Hunter's Secret

Hunter’s POV

I don’t know what happened with Emma and her mom but from Cameron’s ready-to-kill-someone face and his tear-soaked shirt from Emma, I assume it did not go well. I try to focus on everything else, but my thoughts keep drifting to him. I know he said he would tell me later, but I want to help now.

I hear his door open, and I immediately go to ask him questions, but he just holds a finger to his lips and then taps his head.

I motion him over to the couch and we sit down facing each other.

‘Her mom kicked her out of the house after I talked to you,’ he tells me through mind-link.

‘That doesn’t make sense. Why would she do that?’

‘Something about me taking Emma away from her. I think she just wanted to have some control over the situation. I think she was hoping that Emma would be mated with someone who could move into her house so Emma wouldn’t have to leave. Obviously, being mated to me threw that idea out the window.’

‘It’s not like you are in a different pack. She will literally always be like 10-15 minutes from Emma,’ I say, confused.

‘Yeah, I don’t know, Hunter. Grief makes people do weird things sometimes.’

‘I guess. So, what do you want to do?’

‘I honestly don’t know. Emma told me that she isn’t ready to be fully mine yet but her sleeping in my bed is going to make that very hard.’

‘You could come sleep in my room. Just like when we were kids,’ I offer.

He smiles, ‘We haven’t done that in a long time. I don’t want to ask my parents or your parents to move out earlier than planned. That wouldn’t be fair on them.’

‘You could also just take my room and I can sleep on the couch for a few weeks. It is not like I am really sleeping anyway.’

‘H, you need to start sleeping. I am not going to kick you out of your bed.’

‘I know I need to sleep but it isn’t that easy. Emma could take my room and I could move down to yours,’ I say, trying to come up with possible solutions.

‘No!’

A low growl sneaks out and I give him a surprised look and he continues, ‘I can’t have her smelling like you. I don’t think Xavier would appreciate that.’

I laugh and shake my head at him, ‘Gotcha. I think the best solution is for you to take my room and I will sleep on the couch. It will only be for a little bit. That way you can be upstairs and hopefully the bit of distance will be helpful.’

‘Thanks. I have been really trying to respect her boundaries because I want her to feel comfortable so as much as it was hard, not being with her all the time also made it a little easier. Now, she is going to be in the same house, and I still have to give her space.’

‘You are a good man, Locks. As much as Xavier is a protective and pushy jerk sometimes, you still have more control than him. I know you won’t do anything to hurt her.’

‘Thank you, H. She is resting now. We can go get some of her stuff from her mom’s house later.’

I nodded my head in response, and I asked him to come with me up to the office. He quickly scribbles down a note for Emma and tapes it to the door and then follows me to the office. I sit behind the desk, and he lays down on the couch on the side of the room.

“I have been going over all the pack’s finances and resources and we are running out of everything. Our pack keeps growing and we don’t have space. I don’t want to cram multiple families into one house, and I also want to make sure we have enough medical supplies, food, etc. for everyone. The only solution I have thought of is going to Red Rock and asking them to join us.”

“Hunter, you are already a good Alpha,” Cameron tells me with a smile.

“Why do you say that?” I ask as I give him a quizzical look.

“Because you said 'our' pack. Not 'my' pack. You don’t hold yourself above everyone else when you don’t have to. I know Titus Black was not appreciative of the offer your father gave him, but you are not your father. From what I have heard, you are very different than your father was at your age. If you think it is worth a try, I will go with you.”

“Thanks. I am trying to be a good leader. I am really glad I have you, Cameron. Thank you for being my Beta but thank you more for being my best friend,” I genuinely smile.

“Always. I am glad I have you too.”

“I was thinking that maybe we could head over to Emma’s house in the morning and get a few of her things so she will be comfortable while we go to Red Rock?”

Cameron is about to respond but a knock on the door combined with his expression tells me it is Emma. He practically jumps off the couch and opens the door.

“Emma? Are you okay?”

She tries to offer him a smile but even I can tell she is upset, “Yeah, I just want to take a shower, but I don’t have any of my stuff.”

“Don’t worry! I will grab my mom’s shower stuff and a pair of her leggings. You can just wear one of my shirts to bed tonight. Hunter, sorry, Alpha Hunter and I are going to get some of your stuff in the morning,” Cameron tells her.

“I sorry I am being an inconvenience. I just…,” she starts to say before Cameron interrupts her.

“You will never be an inconvenience to me, Emma. It is my job to take care of you,” he said, grabbing her hand and kissing it.

She smiles and follows him down the stairs.

‘Locks, I am going to get my stuff and bring it downstairs to the living room. Whenever you get Emma the stuff for her shower, I will help you move your stuff to my room.’

‘K.’

I smile at his focus on her, knowing he is just worried about her. After we get all the stuff moved around, I am sitting at the table making a plan for tomorrow and Cameron is getting a snack while he is waiting on Emma to finish her shower.

She comes out of the bathroom, holding her clothes and Cameron’s back is to her and when he senses her, he turns around and I watch as his eyes go charcoal black before he takes a deep breath and blinks a few times. He goes to help her get settled in for the night and as he walks by, I mind-link him.

‘Get Xavier under control, man. You are going to scare her off.’

He glances over his shoulder, and I smirk at him which he returns with a glare before continuing to his room. A few minutes later, he comes back out, gently closing the door behind him. He just stands there for a minute and takes a few deep breaths, running his hand through his hair.

He finally realizes that I am still sitting at the table, and I can’t help the amusement that is on my face. It is funny to see him so flustered. He is never that way and it is certainly entertaining, for me at least.

‘Shut up, H.’

‘I didn’t say a single thing, Locks.’

‘Your face did.’

‘Yeah, well so did yours,’ I smirked.

He just glares at me again before dramatically flopping onto the couch. I chuckle to myself and shake my head at him.

“You are in my bed,” I say, standing up from the table. Walking over to the couch, I offer him my hand and he takes it. I pull him to his feet, “She will be fine. Go upstairs. You need some sleep too. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

He begrudgingly heads up the stairs. I turn the lights off and get myself situated on the couch. I lay on my back and fold my hands under my head.

‘What are you thinking, River? I can feel you moving around.’

‘I want my mate,’ he responds, not stopping his pacing.

‘I know, I do too. It just isn’t our time yet.’

‘We should be out there looking for her.’

‘It is past midnight, River. We are not doing that tonight.’

‘We could though.’

‘No. Aren’t you tired? I know I am. You have been keeping me from sleeping an entire night for weeks now.’

‘I want my mate,’ he says again, annoyance in his voice this time.

‘I know. She’s out there somewhere. We will find her soon.’

‘We should go look for her.’

‘Oh my gosh. We are not having this entire conversation again. Go to bed, River!’

He huffs at me and finally lays down. I breathe out a sigh of relief and almost immediately start to drift off to sleep. I get a few hours of sleep before I wake up to the sound of someone creeping down the stairs.

“Locks, go to bed! She is fine. I can hear her breathing, she is sleeping.”

The sound of my voice makes him freeze on the stairs.

“I just wanted to check on her.”

“She is fine. Go back to bed. If there is an issue, I will personally come get you up.”

He sighs and slowly retreats up the stairs. And now I am awake. And so is River. I hope we find her soon; he is driving me crazy. I give up on sleeping and start a pot of coffee. A few hours later Cameron comes down the stairs.

“I need some of that coffee today. It was so hard to sleep knowing she is right there.”

“Yeah. I noticed. You are going to need to work on that. I gave you my room so that way there can be as much space as possible between you two.”

“Sorry for waking you. How did you even hear me? I was super quiet.”

“One, I am a werewolf. Two, I am your best friend who is sleeping in the room across from your mate, so I am going to protect her from any potential threats. And three, I am a really light sleeper right now.”

“Right. Sorry again.”

“It’s fine. It is almost eight now. Do you want to go get Emma’s stuff?”

“Yeah, let me write her a quick note first.”

He scribbles down a note and tapes it to his door again. We leave and walk in silence to Emma’s house, both of us consumed in our own thoughts.

I know it is early, but I have a lot of things to do today, so I knock on the door as soon as we arrive. I recognize Amelia from the pictures in the file.

“Alpha Hunter! How can I help you?” Amelia says, with a large smile.

I notice that she completely ignores Cameron, but I don’t push it, “We are here to get some of Emma’s things so she can be comfortable in the pack house.”

“Oh. Well, I am not really prepared for visitors right now.”

“I wasn’t really asking for your permission. Let me rephrase, we are coming inside to get Emma’s things, so please move out of our way,” I command, not caring that my voice was sharp.

She lowers her eyes and steps out of our way. We get to Emma’s room, and it is the only room in the house that looks like someone cares. I grab the suitcases out of her closet and Cameron starts packing up her clothes. I grab a box from under her bed and start to pack up the stuff from her bathroom. It only takes about 30 minutes to get most of her things. We can come back for everything else later. We carry the two suitcases and box out of her room and her mom just watches us, her face void of all emotions. I gave her a curt nod and we left.

“She definitely does not like me,” Cameron says, a bit of hurt in his voice.

“Nope. I don’t really think she likes me either right now. But I really don’t care what she thinks. She brought this on herself. There were other options, and she made her choice. Emma deserves to be somewhere she will be taken care of and right now that is our house.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t leave you to figure it all out by yourself. You are only nineteen.”

“You are talking like an old man again,” Cameron teases.

“You are acting like a horny teenager,” I tease back. He shoots me a glare again, shrugs his shoulders in agreement, and we both laugh. We get Emma’s stuff back to the house and leave it stacked neatly by Cameron’s door. He scribbles some more info onto the note. I pour us both a cup of coffee to go and grab a few muffins for us to eat on the road.

We casually chat and eat our breakfast while we head to Ash’s house. We got to her house, and I jumped up the steps and knocked on her door.

“Hunter!?!”

“Hi, Ash. This is my Beta, Cameron,” I gesture back to him, and he waves. She smiles at him and looks back at me, “We were wondering if you could direct us toward Titus Black’s house? We would like to talk with him.”

“It has been a while since I have seen you. Confidence looks good on you, Hunter. How is River?”

I smile at her compliment, “He is okay enough. Thank you again for your help.”

“It was my pleasure. Let me call Titus.”

She makes a quick phone call and it barely rings before he answers. She explains the situation and then hangs up.

“Just follow the dirt path until you come to the clearing. His house is the tan one on the left. He is expecting you.”

“Thank you, Ash.”

She smiles and goes back inside. We quickly made our way to Titus’ house. I take a deep breath and knock on his door. He opens the door and takes a quick look at Cameron and me.

“Why are you here so freaking early in the morning?” he says grumpily. He is wearing a wrinkled simple t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. His brown eyes look weary. He runs a frustrated hand through his slightly graying hair, but his age does not match his body. He is in fantastic shape; it is honestly a little impressive. I can tell he has Alpha blood in him.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come in? Ash told me you needed to talk to me about something?’

I glanced at Cameron and we both headed inside. I don’t have a great feeling that this meeting will go the way I want it to go.