Born In Blood (Born Hunter Book 1)

by Nia Davenport

  “You want a bet,” were the last words Cara heard before the power radiating from Aiden snapped out at her like an electrically charged whip. Pain exploded through her skull. She fought against it with every ounce of strength she possessed. Cara managed to stave off the darkness for a mere fraction of seconds before it overtook her.

  "She's right you know," Rafe said as he re-entered the office with Dorian and Asad behind him. "We planned to draw the wolves out by dangling her in front of their noses. It's the reason you've been running all over South America with her trying to track the wolves. Why not let the hunter walk into their trap? It would lead us straight to them. We have been unable to track them thus far. They were smart enough not to leave a trail behind when they killed the Viceroys in their calculated attacks to let us know they were amassing power."

  Rafe's argument was sound but it pissed Aiden off nonetheless. He closed his hand around his throat then flung him into the wall behind them. The member of his Circle crumpled to the floor along with plaster and debris from his office wall. Rafe smartly stayed on the ground. Aiden knelt beside him and punched his fist into his chest cavity, bones buckled and snapped beneath the force of the blow. He closed his hand around Rafe's beating heart. "You are a member of my Circle and your loyalty is what spares your life. But if you ever overstep where Cara is concerned again, I will rip your heart from your chest," he warned him.

  Aiden turned to the remaining two members of his Circle standing behind them. Their faces carefully smoothed into neutral expressions.

  Dorian bowed his head in deference to show he meant no disrespect by the words he spoke next. "If we do not use the hunter as bait, My Liege, how do we root out the wolves and eliminate the threat they pose? None of our efforts to find them have been successful."

  "We don't necessarily have to eliminate them to neutralize the threat. They cannot return to power without completing the blood ritual and they can't complete it without Cara. If they want her, they will have to come through me to get her."

  Dorian started to say something else but Aiden was past the point of hearing it. Before he could give voice to his thoughts he turned on his heels and left the room. It was for the best. His temper was running hot at the moment and the mere thought of Cara giving herself up to the wolves, even if he and his Circle were in place to intervene, made all rational thought on his part fly out the window. If one of them mentioned him letting Cara walk into the trap the wolves set for her again, he might be find himself with one less member of his Circle. They had earned the right to question his decisions and even interject their own opinions about issues that affected them all. They had all literally shed blood for him in the past and would not hesitate to give up their life for his just as he would if the situation were reversed. Their loyalty was unwavering. But Cara was off limits. What he did and did not do where she was concerned was not up for discussion.

  Asad followed Aiden out of his office. "May I speak freely My Liege?"

  Aiden turned to face him. "You have never needed permission to do so, but be warned Asad, choose your words carefully. I am not in a rational frame of mind at the moment."

  "I am aware, Your Grace, and you may very well impale me on the front lawn for what I am about to say next but you are my friend as well as my Liege and I would be remiss as a friend if I did not say this."

  "Say what?" Aiden growled.

  "The hunter, I think you love her and I think she loves you back. Think about what you would do if it were one of us in the position her friend is in. You would sacrifice everything, even yourself to save us. She has already lost one person she loves to the wolves, if she loses another she will never forgive you. Are you prepared for that consequence?"

  "If it means she stays out of danger, yes I am." The hunter had carved out a place for herself in Aiden's heart. Now that she was in his life, he could not imagine an eternity without her but he would deal if it meant she stayed safe and alive. He lost one woman he loved to the wolves long ago and he would be damned if he lost another. Still, if he truly loved her could he really stand by and allow her heart to re-break into a thousand pieces and probably her already fragile psyche along with it? Asad was right. Cara had yet to recover from losing her father. Losing her friend would tear the scab off of a deep wound that had never healed. There was only one answer to the question he asked himself if he loved her. He did not want Cara walking into a literal wolves den. He growled in frustration then punched his fist through the wall beside him. "Fuck!" He yelled out loud.

  I am going to murder that self-serving ass as soon as I see him was the first thought Cara had when she came out of the darkness. How dare he invade her mind and force actions on her against her will? She did not have to look far. She turned her head to see Aiden sitting in a chair beside her bed. It was actually his bed she lay in she realized with a confused startle.

  "You bastard!" She hissed at him. "Twenty-four hours better not have passed while you hijacked my consciousness or I swear will disembowel."

  He looked at her long and hard then crushed his lips to hers and Gods damn it she kissed him back. What the hell was wrong with her? She should be pushing him away not pulling him closer. He lied to her and used her and then invaded her mind when she did not automatically concede to his will. The thought of Reiya in the wolves clutches and abused or worse dead snapped her out of her madness. She put her hands between them to push him away but his hands closed around her wrists in a steel grip.

  "I am sorry," his eyes bored into hers. "I will not insult you with excuses or attempts to explain away my choices but I am sorry. You've only been out for an hour. The plane is fueled and ready to go. I only ask of you two things."

  Cara remained silent as she eyed him suspiciously. The Prince of Darkness did not apologize to anyone. Ever.

  "One, allow me, Asad, Dorian and Rafe to accompany you. The wolves will be able to scent us if we get within ten miles of the beach house. They will not complete the blood ritual there. They will take you to wherever they have been hiding out. I have drank your blood so I can track you once they do."

  "And two?”

  "I need you to stay alive until I get there. To ensure that you will need to drink my blood. While it is in your system, it will confer a degree of my healing abilities onto you."

  "Reiya is the priority not me. If we do this together, you do not make a move until she is out of harm's way. Understood?”

  It took every fiber of his being not to protest. Asking him to stand down if she was in danger was asking him to go against his basic male instinct to protect his mate and annihilate anyone who meant her harm. There was no denying it any longer. Cara might not accept it yet, or ever for that matter, but that is what she was. His soul had become entwined with hers and not being around her was complete agony. He craved her as much as he loved her. His very existence had come to be centered on protecting her and making her happy. After they dealt with the wolves he would chase away the shadows of her past for good and make her see that by his side is where she belonged. He was too selfish to give her any other choice. He would not spend an eternity without her.

  "Agreed," he finally conceded. He brought his wrist to his lips and punctured two neat holes on the inside of it. "Drink Cara," he said bringing his wrist to her lips. When they closed around his flesh he bit back a moan. Images of her full lips closing around a very different part of his anatomy played through his mind. The act of giving or receiving blood was inherently carnal. Aiden fought himself for control. He wanted to climb into bed with Cara and drive into her until she shouted his name to the heavens.

  Cara became acutely aware of the slow burn whose flames were being fueled inside her belly. As she pulled the blood from Aiden’s veins the burn raged into an all encompassing fire. It ignited her from the inside out and made her burn with unabashed desire. She lifted her head from his wrist and fisted her hands around his shirt. She wildly kissed him with lips still wet with blood then pulled him onto the bed on top of h
er. She tore at his clothes as he tore at hers. All pretenses of civility were forgotten. He thrust into Cara in one strong, powerful motion. She wrapped her legs around him and scored her nails down his back as he drove in and out of her core. He continued to pump in and out of her as she crushed his head to her neck, imploring him to penetrate her there just as he was at her core. When his incisors broke the flesh, Cara cried out in ecstasy. With each tug at her vein, wave after wave of an orgasm rocked through her. It was as if there was an invisible thread running from her neck to her core that radiated fire to the rest of her body. The pull at her neck, the merciless thrust in her core, the twin sensations short-circuited all rational thought. She never wanted it to end. It was heaven and hell wrapped in one. She kept his head crushed to her neck and his waist encased between her tights. She rocked into him, silently urging him on. She did not care if he drained every last drop of blood from her body. She would willingly forfeit her life and revel in her death if this was how it ended. Her muscles clenched around him as one final climax wracked her body. Aiden shuddered as hers pulled his own orgasm from him. He rolled off of her and collapsed on the bed beside her. He pulled her into his arms, kissed her fiercely, and then sighed.

  “It is time for us to go,” he told her even though getting out bed and flying her into danger was the last thing he wanted to do.

  Twenty-Six

  Cara stood on a private beach in St. Lucia looking up at her family’s vacation home. Fifteen years of neglect left the once resplendent home, a shell of its former self. The windows sported boards instead of pristine white shutters while the sides of the sloped roof sagged in on themselves. The house’s external coat of paint now cracked and chipped in an endless montage of ruin. Its vibrant yellow hue had faded to pale beige. The partially decayed wooden steps creaked as Cara walked up to a Victorian-style wraparound porch that threatened to cave in on itself. The crumbling home stood as a physical manifestation of the shattered pieces her family splintered into after her father’s death. Without warning the memory that was the cause of her nightmares bombarded her waking conscious.

  A 10-year-old girl wondered out of her beach house in search of her father while her mother still slept. She’d woken up feeling immensely better that morning. Her father had seemed so worried for her the night before that she wanted to make sure he knew. He left in the middle of the night to fetch a fever-reducer but she did not remember him ever returning from the drugstore to give it to her. The little girl knew exactly where to find her father. On the south side of the house, relaxing in the hammock and reading the morning news after a pre-dawn run on the beach’s sandy shores. It was his before-breakfast routine and he never deviated from it. The first feeling she had that something was wrong was when she found the hammock empty. The next feeling came when she called out to her father and deafening silence greeted her in return.

  She stood on the wraparound porch scanning the beach for signs of her father when she saw it. The silhouette of a man’s body just at the shoreline. The man lying out on the beach was her daddy and something was horribly wrong with him. A rational part of her mind whispered to her that the scene awaiting her was not for a little girl to see. It told her to turn around, go back into the house, and wake up her mom. But her legs moved on their own accord and carried her towards the shoreline. When she reached her father the first thing she saw were his eyes. The light was gone from his honey-golden gaze that was always full of joy and passion. His eyes were devoid of all life, yet remained wide open, frozen in a state of stunned horror that was now focused up at his daughter. The next thing she saw was a gaping hole where his trachea used to be. Large, ugly, and jagged. It looked like something had torn into her father and yanked his throat out. The little girl did not scream. She did not yell. She did not shout for help. She knelt in the sand and gently cradled her father’s head into her arms. Her soft, helpless sobs played on an endless loop. Her mother was a heavy and late sleeper when they were on vacation and their beach house lay on a secluded section of the island that was off limits to the public. When her mother finally found her it took her and two detectives to pry the little girl away from her dad.

  Cara’s father’s killer inflicted the same wounds in Cara that he did in her father that day. Only his were physical and hers were psychological, though no less debilitating. Ever since that fateful morning Cara walked around with the same gaping, endless, hollow hole inside of her that was torn into her father’s throat. It manifested itself in an endless cycle of guilt, rage, and grief that she could never break free from. It was a hollow emptiness that she could never seem to fill.

  Something burrowing into her neck followed by a numbing sensation flooding her nerves broke her free of the waking nightmare. She tried to turn around to face the threat, but her limbs would not obey her commands. Her legs melted beneath her and she collapsed on the porch.

  “Don’t worry. The paralyzing effect of the serum are not permanent,” The bastard who the deep voice from phone belonged to assured her. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

  Cara’s mind shrieked at her limbs to fight, but they hung useless in the air.

  “It is a side effect to what I really need it to do. Purge the vampire’s blood from your veins so he cannot track you. I cannot have him interfering with my plans.”

  Cara’s heart beat wildly. Not only was she paralyzed and could not defend herself, Aiden could not track her either. She tried to force her arms and legs to obey her, but they would not fucking listen.

  Twenty-Seven

  "You're no better than Aiden," Cara said to her friend who the wolves had supposedly kidnapped and were holding hostage. Imagine her surprise when that same friend was moving freely about the wolves’ hidden compound and was the one to escort her to a cell on its subterranean level. "At least he hasn't been lying to me for years, pretending as if he cared."

  Reiya actually had the audacity to appear wounded. "Cara I swear it is not like that. It was but it is not anymore. Reyes and I were born to a human mother. Normally hybrids get a dominant copy of the wolf gene but we did not. It leaves us unable to change into wolf form at all. We would have been executed when we turned of age if not for the reason that the pack leader saw a need for us. Our defect allows us to pass as human. The pack has watched you since your father's death to see what path your life would take. They dumped his body outside your beach house in a calculated move to spur you into taking up the cause of a hunter. It is what you were born to do. You only needed a push in the right direction. When you enrolled in the Division, Reyes and I were ordered to do the same. We were supposed to get close to you so that when the time came the wolves could easily get to you and use you. Please understand Cara that Godrell is my Alpha. I physically am unable to obey a direct command from him and even if I find some loophole or way to do so, it will result in my death. He would see it as a betrayal and kill Reyes to just to make me suffer even more."

  Cara actually did understand. Still it did not lessen the sting she felt. First Aiden, now Reiya and Reyes. She did not have anyone left. Everybody she thought had become her new family were all strategically in her life to use her. "Whatever Reiya. I get it. I would tell you this ends your involvement in my life but what would be the point. It will be over before sunrise anyway. They will probably dump my body I will wash up on the beach the same as my father." She laughed bitterly then turned away from the woman she thought was her best friend. She walked to the opposite end of her cell making it clear she was done talking to her.

  "Godrell is coming to retrieve you for the ritual soon. He forbade me from directly interfering but he never said anything about indirect interference."

  Cara heard the sound of steel clanking against the bars as it passed through them before softly hitting the floor. When she turned around 2 razor sharp blades small enough for her to hide on her person gleamed on the cement floor. "He will kill you for helping me." Cara did not want to care. She shouldn't have cared, but she did.


  "I know.”

  "What about Reyes?"

  " I notified the Division of the threat the wolves posed days ago. Headquarters is locked down with Reyes inside of it. He is safe. The wolves do not have enough resources to take on the vampires and the Division at the same time."

  "Why aren't you with him?" Cara had gotten the call from Godrell only hours ago. If the Division was in lockdown he should not have been able to get to her.

  "Godrell was coming for you with or without me. I figured if it was with me, I might be able to help." Reiya pointedly looked at the knives. "I know this doesn't make us even and I don't expect you to forgive me, but at least one of us should make it out of this alive. Reyes and I were dead the moment he no longer had a use for us."

  "Damn it, Reiya!" She may have been pissed at her but she did not want her to die either.

  "I have to go before someone gets suspicious. Godrell should be down soon to retrieve you for the ritual. The knives are silver. The myths got it wrong about the vampires but they were spot on about the wolves. It is poisonous if you knick him anywhere and deadly if you pierce his heart." She smiled feebly at Cara. "I guess I'm the one who lacks a sense of self-preservation. If you never forgive me, please forgive Reyes. He won't have anyone left after I'm gone."

  "Reiya..." Cara started to protest but she cut her off.

  "It is already done Cair." When she turned to leave they both fought back the moisture pooling in their eyes.

  "I forgive you," Cara quietly said to her back. Reiya's steps faltered enough that Cara knew she heard her.

  Godrell unlocked her cell and stepped inside. The smug jackass let the automatic locking bars slam shut behind him.

  "You sure you want to lock yourself inside with me?" Cara drawled from the position she'd taken up at the far corner of the cell. She casually leaned against the wall behind her as if the Alpha leader of the wolves was of no threat to her. She wanted to provoke him into charging her. The split second it would take him to cross the space between them was all she needed to brandish the short knives now hidden on her body and let one loose on a trajectory for his heart. She didn't think she could take him hand to hand. The bastard was too strong and he would easily out muscle her.