Hunter (Crescent Wolves Book One)

Chapter Sixteen

Hunter

Fury. Wild, untamed fury. I could not control my rage as I ripped through the undergrowth, the trees a blur as my wolf raced through the forests of the pack lands.

I had been foolish, my clever mate. I had underestimated her. I knew she would have a plan and try to run from me. I had told the guards to let her pass, planning to catch her myself and put the idea that she could ever escape me out of her mind. I never anticipated the witch. I was so close; I could hear her ragged breath and smell her scent. Feel the heat from her skin. And then nothing. She was gone as if she had never existed. The lingering smell of magic was all left in the clearing I had tracked her to.

I reached the pack house once more. Eerily quiet. They knew she had gotten away. The two guards I had assigned for her came into view, and before they had realized it, I had ripped their throats out. The bodies thumped to the floor as I walked into the halls of the house. The blood dripped steadily from my hands onto the marble floor.

Luke waited for me in my office, sitting on the table in a relaxed pose, but the tension in his shoulders proved his awareness.

Good. Let them all fear me.

“She’s gone?” He stood assessing me and noting the blood from my hands. “Please tell me you killed on your hunt?”

“We need a cleanup by the front gates.”

I stood by the fire, its cracking logs reminding me of bones being broken, soothing my raging wolf.

“She used a witch. A powerful one, all of her scent is gone, and I cannot sense her through the bond.”

Luke poured me a whiskey from the decanter and handed it to me. The blood from my hands smudged against the delicate crystal glass. Saying nothing, he knew my next step. I downed the glass in one, the burning flowing down my throat.

“Bring me Casandra”

Serina

The first thing I noticed was the smell. Floral, sweet, and rich. My groggy eyes struggled to open, and my vision was blurry. Sitting up was a struggle. As my eyes adjusted to my new surroundings, all I could think was how alive the world around me felt. I was in a forest, but not like the forests at home with the sharp needles and the dark trails. This forest was... alive. Bright green soft leaves and lush grass, the sunlight twinkling through the forest canopy above me. It was something out of a fairy tale.

All I need now is a talking rabbit, and I know I’ve lost my mind...

I rubbed my aching head. The previous events came back to me: the ceremony, the pack, Hunter.

My chest felt empty like part of me was missing. My wolf pined in my head, sulking and sad.

This was for the best.

I had to stay focused and keep moving. Hunter would be out to find me, and that which would only be able to hold him for so long, not to mention how long I had been out; the sun was well across the sky above me. I needed to get my bearings. I wasn’t in Redmoon territory anymore; that, and my legs were, was clear. I scented no other wolves. Picking myself from the soft forest floor, walking was a little treacherous my legs tender. But I needed to move. In the distance I could hear water. My best bet was to follow the river, find civilization, and plot my course from there.

The river was wide and fast, the blue current threatening to sweep me away as I squatted on the shoreline and drank. But I was right; as the river progressed, I could see the forest begin to clear and beyond farming lands and a small group of thatched houses.; as the river progressed, I could see the forest begin to clear, and beyond farming lands, there was No sign of the mountains or dense forests I was so used to calling home. The houses spread out, and more appeared as I closed into the village. I smelled no trace of wolf or shifter. The people around me smiled as they continued their days, some with large carts of straw cut from the surrounding fields. While shopping in the little stalls surrounding the village square, children raced around playing.

I have to sit down

Perching myself on the fountain at the center of the square, I had to take it all in.

So different.

Where are the guards? The soldiers?

“You look lost, sweetie?”

A soft voice interrupted my thoughts. An old woman sat beside me, her curled hair tucked into a faded lilac bonnet. Her blue eyes gazed at me kindly. I looked again; I knew those eyes. The old woman smiled at me, and only for a moment, her glamour faded, and the witch looked at me once more, returning to the faded skin of the older woman.

“That’s freaky.”

She laughed.

“It helps me remain unseen where I need to be, Serina. How are you finding my little corner of the world?”

I looked around me again: the baker selling his bread, the children playing in the cobbled streets as the birds sang, and the sun shone its heat, soaking into me and pushing my aches and pains away.

“It’s a little cheesy if I am being honest.”

She laughed again, but this time a little bitterly.

“Yes, it is. It was this way once. The children ran, and the people lived well and healthily. It was a different world.”

I looked at her as she watched the busy town around her, one of her words catching in my head.

“What do you mean was this way?”

To my horror, she raised her hand, and I could feel the pull of her magic. As she lifted her arm, the cloaking magic that had been in place faded. Where there was thriving life, there was death and destruction. Where the children played, corpses now lay—long gone and fading to nothing. The surrounding buildings were crumpled and in ruins, the streets deserted, and the sun covered by smoke and falling ash.

“This was Alloa, a farmer’s town. They were sheltered from the ways of the world. Young witches lived here practicing gentle, natural magic. People were happy. Children were free.”

Tearm my eyes as I looked at the scene, the broken world around me now.

“Why”

It was the only world I could muster.

“Was and power, the rouge master wanted the witches, when they refused. They killed them all.”

A sadness overcame her as her glamour dropped too, her long white hair and sparkling eyes dim in a place like this. These witches would have been hers, her people. And mine slaughtered them. I couldn’t face her.

“Your prince looks for you, Serina; he will never stop.”

“Did he... did he know?”

“Of this? No. Your prince is innocent. He believes he has stopped the rebellion with your father, but he is wrong. Things here are not as they seem.”

“What do you mean?”

But she was gone, the ashes where she sat floating away in the breeze, leaving me in the ghost town, surrounded by the devastation of my own people.