The First Hunt
1540 Words
They didn’t run far.
Jax led them north, away from the main ridge trails, into the thicker, older part of the forest where the pines grew so close the moonlight barely reached the ground. Sienna followed barefoot, the pine needles soft and cold against her soles, every step sending tiny shocks up her legs. Her body still hummed from the shift, from the knot, from the kill. From the heartbeat that wasn’t hers.
She kept one hand low on her belly the whole way.
Not protective,possessive.
Like she was already daring the world to try taking this from her.
Jax stopped at the edge of a small frozen creek. Moonlight sliced through a gap in the canopy and turned the ice silver-blue. He turned, scanned her from head to toe blood-streaked skin, fresh bite mark still weeping, hair tangled with twigs and pine sap.
“You’re shaking,” he said.
“Not from cold.”
He stepped closer. Cupped her face with both hands. Thumbs brushed the drying blood on her cheeks.
“Talk to me.”
She met his eyes. Gold still rimmed the edges, but the pupils had shrunk back to human size. He looked almost… afraid.
“I killed him,” she said quietly. “I tore his throat out. And I didn’t feel guilty. Not even for a second.”
Jax’s thumbs stilled.
“Good.”
She searched his face. “That’s it? Good?”
“You think I’d want you to feel guilty?” His voice dropped. “Rhydian would’ve killed you tonight if he could. Or worse he’d have kept you alive just to prove you were still nothing. You ended that. You ended him. And you did it with your own teeth.”
Sienna exhaled through her nose. “I liked it.”
A slow, dangerous smile curled Jax’s mouth.
“Yeah,” he said. “I know.”
He leaned in and kissed her slow this time. Not the frantic claiming from before. This was deliberate. Deep. Like he was tasting the blood she’d spilled and approving of every drop.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against hers.
“We need to move again soon,” he murmured. “They’ll track us. Mara won’t stay down long.”
Sienna nodded. Then paused.
“Jax.”
He lifted a brow.
She took his hand. Pressed it flat against her lower belly.
The tiny heartbeat answered fast, strong, insistent.
Jax froze.
His breath caught audibly.
He stared at where their hands met like he was looking at something holy and terrifying at the same time.
“How?” he whispered.
“I don’t know.” Her voice cracked. “I’ve never heard of it happening this fast. Not even in the old stories.”
Jax swallowed. His hand trembled just once before he locked it down.
“Doesn’t matter how,” he said roughly. “It’s real. It’s ours.”
He dropped to his knees again. Pressed his lips to the spot just below her navel. Closed his eyes. Inhaled deep.
Sienna threaded her fingers through his hair.
“Scared?” she asked softly.
“f*****g terrified,” he admitted against her skin. “Never been more scared in my life.”
She tugged him up until he was standing again.
“Then we protect it,” she said. “Together.”
He kissed her once more fiercer this time. Like a vow.
They moved again.
Deeper into the mountains. Past frozen streams. Past abandoned hunter cabins. Until the trees thinned and the ground rose into a jagged outcrop of rock. Jax found a narrow cave mouth half-hidden by deadfall. He pulled branches aside, sniffed the air, then motioned her in.
Inside it smelled of stone and old moss. Dry. Defensible. One entrance. High ceiling. Enough room to stand.
Jax dragged dead branches in to block the mouth. Left a gap just wide enough to watch the approach.
Then he turned to her.
“You need to eat,” he said. “Shift burned a lot of energy. And…” His gaze dropped to her stomach. “You’re feeding two now.”
Sienna laughed short, disbelieving.
“I’m naked, covered in blood, and you want me to hunt?”
“I want you alive.” He stripped off his torn jacket. Draped it over her shoulders. It swallowed her. Smelled like him smoke, pine, s*x. “Stay here. I’ll be back in twenty.”
She caught his wrist before he could leave.
“No.”
He looked down at her hand. Then up at her face.
“I’m not sitting in a cave while you hunt for me like I’m helpless.”
“You just killed an alpha,” he pointed out.
“And I’m still hungry.” She stepped closer. Let the jacket fall open so he could see the blood on her breasts, the bite on her neck, the faint swell already starting under her skin. “I want to hunt with you.”
Jax’s pupils blew wide.
He stared at her like she was the most dangerous beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Then he grinned slow, feral.
“f**k. Okay.”
They shifted together.
No pain this time.
Just power sliding over them like water.
Jax became huge black fur shot through with streaks of darker charcoal, scars visible even under the coat, gold eyes burning.
Sienna rose beside him smaller but no less lethal. Silver fur so pale it almost glowed. Eyes like twin moons. The heartbeat inside her thrummed steady against her ribs.
They slipped out of the cave.
Moved as one.
Silent.
The forest opened to them.
Scent trails everywhere deer, rabbit, fox. But Jax angled west, toward higher ground. Sienna followed his lead. She could smell what he smelled now: elk. Old bull. Limping. Separated from the herd.
Perfect.
They found it grazing at the edge of a moonlit clearing.
The bull sensed them too late.
Sienna moved first low, fast, silver streak across snow.
She went for the hind leg.
Teeth sank into tendon.
The elk bellowed, staggered.
Jax came from the side massive jaws closing around the throat.
One brutal shake.
The bull went down.
They fed together.
Hot blood.
Warm meat.
No manners.
No hesitation.
Sienna tore into the flank while Jax ripped open the chest cavity. They ate until their bellies were full, until the metallic taste coated their tongues, until the pup’s heartbeat steadied and grew stronger with every swallow.
When they finally lifted their heads, muzzles red, eyes bright, Jax shifted back first.
Human again.
Naked.
Blood-streaked.
Beautiful.
He watched Sienna finish the last bites delicate now, almost careful before she shifted too.
She rose on two legs.
Wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Jax crossed the clearing in three strides.
He caught her face.
Kissed her hard tasting elk and blood and her.
She moaned into his mouth.
He lifted her.
Her legs wrapped around his waist.
He carried her back toward the trees away from the kill, away from the open.
Pressed her against a wide trunk.
No words.
Just need.
He thrust inside her in one long, deep stroke.
She arched.
Clawed his shoulders.
He f****d her slow this time.
Deliberate.
Every stroke dragging against every sensitive place.
His mouth on her neck over the bite mark.
Licking.
Sucking.
Reclaiming.
“You’re mine,” he growled against her skin. “This pup is mine. This life is ours.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “Yours.”
He sped up.
Harder.
Deeper.
When she came it was quiet shuddering, clenching, nails digging half-moons into his back.
He followed seconds later growling her name, spilling inside her again like he could brand her twice.
They stayed locked together.
Breathing hard.
Foreheads pressed.
After a long minute, Jax murmured against her ear.
“We can’t stay here long. Mara will rally whoever’s left. They’ll want revenge. And they’ll want the pup.”
Sienna tightened her arms around his neck.
“Let them come.”
He pulled back enough to look at her.
“You’re not afraid?”
She smiled slow, sharp, silver-edged.
“I was Hollow for twenty-nine years.
I was nothing.
Now I’m carrying the future of a bloodline that tried to erase me.
I’m mated to the wolf who tore their world apart once already.
And I just ate my first kill with my own teeth.”
She leaned in.
Brushed her lips against his.
“I’m not afraid, Jax.
I’m f*****g hungry.”
He laughed low, rough, proud.
Then he kissed her again.
Deep.
Promising.
When they finally parted, he rested his hand over her belly.
The tiny heartbeat answered stronger than before.
He looked into her eyes.
“Then we run,” he said. “We hunt. We build. We make them regret ever calling you Hollow.”
Sienna nodded.
She took his hand.
They walked back toward the cave bloodied, sated, unbreakable.
Behind them the elk carcass steamed in the snow.
Ahead the mountains waited vast, dark, full of enemies and possibility.
And inside her, something new kept growing.
Fierce.
Unstoppable.
The moon watched them go.
And for the first time in centuries, it didn’t pity the outcast.
It feared her.
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