Huntsmen (The Better to Kiss You With Book 2)

by Michelle Osgood

  “Ready.” Ryn appeared with her duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “You good?”

  Kiara took one last look around the apartment. “Yeah.” She had everything she needed. The cash from Cole meant that she wouldn’t need to use her debit or credit cards—and as the bank would have been her first stop, otherwise, that knocked something off her list. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Ryn grabbed her bike and followed Kiara out the door.

  Chapter Seventeen |

  Ten years ago…

  “I’ve got a friend who lives in Spain.” Ryn added fruit to the shopping cart for the sangria they planned to make for the party Ryn was hosting that night. “He says it’s amazing. They’ve got hostels like, everywhere, and the beaches are gorgeous.”

  “I can’t imagine you in a swimming suit,” Kiara said honestly, smiling at the mental image of Ryn in a bikini—somehow it just didn’t look right.

  “Love, I don’t wear bathing suits.” Ryn wiggled her eyebrows. “The only way to swim is naked.”

  “What if there were other people!” Kiara tried to act scandalized, but all she could think of was what Ryn would look like emerging from the waves with salt water running in rivulets down her sides.

  “Pay attention.” Ryn thwacked Kiara lightly with the package of Solo cups she picked up. “I can smell your mind wandering.”

  “Oh yeah?” Kiara glanced around to make sure that no one was watching, and backed Ryn into a display. “Care to do something about it?” she asked flirtatiously.

  Ryn’s eyes gleamed wickedly and she palmed Kiara’s breast through her shirt. Kiara’s nipple hardened instantly at the contact and she bit back a moan when Ryn ran her thumb over the tip. “What I’m saying is, we could go to Spain.”

  Kiara made a soft noise of agreement and her breath hitched. “The semester’s almost over.”

  “Why wait, though?” Ryn leaned forward and brushed her lips over the delicate shell of Kiara’s ear. “Why not go now?”

  “Well, the party.” Kiara was finding it hard to think.

  “All right, after the party. We can give it a week—I’ve got clients I shouldn’t cancel on.” Ryn sucked the lobe of Kiara’s ear into her mouth. “But then, let’s go, me and you. Leave this behind. Run wild with me, Kiara.”

  Kiara shivered, her entire body pulsing with need—for Ryn, for the freedom Ryn promised. “Okay,” she agreed. “Okay.”

  ***

  It was the first warm night in months. They’d spent the evening looking at flights, trying to figure out where the closest hostel to the airport was. Kiara had bought them both backpacks the day before and surprised Ryn with them when she’d come home from work. They’d decided to celebrate by going for a run as soon as the sun had set. Usually they drove out of the city to shift and run, but Kiara had sold her car to Sophia three days earlier, and Ryn had convinced her that one night running in the city wouldn’t do any harm. Since she’d been right the last time, Kiara had caved.

  Do you think there are Spanish werewolves? Kiara loped easily behind Ryn, letting her lead the way as they wove down the side streets.

  Well, there are part-Korean ones, so I’d assume so. Ryn lolled out her tongue in a wolfish grin.

  Good point.

  They were nearing the end of their run, heading toward Ryn’s apartment. Kiara thought she should probably swing by her dorm room before they left for Spain—anything really important she’d long since started keeping at Ryn’s, but there might have been something they’d overlooked.

  Ryn increased their pace, her tail shot straight out behind her like the tail of a comet, and Kiara let the joy of a run wash over her. Running with her family had never felt like this. Something about being with Ryn made Kiara’s blood sing, made her want to howl and leap and hunt. Weeks ago they’d brought down a moose, and it had been the most exciting night of Kiara’s life.

  Careful, Kiara warned as they grew closer to the university. It was a bit more dangerous to run as a wolf here; students who were out late drinking or studying didn’t have the same regard for normal hours as the rest of the city’s population. Kiara usually liked to shift back well before they got this close, but they’d shifted from home tonight so they had nothing to wear, and Kiara wasn’t going to wander through her own neighborhood naked.

  Quit worrying. Ryn’s ears flicked irritably, and she put on an extra burst of speed to distance herself from Kiara.

  Kiara’s lips curled back from her teeth in a silent snarl, since they were too exposed for her to draw any attention by making a real one. Ryn disappeared around a corner, and Kiara had no choice but to follow.

  She thought she’d lost Ryn, and Kiara had a second of panic that mounted when she heard voices ahead.

  “Dude, that guy was a total faggot. Did you see the way he was looking at me?” A young man in a backward baseball cap and hockey jersey shuddered. “Like, whatever, be gay, but don’t be gay in my changing room.”

  “That’s disgusting,” his companion agreed. “You should talk to the gym owner. Gay guys need their own gym. There’s no way I’m joining now.”

  “You’re just gonna make me go alone? What if the fag jumps me in the shower, huh?”

  “Better not drop the soap!”

  A low growl echoed from the shadows of a garage. Kiara froze; fear turned her bones to ice.

  The growl grew louder, and the men slowed. “Did you hear that?”

  Ryn emerged from the shadows behind them. Her ears were flat to her skull, and her fangs were bared. The first man turned around and let out a high-pitched yelp when he saw what was advancing on him. His companion turned and then tripped over his own feet in his hurry to escape.

  “What the fuck, what the fuck!”

  Ryn!

  Ryn ignored Kiara and stalked closer to the men. The one who’d fallen grabbed at his friend, frantic for a hand up, but the man was walking backward with his hands held out in front of him saying, “Good doggy, good dog…”

  “Mike, that’s not a fucking dog!” The one on the ground finally scrambled to his feet and ran. His friend continued to try to back away, too scared to turn his back on Ryn.

  Ryn opened her mouth, let the man see the saliva dripping from her jaws. He choked on a scream and, when Ryn lunged forward, he turned tail and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

  Oh, come on, Ryn rolled her eyes at Kiara when she turned back. It was just a bit of fun. Those homophobic assholes deserved to be scared.

  “What the fuck, Ryn! You can’t do that!”

  “Get off my back, Kiara, it wasn’t that big a deal.”

  “‘Not that big a deal’? Ryn, they saw you. You let them. You wanted them to!”

  “Calm down. No one got hurt. They were drunk, anyway—you could smell cheap rum from a mile away.”

  “No, Ryn. This is bad. I can’t believe you did that.”

  “Jesus.” Ryn threw up her hands in exasperation. “It was fine. Stop freaking out.”

  “This is serious!” Kiara slammed her hands on the kitchen table. “You need to take this seriously!”

  “You need to lighten up.”

  “Do you understand what you just did? We have rules. And you broke the biggest one! On purpose! How do you not see what the problem is?”

  “There’s no problem.” Ryn dropped onto the living room couch and picked up the book she was reading from the coffee table. “We’re gonna be gone in like a week. I don’t get what the big deal is.”

  “Of course you don’t. Nothing’s a big deal to you. You think you can just do whatever you want and not have any consequences.”

  “Get off your high horse, Kiara. It’s getting old.”

  “Fuck you.” Kiara twisted her hands in her hair; panic felt thick in her throat. God, what if GNAAW found out? What would they do? What would happen to her pack, to her d
ad?

  “You know, no one’s asking you to stick around.” Ryn snapped her book closed. “Run back to your pack and your title and stop telling me how to live my life.”

  “Yeah, cause it’s such a great life.” Sarcasm coated Kiara’s words. “You’ve got a real good thing going here on your own.”

  “At least when I’m on my own, no one’s nagging at me.”

  “You’re such a bitch.”

  “You’re done slumming it then, I guess?”

  Angry tears stung the corners of Kiara’s eyes. “Stop acting like you’re the wounded party here. You exposed us.”

  “I didn’t expose ‘us’; I exposed me. In case you forgot, I’m not a part of your Assembly. I don’t owe anyone anything, I didn’t agree to spend my life lurking in the shadows, I didn’t ask for this.” Ryn gestured to her body. “This happened to me. I didn’t choose it. And I wouldn’t change it—but some accident of birth doesn’t mean that I owe a bunch of old dudes I’ve never met my loyalty or my obedience. I decide what I do with my body. Not them.”

  Under the anger, Kiara’s heart ached for Ryn and how she’d grown up bereft of werewolf culture. “Ryn, this isn’t just about you. You put all of us at risk!”

  “I won’t live my life afraid, Kiara.”

  “It’s not fear; it’s caution. It’s not taking stupid risks just for the hell of it.”

  Ryn laughed. “What risk? They were drunk and stupid, and no one is going to believe them. Werewolves aren’t real, Kiara.”

  “Except we are, and you don’t seem to understand that your actions affect the rest of us!”

  “I understand all right, I just don’t care.”

  “You never care. I get that now. I just wish I’d seen that sooner.” Kiara stormed out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. She grabbed one of the new backpacks she’d bought, and stuffed her belongings into it.

  “So that’s it? You’re going to leave?”

  “I don’t see any reason to stay.”

  Ryn stood in the doorway, still holding her book, and inarticulate with rage. “If you walk out that door, don’t you dare come back.”

  “Trust me,” Kiara lifted the bag over her shoulder. “I won’t.” She shoved past Ryn, knocking her into the wall. Ryn snarled and flung the book—something heavy and hardcover—at Kiara’s retreating head. It missed and left a dent in the wall to Kiara’s left.

  Kiara didn’t wait to see what Ryn was going to throw next, just slammed the door on her way out.

  Chapter Eighteen |

  The hallway was eerily quiet. At this time of day, Kiara’d expected at least a few people headed off to work. They rode the elevator in silence down to the garage level. She was taking Nathan’s car, something she knew he wouldn’t thank her for, but the car keys had been on the same keychain as the house keys, and it had seemed too perfect to resist. Besides, once they got far enough away she’d dump it and find something else.

  For the first time since that night at Kings of Hearts, there was no tension between her and Ryn. The silence as the elevator moved could have been awkward, but their shared purpose burned away any discomfort. Kiara felt herself falling back in sync with Ryn. A part of her worried at the ease of it. Would it be as easy to pull back if—when—she had to? But she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she had one goal, and that was to get Ryn as far from the Huntsmen and GNAAW as she could.

  The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into the empty lobby. The parkade was through another door, where the pop of lime-green glowed bright in the concrete lobby, and Kiara pushed through it. She jogged down the few stairs before she stepped out into the parkade. “Nathan has a Mazda3 hatchback,” Kiara said. “I don’t know where he parks it, but—”

  “Kiara.” Ryn’s voice was sharp. Kiara froze, all her senses suddenly on alert. They weren’t alone.

  Kiara turned toward the door as Ryn walked back up the stairs. The door opened before either of them could reach it, and the Huntress from the club stepped through. She held the same weapon as last time, and a chill went up Kiara’s spine as she imagined what effect the cattle prod might have.

  Ryn growled, low and fierce, and Kiara’s gums itched with the promise of fangs, but they backed up as the woman moved forward.

  A noise above her jerked Kiara’s attention upward. A metal catwalk, painted purple, ran across the top of the parkade, and a man stood in the middle with a rifle trained on the two of them.

  “Hey, packwolf.” The woman’s voice drew Kiara’s attention back to her. “You can go.”

  Kiara didn’t bother to respond. She and Ryn had moved until they stood side by side. Her ears caught three more Huntsmen inching toward them from the parked cars; the too-careful placement of their feet on the concrete betrayed them as something other than civilian. Kiara touched Ryn’s hand, indicating for her to stay still, as Kiara stepped so that she and Ryn now stood back to back, and Kiara could look the approaching Huntsmen in the eye.

  Dressed in black like some sort of militia, two had guns and the third a prod to match the woman’s. Kiara recognized one, the man whose nose Ryn had bloodied. He kept his gun and his gaze steady on her as he met her eyes. His nose was still bandaged—probably broken, Kiara thought with no small sense of satisfaction. His lips curled up in a smirk, and when she still didn’t look away he blew her a kiss. She bared her teeth and imagined breaking his nose again.

  There was a large white van parked haphazardly in the middle of the parkade. The only windows seemed to be in the front, and the back doors gaped open. It was obvious that whatever they were planning to do with Ryn involved taking her to another location. Had they had the van with them outside the club? If she and Jamie hadn’t happened to have been there, would Ryn have been taken completely unaware and stuffed in the back?

  No, not likely, Kiara thought as Ryn’s growling grew louder. Ryn wouldn’t let anyone take her somewhere she didn’t want to go.

  “I don’t want to hurt any of you,” Ryn warned. The men approaching slowed and now ringed them in a loose circle.

  “Yeah? Is that what you told Matt when you threw him into a wall?” one of them taunted. He spat, and the glob of mucus and saliva slid down the toe of Ryn’s polished oxford. “You fuckin’ lycans fractured his ribs.”

  “It was this ‘fucking lycan’ who threw Matt into a wall,” Kiara corrected him, gesturing at herself without taking her eyes off the three men. The word ‘lycan’ left a sour taste in her mouth. She was a werewolf; she didn’t have lycanthropy. There was no disease, nothing that needed a cure or a diagnosis.

  “Not what I heard,” the man replied. “I heard it was the lone one. They’re dangerous, and this just proves it.”

  Kiara’s gaze retuned to the man with the broken nose, who was now standing directly in front of her. Ryn hadn’t been able to throw Matt into a wall because she’d been busy keeping Broken Nose Guy on his knees—why did everyone seem to think otherwise? She wasn’t sure what she expected him to do, correct his buddy or indicate somehow that he knew otherwise, but all he did was wink

  Kiara’s temper was gradually overcoming her initial fear. Whatever was going on, whatever frame-job bullshit was culminating in this showdown, she was tired of it. She’d had enough uncertainty stuck in Nathan’s apartment for three days. She wasn’t going to wait and see what was going to happen.

  “We just want the lone wolf.” As the woman came down the steps, her boots echoed in the cavernous space. “Help us take her, and no one will get hurt.”

  Help them? At Kiara’s back, Ryn tensed. Kiara laughed. She dropped the backpack, silently mourned the loss of her T-shirt, and shifted.

  It didn’t take more than a split second—Kiara hadn’t made any idle threats to Davis. Second to her father, she had the most power in her pack, and that meant human-to-wolf in the blink of an eye. Fur exploded across her body,
and then she was on all fours with the torn remains of her clothing falling from her.

  “Careful!” the woman shouted as suddenly every gun in the place was trained on Kiara. “Don’t hurt that one. Use the tranq gun or the prods, but do not shoot her.”

  Kiara bared her teeth, lips curled in a vicious snarl. She feinted toward the man closest to her, the one who’d spit, and he stumbled back with a yelp. The other two clutched their weapons tighter.

  In this form, all her senses were dialed up to twelve. She was aware of the currents of recycled air being pumped through the ventilation system ruffling the fur along her sides. She sensed the change when one of the men to her side moved closer. His heartbeat pounded; the scent of his fear tasted hot and metallic in the back of her throat. He was just a distraction. Her ears flicked back, hearing the gentle scuff as one of the men on the catwalk adjusted his footing, hearing his breath sigh out as he lined up his gun—tranq.

  Kiara leapt in a blur of motion. She drove her shoulder into the man who was inching closer. He crashed to the ground; the breath was driven out of him, and his prod clattered from his fingers. The sharp sent of urine ballooned in the air as she snapped her jaws shut a hairsbreadth from his naked throat.

  She dove off of him. The tranq dart passed harmlessly through the fur on her tail as she turned on a dime and went straight for the other two men.

  Ryn used the distraction, ran, and ducked between two parked cars.

  As soon as Kiara moved toward him, the spitter turned tail and fled, running straight out the parkade’s emergency exit. Broken Nose held his ground and fired a warning shot. The bullet was real. It plowed into the concrete inches away from Kiara’s front paws. The scent of silver made her nose wrinkle and her ears flatten against her skull. Her throat vibrated in a steady growl.

  Kiara had to keep the focus away from Ryn and she had to do it, she hoped, without getting shot. Broken Nose smelled of sweat, adrenaline, and nerves all twined around an eager sort of glee as he trained the barrel of his gun on her. His eyes gleamed. Despite what the Huntress had ordered, he wanted to shoot.