Escaping Death

Hunter

Of all the women in the world, they just had to bring back Solana. I almost didn’t recognize her, she’s changed so much, but she still smells just as good as I remember. I don’t have long to reminisce on the past before her fist connects with my cheekbone with a thundering crunch.

She’s gotten stronger, too, apparently. Solana storms off upstairs followed by Ace igniting in flames and storming off outside. I know why Sol is mad at me, she has every right to be. I’d like to pretend like I don’t know why Ace is mad but I’m pretty sure he thinks I’ve been lying to him, and Ace hates liars.

Death has no secrets. It’s his number one rule.

When he gets home I’ll have to answer to him and explain not only how I know Solana, but why she hit me the moment she saw me.

“Wow, it took her ten seconds to hate you. I think that’s a new low for you H.” Dean taunts me from the kitchen where I can hear him opening the freezer hopefully for an ice pack.

“I have to reset the bones she broke, you ready?” Elias asks me.

“Just do it,” I grimace through the pain that’s starting to increase. “Why is she here, what happened at the club?”

Elias resets the bones properly before responding, “she’s our new job. There, you should be just as ugly as you were before.” Eli says, pleased with his work.

“Fuck off,” I say but my words carry no weight as the pain is starting to blind me. “Ace told you guys not to take the job.”

“The deal was already done when we got your text, and if you haven’t noticed she’s more than a handful. We’ve been a little busy.” Dean chuckles. “Her daddies are Alphas of some pack and want their princess protected. Ow!”

Tate smacks Dean on the back of the head, “they’re not just any Alphas, idiot. They’re mated to the Queen of Twilight Grove, they’re Kings. I’m shocked they let Eli live.”

“Why? What did I do so wrong?” Eli asks defensively.

“You hit on the queen in front of her mate, you hit on their daughter in front of them both, and then you tried to stick your hands down her shorts.” Tate ticks off each infraction on his fingers.

“Shut the fuck up, all of you.” I’m using every spare ounce of control not to punch Eli in the teeth. Not just because he’s a goddamn idiot, but because he had his hands on Sol.

“You have no idea what you’ve gotten us into,” my words come out slowly and inflamed. I walk out to the back porch, leaving the rest of my pack mates in the house. I know we have a lot more to discuss, but it’s too much for me right now. My head is throbbing, Ace is pissed, and the girl I gave up has just come barging back into my world.

***

Thirty minutes pass by in quiet solitude before the purr of Ace’s bike disturbs the silence, followed by the sound of the front door being kicked open.

This far from the heart of the city the nights are deadly quiet, which enables me to listen in on the conversations inside the house.

“Where is she?” Ace asks the group inside.

“Upstairs somewhere, haven’t seen or heard her since we first got here,” Eli says.

“Try again. Where is she?”

“She snuck out the upstairs window and jumped down from the roof shortly after you left.” Tate says casually.

“You didn’t care to stop her?” Ace growls.

“I’m tracking her phone, she’s back at Caligo.” Tate says it like he’s bored of the conversation.

Ace sighs heavily, “give her an hour. If she’s not back on her own by then I’ll get her myself.”

I’m both surprised and irritated that Ace suggested he’d go out himself to get her. He usually delegates this kind of stuff to one of us, so it’s more than a little eyebrow raising to hear him volunteer himself to track her down.

The door to the back porch where I’m sitting swings open with a creak. Ace doesn’t turn to face me, instead he looks out at the small backyard we have. Ours is the only one on this street that doesn’t have a fence blocking out the neighboring forest.

“She’s the one?” He says quietly after a few minutes have passed by in silence. “The girl from the grove?”

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. Solana and I grew up together. There wasn’t anything she and I didn’t do together, we were inseparable. But this girl now is not the same girl I left behind in Twilight Grove.

— — —

Ace

All day my wolf has been pacing around, and it’s gotten progressively worse as the day has gone on. I’m sure the guys can feel it too, and if they do they’ve made sure to keep it to themselves.

When I caught her scent as she pulled up to the house with Eli I was furious. I sent them to the club to work and Eli brought home a girl — and not just any girl either.

He brought home my mate.

My mate came home with him, a man that has no right to claim her. My wolf was in a frenzy, he wanted blood from both of them. To make matters worse, she didn’t spare me so much as a sideways glance. Her eyes were fixated on Hunter.

And then she slapped him. First she comes home with Eli, now she’s got history with Hunter. She could be the death of us.

Before I did something rash, I stormed out of the house and hopped on my bike to go for a drive to get my thoughts in order. I wish I could have run, but the city isn’t suited for wolves and the woods behind our house aren’t dense enough.

Mates, I scoff at the word in my mind. In my experience being mates has meant fuck all to those involved. My piece of shit father, Eli, even Hunter are all testaments to the fact that this coveted mate bond is bullshit.

My wolf, Grey, fights against my line of thinking. He’s completely enamored with her already, smitten with her fiery attitude and intoxicated by her scent.

He wants her.

He wants her so bad that his fight for control intensifies with each mile of distance I put between us and her.

At the end of the day we don’t have room for her in our circle. How could I claim her as mine when I know how badly Eli and Hunter have been burned? How could I risk the pack we’ve chosen for ourselves by claiming a mate that was chosen for me?

These thoughts rage in my mind all the way back home. I barely make it one foot into the house before I can tell that she’s not here, which calms and infuriates me in equal measure.

Dean, Tate, and Eli are all sprawled out on the couches in the living room playing video games blissfully unaware that they’ve lost my mate.

“Where is she?” I practically bark.

“Upstairs somewhere, haven’t seen or heard her since we first got here,” Eli says, still focused on his game.

She’s not upstairs, though. Her scent isn’t anywhere in the house and I can’t hear her heart beating. “Try again. Where is she?”

“She snuck out the upstairs window and jumped down from the roof shortly after you left.” Tate tells me like he’s reading me the dictionary.

“You didn’t care to stop her?” I growl out as Grey pushes forward for control, demanding to be released so he can find her and bring her home.

“I’m tracking her phone, she’s back at Caligo.” Tate sighs.

I release a heavy breath, “give her an hour. If she’s not back on her own by then I’ll get her myself.”

I have no idea what I’ll do with her when I bring her back here, I don’t even know what she was doing here to begin with.

Before I do anything, I need to check on Hunter. From the sound of things, Sol clocked him good. Plus, I’d like to know why she hit him. Then I need to meet with the guys and figure out what happened at Caligo. I’ll save asking Eli why he brought my mate home with him for later.

I follow Hunter’s scent to the back porch, I probably could have guessed he’d be here without scenting him out. He’ll never admit it but I know he hates living in the city. He grew up uninhibited, free to shift wherever, whenever. Things are much different here.

I stand there on the back porch for a few minutes, willing myself not to immediately ask about her. I even mentally rehearse asking him about his face first. But no matter what, all I care about is her. Why did she hit him, why is she mad at him, who is she to him?

And then it dawns on me, like a lightbulb going off.

“She’s the one? The girl from the grove?”

I catch the way Hunter’s throat bobs as he swallows before nodding weakly.

Just fucking perfect.

“Is this going to be a problem? Having her here?” What I want to ask is if he’s going to choose her over our pack, if he’s still in love with my mate.

“No. I’ll talk to her…eventually.”

My hands fist through my hair, coaxing Grey to settle. This shit is more than I need right now, especially with our newest job.

“Pack meeting. Now!” I shout. I don’t mean for it to come out angry but things are rapidly spinning out of control, which is not a feeling I’m accustomed to.

The five of us gather in the living room, the tension around us is stifling and I can sense that I’m not the only one who feels it.

“Let’s start with Caligo, what happened there?” I settle comfortably into my favorite armchair.

“Before or during the meeting?” Tate cocks his head to the side and I rub my temples with my fingers to subdue the forming migraine.

“The clients are the Alphas of Shadowmoon and their mate,” Dean begins to say.

Hunter quickly jumps in and corrects him. “Their mate, also known as the warrior Queen of Twilight Grove and Luna to Shadowmoon. She has more authority than the Alphas so if any of them are our clients it’s her.”

I don’t take offense to how defensive he is over his former Queen and Alphas, he’s never said one bad word against them. He’s told me what happened and he is convinced the Queen would find it unforgivable, so now he’ll never go back home.

“What did they want?” I ask, moving the conversation along.

“Protection detail for their daughter, Solana. She has a bounty on her worth ten million.” Tate says, turning his computer to show me what he found in the Underdark.

My lip snarls involuntarily as I read the notice. Solana. Grey purrs in my mind at her name. But while he preens I’m focused on who the hell could want her so badly that they put a ten million bounty on her.

The guys have brought us home a ticking time bomb.

Even if we do manage to keep her safe, which by the looks of just the last thirty minutes alone is going to be a tall fucking order, I’ll still need to figure out what to do about our mate bond – preferably before the guys learn of it.

Death has no secrets. I will tell them but not before I have a solution to this problem.

“So when I said ‘don’t take the Caligo job’...”

“The deal was already done, Ace. They’ll pay any price for us to keep her alive while they hunt down the bounty’s origins. I don’t know about you, but being her personal bodyguard will not be a hardship for me.” Eli says with darkening eyes.

“Gods, she’s pure fire. We might have to let Tate tie her up just to keep her here.” Dean smirks at his little brother.

“It would be my pleasure,” the double meaning of Tate’s words practically sets me over the edge.

“She’s mine!” I growl out as Grey finally breaks through. I force him back and try to figure out how I can do some damage control. I don’t want the guys knowing about her being my mate just yet. “She’s mine first. No one fucks her until I do, and I hate to cage your balls but we’ll be too busy hunting Nightshade to worry about her.”

“We’re okay with that, Tate and I can share our toys.” Dean says with a fist bump to Tate like the hormonal fledglings they are.

“That’s what you heard?” Hunter is incredulous. “We’ve been hired to hit Nightshade! Put your dicks away and pay attention.” I can hear his wolf, Fox, growling through his words.

I know he’s not happy about what I said about sleeping with Solana, and for the record I do not intend on sleeping with her, but whatever claim he thinks he has on her because of their history, my claim is the only one that matters.