Date: January 14th, 2024, 02:11
Location: New York, Earth-1

TW: Light Implied Torture

POV: Y/N Stark,

Pure adrenaline is coursing through my veins. A thin layer of sweat covers the nape of my neck. My throat is burning and tastes like blood, my heart beating so fast that I feel it's trying to burst out of my chest. I have been following the Alpha through the forest for the last couple of minutes. But whatever I do, I just can't seem to catch up to him. Small branches in the way, the ground uneven, making it difficult to go speed up. I can barely see him ahead of me anymore.

It was only when I was getting more and more tired of running that I realized I could no longer hear nor smell the werewolf here in the more distant parts of Black Creek Reserve. Hesitantly, I stopped running, desperately trying to find any tracks that the creature may have left, however, I could not find any. I lost him... I lost our target.

— 4 hours earlier —

"This morning, five mutilated bodies turned up in an alleyway near a mundane nightclub," All of us are in the meeting room, listening to Alec, who is instructing us on the details of our next mission.

Bucky continues, "R.I.V.A has identified several suspects. They are members of a small local werewolf pack, named The Primal Nightwalkers. Their Alpha, Edon, was last seen with his second in command near the alleyway a couple of hours ago, and he is known to frequent the club. Y\N, Wanda, I want you two to go undercover there to find Edon."

I look at Wanda and give her a wink. After which she blushes and looks back to the two leaders who are still explaining stuff, both already lost my attention.

After the debrief Wanda and I walk back to our room to get ready. "Baby, I'm going to take a shower real quick, okay?" I say as I walk into the bathroom. "Alright, I'll pick something out for us to wear," comes from the other room as I get undressed and step under the stream of warm water, letting it run down my body. I had just finished washing my hair when I hear the bathroom door open and then close again.

Not even a minute later, I feel Wanda's arms wrap around my naked waist and a pair of lips connecting to my neck. I open my eyes and slowly turn around to see her standing there, her hands still wrapped around my waist. I wrap my arms around her neck and stare into her emerald green eyes, getting lost in them before kissing her. She moves closer to me and I feel a sudden coldness on my back. I'm pushed against the wall. She puts her hand on my throat, making my knees weak as she pressed herself up against me.

...

We ended up washing each other's hair and body and drying each other off. I walk back into the bedroom. Since the club where we are going is a high-end nightclub, we had to go a little bit fancy. On the bed, I see a Grey pantsuit with a white shirt.

While I'm getting dressed, I hear Wanda's voice from the bathroom calling me, "Can you zip up my dress real quick". I spin around to face her as I see her walking into the bedroom wearing a cute red dress. I walk up to her and turn her around. Zipping her dress up, I purposely let my knuckles touch her bare skin to tease her.

Afterward, she grabs my waist and goes in for a kiss, but before our lips connect, we hear a loud knock on the door, startling us. "We're leaving in 5. Hurry up, lovebirds," Bucky yells as we hear his footsteps growing silent.

"Looks like we'll have to cut this short, baby," I say, as I go to my dresser where I usually leave my stuff but is empty... "Uhm where is my wallet". "Nightstand". I walk up to my nightstand and surely there it is. I look around again, "And my keys?". I hear a sigh coming from the bathroom, "Dresser". I look over my shoulder and I see my keys lying next to an empty coffee cup. "And —", but before I can complete my question. "Here in the bathroom".

I walk in on Wanda finishing up her make-up with a smug grin as she sees me walking in. I see my watch laying next to the sink. "Thanks, baby," I say as I kiss her cheek. "You ready to go?"

"Yup, let's go"

It's like half an hour later and we are now standing in the line to get into the club. Bouncers are checking people's ID, and in secret also whether they are Downworlders, which the mundanes don't even realize. The building we are waiting in front of right now is covered in different types of protection runes, leaving both of us wondering which warlock or witch cast them and against who they are supposed to stop. Behind us in the parking lot, I see a black surveillance van containing some of the team members. As soon as we are outside, they will lose visual and we will be on our own for the most part. "Boys, we're going in right now", I whisper into the comms, as we almost approach the front of the line. I hear Steve in the comms saying, "Ladies please behave, and keep your attention on the mission". I sigh, "No need to worry Cap, we got this," I say as I give Wanda a cheeky wink.

Getting inside wasn't too much of a hassle, luckily. The bouncers, with a little persuasion from my girlfriend and me, gave us a stamp and allowed us in. As soon as we entered, the loud music and the yells of the crowd swarm our ears. I could feel the electricity run through my body as I hear the song 'Brutal' blasting through the club's speakers.

Wanda nudges me. "I'm going to check the dance floor and the booths. You go check the bar". I give her a small nod and make my way to the bar on the left side of the dance floor while I keep an eye on Wanda making sure nothing funky happens. I look around to see if I recognize any of the people, however, no one here seems suspicious.

I walk up to the bar and order 2 drinks. While waiting, a guy walks up to me, "Hey there Beautiful, why is a lovely girl like you hanging out alone? Let me buy a drink". Before I'm able to say anything, I hear a voice call out from behind him, "She's not alone". I look behind him and see Wanda there, giving him a death stare. Her head tilts to the side. Damn, the angry Sokovian head-tilt is so intimidating ... Although also kinda hot. It's a good thing that looks couldn't kill, otherwise, we would have blown our cover by having to scrape off his bloodied remains from the dance floor, which I'm sure is not what Steve wanted. "Ay, my bad. Didn't realize you swung that way, baby girl," the guy said with a grin. I saw Wanda taking a step closer to him. Luckily, the guy got the hint and gets his drink to flee the scene.

I lean over to give Wanda a kiss, her sour expression melted away from her wave at the affection. I hand her one of the drinks, "You didn't have to scare him, baby, he was just trying to be nice". "Yeah yeah sure, but like, you're mine" she whispers in my ear while she slides her hand in the back pocket of my pants, "— Oh also I found a booth near the entrance, where we have a nice overview of pretty much the entire club, while not drawing too much attention". I place my hand on her lower back as I follow her there. We take a seat with our drinks, making ourselves comfortable. Me sitting in the corner, with Wanda leaning into my lap.

Both of us are getting bored with just sitting there, observing people, so after a little while I stand up and offer my hand to Wanda, "May I have this dance". She giggles, "Of course, my love," and grabs my hand, allowing me to lead her to the packed dance floor. The music still blasting through the club's speakers. The song "No Lie" is playing right now.

Feel your eyes, they all over me
Don't be shy, take control of me
Get the vibe, it's gonna be lit tonight

I let the beat take over my body and start to dance with Wanda. Her forearms rest on my shoulders as we bounce and rock to the music. We continue to dance, while still paying attention to the people in the nightclub. I rest my hands on her waists and playfully sing along to the song that is playing.

Hypnotized, pull another one
It's alright, I know what you want
Get the vibe, it's gonna be lit tonight

One of her hands comes to rest on the back of my neck to keep me close. I'll be honest, this is pretty fun.

Feels how we do it — No lie
It's always how we do it — No lie
Feels how we do it
It's gonna be lit tonight

I pull Wanda close, my hands keeping her against me and encouraging her to roll her hips with mine. I lean into her shoulder to leave kisses up the side of her neck.

After some time, the club is starting to empty out a little bit, and it was getting calmer on the dance floor. So far we have been unable to find anyone that might be related to the werewolf pack, however, we still had about an hour left before the club would be getting to a close.

Both of us were getting ready to get back to our booth, when I realized we finished our drinks, "Want another drink babe?". "Are you sure? We are still on a mission," Wanda questions. "Another one can't hurt". Wanda pauses in thought for a brief moment and then says, "Alright, I'll have another". I give her a big smile and walk back up to the bar to order while she goes to the booth.

A couple of minutes later I get back to the booth, seeing Wanda sitting there deep in thought. I walk up to her and place the drink on the table, "You okay, Wands?"

"Hmm. Oh yeah sorry, just tired I guess," she picks up the drink and takes a sip. I take my flask from inside my coat pocket before taking it off, dripping some of the liquid inside into my drink.
After a little while of small talk, I see a small, suspicious, group of people walking into the club. I recognize one of them, Kyle Torres, Edon's second in command. The group is walking towards the VIP section of the club, however; they have to pass us to get there. I'm quite certain they will notice us, so I nudge Wanda, "Kiss me". Wanda gives me a confused look as I grab her cheeks and bring her in for a kiss. Our lips melt together as she straddles me, still on the booth bench. The group walks past us, not paying us any attention, and is let into the VIP section. I look up from our heated kiss, taking a breather, and check our surroundings. Wanda gets off of me and takes an inconspicuous sip from her drink while we're looking at the VIP-section bouncer.

After waiting a couple of minutes to make sure everyone would be settled inside, I grab Wanda's hand and lift her up from the booth. "Uhm baby, what are we doing", Wanda asks. "Going to the VIP section?", I respond.

"We can't just walk up there with absolutely no plan!" Wanda hisses. "Yea, but like— alright I hadn't really thought this through...". My mind runs through a million ways to sneak into the section with no one noticing. I couldn't come up with even a single sensible one where we don't end up discovered. Unless, of course, we try to do it quietly.

"Okay, okay, okay, I have an idea," I start. "How about we create a distraction on the dance floor? You can use your wiggly woos, or whatever, to anger some people, so 2 guys start a fight. Then either the bouncer guy runs off to them to stop the fight, or we escalate the situation a little further *wink*. Then once the guards are distracted, we can sneak in no problemo"

"Seriously! Wiggly woos? Is that what you call them now?" Wanda hisses at me. "What else should I call them? But what do you think about the plan?"

Wanda opens her mouth to speak but then closes it again. She bites her lip and rubs her eyebrow in worry. Then her face relaxes a bit, "It's actually not the worst of ideas". I look at her with a goofy smile on my face.

"Alright, let's just do it," she says as she grabs my hand and pulls me to the dance floor. We go back to our previous dancing positions and after a couple of seconds, she turns around and conspicuously used her magic to influence a tough-looking guy behind her. I see his eyes glow red, after which she "accidentally" pushes a random guy into the now magic-induced angry dude. She quickly goes back to her position with me and we 'jellyfish' away from the situation.
After a couple of seconds, I begin to hear yelling from the other side of the dance floor. "Get here you bastard! Watch where you're going!", after which I hear yells of people and a thudding sound, followed by a low-pitched grunt. I turn to see what exactly is happening and I see three to four guys fighting, surrounded by a group of people, who are cheering them on.

Due to the loud music, I can't seem to figure out what they are yelling anymore. The VIP bouncer rushes to the dance floor, together with another one from the entrance to try to split up the fight.

I take a quick look at Wanda, "Let's go". We turn around and make our way to the entrance of the VIP section, which is now completely unguarded. Before approaching, we make a quick check of the surrounding area to see if anyone is watching, "Looks clear to me."

As soon as we enter the VIP section, however, we see several heads turn around to look at us. Alright, we might not have thought this part out. Of course, when there is a quarrel outside, people in here would have been curious. "Uhm baby... We may or may not have been spotted". "OMG Y/N, ya think!" "Yeah..."

I look around the room and see Edon, mid-conversation with someone I don't recognize. He glares at us. I give him a small wave and whisper to Wanda, "Edon, 2 o'clock. I'll go after him, you good here?". "Yea yea, just hurry". Edon realizes we are looking for him and then quickly gets up, stumbles over the back of the couch he was sitting on, and runs into a small hallway in the back of the VIP section. I run after him, dodging a few people who are startled by the sudden action.

Behind me, I hear a loud bam, as Wanda blasts several guys into the wall, before grabbing another one with her telekinesis powers and keeping him floating in the air. That's my girl.
I focus back on Edon and run after him into the hallway. He takes a left turn at the end of the hallway, but before I even get there, I hear a door open. I turn the corner and see the emergency exit door close. I continue to run, opening the door while I see Edon getting into a Matt black 1968 Dodge Charger. God, what a beauty. Aaargh, come on Y/N focus, car is not important right now.

I run-up to the car, but before I'm able to open up the door, Edon pumps the gas and drifts out of the parking terrain. "Edon is on the move, I repeat, Edon is on the move. He's in a Dodge Charger, Matt black," I yell into my earpiece. I hear Clint on the other side, "On it!". I quickly go back inside to see if Wanda is okay. As I enter the VIP section again, I see Wanda fighting the last still standing guy and she knocks him out with a punch to the side of his face.

Around her I see 8 guys all unconscious, "You got him?". I shake my head. "No, he got away. Clint's on it. We should probably get away from here".

Once we get outside, I hear Bucky yelling over the comms, "What do you mean you can't find him, where the hell did the guy go, he can't just disappear Clint!". "Hell I don't know, one moment I was on his tail in semi-traffic, now I can't find the guy anywhere"

"At least tell me we have something we can track him with," Bucky asks. I get myself into the conversation, "We can probably find something inside the Club that we can get to Alec or Izzy." I look around and see Wanda already going back inside.

I follow her back in, "Alright let's just get something and get out of here before anyone wakes up again". When we're back in the room, I take the couch area, and Wanda goes to the private coatroom. In between the pillows on the flipped-over couch, I find a phone, which I think is Edon's. A couple of seconds later Wanda comes back with a coat in her hands, "Found his coat, let's go". We go back to the parking terrain and we get in our car, making our way back to the compound.

— Present Time —

Hesitantly, I stopped running, trying to find any tracks that the creature may have left, however, I could not find any. I lost him... I lost our target.

I make my way back to Wanda who was searching Edon's car, letting her know over the comms that he disappeared somewhere in the woods. When I arrive, I see Wanda looking through a small notebook. I go to stand next to her. "Hi baby, what did you find in his car".

"I found this notebook. Most of it is practically unreadable or in a different language. I just can't make it out. However, on the last page right here, there is a photo of a cabin," Wanda explains. The image depicts a rather old-looking, run-down wooden cabin surrounded by trees.

"Hmm... I don't recognize it or anything like that. Make a picture of it and sent it to R.I.V.A. They might be able to run some kind of image recognition software on it." I see Wanda grab her phone and take a picture, while I continue to go through the rest of the notebook.

I pick up my phone to check if there are any known buildings in the reserve, but I'm not getting any service. "You got any service here?", Wanda asks. "Nope, looks like we're off the grid completely".

Then suddenly we hear a blood-curdling scream coming from deeper in the woods. I immediately look at Wanda, to see if she heard it as well. She looks at me with a furrowed brow. We both immediately sprung into action, running into the same trail I followed earlier. Wanda is a little slower than me, so I decide to match her pace.

We continue to run, looking for the source of the scream. A couple of minutes after the first scream, we hear another one, louder and clearer this time. Followed by a loud thump. We run in the noise's direction until we find a cabin that looks a lot like the one we saw earlier in the photograph.

The cabin door is wide open, and I see something laying on the floor, but can't seem to make out what it is. I whisper to Wanda, "Stay here, I'll go to investigate," and give her a kiss. "Please be careful," she whispers back as she runs her hands through her hair.

I creep up to the side of the cabin, staying out of vision from anyone that could be inside. Light creeping out through the windows on the side of the door. Peeking through one of them, I see a human form lying in the center of the room, sitting against something. The body is surrounded by a puddle of blood, with a spear of some sort through its chest.

"What the hell", I whisper under my breath, while quickly getting back in cover. I look at Wanda and give her a hand signal to stay the fuck back. The rest of the room looked like it was completely trashed, so there was obviously a struggle. We heard the screams only minutes ago, so the culprit can still be around. I sign to Wanda to get into my mind so we can communicate.

"What's wrong"

I show her the mental image of the room, with the bloodied body in the middle of it. "That's what's wrong. We only heard his screams minutes ago, so the other guy could still be around".

"Is that Edon?"
"It's possible, same build and height."
"I'll go around back, make sure the other guy can't escape while you go inside."

With that, I see Wanda slip around to the other side of the cabin.

"Alright I'm going in"

I slowly approach the opened door, peeking around the corner. Well, at least it looks clear? I think to myself, as I'm slowly sneaking towards the body on the floor. When I'm close enough I freeze and stare at the body with wide eyes. It's clearly Edon, but his face is bloodied and covered in bruises. His arms were covered in cuts. Only now do I notice his hand is raised onto the wooden table, stuck to it with a knife. Fuck, he was tortured. Who the hell did this. I look around the room. There are 2 other doors, both closed. I approach the door closest to my left.

"Y/N, are you okay in there?"
"Yeah, you can probably come in. Maybe you can make something of this".

I edge up to the door and slowly open it. The bathroom, alright, nothing scary about that. Now the other door. I open it up and see a messy bedroom when suddenly I hear footsteps. I turn around, only to see Wanda approaching Edon's dead body, frowning at the sight.

I return my focus to the bedroom. Looks clear as well, so I carefully enter. The room is a complete mess. Dresser and closet open, everything inside emptied. Someone must have been looking for something here. I walk around the bed that's in the middle of the room, noticing that it has recently moved.

The sound of heavy breathing from the main room alerts me. I hurry back, only to see Wanda looking around the room, combing through some of the mess made by the struggle from earlier.

She is biting her lip and is fidgeting with her rings, "Are you okay wands?" I question. "Yeah, I'm fine — Did you manage to find anything?" she answers. Was I hearing my own breathing? Wanda isn't out of breath and the dead guy certainly isn't breathing.

"Nope, the bedroom is trashed. Someone must have been looking for something there." I walk up to her, taking her hands in mine. She whips her head around to look at the bedroom. Her hands are trembling. I feel her muscles tightening as she grips my hands; her knuckles going white.

"Someone's here — I can feel them," she stammers.