Page 59 of Hunted

I know desperation when I hear it.

My powers don’t work, and I gave myself a nosebleed trying to spark something, but I don’t need my powers to tell this man—whoever he is—is desperate for help.

I hurry back outside.

Mack has the man by the throat when I step out. “Mack, it’s okay, let him go.”

“Aerin…”

“No, it’s okay,” I interrupt, taking another step outside. I wasn’t expecting Mack to have him by the throat. With everything that’s been happening lately, he has every reason to be on edge. “He could have hurt me if he wanted to, but hedidn’t. I don’t know if we can trust him yet, but I think we should listen to him and see what he wants,” I plead.

When Mack looks at my nose, I try not to think about how much blood I’ve smeared over my face. We’re going to need to have a conversation about that soon. But after.

“It wasn’t him,” I tell him. “This is something else. We’ll talk about it after, but this wasn’t his fault,” I repeat.

This, I think, is the blood that marks the end of my powers.

Maybe even forever.

Mack’s hand tightens around the unknown shifter’s throat as Bennett stands close by. I hold my breath as Mack stares at the stranger, and I hope I’m not about to watch a desperate man die.

20

MACK

After an awkward and tense round of introductions in the backyard, there was a long pause which no one wanted to fill. We’ve all now settled in the den and things are still awkward.

Clary is the shifter who is currently sitting on one of my armchairs. He has shown no signs of aggression, but my wolf hasn’t stopped snarling at me for not having killed him when we had the chance.

I’d been talking with Bennett in the den while Aerin had been outside in the garden getting fresh air. I’d been half listening to Bennett because anytime Aerin is alone, I get edgy and worried.

Then she’d yelled my name. And the way she’d fallen into the house from the garden, eyes wide, blood on her face…

My heart had literally stopped.

First a shifter had turned up at the hotel trying to claim my territory. Then Aerin was yelling about a shifter in our backyard. I put the two together and thought the shifter was here to grab Aerin.

I glance at her again, just to reassure myself that she is okay.

She’s sitting on the couch, as far away from the stranger as I could put her, and she’s clutching a damp washcloth that I had Bennett get for her nose.

She gives me a reassuring smile, as if she knows I’m still worried.

“Someone took my mate,” Clary says, surprising me.

I still want him gone. Bennett is eyeing him as if waiting to have an excuse to kill him. The only reason neither of those things is happening is because Aerin wanted to talk to the guy. So we’ll talk. Then he will leave.

I eye the shifter warily. “Took her?”

My wolf settles down the slightest degree. If he has a mate, then he’s not here to grab Aerin.

The thing is, can I trust a single word he’s saying?

“I don’t understand,” Aerin says, frowning. “She’s not here.”

Clary folds his hands together as he sinks back into his seat.

I put him in his mid-twenties, and he doesn’tseemto be trouble. But if he meant well, and he was only here to talk, nothing was stopping him from knocking on the front door instead of scaring Aerin by creeping up to our house from the back.

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