Hunter, page 18
part #1 of Hunted Shifters Legacy Series
Jack blinked, looked around, then eyed Hunter suspiciously. Hunter returned the look from the rearview mirror before he focused on the road ahead.
“Are you okay?” Celine asked.
“I’ve been better,” Jack admitted. Those ice blue eyes took her in, a quiet study. “You don’t look like you.”
She smiled. “We both decided this was better. Safer.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope it works.”
Hunter was confident it would. Unable to resist, he glanced at Celine, taking note of everything: from the hair now dyed brown, to the very frumpy, dull-colored clothes she wore. Even trying hard to look plain didn’t deter him, as those green eyes were all he needed to remember everything they’d done to each other in his bedroom.
God, now he was aroused again. He looked away, hoping Jack wouldn’t catch on and give him grief for it.
Not that he was going to let the stubborn man do so.
The two talked in quiet murmurs, and Hunter was content to listen. His disguise wasn’t so extreme: just his hair styled differently, the gel making it look neater. His clothes were neater, too, like he was off to some business meeting. The thing was, subtlety was always how things worked here, as anyone looking for them would look for profiles: color of hair, the clothes they usually wore.
If the tracking device was gone now, they were hopefully safe.
Back in Queens, he didn’t drive towards Jack’s apartment but towards the opposite area, which had the man sitting up straighter. But there was no comment as Hunter honked outside a garage, then eased the vehicle in when it was opened. Inside, light bulbs illuminated their exit from the vehicle, where Jack stepped off gingerly before finally turning to Hunter.
“What is all this?”
“We were in your apartment when they tracked us down, which means they probably have your place watched. We thought it best to take you here for now.”
“Without consulting me,” Jack returned.
Hunter tensed. “It’s just safer this way. For everyone.”
“No one visited me except your healer and Celine, and he didn’t seem the type inclined to talk it all out.”
Which was admittedly true, as Levi often stayed away from brutal conversations. Celine tugged on Jack’s arm, which had the man softening instantly as he glanced at her.
Before Hunter could respond, the drawer at the corner of the garage pushed aside, and the hatchet popped open to accommodate Kit’s head.
“Oh, good! So it really was the tracker being tracked, and now that’s all clear.”
“Who are you?” Jack blurted out, eyeing her intensely. She turned pink but returned the scrutiny, and her voice was cheerful when she responded.
“Kit is all you need to know, and my home’s your home. I would have said that in Spanish to be cooler, but I’m afraid I might butcher the language and won’t get over it. Anyway, welcome.”
Jack stared at her as if she were the oddest thing he’d ever seen, right before he turned to Celine. She smiled.
“She’s a friend, and her place is the safest place for you now. Temporarily, at least.”
“I don’t need protection.”
“Yes, you do,” Hunter interjected. “Like I said—”
“I heard what you said,” Jack cut in. “And let me ask you this: why isn’t your home being tracked right now, and why do you consider it safe enough for Celine and Sidney?”
Silence, as comprehension dawned on Hunter. “Surely…?”
Without saying a word, Jack nodded.
Celine folded her arms, frowning. “I don’t understand…oh.”
“I don’t understand,” Kit chimed in. “Obviously, you’ve all caught on except me…”
Hunter and Celine looked each other in the eye, communicating without needing words. A warning gleamed in her gaze, and he understood that, too. Then Celine nodded and went to Kit.
“I’ll explain it all to you. Come on. Do you have something to eat? I’m sort of hungry.”
When the two women left, the two men faced each other. It wasn’t a standoff, but Hunter braced himself, anyway.
“I didn’t realize pockets could be that small,” he muttered, indicating that he understood perfectly what Jack wasn’t trying to say.
In response, the man grimaced. “That’s the point. No one’s supposed to know. And that’s my point: my place is just as untraceable as yours, and the only reason they tracked you guys down was because you left and went to that restaurant.”
“What about your work?”
“I’d been promoted to a different…department, long before any of this happened. I don’t need to go in, and now this just works perfectly.”
“Is the whole building…?”
Jack smirked. “I’m not telling you more than you need to know, but I assure you my apartment is safe. Celine and Sidney would thrive there.”
At that, Hunter’s back went up. “Maybe. But it’s still her decision in the end.”
Silence followed. They regarded each other with half-hostility, half-contemplation. It was obvious this man cared about her—a lot—and it was obvious that wasn’t going to stop despite the situation and the secrets exposed. There were a lot of things Hunter didn’t like about this, but he understood Celine enough to know she would never let loyalties break so easily, and she knew her own mind.
He was just going to have to accept this friendship.
“You seem so sure about it.”
Accepting, of course, didn’t mean just taking things quietly.
Hunter sighed deeply, careful with his next words. “Look, I get it. You want her beside you, where you can monitor her and see to her like you used to. You’ve been taking care of her for who knows how long, and she’s been doing the same to you.”
“That’s right.”
“But you have to understand I’m a part of her life now, and she’s a part of mine.” Hunter took a step forward, closing some of the distance between them. Not that close, but close enough for the other to hear the low rumble in his throat. “And I will do anything to keep her protected. She matters. Obviously, she matters to both of us.”
Silence.
Jack tilted his head. “Obviously.”
“So stop being such a stubborn prick, would you?”
The half-shifter’s mouth quirked, and Hunter wasn’t sure if it was a smirk or a sneer.
“Hmm. Hunter…?”
“Hunter Solis.”
“Solis,” Jack said firmly. “You’ve made your point. Let me make mine.”
“Go ahead.”
“If you ever hurt a hair on her head—or on Sidney’s—I’m going to hunt you down, and I’m not going to stop. You’ll find that when a reptile hunts, there’s no stopping that reptile until its victim is torn to pieces.”
The threat was…effective, as a chill careened down Hunter’s spine. He knew about reptiles’ reputation, of course—knew they were often residing in sewer pockets and were among the most violent of the lot of clans around the world. A lone reptile shifter wasn’t much different.
So Hunter took his word for it.
“That’s fair enough.”
The agreement seemed to take the man aback, but he took it as it was and nodded. Jack even held out a hand, and Hunter shook it with a tight little press. They glanced at the underground hatch, which was still open and waiting for them.
“You’re not going in, then?”
“Celine and I have already said our goodbyes, and she knows how to contact me,” Jack replied quietly. “Presuming she can.”
“She can,” Hunter confirmed.
And that was that.
When Jack left, Hunter finally descended to the basement, tasked with delivering the news to Celine and wondering how she was going to take it. Some feelings came out when what people were used to was gone, and obviously, Jack played a big factor in her life.
He found them hunkered over some chips, and a smile played on his lips at how relaxed they looked. When she glanced up and saw him already locking the hatch, Celine rushed over immediately.
“Where's Jack?”
“He’s gone. He decided this was for the best.”
Hunter expected devastation…maybe some sort of denial as she demanded to know what he said, then had some realization that she wanted to follow Jack, after all.
Hands cruised down his stomach instead, and her body soon followed as she enveloped him in a tight, warm hug—whatever her smaller build could accommodate, anyway. Dumbfounded, he could only stand still before his hands moved, drawing her in and sniffing in her scent. It calmed him down.
It made him feel, and he was still coming to sorts with that. To protect her. To touch her.
To kneel before her and tell her, because she was everything he didn’t know he wanted and had.
Every bit of it was absorbed by his heart, and every bit of it coalesced into one final feeling. Hunter took that in, resting his lips on her hair and feeling a kind of calm.
But that calm didn’t last for long.
“Um, sorry to interrupt,” Kit interrupted in her most I-don’t-want-to-interrupt voice, with hints of panic. “But Ovie just contacted me.”
Hunter tensed. “And?”
“He needs both of you back at your realm. There’s been a breakthrough.”
Chapter 24
Apparently, emotions didn’t wait for anyone, and Celine braced herself for the third emotion overload that she was about to get that day—this time, in the form of the mansion’s prison area, where a lone prisoner of a boy met her sight the moment she entered. She hadn’t seen Jameson in maybe a week, and now the sight stunned her.
First off, he was wearing clothes that looked clean and new.
Second off, he was sitting on a chair inside the prison cell and facing Ovie with all the calmness in the world.
Still pale, but skin smoother. More civilized.
“Hey, Jameson,” Hunter greeted, less surprised at the sight. Or maybe he was just good at hiding it. “Ovie, what’s…?”
“Hello, Hunter.”
The words stopped them both in their tracks, and this time, Hunter was no longer as calm and casual. His eyes bugged out for a fraction of a second before he composed himself and nodded at the boy.
“Hello. It’s good to hear you talk. Since when…?”
“Since now,” was Ovie’s response. There was no hint of tiredness in his voice, but Celine didn’t miss the darker bags under his eyes and the way his accent seemed deeper—as if he couldn’t keep it quite polished enough. She turned to Jameson.
“Hello, Jameson. Do you remember me?”
“Of course, Celine. I remember you.” Jameson eyed her back, an intense curiosity in his expression. He then turned back to Ovie, obviously waiting for something. Nervous about it, it seemed.
Ovie nodded. “Go on. Tell them what you told me.”
The boy swallowed, a certain vulnerability in his stance. Celine went to step forward, the move was stopped by Hunter, who wrapped a gentle hand around her wrist in warning. Heeding it, she stayed in place and waited it out.
Silence surrounded them, stark and purposeful, before the boy finally spoke in a small, reluctant voice.
“Not everyone knows about the baby, or about Celine.”
It was the last thing she expected to hear, and the news pulsed in her mind as the boy continued.
“That was just a front, and in truth, only three clans are involved: the daywalkers, the nightwalkers, and the shifters.” Jameson met her gaze. “The nightwalkers were the group who thought it would be a good idea to experiment for the second time.”
Cold ice swept down her back, freezing Celine completely. “Second time?”
“Yes. The first impregnated woman is with them, and she’s been breeding. But she’s at the end of her life span, and they needed someone new. She's probably dead now. You were supposed to be the new one.”
It was…madness.
“No third victim yet?” Hunter asked casually.
The boy shook his head. “The only way they can keep this under the radar is to do it one at a time. The reason they want to wait until they have Celine is to make sure everyone involved is accounted for.”
“Meaning they’re planning to murder everyone who knows, huh?” Hunter mused. He didn’t sound astonished, but he did sound pissed off. “What about you? How is your nightwalker group involved?”
At that, the boy’s body tensed. He trembled a bit before he steadied himself by grabbing the chair he was sitting on tightly. There was a war going on inside his head, one that was about to shatter…
“We were a part of their nightwalker clan. But my sire didn’t agree on how they ran some things…” Dents creaked the sides the chair, and the boy’s fisted hands trembled harder. “And the head of that clan didn’t like it when some supported my sire. So we were kicked out with consequences.”
“They have a magic-user,” Ovie confirmed gravely, which drew a muttered curse from Hunter.
Magic-user. Another new thing for her, as Celine hadn’t read it in the library books.
“Yes, they do. The magic stripped us off of any rational thoughts, and we became vicious.”
“So your sire sided with the shifter clan to exact revenge?” Hunter prompted.
“We tried to seek help from the daywalker clan at first. They were the easiest to find—except they didn’t want to ally but wanted to get to you themselves. To find out how you got pregnant and replicate the process. They tried to kill us off.”
Her heart went out to him. She couldn’t help it. But she wisely kept her mouth shut and let Hunter keep talking.
“So you went to the shifter clan next.”
“My sire did, yes.”
“Then why are you telling us all this?”
At that, the boy looked up, red-rimmed eyes going from one face to another.
“Because my sire is becoming mad with power, and it’s going to get worse if he keeps siding with the shifter clan. Both clans do not deserve our manpower.” A pause. “My clan and the shifter clan want Celine dead, but they also want to keep the baby.”
At that, Celine jerked back. “What?”
“Experimentation. Getting the upper hand. Using it to eliminate all the members of the nightwalker clan.”
Her head spun with every word thrown, and she held on to Hunter to steady herself. Jameson was saying more, saying things in an angrier, more jaded manner—just a kid, already forced to become an adult. Something inside her broke at that, but the dread was deeper, stronger, sinking in her stomach and telling her one conclusion to all of this: that she and Sidney were never going to be safe until the ones after her knew she was dead.
An hour after an exhausted Jameson collapsed and Hunter pulled Celine out of there, her mind cleared enough for her to latch on to a few things.
“Something doesn’t add up.”
“Hmm?”
“Why are they after me when they could get another victim? They could do that while still eliminating me or any other witnesses. Why aren't they trying to experiment on another human woman?” she asked. “Not that I want that to happen, but…”
“It doesn’t make sense,” he finished. “And I don’t think Jameson knows, either.”
“Did you promise him freedom? An alliance?”
He shook his head. “No, we promised him nothing. You saw him, Celine.”
“Glamour…”
“Glamour doesn’t work that way. Glamour charms, but it doesn’t make you feel the dread he was feeling. He’s scared for his clan because he knows this will boil over soon.”
She heard what Hunter didn’t say: that she was right in the center of that boiling over. Another thought popped up, and this one was more dreadful.
“If no other clans knew...how did your clan know?”
Hunter tensed, and he didn’t respond for a while. Belatedly, Celine realized they weren’t heading towards their usual destinations, which were either their bedrooms, the kitchen, or the back fields.
They were headed to the forbidden area.
“We’ll find out,” was all he said.
Silence filled their walk, but each step was heavy. The clenching of his jaw told her he didn’t know the answers, either, and the conversation with Jameson had unsettled him. Wanting to comfort him—and perhaps ask a bit of comfort in return—she squeezed his hand and was rewarded with Hunter tugging her close and seeking her mouth.
She kissed him back, reveling in the slow, almost lazy feeling of it. But the hint of need was still there…still strong. They broke apart shakily, eyes heavy with that need.
They continued walking.
* * *
Edmund’s office was as clean and untouched as usual, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there, considering Jessa’s casual announcement of his return home. That had been about twenty minutes ago, and somehow, Hunter knew there was no other place his boss would visit first.
True to prediction, the man entered the office minutes after Celine and Hunter had settled on the couch. He paused at the sight of them but continued entering.
Hunter did not waste time, already standing up.
“How did you really know about Celine’s situation? About the clan wanting her?”
“Hunter—”
“Don’t make excuses, boss. The vampire boy told us what he knows.”
A second figure stepped in the office, and Leila’s brows rose at the sight of them. But she didn’t leave, quietly shutting the door before she stood beside it. She was no longer in her glittery dress but in slacks and a tight white blouse, and the slightly damp hair indicated she was about to head out.
“Edmund, what is this nonsense?”
Edmund, not Hunter. Celine studied the woman. Did she know…?
The man in question strode to his desk and faced them.
“Are you sure you want to get into this, Hunter?”
“Get into what?” Leila demanded. One look at Edmund had her clamping her mouth shut and crossing her arms. “Fine.”
It was Celine who stood up and faced the man with the answers. “Yes, Lord Edmund. I want answers.”
