Page 2 of Huntress and the Thorn Court
Petting Cyrus’s hair away from his face, Malcolm lowered the body to the ground. “I can’t return and tell my brother that I’m responsible for his son’s death because I couldn’t control my temper.”
“Malcolm,” I warned. The werewolf stood slowly, but alarms were going off in my head causing me to take a preemptive step back. The grip on my gun tightened.
His eyes flashed amber. “It’s you or me Isabel. Either I don’t make it home or I return having avenged Cyrus.” With a roar, he pushed his change attempting to make it happen faster. It would be incredibly painful, but he didn’t have time to wait.
“Tranq!” I yelled. Four different hunters charged through the trees to the awaiting vehicles. I could do nothing but watch Malcolm’s bones pop and reform. “Don’t do this,” I begged, but he either didn’t hear me over his own body shifting or ignored me.
Taking aim, hoping to delay his transformation long enough for the hunters to return with the tranquilizer, I clipped him in the arm. The bullet merely grazed him fueling his anger.
Changing tactics, I aimed for his leg hoping to immobilize him, he was covering his center too well for me to hit him somewhere to halt his transition completely. The bullet struck his thigh causing his leg to buckle. Malcolm roared but the gunshot seemed to have the opposite effect and he began shifting faster.
I didn’t take my eyes off him as he transformed, nor did I release the hold on my gun. He shook off his fur setting his sights on me. With a single howl, he leapt and I squeezed the trigger without even realizing I’d taken aim.
2
Aroar echoed through headquarters unlike any I’d ever heard, causing the hair to rise on the back of my neck and a chill to run down my spine.
“What’s that?” asked Eric who was trailing me like a shadow as we entered the building, the other hunters from the park coming up the rear.
“That’s a pissed Alpha.” The others tensed at my disclosure, but none made a move to retreat as we headed into the assembly chamber. We needed to be debriefed on what had transpired. The fact that a werewolf now occupied the space changed nothing.
Malcolm was dead with a bullet wound to the head. Eric had broken through the tree line, tranquilizer in hand just as the werewolf had hit the ground. My day just kept getting worse.
“I require retribution!” The words were bellowed with such force that they rang through the hall echoing off the stone. The double doors were wide open. A well-dressed man stood seething before my father, who leaned against a table as hunters busily pretended to ignore the exchange. “An innocent wolf was unjustly killed by one of yours and I demand to know who was responsible!”
“How does he know?” one of the hunters whispered as we took position near the door as to not disturb what was transpiring.
“Either the vampires tattled,” which didn’t seem likely, “or someone else was there in the woods.” It was the only way that word could have reached the Alpha before we’d even had a chance to return to base. It had been half an hour since we left the park after handling the clean-up. I doubted my father had even heard the news before the werewolf arrived on our door like an avenging angel for those I killed.
One half of the room was lined with stainless steel rectangular tables with three chairs all facing the same direction. The room’s purpose was for presentations. As it was, we tended to use it more for hunters returning from duty that waited to be debriefed or dismissed, depending on their night. Many of the tables housed hunters going over reports while they waited. Shuffling paper or clicking of keys normally accompanied moderate chatter, but tonight no one even attempted conversation.
“Gideon.” My father shoved away from the table. He held the type of presence that could not be ignored; yet beside Gideon, who was a king in his own right, my father, with his salt and pepper hair and wrinkling face, dressed in black cargo pants and a white t-shirt, appeared small. “You must give us time to investigate your claims. The squad has only just returned. They need to be debriefed, inquiries made.”
Gideon’s thunderous roar blared once more. It was deafening but not a single hunter flinched. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time my father had stated these terms to the Alpha. The repetitive explanation only infuriated him more. Rage rolled off him in waves enveloping the room. His golden brown hair was shaggy, curling around his ears, in need of cutting. Green eyes glittered with a touch of amber. His wolf was present but the man himself was in control. There was a scar that ran down the left side of his face over his eye. It was rare to see a werewolf with scars. It meant he’d had a close brush with death as there were few items that could cause a werewolf permanent damage. They could heal almost anything unless you pumped them full of enough silver. His body was muscular, and it surprised me that he covered it with an expensive black suit. He appeared more like a businessman who just left work, with the collar on his white dress shirt undone and tie missing. Perhaps that was prejudice of me to assume that just because he was a werewolf, he wouldn’t dress in three thousand dollar suits.
“You mean you need time to come up with lies and hide those responsible.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” my father bristled under the accusation.
“Then I don’t see the problem in my being a part of the recount.” Gideon met my father’s stare, refusing to relent. His gaze was domineering and I wondered how my father wasn’t buckling under its piercing focus. “I want to know who was responsible for killing mine.”
My father opened his mouth preparing to repeat his edict when I stepped forward. My feet moved on their own accord.
“It was me,” I pronounced. As one, all eyes turned and were glued to me. I stood taller refusing to recoil under the ferocity of their gazes. They’d just keep going round and round with both refusing to give the other an inch, and after the night I had, I was ready for it to be over.
“Isabel,” my father warned, obviously not pleased by my interruption. He’d seen me enter, knew I was watching the exchange. He wanted the rules followed and that meant debriefing with the proper authorities, which did not include the aggrieving werewolf. Still he didn’t understand that sometimes rules needed to be broken. The Alpha had just lost two of his wolves and I wouldn’t shy away from the burden of their deaths. After all, I killed them, and their deaths could have easily been avoided if only I had seen Cyrus move.
“Your daughter?” Gideon narrowed his gaze at me. My father’s only response was to grit his teeth as he shot a glare in my direction. “And now it makes perfect sense. Of course you’d want to protect her.”
My father wrapped his arms over his chest. Even from here I could see his flesh turning white under his fingers that clung to his arm. “I assure you I did not know she was the responsible party. Regardless, my answer would have been the same even if it was the lowest ranking hunter among us.”
“I demand retribution, Conrad.”
“We do not know the details yet.”
But Gideon spoke over my father. “A life for a life.”
My stomach bottomed out as the blood fled from my cheeks. My father’s face went whiter than a sheet and I wondered what he would say to stop this. Itwasour error. As the injured party, Gideon had the right to ask for requital in whatever form deemed reasonable, but a life?
