Page 1 of The Hunt

Chapter One

Calliope Masters groaned, rolled over, and then opened her eyes.She gasped, sitting straight up, because this wasn’t her bedroom.This wasn’t her parents’ home where she’d fallen asleep.

She was surrounded by trees and earth, and the scent of mud and grass.At the sound of another moan, she tensed up, and then glanced less than two feet away from her.

This couldn’t be happening.

Her heart started to race as she got to her feet.At first, she didn’t dare move, because she didn’t want to know the answer, but that would be crazy.

Then Jaxson Crease opened his eyes, and he clearly had the same sense of panic she did.He turned his head and stopped.

“No,” he said.

“I hope that is hell, no, this can’t be happening,” she said, trying not to panic.What was the point in panicking?If what she thought was happening, they were in for a whole load of crap she couldn’t deal with.

There was the sorry fact that she was only ...human.That was right.Jaxson was the wolf in this situation.She was just a human that lived among wolves and witches, and a whole lot of other things that went bump in the night.

“This is not ...The Hunt,” he said.

Calliope pressed her lips together and tried not to cry.Throughout high school Jaxson had always accused her of being too emotional, and that humans were in some way less than wolves, which made her hate him just a little bit.Actually, not even a little bit.It made her hate him a whole lot.

He was always saying how humans were weak and pathetic, useless to have around, and so many other insults that they became just words.His insults quite quickly stopped having meaning to her.

“It can’t be, right?I mean, that is impossible.There is no way.”She started to laugh, and then she wanted to cry.“It’s just not possible.They heard what we said when we were eighteen.”

Jaxson rubbed the back of his neck, which was not a good sign.

“What?”she asked.

“They told us that if we didn’t ...figure this out, it was going to lead to The Hunt?”

“No, no, no, absolutely not.”

“Calliope, we knew this was coming.”

“No, this is not that.This is not us having to work together, to come to the realization that you and I are mates, or whatever you call it.”She felt her heart start to race.

The Hunt was cruel, archaic, and so damn wrong on many levels.Calliope didn’t know when this started, but it happened in some kind of mystical realm, that was all forest.If an unmated couple failed to mate by their twenty-first birthday, then by pack law they have to be entered into The Hunt.

This was not a game.This was survival.

Every couple that had gone in hating each other’s guts came out mated, in love, and living happily ever after.

She and Jaxson were mated three years ago.

She pressed her lips together, hating what was happening right now, so much so that she wanted to cry.

It would be up to them to combat every enemy that came their way.They were mystically bound so they couldn’t run from each other.She always imagined it was like having invisible handcuffs wrapped around their wrists.

Right now, she couldn’t feel it, but as she took a step, then another, and another, she felt that pull when she suddenly couldn’t move anymore.

“No, no, no, no, no,” she said, spinning around and looking at him a little wildly.“I thought they had agreed.They were happy we both agreed our suggested mating was wrong.”

Jaxson shrugged.“I guess not.”

“I thought you said there was a way to avoid this?”she asked.

“I thought there was, but it doesn’t matter.”

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