Page 1 of The Fated Hunter Wolf
1
RHYS
When I caught her, I was going to kill her.
Or claim her.
I didn’t know which one.
Fucking wolf.
We were never at odds like this. We were a team. Or at least, supposed to be. Instead, there I was trying to track this bitch who led Logan into Heraclid hell, while he swished his tail like we were playing tag with her. What was his problem? He had to see who this woman was, the threat she posed simply by existing. No chance in hell I was letting her waltz onto Orion lands without consequence.
The wind screamed past my ears, and every nerve in my body burned with the singular purpose of catching her.
Shit, this woman wasfast.
The forest engulfed me as I tore through the trees in human form, the taste of her lingering in my senses, that smell spurring me on. I couldn’t stand it, but I had to find it. My wolf surged beneath my skin, claws scraping at the edges of my control, demanding release.
The woman who knew something about my missing brothers was running off before answering for the vision she’d thrust onto me.
Sable.
Her name burned itself into my mind as I sprinted after her, my boots pounding against the uneven ground.
But I couldn’t shift. And I didn’t know why.
Some unwritten rule in my blood was saying that as long as she was in human form, so was I.
Pine needles scattered underfoot, sharp and brittle. Her scent was a tangled mix of rain and honey with rage and desperation, bitter. A haunting electric charge that knocked me sideways. The sensation wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt—something older, darker, like the forest itself had come alive to warn me off.
Too bad for her. I didn’t give a shit about warnings.
Images of my twin brothers flashed in my mind, their faces so vivid it hurt.
Nash, with his easy smile and sharp laugh. Wyatt, quieter, his watchful eyes brimming with secrets he’d never had the chance to share. I’d carried their loss like a chain around my neck for years, each link forged in guilt. If it hadn’t been for me, they’d have been sitting around that bonfire, laughing and eating and celebrating with the rest of us. Logan thought the blame sat with him, but I knew the truth. I hid it from everyone and desperately tried to hide it from myself, transform the guilt into a driving dedication to Orion.
Now Sable, that riddle of a woman, dragged them out of my memories and threw them back in my face with a power I didn’t understand.
The faintest flicker of movement caught my eye. I pushed harder, the muscles in my legs screaming as I closed the distance between us. Her brown hair streamed behind her like a banner,her silhouette weaving through the trees with the precision of someone who knew the land.
Or maybe she was running on instinct, the same primal edge that sang in my blood, telling me I had to catch her—and fast.
My wolf snarled in mutual frustration. I should have had her by now.
She was still too fast. Too fast for a human. Too fast for awolf.
She was a juiced-up version of a female wolf with a scent that made me want to end her on sight. The smell of Heraclid still clung to her, but even that didn’t belong. It felt like a mask designed to throw me off. And now I’d caught the truth beneath it, I couldn’t let her go.
She shifted in front of me, a seamless, almost mystic transformation into a silver-colored wolf, lean and agile. As if bidden by a higher calling, my wolf thrust forward and I couldn’t hold him back. The shift ripped through me, fire and fury replacing flesh in a rush so primal it left me shaking. My paws hit the earth, claws tearing into the ground as I howled, the sound echoing through the trees like a war cry.
Her scent hit me again, dragging me forward like a hook buried in my chest. The firelight from the clearing was long gone, swallowed by the endless stretch of trees, but I didn’t need it. I had her. My wolf had her.
Almost.
She disappeared, and my wolf skidded to a halt. Our hunter heart was beyond frustration now—this cat-and-mouse chase could not continue, though I knew that the hastier I got, the more careless I’d become.
I had to calm myself. My wolf inhaled, letting the cold air sting to the deepest part of my lungs before pausing to sense the smells around us. Nostrils flaring, my wolf found what he was looking for.
