The kitten bounced up the steps ahead of me as if she were on springs and disappeared into the main office. I followed quickly, stopping only to close the basement door. After slamming the thick iron bolt into place, I hooked the padlock, satisfied that Samira wouldn't get inside.
Nothing was getting inside the basement without my say-so.
Making my way out of the main office area, I spotted Samira brushing dust from the windowsill and looking so lost in thought that she apparently hadn’t heard me approach. The kitten meowed and Samira jumped, spinning around to face me.
"Did you find something?" she asked expectantly as my guilt came flooding back.
I’d been searching for days and hadn’t found so much as a peep of the type of magic used to seal the collar on Samira. If I didn't find something soon, I was pretty sure she would lose hope.
Then there was the small issue of the Noree. Her patience would only last so long, not to mention what she would do to Samira if I couldn't find a way to get the collar off her safely…Well, she'd have to come through me first. Not like that would stop her. Coming through me was probably something she’d enjoy.
“Not yet, but we’ll figure it out," I said. “First we need to eat, and I heard there's a new deli across the street, my shout.” I grinned at her.
Samira had never been one to resist food, and I could see hunger winning out over the disappointment she so obviously felt about me not finding anything in the books.
"I'll keep an eye on Fuzzikins," she said.
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my jacket from behind the door and dragged it on as I stepped out onto the street.
I moved quickly through the early afternoon shoppers surrounding me, the humans sidestepping me as though by instinct. Well, call it instinct or self-preservation—something inside them warned I wasn’t someone they wanted to be near. And that suited me just fine.
The deli was quiet, and for that I was grateful. My stomach grumbled loud enough to draw a smile from the woman behind the counter as she prepared four house specials and several sample boxes. Samira wasn’t going to eat more than half of the enormous amount of food I’d chosen for her since she had a tendency to eat like a bird. But what she didn’t eat, I would.
“Extra steak on the second one,” I said, watching as she laid the moist strips of meat across the thick granary bread. I wasn’t an animal, but the extra protein would go a long way toward keeping my powers in check, especially when I hadn’t indulged my true nature in well over a week.
The moment I thought about how much time had passed since I had fed my power, my shoulders tightened in response. I could feel the power prickling beneath my skin like an itch I couldn’t quite reach. It was irritating but still manageable, which would all change if I didn’t hunt soon.
After paying the cashier, I took the paper bag she passed to me and hurried outside. Lifting my face to the sky, I let the scent of the coming rain wash over me. Clary’s seedling would need to be fed soon, and rainwater wouldn’t quite do the trick.
I crossed the street back to the office and pushed open the door.
“There was too much to choose from so I brought a selection…” My words trailed off as the smile on my face froze.
The stranger had his back to me, but it did nothing to mask his pine-and-fur scent, which drifted across the room on the air-conditioned current. An image of sharp, snapping white teeth and fiery amber eyes flashed through my head, and I drank it in.
A true predator in the animal sense.
I kept my gaze trained on him as he turned to meet my stare. His too-bright brown eyes raked over me as I stood in the doorway, as if I were the intruder to his territory and not the other way around. The scar that trailed from the corner of his right eye, down across his cheek, and to the edge of his lip did nothing to detract from his raw, animalistic good looks. His dark brown hair was a little longer than normal, and it curled softly against the collar of his shirt. A Mallen streak of silvery hair flopped down into his eyes as his gaze met mine and his smile slowly froze.
His nostrils flared as realisation dawned in his hooded gaze. He crossed the room, a blur of speed that left me no time to move out of his way. His hard, sculpted body crashed into mine, sending us tumbling to the wooden floorboards in a tangle of limbs.
A snarl started in his chest, and I felt it reverberate up through his body and out his lips as he crushed me beneath his weight.
“If I had known what you were, I never would have darkened the door,” he said, his barely controlled rage adding a ragged growl to his words.
I stared up into his face, and the urge to trace my fingers down the scar on his cheek was almost overwhelming. Christ, he was like sex on legs…
“Nice to meet you too,” I said, my voice husky.
Shifters could be right assholes, but from the pheromones rolling off him I knew he wasn’t just any old shifter.
He dropped his face to my neck, drawing my scent in through his nose as he growled again, the sound strange as he forced it out through his still-human face.
“I smell you, harbinger, and I know what you are. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip out your throat…”
“I can think of several, but”—I pressed one of my silver blades against the ragged pulse beating in his throat—“here’s one really good one.”
Surprise lit his eyes, and I couldn’t stop the small frisson of excitement spiking my heart rate. The darker side of my nature wanted to play with him, to taste his skin, to lick the tiny beads of sweat that had gathered at the side of his neck before indulging in something much more carnal.
“What do you want, wolf?” I asked, pressing the blade against him with just enough force to draw forth a tiny bead of crimson blood.
“You’re faster than I thought you’d be,” he said, “but not stronger…”
He wrapped his hand around mine, engulfing in his grip, by extension, the handle of the blade. He effortlessly pushed both my arm and the blade down toward the floor.
His strength and sheer raw power sent another thrill of desire shooting through my core. He was right about one thing: I wasn’t as strong as he was, particularly in the position I found myself in, but I was definitely fast, and being a harbinger had taught me a trick or two.
He stilled the moment he felt the press of my second blade against his vulnerable underbelly.
“Fast, sweetheart? You have no idea how fast I can be.” My voice was silky-smooth as my lips twisted into a cruel smirk. I had him, and he knew it.
Slowly, he released my hand and pushed away the knife I had pressed against his stomach, his show of strength suggesting he had muscles beneath his skin that no mere human had. The moment his weight disappeared, I wriggled out from underneath him and eyed him carefully as he hopped to his feet.
“How do you know what I am?” he asked, the predator lurking just beneath his surface watching me through his human eyes.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Your witch friend didn’t guess, and I’ve worked very hard to keep my nature buried where it belongs.”
As I climbed to my feet, a burst of laughter escaped me. He couldn’t honestly be serious, could he? Taking in the deliberate set of his jaw and the irritation that lit his eyes as he realised I was laughing at him, I knew he was being deadly serious.
Suppressing the rest of my laughter, I did my best to school my features into a blank expression. But from the glare Samira gave me over the stranger’s shoulder, I knew I was failing miserably.
With a sigh, I let my shoulders drop. “Look, what does it matter? I just know, probably the same way you know what I am. Knowing these things doesn’t make you any more welcome here, so you either tell me why you’re here or I’ll be forced to toss your ass out on the street.”
He opened his mouth as though he was going to continue arguing with me, but at the last moment his shoulders drooped and he released his breath. Resignation and barely contained rage played across his features as h
e fought to control his temper and the alpha within.
Whatever was wrong was clearly really bad. Wolves normally couldn’t put aside their meaner, more animalistic nature, especially not alphas. In fact, I was pretty sure that was almost unheard of except in life-or-death situations.
“I need help, and I was told you were the one to come to. Of course, if I had known you were a harbinger, I would never have darkened your door.”
“You said that already. Who told you I could help?”
“The Noree.”
Her name sent a shiver of fear down my spine. I still had no way of getting the collar off Samira, and Noree wouldn’t wait forever. If I didn’t come up with a solution soon, she would find her own way and, knowing her, preserving Samira’s life wouldn’t come at the top of her priority list.
It didn’t help that she also wanted my tears for some nefarious purposes, and considering what had happened in the Between with my tears and Clary’s essence, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to blindly hand them over to her.
Watching my tears bring Clary’s essence to life definitely wasn’t something I’d been expecting, but I had a feeling that Noree knew far more than I did.
But Noree wouldn’t have sent the wolf to me lightly. If she believed I was the only one left to help him, then his situation was truly dire. Did I really need to add another thing to my already full plate?
“What do you need?” I asked, tucking one of my blades into the hidden sheath at my back. I kept the other one out—agreeing to hear the wolf’s story didn’t mean I would take on his case, and most clients didn’t try and get the drop on me in our first meeting. With a predator as dangerous as I suspected he was, I wouldn’t take chances.
“You’ll help?” He sounded genuinely surprised, and his momentary lapse softened his expression, making his already extremely pleasant face that much easier on the eyes.
“I haven’t decided that bit yet, but I will listen. For now, that’s all I can promise you.”
Surreptitiously keeping him in my line of sight, I bent to pick up the bag of deli food from where I’d tossed it on the floor when he’d tackled me.
“You willing to share any of that?” he asked hopefully, eyeing the bag in my hand.
Rolling my eyes, I nodded. Typical bloody wolves—give them half an opportunity, and they would eat you out of house and home.
Chapter Three
Cleaning my fingers on the napkins the deli had provided, I watched in awe as the wolf finished the second fully loaded roast beef melt. If I hadn’t been watching him with my own eyes, I might have wondered if he was part snake shifter. Their ability to unhinge their jaws to swallow prey much larger than their heads was disconcerting, to say the least. But Byron, as I had discovered was the wolf’s name, was simply a half-starved lone alpha wolf determined to help his brother.
“And you said your brother is also an alpha?” I asked, suddenly certain I’d misheard that part of Byron’s tale of woe.
“Yeah,” he said, scooping up a stray piece of roast beef from his sandwich wrapper and hand-feeding it to the ginger terrorist.
She purred loudly and made tiny kitten biscuits against the leg of his jeans as she stared up at him adoringly.
“Traitor,” I muttered beneath my breath. Weren’t cats supposed to hate dogs? He might be a wolf, but as far as I was concerned, there really wasn’t much difference between Byron and my neighbour’s Chihuahua.
“What?” Byron glanced back at me.
“How is that possible?” I said, choosing to ignore the ginger terrorist’s betrayal.
“That my brother and I can coexist?”
I nodded.
“It’s the reason I became a lone wolf. I gave up my claim to the pack, my right to a family, my right to rule.”
“Your right to happiness,” Samira added, staring at Byron with the same adoring expression as the kitten had.
“What happiness could I ever hope to achieve if I had to murder my brother to get it?”
“You’re certain he wouldn’t have murdered you?” I dipped my finger into the salt left on my paper plate and licked it from my finger.
Samira gave me another dirty look. I was really going to need to have a chat with her once Byron left us alone.
“My brother is an excellent fighter and a true alpha to his pack, but I’m certain he would not have been able to murder me in combat…”
Something about his certainty left me with the strange feeling that his brother might not be as great a leader as Byron made him out to be. If he was right, and his brother would have fallen beneath his jaws during the Testing, then the pack did not truly have the strongest leader.
“I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong,” he said. “I am stronger, but I lack the qualities of a leader. My father always agreed that I was made for war. A warrior, but not a king.”
What a strange thing for his father to say. I couldn’t imagine being brought up knowing I would have to kill any siblings who threatened my right to rule. I might not like what I was, but as I sat across from Byron I couldn’t help but feel grateful that I hadn’t been born into a wolf pack.
“So, just like that, you gave it all up?” I folded my arms across my chest as I leaned back in my chair.
Byron’s shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly, and his expression hardened as he met my gaze head-on. He was definitely hiding something, but unless I found a way to make him spill his guts I wouldn’t find out the truth.
“Just like that,” he said, the edge of a growl tainting his words.
With a shake of my head, I pushed to my feet and dusted off my hands. “Look, I can appreciate you wanting to help your brother, but you’re not being honest with me. And I’m not willing to work with someone who can’t, or won’t, tell me the truth.”
“Darcey, you can’t—” Samira started to say, but I cut her off.
“I can and I have, Samira. Unless Byron here is willing to be honest with me, there’s nothing I can do.”
He stared up at me from his seat, the expression in his eyes unreadable.
“You really won’t help me, even if it means lives will be lost?”
“Look, you haven’t even told me what you’re having problems with other than a few wolves going rogue. And you said yourself that you and your brother hunted them down.”
He didn’t say anything, so I took it as a cue to add, “I’ve trusted people before who didn’t tell me the truth, and I came way too close to buying the goddamn farm to do it again. The choice is yours…”
He nodded and climbed wearily to his feet. “I’ve always known your kind was cruel, but I didn’t realise just how heartless you could be until now.”
“Darcey, maybe you could just think about it,” Samira pleaded. “I mean, he seems pretty desperate.”
“Don’t trouble yourself on my account,” Byron said, addressing Samira as though I weren’t even in the room. “It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he added without a hint of irony as he headed for the exit.
Samira’s eyes betrayed her distress, and I stepped out of the main office and made my way to the spelled door that hid the stairs to the basement before she could continue pleading with me. If given the opportunity, someone like Byron would use her soft-hearted nature to get what he wanted. I’d seen the way wolves worked before, and the moment they discovered weakness they needled at it until their objectives were fulfilled.
Retaking my place on the floor in the middle of the books scattered across the room, I resumed my search for a way to remove Samira’s collar.
“How could you do that?” she demanded, her footsteps heavy on the staircase as she clattered down it and came to a halt in front of me.
“How could I do what?” I asked, choosing ignorance. Perhaps if I played dumb long enough, she would get bored, return to the office, and stop bothering me, at least until the alpha wolf pheromones wore off.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Darcey. He came to
you for help, and you rejected him like you would a common criminal.”
Her tone was so impassioned that I couldn’t help but risk a quick glance at her face. The emotions swirling through her dark eyes surprised me. There had to be way more than just wolf pheromones at play. I’d seen others lose their heads over alphas before—sexual attraction was kind of their thing. Hell, I’d even seen people fall in love with them when they spent enough time with them. It was part of their power, their lure, and they used it to keep their pack under control. But I’d never seen it happen this fast, which led me to believe Byron was much more than just a run-of-the-mill alpha wolf.
“Not a common criminal—a liar. I can’t take the risk, for me and now for you.”
“The risk of what?”
“Look, it’s as simple as this: he’s holding something back, and clearly it’s big enough, and most probably bad enough, that he won’t share it with me. I learned my lesson a long time ago not to get caught up with anyone whose secrets were darker than my own.”
She opened her mouth to argue further, but I shook my head and returned to staring down at the book in my lap.
“Then if you won’t help him, I will…” Samira said, storming back up the stairs.
“Uh, no!” I clambered to my feet and went after her.
She paused on the top step and glowered down at me. For a woman who claimed to have been on the planet for almost fifty years, she still behaved just like the teenager she appeared to be. Maybe her magic did more than just slow her appearance from ageing. Perhaps it also slowed her ability to mature and become a rational person.
“I don’t need your permission,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and staring daggers at me as though reading my thoughts.
“No, but I made a promise to keep you safe, and I hate to break it to you, but witches and wolves really don’t mix. You’ll end up getting yourself killed if you go after him.” A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach warned that I had just talked myself into some hole, one that Samira would have no problem using against me.
Huntress Moon (Bones and Bounties Book 2) Page 2