by May Sage
Until three years ago.
They were in Japan when a witch portal appeared out of the blue. Luther practically had a heart attack when a beautiful blonde leaped out of it. Then, he asked a thousand questions, determined to understand the phenomenon.
"Hey, slow down, doc. Meet my sister. Gwen, this is Chris Luther. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"No time for that, Dad's after me."
In his delight at seeing her, he hadn't noticed everything else, but now his attention caught every detail. The urgency of her voice, the erratic beat of her heart. Above all, the smell. Blood. Her blood.
"Gwen? What happened to you? Did Dad—"
"Most of the blood is because I just gave birth."
His mouth fell open. "What the..."
"Hey, you weren't there. Things happen in three years." Before he could feel guilty, she added, "I've never been prouder than when you left that stinking pack. I haven't been there for two years myself. I found my mate, and we lived on a ranch. It was wonderful, Hunter. But Dad somehow heard and he surrounded us today. Attacked on all fronts. We ran and I gave birth to my girl in the car."
This made no sense. Leaving the pack wasn't something people got attacked for. Those who left were generally considered cowards, cut off from pack funding, or even banished, but they weren't tracked and hunted.
Unless—
"Hunter, my mate is a jaguar."
That. Unless that.
"And your child is a hybrid."
"She's my daughter. And she's perfect."
And soon, she'd be perfectly dead. Their family would see to it.
"Miss, if I might say, I think you might need some medical attention..."
She did; she had a hard time standing straight. It took a hell of a lot to wound a shifter. Hunter moved to help her. Now he was closer, his nose picked up something else underneath all the blood. Something a lot more alarming.
“Gwen?”
She sighed. "I was shot. Pulled the bullet out, and the wound's all healed, but it was too late anyway." She confirmed his worst fear. "I have silver in my bloodstream."
His world stopped in that moment.
Dead. Gwen was dead. His beautiful sister was nothing more than a walking ghost.
There was nothing else, no one else, he truly loved in the world. And she was fading.
"Got to a witch. She slowed down the process as much as she could, portaled me here so I could speak to you. There's something I need to ask you. It's too much. But I have no one else to ask."
Her last words. His heart stopped.
"Just tell me. I'll do anything for you, you know that."
And then she told him what she needed of him. At the time it had sounded so impossible.
Afterwards, Hunter carried Gwen back to the hotel where he and Luther were staying, he made her as comfortable as possible. Luther ordered a feast, charging it on his credit card. Hunter grabbed his guitar and played all of Gwen's favorite songs, until she died.
It wasn't a nice death. Silver poisoning meant spilling blood and suffering until the last second. In the end, he was glad when her suffering was over.
After her eyes closed and her heart stopped, he whispered in her ear that he'd live up to his word.
He'd meant it then. He hadn't regretted it since the day those words crossed his lips, despite the fact that it had cost him his freedom.
Now in Texas, patrolling the pack territory, he still lived by those words. It meant living with people he despised and watching untold horrors without doing a thing to stop them.
Not that he actually watched. When it was time for the enforcers to round up the kids for evaluation, he always stayed away. But he knew what was happening. He knew those he never saw after that day had been killed.
And there was nothing he could do about it.
Chapter 4
Evaluation
“Hey.”
Hunter sighed as he turned to the kid.
He didn’t speak to children as a rule; especially not to those who were too young to have gone through their evaluation, but Anna was an exception. It had to do with her eyes, or maybe her hair. Blonde hair, blue eyes, just like his sister. It wasn’t common in the pack. She didn’t look like Gwen at all, but that was enough.
“What now?” He growled grumpily.
Growling was kinda his thing these days.
“Mama says you went to college. Is that true?”
“So what?”
“So, maybe I can go to college someday, too, I guess.”
He kicked a rock in the road. “Sure you can, if you’re good enough.”
“Nice one. Thank you, Hunter. Gotta go! Your daddy said we all have to get dressed nice and come in.”
He stiffened. Today? This year’s evaluation was today. How come he hadn’t heard of it?
Hunter's nose caught something in the distance, and he turned to find his father walking towards him, Jason by his side.
"Hunter. With me."
The three words were infused with all the weight of his dominance, making them an Alpha's command. Hunter was moving before he'd made any conscious decision; he didn't have any choice in the matter. His steps followed one step behind Arthur, to his left. He didn't even bother to ask where they were going.
It soon became obvious. They were in front of his father's cabin, where most of the pack was gathered.
Hunter knew why.
"Most of the enforcers working right now are here," he said, his tone carefully indifferent, slightly bored. "Which means we only have three guys on the borders. I should return to my post."
"You will stay with me," was Arthur's response. He sat down on the step of his porch, and got his pocketknife out, twirling it around his hand. "You're never around for pack gatherings. It has been noted and brought to my attention."
Shit.
"I'm not comfortable leaving the territory so unmanned, Dad."
"I sent Brian and Trent. Now shut up. It's almost time."
Hunter's chest rose and fell as seconds passed. The crowd thickened, and soon there were a dozen kids in front of the Alpha, surrounded by ten enforcers.
At six o'clock exactly, Arthur's mobile phone alarm rang. He got to his feet and directed his eyes to the kids.
"Hey, guys. You know why you're here. You know why I've never said your names before this day. You were your parents’ charges. Now you become part of my pack, kiddos. I'm gonna need you to stand in line."
The twelve children were messy about it, elbowing each other to get to the place they wanted to take, but, after a minute, they'd obeyed.
"Good, good," Arthur drawled. "You're all little fighters. That's what we like here. Now, you're going to step in front of me one by one. I'm gonna speak to you for a minute. Ready?"
Hunter recalled his own evaluation. It had been nothing more than a formality; everyone had known he was a dominant long before. But he'd stressed out all the same, and he could feel fear radiating from the kids.
Anna was the third in line. She'd gotten changed into a clean pair of jeans and a black blouse. Catching her eyes, Hunter had a hard time remaining where he stood.
This was so fucking messed up.
"Right, you, come closer."
The first kid obeyed; a tall and skinny boy. "Hey, pup. You're Pete's boy, am I right?"
He nodded, and croaked, "Yes, sir."
"Hm. You shifted last year. How do you like it?"
The kid couldn't help himself, he smiled a little, thinking about his first shift, no doubt. "A lot, sir. My brother shifted before me and it was awesome to run with him. Play. Catch up with him."
"I bet, pup, I bet. Now come here. Look into my eyes."
Arthur bent forward to be at the boy's level. A second passed. Hunter wasn't breathing.
"Good, good. You go stand with my sons, Jack. Welcome to the pack."
The first had passed the test. The second dropped his eyes when the Alpha's glare was directed to him, but Arthur said his name
and told him to go stand behind them, too. This wasn't a submissive reaction, as much as an acknowledgement of Arthur's dominance. It was then Anna's turn.
"The first girl. They tell me you're a good swimmer."
The kid grinned. "Yes, sir. I swam before shifting but my wolf just loves the water."
"I bet. It's hotter than Satan's butthole this summer. Y’all probably go to the river a lot, hey?"
"Hell, yes!" She thought better of it, and added a hesitant, "sir," as an afterthought.
The kid was doing just fine. Hunter was a little less agitated even before she passed the test.
"Anna, go hang out with my sons. And I'll be watching you, young lady."
Of course he would. Alphas watched the most dominant members of their prides, regardless of their age.
By the time they go to the ninth kid, Hunter had chilled. As the Vergas pack had culled their members from submissive lines for centuries, there weren't submissives at every evaluation. Looked like he'd gotten lucky. Three kids left.
The boy who stepped in next made Hunter pause. He made him feel something strange, primal, although Hunter didn't know him at all. A need to cast himself between him and danger. Protect him. He frowned, observing him closely.
He had dark messy hair and brown eyes, just like most people in the pack; nondescript. He wasn't small, nor very tall. Not too scrawny, certainly not beefy. There was very little to distinguish him from his peers.
He was sweating, more than the other kids. His eyes weren't directly fixed ahead; they jumped from his feet to the enforcers around him, caught a glance of the Alpha and returned to his feet.
He knew, immediately. So did his father.
"Well, well. What have we here."
Arthur's tone was different. Lower, slower. Amused, playful. Predatory.
The boy started to tremble and looked to the crowd, searching it frantically. Searching for help, or for an escape.
"Come here, boy."
He didn't.
The enforcers approached, closing in on him.
"I...I," said the boy, stammering.
"Speak louder, boy. I'm sure what you have to say is positively fascinating."
That's when the kid tried to run. Arthur chuckled. So did some of the enforcers, and most of the spectators.
"Mom, Dad!" He called, running left now he'd spotted the help he so desperately needed.
Hunter knew the parents. Burt had attended the same class as him, right here in the pack territory. Mina was a few years younger.
Burt looked away, while Mina silently cried. Neither moved a muscle to get to their kid.
An enforcer grabbed him by the collar and the boy bit him, before trying to run again. He was so busy looking behind him, to the Alpha, that he wasn't paying attention to where he was running. He hit a solid form. A solid form that definitely would have preferred to be standing just about anywhere else in the world right now. Hunter.
The kid's brown eyes went up and up, until they found his. He didn't beg. Didn't say please.
"Hunter." This was his Alpha's voice. "Bring the child." A clear command.
He didn't move.
"I said bring the child."
This time, the words were accompanied with the full force of his dominance and the authority of his rank. Hunter should already be halfway to him by now.
But he wasn't. How come he wasn't?
You know why.
His wolf didn't speak, but they communicated just fine. Hunter felt and heard the animal's every intention.
Yes, he knew why, all of a sudden. Just like he knew why Arthur had had no problem sending him away to college, why he'd seemed pissed when he'd come back.
He wasn't moving because he didn't want to. And he was stronger than his father. More dominant. His compliance had been entirely voluntary until now.
The moment he realized that, something in him exploded, blasting through whatever restriction he'd imposed on himself in the past.
Being part of a pack meant being linked to every single member in the community through their animals. Feeling them, being subliminally conscious of belonging to something bigger. Even away from Texas, on another continent, he'd still felt the others.
Now, he didn't. There was just him in his head.
And he was Alpha.
Alpha of nothing, but Alpha, nonetheless.
He lifted his chin and stared right at Arthur Force.
"No."
His “no” might as well have been a “fuck off.” Grabbing the kid by the back of his collar, he turned his back on the pack and started to walk away. Everyone was too stunned to act for maybe ten seconds, but then Arthur was sending his enforcers after them.
Ten seconds was long enough. He got to his car; throwing the kid in the back, he rushed to the driver’s seat and took off at full speed, not questioning his decision. There was no choice. There was no turning back.
Somewhere at the back of his mind, he realized what it meant: he’d left the pack. He couldn’t keep his promise to Gwen any more.
But did he need to now, still?
It didn’t matter. He drove like a maniac, speeding up when he found the territory’s fences closed, and drove right through the gate.
At the first opportunity, Hunter stopped to withdraw as much cash as he could in one da, and dropped his phone, his credit cards, everything except his keys.
“Fuck.”
He looked at his car. A little head was popping out of the back seat, watching him. He sighed, and got back in, turning to the submissive.
“You got a name?”
“I…I’m Mike, sir.”
“And I’m no sir, Mike. I’m Hunter.”
“I know. You’re Hunter Force.”
Of course he knew.
“Why did you help me?”
A million-dollar question, to which he had no answer; no satisfactory answer, in any case. Instead of attempting to make one up and waste more time, he said, “Look, kid, I’m not gonna lie, we’re in trouble. My father didn’t send the wolves after me now because he couldn’t afford to risk his only enforcers on duty while the outer territory was manned by only five guys. He’s gonna call in everyone, and he’s going to send trackers and hunters after us.”
The kid’s eyes were saucers by then. Shit, was he supposed to say that to a ten-year-old?
“What are we gonna do?” Mike asked, his voice small.
Great question.
“Ditch this car, discreetly, buy another vehicle for cash, and hopefully get them to lose their track. The next twenty-four hours are the hardest. If we survive them, we have a chance.”
Mike nodded.
Hunter started the car and drove.
When they got to a dealership, Mike showed some initiative. “There’s a mom and pop store across the road. Can I get food while you pick out the car?”
He hesitated, unsure about whether he was supposed to let the boy go in by himself. People would remember a lone kid if questioned. But they didn’t have a lot of time and getting some food into them wasn’t the worst idea.
“Yeah, sure.” He handed him a hundred bucks. “Get me two burgers, two fries. Beef jerky, if you can get it. If they have Coke, get a bottle, and water, too. You got it?”
“Okay.”
The kid was off, dashing across the street.
Looked like it wasn’t going to be as hard as he thought.
But now what?
He knew his father. His pride was hurt. He wasn’t going to let it go until he got him back to the territory and taught him a lesson, in front of everyone, to prove his dominance. Plus, he wasn’t going to let a Vergas submissive child breathe if he could help it. It went against everything their sick pack had been about.
What now…
Chapter 5
Fleabag
“Wait, you’re telling us there’re actually witches in New Orleans,” Christine asked, while they walked around the town perimeter.
Rain nodded. “Witches, werewol
ves, vampires. That close to a permanent portal to an infernal world, all kinda sups converge. My family has guarded the portal for generations. The problem is, everyone's power hungry, greedy, and treacherous as fuck. Got out as soon as I could. They figured I'd run back with my tail between my legs." She shrugged. "It's been ten years and I'm doing just fine on my own."
"Do you miss it?" Jas asked. "I mean, I went to Nola once, during Mardi Gras. It's definitely something else."
Rain sighed. "Yeah, how couldn't I? The vibrancy, the beauty of the city, the music, the food! It's more than that, though. I'm a witch; a witch practicing ancestral magic. When I kissed Nola goodbye, I left most of my powers behind."
"Wait." Christine chuckled "You mean when you hid a whole army by magic, and created walls so strong I can actually feel them all around us, you weren't at your best?"
Rain winked. "Trust me when I say you don't ever wanna see me at my best."
The wind turned and Jas grimaced. Catching the same repugnant scent, Christine winced.
"What? What am I missing?" Rain asked.
"Dog."
"Yeah, that one's a stinker."
A second later, an enthusiastic brown and white bulldog appeared from the forest line, barking at them.
"How cute!" Rain exclaimed.
"He's ugly as fuck," was Jas' comment.
"And stinky. Let's not forget stinky."
Of course, the dog was fascinated by Jas' and Christine's scents; feline shifters in their human forms always excited domestic dogs. In their animal forms, it was another story.
"Aww," the witch cooed, "I think this baby's a stray. Look how thin he is..."
"No." Jas was already shaking her head. "Uh-uh. Never. We're not bringing that bag of fleas into our home."
Turned out, Rain wasn't bad at doing the pouty face. Or maybe she just hocus-pocused them until they gave in. Either way, three hours later, at the end of their shift, they were hosing the fleabag down in the garden. The kids, with Rain and Vivicia, half laughing, half puking, rubbed some shampoo over him, while Christine called the closest vet.
"Valley Vets, Tania speaking, how can I help?"