Hexed Hearts

by Becca Vincenza

  I was not made to be an Alpha. I knew my blood carried more rogue than it did anything else. Being an enforcer satisfied my wolf’s undeniable need to hunt and kill. I didn’t take pride in what I did, but it was necessary. It was what I was meant to do.

  I feared my twenty-first birthday. I feared that I would smell her scent and I would drop everything and go running. It’s been five years. Five peaceful years. After the first year, I stopped worrying. I almost hoped that I would be the same as Damian. I knew for a fact none of the females in our pack looked at me the same way they would look at the twins. Jude, who was significantly older than us and mated, told me that they looked at me, but I just wasn’t paying attention. I knew perfectly well how they watched me. They watched me with hungry eyes, knowing there was a good chance I would be Alpha when Damian stepped down or he passed away. While my pack went by the laws of the mating curse, we also fought against it. Many of the females and males in my pack dated and held no qualms about flaunting their relationships.

  I didn’t care for that though. I did not want a mate, real or chosen. They would slow me down, and it was a responsibility I did not want. My crew and I were headed toward the northern territory in order to take down a warlock that had been attacking some of our outskirt pack members. We headed to Michigan following his trail. This is what I lived for: the hunt. I will admit though, the want to destroy him was overpowering.

  I had hated witches and warlocks for what they had done to my family and what one had done to me. Knowing that as an enforcer, I could hunt their kind down, kill them, and destroy them in the way they had destroyed me, I was more than willing to take the job I knew many did not want.

  The older males wanted their mates; they wanted the kids, wife, and family. The younger males didn’t understand the dangers, and when they were taught, they didn’t want it anymore. An enforcer for our pack meant that you were strong, almost Alpha strong. I fit the bill perfectly. Damian fought me on it for years while I was growing up but relented when he realized nothing would change my mind.

  Jude, who was Damian’s brother, was the elder enforcer. Before I was old enough, he was the one who lead the missions. I was under his command for almost five years, but when I turned twenty-one and no mate called me, I challenged him. I won easily. Billy and Jameson were part of my team with Jude beforehand. We knew each other’s moves; we understood how we attacked. Together we were an almost unbeatable team. I saw no reason to change it with other bigger wolves. I had many from the pack request to join my crew but I refused. Unless one of my boys told me they wanted out, I was keeping the team as it was. We worked damned hard to get as good as we were. Seldom did we not get our target.

  Michigan wasn’t supposed to be any different. Granted, I didn’t ask the Alpha for permission to enter their lands. I didn’t ask because I knew Isaac Lupen. He was a soft Alpha, who while might not commune with the witches, did not outrightly attack them. It disgusted me knowing that they allowed witches and warlocks to live so peacefully near them. I knew he would take charge if one of them attacked one of his own. I, on the other hand, didn’t believe in that in the least. You had to strike, and you had to strike before they did.

  The terrain in this area was perfect. The game was plentiful and there was a lot of cover. I ran through the forest as if I had known it all my life. We hadn’t caught the warlock yet. He was proving difficult and it was getting on my damn nerves. We had chased him across the country. Normally when a mission took this long, it didn’t bother me. I enjoyed time away from the pack; another reason I knew that I would never take the position that would be freely offered to me.

  Something was off. I was feeling more jittery than usual. It was like my muscles needed to be stretched but no amount of running helped. Anytime I started to move, it wasn’t fast enough; it was never quite in the right direction. I knew there was somewhere I needed to be, but I didn’t know where the destination was located. I thought for a time it was the warlock we had been after, but it was becoming obvious to my wolf and to myself that it was something else.

  My skin was tight against muscles as they strained forward in my long strides. I didn’t run now for pleasure. I ran to exhaustion. It was the only thing that would ever give me peace these days. I had been aching for more. My wolf demanded something, but I didn’t know what it wanted. How others and their wolf communicated seemed so much easier than the guessing game my wolf and I had formed over the years.

  If it needed something, it would take it. If there was an uncertainty on how to get it was when we really had troubles. I had no problem bending to his will; I had learned long ago my wolf was not to be ignored. The witch that had cursed me made damned sure of that.

  I slowed my pace, knowing that I had to head back to our camp. The others were my responsibility. I was aware of the power I wielded. I was an Alpha. Damien, Liam, and the twins knew it. Everyone in the pack knew it, but I refused the position.

  I twisted my head in annoyance. My wolf was right there with me. The thought of being tied down--held to a position, not to be able to run like I was now, not to be able to hunt so freely--it twisted me up inside in a way that could only be described as the borderline of painful. I scented my trail from where I took off and headed back. The others wouldn’t worry about me; they knew me well enough to allow me the space I needed.

  I moved faster. I had to push myself so that when I arrived back, I could possibly get a few hours of sleep. Since we had started this hunt for the warlock who openly attacked a child in our pack, I was restless. I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t think right. I thought for sure it was because I was in a rage over the thought of that warlock hurting one of our own, but it became clear over the last month that it was more than that. Even when I was pissed, I had never stayed this unfocused for so long. I knew Jude noticed it. The twins would never say anything, even if they did. They may have been my friends for years, but I knew they were still a little unnerved by me.

  I slowed when I knew I was closer to our camp. I slipped into the camp. The twins sat around the fire. Billy joked loudly, while his brother, Jameson, suppressed a cringe. I knew that while he found his brother’s antics funny, there were times it was even too much for him. Jameson would never said anything though because he protected his brother fiercely, even if that meant from himself. I shook my head at the story Billy was telling yet again. Jude smiled politely but turned his head in my direction. His eyes never left Billy, but I could see his nostrils flare and his head turn in my direction.

  I moved in closer, still in my wolf form. I found it more comfortable to be in this form when I was in the woods, on the hunt. The others didn’t seem to mind, and when I transformed into my human form, it was when we were traveling in the day.

  Billy continued his story, even though I knew from his own head tilt and his brother’s sideways glance that they knew I had arrived back. None of them acknowledged me outright, and I moved to sit around the fire. The woods serenaded us with its sounds, and I knew my pack mates could feel the energy of the forest burning in them. I didn’t understand how they could resist the call to shift and live in it as the wolves we were.

  Billy was the first to slink away into his tent. Jude followed next, but not before he stopped and looked down at me. I knew that look and I refused to acknowledge the questioning hurt in his eyes. I didn’t want what his brother was offering. I wanted this life. I was happy, whether he chose to believe it or not.

  “Give them time,” Jameson said, his eyes never leaving the fire. I grunted and laid down. “One day, you might see the world a little differently.”

  I didn’t think that was going to happen.

  It smelled like sunflowers. I didn’t know why in the world the scent hit me so hard and fast but it was all consuming. It took over, wrapping around me and holding me tight as I ran the next night. I stopped, trying to shake off the scent. Perhaps I got pollen in my nose, but that made no sense. I was surrounded by thick, dense woods. If anything, I should
be smelling the oaks and pines that surrounded the Michigan forest. I shouldn’t be unable to shake the scent of sunflowers.

  I turned and headed back to the camp. We had moved again, finally making it to another state where the warlock’s scent was leading us. He wasn’t being subtle about his magic and it only furthered to piss me off. I wanted to make sure he understood that he was being hunted, but he was practically flaunting it in my face that he didn’t give two fucks. I growled, thinking about the warlock, but the scent remained. The scent was almost like a balm against the agitation burning under my skin. It wasn’t enough to soothe me completely, but it was enough that it stopped the steady growl that thundered in my chest.

  I hadn’t even been gone for twenty minutes before I arrived back to the camp. The others openly turned to stare at me as I padded back into the camp. Jude’s brow furrowed as he started to stand, but I shook my head. I needed out of my wolf form. I couldn’t speak this way. I knew I could communicate through pack bonds, but I avoided doing it if I could. I didn’t like the idea of others in my head, and I loathed the idea of being in theirs.

  I turned to the tent that they had set up for me but I never used. I slipped inside, shifted, and slipped on some clothes. I came out of the tent and stretched my back. I never fully felt comfortable in my skin, like my wolf was too large for my skin. We could burst at any moment. I rolled my shoulder and looked at the others who openly stared at me like I grew a second head. I didn’t blame them.

  “Hunter?” Jude stood up, his eyes darting around the forest. They would have noticed something. I knew they would, but he still looked around.

  “It’s nothing.” My voice still felt gruff from my shift. I moved forward and sat down with the others around the fire. I could still smell it, the lingering scent of sunflowers. They clogged my nose and smothered all my other senses.

  I shifted incessantly. Billy stopped speaking so much, while Jameson shifted in his seat more than once. Jude was the only one that kept giving me his hard stare. I knew I was making them uncomfortable with my abnormal twitching, but I couldn’t seem to sit still. The scent was still there, but now there was something else. The overwhelming need to move was tugging at me. My muscles burned with the need to stand.

  I jerked forward with an unusual movement and stood. I started to pace. I had to keep moving. I had to do something. I didn’t know what it was, and it was driving me to insanity. I didn’t realize I was growling until Jude cleared his throat. My eyes shifted to him and narrowed. I knew my lips parted across my clenched teeth.

  “What’s wrong?” Jude stood. He might be the Alpha’s brother, but he didn’t really show any signs of being higher than a Beta. Still, to me, Jude was always too calm. Maybe that was why we mixed so well together on the team. I was volatile; my thoughts were more instincts. He was more human; he thought things through; he planned and watched. Now I saw as he came to a conclusion about me.

  “Nothing.” Something. I just didn’t know what. I felt my wolf pulsing and shaking with the need to move. He had a direction he needed to go, something calling him, but I remained steady. I couldn’t move from the spot where I stood. My wolf wanted something--no, needed it--and I was suddenly terrified of what it could possibly be.

  I knew its demands usually better than anything else. It would want food, to run, to hunt. The thought had my wolf perking up its ears. I could feel the strain again in my muscles. Hunt. But not for the need to hunt that I always had. No, this was something different. Something entirely new and terrifying.

  “Hunter,” Jude’s voice took on that calming tone he used with me. I knew without a doubt my eyes were glowing with my wolf pushing further and further to the surface. He would take over soon. He would make me shift and move out. There was only one way to pacify him for now.

  Tomorrow, we would hunt.

  Chapter 2 – Hunting

  The morning didn’t come soon enough. I didn’t sleep. Like my body would allow me to; like my wolf would allow me to. I had promised him a hunt, but it didn’t satisfy him for long. Only about two hours later was I back to pacing and a constant growl rumbled from my chest. Billy and Jameson took off to hunt on their own while Jude stayed with me. He tried to calm me the best he could, but nothing would calm the beast. As soon as the sun started to split the sky, I was packed, agitated and ready to hunt.

  The others didn’t take their time tearing down once they saw I was already awake and leaning against my bike. I thought for sure that once we got on the move my wolf would settle. I had time to think about it through the night, and I was sure that it had to have been just that we were closing in on the warlock. I never got this riled up unless I was close to my prey. We had been hunting this bastard for far too long, and while I didn’t normally long for home, I was starting to long for something.

  Only if I thought too hard about it and let my wolf guide me as it had been trying to all night, I knew it would be taking me in the opposite direction than home. I didn’t know what was wrong with the beast, but I figured it could be the curse growing into something new. Perhaps he desired more now.

  I remained stoic as I watched the others gather their things. We packed light; our tents were made from simple, disposable supplies. Jude watched me the closest, while the twins did what they did best--annoy the hell out of one another. Billy was not a morning person, while Jameson was. Jameson never goaded his brother, but Billy took offense to those who were more awake than he deemed acceptable for this early in the morning.

  I just grew tenser as I watched them. I slipped onto my bike as the others finished packing. My bike roared to life, and my beast roared with it. We were going on the move and it wanted that, more than anything. The others’ bikes joined mine, and we moved out.

  The next few hours were torturous. The need to get off my bike and run was getting stronger with each passing minute. The worst part was that the smell was getting stronger. It had taken away all my other thoughts. I had to find the source of the scent. We were veering around a bend when the scent hit me like a ton of bricks. It was there and gone in the same moment. It was smothered, hidden, dampened. I knew without a doubt that if my wolf wasn’t so strong, I might not have ever caught the scent.

  My eyes followed the hooded figure on the side of the road. I didn’t take my eyes off of them until the very last moment. The figure was small. I knew without a doubt under that gray hoodie was a female. My female.

  A new scent filled the air. It was the same scent that cloaked her now, but it was fresh, stronger. The owner of the scent was closer. I sped up next to Jude and looked at him. He must have known something was bothering me, because when we made it around the bend, we all stopped. I didn’t even have time to explain. My wolf was seconds from splitting my skin and rushing back. I had to maintain some type of control. I shook off the twitching in my muscles, the screaming agony of my teeth growing inside a too small mouth, and nails splitting my fragile skin.

  I started back on feet with Jude following after me. I didn’t have to wait long to see another male holding tightly onto my mate. The roar that was ripped from my throat forced them both to jump and turn toward me. The male moved quickly and moved her behind his back. I recognized the stance of a protective male. He was a werewolf. I had scented that the moment I saw him. It didn’t surprise me. This was Lupen pack land.

  I saw the male’s lips moving, but I couldn’t hear the words over the blood that was rushing through my ears. All I could hear other than that was the sound of my wolf screaming out for his mate. Nothing seemed more important to me in that moment than to save her. I did not know her. I didn’t even see her face yet, but I knew with all my being that I had to save her.

  The dark-haired wolf moved backwards with my mate. I saw how his hands touched her, how she clung to him, and my anger grew. I pulled my lips back, my sharp canines gleaming at him. His eyes narrowed and he spoke again. I heard a whisper of her voice. It was only thing that broke through my haze. I couldn’t quite understa
nd what she said, but it made my ears perk up and my wolf howl out. He had been pushing against the tentative hold I had on him. Soon, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer and he would take complete control.

  That’s when everything changed. She slipped out from behind her protector and looked right at me. My wolf practically cooed. I peeked at Jude who was moving behind her to grab her. While my wolf didn’t like the idea of another male touching her, he was mated and he was pack. It was preferable to the unmated male whom I did not know in front of me. He started for her again while she cried out. Her cries did nothing but add fuel to my murderous rage. I tackled the wolf to the ground and started to frantically attack.

  I usually had much more grace to my fighting style, but the fog around my mind refused to loosen its grip. I would destroy this male for even looking at my mate. The wolf was distracted and kept looking for her. It only pissed me off further. He fought me, but not as hard as I would fight to keep her. In that moment, I knew it wasn’t me, the man; the wolf had taken over. One thing became very clear: this wolf was challenging me for my mate. I would not lose.

  I landed a good aimed punched that knocked him unconscious. I started to pummel his face, unable to control the beast inside of me. I kept seeing his arms around my mate. I kept hearing her call out his name. I felt the pain stab me in the heart over and over as she whispered his name. As she had called out for him.

  Jameson was there. He kept calling my name, but all I could see was red. He pulled me off the unconscious wolf and spoke quietly with his head down. My stare didn’t waver from the wolf who touched my mate. His words cut through my haze.

  “She needs you.”

  I turned to see that she was unconscious in Jude’s arms. I started forward, knowing that a snarl was still marring my face. I didn’t know how to relax my lips at the time. Instinct told me to warn the other males to back away. She was mine and they would try to steal her. A beauty like her.