The Rogue and His Hunter Mate

Chapter 11- Seeing Jake For The First Time

Khanna POV

"Come on, Khanna!” the instructor shouts at me.

I am on my nineteenth lap of twenty of a three-mile stretch of the field. My legs feel like they are going to give out at any moment.

Normally this is a breeze for me, but I spent all of yesterday in the gym and training with Peter before spending last night creeping through the air vent shafts to manually access Bradley’s computer. I know I technically committed a crime, but something is going on, and I want to know what.

Bradley has scheduled a meeting today in the next hour in the portal building. I know that I am going to have to pull something to get out of this training, but the way my legs are going, I won’t need to fake a stunt, as they will be giving out soon.

Just as I make my final mile, I face-plant the ground. My legs refuse to move, and I am panting so hard, I swear I don’t know how the oxygen is even making it to my lungs.

“Khanna! If you don’t get up, then I will make sure you regret it,” the instructor shouts at me, making everyone stop and look at me.

“Sir, I don’t think she can answer at the moment,” one person says.

“Or even move,” replies another.

The instructor then comes over and kneels down in front of me. “Were you training all day yesterday?”

I don’t even look at him. He sighs, then runs his hand over his face and hair.

“Can someone help Khanna up and over to the benches? I will deal with you later,” he says before he walks off and goes and stands in front of the class.

Sam comes over and helps me up. “Was it just training yesterday?” He asks me, giving me a knowing side glance.

“Not just training,” I reply, mumbling.

“Just don’t get caught. I can’t protect you yet,” Sam replies, helping me to walk over to the benches and deposits me on there. Sam is currently working to become Bradley’s right-hand man, mainly because I keep getting into trouble still and he wants to protect me. Sam is like my older brother; he is annoying as hell, but he always protects me.

The Secret Portal

After a while, the instructor turns his back to me so that he can give a demonstration on some of the equipment, which gives me the perfect opportunity to sneak out. I quickly and quietly head towards the door. I throw a glance over my shoulder to make sure I am not being watched before I open the door.

I sneak out of the hunters’ training building and I go to tail Bradley. Today is the day that I will find out where he is going and what he is doing.

I search around the complex for a while until I finally find Bradley walking out of the cafeteria and towards the outskirts of the complex. Why would he be going there? I ask myself as I follow Bradley.

After a few minutes, Bradley is met with some hunters who I call his ‘team’ as they are always meeting up together and disappearing. It’s often after meeting up with Bradley, but I have never seen them head off together before. From the mannerisms of the men, I am guessing that this is not the first time they have met up and gone wherever they are going.

I follow Bradley and his team to what appears to be an abandoned warehouse but find out that inside is a portal. Why isn’t he going to the portal building? Why is Bradley not using the official portal?

I watch as Bradley walks through the portal. I wait for a few minutes before I decide to look through the portal. I pop my head and shoulders through the portal to see if I can see what is going on. I don’t expect it to work, but I am greeted with a forest. The forest itself looks familiar. Then it hits me: this is where that wolf brought me that one time I went to the supernatural realm. I wondered how he knew a portal would be here, and it brought me out into a warehouse—the one I am currently standing half in.

I look around and I can see that Bradley is standing near the portal, so I quickly move so that I am still able to see, but I am near the bottom, on the left-hand side of the portal. This is an even better position, as now I can see past the hunters and into the forest.

For a while, nothing happens. Bradley is just talking to his team. But then I watch as a man steps forward. He is obscured by some of the team members, but once they have finished talking and he heads off, I get to see him fully.

My eyes are drawn to a specimen of a man. His brown eyes are piercing and his shaggy blonde hair with his toned physique make him look like a god. He continues to walk away, but when he stops and looks back, it is as if the world stops.

I feel my eyes widen in surprise. I can see a form of recognition in his eyes, but my heart breaks when he turns back around and walks away. I know this man is the man from a few years ago, the one I helped, but he looks completely different.

The man looks really healthy, and my mind goes to a very bad place, but one I would not mind exploring with the man. If only I knew his name. A part of me is longing for him. My heart wants him to open his arms and for me to just run up to him and jump in them, to be kept safe and protected by this man.

What the hell? I never have these thoughts or feelings towards anyone. Only my friends hug me, but I have never felt the attraction I feel towards this man before.

As I watch the man go, a cold feeling, along with emptiness and a heaviness of the heart, enter my body. It feels as though someone has ripped out half of my soul and dunked me in an ice-cold lake. I just want the warmth to come back, but the further away the man walks, then the more intense the feelings become.

I don’t understand why, though. Surely I would have felt this when I met the man before? But then it hits me: I never looked into his eyes. But why would that make a difference? What has changed?

The Truth Revealed

Before I can even think of following him, Bradley catches my eye as he moves closer to one of his team members.

“When that i***t comes back with the Jade Wolf, kill him and take the wolf. He has fulfilled his usefulness.”

WHAT?! I knew Bradley was ruthless, but that sounds criminal. What the hell is really going on here? And why is that man in the middle of it?