Huntress Bound

by Aimee Easterling

  Which is when our companion took his game up a notch. Grabbing my ruff and shaking me gently from side to side, Malachi brought his words into focus by force of will alone. “Ember,” he repeated. “You need to shift back.”

  No, my lupine half countered. We needed to follow Sebastien as quickly as possible so our mate tether wouldn’t snap. After all, the pain in our gut was growing worse with each mile that was inserted between us and who knew how much time we had left....

  Still, my more rational human brain was gradually jiggled back to good sense by my cousin’s physical reminder. Going two-legged would put certain assets at our disposal that the wolf couldn’t call upon...assets like Wolfie’s assistance to track the car that held my mate.

  Because, even in the midst of my haze of lupine desperation, I’d memorized the relevant license-plate number before the vehicle in question pulled away. I wouldn’t put it past my father to hack into military satellites and figure out where the agents were located. Or, failing that, perhaps he possessed other means of following a fleeing vehicle that I couldn’t even begin to understand.

  Either way, Dad couldn’t get started until I regained my human voice and made that all-important call. So, wriggling out of Malachi’s arms and leaping down to the floor, I nodded my head at my cousin to let him know my human half was back in charge. Yes, I got it. I just needed to force the time-sensitiveness of the matter through the lupine half’s hard skull.

  Unfortunately, the beast wasn’t so easily swayed. Our mate is leaving, my animal half growled, rushing toward the door that my cousin had—thankfully—possessed the presence of mind to close behind him. Our shoulder hit the unyielding wood with a hard thud and my wolf whined at the barrier. Let’s go.

  You’re the one wasting time now, I countered as paws pranced back a step in preparation for trying the battering-ram approach again. Hastily, I reminded my furry partner how Sebastien had darted through his house moments before agents broke down his door. Had our mate been hiding something? Something he hoped we would find?

  A smart hunter takes the time to scout the lay of the land rather than diving willy-nilly into danger, I reminded my lupine half.

  And she, at last, accepted my plan. Relinquishing control of our shared body, the wolf pushed out of her paws and into my skin until we’d regained opposable thumbs and a human voice. Now, finally, we possessed the necessary tools with which to track down our absent mate.

  “WE HAVE TO GO AFTER them,” I gasped as soon as I could, not even taking the time to straighten up before beginning to speak. I was still panting like a wolf, but I was able to open the door...a feat I proceeded to accomplish even as I barked requests over one shoulder at the burly cousin trailing along in my wake. “Can you bring the SUV around? I need to pick up a couple of items from inside Sebastien’s house and we don’t have much time....”

  Then I was being pulled out of the entranceway by a growling Malachi, who stepped around my tense body to look up and down the street even as he shielded me from view. “Don’t be an idiot,” my cousin told me. “You’re naked. We’re in human territory. Try to use your brain.”

  Now it was my turn to snarl, annoyed by the fact that Malachi was treating me like a child...and even more so at the realization he was probably right to doubt my current intelligence. “Is anyone out there?” I asked apologetically, pushing a little submission into my tone to prove that my companion’s point had been received loud and clear.

  I was rusty in the appeasement department, though, so I think the words might have come out closer to a pout. For whatever reason, Malachi’s lips twitched up into that almost-smile he seemed to have perfected during the time we’d spent apart. The expression didn’t hold a candle to the relentless teasing he would have dished out ten years ago, but I’d accept any sign of unity at this point. “All clear,” my companion agreed before turning around to face me once again.

  And this time when large hands landed on my naked shoulders, something more than friendship flowed between us. My cousin’s ordinary brown eyes now looked as enticing as newly melted milk chocolate, and his scent drew me in like the aroma of baking yeast bread. How had I failed to notice that my once-weedy cousin had so thoroughly grown up?

  “I’ve got clothes for you in the car,” my companion informed me, his voice turning husky as whatever had affected me zinged through him as well. But he cleared his throat and stuck to the point without requiring any prompting on my part. “I picked up your suitcase from the Garcia apartment before I met you at the coffee shop,” he continued. “And I’ll drive you wherever you need to go if you really think this is the right thing to do.”

  I opened my mouth to reply in the affirmative. But his right hand rose from my shoulder, leaving the abandoned skin oddly cool as one finger landed lightly atop my lips.

  “Just wait one second before you answer,” Malachi growled, “and think this all the way through. Are you reacting to this human so strongly because he’s your one true partner? Or are you just struggling to fill the packless ache the Greenbriars opened in your gut last night?”

  Sebastien is our mate, my wolf asserted firmly, not bothering to consider whether Malachi’s question contained a kernel of truth. But my rational human mind was struck both by the intensity and honesty of Malachi’s words. As a result, even though Sebastien was being drawn further and further away by the second, I allowed my companion’s assertions to wash over me in a earth-shattering wave.

  As much as I hated to admit it, my cousin had a valid point. I’d made my choice out of pure desperation when the local alpha commanded me to create a mate bond out of thin air last night. Unable to think of any possible partners, I’d ceded control of the situation to my wolf, allowing her to tether us to the one person she considered valid mate material—Sebastien Carter, scientist, Uber driver, and human we barely knew.

  But the truth was, I’d never fully considered other possibilities from the werewolf world. Sure, I’d tried out a few outpack males over the years as they drifted through Haven’s borders, had been unsurprised when each one came up lacking in ways both large and small. Meanwhile, the intensity of my family connections had prevented me from assessing long-term Haven residents through the lens of a potential mate, never mind the fact that very few of those friends and neighbors shared even a single drop of my own blood.

  I’d certainly never considered Malachi for the position. We’d grown up nearly as close as siblings, and as a result I’d found the male as overlookable as a piece of well-used furniture. My relative was overbearing, annoying...and entirely dependable in ways both large and small.

  Now, Malachi’s cocked head begged me to peer beneath the surface of my assumptions, to see the man he’d truly become during those intervening years. This handsome specimen of manhood had chosen to risk his career—and neck—for the sake of someone who was no longer even a member of his former pack. He was a werewolf with a conscience, a shifter who fit within Haven—the home of my heart—like a key into a lock. If I’d drawn up a summary of a potential mate’s required characteristics before bonding with Sebastien, in fact, I suspected the list would have looked very much like the man now standing before me with his heart waiting to be broken in my two clenched fists.

  As if sensing that I needed to hear his feelings spelled out aloud, my cousin opened his mouth and told me something I’d known deep down in my gut from the moment he walked back into my life an hour earlier. “This human you want to follow into danger isn’t the only possibility ready and willing to fill that hole in your gut, Ember. There are dozens of shifters who would choose you and cherish you and walk through fire to be your mate. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have someone like...well, like me?”

  And for one split second, I wasn’t sure. But my wolf was. Slipping sly fingers into our companion’s pocket faster than the eye could follow, she pulled out Malachi’s phone and tapped in our father’s number. Then she dismissed our cousin’s heartfelt admission without giving it the courte
sy of an honest reply.

  “We need to hurry,” my wolf said as the call went through. “Dad will track the license plate. You get the car. We’ll talk about mates and hearts later.”

  Chapter 12

  Malachi recognized the resolve in my eyes and didn’t argue. Meanwhile, Dad was similarly willing to do his part to help locate my kidnapped mate. So after hanging up the phone, I sprinted next door quickly enough that homebound humans hopefully wouldn’t glance out their windows and notice me streaking past in the nude.

  There, I slipped through the splintered doorway and into my mate’s residence, searching for an extremely elusive goal. Because Sebastien had delayed considerably before letting agents in the second time around. And, now that I thought about it, he’d been absent-minded and evasive this morning as well. Which suggested that I wasn’t the only one withholding secrets. Sebastien also had something to hide...and he’d taken the time to tuck away a physical manifestation of that something seconds before ransacking intruders broke down his door.

  The task before me, though, appeared next to impossible as I picked my way through the shambles that had recently been my mate’s impeccable home. Silverware was scattered across the floor while sofa cushions had been tossed halfway across the room. I wasn’t even sure my mate could have found whatever he initially stashed in the midst of the current chaos. What made me think I’d have any better luck?

  He hid it for us, my wolf whispered, her voice soft and muted within my human skin. He promised to tell us later. Now is later. Sebastien would have expected us to know where his secrets could be found.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t so sure I shared my wolf’s confidence. After all, our breakfast companion’s murmured “later” had sounded more like a brushoff than a commitment at the time. And my equivocations were sure to have shaken loose any confidence the professor might once have nurtured regarding my own good will.

  Still, my inner wolf was doing such a fine job of patience that I couldn’t quite muster the will to gainsay her. She lay quietly within my chest, head resting on forepaws despite ears that pricked and muscles that tensed in preparation for returning to our mate’s cooling trail. In fact, she even seemed to be reducing the pain that flowed down the mate bond between me and Sebastien...either that or the tether had snapped and my mate was no longer attached to my life in any tangible way at all.

  Pushing that final possibility out of my mind, I rewarded my wolf’s fortitude by returning to the matter at hand. “If our mate left something behind for us, then where would he have put it?” I asked aloud, the sound of my voice helping draw me back onto track. And as I recalled the few interactions Sebastien and I had shared, I found my gaze drawn unerringly to a single source—the microwave tucked away on the other side of the sun-filled room.

  Because last night, when I’d shown up unannounced and half naked on Sebastien’s doorstep, he’d made us mugs of tea in a very untraditional manner. We’d bantered about his preparation method at the time, then had bonded over the shared pleasure of warm liquid and aromatic steam. Perhaps....

  I pushed the button to release the latch and was unsurprised to find a rich cloud of caffeinated steam swirling up around my face just as it had done the night before. Sebastien had been brewing a cup of tea when the agents arrived. Coincidence...or proof that I was on the right track?

  I removed the mug, taking a single sip in preparation for dabbling through its dark depths in search of secrets. And for a moment I lost myself to the sensation. The swallow of liquid warmed an icy shard of terror that had taken up residence in my stomach while at the same time reminding me that I was hungry and thirsty and far from my mate. Despite the distance that lay between us, though, that one sip of tea made me feel as if I was holding Sebastien’s hand between both of my own.

  Later, I promised my stomach, my throat, and my packless ache. Then, tipping the cup gradually over the sink, I watched liquid stream away down the drain...revealing nothing save one well-used tea bag.

  But was that a hole in the seam, suggesting that our mate had perhaps hidden something away inside? Nipping at the thin fabric wrapper with dull human teeth, I tore the bag apart bit by bit until soggy tea leaves spilled out across the stainless-steel sink.

  And there, in the exact center of the mound, lay a miniature memory card, the type you might slip into a cell phone to hold excess data. The information-storage device would need to be dried thoroughly before I could put it to use, but it appeared that Sebastien had left me a clue after all.

  Back in business, I thought with a smile.

  I BARELY HAD TIME TO clench the memory card in one fist, though, before the honk of a horn drew me outside to find Malachi waiting within his purring SUV. And despite sunglasses shielding my cousin’s eyes from view, I got the distinct impression that the mechanical summons wasn’t an indicator of impatience at my delay. Instead, my thoughtful cousin was purposefully distancing himself from someone who’d insinuated she wanted nothing more than simple friendship despite his own protestations to the contrary. I was surprised by how much his retreat hurt.

  The obvious solution would have been to...well...actually respond to my cousin’s earlier statement on the topic. But I had no better answer available than the one my wolf had recently tossed off. So I merely slipped into the passenger seat and donned my clothes, carefully placing the memory card on the dashboard to dry out without indulging in any idle chit chat at all.

  And I guess, in its way, lack of answer was answer enough. Because we’d driven for only a few seconds before Malachi visibly shook off his former malaise and returned to the business at hand. “Do you think we should check in with your father?” he asked, keeping his eyes trained on the road despite the lack of traffic.

  “No. He’d call if he found anything,” I began...then froze as the tether that tied me to my mate abruptly drew tight. The pain in my gut was more intense this time around, but also more directional. As if I was the rock in the middle of a massive sling shot, being clumsily drawn back in preparation for being flung out into the void.

  And as I grasped for any explanation for the agony tearing me apart, my dull brain eventually realized what should have been obvious from the get-go. We were headed in the wrong direction if I wanted to loosen the taut tether tying me to Sebastien. The pain itself was the beacon I needed to track my absent mate.

  “Go the other way,” I gasped aloud, peering at the GPS screen through eyes that had gone abruptly watery, making the whole world appear both fuzzy and gray around the edges. It would be a recipe for disaster to allow my gut to act as a homing pigeon, choosing each turn in the upcoming journey based solely upon whether the pain was growing stronger or weaker as it ate into my bones. But if I could guess at the direction Sebastien’s captors had headed then plot out a trail....

  Aha. “Get on the highway and drive west,” I ordered through clenched teeth, closing my eyes against the encroaching pain. Something was happening on the other end of the bond, I was certain of it. More than mere distance was now impacting our tether...or was instead threatening the health and happiness of my half-bonded mate.

  Faster. Find him, my wolf whispered. But I shushed the beast and instead centered us with an effort, focusing on my breathing at the expense of all else.

  And, far too slowly, the agony eased until all that remained was an awareness of Sebastien’s presence out there, somewhere, much further away than I would have liked. But we were heading in the proper direction and my mate was still alive. When it came right down to it, nothing else really mattered.

  Still, as the tension in my gut eased, I realized that the tension within the car had grown correspondingly worse. It couldn’t have been easy for Malachi to watch me react so strongly to a human mate when he’d offered himself up as an alternative. Couldn’t be easy to follow my lead when—as an enforcer—he would have been used to calling the shots.

  So I reached over and placed one soothing hand on my companion’s arm...then winced as Malachi
jerked away from my touch. Okay, so I guessed we weren’t the touchy-feely type of friends any longer.

  “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” I offered instead, attempting to imbue my words with all of the gratitude I’d intended to put into my recently rebuffed physical gesture.

  But Malachi only grunted, merging onto the interstate without further comment. Wincing, I settled back into my seat and closed my eyes. I’d have to hope that time healed the rift between us, because my tongue didn’t appear clever enough to do the trick.

  Chapter 13

  The silence within the SUV grated after a while, and I responded the same way I’d done when given the silent treatment over breakfast that morning. I pulled out my phone and contacted the one male in my life who was always up for a chat—my dad.

  Thankfully for the sake of my sore heart, Wolfie picked up after a single ring, having clearly been waiting for my call. “Still no luck on the license plate,” my favorite alpha informed me, his familiar voice bringing a smile to my lips despite his business-like tone. Then his voice warmed as he added, “Have you eaten your cupcake yet?”

  Which was when I realized the very important item I’d forgotten in the midst of the day’s drama. I’d gone to work with my aunt’s throwing knives strapped to my skin then had regained the remainder of my possessions a few minutes later due to Malachi’s diligence. But I’d lost track of one very important item in the process—the pastry that bound me unerringly to an adopted father with whom I no longer shared a pack bond.

  Wolfie had baked my cupcake with love in a tiny hotel-room kitchen the day before while waiting to find out whether his only daughter would survive her first foray into the outside world. He’d packed the delicious morsel away in a fast-food carton, the lingering aroma of hamburger and ketchup not quite sufficient to overpower the tantalizing scent of rich, dark chocolate. Then Dad had decorated the top with gleaming frosting and sparkly blue stars, the better to broadcast his never-ending love and affection for a daughter unrelated by blood but who he’d long since accepted as his own offspring.