First Hunt [Diablo Falls]

by Alexis Calder

  First Hunt

  Alexis Calder

  A Diablo Falls Paranormal Short Story

  Contents

  Welcome to Diablo Falls

  First Hunt

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Two Months Later

  More First Time Reads

  About the Author

  Welcome to Diablo Falls

  Welcome to Diablo Falls, where the world of the supernatural is out in the open, and where fangs, fur, and magic are the norm. Join the authors of Bite Club and meet those who are experiencing paranormal firsts in our growly, filthy collection of thirteen steamy "First Time" short stories.

  Because we all know... you never forget your first.

  First Hunt

  What happens when you fall for the creature you were taught to hunt?

  Violet

  I was raised as a hunter - trained to kill all of the monsters that go bump in the night. I left that life behind, vowing to never kill unless necessary. Unfortunately, necessary happened pretty quickly. With blood on my hands and no place to go, I rely on the help of a sexy rancher. Turns out he’s a wolf shifter and I’m falling hard. FML.

  Jackson

  When I inherited the family ranch, my whole life went to hell. Then, I met Violet. She’s strong, sexy, and just fiesty enough to put up with someone like me. Basically, she’s everything I ever wanted in a woman. The only problem is that she’s a hunter and I’m a shifter.

  Can Violet and Jackson fight their pasts to let love win?

  Chapter 1

  Violet

  Another car drove past me, ignoring my cardboard sign. So much for good samaritans. Or serial killer who wanted to give a twenty-one-year-old, five-foot-four brunette a ride. I knew I didn't look threatening. I had an athletic build that was covered by my jeans and a flannel shirt. As they drove by, I probably looked like a typical girl. The kind that could be easily overpowered if need be.

  I hated thinking like that. That there were more bad people than good in this world. But after getting dumped and left penniless at a shitty hotel in the middle of nowhere it was hard to find the silver lining. I dropped the sign on the side of the road and started walking.

  I knew better. Every piece of my instinct was screaming at me for following Cade on his wild idea of moving out of the compound. But I wanted adventure. I told myself it was fine because I knew I was using him as much as he was using me. We both wanted out. Away from the brutal training sessions and indoctrination of our families. I shouldn't have been surprised when he took off in the middle of the night. At least he left a note.

  But there was no way I'd follow him back home and he knew it. The coward had used the last of our combined savings to get a bus back home. I was left with the terrible consequence of bailing on our hotel bill and hoofing it wherever I could get to attempt to make it on my own.

  So far, that meant me walking solo along the highway for three hours.

  I looked up as the sound of another car approached. Wondering if I'd have more luck if I wasn't asking for a ride, I looked back at my feel and shuffled along the road. The car kicked up dirt as it flew past me. I coughed and waved the cloud of exhaust away from my face.

  So this was it? Walking along the highway until I reached some town or farm house where I could steal some food? Was that what I was now? A thief? This was not going as I expected it. I really believed we'd find a job in the city and make it on our own. I certainly didn't want to go back.

  As good as my stamina was, thanks to regular ten mile training runs, I was still getting tired. Ahead, I saw a large boulder in the field that lined the highway. I cut through the grass and checked the stone for any critters that might not want company. Satisfied that I wasn't stealing a rattle snake's stone, I climbed on top of it and tucked my legs under me.

  The wind rustled the tall grass, making a light rainlike sound around me. A cloud moved across the sun, creating a massive shadow that cooled me for the first time since I started this trek. I stared at the mountains nearby, longing to get lost in them. In my head, a small mountain town might be less likely to care where I came from than the larger cities. I was starting to have my doubts.

  The temporary reprieve from the sun faded as the cloud moved. The sun once again at full strength. It was warmer than I was used to. I unbuttoned the flannel shirt and tied it around my waist, relishing the feeling of the breeze on my bare arms.

  It was warm enough to walk around in my tank top but I didn't want the tattoo on my shoulder drawing attention. I always thought it was odd to mark hunters in such an obvious place. I looked at the intricate wreath of violets that surrounded the hunter's triquetra. The flowers were my namesake and also a symbol of devotion, or so I'd been told. I hated the reminder of my life before leaving six months ago.

  My parents had raised me to be a proper hunter, along with all the other children in our compound. I'd learned all the myths about the monsters in our world. Vampires, shifters, demons. I learned how to fight, trained in the ring against my friends, and spent hours every day in the gym. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned how different my upbringing was. Those first few visits to town with Cade were eye-opening. We never knew how much of the world we were prevented from learning about. We also never knew that to everyone else, the monsters we'd been trained to kill were just a myth.

  Cade and I shared a birthday. As we grew up, we shared everything. And I mean everything. There was nothing we didn't know about each other. And as our twenty-first birthday approached, we knew we'd be assigned our first hunt. As soon as we were given the assignment, we fled. Using our space savings and the funds we received to make the kill, we got as far as we could from home.

  It didn't take long for us to realize that neither of us was equipped with the skills to attain or hold a job in the real world. Krav Maga wasn't exactly an impressive note on a job application. Add in the fact that we were born off grid to the mix and we were doomed from the start. Seems people don't want to hire you without a social security number and a driver's license.

  I scowled as fury knotted in my gut. My parents had fucked me over. They never gave me a choice and they set me up to fail at everything else. For a moment, I considered going back and joining the ranks of the other hunters. But it passed in an instant. This wasn't my fight. I didn't want to kill vampires. What did they ever do to me?

  I mean, I'd heard all the stories of whole families taken down in a single night. But after a few months of watching the human news, I knew there were probably more terrible humans out there than there were supernatural creatures.

  The soft breeze blew my hair in front of my eyes and I quickly tied it behind my head into a low bun. As I looked up, I noticed that a pickup truck had stopped.

  I stood, my whole body tensing as if facing a threat. My hands balled into fists on instinct and I forced myself to settle down. Whoever stopped might be looking at a map or grabbing something from their back seat.

  A figure appeared in front of the truck. A man in a flannel shirt and jeans. He lifted his hand to his brow, shielding his eyes from the sun. "You okay out there?"

  I blinked a few times, trying to make him out better. Even from this distance, I could tell he was big. Probably over six feet tall and solid. From here I couldn't tell if he was muscular or had a softer physique.

  Cautiously, I approached him, tugging my shirt back on as I did. While I'd been trained on how to spot supernatural creatures, I didn't need to ha
ve my first encounter with one while showing my tattoo. I shook my head, chastising myself for jumping to conclusions. That was one of the things I was running away from. The constant paranoia that everyone was out to get me. It was an exhausting way to live.

  "You lost?" he called.

  "My friend bailed on me," I called back.

  I was five feet from him now and I froze in my tracks. The man standing in front of me wasn't soft at all. His unbuttoned flannel shirt blew in the wind, showing the skin tight white tank top he was wearing under it - along with the outlines of an impressive set of pecs. My gaze dropped from his chest down to his waist, then lower.

  He really filled in those jeans.

  He cleared his throat.

  My cheeks heated and I looked up at his face. He was smiling at me, showing his straight white teeth and soft lips. His handsome face was covered with a very sexy five o'clock shadow and his short black hair framed his face perfectly. He was by far the hottest man I'd ever seen in my life.

  "Need a ride somewhere?" he asked.

  I blinked a few times, trying to regain the ability to speak. He was that hot. "Um, yes, please."

  "Where you headed?" he asked.

  "Anywhere," I said. "Trying to find somewhere new, you know? Start over."

  "I get that," he said.

  I wasn't sure why I told him that. I might as well have said I'm alone and nobody knows I'm here so if you're a serial killer you can totally get away with my murder.

  I should have been more cautious. But for once, my intuition wasn't screaming at me. Though, to be fair, it was probably silenced by my libido which was in full on overdrive at the moment. I mean, if this guy wanted to tear my clothes off and have his way with me on the hood of his pick up truck, I'd probably go along with it.

  "I could use a ranch hand for a few weeks," he said. "You have any experience working on a ranch?"

  "No," I said. "But I grew up on a compound. Hippy shit. Community gardens, homemade clothes, the works."

  So it was a little white lie. We absolutely didn't garden or make our own clothes. Quite the opposite in fact. Top of the line equipment, food prepared by a nutritionist, high end everything. I never found out the details on the funding for our little hunter cove but it was top dollar.

  "You'll fit right in," he said. "I can't pay much, but you'd get room and board."

  "That beats all the other offers I've got right now," I said.

  "Alright," he said as he walked to the pick up. He opened the passenger door. "You coming?"

  Almost. I thought, blushing again at the places my head was going. A bed in the same house as this man? Sign me the hell up for that.

  Maybe my luck was changing.

  Chapter 2

  Violet

  "The name's Jackson," he said as he snapped his seatbelt in place. "You are?"

  "Violet, but everyone calls me Vi," I said.

  He lifted an eyebrow. "Everyone?"

  "Well, back home," I said.

  "At the hippie compound?" He started the car and turned to check for oncoming traffic.

  "Yep."

  He pulled onto the empty highway and accelerated, taking us closer to the mountains.

  Good place for him to leave the body. I shook my head. I had to stop that. Even if he did want to hurt me, I was capable of defending myself. I regularly sparred with men twice my size. Though, I wasn't ever sure how much they held back. I was a trainee after all. Would it be different if I had to fight someone who really wanted to harm me?

  "What's your ranch like?" I asked, deciding that I should get him talking. If could catch him in a lie, I'd have a better sense of his personality. Worst case scenario, I run like hell as soon as we slow down. Though, to be honest, there was nowhere for me to run.

  We drove past a sign for a city. Sixty miles to Diablo Falls. "Is that where you live? Diablo Falls?"

  "I'm right outside the city limits, if you can call it a city," he said. "It's an older ranch. Was my great-grandfather's first. I took it over two years ago when my dad passed."

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  "It's okay, we saw it coming," he said.

  "That doesn't make it any easier to accept," I said.

  He glanced at me and smiled. "That's true. But I'm not alone. My brothers are helping me run the place."

  "Brothers?" my voice caught at the word as I pictured more men that looked like him. I was in danger of walking into a cheesy porn movie at this rate.

  "Two. Jordan and Jake."

  "Your mom was one of those?" I asked.

  He glanced at me, eyebrow raised.

  "The whole matching name thing. Same for my family. My sister is Vivian and my brother is Victor. It's confusing."

  He smiled. "Yeah, sometimes people mix us up. We do sort of look alike. But anyone will tell you, I'm the handsome one."

  "And the most humble," I added.

  He laughed. "That too."

  "Sounds like you've got some help on the ranch with your brothers there," I said.

  "True," he said. "But they're not planning to stay. Mostly, we're just getting it ready for investors."

  "You're selling it?" I asked.

  "Probably," he said. "None of us ever wanted to run a ranch. I'm sure my dad is turning over in his grave right now but it was the dream of past generations. Not ours." He looked at me. "Does that make sense? Saying out out loud makes me sound like a spoiled kid."

  "Not at all. If anyone gets it, it's me. I mean, hello hippie parents on a compound. Sharing everything, joining the family business. I get it," I said.

  "What's the family business on a compound?" he asked.

  "Alpacas," I said, throwing out the first word that popped into my head when I thought about hippies.

  "Really?" he asked.

  "Yep."

  "You're going to be a lot more helpful than I thought," he said.

  "Why's that? You looking for an alpaca hook up?" My face burned when I thought about what kind of hook up I wanted to give him.

  "Not quite. But one of the potential investors is thinking of turning the ranch into an alpaca farm. Apparently they're the next big thing or something."

  I swallowed hard. Who knew a lie about raising alpacas with your parents would backfire so spectacularly? "Um, sure."

  "So what's that like?" he asked.

  "What?"

  "Growing up on an alpaca farm?"

  "Oh, um, well, I didn't really know any different you know." I thought back to my childhood. Hours spent with my father throwing knives against targets. Learning poisons from my mother. Yeah, totally normal childhood. "What was it like growing up on a ranch?"

  "Same I guess," he said. "You don't know how much different your life is until you start seeing the way other people live."

  "That's true." At least that was something I could relate to. "I didn't get to go into town until I was a teenager so I was pretty sheltered."

  "Wow. We went into town weekly for supplies. But I didn't get to visit a larger city till I was a teen. My uncle moved to Brooklyn when I was a kid and I got to spend a few summers there. It's what made me decide to leave when I was done with school."

  "I was homeschooled," I said.

  "Same," he said, giving me a sideways glance. "We sure have a lot in common. Who knew I'd meet another weird home schooled kid on the side of the road?"

  "Yeah, it is weird." My stomach did a flip. Every second I spent in this car was more assurance that I was going to attempt to jump on him. Who knew there were men that looked like this in the world and who knew that I'd feel such a strong connection to one?

  "How'd you end up on the side of the road anyway?" He raised his eyebrows. "The real story."

  I let out a long sigh. Of course I couldn't give him the real story. What was I supposed to say? My family hunts supernatural creatures and I was sent on my first hunt with my compound boyfriend and he bailed on me. I shook my head. That was not happening.

  "I left home with my boyfriend
." At least that part was true.

  "Where is he now?" Jackson asked, his voice gentle.

  "He couldn't hack it in the real world. He went back. I stayed." I paused, settling into the silence between us.

  "I'm sorry."

  "I should have seen it coming," I said. "The important part is that I'm determined to survive on my own. I'm not going back there."

  "You have no idea how much I get that. Going home is painful," he said.

  "Now I'm sorry. I swear I'm not judging you."

  He chuckled. "I know you're not. It's a little different for me. At least I get to be the one in charge now, right?"

  You can be in charge of me anytime. "Yeah, that's different."

  "Your boyfriend sounds like an asshole."

  "Ex-boyfriend," I clarified.

  The smile on his face made me squeeze my thighs together. I had a feeling I wasn't the only one in this car having dirty thoughts about the other person in this car. Flutters rose in my chest as I considered the possibilities. Never in a million years did I think I'd end up with a sexy cowboy on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Yet, here I was. Suddenly, I was quite grateful for Cade's abandonment.

  Sex with Cade had always been good. But he was all I knew and while we'd experimented a bit, he was more tame than I wanted him to be. Maybe Jackson had a kinky side. I felt my arousal rising and licked my lips while I tried to slow my breathing. I wasn't sure why I was reacting to him this way but I wasn't sure I wanted it to stop, either. One way or another, I wanted to spend some time naked with this man.