Page 31 of Huntress and the Splintered Court
“You’re serious?” My father sat up appearing shocked at my question. “Your eyes glowed like a damn wolf.” He shook his head leaning back into his relaxed position on his cot. “I’m not entirely surprised. Wolves used to mate outside of their pack to gain abilities they needed. I suppose it makes sense that the opposite could bleed over.”
“So what I can turn into a wolf?”
“I doubt that. But the amber glow might mean you have some other feature from them. Perhaps their strength, but given the display I saw, I think you might have their temper.”
“That’s an understatement,” a voice muttered coming into the room. As quickly as I could move, I flung the concealed knife. It slipped effortlessly past the bars, but Eric shifted out of its way, so the blade embedded into the wall. He knew me too well.
“Did you come down here to gloat?” I spat charging at the bars. Let him get a little closer. Okay maybe my temper was a little faster to jump to rage than it had been.
“I came to let you go.” Eric dangled keys just beyond my reach. “But you have to promise not to hurt me. I did what I had to do so Reed would trust me.”
“Trust you? So you’re siding with him?”
“Isabel, cool your jets. I’ve known you were sleeping with the Alpha since the moment you chatted with me from his bedroom.”
My father groaned. “That was incredibly stupid, Isabel.”
Hindsight I could see that. “So what then? You were just waiting to use the information until it was most convenient?”
“Get your head out of your ass and see the bigger picture. If I hadn’t done what I did upstairs, then I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this.” He inserted the key and twisted until the door snapped open. I hovered there for just a moment unsure what to do. I was angry with him but now he was letting me go.
“And telling him Gideon was my mate?”
“Stopping you from killing him wouldn’t have been enough. He needed to believe that I turned completely against you.”
“But you haven’t?” I asked wanting clarification.
“I told you I’d always follow you. You’re a good and just leader. If that means I’m joining you at the Thorn Court, then that’s what I’m doing. Now let’s get out of here. Reed only has a ten-minute start on us. If we hurry, we might just make it there before the fun begins.”
* * *
Eric drovewhile my father and I strapped our weapons in place.
“We’re risking our lives,” my father mumbled, “you better love him.”
I stopped what I was doing and peered up at my dad. “I do.”
“Good. Then we don’t have a problem.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or glare.
“Shit,” Eric groaned.
I shifted between the two front seats to see what had Eric cursing. “Fuck,” I muttered right there with him. Reed had already arrived judging by the fire burning through the thorns that surrounded Gideon’s property line. In the already flame free sections, grappling hooks hung from the wall, their ropes just dangling in the wind. The gate was wide open. It seemed the hunters were only in a hurry to get in and didn’t worry about anyone following. “Go,” I encouraged Eric with a tap on his shoulder. He hit the gas, gunning it to the house.
“They don’t even seem to care if the humans notice,” my father whispered as we drove past the wall.
“Probably thinking if they cause enough chaos then it’s more of a reason to stay out of the human world,” Eric offered but I shook my head.
“Dad’s right. This is attention drawing. If it goes on much longer the humans will come sniffing around. Reed might have just done Gideon’s plan for him.”
The closer we neared the house the more my mouth fell agape. The once green grass was now tinged red as hunter and werewolf, in varies forms of shifting, battled outside the house.
I was out of the car before Eric put it in park. There was no way he’d get us much closer, not without taking people out and I didn’t know who was on our side.
I charged into the crowd searching for Gideon or Reed, both for entirely different reasons. Who I found wasn’t who I wanted.
“Isabel?” Adam turned gaping at me. “I thought you returned with the hunters.”
