Page 96 of Moon Tamed

I laughed, as I’d read the rules enough to understand the leader of the Hunters could assign someone to work beneath someone else as a result of a hunt.

“For a month,” Calden stated.

“Deal.”

Calden smirked at me. “I’m going to crush you ruthlessly with my paintball gun, Coraline. Consider yourself warned.”

I would need a lot of practice with a paintball gun and safety gear if I wanted to emerge from the week in a state other than woefully bruised. “Peter, you’re with me, and we’re going to destroy them.”

“What do I get if we win?”

“Calden will have to teach us both how to ride horses,” I informed him. “They have dainty little Earth horses, and we can learn to ride them.”

“I’m in.”

“I’m going to miss our children,” my father lamented to my mother.

“I’m sure Calden and his father will return them to us alive although battered and bruised,” my mother replied.

“They have no faith in us, Peter.”

Peter shrugged. “I’m a crafter and you’re a fledgling but fierce huntress. It’d be stranger if they had confidence in us.”

“Familial pride is a thing, and they should show us some.”

“Coraline, we’re going to be destroyed. But, for a chance to learn how to ride Earth horses, I will participate in our general destruction.”

“There’s no reason you can’t learn how to ride our Earth horses,” my boss stated. “But if you win, I’ll gift you one each. You’re not going to win.”

I eyed my brother, who eyed me back, and after a moment of thought, he nodded.

Maybe we stood little chance of winning, but we would show up to play the game.

We could get lucky.

“Game on,” I informed my boss. “Now, about dinner, Mother.”

“I swear, you’re a bottomless pit. Have children. ‘They’re wonderful,’ they said. ‘They make life worth living,’ they said. Nobody warned me that all they ever do is eat and cause trouble.”

“If anyone had warned you about the truth of children, would you have had any to begin with?” I asked, regarding my mother with interest.

“I think we would have had a few extras in the hopes of getting one that wasn’t out for our blood.”

I rolled my eyes at my mother’s antics. “We’re not out for your blood, Mom. We’re out for dinner, the contents of your wallet, and affection, though.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” My mother rolled her eyes. “I’ll go check on dinner. Try to limit your chaos to manageable levels for a change.”

Grilling Allasandro Stephans and his son regarding their work ethics earned me very little in terms of usable dirt against either man, much to my amusement and dismay. I did, however, learn of the driving force behind the man’s unwavering ethics.

Underneath his bravado, his charm, and his drive to serve his people brewed a bitter brew of anxiety and fear of failure. I understood those emotions. I endured them whenever I changed position, afraid of disappointing those I wanted to help. Somehow, I would need to create more time to work on the faction idea so Sila could run with it.

Joining the Hunters hadn’t been in the cards when my father had mentioned the idea, and I disliked the idea of abandoning what could be a good thing for those who couldn’t find a faction they enjoyed but loved working the temp circuits.

It would be a small step forward in the right direction.

Dinner took several hours, after which my father drove us home. He stopped at Calden’s place, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Coraline, get out. We all know you’re going to be sneaking over anyway, so you may as well openly wander into your new home. We counted boxes this weekend, and your mother may have checked your drawers.”

Well, I was thoroughly busted, and as there was nothing else to do, I got out of the vehicle. “Thank you for the ride, Dad.”

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