by Eva Brandt
Eva Brandt
Huntress Rescued
Huntress’s Pack 1
Copyright © 2020 by Eva Brandt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Eva Brandt has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
Cover art by EmCat Designs. Cover is for illustrative purposes only.
First edition
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Contents
Huntress Rescued
A Note from the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Coming Soon: Huntress’s Pack 2
About the Author
Also by Eva Brandt
Huntress Rescued
An anchorless woman left without her family and humanity. Three werewolves fighting a seemingly endless war. An unlikely mate bond that could shatter them all.
I was born and raised to hunt and kill rogue paranormals, to protect the human world from supernatural threats. But my life is torn asunder when a botched mission destroys what hunters most value—my humanity. And there’s no room in the Julii clan for a huntress with demon blood.
Rejected by my family for a twisted nature that I can no longer change, I have nothing and no one to turn to.
No one but them—the werewolves who came for me, who risked their lives to save my own.
Xander - the only Alpha to care about a human’s fate almost as much as he does about his pack.
Byron - the infamous ‘White Wolf’ of Xander’s pack, who stains his white fur with demon blood as easily as I once stained my hands.
Ulysses - the heart of their pack, who hides a secret pain and a terrible burden behind his warm smiles.
It would be so easy to let myself fall for them. But the love of a huntress can be as dangerous as the blades we use in battle. Can they protect me from the demon who is still after my body and my soul?
Huntress Rescued is the first book in the Huntress’s Pack why choose series. It includes steamy scenes between the heroine and her overprotective, lupine boyfriends, with an extra hint of MM spice. But beware! This is not a gentle love story and there will be a lot of dark content ahead. Remember, a demon is just waiting around the corner.
A Note from the Author
Thank you for picking up Huntress Rescued. Please be advised that this story is a dark romance, including elements of dubious consent, violence, gore, and mental health issues. Over the course of the series, there will be increasingly questionable themes, both sexual and otherwise. If you think that is not for you, turn back now.
All books listed are made up by me. The mentioned publishers have nothing to do with the content I created. Yes, I know I mentioned that in the disclaimer, but I decided to add it here too.
And yes, I created an entirely different timeline starting from World War 1. Because why not?
Chapter One
It was the year 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting Sarajevo, when he became the target of an elaborate assassination ploy. He and his wife were nearly shot and killed, but at the last moment, a massive wolf intervened, jumping on the would-be assassin. The bullet went wide, missing the archduke, but hitting his wife, Sophie. The mysterious wolf shifted into a human and, through even more mysterious methods, saved her life.
This impulse rescue was to be the introduction of shape-shifters to human society. Had it come in any other way, the end result might have been entirely different. But the world had been standing on the edge of a conflict, and the emergence of an outside variable that could tip the scales so severely changed everything.
Some argued shape-shifters were a threat and that they needed to be hunted down and exterminated. Secret squads were formed for this purpose. Most of the members of these groups never came back, and those who did spoke of unexplainable, undefeatable horrors.
Ultimately, after much debate, it was decided that humans needed to cooperate with the paranormal world, not try to fight it. Austria was instrumental in the negotiations. The final treatise was signed in 1925, in Vienna. It was also the very first time an organized group of werewolves—colloquially called pack—was seen in public.
Later, many would argue that the Paranormal-Human Pact was inappropriately named, since paranormal creatures were simply a subspecies of the larger human race. However, despite its flaws, the PHP placed the basis of modern day diplomacy and heralded a new era for mankind as a whole.
- Pierce Saunders, “The Rise of Paranormal Politics”, First Edition (McMillan, 1999) -
* * *
Imogen
Through the scope of a sniper rifle, the head of a humanoid being looked like a pea. I knew for a fact that it was just as easy to squash, using the right tools and under the right circumstances.
Unfortunately, today, I had the former, but I was deprived of the latter. I took in the sight of my target, surrounded by ten others of his kind, and sighed in irritation. “Priority target spotted,” I reported into the coms. “Currently stationary, but well-guarded.”
“How well-guarded?” Alan asked in my headset. “Do you have a clear shot, Huntress Zero?”
It was difficult to say. Some vampires could hear bullets, even those fired by specialized, hunter rifles. The disturbance in the air currents alone was enough to alert them that something was amiss.
“It depends on the skill and age of his bodyguards. I’d rather not risk it. For all we know, Popovic himself might sniff us out.”
In my headset, my brother let out a low curse. “Right. Do not engage. If we miss our chance here, he might go underground again. We’ll lose him and that would be a disaster.”
That was the understatement of the century.Vladimir Popovic was one of the main leaders of the International Undead Coalition. Taking him out would be a devastating blow to the vampires and would help stabilize paranormal-human relations a little more. God only knew we needed it. Both paranormal and hunter units had failed to make progress in the Eastern European front and it had us all on the edge. If we lost ground in America as well… I didn’t even want to consider the possibility.
“Copy that,” I said, trying to not let the thought get to me.
“Stand by and report any signs of movement,” my brother added. “Be careful.”
I would have pointed out that I was always careful, but another voice interrupted our
conversation. “Hunter Base, we’ve received a message from the nearby werewolf pack,” Raymond piped up. “They are in the region and are requesting instructions on how to proceed.”
“I don’t know why we have to rely on those creatures,” Marcus mumbled. “We’ve always been able—
“Hunter Five!” my brother barked into the coms. “Save it. Now is not the time for such conversations. Hunter Three, redirect coms. I will speak to their Alpha.”
“Copy that, Hunter Base.”
My brother vanished off the coms, presumably to speak to the leader of the pack closest to the area. I clutched my rifle a little more tightly. We had an authorization to be here and werewolves tended to be cooperative with hunters, especially when it came to conflicts with the undead. Even so, they were paranormals and we were not. That always caused friction, no matter what good intentions everyone involved might have.
“We shouldn’t be involving the shifters,” Marcus said again. “It’s going to go badly. I can feel it.”
“You always say that,” Raymond replied. “It’s not that we don’t understand your wariness, but these aren’t like the shifters we fought ten years ago. They’re allies and we need the help.”
“Paranormals can’t be trusted. They’re animals, and you know what they say. A leopard can’t change its spots.”
“Werewolves aren’t leopards, Hunter Three,” Raymond chastised him.
It was the wrong thing to say and as expected, Marcus reacted badly to it. “Whose side are you on anyway? Those monsters killed—”
I tuned out their exchange after that. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before. Marcus’s rants were legendary in our group. He and Raymond had joined our unit after theirs had been wiped out in a skirmish with a rogue pack. Raymond disliked werewolves as much as Marcus did, but recently, he had been trying to control Marcus’s temper. Last year’s amendment to the PHP had made it illegal to say things like this in public and some people even questioned the validity of calling werewolf groups ‘packs’. They weren’t animals and they hated being called that. Or so I’d heard.
It was fair enough, and concessions had to be made in the wake of the increasing rise of the undead threat. That didn’t mean we had to like it or happily embrace working with the werewolves. All of us had lost friends and family to paranormals. How could we just forget that, overnight?
A memory of Eliza’s smile flashed through my mind. My sister had been only eighteen when she’d died, just a little younger than I was now. I had been ten at the time and she’d been my hero. I’d wanted to be just like her and had already started to train in the hopes of joining her in the unit faster than I would have normally been allowed.
I still remembered the day she hadn’t come back, or rather, when she had come back in pieces. Alan had refused to show me her corpse, but I’d seen the way her remains had been moving around in the body bag. I had sworn that day that I would end the lives of every single paranormal creature to ever stain this world with their presence. But I could not keep my promise, not yet, not when we needed the werewolves and all the other beings like them to hold back the larger threat.
I gritted my teeth and hated Marcus for bringing up the topic, to begin with. If Alan and I could set our feelings aside and work with the werewolves, why couldn’t he?
“Will you shut up already?” I snapped at them. “You’re acting like children. We’re on a mission. You can argue about this when we get back to base.”
Silence fell over the coms. “All right, Imogen,” Raymond said after a small pause. “Sorry about this.”
“Don’t apologize. Just do your jobs. And for God’s sake, don’t call me that over the coms. Huntress Zero, remember?”
“Copy that.”
With my two fellow hunters appropriately chastised, we focused on continuing our watch. It wasn’t an easy task. The tree I’d chosen as a hiding spot was a good distance away from the undead base, since we could not risk approaching too much. Vampires could sense us humans when we were close. We hunters possessed equipment that protected us from the worst of it, but there were times when it wasn’t enough. Despite not actually being alive, vampires were adaptable and tended to adjust quickly to new developments in technology. That was why Eliza had died, to begin with, because we’d gotten a little too confident in our tech and had forgotten how powerful paranormals could truly be.
I refused to make that mistake. Vladimir Popovic was going down today and all of my friends were coming back home with me in one piece.
Just as I thought this, an increase in the activity around the undead base drew my attention. A jeep drove past on the dirt road not twenty feet away from me, followed by two other, bigger trucks. “Are you seeing this?” I hissed into the coms. “Do we have information on reinforcements they’re supposed to receive?”
“That’s a negative, Huntress Zero,” my brother answered. At one point, he must’ve ended his conversation with the pack’s Alpha and had returned to his job. “Nothing we’ve found out until now indicates an influx of more undead in the area.”
“Well, something is definitely coming,” Raymond offered as the massive gates of the compound opened. “If they’re not undead, they’re certainly allies of the creatures.”
“Werewolves?” Marcus predictably asked.
I adjusted my goggles and the scope of my rifle, scanning the people who were now leaving the trucks. “They’re not vampiric. The heat signature designates a living creature. But I’m not sure if they’re shape-shifters or something else.”
Marcus hissed in displeasure. “I’m coming closer.”
“Stay where you are, Hunter Three,” my brother commanded. “We don’t know what they might be up to. It’s too dangerous to change our position now.”
“Shut up, boy. I was hunting these beasts when you were in diapers. You’re not the boss of me.”
Oh, no. This was bad. This was so bad. God, I had seen this coming. We should have never brought Marcus along on this mission, not when it had such high chances of failure. Cursing under my breath, I shouldered my rifle, checked my radar, and started to climb down the tree. “Maintain position, Hunter Three!” I said, already knowing my words would not help, but needing to try anyway. “Unknown hostiles are on site. I repeat, unknown hostiles are on site.”
“I know that, Genny,” Marcus answered. “That’s the point of this, isn’t it? To eliminate all hostiles, both known and unknown.”
The coms were ablaze with panic and anger. The remaining members of our unit all tried to dissuade him from pursuing this course of action, but it was futile. “I’m going to provide backup,” I reported after Pauline’s attempt failed. “We’re not losing anyone today.”
“Huntress Zero, it’s too dangerous,” Alan warned me.
“It’s less dangerous for two than it is for one,” I argued. “We’re not leaving Marcus at the mercy of the undead, even if he is an idiot.”
“I heard that, Genny,” Marcus replied. “And for your information, I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“What you’re doing is letting your anger get the better of your head and jeopardizing the whole mission for your own self-interest,” Alan snapped coldly. “If something happens to my sister because of you, Marcus, I’ll skin you alive with your own daggers.”
Marcus wasn’t impressed by the threat. “Promises, promises. I’m not afraid of you, Alan.”
“Is that a fact? You should be. I know exactly what you’re afraid of. I’ve seen the reports. If you come back without Imogen, you will wish you died with the rest of your unit, do you understand me? I will cut you open slowly and painfully, make you feel exactly what they did when they were being torn open. We’re testing some new equipment now while analyzing vampiric bodies. Maybe you can help us with that too, volunteer for some exsanguination. ”
I had to congratulate Alan for the creative and violent threats. It was both a low blow and dangerous approach to mention Marcus’s loss, but the sheer shock value might k
eep Marcus from advancing further into enemy territory. That was the only thing I wanted right now.
I stopped behind a tree and checked my radar again. As expected, the red dot that pointed out Marcus’s position was now stationary. Thank fuck. Now, if I could only get a little closer to him, I might be able to drag him away from the undead compound.
“Do you think that throwing yourself at the hostiles will fix anything?” Alan continued, pursuing his advantage. “Do you think it’ll pacify your dead? It won’t. It’ll just get more people killed. Is that what you want? To give the undead more food? Because you’re being awfully helpful to our enemies, I’ll tell you that.”
“T-That’s not what I want,” Marcus stammered. “I want to stop them, to stop all the monsters.”
His shaky voice didn’t fill me with much confidence. I hoped Alan hadn’t pushed him too far with his words.
If we didn’t get mandatory psych evaluations for hunters after this clusterfuck, I would be handing in my resignation. Well, no, I wouldn’t, but I’d be really mad about it anyway. Honestly, I understood that hunter units were outnumbered compared to the undead, but bringing people who were not mentally prepared into battle was a recipe for disaster.
“We’ll take on the monsters together,” I said slowly. “Come on back to my position, Hunter Three. We’ll continue to keep an eye out and move in once we’ve determined exactly what we’re dealing with.”
He didn’t answer. I grimaced and tried again. “Trust me on this, Marcus. You know I want this mission to succeed as much as you do.”
“Do you?” an unfamiliar voice drawled into the coms. “I’m not surprised. Hunters have always been very ambitious. A little too ambitious, in this one’s case.”
