Embrace the wild

I like him....

Connor had spent the entire morning on the phone with a man named Ian. Impossible. Stubborn. But willing to pay, and pay handsomely. That made Connor uneasy. Something about Ian, something about the situation, didn’t sit right.

Ian had told him his daughters would be coming to them — alone — rather than having anyone escort them. Connor ran the scenario through his head. Who sends their children into the wilderness if someone’s hunting them? It didn’t make sense. Connor had done a background check on the family. Nothing. Zero. He always found something.

He’d agreed to take a small team down to Montana while Liam and Caith stayed put, waiting for the girls. What puzzled him most was that Ian was overprotective — obsessed with keeping his daughters safe — and yet he was sending them off without transport, without protection, into the unknown. The family clearly had money. Ian had wired a massive sum that morning to pay for protection once the girls arrived. Who would risk putting their children in that kind of danger?

Connor’s first thought: “Trap?” Hunters didn’t set traps. That’s what made them dangerous. They tracked, hunted, killed — straightforward, efficient, lethal. They didn’t engineer ambushes. The image of a Hunter was almost cinematic: relentless, humorless, utterly cold. Like something straight out of Terminator — and they’d all watched that movie, walking out muttering about how accurate the script was.

Ian dropped hints about Scotland, spoke cryptically about the past, and described their pursuers as Hunter-like. Could Hunters really be in Montana? Could they be after this family? Connor’s mind raced through Clan history. Ian. A warrior, battle-hardened, ruthless. Scarred. A survivor. A ghost from centuries ago. Could this family be one of theirs? Hidden, for hundreds of years? Children had to have come later. Memories blurred. But if the family was like them… they had to move fast. Get the girls. Get the family to safety. Neutralize the threat.

Caith grabbed his phone and fired a message to the brothers: meet in his office — now. Ian had said the girls would arrive first thing in the morning. Time was critical.

Connor looked to Caith. “What’s your take?”

The look in Connor’s eyes said it all. Something was coming. They all felt it. The unease was physical, crawling along their spines. These girls were important. They needed full protection.

Within minutes, the team arrived. Caith gave Connor a subtle nod. Time to start.

Connor grabbed the binders and distributed them. “We have a job. It’s unusual,” he said, scanning the room.

Fletcher snatched one, grinning like a man who’d just been handed dessert. Tall, broad-shouldered, and charming, he had the kind of face that made people trust him before they even knew his name. His sharp blue eyes scanned for openings — in conversation, in a room, in people. Girls talked to him freely. Men, not so much. But either way, he always got the information they needed. “Please tell me it’s another rich girl with daddy issues,” he joked, flashing a wink.

Tyler and Les moved in near-perfect synchronicity, almost like they shared a single mind. Tyler, stocky and built like a linebacker, had hands that could crush bone or cradle a child without hesitation. Les, lean and wiry, was all fluid motion — quiet but explosive when he moved. Together, they were a lethal dance, covering each other with unspoken precision. “What’s unusual?” they asked in unison, voices flat and deadly.

Seth took his binder quietly, his dark eyes flicking over every page. The puzzle guy. Always observing, calculating. A tilt of a head, a flicker of an eye, a nervous twitch — nothing escaped him. He had the patience of a predator, the mind of a chess master. He was the one who saw connections no one else did, the one who could reconstruct an event from scattered details.

D remained in the shadows, the room’s still point. Slender, almost fragile-looking, but lethal. Dark hair framed a face pale as marble, and eyes so bright and icy blue they seemed to glow in dim light. He moved like a whisper, silent until it was too late. Connor sometimes wondered, privately, if he could survive D’s wrath if they were enemies. The thought made his chest tighten. D’s calm, cold precision was terrifying.

Seth broke the silence first. “Are they like us?”

Caith waited for the answer. The question confirmed what he suspected: they couldn’t waste time. The girls had to be found. Protected. Safe.

Connor nodded slowly. “Possibly. Not confirmed. I ran their IDs, including birth certificates, and everything was fraudulent. Records of people who’ve been dead for fifty years. Nothing comes up.”

He met Caith’s gaze. “He tried to explain, but Ian’s stubborn. Old-school deflection. He couldn’t clarify anything. If he’s this smart on the phone, he’s smarter in person.”

Seth smiled faintly. “I like him.” The compliment was quiet, professional. Even with all the dodges, Ian had a presence. Commanding, old-world, unshakable.

Connor exhaled slowly. “We assume one of two things: either they’re like us… or they’re Hunters. That’s our working theory.”

Caith leaned back, considering the room. “According to Ian, the girls will be arriving alone. By themselves. Should be here in a week. GPS ping as soon as they hit Craig. That’s our window.”

“Alone?” Seth’s tone was sharp. “What the hell is he thinking?”

Connor shrugged. “He’s asked for a team to head to Montana — help him and his wife establish a safehouse. I’m tracking a small Hunter group nearby. Not direct, but close enough to worry.”

Caith rose. “Three of us head down tonight. Connor, D., Tyler, Les. We’ll verify the situation and prep for extraction. Fletcher, Seth, stay here. Coordinate and protect the girls upon their arrival. Everyone clear?”

Nods all around. No discussion. This was what they did.

Connor started collecting the binders. “We leave tonight. We won’t make it to Montana before the girls depart, but hopefully Ian’s instructions prevent them from being alone too long. I trust him, despite the lies. He’s got that presence. Commanding, steady. Could give them hope.”

Caith added quietly, almost to himself, “If he’s right, and they’re like us… It’s been over a hundred years since we last heard from others who are alive. We can’t screw this up.”

They were fighters, warriors, hunters. But underneath it all… they were like wolves. Pack members mattered above all.