A Hunter's Challenge [The Hunters 3] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Suzy Shearer

  Her parents came out as soon as they heard the car pull up. Tears and hugs became the order of the day until they all went inside. Madeline made coffee all round and pulled out a platter of cakes and biscuits that was very quickly eaten. The six sat and talked for half the night until Madeline and Arthur couldn’t keep their eyes open. They were ushered to bed after Madeline showed everyone where to sleep.

  The following evening after a delicious meal Anthan put forward their proposal. Arthur didn’t seem to even think it about, he immediately said he’d love to do it. Anthan then asked them if they would like to live in the flat he’d built. He wanted to give it to them if they would like it.

  “Consider it payment in advance for being our cook.”

  He added that the flat attached had been repainted and was now waiting for their arrival. He told them all about it. Erica had taken a pile of photographs and she pulled them up on her tablet so her parents could see their new home if they accepted.

  “Oh, Erica, it’s lovely and so big!” Madeline wiped her eyes. “We never expected this.”

  Viorel told him all the paperwork was now stamped and approved and they could travel as soon as they were ready. Arthur explained that they had been packing and sorting through things since they’d arrived back. He felt that most was done.

  “Viorel arranged a container for us. We’ve filled it with the things we want with us. Most of the furniture here can stay and we will buy new things when we arrive. It’s really only personal items, clothing, photos and things like that.”

  Anthan looked at the two of them. “Arthur, as far as furniture goes, you have to let us help you. You’ve had your life uprooted. We would love to be able to do something.”

  “Heavens, Anthan, you’ve done so much. And now you’re giving us a home. We have enough money to buy anything we need. Anyway, Viorel is insisting we take rental money for this place. We’re just glad to know it will not be empty. “

  Viorel shook his head.

  “Certainly won’t be. Your clever daughter discovered a strigoi in the area tonight and destroyed it. Think it would be wise to send someone here to make sure it was the only one.”

  Madeline looked terrified at Viorel’s words but Erica took her hand and assured her she was safe and always would be.

  The remainder of their visit was filled with planning. Erica and Avril helped her parents finish their packing while Viorel and Anthan discussed the plans for teaching Hunters. Viorel “spoke” to a Hunter and his mate, asking them to take over the house and make sure the area around was clear of strigoi. They would arrive in five days.

  It was a tearful farewell but also a happy one. Viorel had arranged for a plane to pick up the couple, their luggage and container in four days. They would soon be living alongside Erica and Anthan. Madeline had pulled Erica aside and asked if she could arrange for a bed for them in the new flat.

  “I know Arthur wants to go out and buy everything but I’d really love to be able to land and then sleep in our own bed.”

  Erica had laughed.

  “I will, Mum. Do you want something like you had?”

  “Oh, Erica, that would be lovely! I really love our old bed. I love running my hands across the beautiful wood.”

  “Leave it to me, Mum. I know a few shops that sell that lovely old-world wooden ones. I’ll make sure it’s there when you arrive.”

  * * * *

  The flight back to Australia was spent mainly asleep. Once more, they timed it perfectly and were able to land in the early evening. They flew back to Anthan’s, surprising Amy who was in the middle of directing Ken and Martin where to place the new couches that had arrived.

  She was overjoyed when Erica told her their parents would be arriving by the end of the week. She and Erica arranged to go bed and linen shopping immediately much to the amusement of the men. Erica was right, they managed to find an almost identical bed in one of the shops and arranged to have it delivered as soon as possible. The two girls enjoyed spend time together without their partners and wandered through the open mall until late night closing time.

  The bed arrived. Then two days later two very exhausted but very happy parents arrived.

  Ken was on hand to meet them, it was around eleven in the morning and he suggested they have a few hours rest then join everyone in the evening.

  That night the reunion was a happy one. The knowledge that their parents had finally found them and would now be living in the flat made the girls incredibly happy. They talked for hours until Ken reminded them that the couple needed to have a good sleep.

  Once they’d caught up on sleep, Ken took them both grocery shopping, filling the shopping trolley to bursting point.

  Madeline found a new lease on life. She’d never been able to fully live since the girls disappeared. Arthur had poured his energies into the restaurant, trying to block out his pain. But now they both were filled with happiness.

  The following week was spent with Ken helping Arthur and Madeline buy whatever furniture and things they needed for the flat now that their container of effects was unloaded. They also bought things for the cooking side of the arrangement that Arthur felt was needed.

  Madeline swiftly took over the household management with ease. It made sense because once Ken found his mate there would be no mortals to arrange things during the daytime. A lot of things could easily been done at night, but there were some that needed daylight hours.

  They were ready for business.

  The school was officially ready for their first students.

  Epilogue

  Madeline and Arthur quickly settled into the flat. Arthur was filled with such enthusiasm for his new position and Madeline hers. Both believed it was because they finally had their family back.

  Arthur would ensure the evening meal was a full breakfast thinking that things were reversed with immortal sleeping through the day. Then he ensured there were plenty of snacks available for anyone throughout the night while he and Madeline were asleep then they got up around 6:30 making a full hearty meal for everyone.

  Anthan confided to Erica that he thought her parents looked younger since they found a new reason to live. Their children back with them and a new life, had instilled a happiness in them both that they had been lacking since the girls were taken from them.

  Anthan and Erica were still discovering Erica’s new abilities. She had realised that when she killed her first strigoi she had been able to make it think she was part of the surroundings. They’d discovered this trick would last for about quarter of a minute before the strigoi realised it was being tricked. But those fifteen seconds or so were generally enough to strike. It took Anthan a few goes before he was able to master that trick.

  Martin took a little longer.

  Martin could now transport the longer distances, the trick with the meditation had worked and he was now meditating every morning and evening, as were the others.

  Their first real pupils were Matei and Charlotte. Matei was able to pick everything up as quickly as Anthan did. Erica was pleased to meet this famous Hunter and his now pregnant wife. The streaks of gray in his hair made him easily recognisable.

  Then two of the other pupils turned up—Matei’s brother Tomas and his mate Julie. They arrived with their beautiful little baby girl, Diana, as well as their mortal companions. To Erica it was as if she had an even bigger new family.

  Her parents doted over the baby and it was while she was entertaining this new family that Erica realised she was pregnant. Julie had explained to her how she hadn’t understood the changes to her body and explained how she had come into season with her conversion. Erica realised she’d done the same thing and was now six weeks along. She thought that probably the gods had planned it that way.

  Julie told Erica she would be able to talk to her child and that Anthan would also through their mind merge.

  Erica gave everyone her news. That caused more celebrations. Her parents were over the moon.

  But thei
r excitement was nothing compared to Anthan’s. Her big strong Hunter was reduced to a blubbering mess!

  The two of them managed to slip away from the celebrations her father had quickly arranged. For a while Anthan could only hold Erica as if she was a piece of rare Chinese porcelain. For the first time in his life Anthan was speechless. It was only after about ten minutes that he managed to get out a few words.

  Not that that lasted long. When Erica told him she was carrying twins—boys—he sank to his knees and sobbed again.

  She realised instantly exactly what it meant to him, she could “hear” his joy.

  He had spent almost four and half thousand years alone, his emotions locked so deeply that he thought he would never love, never find his One. Then, on the very day he had decided to kill himself, he’d met Erica. Since that day, he’d often told her that he still had trouble believing it, that it seemed unreal.

  Now the knowledge that he was to be a father, a father of twins and the father of a new generation of Hunters had overwhelmed this mighty Hunter, this king, and brought him to his knees.

  Erica had slid down, leaning against a tree and pulled her Hunter to her. She’d laid his head in her lap as she comforted him. Finally she’d merged with him, introducing him to his sons. That made him cry more, so after reassuring the twins that their father was very happy he managed to get his emotions under control long enough to wrap his sons in all the love he felt for them.

  When they’d gone back inside, he had wanted Erica to stop everything and stay at the house but she put her foot down and insisted they continue learning her “new” tricks. She also insisted they take some time off the following month. She needed to get some work done for her photography clients.

  So they had finally flown to take the photographs of volcanoes at night. Complete with her new Hasselblad camera. Anthan had secretly purchased it after she’d announced she was pregnant.

  She and Anthan were spending two weeks travelling around Hawaii while she worked. If he seemed over protective of her, Erica didn’t mind. She knew exactly what she and the boys she carried meant to him and to the future of all Hunters.

  There had been so much rejoicing all over the world when the other Hunters found out their king and new queen would soon bring two new Hunters into the world. They all knew that this was a special event in more ways than one—these two would be the start of the new breed of Hunter and even Erica and Anthan had no idea what talents the boys would have.

  Whenever they met other Hunters Erica was embarrassed by the attention and reverence they showed her.

  Ken was also a new man.

  His meditation and karate classes were proving very successful—so far they had a success rate of 87 percent. Surprisingly it wasn’t always the younger Hunters who ‘broke’ through their limitation barrier. There was great rejoicing when Silvius managed it after three night’s meditation exercises.

  Silvius had travel to study with his wife, Lenut̗a. There was much crying and hugging when Erica met him. She felt as if she’d know him for so long. He had been with her since she’d first found out she was Anthan’s mate.

  Ken’s karate classes were also proving to be even more successful. Once the Hunters learnt how to strike with their whole arm, 95 percent were able to rip out the hearts of the strigoi. Those that hadn’t been able to were disappointed until Ken pointed out that if they did more practise, strengthening their straight arm technique he was confident they, too, would be successful.

  And as for Ken.

  Well Ken met his One.

  It was six months since he’d been rescued by Martin and Anthan. He actually forgotten that he was probably intended as a mate, too caught up in the classes and the admin work. He had discovered how much he loved it all. He would sleep as late as possible, trying to change his sleep patterns, sleeping most of the day and becoming a night-shift worker.

  Martin and Amy helped with the classes, Amy was becoming very proficient at explaining how to locate a person taken to the other mates. Even though there were no strigoi in the area, she was adept at explaining the feelings and how to locate people.

  There was a new bunch of students arriving. Some had already come the night before and now five Hunters were arriving that night. Ken had stayed up way passed his usual bedtime trying to ensure everything was ready for the new arrivals.

  It was close to five o’clock in the morning. Ken was yawning as he poured himself a coffee. He rotated his neck, thinking that if the last two didn’t get here soon he would have to go to bed. He was exhausted, when the second last one arrived on the back deck.

  He heard someone land on the deck and thought to himself, “Thank goodness, one to go.”

  As he turned, he got an overwhelming sense of joy, of love and longing. The man before him dropped the small bag he was carrying and raced toward Ken.

  Ken felt that wonderful feeling flow over him when Esteban Iliescu reached out and touched his face gently. Esteban’s mind entered his and Ken almost sank to his knees in amazement.

  The man before him was tall, maybe a few inches taller than he was. He had those amazing Hunter eyes in a shade of brown that Ken thought was breathtaking. His long hair was caught in a long braid down his back. Ken took his hand and couldn’t quite believe that at last he’d met his mate.

  Esteban burst out laughing as they wrapped their arms around each other, each staring disbelieving at each other.

  “I’ve waited for you for almost 1900 years. I never thought I’d find you, yet here you are!”

  Ken was at a loss for words. His heart was filling with love with each breath he took. He shook his head.

  “This is crazy!” They both laughed as he continued. “This is so fucking wonderful!”

  Then Esteban looked critically at him.

  “You should be in bed. I can feel how tired you are, my dearest. Come, show me where your bed is.”

  “I can’t yet. There’s still one more Hunter to come.”

  Martin wandered in. He’d come back to the house to find Amy’s notebook. He took one look at Ken in the arms of Esteban and whooped.

  “Yeah! At last!” He held out his hand. “Hi, Esteban.”

  Esteban broke apart from Ken and shook Martin’s hand then hugged him.

  “Looks like you’ll soon be one of us completely, Ken.”

  Ken only had eyes for Esteban as he nodded in answer to Martin. Esteban was about to tell him that Ken needed to sleep when the final Hunter arrived. Martin took charge telling Esteban needed to get Ken to bed. Arm in arm they went downstairs to Ken’s car.

  His house wasn’t that far away but Esteban drove thinking that his mate was far too tired to concentrate on the road. For his part, Ken couldn’t take his eyes off Esteban as he gave directions. They’d pulled up and gone inside. Ken wasn’t sure how it happened but within a few minutes they were both naked and kissing each other with all the passion built up from longing, waiting for their mate.

  Esteban looked down at him and whispered, “I’ve never been with anyone in my life. I don’t know what I should do.”

  Ken laughed softly. “I’ve never been with a man so I guess we’ll just work it out to suit ourselves. I know it will work out perfectly.”

  And with that he kissed him again, this time with all the love he could feel bursting free inside him and he thought, “Yes this was perfect!”

  THE END

  WWW.SUZYSHEARER.WIX.COM/SUZY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Suzy is single and lives in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia. She is an author, an artist, a computer nerd and a voracious reader. She has a penchant for crazy coloured hair - pinks, purples even rainbowed.... it changes every month - oh yes, and for tattoos!

  Her heroines are always rubinesque women who are proud of their curves and the books always feature older heroes and heroines; ranging from mid 40s to 60s.

  "Just because we are older doesn't mean we aren't intriguing, desirable, open to challenges and willin
g to experiment." Suzy wants her readers to understand that sexy isn't just for the under 30s... lol

  When not writing, she is usually painting - an accomplished watercolour Artist. Her subjects range from portraits and animals to nudes and landscapes.

  For all titles by Suzy Shearer, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/suzy-shearer

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com