His Forbidden Mate

Chapter 5: The Hunt.

The breeze held up the scent of metal.

Anna felt the gravity surrounding the environment; she sensed it before she heard it—an unnatural stillness as the woods held their breath.

Damon’s hand poked out, fingers curling around her wrist to calm her anxiousness down as they were expecting a fight in a moment from now.

“They have arrived, they are here,” he muttered.

“Who are they?” Her tone was creepy, but she knew already. The atmosphere told her. The change in the woods told her. Her magic told her. They whispered silently to her.

“Hunters.”

The word landed like a pebble in her chest. The tales her grandmother had gossiped about them—men and women vowed to demolish creatures like Damon… and witches like her—were not just bedtime stories. They were true and real. And they were closer, she could smell it.

A twig cracked. Shades changed positions between the trees and woods, too liquid to be the wind. Damon’s body diverted, muscles twisting, his naked claws silently on the woodland floor.

Anna engulfed. “Let's hide, we need to hide.”

“No, not now,” he said, his tone soft and final. “We hunt back.”

Before she could debate, a figure strode into the clearing—a lady clad in shady leather, bow in hand, gold-tipped arrow already notched. Her hair was dull as the moonlight, her eyes an unearthly shade of green.

“Damon,” she called out his name, voice insensitive enough to freeze bones. “I believed the coffin would keep you concealed.”

“Liora,” Damon replied, his lips twisting into something between a scowl and a snarl. “I believed your kind would’ve died out by now.”

Liora’s stare moved to Anna, and something bitter glowed there. “And you… little witch. You’ve been very busy, I can see.” Her words leaked with meaning, as if she figured out more than she should have.

Anna’s skin turned red. “How do you know who I am?”

Liora’s smile broadened. “Because a person you rely on told me.”

The rumors hit harder than any arrow. Anna’s mentality dashed through the faces—her mates, friends, people from the party, anyone else who could have caught a glimpse of her walk into the woodlands. The thinking that one of them had sold her struck in her throat like glass.

Blusters in the trees. Additional hunters appeared as —three men with swords and daggers, another one with a crossbow and arrows on their back. They fanned outside, surrounding the clearing. Damon stepped in front of her instinctively, a breathing wall of power, muscle, and fury.

“You think you can seize or take me with you?” he snarled.

Liora leaned her head forward. “Not take you. Terminate you.”

The first arrow flew. Damon escaped it, the rod hissing past his ear. The second came faster, but his hand caught it, grabbing it mid-air with unnatural ease. He cracked it in half and let the piece drop.

Anna’s spells surged to her fingertips before she could think. Utterances of power spilled from her lips, and a surge of power burst forward, sending one hunter crawling. But the magic didn’t stop—it backfired, whipping back at her. Pain spread through her chest, taking away her breath.

Damon glanced back at her, a glimmer of something unreadable in his gaze. “Control it,” he said.

“I…. I’m trying to,” she inhaled, her knees buckling.

Liora’s giggle snapped through the chaos. “She doesn't even understand her powers, does she? She doesn't even know what she is, Oh, this will be easier than I thought,” she said mockingly.

Damon pounced, closing the space between them in a heartbeat. His claws emerged in the air where Liora’s throat had been, but she turned away, unnaturally fast. A sword flashed—silver, shining faintly. Damon hissed as it scratched his side, the injury smoking.

“Damon,” Anna whispered, horror blooming in her chest.

Two hunters changed positions toward her. Anna’s spells, rough and unstable, rose again. This time she shaped it into fire. Flames roared between them, forcing the men back, but the effort drained her. Her vision blurred.

Somewhere in the chaos, Liora’s voice rang out. “He’s not watching over you, witch neither he’s protecting you—he’s manipulating you. You’re the key to breaking his chains completely.”

Anna’s heart stopped. “What?”

Damon didn’t answer. He tore through another hunter, his face a mask of fury, but he didn’t deny it. The silence was worse than any truth.

One of the hunters—a tall man with a scar across his face, his appearance somewhat looking like a wolf—his eyes met with Anna.

“Run while you can, before it's too late,” he said in a faint voice, whispering, almost begging. “You have no idea what he will do to you once he’s completely free.”

Before she could request answers, Damon grasped her hand, dragging her behind him as another gold arrow passed them. It concealed itself in a wood.

The hunters were falling part, but not conquered, the war isn't over yet. Liora stood at the end of the clearing, her eyes glinted with a promise untold.

“This isn’t over yet, it's just the beginning,” she said. “I know where to find you. And when I return, little witch, I’ll take more than your life. I’ll take your silence and power.”

Then she was gone, dissolving into the shadows with her surviving men.

The forest fell silent, too quiet. Damon’s breath was heavy, his wound still burning. Anna’s heart thumped as she gaped at him.

“What did she mean?” she demanded. “Am I really a—”

He cut her off with a glance. “You ask too many questions.”

“And you give too few answers,” she shot back.

They stood there, both breathing hard, the space between them charged with something that was part fury, part fear… and something else neither wanted to name.

A howl echoed in the distance—not Damon’s. Resounding, unnatural, and closing fast.

Damon’s jaw tightened. “We need to move.”

Anna wavered, the remembrance of Liora’s words screamed at her. But the sound was near now, inhuman, desperate, and hungry.

She walked with him into the dark, but in the back of her senses, her thought burned:

If Liora was right… she might have just freed that one thing more dangerous than the hunters.