Hunter (Crescent Wolves Book One)

Chapter Eighteen

The morning came so soon.

Shamefully, I had to sneak out of the inn at first light. After the family’s kindness, I couldn’t face them again, or I would stay too long, maybe forever, but with a pouch of coins left on the bedside table and a note of apology for the ruined door, I left.

I wouldn’t endanger them if Hunter came looking.

Who had been in my room, and why hadn’t my wolf sensed them? The more I thought about it, the more alarming it was. They could have cut my throat in my sleep or worse. Returned me to Hunter.

I knew now I couldn’t go back. Not with the rouges on the march; I couldn’t leave innocents to that slaughter.

Flashbacks of Alloa haunted my mind. I needed to find out about these attacks. The witch was certain worse was to come, and if I could help innocents like this village be saved, I had to try.

I was walking close to the mountains now, keeping to the edge of the pine forests, the fallen needles masking my footfalls and the smell of the forest comforting my wolf. Each day that passed was agony not to change and run. It was wrong for a wolf to resist change and its nature. It weakened the bond between a person and their wolf. That is why my kind is so dangerous at our first change. The wolf is new, and we return to our older ways, unable to control ourselves and the wolf inside us. Many young wolves never thoroughly learn to control themselves, and when the full moon is upon us, they must be locked in a particular area to avoid harm. If one of us bites a human, they can take the change and, in turn, become a wolf. Recent pack laws were declared. It was forbidden and punishable by death and dishonor. In a pack, dishonor tends to be worse than death.

The weather was starting to turn; the wind carried a bite to it, and the surrounding woods thickened. From what I had heard last night in the inn, I was on the eastern coast on the outskirts of Tarrin, the witch city.

I had heard of the stronghold before. Its ancient city was carved into the sheer mountain stone, unreachable to the moral and impenetrable to anyone who decided to claim it.

And that’s before the magic wards.

If anyone knew what was going on with the rouges, it would be the witches, and I might have been able to escape Hunter there.

If I was allowed to enter alive.

The wolves and witches were old enemies. In the past days, the Wolf elders declared war when witches cursed our kind to change every full moon. But as the ages passed, we learned to control our animal forms and, in turn, chased the witches back to Tarrin, where they mostly remained. No one has ever spoken of the city, and most ventures there turn back or never speak of what they’ve seen there. My father had always kept one ear to the stronghold, weary of the mountains and what lurked in them.

So how would they feel when the Redmoon's daughter came to the gates?

Hunter

“You don’t deny it?”

“I don’t.”

Cassandra was brave. I couldn’t deny her that. Standing in front of her alpha and admitting to helping Serina escape took a good amount of guts, and part of me admired that.

Luke had escorted her to me as she entered Marcus Redmoons office – now mine. Her head was held high, and she showed no sign of fear. These Redmoon females were strong. If anything, she seemed more weary of Luke as he stood between her and the door, closing her into the small space.

“Why Cassandra?”

I kept my tone neutral. If I wanted to find Serina, Cassandra was my best chance. She knew where Seina was. She helped send her there.

“She’s been a pawn in someone else’s game her entire life since her mother died at the hands of that brute Marcus and then being promised to Eric, and then you came along too. I helped her have a chance at her own life, and I’d do it again.”

She looked me dead in the eye the entire time she spoke. Not blinking or faltering once.

“Did you think she could escape me? That I would let her go so easily?”

She smugly smiled at me.

“No, that’s why I asked my friends for help.”

The witches, even I knew to be weary of their games. They had a bad history with my kind, and I had a feeling this was precisely why they had agreed to help Serina.

“Yes, I am well aware of your witch friends. But did you ever wonder why they were so happy to help you? Why would they risk their own lives to get Serina away from me? Away from her fated mate and the safest place for her, clever Cassandra. Did you ever stop to think why Serina was chosen to be wed to Eric, why the Redmoon pack was hailed the leaders of the uprising of rouges?”

Cassandra was silent and turning paler as I spoke.

“What if I told you the army I had found was not the only one? Reports from the palace say there are more out there, larger and more violent than this one. Marcus Redmoon does not appear to have been working alone, and now that he has been captured, their eyes are fixed on his daughter. The future queen and my mate, the perfect bargaining chip...or weapon.”

Cassandra swayed on the spot, her strong spirit faltering with the reality of her actions. I crouched before her, meeting her green eyes, sparking with tears.

“I need to find Serina before they do.”