A live prisoner was necessary for interrogation. Not a dead one for dinner. She shuddered.
“Cyn gets ten minutes,” Kaden said firmly. “Eva goes with her. No one else.”
Before she went inside, Cyn grabbed the first aid kit from the bathroom.
With a nod from her, Eva opened the door and she followed Eva inside. In the middle of the room, strapped to one of the kitchen table seats was a man with dark brown hair. The ropes had been laced around the man’s arms and legs, as well as through the gaps in the chair.
He had bruises and dried blood all over his face. The deep scratches along his exposed torso were frighteningly familiar. The telltale sign of a werewolf attack.
Time to focus and get to work.
Cyn opened the curtains for more light. With the late morning sun bathing the room, she could make out more of the man’s features. Something about him tugged at her memories. She’d seen him before. Not in person, but in pictures. He was definitely part of the chain of command within the Cerulean hunting clan structure. It wasn’t as if those in command had breakfast brunches together to gossip and gab, but in order to keep a little peace between the clans, the higher-ups met once in a while to discuss matters.
Cyn gathered her thoughts so she could talk to him, but Eva made a move first. She strolled up to him, used her index finger to raise his bloody chin, and smiled. The way a predator would to her prey.
“Get your hands off me,” he said.
Eva chortled and settled herself on the edge of the bed.
“I’d say good morning,” Cyn began, “but this morning isn’t looking too good for you.”
Eva continued to stare him down as Cyn rummaged through the first aid kit. Rhys’s mate tapped her fingernails against her knee. The motion was hypnotic.
“I’m going to check you for injuries first; is that okay?” Trust first, questions later.
Cyn reached for his head, but he jerked back. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I find that rather hard to believe with scum like you,” the man spat.
“Scum?” Eva scoffed as she rose. “You invaded my territory and you have the nerve to call me that?”
“Scum kills with disregard. We found the body you tried to hide.”
Eva stiffened, her mouth opening and closing.
Their conversation was collapsing quickly.
The man’s mouth curled into a smile. “Was it you who killed him?”
“Why are you here?” Eva lunged for him, managing to grab him by the throat, but Cyn intervened. Wasn’t she supposed to do the questioning?
“Hey! We’re here to question him. You don’t have to hurt him like that.”
“Let go of me,” Eva warned. “If you find our methods unacceptable, maybe you should consider what humans do to my people.” She easily twisted out of Cyn’s grip. “Or maybe you should join him and see what it’s like for the werewolves you interrogated.”
Cyn clenched her fists to keep herself in check. The need to straight up fight Eva was coming. She could feel it deep in her bones. Like an itch that was burrowing under her skin to the point where digging it out wouldn’t be possible.
“Please leave the room, Eva. I’ll finish up here.”
Eva stood there for a moment, maybe considering other actions, but, instead, she left. Through the open door, Cyn saw Eva glance at Kaden before she stormed out of the cabin with her children, leaving Cyn with the tied-up hunter.
Cyn immediately shut the bedroom door. Time to settle down a volatile situation.
“What’s your name?” she asked as she placed the first aid kit next to his seat.
“Vince,” he finally said.
“How badly are you hurt, Vince?” She checked over him and just found bruises and deep scratches. The light blue tattoo on his chest was a stark reminder of what he was.
“Are you one of their slaves?” he asked as she cleaned one of his scratches.
“Uh, no!” She drew back from him and made a face as if insulted, but the truth was the truth. In the past, a few of the packs, with more shady backgrounds, had kept humans as slaves. Some of them wanted to join the pack with the potential to run and live a long life, while other ones had particular tastes that even Cyn didn’t want to think about.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“It’s human decency to check on your welfare. Unlike you, I talk first and shoot later.”
“My welfare?” He looked her over the way a hunter would this time. The way she stood. The way she now assessed him. “There’s no way you’re a hunter.”
“And what if I am?”
“Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He glanced at the gun Cyn had placed on the bed. “I would be free, and I’d be blowing these bastards to kingdom come.”
Cyn kept a straight face until the man smiled and spoke again. “A traitor among the wolves. How interesting.”
“You can assume all you want, but I was brought here by force. My brother Zach left me here.”
A flicker of recognition flashed in his eyes before a cloud of disdain descended. Interesting.
She kept talking. “When was the last time you ate?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“After all that sledding and running in the snow?”
He didn’t answer.
“I heard from Kaden that you gave your men orders to take prisoners, yet they were attacking and shooting intermittently.” She crossed her arms and noted discomfort when he wouldn’t look her in the eye. “What did you want to learn? How to play in the snow from the kids?”
Vince tilted his head in a half-shrug. He knew damn well what point she made. He was silent for a bit, but finally spoke.
“Why would Zach McGinnis from the Red clan be interested in taking over territory far north of Vancouver?” He paused to look her in the eye. “And now I know what happened to his sister. You’ve been off the radar for a while. Not unusual, but when the McGinnis boys are seen hunting without their sister, folks start talking.”
“So the Cerulean hunting clan leader—is that still Garrison—sent you here to check up on things?”
Vince shrugged. “We sent a man first to check things out, but he came up missing so another one of our boys was sent to investigate and track the other one based on his embedded GPS unit.”
Damn, so the hunter Bastian had killed had been sent here to investigate Zach’s dealings. Shit. Shit. Shit. If they would’ve run away from that hunter, he would’ve probably lost their trail and all of this mess wouldn’t have happened.
“So your second man discovered the camp and the cavalry was sent in based on his findings,” Cyn finished.
“And what an interesting find: A pack hiding in a territory under the direction of Zach McGinnis. No bids from freelancers allowed. No reports of werewolf activity. Why was he associating with a pack?” Vince leaned forward, even though that tightened his ropes. “Especially, after the grisly murder of his parents at the hands of werewolves.
“Your parents,” he added.
Cyn clenched her fists. She tried to keep herself from showing her anger, but she couldn’t help herself. Especially after that shithead mentioned her mom and dad.
“Why do you care? What my clan does is no affair of yours. If my brother’s interest is in the countryside instead of the cities, don’t you get more opportunities to hunt elsewhere?”
Vince cocked a grin. “I’m just a hunter. Garrison’s motivations are his own.”
“I say bullshit.”
“Call it whatever you want.” He made a noise as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. “The McGinnises aren’t so high and mighty now that they’re working with werewolves, too. Huh?”
“What are you saying?” She closed in on him. He’d said “too.” So who else had worked with werewolves before? The Ceruleans?
He merely smiled. A mocking grin that told her their productive conversation was done. Fini.
“I can leave this room and let
them use their methods,” she warned.
“I bet you would. You’ve fallen for their tricks,” he hissed. “You’re bedding a few of them, aren’t you?”
Wow. What a waste of effort. She slapped a Band-Aid over his arm. Vince grunted.
“Is that the best you got?” he chided.
“That was me being nice.” She opened the small bottle of alcohol and poured the contents over gauze. Then she taped the gauze on the deep scratch on his chest. “I’m good at first-aid.”
He hissed between clenched teeth this time. “Damn it.”
Someone knocked.
She scowled at the door. The dude yells out once in pain, and now they care?
“Do I need to come in there, Cyn?” Kaden asked.
“Whatever.” He might as well. She wasn’t going to get anything else valuable from Vince other than a string of insults on her nursing skills.
***
Kaden had listened to the entire conversation with interest. Until the hunter had the nerve to insult his woman. He’d gripped the doorknob hard enough to break it off. The temptation to intervene and protect Cyn filled him with anger, but she was feisty enough on her own so he didn’t go into the room.
He wasn’t surprised to see Eva leave earlier. As a powerful female, giving up control wasn’t in her nature. Eva had to feel as if she could provide for the safety of her children, but as he expected, Cyn ended up getting the answers in the end.
If a werewolf would’ve done the interrogation, the conversation wouldn’t have gone as well and they wouldn’t have garnered as much information.
Kaden entered the room to find Cyn leaning against the far wall and Vince fuming in the seat. The male hunter flashed a dark look Kaden’s way and continued to brood.
“I can see you’ve finished your…first-aid. Come on out. We have matters to discuss.”
She followed him out of the room, but she wouldn’t look at him. Even when he placed his arm over her shoulder. Almost as if a wall existed between them. What had Vince said again? Now that the McGinnises had connections with werewolves too, they weren’t so high and mighty anymore…
“Let’s walk for a bit before we meet the others,” he suggested.
The others had already left so they walked alone from the porch into the snow. Kaden welcomed the moment to be alone with Cyn.
He took her hand and helped her find the best path. They walked for a few minutes before he spoke. “Do you want to talk about what happened before you give the grisly details to everyone?”
She shook her head.
“I wasn’t in the room with you, so I couldn’t read his body language, but he might be lying.”
She was silent for a moment. “I don’t think he was lying.”
“How do you know?”
She shrugged. “Hunter’s intuition―”
She slipped and got caught in a snowdrift, and he easily grabbed her by the hips and lifted her out. The moment was all too brief. He wished he could hold onto her longer. Maybe even pull her close for more. His body stirred to life, and their time apart tugged at him.
Ehh, the others could wait.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her away from the cabin to the privacy of a cluster of evergreens. The trees absorbed most of the bitter wind, but he’d be more than happy to keep Cyn warm.
“Kaden, what are you—”
He swallowed her protest with his lips. With each dip of his tongue into the warmth of her mouth, the pleasure within him grew. She tasted like strawberries. At first, she resisted him and tried to add space between them. She never gave her love away easily and he relished the chase.
Each and every single time.
She cupped his cheeks with her hands and she moaned.
The outside world around him blurred away. All the distracting sounds and his burdens lifted off his shoulders. She had that kind of power over him. He missed this. He missed her. He’d do anything to take her pain away.
Breathless and smiling, Cyn backed away from him, tugging him toward the others. “That’s enough. We need to return to the others.”
“Are you sure? We could go to one of the empty cabins for a minute?”
Her coy smile made him want her even more. “Didn’t you tell me you always needed at least an hour?”
He chuckled. “I did say that, didn’t I?” He tugged her toward the camp.
Her light laugh and coy twinkle in her light gray eyes made him grin. “This isn’t the time to get horny and make out.”
She had a point.
He stole another long kiss.
A gunshot in the distance forced them apart.
“Was that…?” she said.
“Yes.” He grabbed her hand and they ran back toward the camp.
Chapter 10
As fast as she tried to run, Cyn couldn’t keep up with Kaden. He made running in the snow seem simple. No energy wasted with each stride. By the time he was close to dragging her, she gasped, “Go! I’m coming!”
He hesitated, and at that point, she knew he was determined for her to stay by his side. They ran again—until she tripped over a fallen log and crashed in a heap in the snow. Cyn landed facedown with a mouth full of snow.
There went their glorious arrival.
She lifted her head and spit out the snow.
“Keep going, damn it,” she growled out.
He tugged her up. By the time she stood, she shoved him toward the camp. “I’m fine!”
They ran together again, but he pulled ahead of her. By the time they ran into the small clearing close to camp, Cyn couldn’t believe what she saw.
Naomi, Rhys, and Eva, along with two other pack members, circled around a single man dressed in a dark blue coat. He held his ground in a defensive stance with a hunting knife in one hand. Eva’s children were standing off to the side next to the two pack members.
One look at the man’s dark hair and her run slowed to a stuttered walk. She blinked, but she wasn’t mistaken. The hunter’s height and lanky build was all too familiar.
It was Zach.
What was her brother doing here?
Naomi took a swing at Zach, but he dodged her hit and kicked her away with ease.
Her brother was actually…holding his own.
Wasn’t she supposed to be the one rescuing him?
Eva dived for him, but he twisted out of the way a split-second before she touched him. Cyn had only seen one man move like that before: their dad.
She tried to run faster and keep up with Kaden, but she knew she wouldn’t make it in time.
Her brother would die today.
Eva came at him again, with Rhys sneaking in from the rear. The blonde woman reached out for Zach, ready to snatch his arm, but Zach anticipated her trajectory and twisted her around with her back pressed to his front.
He placed a gun to her head next.
Damn, he’d…improved.
The three others growled.
“Stop!” Kaden roared at his pack. He’d reached the clearing first. Exhaustion ripped through Cyn’s legs, but she pushed herself to reach his side.
Zach turned off the safety and Eva froze.
Rhys’s mouth curled into a snarl.
“Zach…,” Cyn whispered.
“Not another McGinnis,” Naomi groaned.
“What have you done?” Cyn murmured.
This wasn’t the reunion she had planned with her brother. There was supposed to ass-kicking—his ass getting kicked, in fact—but there would be nothing left of him but bloody scraps.
Zach cocked a grin. “Good to see you too, Cyn.”
The End of Part 3
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Shawntelle Madison
Version 1.4
All rights reserved. Except as permitted
under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.
Chapter 1
My brother is going to die today, Cyn thought. It seemed inevitable, even after his cocky greeting.
From the way his hand held a gun to Eva’s head, she knew he could pull the trigger, but the wink he gave her signaled that he didn’t plan to do it. Now that she thought about it, why hadn’t Zach shot every one of them before she’d arrived at the camp clearing with Kaden?
Because he had no plans to kill anyone.
“Everyone step back!” Kaden shouted. The edge to his voice was unmistakable, and he even made Cyn shiver.
The only people who had to step back were Rhys and Naomi. The others had kept a healthy distance. Damien, who was partially obscured by pine trees, observed the exchange at the edge of the camp with a hint of a grin.
Eva’s three children stood next to one of the other pack members.
Tension filled Cyn’s stomach until it soured.
“Do you know this man?” Rhys asked Kaden.
“He’s Cynthia’s brother,” Kaden said as he approached his brother and placed a hand on Rhys’s shoulder. “He is hereby under my protection—”
Rhys growled. “He will be under your protection once he releases my wife. Until he does so…”
Kaden turned to Zach. “Enough of the showmanship. Let her go before you get yourself killed.”
Zach nodded and immediately released Eva.
With a snarl, the blonde woman shifted to claw at him, but Kaden barked, “Don’t even think about it, Eva!”
Eva’s whole body trembled with anger. Her face was bright red against her hair. Her jaw was tight and the claws along her fingertips told Cyn the werewolf would strike the moment the opportunity came. Kaden grabbed Cyn’s hand and tugged her behind him.
“You keep protecting these people, Kaden…” Eva bit out. “They have no qualms about fighting.”
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