Riona with no choice but to awkwardly squeeze into a spot next to one of the furballs, who clearly wasn’t thrilled about sharing their turf.

The downside of sharing space was sharing prey—and no werewolf was about to hand over their hard-earned trophy with a vampire who—shockingly—hadn’t done anything but hover awkwardly on the sidelines.

"Don’t even think about it! Get lost!" one of the furballs snapped, eyes flashing like Riona had just suggested a group hug.

After getting shooed away—again—Riona found herself standing in some random patch of dirt, shoulders slumped like a tragic antihero.

With a dramatic sigh, she grumbled to the universe, "Oh, dear Dark Lord, at this rate, I’d be lucky to even catch a squirrel, let alone anything impressive."

Annoyed at being treated like the weird kid no one wanted to sit with, she pouted and quickly reminded herself that this was all part of her grand strategy.

She wasn’t being excluded—oh no. This was entirely her choice.

"I don’t do teamwork," she huffed under her breath. "I’m basically allergic to it. Solo is more efficient—clearly. I mean, look at them. They need a whole pack. I only need... me."

She knew she was feeding herself a steaming pile of lies to nurse her wounded pride. It wasn’t about her fragile ego.

What really mattered was proving to those pack-obsessed furballs that working solo was the superior move.

They could keep their pack mentality—she was out to prove that a lone vampire could outdo the lot of them.

Abandoning her surveillance plan, Riona descended to the forest floor, where even more werewolves were lurking.

But, lucky for her, the forest was big enough that the odds of running into another sulking wolf were slim.

Besides, if she did, she was pretty sure she had enough sass left to out-huff even the grumpiest of them.

As she scoured the forest, she spotted a small deer. Perfect. That little creature could probably feed the pack for a couple of days.

Maybe bagging it would earn her some points with the furballs and smooth over their prickly attitudes—assuming they weren’t too proud to accept help from a vampire, of course.

With calculated precision, Riona began stalking the deer, her steps as silent as a shadow. No way was she going to spook her ticket to a little pack respect... or at least less hostility.

Just as the deer lowered its head to sip from the river, Riona made her move, springing forward like she was going for gold.

But because the universe loves a good laugh, a pack of werewolves chose that exact moment to burst onto the scene from the other side of the river.

She locked eyes with the furballs, both sides freezing in surprise like they’d just walked in on each other in the bathroom. The sudden movement spooked the deer, which immediately bolted into the depths of the forest.

"Tsk! What the hell!" one of the werewolves growled, shooting her a look that said, Congrats, you just ruined everything.

Riona shot the same glare right back, as if to say, Please, like I wanted to lose the deer too.

Without wasting another second, she darted after the deer, the werewolves hot on her heels. And of course, instead of acting like rational beings and working together, it turned into an all-out competition.

They raced through the forest in a desperate bid to claim the prize, each one more determined to outdo the other.

As it turned out, nobody managed to catch the deer. It had vanished into the forest, leaving Riona and the werewolves with nothing but frustration. The werewolves turned their collective ire on Riona, growling accusations.

"Seriously, must you ruin everything, Snob? If you’re just going to mess things up, maybe you should just head back to the mountains where you belong," one of the werewolves snapped.

Riona moved on and set her sights on a new target—a large rabbit she spotted nearby.

She thought, Finally, a chance to redeem myself.

But, predictably, this rabbit was also apparently on the werewolves’ radar.

Once again, she found herself in the unfortunate position of running into werewolves. Despite her best efforts, she found herself locked in yet another struggle, only to lose the prize yet again.

Two strikes, and soon enough, the number of failures continued to rise. Every time she tried to hunt, she ran headlong into a pack of werewolves. It seemed no animal was safe from becoming their prey—or from Riona’s bad luck.

She was on the brink of giving up when she felt a presence behind her.