Hunter's Secret

Raine’s POV

Emma looks at me and my stomach drops. She doesn’t have to say anything, but I know what her look means. I start to run toward the door, but Rebecca moves in front of me, blocking my way.

“Move,” I command, and she shakes her head. I try to move around her, and she just continues to step in front of me. I let out a frustrated sigh and decided to try a different tactic.

“Rebecca, I am your Luna. Move. I need to get to him. Now. So, you can either come with me or get out of my way,” I firmly demand, and a collective gasp can be heard around the room. Rebecca’s face holds shock and maybe a hint of amazement.

She grabs my arm and leads me out of the room, away from prying ears.

“You are Alpha Hunter’s mate, but you aren’t my Luna. He hasn’t marked you. I am sorry but I can’t let you leave. I can’t disobey his orders,” she explains, and I sigh.

“Can you at least ask him if he is okay?”

She smiles and her eyes turn gray. She blinks and I swear I see fear flash across her face, but it is quickly replaced by her normal smile. Her eyes turn gray again and they stay that way for a while, so I know she is mind-linking someone.

She glances over at Emma who followed us out to the hallway, and they shared a look that I couldn’t decipher.

Rebecca lowers her voice, “Alpha Hunter has been injured. I am taking you to him right now. He needs you.”

Tears spring to my eyes and she grabs my hand, leading me out of the town hall. Emma is staying back to organize the remaining warriors who showed up for the meeting.

“Injured? What happened?” I ask and Rebecca does not answer but just continues dragging me toward the hospital. My heart is racing in my chest and the only thought that is charging through my head is, ‘I can’t lose him.’

We reached the hospital, and the nurses immediately directed me to his room. I quickly throw open the door to see Hunter laying on the bed, while Cameron is sitting next to him, holding his hand. When he hears me come in the room, Cameron comes over and drags me to him, pushing me down in the chair.

“We were attacked by rogues. They got his shoulder and arm pretty bad. He will be fine but he needs you to help him heal faster. He passed out right before we got inside and hasn’t woken back up yet,” Cameron explained, his voice full of worry.

“How can I help?” I quietly ask.

“Kiss him, hold him, just be near him.”

That was enough for me to stand and place a gentle kiss on Hunter’s lips. I stand back up and brush his hair out of his face. I gently climb into the bed next to him and lay my head on his chest, and hearing his heartbeat under my ear calms me down. I wipe away the stray tears that have fallen down my face and deeply breathe in his smell, it also helping to calm me down.

I feel him start to stir and I sit up. His green eyes blink in confusion as he takes in his surroundings. But when they meet mine, they are immediately filled with adoration. He groans as he pushes himself into a sitting position, but he quickly grabs me with his uninjured arm and pulls me into him, holding my body against his.

“I’m sorry if I scared you, lovey,” he murmurs into my ear and butterflies erupt in my stomach as his breath tickles my ear.

I sit up and look at him, “I am sorry you are hurt. Are you okay?”

“I am now that you are here,” he says, pulling me back into him.

“H, no more border checks by yourself. I should have come with you,” Cameron interjects, guilt evident in his voice, and I can feel Hunter nod his head in agreement.

I glance over at Hunter’s shoulder and notice that the bandages have turned slightly red. I hop off the bed and move over to the drawers in the room, pulling out more supplies to rebandage his shoulder. I can feel his eyes on me while I gather the supplies and I take a deep breath, trying to calm my heart. I don’t know why I am feeling so nervous around him right now.

I turn around and look at Cameron, his eyes are gray, and he is looking at Hunter with a smirk on his face. A blush dusts Hunter’s face as he narrows his eyes at Cameron. Cameron returns the gesture and I roll my eyes at both of them.

Holding the supplies up, I get Hunter’s attention with my question, “Can I?”

He nods his head and slowly sits up more, wincing as he slightly turns so I can have better access to his shoulder.

“Do you need pain meds?” I offer and he shakes his head.

“This probably won’t feel great. Talk to me or Cameron to distract yourself,” I suggest.

“He would much prefer to talk to you. I am going to go back to Emma. See you later,” Cameron states, sending a wink in my direction.

“He’s not wrong,” Hunter speaks up and I smile.

“Well then, talk to me. I am going to start now. Sorry if this hurts.”

“It will be fine. What do you want me to talk about?” he asks.

“Whatever you want to,” I reply, gently touching my fingers to the bandage on his shoulder. He sucks in his breath at the contact and blows it out slowly.

“That shouldn’t have hurt you. I haven’t even done anything yet,” I frown.

“It didn’t. I just really like the feeling of your fingers on my skin.”

“You are such a flirt, Hunter,” I respond, rolling my eyes but I know I have a huge smile on my face too. I start unwrapping the bandage and when I finally get it off, I gasp.

There is a perfect bite mark, with puncture wounds on both his shoulder blade and the skin above his collar bone. His skin is also slightly ripped, and I can see the stitches the nurses put in to stop the bleeding. But the wounds are deep, and it is still bleeding. I gently wipe off the blood as Hunter talks about something, slightly pausing in pain every time I clean around each puncture.

“Why aren’t you healing?” I softly ask, working on rewrapping his shoulder.

“River is exhausted, and he is resting right now. He can’t heal me as quickly when he is sleeping. He fought really hard.”

“Makes sense.”

I cut the bandage off the roll and taped it down to his skin. I move down to his forearm and gently unwrap the bandages that have turned red there too. With the bandage off, I see almost forty stitches going down his arm toward his hand. I clean up the fresh blood and he hisses in pain.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, and he just takes a deep breath.

I move over to the other side of the bed, placing my hands on his side and take off that bandage too, revealing three slashes on his side. These wounds are deep as well, and he is lucky they aren’t worse, or he would have serious damage. I also clean these ones and rebandage them. He has stopped talking and is just focused on taking steady breaths.

“Okay, all done,” I tell him and head back over to the drawers to put the supplies away. I threw the bloody bandages and cloths into the biohazard trash and walked back over to him.

“Hunter, you need to be more careful. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you. I love you,” I quietly say, sitting down in the chair next to his bed. He extends his hand to me, and I place mine in his, smiling at the familiar feeling of sparks.

“I love you too. I promise to be more careful. I am just glad the rest of my pack got there when they did.”

“Me too. Can I tell you something?” I softly say, letting my eyes find his.

“Of course, lovey,” he smiles.

“I tried to command Rebecca to let me get to you. I may have mentioned in front of everyone that I am your mate.”

He looks at me with shock before swearing under his breath.

“I’m sorry. It just kind of slipped out. I just wanted to get to you. She said it didn’t work because I am not actually her Luna yet because you haven’t marked me,” I ramble, and he just smiles at me.

“Raine, I hadn’t told my pack yet, although they probably have figured it out anyway, because they would start pressuring me to mark you and I never want you to feel like you have to do something you aren’t ready for. But Rebecca is correct, you don’t have any actual power over the pack yet.”

“What if I were to tell you that I was ready for it?”

“I would have to think about it,” he quickly replies, and I tilt my head at him.

“Why?”

“One, and the biggest reason would be that it might kill you. I have done tons of research and there is almost nothing available about werewolves having human mates. I mean it isn’t completely unheard of, but it is so rare there is nothing really available to read. The only thing that I found is that it could kill you. And if you do live, you can mark me back.”

“I can?” I quickly ask, surprised, “How?”

“You just have to bite me back and break the skin, enough for me to bleed. I will heal really fast, so you won’t actually hurt me. And two, it is a deeply intimate thing to do and while marking does not mean we have to have sex, I still don’t want you to feel pressured,” he takes a breath and smiles, “but even if I agreed, I can’t do it right now. I need to heal and give River time to recover too.”

“I wasn’t asking for you to do it now. I was just curious.”

“You can ask me anything. Anytime. Now, can we go home?”

“I can go check. But I think so,” I say, standing up. I make my way to the door when he calls for me again.

“Raine?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for taking care of me. I love you,” he smiles, and I smile back at him.

“I love you too, Hunter.”

I realized something when I said the words this time. I don’t just love him. I am in love with him. I don’t ever want to be with anyone else and the thought of leaving him or him leaving me breaks my heart. I know he loves me too and that thought is a comforting one. I smile to myself as I push open the door.