Chapter 397: Cowboy Cult

So they made it inside the fortress. When they got closer to the main area, Haley notified them that the number of men had tripled.. Her drone counted more bodies than they registered..

Before anyone could process the warning, boots crunched on the gravel behind them. Two men stepped out from around the corner of a tin-roofed shed, both carrying rifles slung low across their chests. Wide-brimmed cowboy hats shaded their eyes.

"What are you doing here?" one of the men shouted, bringing his hand up to rest flat against his holster.

The group froze. Nobody took a breath. Bambi’s fingers twitched toward her belt, her shoulders pulling back as her body prepared to spring forward and strike.

"They must be the new recruits," the other cowboy said, looking them up and down without much interest.

Malo cleared his throat and stepped in front of Bambi before she could move.

"Yes, we are the new people," he said, forcing his hands out wide to look harmless. "We lost our way and...."

"Where are your hats?" the first cowboy cut him off, glancing at their bare heads.

"Hats?" Faye muttered under her breath.

"We haven’t been given any hats," Bambi said. She caught on quickly, letting her voice drop into something flat and submissive to match the act.

The two men grunted and gestured with the barrels of their rifles for the group to follow. They walked them down a narrow path toward a low-built wooden cabin. Inside, a wooden table was stacked with tall felt hats. The guard grabbed a handful and shoved them into their chests.

As Faye took hers, her thumb ran over a thick yellow ribbon stitched right above the brim. She looked at the other hats in the pile. Some had red bands, others blue. The two guards outside wore hats wrapped in solid red.

They put them on and were marched right back out into the calm sun, through a set of double doors, and straight into the main house at the center of the yard.

The air inside was thick and heavy with the smell of sweat and damp wool. Dozens of people filled the room, all wearing the same style of hat in different colors. Yellow, red, and blue.

Everyone stood strictly in their own vertical lines, feet glued to the floors.

Faye moved with the group, slipping quietly into the back of the yellow line to blend in.

At the front of the room, on a raised wooden platform, stood the man they had come to kill.

His hat wasn’t like the rest. Stitched into the front in bright metallic thread was a crest featuring a golden gazed wolf, surrounded by jagged wolf marks carved deep into the leather band.

Faye’s chest tightened as her eyes locked onto the pattern. She stared, her breath catching in her throat.

"Shit," she muttered.

"What happened?" Malo whispered from right behind her. Sasha was pinned between them, her head tilted forward to listen.

Faye leaned back, barely moving her lips.

"I’ve seen that symbol before... Yukinator."

"Yuki what now?" Malo whispered back, his voice rising slightly before he caught himself.

"Yuki has a tattoo, and the sigil on his hat is the same."

"Yes, I’ve seen it too. Haley’s sister has that tattoo," Sasha said, her voice shaking as she recognized the mark.

They glanced up, their eyes scanning the dark walls of the hall. Painted in rough white paint above every doorway was the exact same wolf crest.

"Oh my God..." Sasha gasped, her body going stiff.

They followed where she was looking.

Standing near the head of the red line, only a few yards away, was Haley’s big sister, Jessie. Next to her was her girlfriend. Both of them stood completely still, staring straight ahead, wearing identical hats with red ribbons tied tightly around the crown.

Faye swallowed hard, the taste of dry dust on her tongue.

Nobody said another word. They didn’t need to. They hadn’t just broken into an armed compound.

They had stepped right into the middle of a cult.

Boar Don stepped forward to the edge of the platform. He was barely five feet tall, fat, with his shirt straining against a huge belly that looked like it was about to burst right through the buttons.

His heavy breath rasped into the quiet room.

"My cowboys, welcome to this gathering," Don called out, his voice echoing off the rafters. "Some of you are from around the world, old members and new members."

His tiny, sunken eyes swept across the crowd, stopping for a brief second as he looked toward the yellow line.

"This is the White Gathering."

"White Gathering, huh? Bambi, I think we should find an escape route and run. This place looks dangerous," Malo muttered from behind Faye.

His posture had completely changed. The confidence he had carried all morning vanished, his eyes darting toward the side windows, measuring the distance to the doors.

He had been hyped to help Bambi get her revenge, but now his knees were visibly trembling.

"I’m not leaving until his heart is out," Bambi snapped, her knuckles harden as she stared down the Don.

"Faye, tell your new Beta that we should leave before she gets us all killed," Malo whispered, close to panicking.

Faye turned her head slightly to look at him. This was the same guy who had spent hours trying to convince her to join this stupid revenge plan, and now he looked like he was two seconds away from peeing his pants right there in line.

Also she doesn’t want to get herself in more situations, having to find Beast Morphs for a lycan prince was enough on her plate..

Not some weird cult..

Princess would eat her alive if she ever finds out that Faye was in a cult...

"Fine. Let’s go..." Faye began.

Before she could finish her sentence or step out of rank, Don raised both of his arms into the air, shouting over the noise of the crowd.

"Before we begin welcoming our new members... What are we?"

He roared the words out, trying to sound like some military commander standing before an army.

In an instant, every single person in the room snapped their feet together and yelled back in unison, their voices pounding against the wooden walls.

"We are the followers of the Great Hija Dela Luna!"