The Hunting Game: A Fantasy Romance Novel

by Leila Vy

  I turned to look at Kyle’s heated and determined eyes that never left me. I pursed my lips and jutted my chin out as I crossed my arms under my chest.

  “What needs to be settled, Alpha Kyle?” I asked.

  “You need to think things thoroughly first. We can’t have you being irrational. If after a month you decide that you still want to go, then we will consider your transfer,” he said calmly, but his eyes dared me to defy him. I ran my tongue over my teeth in anger.

  “I am not being irrational. I am more than rational. I am damn happy to leave this pack. You will accept my transfer. On second thought—no, I don’t care what you want or not. I am leaving regardless of what you want. You won’t be able to stop me,” I spat angrily and then spun on my feet to walk away from them. I wasn’t going to stay and listen to his bullcrap.

  “Patience!” He roared, and everyone looked down. I didn’t. My wolf and I no longer considered him as our alpha, and we would not obey him. As I continued walking away, I saw seven muscular men from the corner of my eyes, heading towards our house.

  I turned to look at the unknown men and saw Titus among them. He was already here. His eyes met mine and never left. My body turned to face him as his eyes mysteriously willed me to walk towards him. My body moved on its own accord. I began striding towards him. It felt almost like an out of body experience. I couldn’t control my actions even if I wanted to. Those eyes of his were enticing me like a siren singing a song to lure the men to their doom. A slow, confident smirk appeared on his face as he realized what I was doing.

  Taking the last few steps closer to my chosen, I lifted my hand to touch him, but I suddenly heard Kyle speak, snapping me out of my stupor. “Alpha Titus, what are you doing here in my territory?”

  Titus dropped his hand and turned to look at a glowering Kyle whose eyes were on me. I could tell he was trying to fight for control. Titus moved to stand in front of me.

  “I am here to take my mate,” he said, his voice holding little patience.

  ***

  Kyle

  I was beyond furious. My wolf scratched against my human skin, itching to kill whoever had touched Patience, but I refused to let him out. Kailyn’s face appeared in my mind, and it was the motivation I needed to push my wolf back.

  I still couldn’t deny how the smell of another male on Patience made me angrier than ever. I agreed for her to go. I needed her gone. She was right. This was for both of us. I couldn’t keep her, but I also couldn’t let her go.

  The frustration that built up inside me was killing me. I was constantly on edge, and it didn’t help that I chased after her earlier.

  I shouldn’t have touched her, but I did. I felt disgusted. I knew what I did was wrong, but it felt so right too. A voice in my head was screaming that she was not mine—that I had Kailyn—but the pleasure and sensation I felt when I touched Patience told me otherwise.

  Kailyn had stuck with me through thick and thin. We were friends since we were pups. I had always admired her. As we grew older, we became more than friends. The affection I held for her was real. At first, Kailyn didn’t want to date me. She knew that sooner or later, we would find our mates.

  When we turned of age and were a full werewolf, I did find my mate. It was Patience. I was elated, and I wanted to go to her, but then I remembered Kailyn. Kailyn didn’t find her mate yet. I felt bad for her and didn’t want to abandon her. She was everything to me. She was there when I was sick. She was there when I was hurt. Kailyn never abandoned me.

  That was when I decided against the bond. I figured my love for Kailyn would overcome my bond with Patience. I ignored Patience and the bond between us. She tried several times to talk to me, but I told her I did not want her. I saw the pain in Patience’s eyes. She was broken from my words, but I also felt a part of me chip away.

  Still…

  I had Kailyn. I marked her and made her mine. It was my decision, but my wolf was still there. I was still the animal that I was. I needed Patience, and I craved her touch.

  I stayed away from Patience as much as possible. I slept with Kailyn one night to prove to myself that I could keep away from Patience and that she wasn’t anything to me. I took Kailyn’s virginity that night.

  I thought that it would be a powerful moment, but it wasn’t. I felt guilt instead of pleasure. I still refused to believe that I needed to give in to this bond. I could fight it. I just needed to be stronger.

  However, now that I saw that Patience had attracted a male—and not just any male but Alpha Titus—it irritated me more than ever. Seeing him appear on my land without my permission and demanding that Patience was his had me seeing red.

  Chapter Seven

  Patience

  I could feel the tension in the air. My parents shifted around uneasily, and the power play between the two alphas was evident. I shifted a little to my right to see what was going on with Kyle and Titus only to have the warriors from Titus’s pack flank me on my sides and back. I was completely enclosed in.

  “She is not your mate,” Kyle said through clenched teeth. I stood on my tiptoes, but I couldn’t see what was going on. I huffed and crossed my arms underneath me. I saw Titus’s shoulder tense, and his hands curled into a fist before he lifted his arms and crossed them in front of his chest.

  “She is mine,” Titus growled out. The power radiating off from him was coming in waves.

  “She is right here,” I mumbled from behind Titus, and I heard snickering from next to me. I turned to see that it was one of the warriors from Titus’s pack. He had a powerful aura around him too, but not as strong as Titus.

  “Release her.” Kyle commanded, his voice deathly low. “And leave my territory.”

  “We will leave your territory with her,” Titus replied back just as angry.

  “Patience!” Kyle roared my name.

  “Okay, how about let’s calm down for a second,” my dad spoke finally.

  “She’s mine!” Titus roared back, and my dad shut up as we felt a dangerous wave of alpha power radiate through the air.

  I placed my hand on Titus’s back, and I felt his body relaxed. The tingling feeling I had felt with him returned the moment I touched him. Momentarily distracted by the feel of his muscular back, I stared with awe. It was like touching a rock. I heard a growl in front of me and cursed Titus’s huge back that I was just admiring earlier.

  “Titus, can you please move so I can see?” I asked.

  “No,” he replied angrily.

  “Well, I need to see what is going on,” I said.

  “No, you don’t,” he replied. “We are leaving.”

  “You aren’t taking her anywhere!” Kyle’s voice shook, and I knew he was close to losing control.

  “Kyle, what is wrong with you? That is my sister, and she wants to go with her chosen.” Kailyn reasoned. She had no idea about this whole thing.

  “Kailyn, I have my reasons,” Kyle angrily spoke, and I heard Kailyn huffing before she fell silent again.

  Titus moved his stance by spreading his feet and uncrossing his arms. His warriors did the same. It was clear they knew they were going to have a tough time leaving.

  “Titus, let me talk to my alpha.” I pleaded.

  “Over my dead body, Patience,” Titus muttered.

  “Please, Titus. I promise everything will be fine,” I said and ran my hand up and down his back to help ease the tension in his body as well as used it as a mechanism to allow me to talk to Kyle. After a while, Titus huffed in annoyance and turned towards me.

  He placed a hand at the back of my head and pressed his forehead against mine like what mates did as a sign of equality and protection. His blue eyes were piercing through mine. “I’ll give you five minutes, and if I don’t see you returning after the given time, I am coming after you, mate. Five minutes, Patience. I mean it.”

  I nodded, and he shifted a little to allow me to come out from the tight circle of male bodies. When I came out, Kyle’s eyes immediately found mine a
s I walked up to him.

  “Can I speak to you alone, Alpha?” I asked. He nodded and turned on his feet to go inside the pack house. I followed behind him until we were in his study where the walls were soundproof. When we were inside, he turned around to look at me. His eyes turned black in anger and jealousy.

  “You will not leave me!” he roared. “I will not lose you!”

  I swallowed hard as I felt my heart ripping apart. He was my destined, but he was not being fair. “You made your choice, Kyle. I am not yours anymore. It is time we go our separate ways. I deserve my happiness, as you have already found yours.”

  He marched over to me and cupped my left cheek in his hand and the other on my shoulder. He looked down at me. “I can still change this. I can make this work between us. Please, don’t leave me.”

  I looked up into his eyes that have turned back to its color. For a moment, I closed my eyes and relished in the bond of my destined mate before my hand came up to place behind his hand and slowly removed it away from my face.

  “It’s too late,” I whispered, and my wolf howled sorrowfully. We both knew we had to leave. We could not stay for him. He had picked his chosen, and my sister would be so heartbroken if she found out. This had to stay hidden and never to be discovered.

  He shook his head. His eyes warped into pain as he watched me in desperation. “I can’t lose you, Patience. I thought it was the right thing to do. When I was with your sister, I was okay with having you close by because at least I knew you were safe, but now I feel like my soul is ripping into two. I don’t think I can go a day without seeing you.”

  He swallowed hard, and I watched the apple in his throat bob up and down before my eyes flitted back up to his. Then he spoke again, “We can still be together.”

  “You are my brother-in-law now. You mated my sister. You even marked her. I felt it—every single night,” I said softly. “This is so wrong on so many levels. It can never work out for us.”

  I turned to leave, but his arms came out and wrapped around me tightly. He pulled me close to his chest as he hid his face in the crook of my neck. I felt wetness on my shoulders and his body shaking.

  “Patience…” His voice broke. “Please, give me a month. Don’t leave me yet. Give me a month to work something out. I want you. I need you.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Kyle, you have to stop,” I said softly. “Let me go.”

  I struggled out of his tight embrace. He held to me tightly, afraid of letting me go, and when I struggled harder, he held on tighter.

  “I can’t let you go. If I mark you, then the mark from your sister will disappear. You can be mine. Together, our bond will be stronger than your sister’s and mine,” he said desperately. I felt his lips travel from my shoulder to my neck, and it left a tingling sensation. The bond demanded my body to respond, but my human side was sickened by what Kyle was doing.

  “Let me go!” I shouted louder and jammed my elbow into his side.

  He released me with a grunt. I turned around to glance briefly at him. His eyes were black again, and he growled as he lunged for me. His canine elongated in an attempt to mark me and make me stay with him. I watched almost in horror as I saw his desperate aim.

  My body kicked into gear, and I ran for the door, and just when I was about to reach it, I felt him behind me. He grabbed my shoulders and yanked me around, pushing me against the door as his body pressed against mine. I let out a cry and curled up my shoulders to ward off his attempt at marking me. He was going crazy! Freaking alphas! I wanted to punch his guts! He was growling as he tried to bite at my neck, but my hunched shoulders prevented him from doing so.

  Five minutes, Patience.

  I remembered Titus saying. I just need to hold him off for five minutes.

  “Kyle, wait!” I shouted. “Please, Kyle.”

  He paused for a moment. His grip on me was still very tight. I turned slightly to look up at him under my eyelashes.

  “Think about what you are doing. Kailyn will be so hurt. You said you love her. Fight the bond.” I begged, and he shook his head.

  “I love her, but you are mine. You are destined to be my mate for life, and you are my luna,” he said. “I will be damned if I let anyone near you.”

  “But you love her!” I shouted. “That should be enough to beat the bond you and I have. If you allow me to leave, then the bond will lessen.”

  “Over the past four years since I have found out you were mine, I fought it every single second. Why do you think I marked your sister? I thought it would break the bond, but instead, I found myself wanting to be closer to you. I found myself looking at you for approval instead of your sister. I found myself watching you every second as you went around with your life. I can’t fight it, and as time went by, what was a bond was just not a bond any longer. I love everything about you.”

  Oh, god. No.

  “I love the way your hair always falls loosely down your back. I love the way your eyes glint with amusement and the corner of your mouth lifts into a lopsided grin when you are happy. When I look at you, my wolf and I are happy.

  “The thought of never seeing you is enough to drive me crazy. I am not going to lose you. You are mine, and I will do anything I can to have you stand next to me. I don’t care what Kailyn thinks. Once she finds her mate, she will feel the same way. She will understand why we need to be together.” He continued, and I knew he had finally gone mad. My destined mate, ex-alpha, and brother-in-law was going crazy. I needed to get away from him. I pushed him away from me, but it only brought us both further into my room. I silently prayed in my head for Titus to come.

  “Kyle, stop!” I cried out as he tried to open my hunched shoulder to expose my neck. “Titus!”

  As if Titus heard me calling for him, he came in bursting through the door. His piercing blue eyes met what was happening and instantly turned black with rage. Kyle released me and turned towards Titus. I took the opportunity to move away from them.

  “She’s mine!” Kyle growled out as he threw a punch at Titus. Titus roared and punched Kyle in the stomach. “You can’t have her.”

  “No, she’s mine!” Titus roared back and threw a punch at Kyle’s nose. The sound of bone cracking was heard.

  Earlier, Titus looked dangerous. Well now, he looked lethal. His stance was fatally elegant, and the way he was throwing his punches were precise and effective. He was deadly, and he was furious with Kyle. The warriors from Titus’s pack came into the room, and what they saw moved them to make decisions. Three of them charged after their alpha to remove him from Kyle. The other four moved to flank me from all sides.

  Titus was still struggling and growling as he wanted to go back to Kyle again.

  “Crap! We can’t calm him down. Damn temperamental alphas!” The warrior from earlier muttered, and I glanced from Titus to him before looking back at Titus. My feet immediately moved, and I walked over to a struggling Titus that they were pinning onto the ground. My hand shot out to touch his face, and his eyes flickered back and forth between black.

  “Titus, calm your wolf,” I demanded, and his eyes snapped to mine.

  “He tried to mark you!” New fury flashed through his eyes as he struggled harder. “I’m going to kill him.”

  Kyle stood up, clutching at his nose. His eyes moved from Titus to me. Titus saw that action, and he growled louder.

  “Look at her again, mutt. I’ll kill you faster than you can blink.” Titus snarled and tried to free his hand.

  I turned towards Kyle. “I am leaving. We made our choices. You have to let me go.”

  He looked torn. His eyes pleaded for me to stay. His stance told me he would fight for me until his last breath if I chose him. I could feel it from him even when he did not speak the words out loud. Finally, after looking at me, he turned away, gazing at the wall.

  “Leave,” he said quietly, his voice broken. I saw him swallow hard before walking past us.

  I stood up with the other warriors holdin
g on to their alpha and walked out of the office. Titus was still unhappy; he wanted blood; he wanted to take Kyle’s life.

  When I made it outside, my family stood there waiting for me. I hugged them and bid my farewell. It hurt for me to say goodbye to them, but it was for our own good that I did. This was no longer my home.

  When we reached the edge of the territory, Titus was finally released, and he rubbed his body as he barked out orders to his warriors. “Nous devons vite bouger et partir. Nous ne sommes pas voulut sur ce territoire et nous n’avons pas assez d’hommes. (We need to move quick and leave. We are on unwanted territory and we do not have enough bodies.)”

  He growled and ran a hand through his hair in an angry manner. He muttered, “Si seulement je pouvez arracher la gorge de ce bâtard. (If only I could rip that bastard’s throat.)”

  His warriors chuckled as they began to sprint ahead. Titus grabbed my wrist gently and pulled me behind him as he lifted me on his back and broke into a speedy run.

  “I’m going to need to learn French,” I muttered.

  Chapter Nine

  The warriors in Kyle’s pack were muscular as well as physically fit, but as I stared at the backs of Titus’s warriors, Kyle’s warriors seemed smaller in comparison. My eyes went from one male to the other as I rested behind Titus’s back. We zoomed through the woods, heading to neutral territory.

  “Can you stop ogling my warriors?” Titus growled, and my lips pursed into a thin line. Did he have eyes behind his head that I was not aware of? How did he know I was looking at them?

  “If you don’t want me to look at them—which, I might add, is pretty much hard because they are in front of us—where should I look?” I asked. He cursed under his breath before he barked out in French again. Immediately, his warriors fell back behind us.