“Well then, maybe, as alpha, you made a poor choice.”
Kaden advanced on his brother, ready to snap.
Bastian hesitated, then took a step back.
The need to strike down Bastian was overwhelming, but fighting without understanding the whole story wasn’t wise.
“We’ll discuss this later,” Kaden said. “I need to investigate the matter further.”
All Bastian did was nod.
“If you touch this man before I’ve had a chance to look at him, you’ll have to answer to me.” As the eldest, Kaden had a good five inches on Bastian and he was taller than Rhys, the middle child in the Windham family. “This mess better not blow up in our faces.”
Bastian swallowed but otherwise didn’t move. “This isn’t Toronto. Everything will be fine.”
As Kaden backed away from Bastian, he had a feeling more sacrifices would have to be made in the future, and he’d have to be the one to make them.
Chapter 3
Morning came and Cyn woke up alone. As much as she wanted to hang around and wait for Kaden to return, she grew restless. Back when she lived in Vancouver, boredom could be easily fixed by going out the doors of her apartment. Along Granville Street, with all its fine restaurants and trendy bars, a younger crowd roamed the scene. Want to eat? Head down to The Refinery. Need to vent out some frustrations? Head to the dartboards over at Brazenhead Irish pub on 5th Ave.
That was her life. Before cancer, anyway.
Cyn got up from the couch and donned her coat. It was far too easy to fall into old memories.
A few weeks ago, she could barely get up, much less chew people out. Zach often came to her apartment to keep her company. Once in a while, he forced her to get out.
As much as she didn’t want to do it, she touched her face. She used to be much thinner. All this time, she’d avoided the mirror in the cabin’s bathroom. After she began losing her long hair, she taped wrapping paper over the mirror in her apartment in Vancouver. It was easier, in the beginning, to assume everything was fine and she could continue to hunt.
She stopped by the kitchen and tucked the metal meat hammer and a simple kitchen knife into her coat pocket. Kaden hated that she carried the thing around. A meat hammer was better suited for beating steaks into submission, but it was better than walking into a fight barehanded.
By the time she strode to the door, she’d shaken off what tried to drag her down. For now, she was stronger, and she was here with Kaden.
Cyn left her cabin and headed to the others. Cold air bit the exposed skin on her face. The air was crisp and fresh, nothing like the city. She had come to love that about the mountains. Maybe she’d see Kaden and they’d go for a walk like they did a few days ago. She didn’t expect much more than that. What she did find, as she walked up the plowed path toward the hidden cabins, were the two boys she’d seen during dinner. Another older boy stood beside them with his hands in his pockets. They stopped tossing a ball back and forth to peer at her with curiosity.
She offered a casual wave, and only one of them waved back.
Eva probably told them to leave her alone and stay away from the deadly werewolf hunter. Yep, she was sure feeling dangerous and ready to prepare a barbecue feast for herself.
A ball soared over her head and fell into the snow behind her. With a few hops into the deep snow, she managed to fetch the ball. The boys had good taste. It had been a while since she’d seen a high-quality Diamond baseball. Back when she was a tomboy, she used to play catch with Zach. He sucked at catching, but he threw quite well. She turned around to see someone waiting close by.
It was Peter, the one who had spoken to her last night. She threw the ball and he caught it with ease. “Thanks,” he said quietly.
“Not a problem,” she replied.
He seemed to consider something for a moment. Other than his blond hair, the boy took after his father, Rhys. “Would you like to play catch with us? My younger brother Phil isn’t too good and Micah is still being a jerk.”
Cyn laughed but paused when she caught the dark look Micah threw her way. “Thanks for the offer, but I have things to do. Just give your brother some time and he’ll figure it out. My little brother was the same way.”
“Okay.”
“Why don’t you ask Micah to teach Phil how to play?”
“Mom forced him to go outside and play with us. He’s about to go through his first transformation into a werewolf, so he’s very moody right now.”
“I see.” So many new things for her to learn.
So the older boy was Eva’s eldest son. The way he stood there, stiff with his eyebrows lowered, made her stomach tighten. Only his eyes moved as he watched her.
“Try to have fun if you can then. See you later, Peter.”
“Bye, Cynthia!” He waved and ran back to his brothers.
As soon as she passed, she smiled as she watched them start up again. As expected, Micah just stood there while Peter tried to teach Phil a thing or two.
They had little to fear from her, and she was glad that at least the kids weren’t afraid. To her hunting clan, hunting werewolf pups was strictly off limits.
Sadly, other hunting clans didn’t have such rules.
“Not everyone believes as we do,” her dad used to say. “Also, it’s important to decide for yourself before you make a decision based on what your clan says you should do.”
As she walked along the edge of the cluster of cabins, she caught the glimmer of a conversation. The sounds of a television or radio bled through a cracked open window. The tranquility of this space had been shattered, but after living in the city, she welcomed the noise.
Cyn spotted the door to the power generator shed and headed that way. After a snow avalanche had knocked out the shed a few weeks ago, Kaden had worked diligently to get the power restored.
When she wasn’t far from the doorway, a figure emerged, closed the door, and made her way to the other cabins: Naomi. What was she doing in the generator room? Was she there to cause trouble?
“Helping out a bit in the generator room?” Cyn asked with a small smile.
“Mind your own business,” Naomi said. For once, Kaden’s sister retreated after snapping at Cyn. Matter of fact, her cheeks reddened as if Cyn had caught her doing something secret. Now what could that be?
Naomi kept going, not even looking over her shoulder to see if Cyn would follow.
Instead of finding Kaden, she ran into another familiar face. Sinister, the only other human in the camp, could often be found either performing guard duties or tinkering away to get the community’s power supply back up. Apparently, he’d been entertaining Naomi as well.
The plot thickens…
The moment she’d met Naomi and Sinister for the first time, he’d been very protective of Kaden’s sister. As to why the tall black man liked her, she had no idea.
“Windham isn’t here,” he grumbled.
No shit.
In the space of the shed, the bald man stood with his back still toward her. The generator rumbled and hummed, all cleaned and fixed. Sinister’s thick coat was hung on the metallic wall on a hook. Wasn’t he cold?
“How was your visit with Naomi?” She didn’t expect him to answer so she kept going. “It’s not often that I see her blush about something. She’s usually cold to everyone.”
“No, she’s not,” he quickly bit back. “Don’t go spreading rumors about someone you don’t understand.”
“So he speaks…Look, I don’t kiss and tell—”
“There’s nothing to tell…yet,” he said quietly.
Cyn couldn’t resist smiling. If she were back with her hunting clan and he was one of her friends, she’d tease the hell out of him, though. A girl never blushes unless she has a reason to do it.
Her fellow human didn’t say anything else as he fumbled with some part in his hand and continued to work. As the only other human around here, she expected him to have an air of caution now that the other we
rewolves had arrived, but he appeared the same. That perception was an illusion, though. A brief sweep over him revealed concealed weapons she hadn’t seen before, such as a knife on each ankle. His wide back wasn’t as flat anymore. A bump on the middle of his back betrayed where he held a gun.
“I’m surprised you’re still here after what happened at the dinner,” Cyn said.
He grunted and shrugged. “They’re just gnats.”
Cyn scoffed. Rather large hairy gnats with massive teeth.
During her time here, Sinister had said little and revealed less. When she’d prodded, even Kaden hadn’t said much. Yet now she knew.
“Do the others know what you are?” she asked him.
She leaned against the wall and caught his profile. He had the hint of a smile. A rarity for him. “Maybe. I don’t give a damn.”
“All this time, I thought you were a drifter with combat skills, maybe even a classmate from Kaden’s college days. But you’re a hunter, too. How the hell does Kaden get caught up with people like us?”
He didn’t nod or show any sign of acknowledgment. She’d met men like Sinister before. Combat veterans made ideal hunters and her clan actively recruited them. So why would a hunter come here willingly? And, more importantly, did he have any hunter clan associations? Perhaps the deadly Carmine clan from the southern U.S. or even the Cerulean clan from Calgary. There were so many in the world now. There was no way he’d flash his hunter tattoo even if she asked.
So the question remained. Why was he here? Naomi? He was quite protective of her. Cyn couldn’t hold back the laugh. To each his own. “Once they find out you’re a hunter, you’re going to be the hunted one, too. We need to be careful.”
“I’m not worried one bit about them,” he murmured. “Outsiders are the problem.”
Cyn stood straighter. What the hell was up with this guy? Had he been sniffing the fresh air for too long or were his balls that huge?
“You look like you’d come from the Carmine hunting clan,” she remarked. “Maybe the Cerulean clan.”
“Do I look like Cerulean scum?” he ground out. “They always come to collect what they’re owed and their debtors pay in blood. I don’t associate with bottom feeders.”
Well, at least she knew he didn’t have an allegiance to her Red clan or the Cerulean clan.
His head slowly turned to her. “This ‘us’ thing don’t exist. You need to watch your own back, hunter.”
“I see.” Like Sinister said, Kaden wasn’t here, so she was just wasting her time. She turned to leave, but he grunted again.
“Wait.”
He went to his coat and retrieved a leather bundle from the inside. Casually, he unrolled the pack along the top of the generator. “Take one before I change my mind.”
Cyn’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t hold back her admiration. “Look at those deadly dames…Military-class Fox hunting knives.” One blade with a serrated edge glinted from the single light bulb overhead. “A five-inch titanium blade…” She ran her fingertips over the molded rubber on the fiberglass handle.
“Why are you letting me have one?” she asked. Was this some kind of test, and could she take more than one?
“The little butcher knife in your pocket won’t cut shit. I have a feeling you’ll stay out of trouble unless trouble comes looking for you.”
Did he have x-ray vision or something? “How did you know I’m carrying a weapon?”
Another small smile. “A good hunch. It’s what I’d do if I didn’t have anything.”
She laughed again. There might’ve been no more ‘us,’ but a hunter is still a hunter.
Chapter 4
A few days passed with snowstorms that blanketed the mountains with snow and kept everyone inside. By the fourth day, Cyn woke up to find clear skies and Kaden long gone. She told herself he had pack business to settle, but other ideas came to mind and none of them were good. Had another freelancer come for them? Would another avalanche occur after so much snow had fallen?
Controlling the situation seemed far easier in the city than in the mountains.
Instead of pacing and waiting for him, she settled on the couch and continued her current project: creating a spear. Might as well be prepared for anything.
One moment she was sitting on the couch, sharpening the end of a spear from a sapling she’d cut from an ash tree, and the next, she awoke after dozing for several hours. By the time she opened her eyes, only darkness lingered outside the windows.
She’d faced the doors the whole time, but no one had come to pay her a visit.
Including Kaden.
She got up but sat back down. Her senses danced for a bit, but her disorientation quieted once she rose at a steady pace.
Countless times, Kaden had used his healing abilities as pack alpha to fight back the cancer that had almost killed her, but if he skipped a few days, her recovery regressed. There was only one solution to become cancer-free: she had to become Kaden’s mate and turn into a werewolf. The decision should’ve been simple—but once she became a werewolf, she’d have to cut off ties with her old life. Right now, her brother was bent on finding the people who killed their parents, and Zach wasn’t good enough to take on his enemies alone. It was her duty, as his big sister, to protect him.
As of late, she wasn’t doing a good job.
She was almost finished with the crude spear. With the addition of Sinister’s serrated blade and a switchblade, she had a few toys to protect herself. She balanced the spear in her hands. The weight was ideal for a rapid-fire offense, but against a pack, a steel spear with a silver tip was ideal.
The wood planks on the porch groaned. Cyn strolled to the window and pulled the curtain to the side. Someone was walking to the door. She paused, holding her breath.
It was Eva. Now this was unexpected. Rhys’s mate even knocked on the door.
Cyn opened the door. Instead of a greeting, Eva gestured toward the seats on the porch. “I’d like to speak to you for a moment.”
It was bitterly cold outside. “Could we talk inside?”
Eva’s fingers trembled. Her normally light-blue eyes seemed darker, sharper. She’d been far more relaxed during the dinner. “I wouldn’t advise that.”
What did she mean by that?
Eva took a seat on one of the lawn chairs on the porch. Rhys’s mate didn’t move as Cyn approached her and took a spot on the free chair close by.
“It’s the full moon tonight,” Eva said.
“I didn’t know that.” Tracking the moon now that she didn’t live back home was harder. But now that she knew the date, she understood why Eva’s behavior seemed different. Werewolves were far deadlier once per month.
“Changes are coming for my family, and I’ll have to make decisions as a mother. As much as I’d like to ignore the fact that you’re here, I can’t do that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“During the full moon, not all of us will assume our true form; only the mature adults will.”
She didn’t elaborate, but Cyn was a fast study. Eva’s boys wouldn’t be running with the pack tonight. If Eva left them behind, they would be vulnerable.
“As much as you all seem to hate me, I have no ill-will toward of any of you,” Cyn began.
“I don’t hate you,” Eva finally said. “I hate what you represent and the people you associate with.”
“So I represent all hunters?”
Eva smiled. “You might think you’re one of the good guys, but I fought countless hunters before I met Rhys and had my children. They hunted us like animals, even though we lived our lives like humans do.”
Cyn wanted to speak, but something told her now was the time to listen and let Eva get what she felt off her chest. This was the first time she’d ever had such a conversation. Usually, if she were like this, she’d be interrogating a werewolf gang member or questioning someone for information on a fugitive. But this was...unexpected.
“Rhys and I did all the right
things. We gave into the white picket fence dream and lived in a subdivision with a pool and all.” She paused for a moment. “Every now and then we messed up. Rhys got caught butt-naked by the elderly lady down the street and I got arrested for indecent exposure during the full moon.”
“You wouldn’t believe how many guys I’ve captured without a stitch of clothing on.”
Eva snorted and Cyn did the same.
“And what do you do with the men you captured?” The serious vibe came back real fast.
“You know what happened to them.”
“That’s my point. You’ve been trained to murder. From the day you were born, you were prepared to be a hunter and to kill werewolves.”
Cyn’s mouth opened to speak, but she immediately shut it.
“Before we rejoined the pack, we got into a bit of trouble. My mate and I had been out hunting in the woods and we tangled with a few deer hunters. One of them died when he tried to shoot me; Rhys killed him to protect me. That man’s death was an incident I regret, but, after that, the hunters came and we had to leave behind everything we’d built. The house, our belongings, the kids’ toys...” She bit her lower lip.
“I have three boys. They can be trouble, but I’d do anything to protect them. Kaden told me they’d be safe here. That we wouldn’t have to run anymore. But with you here, anything can happen.”
“I’d never harm a child, Eva. There are clans that have strict rules on interacting with pups. In my Red clan, we deliver a death penalty for members who harm children.” Only one member of her clan would disregard that law, but right now wasn’t the time for her to think about her brother Ty.
“That sounds honorable and all, but are you a mother?”
Eva knew the answer to that question so she didn’t bother to wait. She continued. “You talk a good game, but if the moment came, and you had to strike, you’d do it because that’s what you’re trained to do.”
Cyn wanted to ask about defending herself, but arguing was futile. A mother protecting her pups was another thing entirely. “So what do you expect me to do? Do you want me to leave?”
Windham Werewolves Page 7
