The volume in the room rises. The hunters whisper to one another as others lower their eyes, afraid she would call their name.
“We are going after the Harrington coven.” Nelly raises her shoulders up, and she spews the words out.
More whispering amongst the hunters as disbelief sets in. The Harrington Coven was a powerful coven of witches. They were an automatic no for hunts before. Their long line of blood ran deep, and there were no weak links.
“Alright, everyone, calm down.” Nelly steps back behind her podium and cracks down her gavel to gain control over the hunters.
“I take it this coven is bad news?” Hazen leans in and whispers in my ear.
I keep my focus on Nelly, but feel his face next to mine He’s sporting a playful smirk.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe newbie,” I straighten my back and kink my neck from side to side, confident Nelly was about to call my name.
“The hunters selected are…” Nelly looks down at her paper, but there’s no way she didn’t remember who she selected. “Carrington… Walsh… Penelope… and…. Hazen.”
Why on earth would she pick a newbie to fight a full blood coven?
I swing my head to Hazen, expecting him to be scared. But Hazen was smiling ear to ear. Who the hell is this guy?
Two
I inhale the cold air through my nose and watch my breath as it flows from my mouth. I love the feel of the crisp air against my skin. The dampness that accompanies it makes it easier to smell the wilderness and the creatures that hide within it. Darkness has set in, and the moon was our only guiding light. My eyes adapt quickly, and my senses heighten. We were an hour in our hike to the coven grounds. With each step, my blood flows faster. I take the lead as I'm the strongest tracker, and also because the others are more reluctant.
They follow my every move, the smell of fear rapid around me. Thankfully, tonight was only a surveillance mission. We need to establish a pattern of movement if we had any chance of hunting them.
Hazen stays close to my side. His tight black jeans and leather jacket distract me at first. I'd have to get over this odd attraction to him. I hated to admit I love his confidence mixed with an overly cocky attitude, but it could hurt us on a hunt.
Carrigan and Walsh hung back as they watch from behind. They were typically guards on hunts, sometimes taking a principal role. They were both strong and level-headed. A perfect fit for this mission. Hazen – I still don’t understand why Nelly would choose him.
"How long do we wait?" Hazen puts his hand on the small of my back and leans in close to me. His cheek practically resting on mine.
I move to my left and ignore him. Just when I feel I can tolerate him, he breathes or moves. His scent in my nose is a distraction. It wasn't him I need to focus on right now. I have to make sure we all make it back home tonight.
"We are hunting together." Hazen stays back, but his voice is louder than it should be right now.
"Let her lead." Walsh passes him with a hard pat on his back. It pushes Hazen forward, and he tries to steady himself.
"This is a team effort? No?" Hazen says passing me, his hands noticeable folded into fists.
I reach out and grab his arm, "We listen tonight. That's hard to do when you’re talking."
Hazen nods to me and steps back. Perhaps he'll take my advice, but I wasn't counting on it. I walk down the steep hill towards the water. I might get a feel for their movement from it. Water can look so peaceful and unassuming, but it holds many secrets—the vibrations of the people that pass through it. I was the only hunter I knew that uses water to hunt. I remember my grandmother taking me down to the rivers and placing my hands in the water, then telling me to close my eyes. The entire world opened up to me. It was like I could see for the first time. The way the sun reflected off of it, and how it amplifies the surrounding sounds—simple ways to gain more knowledge of the world around you.
As we reach the water's edge, Hazen by-passes me and places his hands in the water. Something I was going to do. Carrigan stops behind me, and we exchange an awkward look.
"I've never seen anyone, but you, do that," Carrigan states as he continues on down to the water.
I stay back and hide my fists under my coat. Hazen is one ball of annoyance. Now he's trying to take over my place on this hunt. "Step away from the water." I grab his jacket and practically push him to the ground. Okay, so a little juvenile, but this kid was getting on my nerves.
"Hey!" He grasps my arm on his way down, to break his sudden fall.
Walsh and Carrigan relieve him of his grip. "No touching, Penelope." They said in unison and step between Hazen and me.
"I'm not the enemy. I can feel things through the water. I can help if you'll let me." Hazen jumps to his feet and straightens his shirt.
“Just stay back and learn newbie," Carrigan says as he joins me by the water. “Why the hell did she pick this kid?”
“Maybe she wants us all to die?” I tilt my head and look up at him with a goofy grin.
“Seriously, though, it makes no sense. She’s never sent a newbie on a hunt first day.” Carrigan kneels to watch me work the water.
“Nelly is Nelly.” I wave my hands under the water, waiting for any sign of pulsations from supernatural beings, “We’ll never figure her out.”
“I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t either.”
I close my eyes, in part to focus and to hide my reaction to Carrigan’s last comment. I wanted to ignore Hazen, but he was taking up too much of my brain space. I found myself looking for him in the moments he wasn’t near. It was a strange attraction I couldn’t figure out. He was just a cocky, pretty boy. I’d ignored plenty of those before.
“They avoid this river. I’m not sure why.” I stand up and look west and east. Nothing stood out as to why they would avert it.
“It’s poisoned,” Hazen says from behind us.
Carrigan and I both look back to him at the same time. Walsh was at his side, rolling his eyes. For a moment, I worry he would clock him to put us out of our misery.
“Penelope would know if it was,” Carrigan said, looking back at the water as if to double-check.
“It would only hurt a witch. You touch it.” He spoke to Walsh – who had some witch blood in him.
“Why me?” Walsh crosses his arms and narrows his eyes at Hazen.
“Are you not part witch?” Hazen motions to the water, “You don’t believe me. Touch it.”
Carrigan makes a movement toward Hazen, but I step in front of him. All we needed was a mutt fight on coven land.
“How do you know?” I don’t even know why I’m amusing him - if only to stop this fight.
“The silver on the bedrock. In the middle of the lake.” Hazen points further than where my gaze is on the water.
A slight shine is visible as the sun hits it, between the river flows. I step closer and squint my eyes, taking in an almost invisible scent of vularine.
“It’s vularine.” I step back, almost afraid it will jump out of the water and attack us. I was in a peculiar situation, being a mutt, and not knowing fully what I was. I didn’t know my bloodline because I didn’t know my family. They took me as a child and I had very few memories of my parents. The only vivid memories were of my grandmother.
Walsh practically runs from the river, more aware than any of us what the stuff can do to someone with witch blood in their veins.
“How do you know what it is?” Walsh says once he’s at a safe distance.
“It’s common hunter knowledge.” The ends of Hazen’s lips curl up with a devilish grin. He’s beat us.
“So who the fuck are you?” Carrigan is by Hazen’s side with just a few strides of his long legs. “And why did Nelly pick you for this hunt?”
I practically ran up the hill as their voices grew louder. I was sure the coven was listening, even if they couldn’t cross the river.
“Let’s go. We abort this mission and regroup at home.” I walk past them, expecting t
hem to follow me. But I was the only one moving.
“Answer the question.” Carrigan and Walsh were now standing side by side. Hazen couldn’t follow me even if he wanted to with these two brutes staring him down.
“Not here.” I raise my voice, and my hands tremble. Have they forgotten where we are? Who are we hunting? “We’re leaving. Now.” My voice was firm, and I didn’t move until Hazen finally broke away from them. Perhaps he felt he was under my protection.“Fine. But he will answer my question.” Carrigan was one pace behind Hazen, and Walsh was still by his side.
“He’ll answer when we get back.” I look over at Hazen, to make sure he understood my demand. Instead, he jogs ahead of me as we head back on our trail.
“You don’t need to save me from them.” Hazen's pace was quick and faster than mine, but I did my best to keep up.
“I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve almost gotten yourself beat up,” I say as I’m practically losing my breath keeping up with him.
“You have me all wrong.” Hazen stops and wraps his large, oddly warm hands around my shoulders, “I thought you would get it.”
His eyes were wet, like almost going to cry wet. Or was it the cold?
“I don’t even know you, Hazen.” The warmth coming from his body dissolves my cold exterior. I feel myself wanting to melt into his body. Dizziness and love lust set in – a mood I wasn’t familiar with.
A blur passes by and knocks Hazen to the ground. I steady myself as I emerge from my love drunken daze.
“Did he hurt you?” Walsh’s arm is around me, pulling me close to him.
Carrigan is on top of Hazen on the ground, his fist beating down on him as Hazen fights him back. With one flip, Hazen is on top, with a bloody nose.
“Don’t make me beat the shit out of you,” Hazen holds Carrigan down. He can’t move under him. “I didn’t ask to fight you.”
“Get off him.” I place my hand on Hazen’s back. I startle him, and for a second, I think he may try to fight me. Instead, he gently gets up.
“Go home.” My eyelids feel heavy as my gaze stays on the ground. “Both of you.”
“We can’t leave you with him.” Walsh reaches down and helps Carrigan up from the ground. His ego bruised from defeat.
“I’d rather walk back with him then have a coven attack us. We clearly can’t hunt together. Now go on. We’ll be right behind you.”
The tone of my voice begs them not to challenge me. Luckily for all of us, they listen and trudge along the path where we had come from.
“That wasn’t my fault.” Hazen lowers his voice, so the other’s can’t hear.
His voice had a sexiness to it, a deep raspiness. It made me wonder if that was his sex voice. Fuck! Snap out of this attraction, Penelope!
“Then don’t give them something to fight you on. Just act normal.” It seems to make sense to me. But they were also all alphas. They all wanted to be right.
Hazen didn’t respond. Instead, he hangs his head low and stays by my side.
It wasn’t long before we lost the sound of the others. No doubt Carrigan would want to get back to hang with the boys. Nelly has a party planned for all the hunters in our pack and several other local packs. It was mating season, after all.
The silence between us didn’t feel normal. I was used to fighting him, being annoyed with him, and wanting him. I couldn’t help but side glance at him a few times, wondering where his head was. Was he thinking about me?
Hazen’s back suddenly arches, and he stands tall. His arm reaches out to me just as his finger rises to his lips. He heard them first, then seconds later, their scent almost stops the air from entering my nostrils – it was the Harrington Coven.
“I want the female one.” Someone calls out from the woods. His voice echoes as Hazen and I flip back to back, unsure of where in the woods the voice was coming from. The trees sway back and forth, distorting any noises of movement from the coven.
“Hazen can go.” A female voice calls out next.
My eyes met with Hazen’s, and it finally made sense. He was one of them.
Three
My head lay limp against Hazen’s shoulder. My eyelids were heavy, and it took every ounce of strength I had to keep them open, so I didn’t try. His bulky arms wrap around my waist and legs as he ran through the woods at breakneck speed.
“Don’t worry, Penelope. Nelly will know what to do.” His voice was weak, and his words broken. Then I feel his lips press down on my forehead.
My next memory is hearing screams. I can’t make out the words, or where they are coming from. My head pounds, and I can taste blood in my mouth. After a few moments of consciousness, I fall back into a deep sleep.
“I shouldn’t have sent you.” Nelly’s voice wakes me sometime later. I remain quiet and pretend to sleep. Not that I had any strength to make any part of my body move right now. I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train. Every inch of my body fighting off pain.
“I didn’t know they would find us.” I hear Hazen defend himself.
“But, they did.” Nelly bounces back at him, her high heels click the floor beside my bed as she walks back and forth.
Silence. I drift in and out of sleep for however long. My grandmother’s voice off in the distance is faint. I strain to hear what she is telling me. Suddenly I’m pain free, in the field next to her old house. How could this be? They burned it before they took me.
“Grandmother?” I call out to her and run towards the door. The smell of her blueberry pancakes made my mouth drool. I reach the door and grab the handle to open it, but it’s locked. I bang on the wooden door, “Grandmother, it’s me, Penelope,”
She’s humming her songs, but she doesn’t hear me. I bang harder, then move to the window. I see her standing at the table. I knock on the window – she never looks up.
“Penelope.”
I turn around, and she is standing in front of me. She looks different from the woman inside the house, older and tired.
“Grandmother.” I leap towards her and wrap my arms around her.
“My child.” She whispers in my ear, my hair mattes with her tears. “I have missed you.”
I pull back from her, “How is this possible?” I ask, knowing this must be a dream, but it feels so real. She passed just before I ended up here.
“I’m always by your side, my child, even if you can’t feel me.” Her wrinkled, rough hands hold both of my tear-stained cheeks in them. “Now listen carefully, we have little time.”
I nod my head and wipe my eyes with the back of my hands.
“You are gonna be challenged, like never before. I want you to stand tall and accept whatever comes your way. Don’t question it. Receive it.” Her lovely blue eyes darken, and her lips wrinkle as her eyebrows dip. “I can’t tell you anymore, but know it will be worth all the pain in the end.”
I open my mouth to speak, but my voice is gone, then I hear Hazen’s voice in my ear. It’s quiet at first then, it’s like someone has turned his volume on. His voice is getting louder, and I can make out the words. It’s pulling me away from my grandmother and back into my bed.
“You must go now.” My grandmother says as she retreats to her house.
“Come back, Penelope.” Hazen’s voice is soft in my ear. His fingertips lightly stroke my forehead.
It’s easier to wake up now. My arms feel free, and I can move almost like usual again. I slowly open my eyes, and the first thing I see is Hazen with a massive smile on his face.
“She’s awake.” He runs to the door and yells down the hall, then is back to my side quickly.
“What took place?” I reach for his arm, but somehow our fingers become intertwined. I don’t correct him.
“It doesn’t matter, your back now.” Hazen plants his lips on mine in the excitement.
“Step back,” Nelly said as she swiftly enters the room, practically pushing him off of me. “Leave us.”
Hazen picks himself off the floor and makes his
way to the door, “I’m sorry.” He mouths to me then leaves.
“What happened? Why is he back here?” I suddenly remember the coven calling his name.
“He’s part of our pack, for better or worst.” She looks away on that last part and mutters it.
“The coven knew him.” I raise myself up and sit back on the pillow.
Nelly puts her back to me and hides her face. She doesn’t look surprised in the least bit. This must be why she chose him to run with us tonight. But why?
“Just rest for now. I’m sorry, but I need you to lead tomorrow. The coven knows we are hunting them, and the sooner we can claim our target, the sooner this will be over.” Nelly makes her way to the door.
Words can’t form quick enough in my brain before she’s gone. What the hell is going on around here? Am I still dreaming?
I don’t have time to put any more information together before there’s a knock on my door. I can smell Hazen on the other side. I’m unsure if I want him close to me, but I’m dying to ask him questions.
I grab my compact next to my bed and layer on a coat of powder with some lip gloss. A quick flip of my hair and I’m as ready as I can be for someone with crusted blood dried on them. “Come in.”
The door creaks open, and Hazen stands there. He takes a deep breath in and slowly places one foot in the door, then the next. Eventually, he’ll make it to my bed.
“Close the door,” I order, not wanting Nelly back in here chaperoning us. I need Hazen to trust me so I can put more pieces of this puzzle together.
He quietly closes the door but doesn’t move from across the room.
I pat the bed with my hand, my eyes never leaving his. His secrets need to be mine. This had to be what my grandmother meant. “Sit with me.” I try my sexiest voice. Instead, a low grumble came out as my throat ached. Flirting was never my thing, anyway. I’d rather just rip their clothes off and take what I wanted.
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