Hunter's Prey, A

by Cameron, Sarah

  “I love fighting to maintain balance. It's the game of my life.”

  “Is that part of the strategy you use in the M&A world?”

  “It's not part of the strategy, beautiful. It is the very core of my philosophy.”

  “Hmm,” she murmured, relaxing visibly. “A philosophy based on balance. I think I like the sound of that.”

  “You should. You know, I like an analogy made by a genius of our age, Sadhguru Jigga Vasudev, businessman, philantropist, and yogi. In describing life, he described it to riding a bicycle. If all you're doing is fighting to keep your balance, you'll be missing the beauty surrounding you. But if you learn balance from the beginning, you'll be able to ride that bike with your head held high, enjoying life's pleasure.”

  Wondering how many similar analogies he had in his sleeves, Zoe stored away this memory about their conversation for subsequent perusal.

  “Nice one.”

  “Having a wide perspective – it's indescribable. When you feel like you're seeing things from above, from a

  “Let me guess,” she said. “Bird's eye view?”

  With a rich laugh, he nodded. “You surprise me, Miss Jameson. Luke told me you were bright, but you are taking things surprisingly well for a woman in your situation.”

  A thin thread of hostility enveloped her, as it always happened when she felt threatened. Both Gerard and his boss had managed to feel her comfortable, yet threatened.

  “My situation?”

  “Well. You are in possession of quite powerful knowledge. Knowledge that has the power to destroy, as well as to create. In the hands of the wrong individuals – trust me, Miss Jameson, it would be disastrous.” Serious all of a sudden, Gerard leaned over the desk. “You are not yet aware of the life you are going to live from now on. To say you are going to be under the magnifying glass from all angles would be a gross understatement. Your private life is no longer private, Miss Jameson.”

  “Is that a warning?” She narrowed her eyes, brows furrowing in displeasure.

  “A fact.” Shrugging, he gestured to her windows. “There is no way to know the number of paparazzi waiting for you outside. Though the Hunters have a tight leash on them, they can't smother everything. Trust me when I say that being a COO and a CEO of one of the HUNTER Holdings companies is not the same.”

  “Oh, and you are an expert on it,” she teased, hoping to make her point, but he merely smiled.

  “I am a former CEO of a HUNTER Holdings subsidiary, Miss Jameson.”

  Shocked beyond words, Zoe could only gape shamelessly.

  “I've surprised you. Here,” he said, handing her the glass of water he had received upon arrival. She refused.

  “I'm just... I haven't read about it anywhere. There's no information on it.”

  “It wasn't in the papers. It's not common knowledge at all. It didn't happen very recently, actually.”

  By that she took to mean that it had probably not happened in the past few decades.

  “Well, I'm surprised you're working for Mr. Newman.”

  “Yes, well. I've never betrayed HUNTER Club's trust in me.”

  “Oh, my God.” Her eyes were like onions. “You're a spy for HUNTER Holdings.”

  “I would never call myself that, Miss Jameson.” But his smile indicated agreement.

  “I'm sure you know I'll have to verify your implied claim, Mr. Cruise.”

  “Please do so, Miss Jameson.”

  Texting a quick message to Damian, she was surprised to received a prompt, though surly answer within the next minute.

  “He's our man. What's it to you? And where did you get my number?”

  Without replying, she smiled to the man in front of her, liking their conversation much more than a minute before. Immediately, a plan started crafting in her mind.

  ***

  Damian couldn't stand being ignored. That she'd met Gerard Cruise made him sick with jealously, for some reason. The man was known for getting virtually anyone to say yes, and he wondered if that would prove true. If Damian staked a claim on her, though, no one would dare move a muscle in her direction.

  Distracting his thought processes, he let his work draw the entirety of his attention, throwing Zoe in a far corner of his mind.

  Darkly, he fell into the shadows of his past, relieving the horrors of war, of losing men and being the reason for so much pain. Being a war hero could not be accomplished without the perils of hundreds, but he hadn't let it affect him for more than a century. Eventually, though, the nightmares had started coming. What bothered him was that there had been no real cause for his motivation. Now the War seemed worthless to him – needless. They could have accomplished the same thing through other means, without expending so many lives. He couldn't dwell on it, though – it had all passed.

  He remembered himself then: young, ambitious, unstoppable and unreasonable. No one had stood in his way and he'd won victory after victory, and not only in war. He'd been a local champion, the proverbial knight, and so proud that the now legendary Leon Hunter had taken an interest in him. With time he had witnessed and contributed to a much larger movement that had enabled him to save lives, not take them. MedFuture Enterprises was his baby, his creation. He'd developed it out of an intrinsic necessity – it hadn't been a whim.

  Growling at the scent of the approaching man, he didn't bother to turn around as the lab doors glided open.

  “What do you want? I thought I told you to leave me alone today.”

  “I'm just informing you we're having a club meeting in five weeks – just us, Hunters. Leon will be there, too,” Dominic said, occupying the only comfortable-looking chair in the room.

  “You could have texted me. It's five weeks away, it's not even urgent.”

  “You need to confirm. Leon doesn't like to waste time – you know that.”

  Grunting in acknowledgement, he scribbled something on a notebook before briefly looking Dominic in the eyes. “I confirm. I'll be there. Now leave.”

  “Honestly, Damian, you're clueless.”

  Ticked off, the older brother turned around slowly, trying to stave off his anger. It wasn't easy, the day had already been shitty enough for him. He relied on his anger to feed him with energy, to keep the guilt at bay, and yet now he wondered if it wouldn't make him snap.

  “I'm telling you, Dominic. You picked a wrong day for a brawl.”

  “You had her at the estate. She's your mate. How much longer do you think you can stay away from her?”

  So he'd addressed the real subject he had come to discuss.

  “That's none of your business. And I would appreciate if you left me alone to work and think about it, since it is my business.”

  “You're such a hurt puppy, aren't you?” Dominic teased. “You don't need to pretend with her, Damian. She's strong. The strongest woman your sorry hide will ever find. The only one for you. You know that, right?”

  “Why are you telling me all this?”

  The younger Hunter's gaze clouded, emotions cleared from his face.

  “Because I'm envious. I envy you that you've found your mate. For the rest of us, every connection we have is weak, meaningless. You have the chance to have something deep and real and you're fucking it up. Grow a fucking pair.”

  “I am, which is why I can't have her.”

  “Oh, give me a break. Don't tell me I'm talking to Unselfish Dr. Hunter here.”

  “Shut up,” Damian growled, disliking when anyone addressed him by his title.

  “Give it up, Mother Theresa. Your selflessness is unwarranted in this case.”

  He couldn't help but snap. “Newman is already sniffing at her heels, don't tell me it's unwarranted.”

  “You have her on level six, don't you? Are you telling me you're worried any of us could get killed?”

  “No,” Damian admitted, “but she is not a shifter. She can't protect herself.”

  “No, she's not. But she can have more protection. True protection,” Dominic coaxed, d
riving the point home. Damian understood the message: he could give her a mate's protection. He could mark her and tie her life to his. Which was the problem in the first place!

  “Look. I just need you to know what you're getting into. She's human and she doesn't know about the bond between mates. And unless you show her, she's not going to know at all. If you don't step in, someone else will.”

  Damian's shoulders tensed at the mental imagery, his nerves sending sharp impulses of pain and pressure.

  “Can you even picture her with another man? Fucking her? Giving her children? She can have children without you – it's you who can't have them without her. Do you want another man claiming her womb and her body for the rest of her pathetically short human life?”

  Damian snapped.

  Unconsciously turning into a wolf, he snarled and jumped at his brother, who barely had time to turn into his mirror image before leaping away. The two wolves stood sizing each other up before Damian attacked, clamping his fangs around one of his brother's front legs. The injury stung, but Dominic managed to kick the other wolf in the head, confusing him for a moment, before he turned back into a man. Still hazy, Damian found himself naked and human, kneeling on the cold floor with his brother standing before him. Looking around him, he noticed the damage they'd done. Though nothing was irreplaceable, the lab would take days to fix and weeks to recreate some of the tests he had been working on.

  “Goddammit,” he cursed, accepting his brother's uninjured hand to rise to his feet. “It's going to take two days to get this lab back in top shape.”

  “You own a pharmaceutical research company,” Dominic teased as he grabbed some towels from the bathroom, throwing a couple to his brother before wiping himself of sweat, blood and chemicals. “Make use of the other labs, why don't you?”

  “Yeah, like the ones Dr. Japanese Genius took over?”

  “You're just jealous he knows her better.”

  Finishing to pat himself dry, Damian opened a drawer and pulled out spare clothes for him and his brother, incensed by the last remark.

  “I though I chomped enough of you for today.”

  Lifting his injured arm, Dominic scoffed. “What, this? I can't even feel it.”

  “Don't push it, Dom.”

  Recognizing his brother's non-bullshit mode, Dominic nodded.

  ***

  The 40 year-old-looking man adjusted the collar of his trench coat to keep his profile hidden from view. Sitting in his car parked across the lavish Café, he listened to the conversation carefully, proud of himself for having tapped the right person. The information he was getting was golden, worth billions of dollars. It could mean the slow crumbling of the Hunter empire, if the cards were to be played right by his employers.

  The people that had contracted him – they were not only pros, but geniuses, as well. With all his experience as a PI he hadn't been able to trace the call or identify the voice. He had received $2,000,000 for this very single session, and also insurance that covered the costs of a lawsuit in the case there would be one, as long as he didn't involve his contractors.

  Pushing a couple of buttons, he turned up the volume to hear better, recording everything at the same time.

  The two women were in his direct line of vision. He had paid Diane Jameson exactly $300,000 in order to agree to set up this meeting and conversation. He had provided the outline for her 'questioning', giving her a free hand as to how to approach it. Of course, he had not given her his name or any lead that could be traced back to him. Instead, he had contacted her anonymously, offering her the deal of her life.

  The truth, he'd found, was that everyone had a price. Especially a young woman who had never amounted to anything in her father's eyes, always in the shadow of the accomplished elder sister, always compared to her. Getting MedFuture's CEO's sister to betray her sibling had been surprisingly easy and cheap.

  He couldn't wait to hear the confident woman incriminate herself. The equanimity the Hunters always managed to maintain in their business life was about to be throttled.

  ***

  “So why don't you start telling me?” Denise said conspiratorially, her eyes twinkling as she sipped her cocktail. Smirking herself, Zoe regarded her sister with an innocent feature.

  “I don't know what you're talking about, sweetie. How's school going?”

  Denise shrugged, her eyes darkening for a moment. Zoe knew that anything career-related was a sore spot for her sister, who had never felt quite adequate despite possessing above-average wit and IQ. “Oh, you know. On my way to being a lawyer.”

  “Not just any lawyer,” Zoe teased, taking a moment to relish a spoonful of Semifreddo. “A Harvard-schooled one.”

  “Yeah, well... anyway. Tell me about you. You look... different.”

  Moaning around another bite of dessert, Zoe raised her eyebrows.

  “Different, how?”

  “I don't know. Radiant. Like you've been less stressed, which seems counterintuitive, since you're a CEO now. Oh my God, honey, good for you.”

  “It's why we're celebrating, yeah?” Zoe asked, smiling warmly, her chest expanding with love for her younger sister. It was the only thing left untainted in her family, the only sane bond.

  “Damn right, it is.” Taking a huge gulp of her cocktail, Denise raised the glass in a mock toast. “For my sister – the first CEO on the HUNTER Holdings board. To many years of secrets and loads of cash.”

  Laughing wholeheartedly, Zoe nodded in agreement.

  “And as few enemies as possible.”

  “And that, yeah,” Denise concurred. “So... let's address the elephant in the room. You've been fucked.”

  Choking, the young CEO put the spoon down and downed a few gulps of water.

  “Oh!” Denise grinned toothily. “I hit the jackpot, didn't I? So who's the lucky dick?”

  “Denise!”

  Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Zoe decided her conversation with her sister was too unpredictable for her to risk eating during it at the moment.

  “Yes, I've been having sex. No, that's none of your business.”

  “It so is! You have not found a man in how long?”

  “Denise! You're making me seem like an old maid.”

  “Well... I think I had more sex at twelve than you've had these past two years combined.”

  Eyes gaping open, Zoe pursed her lips. “When did you lose your virginity?”

  “I can't believe you don't know that about me.” Denise frowned. “At eleven. Duh!”

  “Duh?! What the hell were you doing, having sex at eleven?”

  “Honey, you are getting off-subject. We were talking about the handsome, mysterious guy you're screwing. Don't make this about me. Is it one of the Hunters? Please tell me it is! I'd so screw Damian, he's so yummy.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Zoe fumed. “You would so not. He's off limits.”

  “So he's the one? Gosh, I knew it!”

  “Denise, I can't talk about this in public.” Her tone was chiding, though her sister seemed to miss it.

  “But you're gonna tell me all about it in private?”

  Nibbling on her lower lip pensively, Zoe pondered whether she should say yes or refuse. There was a lot at stake, but as long as they were out of public perusal, they could talk about almost anything. She would never betray the Hunters by offering information about their companies or their Club, but she could discuss her sex life with her dear sister – her favorite person in the world.

  “Sure. As long as you keep your mouth shut.”

  “You know me, sis.” Denise smirked, taking a long draw of her cocktail. “Just one thing. I was right about Damian, wasn't I?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe is not an answer. Gimme the yes or the no. Have you fucked him?”

  Sighing, Zoe was half-tempted to laugh at the crazy notion. “Trust me, honey. That could never happen. That man will never allow it. But he fucked me, yes. And it was mind-numbing and earth-shattering, but that's th
e last I'm telling you tonight. Now, how is school, really?”

  ***

  Damian couldn't take it anymore.

  He thought of her daily, obsessing about her safety, wondering about her activities, the way she was coping with being a CEO. He'd heard from his brothers she was marvelous in strategizing and negotiations, and desperately wished he could see her in action. Her wit and incredible confidence aroused him greatly, making him wish he could make her his woman, drag her into his bed and have her every single night.