He obliges, but cautiously. One sniff of the air and I feel his unease and apprehension. I reach my hand up to him, and he surprises me by taking it.
“I..I... I’m sorry for everything. I was trying to impress you.” Hazen sits on the bed, further away from me than I’d like. “It just all went to shit.”
“I’ll be Okay. I heal quick.” I laugh but still feel the pain in my ribs, I try to mask it, but from the look on Hazen’s face, it didn’t work.
“I got you away as soon as I could.” His complexion was white, making his lips look red and plump. His wet tongue licked them as he fought for more words, unaware of where my thoughts were leading me.
“They called you by name.” I force my focus back to this evening when they surrounded us.
His only response was a nod. Then he drops his head down over his lap, his body sideways on the bed, just out of arm's reach.
“Nelly knows? Whatever secret you have?”
“She does.” He mutters, not looking at me. His usual flirtiness seems like it was years ago now.
I shift in the bed, and he automatically reaches for me. He places his hand on my leg, over the covers. With his face in my direction, I see a cut on his neck and dried blood on his shirt. I reach forward and gently touch his cheek. He winces, even though I’m nowhere near the wound.
“They hurt you too?” A pain in my side makes me retreat to my seated position on the bed.
“You remember nothing?” He moves closer to me on the bed, more comfortable in my presence.
“The last thing I remember is your name being called, then you running with me in the woods.”
“Good. I mean, it’s better that way.” Hazen stutters.
“How is it better that way?” My voice forceful. Why the hell is it better that way?
Hazen slides his hands up my legs as he leans in. “If they know you don’t remember anything, things can go back to normal.”
“Back to normal? Nelly wants us to hunt tomorrow night again.” I pull away from him, annoyed at how he was trying to take control of this conversation. He should be spilling his guts to me about what happened, not keeping it from me and talking to me like I’m some child.
“What? She never told me that.” Hazen stands up and runs his hand through his thick blond hair. He walks in front of the window - not use to not being in control.
“You’re not on the hunt.” I blurt out, unsure if he was or wasn’t.
“Oh, I’ll be on that hunt. Whether she wants me to or not.” He stops, and his gaze falls to something outside of the window.
I lift myself up to see what he’s so intent on, but It’s too far off in the distance. I imagine it’s the party still going on from that night. My heart hurts a little, wondering if he would rather be with Bridgette dancing, then here in my bedroom.
“Just go.” I lay back down. The energy drains from my body as images of her and him together flood my mind. Why do I care about this moron so much?
“My place is here, by your side.” His tone changes, it’s softer. He walks to the other side of my bed and lays down on top of the blanket. “I won’t leave you when you're vulnerable.”
“No one here wants me dead.” I shift under the blankets, thinking he would be the only one.
“You never know, kid,” His hand finds mine over the blankets, and he rests it there. That geeky smile is back as he prods me.
I roll my eyes, “You are so annoying.”
“You love it.” He turns on his side, and I can feel his eyes roaming over me.
“I tolerate you. Barely.” I say, trying hard to bury the smile that’s forcing its way to my face.
He’s quiet now, I’m uncomfortable with his closeness, but in a good way. I finally turn on my side and face him. There’s barely a foot between us. It would be so easy to reach over and grab him. He’d be a willing participant.
He makes the first move. He slides the palm of his hand slowly between us. I lift the blanket and give him a full invitation that he takes without hesitation. He inches his body closer to mine, and I lift the blanket over him. His lips finally came crashing down on mine, and his tongue takes its first dip between my lips. It’s hard and slow, sliding in and out.
His hand slips down the back of my underwear and grabs my ass, pulling me forward. I reach back and bring his hand further to my front – I wasn’t into foreplay. I waited long enough.
“Lay on your back.” The heat of his breath in my ear makes me instantly wet.
I oblige, and no sooner than I am in that position, his fingers are exploring how moist I am. He works his hand over my pussy, slipping his fingers deep inside with swift movements. I raise my hips to match his rhythm and grab hold of my pillow as moans leave my body.
“Penelope?” Carrigan says as he stands at the end of my bed, angry as heck.
Four
We wait till dark, then set out through the forest. Nelly leads the crew of Carrigan, Bridgette, Walsh and myself. I keep to the back, and every once in a while, Carrigan shoots me a look of disgust. I’d never live this down. I’d fallen for one of the popular boys, and someone found out.
I’m still sore, but keep up with the group. No one talks as we move silently off the main path. Nelly hasn’t even told us who our mark is. She has a large duffle bag hung over her shoulder. I wonder when the last time she had been on a hunt was. Rumor was, she started very young. They passed the pack down to her from her father’s side of the family. She, being their ownly child, inherited it. Did she even want it? She certainly loves all the power.
“Over here.” Nelly kneels down and opens the bag. “Our mark stays between all of us.”
Nelly doesn’t even say her name, instead she passes each of us a profile of Gwendolyn Lapointe. The name familiar to all of us, is shocking.
“This is crazy.” Walsh is the first to speak what we are all thinking.
“That can’t be.” Bridgette passes her profile back to Nelly, “I don’t need to read this. I already know it.”
“It’s high profile. We never ask why. We do as we are told.” Nelly reaches into her bag and gives us each a bottle with blue potion in it. “Drink this, if your caught.”
“What is it?” Carrigan asks when she hands him his bottle.
“They won’t be nice to anyone captured, this is your out.” Nelly reaches in and forces the rest of us to take a bottle.
The group stood quietly around her as the gravity of this hunt sets in. We might not all make it back tonight. The only sound around us was the wind, but there was a new scent in the air – and it was coming our way.
“Hazen.” I whisper, just as the others catch his smell.
Hazen steps out from behind a large tree. He’s dressed in black and ready for this hunt. Nelly stands up as he approaches, and everyone steps away from the two of them. No one goes against Nelly.
“I’m here to hunt.” Hazen takes one more step and is in Nelly’s personal space. He stands a good foot above her. He’s not scared of her anymore – perhaps he never was.
“I told you to stay back. You’re too close to this one.” Nelly tries to whisper, but we all hear their conversation.
“That’s why I should be here.” He crosses his arms and waits for her to reply.
Nelly turns from him with a gigantic sigh and reaches into her bag. She hands him a blue bottle and profile. Her eyes are dark as she rings her hands by her side.
“You’re my best hunters. That’s why I choose you. We separate…”
“Separate?” Bridgette interrupts her.
“We separate and everyone heads back home in an hour. That’s all the time we have. No matter what, head back in one hour.” Nelly grabs her own blue bottle and hides her bag under some branches.
Bridgette, Carrigan and Walsh share side glances and shift uneasily. We never hunt alone, even on easy targets.
“I’ll go with Penelope.” Hazen states.
“Of course you will.” Carrigan says then takes off to the e
ast.
He doesn’t give me time to say goodbye, if this is the last time we will see each other. His body turns into a shadow as he heads off, then he disappears. Nelly is next to leave us, she takes the west side.
“I’m not hunting alone.” Bridgette crosses her arms and looks to all of us.
“Let’s go together.” Walsh says and gently grabs her elbow. They disappear into the woods and it’s just Hazen, and I left.
“You picked a fine one to force yourself on.” I go to the right and walk off in the only area left. But Hazen pulls me back and into his arms. His lips meet mine and this time it’s a tender kiss. One of those first-time love kisses – except this wasn’t our first kiss.
“I’m right behind you.” His eyes are misty as they gaze down into mine.
“We better go. We only have an hour.” I pull away from him, and question if that will be our last embrace.
I walk through the woods, careful of my footing. Hazen stays within arm’s reach of me. My bow is on my shoulder and my knife in my boot. All laced with poison strong enough to kill a witch, or at least that’s what we were told.
It doesn’t take us long to reach the coven grounds. It was smaller than I thought it would be, and there were no guards or even walls. We could walk right in, unless there was a magic spell.
“Half moon.” Hazen looks up to the sky.
I nod in acknowledgement, knowing it was the best time to attack. I look around to the edges of the property. While I couldn’t see my pack, I could smell them. So could the coven. We need to move fast.
“Any idea where she could be?” I ask, annoyed he won’t share his connection with them.
“She’ll be in one of the main cabin’s, with her mates.”
My eyes dart toward him and I squeeze my hands. This was hard enough. Now we’d have to deal with her fuck friends. The next thought that follows is, was Hazen one of them? “Where is it?” I ask more to know if he knew where it was.
“Probably in the middle.” He points toward a main hut, there is smoke billowing out of a pipe.
This coven was more like gypsies. They move around all the time, so every hunter knew them. They caused trouble wherever they went and were untouchable.
“Ready?” Hazen asks.
I nod and take off before him, but he’s right on my heels. We breach the boundaries with no effort. It’s almost as if they can’t detect us, which is odd – we are mutts after all. We have a certain stench that we can barely hide. Not a single soul in site.
“Where is everyone?”
Hazen shrugs his shoulders and we make our way deeper into their camp. It’s not long before we come across Walsh and Bridgette. They are just as confused as we are.
“We haven’t seen anyone, but we can smell them.” Bridgette holds her knife in one hand and her hatchet in the other.
“What if it’s a trap?” Walsh asks, his eyes shift in all directions.
“Where’s Nelly and Carrigan?” I look off into the directions that they should have entered the camp. I sniff the air, but don’t catch any hint of their scent.
The others lift their noses and come to the same conclusion. Did they leave us here?
“Maybe they took the heat for us?” Walsh shrugs his shoulders, “Anyway, let’s get this over with and then get the hell out of here.”
We all nod, and they look to me to lead. I turn towards the tent that Hazen and I figured she was in, and we head off in that direction. As we make it to the center, there are several tents to choose from.
“We need to hit them all at the same time,” Walsh whispers.
“Agreed,” I say.
“Bridgette, and I will take the red tent.” Walsh nods in its direction.
“We’ll take the white tent.” Hazen looks to me for confirmation.
I give the go-ahead, and we all head to our targets. Hazen somehow gets ahead of me and makes sure it stays that way. Just as we reach the tent, we hear a scream from inside. Hazen grabs my arm and pulls me along the side of the tent, the only semi hiding spot.
There are no other noises, so we’re unsure if it’s a pleasurable moan or something more sinister.
“You wanna do it?” He points to the door of the tent.
I check my watch and see that thirty minutes have somehow already passed. “I’ll go first. Are you ready?” I say as I reach down and grab the knife in my boot. This would be an up close and personal fight.
“Ready as I can be,” Hazen replies with his knife in his hand.
I stand on my tiptoes and give him one last kiss, something he wasn’t expecting. “There may be more of that later.” I tease him with a smile. I needed something to look forward to.
“I’ll take you up on that.” Hazen’s hand runs down my back to my butt, giving it a rough squeeze.
No sooner than we turn our attention to the tent, the flap flies open, and Nelly comes out, covered in blood. Her empty blue bottle in one hand. She sees us as she walks past but doesn’t look our way. Just as she passes us, she says over her shoulder, “You’re free now, Hazen. Do what you have to do.” She continues to walk back into the woods.
“It’s over?” I say to myself, confused at how Nelly made it past us without me catching her scent. Was Carrigan with her? Part of me couldn’t believe this anticlimactic end.
“It would appear so.” Hazen stands beside me, open-mouthed, watching Nelly disappear in the woods.
“What did she mean?” I turn to him, just to catch a worried look across his face.
“I don’t know,” Hazen replies, avoiding me.
His expression wasn’t a familiar one. Even his body language changed. We should be celebrating that this horrible night just ended, with none of our pack dead. Instead, there’s an awkward chill in the air.
“We should get out of here.” I take his arm and try to drag him toward the path Nelly just walked.
“No,” Hazen says, his feet never moving. He just stands there looking off past me.
“We need to leave before we can’t.” I yank harder on his jacket, but he remains in the same place.
“Come with me.” Hazen’s eyes lift from the ground to me. He’s somber and unresponsive compared to when we just kissed minutes ago.
I narrow my eyes at him but find myself following him as he draws me further into the camp. “This isn’t the way, Hazen.”
“I know.” His voice is low and deep. He walks backward and keeps his eyes on mine.
My instinct is to run the other way, but I trusted Hazen. He’s been loyal since he first joined our pack, no matter how much I wanted to hate him.
He turns his back to me, and his grasp on my hand is overpowering. I’m not sure I can pull away if I want to. I hope this isn’t some kinky fae thing. Fucking on coven land while their leader lay dead. I shake my head for thinking such a thing.
“You brought her.” A male voice said from behind us.
I scurry to Hazen’s side and hold up my knife, but out of the corner of my eye, Hazen just stands still – unarmed.
Hazen doesn’t respond to the man. He kicks at the ground and lets out a gust of air from his lungs. I reach over and lay my hand on his arm, but he yanks away from me.
“Penelope, you will come with me now.” The man states. He’s wearing a brown cloak that falls to the ground, that’s hooded. He’s barely taller than I am, and I’m sure Hazen and I can take him easily.
I leap forward with my knife, but he disappears into thin air. I fall to the ground hard. I flip over, and he’s standing over me, and I’m magically put in chains.
Hazen does a half turn, not to witness it. But he remains there, doing nothing to help me. “Hazen!” I call out to him. The man says something to him in another language that I don’t understand, and Hazen walks away. I call his name again, but he’s gone. I’d fallen for the enemy.
The End
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Tanya lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with her husband Tyler and their two Labradoodles – Oscar and Elmer.
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The H3RO series has been written as two trilogies. This means, although Idol Threats is book 4, it is also the start of a new arc and has been written so you don’t need to read the first three books. At this point, you have an established harem, but if you would like to go back and read books 1 – 3 you can.
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A ghost from Kyun’s past has crawled out of the woodwork, threatening all the band has worked for. Telling Kyun seems the right thing to do, but Tae warns this is one secret that should be buried deep.
Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection Page 108
