Insatiable: Hunter's Moon Book 5

by Rice, Rachel E.

  “You young men think you can do anything. I like that about you, Hunter. But you can’t do anything until you’ve lived in the wilds of Alaska like I have. No running water. Barely any shelter and I had to hunt my own food not to mention using the toilet outdoors. I could tell you stories. I’ll save that for the road.” Sam’s face lit up as he gave a light chuckle.

  The waitress came over holding a coffee pot and set two large cups on the table. A slim blond about twenty five stood over them. As she poured both coffees she said, “The usual, Sam?” He shook his head. Hunter saw the fatigue on Sam’s face.

  “And you hon, what do you have?” She watched at Hunter with a big smile. Since he had gotten his taste of females he was flattered that a woman found him attractive. She looked at him the same way Soiree had. But now all he thought about was Katie. He never stopped thinking about her.

  “I’d like a steak. Maybe two,” Hunter said giving her a smile as he stroked his beard.

  “How would you like your two steaks?”

  “Raw.”

  “I think it’s against the health laws. But I can tell the cook to drop them on the fire for a second.”

  “That sounds good.” The waitress turned and headed in the direction of the galley. The door swung open, she entered and when she was exiting, she and the cook were looking in Hunter’s direction. No doubt the cook wanted to see who would eat two large raw steaks. His expression was none too friendly. He walked back into the kitchen with a wrinkled forehead, and Hunter’s sharp ears picked up the conversation.

  “What is he,” the cook said. “I’ve heard of ...” She interrupted him.

  “Just drop them on the fire, Rob. You don’t have to like the guy.” And the waitress waited a few minutes and bounced out to Hunter’s table holding a large platter containing the largest steaks and a baked potato.

  “It took a little doing, but I got him to drop them on the grill. Here.” She placed the steaks in front of him.

  Hunter watched at Sam with a hidden smile as he cut and devoured the steaks in less time it took to bring out Sam’s ham and eggs.

  “You weren’t kidding you were hungry. Can I get you something else?” She questioned. Hunter glanced at her name tag.

  “Crystal. Your name is Crystal. I like that,” Hunter said returning her smile. He put his finger across his mouth. “Do you have a cell phone I can use?”

  “I left mine at home. It’s the only one around. We have maybe fifty people in this town and none of them has a phone. We don’t have a phone here either. If you stay over, I’m getting off in fifteen minutes, I can let you use it. What do you say?” Hunter looks to Sam.

  “I can’t wait. As soon as I finish my toast, I’m out of here,” Sam says. Hunter had to make a decision. Go with Sam to Fairbanks which will take another five hours or call home and wait for his family to come for him.

  This will be one of the many crushing decisions of Hunter’s life.

  “I’ll go with you,” he said falling for the charming young blond.

  “I think she’s sweet on you, Hunter. If I was a young man, I would probably make the same decision. But watch yourself. A man can find all kinds of trouble when he follows a woman. You have to know who the right woman is. Some women will be good and some will be bad,” Sam said swallowing his last bit of coffee and leaving a tip.

  Hunter wasn’t listening. All he thought about was getting home to Katie and sleeping in his warm bed once more. Sam talked and talked and nothing struck a chord with Hunter.

  “You can’t call yourself a man until you have endured what I’ve lived to talk about. Why I even ran across a werewolf. That reminds me in the same spot I hit you. You do believe in werewolves?” Sam said cocking his head to the side studying Hunter.

  “Most people don’t. They think I’m crazy. Do you think I’m crazy, Hunter?”

  “No, Sam.” Hunter’s eyes were focused on Crystal.

  Hunter didn’t answer Sam when he said be careful. He had his mind on hearing his mother and father’s voice, and the time it would take to hold Katie in his arms.

  “I’ll be outside in the old white Honda the one with the rust,” Crystal said gazing at Hunter. She picked up her tip and walked out.

  Sam and Hunter stood at the same time. The cook glared over at Hunter from the kitchen window. Hunter shook Sam’s hands. “Thank you Sam. For everything.” They walked out of the restaurant together, stood for a few seconds and parted. As Hunter walked to the Honda where Crystal waited impatiently, Sam stopped and yelled.

  “Remember what I said,” Sam said climbing into his cab after checking his load of lumber. Hunter nodded. He didn’t hear or remember Sam’s words. His mind was crowded with anticipation and thoughts of home.

  Chapter 16

  Hunter entered the beat up Honda, then Crystal shifted gears and took off. “So Hunter, what brings you out to this desolate country?”

  “I had never been this far north. I wanted to see the world.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “In Nevada.”

  “I heard of that place. Is it warm?”

  “Sometimes, but I live where there is snow sometimes year round except for the summer months and then we might get a snowfall.” Hunter looks at Crystal and smiles. She has her dress hiked up to her thighs. He turns his head to look at the scenery. He had to find markers.

  “Once I use the phone, can you take me to the nearest town?”

  “The nearest place is Fairbanks and it’s two hundred and seventy miles. I don’t have much gas, only enough to get to work tomorrow.”

  “I have twenty dollars. Will that be enough?”

  “I don’t think so. Now around here.”

  She pulled off the main road and drove down a dirt road and then pulled up in front of a small wood frame house. It looked as if it hadn’t been painted since it was new and that had to have been eighty years ago. The boards were rot and the shingles were hanging off and a few laying were in the front yard.

  The car came to a full stop. “It don’t look like much,” Crystal said, “but it’s a roof and it’s home.” There were trees surrounding and looming over the house and a dense forest behind the house. Hunter looked around for cell towers as Crystal drove to her house. He didn’t see any. “You did say you had a cell phone.”

  “Yes, but it doesn’t work.”

  “What do you mean?” Hunter’s heart sank.

  “It doesn’t work,” she said placing his hand between her legs. “But this does.”

  Hunter quickly removed his hand. Then Crystal reached and touched his jeans and her eyes brightened. “Oh my. You really have something large there.”

  “I can’t stay here. I have to leave,” Hunter said.

  “Come in and have a drink with me. I’m just lonely.”

  “I can’t.”

  “I’ll take you to the highway if you stay with me a few minutes.” Hunter glanced at her. He didn’t have time to make markers, but if he got to the highway, then he could hitch a ride like before. Hunter reluctantly stepped out of the car. Crystal met him with a smile.

  “Come in. Just stay a few minutes and we can go.” Hunter stepped on the floor of the entrance and his feet went through it.

  “I’ve told my brother a thousand times to fix that.”

  “You live here with your brother?”

  “Yeah. But he doesn’t mind if I have a friend.” She takes Hunter’s hand and pulls him to the living area and says, “Sit. I won’t be but a minute.” He glances around and sees pictures of the cook. Hunter wonders if he’s her brother in which case he does mind. Hunter saw it in the cook’s eyes and heard his disapproval through the tone of his voice.

  When Crystal returned she had on a flimsy see through house dress. Hunter saw the curvature of her body. She wasn’t wearing any panties. He stands, “I think I should go.”

  “You promised me that you would have a drink with me.”

  “Do you have bottle water?”

&n
bsp; “Heavens no. It’s too expensive.”

  “Then just a glass of water,” Hunter said glancing at the dust and when she opened the door to the kitchen he saw dirty dishes in the sink. She brought the water. And because Hunter was thirsty and wasn’t sure when he would run across a stream, or a place where he could buy water, he drank it. She watched as he drank it all.

  When he woke, Crystal was sitting on his lap kissing him and her brother was standing over them with a gun.

  “What are you doing with my baby sister?”

  “I’m not doing anything to her. She’s doing something to me.” Crystal smiled.

  “He’s lying Rob.” She pulled something out of his pocket. “That’s all he had.” Hunter’s eyes focused and he stood quick and knocked the gun from Rob’s hand. Crystal ran to the back of the house. Hunter thought she went to hide.

  Hunter grabbed Rob around his neck and held him off the ground. Hunter’s eyes turned dark blue with an angry flash, and his breathing became intense as his nostrils flared.

  “Don’t kill me,” Rob cried out. An angry Hunter ready to snap his neck caught sight of Crystal from the corner of his eyes. She raised a rifle and shot Hunter in his back and he dropped Rob to the floor in front of him.

  Hunter dashed out of the house with Crystal following him taking aim with the rifle from the front porch. She wasn’t quick enough or experienced enough to hit a fast moving target. But she did see a trail of blood leading to the wooded area behind her house.

  ***

  Running and running, Hunter didn’t stop until he was deep into the forest. He sat down and held his shoulder. He was lucky that the bullet passed through his shoulder, but he had to do something about the blood loss. If he didn’t get some attention he would eventually pass out and die in the forest, so he kept on his feet.

  He walked until he reached the highway. There were no lights and he couldn’t see any as he trudged along bleeding profusely.

  He had been walking for what seemed like hours and still not one car passed. Hunter felt himself going in and out of consciousness. He thought he couldn’t do this anymore. His will had been taken from him. He kept walking because of habit. At least if he died on the road, there would be a chance of someone passing by and perhaps he would be identified someday, and his family would know what happened to him.

  When Hunter had all but given up and all was thought to be lost, Hunter saw a faint glimmer of a car’s lights. He mustered his last once of strength and stood on his feet. In the car coming around the bend sat a girl and a man. He watched at the young girl as they passed him and dropped by the side of the road.

  Hunter remembered the man saying, “Hold on young man, I’m a doctor,” before everything went black and Hunter could no longer see or hear.

  When he woke, he saw the eyes of that same young girl. She may have been sixteen. “Are you alright?”

  “I think so,” Hunter said returning her bright smile. He looked around the house and it was a beautiful well-kept comfortable home. The sheets were white and the entire room was painted white. There were paintings of wildflowers on the wall and the frames were white as well. The only color in the room were the color of yellow, orange and the green stems of the wild flowers. This was the first time he can remember being in a place that reminded him of home. Hunter’s large hands reached for the sides of the bed trying to hoist himself up.

  “My father said that you shouldn’t try sitting up. You lost a lot of blood. You’ve been in a coma for a week. It’s a good thing the bullet went through your shoulder.” He felt his shoulder and it was wrapped with a large white bandage that cut across his wide chest.

  The teenage girl gazed at his chest and smiled.

  “What do you do? I’ve never seen such muscles,” the young girl said staring at Hunter. The door opened and the doctor entered the room. He’s tall with a full head of white hair. He is astonishingly handsome for a man of fifty. However, his face was more of a man in his thirties. He had few lines and his body looked fit except for the white hair and the teenage daughter.

  “My name is Dr. Redmond.” He glances at his daughter, “This is Haley.” Hunter gives her a closed smile, but his eyes are approving, and he looks at her with a glow. Dr. Redmond escorts Haley to the door and closes it. He stands before Hunter looking intently at him.

  “She’s a beautiful young girl,” Hunter says.

  “That she is,” Dr. Redmond says walking to Hunter as he leans against the headboard. “You heal quickly.”

  “Why didn’t you bring me to the hospital?”

  “Because I didn’t want you to have to explain the bullet wound in your shoulder. I would have to report it to the police.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Hunter protested.

  “I didn’t think you had,” Dr. Redmond’s voice is warm and assuring. He sat in the chair next to Hunter. Dr. Redmond paused a moment and looked at Hunter. “I know what you are?”

  “How? Why? What am I exactly?” Hunter felt that the doctor was guessing. And he wouldn’t be the one to give away his secret. A human wouldn’t believe him anyway.

  “You see we are both alike.”

  “In what way?”

  “You and I are both werewolves.”

  “How could that be? I would have known,” Hunter said surprised. “What about your daughter, there’s no doubt she’s a human, and where is your wife?”

  “My wife died last year. I had to raise a teenager alone. My wife was werewolf, too.”

  “But your daughter isn’t a werefemale. I would have known. I can smell her.”

  “You are perceptive. My wife and I couldn’t have any children and we adopted her. I don’t want to prolong this anymore. What I want from you is for you to take my daughter with you. You were talking in your sleep and you mentioned something about the Samsas.”

  “Yes. My father is Wilder Samsa.”

  “I know your father. I need you to take Haley with you. I will give you transportation and money to take care of her and help you get back home. Just take her with you.” Dr. Redmond’s eyes held desperation and hopelessness.

  “Why would you separate yourself from your daughter, and let a stranger take her?”

  “She doesn’t know that I’m a werewolf, and I don’t want her to find out just yet. There have been rhetoric all over the news about a roundup of men and women who are werewolves. I don’t think they know about me yet but someone will tell and they will come for me like they did some of the townspeople around here. Most of the time they weren’t even werewolves and yet they kill them. If that group discovers that I’m one, they will kill me and my precious young daughter.”

  “But what will you say to her to make her go with a stranger?”

  “It will take a few weeks for you to recuperate. In that time, I will tell her that you have a ranch with plenty of teenagers and children that she can play with. She has no one now. We live far out and with me driving miles into town, she will be out here all alone and left vulnerable. That’s why you must take her with you.”

  “Can’t you hire someone to see after her?”

  “Not without them discovering my secret. Will you do this for me?” What could Hunter say? This man had saved his life. It’s only right that he should repay him. Besides, what is one more at the Samsa ranch? By now it’s overrun by Robert and Mena’s children and His uncles.

  “How will I tell her about my family?”

  “Haley is a smart girl, when it’s time tell her, you’ll know when.” Hunter drew a loud breath and closed his eyes for a second. “I have no other choice. You are my last hope. Believe me, if I had a choice, I would have taken it.”

  Chapter 17

  In a week Hunter was up and about. Haley came in every morning to check on him and bring him his food, “Why do you eat so much meat? It’s almost raw. The nurse said that you were going to get sick and you might not make it to your forty-first birthday.”

  “You’re too nosey and ask too many quest
ions,” Hunter said pulling her ponytail and plucking her lightly on the nose when she placed the tray in front of him.

  “I’m concerned because I plan to marry you and I don’t want you to die on me before I get that chance.” Hunter sat back and his large blue eyes opened. He stared at her for a second.

  “You are too young and I’m too old, and by the time you grow up I will be dead.”

  “I don’t think so. You’re not that old. You’re just kidding with me,” she said with a smile. “My father said that you are no more than eighteen or nineteen.”

  “I’m twenty. And that’s too old for you.”

  “I’m not talking about marrying you now silly. I think when I’m eighteen which will be in two years, you won’t be too old for me. You will be just right for marrying.”

  “Where do you get such notions? Aren’t you too young to be thinking things like that? Besides, I have a fiancé waiting for me.”

  “Suppose she got tired of waiting. She’s not like me. I would never get tired of waiting for you.” Haley gazes into Hunter’s eyes.

  “You have a crush and it’s just that. Children have crushes on someone older all the time, but it means nothing, and soon they fall in love with boys their own age. You’ll find someone your age.”

  “I will not. I will wish that I never meet anyone that I will love more than you. If I wish for it long enough, then maybe it will come true.”

  “How old are you to be talking like that?” He said taking a mouth full of steak and chewing it as he’s looking up at her. “I bet you still play with dolls.”

  “I gave those up last year. I’m almost an adult,” Haley says sticking out her flat chest proudly trying to prove to him that she’s desirable.

  “You’re a child, and I hope I am dead before you reach the age where you can marry. You will meet someone your age and forget about me. Now get out and let me get dressed.” Hunter said firmly his voice and tone disapproving. Haley sashayed to the door and stopped.