Page 9 of Wolf Hunter

“I know it’s hard, but try not to be nervous,” she says in a sympathetic way.

“I’m not nervous,” I snap back. “I’m focusing.”

This is a job. This is what I do, and I’m damn good at it. My hands flex and twitch at my sides. I’d take those fucking beasts out one by one if it would bring Carmen back. Until then, I keep my eyes and ears open. Watching, waiting.

Tensed and poised for action.

“You look a bit constipated, dear,” she replies with a soft chuckle.

My gaze snaps to her. “I’m about to be sacrificed to a murderous wolf pack. Or did you forget the plan?” Pose as one of the witches during their next ceremony, be offered up as bait to infiltrate the pack, find my sister, then slice the alpha’s throat. Simple.

Mae shrinks back and clears her throat. “Yes, of course.” Like everyone else, she stares past the darkened forest line, where the Redcliff Pack should be appearing any second now. Then, she lowers her voice and leans in closer to me. “The current alpha is Reid Holden. You’ll recognize him immediately.”

I cock my brow. “How so?”

“There’s a certain… presence about him,” she explains.

“Presence?”

“Trust me. You’ll see what I mean.”

Talk about telling me the bare minimum here.

But something else in what she said strikes my interest. “You said there’s a new alpha? What happened to the old one?”

From what I remember, the Redcliff Pack has had the same alpha since before I was born.

Mae nods. “We aren’t told much naturally, but we’re guessing he died. One of his sons took the position, but don’t be fooled. He’s just like his father was. Ruthless. An iron-fisted dictator.”

That changes things—like going into this knowing my enemy.

I shake off the budding nerves. If Reid really is like his father, then I know enough of what to expect from him, too. I just need to get in before he can do anything else to me, like eat my heart to absorb what little witch magic I have left. Or use me as a sex slave until he bores of me and throws me off a cliff for fun. We’ve all heard horror stories about what happens after witches cross territory lines, and none of them ended well for our kind.

That doesn’t matter, though. It won’t change my mind. This is my ticket in to find Carmen.

“What happens when the wolves try to retaliate?” I ask. I’ll be long gone by then, hightailing it overseas for a while so that the pack can lose my scent, but my curiosity has me asking anyway. “You know they’re going to come for the coven for revenge.”

“We’re working on that,” she replies with a smile that looks a bit sickly.

“Another wolf will just take his place. One of his brothers or someone new.”

“That takes time, and we have plans of our own to deal with all that. But I don’t want you to worry. Killing Reid is all you need to be concerned with. That’s the first step.”

I don’t like how secretive she’s being, but she’s right. Knowing what they do after I complete my mission isn’t really my business, is it?

Focus.

I was lucky that after Mae left our first meeting, I was able to cloak myself again and go invisible. I could only hold it for a few minutes, but that was good enough to ease my fears. It just had to be a lack of sleep on my part, so I made sure I got some z’s in between brushing up on my fighting techniques and resharpening my knives. I should be good to go now.

Under this virgin-white dress they put me in, I have my dagger strapped to the inside of my thigh and my gun and extra bullets concealed on each side of my hips. Normally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in something so feminine and revealing, but the flowy skirt makes stashing weapons a breeze.

Nothing is going to go wrong.

As much as I don’t want it to be, this job feels different. I know it’s because I’m too close to it; it’s too personal. Besides my missing sister and my family’s ties to the coven, I can sense the weight of Mae’s expectations on me. This isn’t just knocking off a random vampire because he’s sleeping with your wife. This is to save lives, to prevent this coven from being harvested to extinction.

A breeze pushes through the trees, tossing up my hair and washing goose bumps over all my exposed skin.

Damn, it’s cold out here, but no coats are allowed during the ceremony—too many places to stash weapons. And part of me thinks the wolves just like to make us suffer any way they can.

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