The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (5 page)

He watched her squirm under his inspecting gaze for a few minutes
before he decided to change the topic.

“Do you know the rogue?”

“No.”

He smirked at the lie. A look had passed over her face when he
mentioned Joey at the pack meeting. From what he gathered, a number of
the
Oconee pack left
jus
t before
Kyran
came and took it over. Unfortunately,
the former Mikko didn
’
t make a habit of keeping records
of members that he allowed to leave.

“If that
’
s what you want me to believe.” When she moved to speak,
he waved her into silence. “I want you to understand this, though. If
you move to interfere when we go hunt him, I will be forced to kill you.
I really don’t want to do that considering what I want to ask you.”

“Ask me?”

He leaned casually back against the rough stone of the Passing
platform. “Would you be interested in an ascension? I want an Aatiki.”

He watched the way her body went rigid and her lips part slightly
.
He wanted to find an
Aatiki
, a wife, and the last thing he wanted in his
long life was to spend it with a docile mate. Matings were permanent
for Talas, and not even in death did they part. Shayla was just the
opposite of docile. With the exception of her not being his Soul’s Mate
, Shayla was perfect for him.

“Why me? I mean, I could be years away from my Rut.”

His lip curled slightly at the mention of the Rut, the fertile period
that all Lycan females entered within five years of their first shift. The
Rut and the resulting fatherhood wasn
’
t something that he wanted to
take part in anytime soon. He had enough responsibilities jockeying for his attention at the moment.

“I already thought of that, and it
’
s not an issue. I actually prefer it.”

For Lycans, sex wasn’t something they engaged in lightly. The
more socially conservative, like his brother, tended to save themselves
until they got married. On the other hand, the socially liberal rarely
slept alone if they could avoid it.

Kyran imagined he fell somewhere in the middle of the spectrum
.
He wasn’t a virgin – hadn
’
t been for a long time. In truth, he rarely
slept with Lycans, preferring to leave female Talas as uncorrupted as
possible. Last thing he needed was to be responsible for a broken-
hearted Tala when so many human females with loose morals roamed
the Earth. Still, the human alternative was generally avoided. Generally,
the less personally involved Lycans were with humans, the better.
Besides, explaining his stamina got old after a while.

He focused his attention on the furrowed brow of the blonde-haired
beauty he hoped to make his wife in the near future and waited for
the question she was obviously mulling over.

“Why now? I mean, you have held the pack for more than six
months.”

“Death often accompanies a Mikko who is distracted in the face
of turmoil.”

A small smile came across her face. “You kept the challenges from
the Harem. It couldn’t have been many. I heard of only two.”

“The Harem shouldn
’
t worry about instability in the pack. But now
that everything is as stable as it can get, I want a mate.”

Kyran watched as she looked at the platform that he leaned on and
let many emotions dance through her sapphire colored eyes. A short nod came before she met his gaze.

“I will accept, though I think that you can do better in a wife.”

“Shayla, think about what I
’
m asking you. Do I really have to have
an Aatiki?”

She stared for a minute before she smiled. “You
’
re giving me a way
out of the Harem, aren’t you?”

Kyran did a short jump and sat on the platform. “That’s the best that I can do for you.”

Shayla bit her lip. “Are we going to do it soon?”

“No. It will be sometime after we move from here.” He laughed at her relieved look. “Wow, didn’t know it would be that bad to be mated to me.”

“No, it
’
s just that…it was just a little sudden. I
’
m caught off guard
is all.”

He gave a slight smile. “Alright, well, I have to go look for the
Hunter. Go back to the zenana. We can talk when I return.”

Kyran watched as Shayla returned to the cave
’
s entrance, which was
nothing more than knobby stone walls hidden behind a cascading wall
of thick Spanish moss. When she was gone from sight, having parted the moss like a curtain, he turned and left the seclusion of the pack’s patch of forest to hunt the Hunter.

ALEXIS HAD BEEN
dropped off at the Hunter cabin, which was located
just outside of Suches and roughly ten miles south of the latest Rogue
attack. In its unadorned state, the cabin could best be described as a water stain on the greenery of the surrounding forest.

Alexis looked at the bland décor of the bedroom. It had all of the
necessities to make it a house, yet it lacked the emotional pull that
she imagined a typical home might conjure. The place was obviously
decorated by retired members of the Edict Council, who seemed to
favor the bare essentials touch, despite the fact that Hunters could
sometimes spend months in one location.

Covert operations required more finesse than brute force. That
meant handling any media attention, cleaning up any potential cases of exposure, and dealing with any stubborn humans who refused to
believe the lie that they were given. One would think the Elders understood
that comfort in some form or another would be nice to return to after a
long day of killing, lying, and ensuring that the Forever War remained
a secret at all costs.

Having unloaded her bags, she ventured to the kitchen and searched
for the car keys. Their location on a hook beside the rear door screamed
“Steal Me!” Not that there was a high crime rate in the area or items
worth stealing at the cabin. Satisfied, she called Command and checked
in
. She heard several groans in the background followed by grumbles
about her going off grid. Alexis hung up and shut off her phone, even
as the tech pleaded with her to keep it on. She ventured to the bedroom
and unpacked her weapon bag.

Alexis checked her guns again, loading them with specially modified
darts loaded with silver nitrate before she placed one on the bedside table and the rest on the dresser. She laid her custom made and fitted
holster on the back of a battered recliner, visually noting that its many
slots for the numerous blades and extra ammo she tended to carry were
full. A longing glance passed over her crossbow before she decided
that it wasn’t a very practical weapon for this hunt.

Content with the fact that she was as prepared as she could get,
she set the alarm and took a quick nap.

***

Alexis woke up with an eerie feeling that she was being watched.
A quick glance at the clock told her that it was just after four, which
meant she still had about three hours of daylight. She turned off the
alarm and ventured through the house with the gun from the bedside
table in hand. The cabin was clear of any intruders, but the feeling
still lingered. Frustrated, she slipped into the bedroom and strapped
on and packed her holster. At the back door, she grabbed the keys,
intent on driving into town and seeing if she could dig up any gossip regarding the victims of the rogue attacks.

She listened to the nearly silent purr of the garage door
’
s motor as she made her way out to the aging, muddy brown van that sat inside.
She rounded the corner of the garage to see fluid, inhuman movements in a pasture below the cabin. The Sight, a God-given ability that manifested
every time a Lycan was in view, marked the two beings as abominations
.

The Sight wasn’t an ocular phenomenon, making its presence
known by marking Lycans with proverbial crosshairs. It was instinctive
knowledge dating back to the time Hunters were nothing more than a breath of God’s imagination.

Alexis cursed, drew her gun, and did a quick check of the wind’s
direction. After affirming that it was easterly and she was in no danger
of them scenting her, Alexis began the slow descent to the field. At the
bottom of the hill, she skirted the trees – shedding cover in favor of
unhindered movement should she need it. At least that was what she
was telling herself. She raised her gun and took aim when the wind
did a slight shift.

Alexis never got off a shot as the two Lycans came charging at her,
their sensitive noses having picked up her scent.

The sheer force of their joint impact left her both momentarily blind
and deaf to her surroundings. Though the sensation of their weight
quickly disappeared, thoughts of her impending death bounced around
her head like the ball in Pong.

When the world returned to her – both too loud and too bright from
its absence, she found that she was mostly unharmed. The Lycans were
engaged in a fight a few feet from her, using the disjointed-looking jaws
and clawed hands of their partially-shifted bodies to rip into each other.

Alexis had just managed to free one of her blades when the female
wolf turned its attention to her.

***

Kyran stood in a patch of clustered trees downwind from the
group. He had been listening to the argument between Shayla and
Joey, who apparently was her brother. From what he could tell, Shayla
had set up the meeting, hoping to save him. He had just managed to gleam the pertinent details of their disagreement when the Hunter’s scent wafted downwind.

He glanced
up from
the siblin
gs in time to see a petite Hunter raising
her gun as Shayla and Joey charged at her. His mind grappled with
what he was seeing. Nothing about what was happening made sense
according to everything he knew, but the impossible was right in front
of him.

His Soul’s Mate in the body of a Hunter. Impossible, yet there was
no denying the radiant golden aura shining around her, like the glow
from the sun at someone’s back.

The siblings attacked, but in the fray, they managed to eject her,
leaving her dazed in the process. The Hunter
’
s good fortune didn
’
t last
long. Shayla freed herself from her brother’s hold and turned the full
weight of her attention to the woman. Though the Hunter was reaching
for her weapons, she would never make it.

The ground seemed to lace its woodsy fingers around his ankles,
shackling him where he stood. He watched with morbid curiosity as the
rogue, Shayla, and the Hunter became a tangle of limbs and blood.

The first to withdraw from the fray was the Hunter, who held onto
her torso. A
jagged line
of flesh
threatened
to spill out her sweet crimson
colored insides. She struggled away from the siblings, who were so
engrossed in the fight that they missed her crawling away.

Kyran had to appreciate the raw power and finesse of Shayla
’
s
combat skills. She was elegant and yet vicious in the slash she gave
her brother from her clawed hand. Not that her brother was a slouch.
He danced around her attacks and landed a perfectly executed high
kick that sent her careening into a nearby tree, breaking the tree off with
a bone-wrenching snap.

Shayla jumped back at her brother, taking him down to the ground
with a shoulder to his midsection. Their joined bodies sent a cascading
ripple of dirt into the air. The Hunter who had given up crawling
away, was showered with clumps of dirt, an ominous sign for her
life-threatening wound.

She sat watching as the brother and sister pummeled each other.
Her gun rested unfired on her thigh, in an effort to avoid wasting
bullets on targets she was more likely to miss than hit. Kyran could
tell that her blood loss was starting to affect her, because her head
would sporadically droop then quickly snap back up. The woman
’
s
tenacity was to be admired.

If only she were a Lycan.

A primal scream tore Kyran from his musing of what would never
be. A glance around the tree told him that somehow Shayla had toppled
her brother. Unfortunately, as she knelt by his bloodied body, she paused
, sadness searing her features. That momentary weakness cost her.