by Bryce Evans
The Hunter’s Warrior
The Death Hunters, Book 5
Bryce Evans
Blurb
Raven Verdes loves being a Death Hunter. She may be the only female on the team, but make no mistake, she's as good as her male counterparts. The other hunters consider her as one of the boys, except one...Caz Milton.
He thinks Raven is his mate, one he must protect and shelter from harm. His tiger doesn’t want to believe that she can take care of herself. All Death Hunters are highly trained, but he still can’t get past the thought of her hurt.
With a new lead on the missing shifters and vampires, Raven and Caz team up and she volunteers to be bait. That doesn't sit well with Caz. At all.
When Raven takes it upon herself to be taken, the plan goes all wrong.
Now Caz must use everything he has to save Raven before it's too late.
The Hunter’s Warrior
The Death Hunters, Book #5
Bryce Evans
© 2020 Bryce Evans
Copyright © August 2020 Bryce Evans
Art and Logo Copyright © Bryce Evans
All rights reserved
Edited by: Tina Winograd
Artwork by: Andy Atkins
Formatted by: Stacey Price
Published by: Bryce Evans
eBooks are not transferrable
This book is intended for the purchaser’s sole use.
Sharing or downloading to other individuals or devices is illegal.
This work is fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
All Rights Are Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
To my family. I love you all very much.
To the Bryce Evans Fan Club. Thank you for sticking it out with me. To my new Review Team. I can’t wait to see what we can do together.
To my PA and friend, Janka Dustan, who keeps me grounded and on task. To KD Jones, my sprinting partner and friend who talks me off the edge. To Carmen Alicea who has come into my life and been a great friend. Thank you, girls, for all that you do.
Please be kind and leave a review on the site you purchased the book from.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Also by Bryce Evans
About the Author
Chapter One
Raven loved this area. The high peaks of the Montana Rocky Mountains. Boulders covered the lower mountainside where a small stream pooled at the base. Trees so tall, she could imagine climbing up one. A great place for any bear to run freely. There was even a small cabin that looked worth a half-million dollars nestled right in front of the mountain.
A cabin that was way out of the price range of the polar bear they were hunting. Unless he was doing something illegal. As she looked around, her grizzly bear went on alert. Coming from around the side of the mountain, a polar bear appeared with a fish in its mouth. Bingo!
The bear dropped the fish and stared at her. She smiled and gave a two-finger salute, but she could see it in his eyes, the fight was on. Charging her straight on, the polar threw all his weight into her. Crashing into the side of the truck was not her way of negotiating. Unless she was the one slamming someone against the truck.
“I don’t think he likes you very much,” Leo said, jerking his sword out.
“You think!” Raven stood and pointed at the polar bear. “Now, big boy, we can do this the easy way or the hard—"
Raven Verdes and her brother Leo both hit the deck as a boulder as big as a house flew toward her head. As she lay on the ground, Raven shouted, “Hey, that’s just rude. We only want to talk.” She glanced at her brother who rolled away from her as the boulder broke into pieces above her head. Large pieces of sharp rocks fell to the ground.
Glancing down, she saw the rip in her brand-new jeans. Lennox Bartley, her alpha encouraged her to try to fit in. She’d spent a lot of money on this pair of jeans. These were worth every dollar she had to pay. She actually loved these jeans. Her nerves quivered from head to her toes. She could feel as her bear tried to come out. Patting her stomach, she whispered, “Not this time, girl. This one's for me.”
“Now, Raven, Alpha said we needed to question him, not kill him,” her brother yelled, trying to get her attention as she got up, dusting her pants off.
She pulled her sword out and glanced at her brother. “He should have thought about that before he ruined my new pair of jeans.” With that said, she gave out the battle cry letting her brother know to step down and move away.
Charging, Raven jumped from one boulder to another getting closer to the bear. The bear watched in fascination trying to figure out what she was doing when she landed behind him. Like most of the people she ran across, Archie was too fascinated in what she was doing to move. Thrusting her sword forward into the bear’s leg, she watched as it screamed and fell. She pushed her sword forward, trapping the bear against the boulder he was standing on.
The bear swiped with his massive claws barely missing her. She knew the more he moved, the worse the pain got. She didn’t care one bit either. These were her new favorite jeans. “I bet that hurts.” Raven wagged a finger at the bear. Then she smiled and pointed down at the sword still embedded in his muscle. “You see, this is a Death Hunter sword. Do you feel that burning sensation? The more you move, the hotter it will get.” Raven walked back to her truck as the bear growled in pain. She lowered the back of the tailgate and sat. Her pants had a tear in them and all she wanted to do was make him pay. She waved and pointed down at his leg. “Your fur is starting to catch fire.”
The bear stopped moving, staring down in pain at his leg. The sword was getting a brighter red which meant his leg would probably burn completely off if he didn’t stop moving. This was one of the greatest spells the Old Ones gave them. She watched as the bear shifted. Raven glanced at her brother when Archie Peebottom screamed in pain from the shift and the burning sword.
“Make it stop, please. I’ll tell you what you want, but make the burning stop,” Archie yelled.
Raven held her hand over the sword, whispering the spell as the burning halted. She wasn’t a fool—she left the sword embedded in his leg and the boulder.
“Hey, Archie. Long time, no see. It’s a shame I had to travel all the way to Montana to visit you. Love the cabin by the way. Very expensive looking. Hear you got an extra job now,” Raven said.
Shaking his head, Archie tried to look innocent. “Can’t a man earn a living?”
“Not when it comes to shifter trafficking, you...you…”
“Idiot,” Leo spit out.
Shaking her head, Raven screamed, “No...Idiot isn’t a good enough name for what he is. He should have the king of idiot’s name. You…” The word wouldn’t come out because everything that passed through her head wasn’t bad enough for ole Archie.
“Nitwit, bonehead, blockhead, cretin, dimwit,” Leo said, trying to hasten the interrog
ation. He glanced at her, waiting for her to agree with any of the names he gave.
“Heck, I don’t even have a good enough name for you right now. You are selling your own people for money. Is money so important to you?” Raven and her brother both stared at Archie.
“Well, yeah. Because it’s a lot of money. If you let me go, I will cut you in for twenty percent of the profit after my expenses, of course,” Archie said, growling from the pain.
Raven started for him when her brother pulled her back. “You nincompoop. You disgust me. You—”
“Okay. Forty percent, but not a dollar more,” Archie offered. When neither of them said anything, he started smiling. “I knew it. I always heard that a Death Hunter couldn’t be bought, but I guess they never offered the magic number.”
Leo covered his face knowing what was coming next—his sister raking her secret weapon down the idiot. Didn’t he know the worst thing he could do was offer a bribe to a Death Hunter. He hated when she got like this. A slap across the enemy’s face. A rake down his body. Slap. Rake. Slap. Rake.
“You crazy b—” Slap. Rake. Slap. Rake. Now came the begging. “Please, please, I’ll be good. Please, please, stop, please. I’ll talk. I will, please…”
Leo peeked through his fingers and winced once he saw what she had done. It was kind of a talent of Raven’s. Her middle finger claw was different. It hooked onto skin and then she zipped it along the flesh. When she was done, it looked like a body zipper. Archie’s face resembled a red coat with a jacked-up zipper. If the man could see his cheeks and forehead, he would tell them everything because next she would start on his back. Ugly...and he would never be the same again. Leo shivered thinking about it.
His sister smiled. She was losing patience. Leo offered, “Archie, if I were you, I would start spilling because I know her look.” Leo shook his head and muttered, “It’s not good, son.”
Archie stared at Raven for a few seconds. “Okay, okay, just stop with the claw. So, I worked for a shifter named Killian Strong and his brother, but they went missing and now I’m in contact with a vampire. He says his name is Boris Connor. I was told he is business partners with a human by the name of Wyatt Benjamin. This is all I know. Please let me go. I’m a dead man now.”
Patting the side of his face, Raven said, “Don’t give me any ideas now, Archie.” She slowly walked away, thinking. She muttered to herself, “Where have I heard that name from?”
“I told you what you wanted. Now, let me go.”
Storming back over to him, she grabbed his jaw and jerked it toward her. “Why does that name sound familiar to me?”
“Wyatt Benjamin the billionaire,” Archie spit out.
Her heart nearly stopped when she remembered. When she called home, Reed told her that a human, Wyatt Benjamin had purchased property in New Hope. The alpha tried to buy it before the human did but Benjamin paid double the price. Why was he in New Hope? Was he involved with Boris Connor? Did Calum O’Keefe know him?
“How do you get in touch with this Boris and what arrangement do you have with him?” Raven demanded.
“When I find someone who meets his demands I...well, I take them and someone meets me at a destination of his choosing. We exchange and I leave. I don’t ask any questions, and this is how I stay alive. I don’t talk to anyone about this,” Archie said, shaking his head. “Until now.”
“What does this Boris look like?”
“Never seen him. Just the guards. He sits in a blacked-out SUV. I did see his hand once when he gave a motion to his guard. Now, they are scary. All military looking but human. They still look scary though.”
Leo could tell Archie was in pain. Even though he was a shifter, he was losing a lot of blood with Raven’s sword embedded in his leg. He pulled his sister to the side. “He’s bleeding out and won't be much use to us if he dies, sis.”
“And?”
“And we can use him. Send him back into the game but this time he calls us with all the information relayed to him,” Leo insisted. “You know and I know that once he’s out of the picture, they will change their plans again and we are back to waiting for another opportunity.”
He watched as Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her brother whispered, “Let me handle this part, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Oh...wow. I can’t believe you gave in so early. Great,” Leo said, walking over to Archie.
He narrowed his eyes at the shifter. Leo was ready for a break. He had been on assignment for a month and it was time to go home for a rest. Even Raven wanted to go home. New Hope was their first real home now that the Death Hunters were allowed to buy property and mate. He knew his sister couldn’t care less about the mating part but having a place that they could call home was exactly what they both needed. And no matter what, Raven was going to have friends if he had to pay someone to act like they liked her. She wanted friends, but never in a million years would she admit to it.
His sister was a tough nut and she loved him. He got to see the real Raven. The one she kept hidden thinking she would be safe. She didn’t understand that lots of people wanted to be her friend, but they were either scared of her or gave up trying. She never once gave up on him and he would never abandon his sister. Each other was all they had left in the world, except the Death Hunters.
“Listen, Archie. I’m going to make a deal with you, but I will say this, I’m not going to be held responsible if you say no. My sister is going to rip you to shreds if you don’t and, man, she’s the best tracker the Death Hunters have. If you run, there isn’t a hole deep enough to hide where she can’t find you. Let me be crystal clear about this. Because she will find you and she will make you suffer. I can’t even look at your face, dude. She messed you up and she wasn’t even pissed yet. Understand?”
Leo watched as Archie reached up and ran his fingers over his face. It was a terrible mess and scary looking. He would scare children if he got around them. Archie glanced at Raven who was filing her fingernails, not even giving them a thought. Until her middle finger claw flipped outward. The crooked one.
“Okay, deal, deal.” Archie shook as he stared at her middle claw.
“When Boris calls, you call us and tell us what he says and where he will meet you. Easy peasy. You get to live to be your miserable self another day or you get the claw.” Leo turned toward his sister, who for good measure, stuck her hands out and hissed at him. The middle claw was all he could see and that was all he needed to see to comply.
“Give me your number,” Archie cried. “Just tell her to put it away, put it away.” Leo bit his jaw to stop from laughing because Raven continued to flip it out and in. This was a great ending to this job. His alpha would be pleased. And that was a job well done in Leo’s opinion.
Chapter Two
Lennox and Cosmo laughed as Leo told them the claw story.
“So, you gave him the middle claw? Told you that was wicked,” Lennox Bartley, her alpha asked.
“Yep, it works every time. Who thought that a claw could get that kind of response?” Raven said, smiling. “Plus, he ripped my new jeans.” Raven dropped a receipt on the alpha’s desk.
“What’s this?” Lennox asked, picking up the paper.
Raven turned and pointed at the rip in her jeans. “That was done on the job. I want to be reimbursed for them. I’m tired of trying to fit in and buying clothes to do that then they get damaged.”
Lennox walked behind his desk. He grabbed a pen and pulled out his checkbook. “You’re paying her one hundred dollars for jeans?” Cosmo Fitzgerald scoffed.
“Of course. Any day I can get Raven to act more like a girl and wear girly clothes, then it’s a win—win with my mate,” Lennox said, handing her a check.
“What? You’re only doing this because of your mate? What does Jade have to do with it?” Raven demanded.
“She likes you, Raven, and wants to be your friend. She tries and tries with you and you continue to act like you don�
�t need friends. Everyone needs friends. Everyone needs them. Including me. I have lunch and dinner with the other alphas once a month, just to keep us being friends. We all need to change. Including you. Now, go to Southern Treasures and get you some new clothes. Girl clothes and make friends,” Lennox said, motioning with his hand to get out of his office.
Raven cringed. “I have friends. The Death Hunters are my friends.”
“No, Raven, we are your family, your pack. Now go.” Lennox leaned back and stared at her. She knew that look.
“Okay, but I have friends.” Raven swallowed hard and stomped out of the office. Dave Regan and Angelo Camp were her friends. They did a lot of things together. She got along with all the hunters. She couldn’t think as she marched out of the alpha’s house. Why was it so important to have friends? Nobody wanted to be her friend.
She started to stomp back into the house and tell Lennox to stuff it, but she slammed into someone. Her body bounced backward, falling toward the ground. Before she could brace herself for the hard landing, she was swept into the air. Raven stared at the man holding her, but he wasn’t a man; he was a shifter, a tiger shifter. Immediately, her bear perked up.
“Get your hands off me. Who are you?” Raven demanded. She shoved until he let her go, falling on her butt, hitting the dirt hard.