Hunter's Secret

Hunter’s POV

I reach the top of the stairs and grab Cameron’s ankle, pulling him to the ground and he grunts as his body hits the floor. I launch myself on top of him and pin him against the ground. He thrashes around trying to get out of my grip. I will admit that he is strong, but I am stronger. I lowly growl and fear flashes across his face. I let my canines extend and he gulps. I smirk and roll of him, laughing.

He nervously laughs and it makes me laugh harder.

“You should have seen your face, Locks,” I laugh, and he slaps me on the arm.

“Not funny, H.”

“You looked like you were going to cry, man!” I laugh again and he throws himself on top of me, but I am faster and gently toss him back into the wall.

“Ow!” he whines, before crumpling into laughter himself. I hear Raine’s laughter float up the stairs too and it makes me smile.

“Locks, your timing is actually the worst,” I chuckle, pulling myself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall.

“Well, maybe you should quit making out in the living room all the time. I live here too you know,” he tells me, a hint of seriousness in his voice.

He pulls himself into a sitting position too and when we look at each other, we both burst out laughing again. I stand up and offer him my hand which he takes. I pull him to his feet, and he claps me on the back, mind-linking me as we walk down the stairs.

‘I am happy for you, Hunter. You deserve this. And she will be a kickass Luna.’

‘She certainly will be. She is perfect.’

‘I don’t know about perfect, H; she eats pizza straight out of the fridge.’

I look at him and we both laugh again. I turn the corner from the stairs and Raine is standing in the middle of the kitchen, and my smiles flies off my face when I look at her. Cameron instantly stops laughing too and we both walk over to her.

She is ghostly pale, and her hands are shaking as she looks at something in an envelope. She didn’t hear me come closer.

“Raine?” I softly called her name to get her attention.

She looks up at me and her eyes hold pure terror as tears start falling down her face. She shakily gives me the envelope and I dump out its contents onto the table. As soon as I realize what I am looking at, I darkly growl. There are hundreds of photos. The oldest one is of Cameron, Raine, and I walking back from Titus’ house when she first got here. All the way to the kiss in the gazebo last night. There is a picture of me fighting the rogue and then a later one of me killing him. There are pictures of Raine with Keegan and Rebecca. Pictures of Raine and Titus sitting on his couch, obviously taken through the window in his living room. Every single one that has Raine in the photo has her eyes crossed out with black x’s and each one has the date it was taken on, written on the back.

“Where did you get this, Raine?” I forcefully ask.

“I heard a knock on the door, so I opened the door, and it was just lying on the doorstep. I didn’t see anybody at all,” she quietly says.

My mind is racing with a thousand questions that I have no answers to. The biggest one being, why my mate and why now?

Cameron taps me on the arm, and I look at him, he nods his head toward Raine, and I immediately walk over to her and wrap her in a hug.

‘Call my parents and hers, and yours, and all the warriors. We need a meeting right now. Tell them to go to the town hall now.’ I command Cameron over the mind-link, and I tighten my grip on Raine.

I rub her back as she trembles in my arms.

“I am right here, lovey. I won’t let anything happen to you. You are safe with me,” I try to reassure her, but I don’t think she believes me.

She hugs me tighter and I hear how hard her heart is beating.

“This is my fault,” she whispers into my chest.

I loosen my grip on her and gently push her away so I can look at her.

“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice coming out a little harsher than I intended.

“First Mason and then Emma, all I do is bring you bad luck. None of these things would have happened if I wasn’t around you.”

“Raine, this is not your fault. You didn’t cause any of those things to happen. My best guess is that whoever is behind this has been planning this for a long time. They must somehow know you are my mate, so they know that you are my weakness. I would do anything for you. Anything,” I say firmly, and she shakes her head.

“I don’t want to be your weakness. Maybe I should leave then…” she whispers, her voice trailing off as she avoids my eyes.

I let go of her hand just so I can pick her up. I hold her against my body and gently whisper back.

“You are my weakness because you make me stronger. Alphas without their Lunas are not strong leaders. Alphas with their Lunas are stronger but if their Luna were to be taken or…worse, the Alpha will stop at nothing to get their Luna back. All wolves know this to be the case. Raine, I will obviously not keep you here if you really want to leave but don’t leave just because you are scared. We will find out who is doing this. You will be safe with me.”

“Okay, I’ll stay. But can we go sit down on the couch?”

I smiled and walked over to the couch, sitting down. She slides off my lap and sits next to me. I pull her closer and drape my arm over her shoulder. She takes a deep breath and I look at her.

“I’m scared,” she says.

“I know,” I respond. Truthfully, I am scared too but I can’t tell her that. She needs me to be strong for her sake and for mine. And I have no idea who could possibly be behind this.

‘They are all heading there now, H.’

“Lovey, I need to go have a pack meeting. Do you want to come with me, or do you want Rebecca and Keegan to come be with you?”

“You. I want to be with you,” she says, and I smile.

“Okay, let’s go get dressed and then we can leave.”

She nods her head and stands up, taking my hand in hers and leads me up the stairs.

“Lovey?”

“Just let me hold your hand, Hunter,” she states, and I obediently follow her to our room. Our room. I like the sound of that.

I tell her to wear business casual and she grabs her clothes and heads to the bathroom to change and get ready. I root around in my closet and pull out a button-up shirt and a pair of jeans. I get dressed and am buttoning up the last few buttons when Raine comes out. She is wearing a beautiful floral wrap dress and her hair has been braided over her shoulder again.

She catches me staring and blushes before asking me a very innocent, “What?”

“You are just beautiful. I am so lucky that you are my girlfriend.”

She smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes and I move over to pull her into a hug.

“Hey, it’s okay. We will figure this out. And stop worrying about last night. I promise I am okay with it. But if you ever want to talk about it, I am willing to listen to whatever you want to tell me.”

“I love you,” is her only response as she pushes herself onto her tiptoes to give me a quick peck on the cheek.

“I love you too.”

She sits down on the bed to put her shoes on, and I head to the bathroom to fix my hair and brush my teeth. I come back out and she gives me a frown.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, offering her my hand to pull her to her feet. She takes my hand and stands up.

“Bend your head down,” she demands, and I comply, bending my head down.

She reaches her hand into my hair and tousles it, undoing the work that I just put in to style it. I glance at her, and she just smiles, “Much better.”

I shake my head at her and she laughs.

“Are you ready then?”

She nods her head, and we walk down the stairs and out the front door, joined by Cameron and Emma who look as concerned as I feel. As soon as we all make it out the front door, both Cameron and I shift into our wolves. Raine looks at River with shock before she smiles and reaches out to pet his head. He gently nudges her to stand between Xavier and him. Emma can’t shift because she is pregnant right now so she walks next to Raine. Xavier and River flank our ladies’ sides as we walk toward the town hall.

Both Raine and Emma are quiet as we walk. River scoots a little closer to Raine and she rests a hand on his side as we continue to walk. He relaxes some under her touch and I check in with him.

‘You okay, River?’

‘No,’ he plainly responds.

‘Want to talk about it?’

‘No.’

‘Okay.’

‘It’s just someone wants to hurt our mate. And she is scared. And I can’t make it better.’

I smile at his genuine concern for her. Her fingers lazily twirl around the fur on his shoulder, and he lets out a deep sigh. The tension in the air is thick and I can feel the anxiety coming from all four of us. We reach the town hall and Cameron shifts back, grabbing Emma’s hand and pulling her for a hug. Raine looks at me and River shakes his head.

‘River? We need to go inside now. They are waiting on me.’

‘No. I need to check the perimeter first.’

‘Okay. I will tell Cameron to take Raine inside.’

Raine looks at me again and River again shakes his head.

‘Locks? River wants to do a perimeter check. Can you take Raine inside please?’

‘Of course, H. You okay?’ Cameron softly replies.

‘Yeah. Just concerned.’

I am way more than concerned. I am completely terrified that someone is going to try to take her from me. I let River run around the town hall and I tried to direct him back toward the door, but he argued and told me he is going to do a full border check. I let Cameron know and allowed River to speed off for a border check. He must be feeling more anxious than even I realized. If letting him blow some steam off means that I will be able to think more clearly, I will let him.

We completely checked the entire border for my pack and then headed into what used to be Red Rock’s territory. River continues to check everything around the border and when he is satisfied that everything is okay, he finally stops running. His chest is heaving with effort, and we are both feeling tired now. He starts back in the direction of the town hall when we are completely knocked off our feet by another wolf. I feel teeth sink into our shoulder and River growls, turning his head to snap at the wolf clinging to our shoulder.

‘Locks! Rogues! By edge of territory line!’ I scream over mind-link, and he doesn’t respond but I can feel him become anxious.

Turning my focus back on the rogue, River finally manages to get him off. Four more rogues run out of the woods and head straight toward us. None of them have any scents at all and these ones are not as malnourished as the first one. They are bigger and stronger. River kills the one that bit us first but quickly has to fight another one off.

A swipe of a claw tears the skin on River’s side, and I can feel blood start to seep out of the wound. Thankfully, I hear Xavier’s howl along with a few others, but I don’t have time to respond to them because another rogue catches River’s front leg in his mouth and bites down, hard enough that River yelps in pain as the teeth rip the skin there too.

More rogues come out of the forest and River manages to kill five more before my pack reaches me. Every step is painful now and I know River is bleeding pretty heavily because as soon as Xavier’s gaze lands on River, his eyes widen in fear and River just growls, nodding his head toward the rogues. I recognize Elle's, Keegan's, and Ryan’s wolves as they jump into the fight too. With the extra help, we manage to kill off the remaining wolves with little effort. No one else gets injured.

River is completely limping now, and black spots are starting to dance in our vision. He slightly loses his balance and Xavier notices and comes over to help River regain his footing and walk to the infirmary. I would shift back but I know if I do, I will certainly pass out. River is stronger than I am, so I need him to make it to the infirmary, so we don’t have to be carried.

‘Alpha? Are you okay?’ Xavier respectfully asks and River growls in response, almost tripping again. Ryan’s wolf flanks the opposite side, also helping River to walk as Elle and Keegan fall into step behind me.

The black spots are getting bigger and the coolness of the morning breeze over the open wounds feels like fire on my skin. River stumbles to the side, leaning against Xavier who pauses to let River stand up again. The outline of the infirmary appears, and I start counting the steps, willing River to keep going. Forty more. Thirty more. Twenty more. Ten. Nine. Six. Three. One. And darkness.