A Hunter's Keep - #1 of "The Hunter's Series"

Derik’s POV

“Human?” I echoed Doc’s words. She nodded and like the rest of the men in the room, my eyes widened in surprise. I threw the papers I had in my hand on the desk and took Doc’s file. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

“None of this makes any sense,” I muttered out loud, looking through the sheets of paper. “A werewolf would never mate someone who isn’t their mate.”

It was just a statement. One I didn’t expect to be challenged or disagreed on. I was wrong.

“Unless…” Lucas slowly opened up the debate. “The mate was dead.”

I looked up. True. Sometimes, in the down spiraling depression of loneliness and despair it was losing a mate, some wolves sought comfort with others than their own kind. I should know that; having lost my own mate…

“Or she was raped,” Rick chipped in. I sighed. Ok, apparently there were logical – although depressing – reasons for why Sif was half human. That still didn’t explain Liz!

“The blood test confirmed it,” Doc said, nodding to the paper in my hand. “Only half of Sif’s DNA is werewolf.” She sighed. “I couldn’t get a sample from the human.”

“Raped or not, a she-wolf would never give up her child,” Betty muttered from the couch. I ignored the woman for now. She had it out for the two children since I made their presence know to the pack. She hated humans.

“Unless she was dying or afraid the child would be killed,” Lucas suddenly said, as if he’d had an epiphany. “That could also explain why Lizzy is so protective of her.”

I agreed. Nothing else could really explain why Liz was so afraid that someone might hurt Sif. And why she believed that monsters took many forms.

“We must have picked them up, when we crashed at that hotel last night,” I said and turned to my beta. Lucan understood the implication and got up. “Start there! And try and get an approximation of how far a child with no money could have gotten. We have to try and back trace her steps from there.”

Rick and Betty followed him out, leaving me alone in the room with Doc. I eyed her, waiting. She took the second file and handed it to me. I opened it, glanced over the horrifying pictures, before letting my eyes glance over the text.

“Broken ribs, fractured femur, skull fracture…” I read out loud some of the words jumping out at me. My heart skipped a beat. “These are…”

“Combat injuries,” Doc filled in for me, her compassionated eyes meeting mine. “Or someone was using her as a punching bag.”

“No wonder she doesn’t trust us,” I muttered grinding my teeth; my wolf growling and gnawing to get out. He wanted blood. The world sure was full of fucking monsters, I thought as the final pieces of the puzzles finally seemed to fall into place. They were being abused.

“She also has scars from some sort of jagged weapon, that look like defense wounds, and her knuckles are inflamed,” she continued, and a proud smirk spread across her lips. “She hit back.”

I grinned; even my wolf seemed proud. She looked like the kind of girl, that didn’t go down without a fight.

“Thanks,” I sighed and was left alone with my work. The sun had gone down hours ago and I was working into the late hours of the day. I never really liked going to bed anymore. Not since the day, my mate was taken…

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Lucan entered.

“Back already?” I asked surprised. I didn’t expect him back until a day or two at the very least…

“You’re not going to like this,” He huffed, letting himself fall into the couch across of the room. “The area is swarming with hunters.”

“Hunters?!” I exclaimed, surprised for just a second, before anger and rage took over. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” he replied without hesitation and sat up straight, once he realized my wolf was surfacing. He was hungry for blood; revenge for the loss of his mate.

“They’re not being very discreate about it,” he continued, trying to convey the message, that there was something not right about all of this. And to think before I decided to hunt them down for a change. “I told our scouts to pull back and lay low for now.”

I got the message and although my wolf didn’t like not getting his pound of blood that night, he did understand. I sat back down, trying to make sense of things.

“Why are hunters…?” I muttered, before a rather unsettling idea popped into my head. I looked to Lucas, but he was thinking the same.

“From what I could gather,” he said, only confirming what I already knew. “It would seem that they’re looking for something; or someone.”

I growled, linking the two guards standing outside her room.

Are they still in their room?

Yes, alpha, was the reply. They’ve been sleeping for an hour now.

Stay alert! I sneered, getting out of my chair. We suspect that they might be targeted by Hunters.

Yes, alpha!

I also reached out to the patrol to stay alert and keep a watch out for any increased activity. Then it was time to act! I got out of my office and headed upstairs with every intention of dragging the girl out of bed and beat the fucking answers out of her. Not literally, but…

The two guards straighten their backs as I walked in. This didn’t make any sense! Why would Hunters be after her? Who was she? And which ‘she’ was I supposed to suspect? Liz clearly knew something, but would I get anywhere with her, pressing her for answers?

I stopped at the end of the bed. Watching them was rather heartwarming. The little baby girl, lying flat on her back, hands in the air, sleeping soundly. I knew enough about babies to know it was a sigh that the child felt at peace and secure.

Liz had her arm around her, giving the little girl what she needed: love.

I sighed. My plans doing down the drain, as I stood there watching them sleep. They looked so peaceful. And I couldn’t help but notice, how beautiful of a child Liz actually was. Apparently, she’d had Doc cut her hair short, because Sif constantly pulled on it. It was a beautiful dark color, that in some light looked red and velvet, but in the current moonlight, it looked deep purple. Her face was small, heart-shaped; her huge eyes her most dominant feature, that were a vibrant rich honey color, almost yellow. She was tall and slim, but a child nevertheless. Her forms hardly showing, making her almost look like tall child. She looked so vulnerable.

My wolf whined and whimpered, looking at the girl on the bed. I sighed. Yeah, I felt the same. The need to protect her…