The Huntresses are stepping up their game. So are the forces arrayed against them…
The Order of the Wolf, Book 7
Mayhem is furious. While he and the boys have been rocking it out on stage at a series of concerts in Scotland, Darcy and Aubrey have been sneaking out for, as they so defiantly put it, “training.”
Raven is cut to the bone when he discovers what Darcy’s been doing behind his back. But simply forbidding the women from hunting isn’t the answer. Though it makes him uneasy, he talks Mayhem into joining forces to train alongside their women.
Training is in full swing when they encounter a pair of ancient Huntresses battling each other with powers Darcy and the girls can only dream about. Taking sides turns out to be a mistake when Darcy and Raven are kidnapped, and an evil plan is put into play to use the girls’ powers to unleash Lazarus, the king of the beasts.
The only way to defeat him is for the Order, Huntresses, and Wolves to put their mutual mistrust aside and unite. Or the world could be flooded with an unending river of feral beasts.
Warning: Contains sex in public places, a virtual reality threesome, and some red hot lovin’. Female warriors with an attitude who won’t be shackled or coddled, and rock star werewolf mates who are hard pressed to keep up.
Beast Rising
Angela Addams
Chapter One
Part One: Darcy and Raven
Sneaking out of the concert wasn’t the problem. Darcy knew how to get lost in a crowd of adoring fans, making it easy to slip away unnoticed while Raven was preoccupied with autographs. Then he’d be on stage and out of her hair for at least three hours. Plenty of time for her to get back to the hotel and get ready. She was stealthy when it came to that part of the plan.
So what was the problem? The adrenaline rush that came afterward, making her more amped up and aggressive, her magic peaking in jolts that lasted for hours. That was harder to disguise, and getting harder to explain.
“You ready?” Darcy motioned to Aubrey, her hands sparking with magic.
Aubrey cocked an eyebrow. “You better get those things under control or the beasts will see us coming from a mile away.” She slipped her quiver over her shoulder and adjusted the strap, then glanced around the hotel room as if making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything.
“Ugh, I know!” Darcy was having a lot of trouble controlling her powers. It seemed the more she experimented, the worse it got. Every spell she’d tried to work over the past few weeks had backfired or had gone haywire in some way. It was getting dangerous not only for her but for everyone within her range. “It’s not like I can ask someone what the hell is going on.”
After Raven had bitten her, igniting her powers as a Huntress, she’d gotten steadily stronger, but she had no training manual to guide her way, no mentor to ask for support. Her initial feelings of intoxication at wielding such power had waned to a constant thud of uncertainty. Would she ever get the hang of it? Not on her own, probably.
Aubrey shook her head, a look passing between them even though neither uttered the words. The only way Darcy would learn how to use her powers was if she bonded with her Hunter. A man she was destined to be with just as surely as she was meant to be with Raven. A man who had been training his whole adult life to help her use her powers.
“No, not even an option,” Darcy whispered, gulping back the lump in her throat.
Not even going to think about it.
Even though Hannah—the newest member of their little pack and Mayhem’s mate—had both her wolf bite and the mark of her now-dead Hunter, and was seemingly all the better for it, Darcy knew bonding with her Hunter was off the table. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, entertain the idea without feeling like she was cheating on Raven somehow. Just because every Huntress had both a Hunter and a wolf destined to be her mates didn’t mean she had to be marked by both. Not even if it came with extraordinary control and knowledge, power of her magic abilities that she didn’t currently have. It wasn’t worth it. Not to Darcy anyway. She wasn’t willing to take the risk of losing her heart to a Hunter, a man she had never even met. She shook her head.
“Well, your powers are volatile. Lock it down at least until we get a good way into the woods. We don’t want an attack happening for all to see.” Aubrey zipped the duffle bag she’d been rooting through and stowed it back in the closet. “We’d better get going if we want to get a good hunt in.”
Darcy flicked her hands, sending sparks of magic everywhere. Aubrey tsked, shrugged and walked out of the room.
They were in Scotland, had been for a few days and seemed to have hit the mother-lode of feral beasts. For three straight nights, while the boys were on stage, Aubrey and Darcy had ventured into the woods behind their hotel and had hunted, and killed, at least a dozen of the nasty predators.
It was dangerous, sure, but Aubrey and Darcy both knew they were capable warriors, even if Mayhem and the boys refused to accept them as such. After the incident back in the US, at the Hunter mansion called Wolves’ Bane, when Raven, Jay, and Dy had knocked the Huntresses out in order to keep them from participating in the fight, the girls knew that they had something to prove. They were not as vulnerable as the boys seemed to think. They were born to be Huntresses and had been training with Hannah’s help to become more capable.
Aubrey and Darcy just wanted it more. They’d been slipping away for a couple of months, ever since they realized just how unchecked and rampant the beast population was in Europe. The forests were teeming with the monsters and it seemed like there was no one around to cull the packs.
With their beast kills mounting, the girls’ confidence grew too. They had the skills—Aubrey for sure had the technique—and they were formidable fighters in their own ways. Growing more powerful by the day.
“So, you gonna try some of that knife throwing you’ve been working on with Hannah?” Aubrey held the back door open.
Both women stopped to take in the smell of the woods just beyond. Despite being in a big city, the lights didn’t obscure the stars overhead . The sky was brimming with them and the surrounding area looked like a forest from fairy tales. Dense foliage, thick grass, craggy rocks. Darcy could stay there indefinitely…if it weren’t for all the beasts. Or maybe because of all the beasts. If Raven would only accept her role as a wolf slayer.
“I don’t know.” Darcy held up her hands, which were still glowing a kind of pastel blue. Hannah had been training with the girls every day, giving them the tactical knowledge that she’d gained when her Hunter had bonded with her. Years of his Order training, military-esque knowledge of weapons, fighting techniques, submission holds, karate, boxing—you name it—had all flowed into Hannah’s brain after they’d bonded. She even had muscle memory, despite having never before done any of the things she was now training the rest of the pack to do. It was weird, and hinted at the power that was housed within the Order and its Hunters. Huntresses who bonded to that side definitely had the advantage when it came to fighting.
Something to envy perhaps.
Darcy gave her head a shake. But that was not the kind of life she wanted to lead. The Hunters had proven to be ruthless, predators in their own right, indiscriminately targeting wolves without considering that all creatures were capable of good and evil. Her Raven, for example, was one of the good guys. So was the rest of the pack—even if they were a bunch of Neanderthal-thinking idiots who didn’t give the girls enough credit.
“Nah, I don’t think I’m ready for knife wielding.” Darcy had been training hard, just like the rest of them, and her fight
ing skills were improving, but she just couldn’t seem to get the right angle and stance to kill a beast. “I think I’d be more of a liability at this point.”
“Come on, you were doing great today. Hitting most of the targets anyway.” Aubrey swung her bow off her shoulder and drew an arrow from her quiver.
Darcy looked at her hands again, gave them another absentminded shake, then shoved them in her pockets. “I think I’ll just play the rouse again.”
That had been her thing on these hunts. She lured the beasts with a blast or two of her magic, which seemed to attract them, and then she’d cast a spell to make them move slowly so that Aubrey could take her shot. Darcy had even gotten a couple of the bastards on their backs by swiping out their legs, but no actual hand-to-hand combat had occurred. It took a very well-aimed hit to the chest or a full decapitation to kill a beast outright, and Darcy just didn’t have it in her yet. Not for lack of desire, more like lack of confidence.
Aubrey, on the other hand, was a fucking natural.
“Well, I plan to use a blade tonight.” Aubrey patted the holster at her side. “Going for the heart.”
Darcy raised her eyebrows. “You sure you’re ready?” Aubrey was more than proficient doing that with her bow, but hand-to-hand? With a blade? “I mean, we just started practicing.”
“Darcy, we were born ready—when are you going to realize that? There comes a time when you really do have to trust your instinct.” She winked. “Besides, if I fuck up, we always have your blue hands to fall back on.”
“Har, har.” Darcy pulled her hands out of her pockets and readied herself. “We doing it?”
Aubrey turned to stare into the forest, a smile curling her lips. “Hell yes, motherfucker!”
* * * * *
They’d found a clearing days ago, far enough away from the hotel that no one would hear the sound of beasts dying. Darcy crouched low to the ground, feeling for the tremors that would warn of the beasts’ approach.
“You think they’re on to us?” Darcy whispered as she lifted her hand and pooled another burst of magic in her palm. “I’ve blasted twice. Last time they came running before the first spell had dissipated.”
Aubrey glanced down at her and shrugged. “Maybe they’re busy grooming each other or something.”
Both women snickered. Darcy stood, curling her fingers, rolling the magic around, coaxing it to flare until it built into a fiery blue ball. “I’ll amp this one up, send out a call they won’t be able to ignore.”
A wave of dizziness came and went, making her sway on her feet as the magic grew. It was a common thing these days, her magic making her feel strange, woozy, not quite right, but she always recovered quickly.
Aubrey raised her bow, readied her arrow. “Let’s do this.”
Darcy pulled her arm back, and then pitched her spell deep into the woods.
There was a bang and a sizzle, a howl quickly followed.
“Yep, I think you got their attention this time.” Aubrey swiveled, adjusting her stance.
The ground began to vibrate, hard thudding that sent chills racing up Darcy’s legs. She readied another spell, adrenaline making her whole body shake.
Two beasts hit the clearing simultaneously, both coming from the same general direction. Both gigantic, hairy, fangs bared, monsters. They crashed through the foliage, taking out a couple of bushes and saplings as they roared their way toward Aubrey.
Darcy launched her first spell just as Aubrey let loose an arrow. Bullseye on both counts. One beast went down, Aubrey’s arrow hitting true. The beast was probably dead before it thudded to the ground. The second one took Darcy’s spell like a hammer to the chest. It flew back, shock registering briefly on its monstrous face before it hit a tree, crushing bark.
“Good one.” Aubrey slipped her bow over her shoulder and drew her blade once again. “I’m going for it. Cover me.”
Darcy nodded, took a moment to steady her breathing, then started to pool another spell. If Aubrey was going for a knife kill, she would need some protection, or at least another hit on the beast to weaken it. They were good students but they had very little field training. As much as Darcy wanted to give Aubrey the chance to make her first blade kill, they both knew she needed back up.
The beast snorted a hard breath, shoved itself up to its knees, seemingly too disoriented to realize that Aubrey approached with her blade. Darcy pooled her spell, prepared to launch. The beast snapped its spine straight, dug its clawed paws into the dirt, ready to stand to its towering full height.
“Aubrey, now!” Darcy launched her spell and Aubrey made her move.
The beast dove forward, evading Darcy’s spell by a hair’s breadth. It hooked its claws into Aubrey’s ankle, tearing a screech of pain and obvious anger from her lips. She hit the ground hard, blood spurting from her leg. The beast dragged her toward him, fangs bared, ready to take a bite. Darcy frantically tried to pool another spell, her hand moving to the knife in her belt, then shifting away again as a flash of doubt invaded her thoughts.
Aubrey needed back up. She needed a spell.
“More,” Darcy whispered. She coaxed the natural energy around her, pooling it as she’d done moments before. “Come on. More!”
“Dead Huntress,” the beast growled. It raised a gnarled paw, claws already coated in Aubrey’s blood, and snaked its tongue out to taste.
Aubrey kicked, twisting toward the beast, throwing it off balance. It hooked her at the waist, cut through Aubrey’s clothes, ripped another wound into her. Aubrey angled her blade, the glint of it catching Darcy’s eye as she launched her pool of magic. This time her spell hit the beast dead on, sending it to the ground, taking Aubrey with it but not before she plunged her knife into its chest.
Everything stopped for a second. All Darcy could hear was the hammering of her heart, her breaths coming out in hard pants, her body trembling. That had been a close one.
“Are you okay, Bree?”
Aubrey sat on the beast’s stomach, straddling it, her body hunched, shaking too. After a minute, she turned to look at Darcy, a wince followed closely by wide smile. “Yeah, I’m fucking all good.”
Darcy couldn’t help but return the smile. “You’d better heal up those injuries before we go back. I’ll take care of the bodies.”
Aubrey’s shoulders slumped a bit and she gave a nod. “Yeah, good plan, just give me a sec.”
She pulled her blade from the beast’s chest, then leaned forward to do her work. Darcy understood the need. Aubrey was taking a trophy as she always did on these hunts. Another fang to add to her growing collection. A badge of honor to be sure. Darcy thought it was kind of gross, but whatever. They were warriors—they could take whatever they wanted.
Aubrey stood awkwardly, her ankle apparently giving her more trouble than she would ever admit to Darcy. She held up the fang with pride. “Number twelve.”
“And thirteen.” Darcy nodded to the first beast. “Lucky number?”
Aubrey smiled, a streak of blood across her cheek making her look all the more the Huntress of legend. “Definitely lucky.”
Darcy sensed a thunder of movement roil under her feet. She turned her head so slowly she felt like she was suddenly underwater.
“Darcy! Behind you!” Aubrey was coming toward her, attempting to raise her bow, fumbling with her arrows.
Darcy spun and ducked, instinct taking over as magic released from her hands. She snatched her blade from her waist but the beast was on her, absorbing the power of her magic with a grunt as its full weight took her to the ground. She raised the knife, felt it sink in deep as the beast pressed down into her. It coughed in her face, spit and blood, its eyes holding intelligence, knowledge, pain.
“Huntress,” it groaned.
Darcy felt a thud and the beast lurched forward, its eyes blanking out as it died.
Aubrey appear
ed above, bow still in hand. “You okay?” She was breathless, tears shinning in her eyes.
Darcy looked up, nodded. “Get this thing off of me.”
Between the two of them, they rolled it off her. One of Aubrey’s arrows stuck out of its back, Darcy’s blade from its front.
“Your first kill,” Aubrey said. “You want a fang?”
Darcy gulped. Another close call. “That wasn’t my kill.”
Aubrey leaned over the beast and examined the blade. “Sure it was. You placed your metal perfectly. It was already dying when my arrow hit.”
Darcy looked on doubtfully. The angle didn’t seem right. “You sure?”
Aubrey nodded. “You wanna do an autopsy to find out?” she joked as she yanked the blade from its chest. “Your first kill. See? I told you, you were born ready. I’m getting your trophy.”
Darcy let a small smile creep over her face. It had been an accident, a total fluke, and yet she felt the burn of pride washing through her, making her heart ramp up for a different reason.
My first kill. I am a Huntress.
She beamed when Aubrey handed her a lone fang.
If only the guys would accept it.
“Now, do your thing, witch girl, and let’s get out of here before the boys figure out what we’ve been up to.”
Darcy nodded, shoved the fang into her pocket, and then started to pool her power once again. Fire to purge the forest of the corpses, turn them to ash, and make them disappear. Darcy was a powerhouse of magic and now she was a true wolf slayer.
A shiver rushed through her, licking up her spine.
Darcy, the wolf slayer. Finally.
Chapter Two
“I’ll be glad when we’re done with this place,” Raven grumbled from the backseat of the limo.
Darcy hadn’t been backstage when the show finished. Neither was Aubrey. The two of them had been bolting before the show was over for the past few nights and it had Raven in a mood.
“I kinda like it here,” Jay said with a snicker.
Beast Rising: The Order of the Wolf, Book 7 Page 1
