The Huntress (An Olympian Fallen Shifter Novel)

by J. A. Culican

  Once I maneuvered her body in position, I sat beside her. I was pleased that in the amount of time it took to get her comfortable, she hadn’t had another pain. My first concern was that she may be starting to contract.

  “Do you mind if I put my hands on you?” I found it always best to ask before touching someone, even if they needed it.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Closing my eyes, I rested my hands over her belly, sliding them around slowly. Sensing and feeling. Connecting to my intuitive nature and the thread of femininity and fertility that ran through all women.

  “Your babies are doing well. Do you want to know the sex, or do you prefer to be surprised?”

  “You can tell that? That can’t even be possible.” She didn’t look convinced. “I think I will wait because, if you are wrong, I don't want to be disappointed.”

  “Fair enough, but I have never been wrong. I am capable of many possibilities that would surprise you.” Winking at her, I stood up. “Listen, you really need to take it easy. At this stage in your pregnancy, taking long breaks between activities is best. I think you are in the safe zone for delivery, but it is best for those cubs to come out when they are ready, not when they are being forced out by external environmental hazards. You get what I am saying?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I do.”

  “Also, we need to up your water. I don’t know what your habits have been, but you need to double your water intake when you are pregnant. Especially at this stage.”

  “At least the bathroom is super close to everything in this home. I just don’t know what I am going to do when they are born. This is my brother’s home, not mine, and there is no extra space.”

  “Well, the good news is that babies don’t take up a lot of room at all. I am sure by the time you and your children need a space of your own, you and Xander will have had plenty of time to come up with a plan. From what I have witnessed, he is a good man.”

  “He is, and that is the problem. I don’t want him to stop his life to make mine better. I need to figure it out on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I completely appreciate what he does for me, but it also fills me with a tremendous amount of guilt. I don’t want him to suffer because of me.”

  “He’s a grown man who can make his own decisions, and I could be wrong, but I think he is more than capable of setting boundaries. From where I am standing, his goal is to make sure you do the same.”

  My heart bled for her. I wanted to take her into my arms and into my world and protect her and her children from the ugliness of this world and the man that has such a heavy influence in her life. I feared the path she might choose.

  The bond between Xena and Xander was great. They were clearly willing to sacrifice their own needs to make sure the other got what the needed—which was both commendable and highly dangerous under certain sets of circumstances.

  “For now, relax and know you have a safe home. The rest will come with time. You can’t have all the answers right away. I will bring you a glass of water and then help Xander get dinner going.”

  “Thank you so much, Selene. Before you go, I want to apologize for how I treated you when I first came home. You seem like a really nice woman, but you have to see it from where I stood. And, no offense, but I still don’t understand why you are dressed like that or where you would even have an outfit like that made. Please go back in my closet and grab something to wear. You look like you should fit into my pre-pregnancy stuff. It is the least I can do since you did stay to help us. I know you were supposed to be out there hunting. I can’t imagine how precious your time must be.”

  Patting her on the hand, I smiled “Don’t worry about me. I never miss my mark.”

  I sorted through her closet, not sure what to make of the clothing. Everything was much different and way more constructive looking than what we adorned ourselves with back on Olympus. I was tempted to put on an outfit like the one Xander wore, but I finally found a dress that looked as if it would suit me.

  Chapter 7

  Xena needed to rest, but I needed to gather as much intel about her boyfriend's hunting habits as I could. Maybe I should have asked her when we were in the privacy of her bed chamber. Getting her to open up about it in front of Xander may not prove to be productive.

  She didn’t want to upset him, and he didn't want her talking about him. Still, I wasn’t sure where to start my hunt. After dinner, I would need to get back out there and start pursuing him. My tracking skills were second to none, but with the time crunch and nowhere to start, the odds were not in my favor.

  Xander’s eyes lit up as soon as I walked back out of Xena’s room. His hands still moved against the cutting board, chopping up a carrot, but his eyes never once faltered away from me.

  “Wow. You could probably wear a dirty rag and still take my breath away.” Xander’s mouth hung slightly open.

  “Me?” I laughed. “One thing I can assure you is that you will not find me ever wearing dirty rags. I might get covered in mud while I am on a hunt, yes. But wearing dirty rags? I think not. I would sooner go nude.”

  “That works for me too. I won't judge you if that is what makes you feel most at ease.” His brows did a quick wag. “I thought you were going to help me cook?”

  “Me too. You seem to have started without me.”

  “I told you I was going to get things started. Don’t worry, there is still more to do.”

  “Oh, good. My first priority was to make sure your sister was okay. She just needs more rest. What kind of job does she have?” I sauntered over to the kitchen to assess what he was doing.

  “She works at the local diner. It is one of the only restaurants in a two-hundred-mile radius. Most local folks prefer to stay on their property and do their own hunting and foraging. We do have a local market, and now with the way technology is, a lot of us order half of our staples on line.”

  “On what line?” The concept of ordering food was familiar, but I had never had to stand on a line to receive my meals. They had always been hand delivered whenever and wherever I chose.

  “What?” He laughed. “You are funny.”

  I smiled back at him as if to go along with the joke I’d unknowingly made. He seemed pleased by it, and that gave me an overwhelming amount of satisfaction and an awkward level of undeserved pride.

  “What is left to do?” I joined him in the kitchen, close enough to signify I was ready to get my hands dirty.

  “The bird is already in the oven, roasting. I am going to just throw these veggies in the pan with it as soon as I finish chopping them. It should be ready in about ten minutes.”

  “Is that it?” I asked.

  “Is that not enough food for you?” His eyes narrowed, and his stance stiffened.

  “Oh, no. It is. I just meant is that all there is to do. I wanted to be of assistance.” I hadn’t intended to insult him or his meal. My accommodations back home were considerably more lavish, and meals were layered in courses from small plates of samplings to rich meals that took hours to prepare. All were served with soup, bread, salad, and an assortment of fruits, cheeses, and pastries. I had to remember that life on Earth, and for those that were not gods, didn’t have the same luxuries.

  “Okay, for a minute there I thought you were expecting more. I am a good cook, but this ain't no restaurant. We do the best we can with what we have up here in the mountains. We are very rural. I don’t know where you come from and apologies if you are used to fancier meals.”

  “Not at all. It actually smells divine so far. You seem to have everything under control, and had I helped more, I might have screwed it up.”

  “I doubt very highly that you screw up much, kitten.” He reached behind him and grabbed two glasses and a dark bottle of what appeared to be wine. “I can’t imagine that you don’t know how to open this?” He quirked his eyebrow at me.

  He would have had to envision far beyond his imagination to grasp what my norm was. My inner truth meter was dangerously high, and I hated not
being able to be honest with him about who I was.

  Xander didn't have to trust me with his true identity, but he had. I wished I could have paid him the same courtesy. Maybe, in time, I could find a way to explain. Probably when I said my final goodbyes to him and his sister. My heart suddenly felt as if it were about to crumble.

  “So, the wine? You do know how to open a bottle, don’t you?” He pulled it back, along with the tool he had handed me. His eyes pinched in at the sides as a grin stretched one side of his mouth nearly up to his cheekbones.

  “Why are you messing with me so much, kitten?”

  “The better question is why not, honey bear?”

  “Touché, pussycat. I might not admit it to anyone else, but I think I like the way that sounds rolling off your tongue. A sweet and tasty tongue at that.”

  My face flushed with heat, and what little was inside my stomach swirled upside down. He had a power over me that no one had ever had—that I had never allowed anyone to have.

  “You can pour wine though, right? I don’t take you for the kind of woman that expects everyone to serve you.” He passed the bottle back to me.

  Pouring the wine, I could handle. His comment was another thing altogether. It cut in a place I hadn’t known resided in me. Expecting others to serve me was everything that made up who I was.

  Sure, I served many, but all under my terms. Many of the women I had rescued over the centuries had become near and dear to me, but as confidants who followed my every thought. They were indebted to me in a way that would never allow them to go against me.

  I was a fierce warrior and would never expect someone to fire my bow for me. That was my job. So why was it, when I ate, I expected others to do the work involved for me. They even cut my food into bite sized pieces so I didn't have to.

  I was a woman, a goddess of privilege, and I liked it. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Being judged by mortals was not something that bothered me or that I cared to harp on. I didn’t need them, but they most certainly needed me.

  After Xander finished putting the veggies into the oven, I handed one of the two full glasses to him.

  “Oh, this is very full.” He chuckled. “I guess we are going to get a little blitzed tonight.”

  Unsure of what he meant, I toasted anyway. “I will drink to that.”

  As far as I knew, I had never been blitzed. I didn’t even know if I wanted to get blitzed. That didn’t stop me from raising the glass to my lips and sipping on the wine.

  “You like it?”

  “It has a strange undertone of blackberries. Or is that cherries?” I smacked my lips together, tasting the remnants of the wine in my mouth. It had a very smooth and not overly sweet finish. “It is quite good, actually. Better than most I have had.”

  “My cousin has a large plot on the other side of the mountain where the sun seems to shine all day long. He makes most of the wines for Callisto Falls. His best buddy makes the only local beer, which is also hoptastic.”

  I nodded my head in approval.

  “We may be rural, but we are by no means savages.” He took another sip and started to clean up his cooking mess.

  “Let me,” I offered, reaching for the cutting board at the same time as he did. His hand covered mine, and my knees instantly went weak.

  He dropped the cutting board, causing it to tumble to the ground, and pulled me into him. Still holding me by the hand, he held our grip against his heart. His breath was slow, and it scratched at the back of his throat.

  “I don’t know what heaven you fell from, but I am beyond grateful to whomever sent you here. I wish you were staying longer so we could get to know each other better.”

  Gazing up at him, close enough that we shared one breath, I truly wished for the same. I longed for a reason to spend more time with him. But I was there, on Earth, for a mission to make a man fall in love with me for a day or two at best. A man with little or no attachments. One I would have no problem leaving behind.

  Having deep rooted feelings for a human had never ended well for any immortal. At least not that I could recall.

  The silence between us was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Words didn’t formulate in my mouth, only the desire to taste his kiss once more. My lips pressed together as my gaze drifted from his eyes, to his lips, and then nervously back up to his eyes again.

  My heart thumped so hard I could hear it beating in my ears like a drum. Thump thump. Thump thump. How was it beating in such a way? It sounded loud and slow, but I felt my blood coursing through my veins at an alarming rate. So much so that it went to my head.

  The room felt as if it were going to spin out around us, dumping us into a black hole—an oblivion that there would be no returning from. How bad could that be?

  I wanted him to take me there—to tie me to a place where there were no longer any rules, no more divides, and no one to answer to or to make bargains with to get what we wanted most.

  Just one more kiss, was that too much to ask for? Was it too much to allow myself to relish in? What would my handmaidens think of me if the goddess of chastity gave into the very core of what I preached was all that was wrong in this world?

  How could one man's lips be so fiercely eatable and delicious? So sweet and heady? Eliciting explosions of desires, the need for more, wanting to explore what I have denied myself.

  No!

  I couldn’t allow it.

  Stepping back, I slid my hand out of his grip. “I better go get Xena if dinner is about to be ready. She must be starving. I know I am.”

  Chapter 8

  “I hope you ladies are hungry.” Xander may have had a big smile, but his eyes were different. They were not illuminated in the same way they had been when I’d come out of Xena’s bedroom the first time.

  My actions and reactions to his advances were confusing enough for me, I couldn’t begin to understand how they were affecting him. All I needed to do was get through the meal and be on my way. Everything else would fall into place as it needed to. I had roughly two more days to complete my mission. It was doable. At least that was what I kept repeating in my head.

  Xena waddled her way over to the dinner table behind me. Xander had already put out place settings and dinner plates. If nothing else, he worked very efficiently. I found it hard to understand how mere mortals weren’t that way. Their lives were so precious and short. So many of them wasted their time with petty nonsense like holding grudges and flat out being lazy.

  Lounging around eating grapes and being entertained was for the immortal gods and goddess. We had an eternity to get things done—if an oracle didn't give one of us an ultimatum and a time crunch. Two days to a human was a fair amount of time, but for me, it went by in a blink of an eye.

  Almost a full day had gone by since I’d arrived in Callisto Falls, and I was no closer to where I needed to be. The next day had to be distraction free.

  “Please—” he waved a hand in front of the table “—take a seat, ladies.”

  “I am assuming that giant glass of wine isn’t for me?” Xena chuckled.

  “Absolutely not!” Xander answered. “You can have water or juice.”

  “You can have a small glass of wine at this point in your pregnancy. It won’t hurt the babies, but it is always good to err on the side of caution and avoid anything that can cause complications.”

  A scorned look darted across the table at me. A thanks for nothing look for sure from Xander as he sat down in front of me.

  “Thank you so much for welcoming me into your home and allowing me to stay to share this meal with you. And, if I may, I would just like to offer a special toast to Callisto. May she continue to look down on her children and keep them safe. There was a time that I was good friends with a Callisto, and I would imagine she would be thrilled with how this town is thriving under her name.”

  Xena and Xander looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously.

  “It is amazing that you had a friend by the same
name. I have never met another by that name,” Xander commented after lowering his glass.

  “My friend also had a son. His name was Arcan. Perhaps you have a building or something named after him too,” I said, jokingly.

  Again, the twins made eye contact.

  “You must be shitting me. I swear you must be the queen of messing with people.” Xander’s chest heaved from laughing. “I would say you can’t make this stuff up, but you are….”

  “How so?”

  “Arcan is the next town over. A different bear clan lives there. They live by a slightly different set of rules. Legend has it that the town was named after Callisto's son. The bears here, in our town, believe he took her life in a hunting accident because he didn’t know his mother had become a bear or that his bloodline would produce shifters as we know them to be today.”

  I nearly dropped my glass. How can this be? How can these stories be a part of the history and culture here in this rural mountain community? The legends are not far from the truth. Although, it seems I don’t know the whole story myself. She and her son must have come down here at some point and managed to populate and mix breed with humans.

  That would make Xena and Xander descendants of gods. Many, many, times removed, but still immortal blood coursed through their veins. It tempted me to ask them how long they lived and what unique abilities they possessed over other humans.

  It didn’t seem polite to ask. and how would I even inquire those questions without encouraging them to have more for me that I wasn’t prepared to answer?

  “Hmm. That is an uncanny story. Maybe my friend heard the same tales and decided to name her son after him since she shared the mother’s name.”

  “Possible, but unlikely, unless she grew up here—which would then make her a bear shifter.”

  “You are the first two I have ever met, to my knowledge. That being said, I don’t think I would have known the difference if I had run into a bear outside of this community.” Not that they needed to know this was my first time on Earth in well over a thousand years. A lot had changed since then. So much so that it nearly blew my mind.