Page 4 of The Fated Hunter Wolf
I wasn’t just putting myself at risk.
I straightened, forcing myself off the tree, the bark leaving faint scratches on my skin that I didn’t try to heal. I couldn’t stay here. There was someone waiting for me. Someone who depended on me. And if I didn’t keep moving, I’d lose everything. Some secrets had to be kept.
The forest opened ahead, the faint silhouette of what had been the Heraclid border in the distance. I took a step forward, the ground cool and firm beneath my feet, the night pressing against me as I left the pull of him behind.
Or at least, I tried to.
3
RHYS
The sun had barely cleared the horizon after a horrible fucking excuse for sleep when I slammed my toe into a half-buried rock masquerading as a cornerstone for the new meeting hall.
“Son of a bitch!” I howled, hopping on one foot like a fool while the rock sat there, smug and unbothered. The dull throb shot up my leg, but the pain was nothing compared to the other ache gnawing at me. One I couldn’t kick away if I tried.
That woman.
All night I’d tossed and turned with the memory of her retreating figure, a blur unlike anything I’d seen before. It rolled through my head like a bad song stuck on repeat. The chase. The kiss. The ridiculous submission spell that had frozen me in place like some wet-behind-the-ears pup. My wolf didn’t know whether to snarl or purr, but he was prowling under my skin, claws out, every nerve itching for a hunt that wasn’t happening anytime soon. I had work to do right here in the Old Town.
I straightened, muttering a string of curses under my breath as I looked over the scene in front of me.
The place was coming back to life, slowly but surely. Months ago, it had been a ghost town, half of the structures sagging intothemselves. It had been just another sign of how low we had dropped in the hierarchy of the Shadow Moon packs, when we deserved—and had earned—the right to lead. We’d done so for generations before the Great Separation.
Since Logan had finally put Grayson in his place—and thank the Shadow Moon Goddess for that, since I really thought I was going to lose my last brother in that fight—things were starting to look up. The uneasy collaboration between the Heraclids and Orions was far from settled, though several of them had integrated as if they’d always been among us.
Freshly cut wood and wet concrete filled the area. The Heraclids were better with their hands than I’d expected. They were rebuilding their lives here, alongside us, slapping up walls and patching roofs with a determination that made it clear they weren’t leaving anytime soon. My job was to help keep them motivated, show them Orion was here to support them in the long run, and to build bridges where before there had only been mistrust.
A group of Heraclids was working on the general store. New shingles. Fresh paint. Even some glass for the windows I’d managed to purchase from the orcs in Seattle. Over by the main square, two Orion kids were arguing over who got to carry the hammer while a few Heraclids smoothed mortar onto a crumbling brick wall. The sight was uplifting, heartwarming. For me, it was a reminder of how much work we still had to do, and meanwhile I couldn’t get that woman out of my head.
Her scent lingered in my nostrils, clinging stubbornly. It wasn’t just the memory of it, either. It wasthere, invasive, cutting through the sawdust and sweat like it had staked a claim on my senses. My stomach twisted. I couldn’t escape it—her, whatever she was—and it was driving me out of my damn mind.
I pressed a hand to my chest, wincing as my fingers brushed the still-healing gashes she’d left there. Normally, somethinglike that would’ve been gone in hours. Shifter perks and all. But these wounds were stubborn, refusing to knit together fully. Every time I moved, they burned.
A Heraclid worker glanced over at me, probably wondering why Logan’s beta was standing in the middle of the street looking like he’d lost a fight with a tree. I did up my top button and shot him a look that sent him back to his work.
Focus. That was what I needed. Not the memory of her kiss. Not the way her scent choked me like smoke. And definitely not the way my wolf had whined when she’d run, like he’d been the one abandoned.
I sighed. The town wasn’t going to rebuild itself, but right now, I sure wished it would.
“You planning to bleed all over the new floor, beta, or is that just how the Orions mark their territory?”
A Heraclid elder’s voice cut through the noise of the construction site. I froze mid-step, my fist tightening at my side automatically at the disrespect in his remark. Every head within shifter earshot turned toward us, the buzz of conversation and work grinding to a halt.
He stood near the framework of the meeting hall, arms crossed over his chest like he owned the place. The guy had that wiry, weathered look some wolves got after surviving a few too many scrapes. His Heraclid scent carried a note of arrogance, a stench that always hit me wrong.
“Just making sure the place has character,” I said, flashing a grin. Peace was more important than a battle of words with the geezer.
A few Orions chuckled behind me, but the elder’s face didn’t so much as twitch. His gaze dropped pointedly to my chest, where the wounds Sable had left still seeped.
“Funny,” he said, “I thought the Orion beta would be tough enough to heal a scratch like that. You arebeta, right? Because Iheard Logan used to have a beta, and he turned Heraclid when he saw the weakness in his own pack.”
Whoa. Now that was going too far.
A growl rumbled in my throat, low enough that only those closest might’ve caught it, but the elder’s smirk said he’d heard just fine.
“What are you trying to say, Heraclid?” I held back the insults for the moment, though they were dancing on the tip of my tongue. We had shed blood against the Heraclids, lost some of our precious pack in clashes that never would have happened if the Heraclid elite hadn’t been greedy as fuck.
The bastard didn’t flinch. He just stood there, his stance screamingtry me. My wolf tensed, the challenge blatant but unspoken. Before I could let the fire out, a voice I knew too well snuck into my mind through the pack bond.
