by T. S. Joyce
With an irritated sigh, Chance climbed down the stairs. Em followed closely behind. Pretty brave for a human because Link was on a warpath and looked like a freaking demon right now.
“Can I see that?” Chance asked, holding out his hand.
Link dropped it in the mud and shoved it toward Chance with the toe of his boot. Sure enough, it looked just like her traps by the burn pile.
“How did you even know we were here?”
Link gestured grandly to his green Bronco. Milling in front of it was the rest of the pack—Dalton, Kate, Nicole, and in her arms, little Fina. “I called a pack meeting, only I couldn’t reach you.”
“I spilled,” Kate said in a hoarse, guilty-as-hell voice. “I’m a terrible liar, and Link is scary right now.”
“What the hell, Kate?” Chance asked.
“Oh, it’s her fault for spilling secrets, Chance? There shouldn’t have been any secrets in the first place! We’re a pack. What does that mean to you? No, don’t even fucking answer that right now. I’ll tell you what it means to me. It means we protect each other and don’t hide shit, especially secrets that could burn our entire pack to the ground!”
“I was going to bring her to you tomorrow morning before I left for Silver Summit. I’ve already asked her to meet with my pack so you can get to know her. Her, not who you assume she is.”
Link dragged his furious, glowing gaze to Emily. “Is this your trap? No lies. I can hear them.”
Emily frowned down at the sprung contraption at Chance’s feet. The porch light reflected off the sharp, metal teeth. “Yes,” she murmured. “Where did you find it?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Link,” Nicole admonished from behind.
With a growl, Link said, “It was on my land. My mate almost stepped in it when we were taking Fina for a walk tonight. Silly me, I thought the threat of Hell Hunters died with Emanuel Vega.”
“Oh, my gosh, are you okay?” Em asked Nicole.
“Don’t talk to her!”
“I didn’t set this! I haven’t set any traps on your land. Chance and I just sprung all of mine today so there would be no accidents. I wasn’t hunting you. Not yet. I was working on Chance.” Emily winced. “Shit. That sounded bad.”
“No, it sounded just right, except the part about you trapping on my land.”
“I. Didn’t. Set. That. Trap. I’ve never been on your land.”
Link took a couple steps back, white eyes locked on Em’s.
“Truth,” Chance added helpfully.
“I literally want to strangle you right now, Chance. You’re not helping.”
“I like her,” Kate called.
Link silenced her with a look.
“Look,” Em pleaded, “I’m not like my dad. I cut ties with them after I started getting to know Chance, and I’m working through some shit, but I’m not a Hell Hunter anymore. And I really like Chance—”
“Don’t talk.”
“Link,” Chance warned. “You’re going to have to watch how you speak to her.”
“You remember that night, don’t you? You remember Vega and his Hell Hunters hanging Dalton and pouring gasoline on his cabin with Kate in it.”
“I don’t need a recap, Link. Emily wasn’t there. The sins of her father died with him. She’s mine.”
“Fuck it all,” Link growled. He paced away and back, then toward the others again. “What am I supposed to do with this? I’m trying to be a good alpha, but this is something I can’t allow.”
“Link, don’t do this until you know her,” Chance said desperately.
“I forbid you to claim her.”
“Link, don’t!” Nicole yelled, approaching with Fina cuddled close against her chest. “You aren’t listening to him. Chance said she’s his. His, Link.”
“He’ll have to turn that off.”
“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” Dalton gritted out. “Chance isn’t a risk taker. He never has been when it comes to the people he cares about. If he says she’s safe, she is.”
“I will never allow her to be a part of this pack,” Link barked out. “No Hell Hunter has ever paired up with a werewolf in our entire history, and for a reason. We won’t be merging our lineage here. Not in my pack.”
“Link,” Nicole murmured, resting a hand on his wrist.
A flash of regret took Link’s eyes, but in an instant, it was replaced by a fierce determination. “You’ll let her go, Chance. That’s an order.” Link turned and strode off for his Bronco. “This was a courtesy visit, Hell Hunter. If I find another trap on my land, I’ll rip your throat out.”
“Chance, I didn’t set that,” Em said, gripping the back of his shirt. “Please believe me. I didn’t put a trap on his land. I wasn’t there yet.”
Chance couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The weight of Link’s order pressed heavily onto his shoulders. It felt like someone had dropped a bulldozer on his chest.
“Chance?” Emily said in a scared squeak. “Please believe me.”
“I believe you,” he rasped out, “but I’m bound to them.” His throat closed over the words.
“Chance!” Link called, holding open the back door to his Bronco. “Let’s go.”
“Please don’t leave like this,” she said, tears streaking down her face.
His body hurt to stay. Each muscle cried out for him to move under Link’s glare. Kate was crying, her face buried against Dalton, and his cousin looked like he was about to retch. Maybe it was from the power Link was letting off, or maybe it was because he knew how hard it was to rip a devoted heart away from a mate.
“I can’t…” A pained sound wrenched from his chest. He was dying. That was the only thing that made sense for how badly this hurt. Death from the inside. He forced himself to kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, then walked toward the truck with reluctant steps, struggling to maintain control over his body.
He forced himself not to look back at her because her tear-streaked cheeks would gut him the rest of the way. Without a word, he climbed into the back seat beside Kate and kept his gaze on his clenched hands in his lap.
“You’ll thank me for this later, Chance,” Link said.
“He definitely won’t,” Nicole murmured from the front seat. Turning to face Chance, she asked, “Is she your mate?”
“Yes,” he choked out.
Nicole’s eyes were rimmed with tears, and the port wine stain birthmark on her cheek was even redder than usual as she glared at Link.
His alpha was stoic and rigid as he drove away. Chance hated everything. Leaning his face against the cool window, he rasped out, “If you really understood what you just did, you would hate yourself.”
Silence.
Inside, Chance’s wolf howled. Not to escape his skin and run back to his mate, but because the order his alpha had laid down had been absolute. He was losing her. Leaving her.
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” Chance promised.
“Maybe not, but at least you’ll be alive. You aren’t seeing her for what she is. Your bond is fogging your survival instincts, and I can’t allow you to put us all at risk. I would rather you hate me than see you hang.”
Chapter Twelve
Emily stood there with her arms out, palms up, suddenly ripped from a good life she’d been only inches from.
Link’s glowing taillights disappeared through the trees, and Emily dragged in a harsh, shaking breath. Her heart was being ripped apart. The trap sat in the mud mocking her.
Of course, it was hers. Or more specifically, she’d inherited it from her father who had carved Vega in script letters onto every one, as if he wanted to make sure the glory went to him when he caught a werewolf.
She was sick of feeling ashamed of her last name, of her lineage. Sick of feeling stupid for being brainwashed into this life for so long. Emily bolted up the steep stairs and slammed the door behind her. Her veins were pulsing with red rage, and there was a building roar in
her ears. Yanking the charger cord out of her phone, she pressed the speed dial for Uncle Victor’s cell phone, but after a few rings, it went to voicemail. With a growl, she dialed a number she knew by heart.
“Anchorage hospice care,” the receptionist answered.
“May I speak to Victor Vega, please?”
“Emily?”
“Yes.”
“Hon, it’s late. It’s the middle of the night. Even if he was here, he would be sleeping.”
“What do you mean ‘even if he was here’?” She already knew the answer, though. She’d known it the second Link had accused her of setting that trap. It might be hers, but she’d been telling the truth. She hadn’t set it.
“He checked himself out a couple of days ago. He said he had urgent family business, and it was a matter of life and death.”
Yeah, the life and death of werewolves.
“Thanks,” she murmured before she ended the call.
Uncle Victor was here in Galena. She could feel it. With trembling fingers, she pushed the number for his cell phone again and waited three rings. She would blow up his phone all night if she had to.
“Have you come to your senses?” Uncle Victor asked.
“You set that trap on Lincoln McCall’s land, didn’t you?”
“Did it work?”
“They aren’t monsters! They’re people with hopes and dreams and fears for their kids. They hide what they are and aren’t a threat to humans, so what on earth are you actually hunting them for?”
“You mean what are we hunting them for. You keep them distracted. Get them to trust you, and I’ll exploit their weaknesses.”
“No, Victor. I’m not working with you, I’m not hunting them, and if you don’t stop what you are doing right now, I’ll have no choice.”
“Don’t threaten me, child. You have failed. Do you hear me? You have utterly failed to avenge your father’s death, and you have left me to clean up your mess.” She could hear the hiss of his oxygen machine when he dragged in a long, painful-sounding breath.
“Listen to me, Victor. Really hear what I’m saying. I had a chance to be happy. Do you understand what happiness is?”
“Of course, I do. Happiness is a successful hunt.”
“God, you’re so blind.”
Uncle Victor wheezed, “God doesn’t have anything to do with those creatures!” His voice gurgled on the last word, and he coughed until he was breathless.
“You’re going to die soon. That used to make me really sad, but now I think the world will be better off without you in it. I’m now the mate of a werewolf, and the Hell Hunter line will end with you. I want you to take that to your grave. I want you to die knowing you lost. Here is my warning. If you come after this pack again, I’ll be hunting you.”
Emily ended the call and stared at the long hunting knife she’d left lying on the bed, wondering if she could really end Uncle Victor’s life early. Wondering if she could really snuff out the last of her family on her dad’s side. Wondering if she could cut down the final branch on the Hell Hunter tree.
To protect Chance, she knew she could.
She was taking the Vega name back.
Chapter Thirteen
Emily had never been more nervous in her life. This could be the most dangerous decision she’d ever made, but she had to try.
Two days she’d spent scouring Galena, but she hadn’t been able to track down where Uncle Victor was holing up. Two days she’d spent agonizing over her last minutes with Chance, but she couldn’t just stand by while her chance at happiness flew out the window.
Emily stacked the paper plate of wolf, fox, and bear-shaped sugar cookies on top of the three werewolf history books and kicked the door of her dad’s blood-red pickup truck closed. The color was probably what made her dad buy the damned truck in the first place. There was no use hiding the flashy ride anymore. Everyone who meant anything in this town already knew who she was.
The drive to Link and Nicole’s cabin was a short one since they were only on the next property, but still, it had felt like an eternity getting here. She’d played and re-played every scenario in her head, and so far, she hadn’t been able to conjure a good outcome.
Chance had left Galena for Kodiak, and he’d taken her favorite parts about herself with him.
With a long, steadying breath, she balanced her gifts and knocked on the cabin door.
Nicole answered, her dark eyes concerned. “Hi.”
Emily forced her attention from the huge birthmark down the side of Nicole’s face and rushed out, “I came bearing gifts.”
Nicole looked behind her, and when she glanced back at Emily, determination slashed through her eyes. “Come in.”
Link came striding out of a hallway and skidded to a stop when he saw her. Instant fury reddened his face and lightened his eyes. “Are you serious right now? Get out!”
“Not until you listen to what I have to say.”
“I don’t want you around Chance.”
“I understand you think you are protecting him—”
“I don’t think I’m protecting him. I know I am.”
“Yeah, well so am I! He’s your wolf. I get it. But you have to understand he’s my mate.” She gasped at the word that felt so right against her tongue. Softly, she repeated it. “He’s my mate.”
They stood on opposite sides of the room, locked in a never-ending death glare, and it was Nicole who broke the silence. “Are those sugar cookies?” She plucked a fox-shaped one off the plate. With a smile, she showed it to Link. “Look, she put pink glitter sprinkles on the Vera cookies.”
“Don’t eat that,” Link said.
Hurt, Emily reassured him, “I didn’t poison them.”
Nicole’s smile dipped from her lips, and in a rush, she bit off the head of the cookie.
“Nicole!” Link yelled, bolting for her.
Nicole dropped the cookie and clutched her neck. Horrible choking sounds wrenched from her throat, but just as Link reached her, Nicole broke out in a grin. “Just kidding.”
“Dammit, Nicole!” Link said, looking horrified.
Nicole offered him a smirk and perused the frosted snacks until her fingers landed on a wolf cookie with demon horns and white eyes. Nicole gulped her bite of pastry and grinned brightly as she held it up. “Look, Link, she made you.”
Emily gave a nervous laugh. “That one was a joke cookie. Kind of.”
Link was really scary when he was riled up.
He scrubbed his hands down his face roughly and shook his head. “Say what you came here to say and then please leave. You’ve caused enough tension in my pack.”
“Well, I didn’t mean to do that,” Emily said, sidling around the scary giant. She set the books on the kitchen table.
“What are those?” Link asked, standing across the table, his arms locked on the sturdy surface.
She couldn’t help her smile. He reminded her of Chance.
“What’s so funny?”
“Chance stood just like that when I showed him these a few days ago.” Link didn’t look amused, so she cleared her throat and explained. “I grew up thinking Hell Hunters were some sort of super heroes.”
Link snorted in disgust.
“No, just let me say this, and then you can boot me out. And I’ll never bother you again. You should know where I’m coming from and where Chance is coming from, at least.” Emily sat in the chair and sighed, braving a direct look at his blazing eyes. “My bedtime stories growing up were about good and evil, but in them, Hell Hunters were good, and werewolves were evil creatures of the night who fed on humans. Hell Hunters were what kept people safe from darkness. I was lied to and manipulated into thinking shifters were soulless, bloodthirsty demons, and I was trained to fight them and, as I was told, to protect humans. I thought you were the bad guys.”
“And now what do you think?” Link asked carefully.
“You’re no bad guy, and I’m no hero. Everything changed the moment I met Chance
. It became really obvious I’d been trained for something I hadn’t understood.”
“And how did it make you feel?”
“Ashamed,” she admitted. “So much shame. I called my uncle and told him I wouldn’t be avenging my dad’s death anymore. I know you don’t trust me, and I understand. After you ordered Chance away from me, I wanted to hate you because he’s my shot at a good, normal life.”
“A normal life?” Link asked incredulously.
“Yeah, Link, as normal as it can be for me. I know shifters exist, I know Hell Hunters exist, I know the history, and I can never go back to thinking humans are the top of the food chain. I can’t unlearn all my hunter training. And just so you know, it sucks indescribably much to disappoint everyone—my uncle, Chance…you.”
“Me?”
Emily pursed her lips and hoped she had the right words to explain adequately what she was going through. “I’m picking a side that goes against everything I was taught. I’m stuck between two worlds, untrustworthy to my family, untrustworthy to your pack, and unable to move on and find a stable life among humans who are oblivious to all the knowledge I possess. I’m denouncing everything I know in the name of trying to be a good person, and now the man I feel the biggest connection with, the man I finally feel safe with, has been taken away from me.”
“No, he hasn’t,” Nicole murmured, taking the seat right next to Emily.
“What do you mean?” Link asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Chance called me the day after you gave him the order. When his tour is through at Silver Summit, he will be breaking the bond and leaving—” Nicole’s voice broke on the word and she tried again. “He’ll be leaving our pack.”
“What?” Link asked, swinging his accusatory gaze to Emily.
“You can’t blame that one on me. That’s not what I want. Leaving the pack will hurt him.”
“Well, he can’t,” Link said to his mate. “It’s not that easy.”
Nicole crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a disappointed gaze to her mate. “You made him choose, Link. He’s bonded to Emily. And can’t you see? She’s bonded to him, too. You were wrong to order them apart. I know you were doing what you thought was best for the pack, but who Chance claims isn’t up to you.”
