Mating Games: The Huntress

Episode 9

RESSA POV

I’m still trying to catch my breath. But it was so worth it, because I won.

After the race we were all led back to the cabin. Apparently rooms had already been assigned and everyone quickly splintered off to get ready to watch the males Run.

Shayauna led Mia and I all the way the up the stairs, into some kind of attic. But it was as opulent as the rest of the house.

“I apologize for the accommodations, all the doubles have been filled and I assumed you’d want to stay together. You’ll have to share a bed, but the rest of the room should meet your needs.”

“This is beautiful, thank you.” Mia says as she smiles wide and tosses our duffel-bag down.

“We can pretty much sleep anywhere. Thank you, Shayauna.” I add, and she smiles and nods.

But I don’t miss the assessing gaze. Pretty much everyone but Mia has been looking at me like that since the end of the Run.

“Forgive me, Andressa, but I would like to discuss something with you before I leave. Could you tell me what you do know about your lineage?” She asks and my hackles raise a bit, apparently me winning that race was a bigger deal than I thought.

“Nothing. As I said before, I wasn’t lying.” I say evenly.

“I did not mean to insinuate that. It is an oddity for strong wolves not to claim their offspring, and you are most definitely from a strong Wolf line. I’d guess an Alpha.”

“You think this because I won?” I ask.

“Yes..” she nods and steps forward “.. I know I could never understand your life or your struggles. But I know the Alpha’s will want to know your rank, to know who you are and whom you came from. You beat the strongest Alpha females the Packs have, that has shined a spotlight on you.” She admits.

“I understand, but I really know nothing.”

“You do know something. What is your mothers name?” She asks, and I don’t answer right away. I look to Mia and she shrugs, seemingly less concerned than I am.

“Obviously she’s Human, is she still alive?” Shayauna pushes.

I nod but don’t respond. My hesitancy seems to express my concerns because the Luna steps forward and takes hold of one of my hands. Gently holding me tightly.

“Ressa..” she starts “.. I do not wish to hurt you or your mother. I wish to help you, to help all the half-bloods. Our world has not been kind to you, and I apologize for that. I only ask about your mother to help determine your origins. You and Mia are safe here, on these Pack lands. No matter what any other Alpha attending the games believes of half-bloods, not even they would risk a war by disrespecting you or trying to hurt you while on our lands. Please.. trust me with this. What is her name?” She asks again and I exhale all my reservations before so answer. For some inexplicable reason I do trust her.

“Senna, Senna Ribisi.” I answer, and Shayauna’s eyes widen slightly.

“Senna? The Hunter?” She clarifies.

“Yes. I didn’t even know she was my mother until I was ten years old, that’s when she came for me. I’ve been with the Hunters since then.” I admit.

“Since you were a child.. who were you with before that?” She asks and I shake my head no, I will not bring Nana into this.

“Alright, alright.. I’m sorry, I won’t push on that. I will discuss this with my husband, the Alpha of the Dark Tiders, and no one else. He will wait until this evening to speak with you. And I promise he won’t discuss any of this with any of the other Alpha’s until he sees you. There’s a very good chance that by this evening you will have some of the answers you deserve.”

She squeezes my hand in a reassuring manner and nods readily.

“I will let you get ready. It’s casual dress for now. Someone will retrieve you shortly, when it’s time to watch the Males Run. I’ll see you later.” She says and then she leaves Mia and I to ourselves.

“Well, as it turns out you’re a big deal around here..” Mia says as she jumps up and starts undressing “.. should I be jealous Huntress? I mean, I dominated in that race as well, did I not?” She says and then she arches an eyebrow high to tease me further.

“Shut up! I need a shower.” I grumble.

“Uh uh, I call dibs. You may be the queen B right now, but you can kiss my milky white ass if you think you’re getting in their before me.” She jokes as she slaps her own butt and walks into the bathroom, starting the shower.

I laugh at my best friends ridiculousness and then take off some of my gear. I quickly pull out my burner from my duffel and turn it on. Then I look to see if an alert has been sent out. I wired the alerts to retrieve any messages from Senna to ping off two other burners before it gets to us. I hid one burner under the seat of a semi-truck when we stopped at a gas station and I stashed the other one inside the plane we were on. I can check alerts with the one I have now, but if they try to track us they’ll have to follow the moving bread crumbs from the first two burners.

That’s assuming Senna can’t just guess where we are and what we’ve done. Which is very likely. She’s the smartest person I know. But there’s no alerts, that’s good. I hope.

Mia and I are fairly quiet as we clean up and get ready. But it isn’t long before there’s a knock at the door.

I throw my head of black curls up in a ponytail as Mia heads to open the door. We had to forfeit our weapons when we entered the Pack lands and it makes me smile when I see Mia instinctively go for the knife she usually keeps sheathed behind her.

“Damn, I forgot.” She mutters before she opens the door.

When it’s open I’m surprised to see another attendee at the door, and not just any other girl. But the one who gave me a run for my money, I believe she said her name was Elsa.

“Hey, ladies. You ready? I volunteered to steer you in the right direction.” She says and then she smiles, and it feels genuine.

“Yeah, we’re all set.” Mia answers and when Elsa turns to lead the way we follow.

“I volunteered to escort you because I wanted to get to know you both.” She adds as we reach the bottom of the stairs.

“That’s so sweet..” Mia coos sarcastically, though I’d be the only one who could tell the difference “.. well.. all you need to know about me is I’m a Scorpio, my favorite food group is pizza, I prefer to do the horizontal tango with boys, and I really hate long walks on the beach.” She teases and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling.

Elsa stops walking just before we reached the main door of the cabin and just looks at Mia a moment, and then she busts up laughing.

“Touché, Mia..” Elsa adds as she walks out and we continue to follow her “.. well, for what it’s worth I’m also a Scorpio. My favorite food group is anything with chocolate in it, I don’t have a preference when it comes to the horizontal tango, and I too hate long walks on the beach.” She teases back with a wink and Mia smiles big, easily pleased that Elsa has played along.

Then we’re getting into a big black SUV with Elsa in the drivers seat a minute later and she drives further down the same dirt road that led us to the cabin earlier.

As we drive along we can hear howls off into the distance and Mia practically pushes her face up against the window up in the front seat trying to get a peek of the males. But they aren’t visible, my guess is they’re deep in the lush forest at the starting line, maybe warming up.

“How many are there to choose from.” Mia asks and Elsa chuckles while I roll my eyes.

“If you ask the guys, they’re the ones who do the choosing. There’s three packs that you should try and stay clear of, Mate or no Mate. Unfortunately, my pack, the Bay Wolf Pack, is one of them. My dad and my brother are big headed idiots who follow the Blood Moon Packs Alpha around like they’re pups still wet behind the ears. It’s pathetic, and I apologize now for whatever stupid s**t they might say or do.” She says.

“You don’t have to apologize for anyone..” Mia says sweetly, I can tell she’s warming up to Elsa “.. but thanks for the heads up.”

“Trust me, it’s the least I could do.” Elsa adds.

“What is the other Pack to look out for? You said yours and Blood Moon, what’s the third?” I ask.

“Oh, Nightshade. Their current Alpha is a nasty son of a b***h, but his son isn’t. Nyx is more than ready to take over the pack, he just needs his mate. It’s tradition to hand down a pack once the heir apparent has found his mate and claimed her. Unless they take matters into their own hands.” Elsa answers.

“What does that mean?” Mia asks.

“It means they’d challenge the Alpha for the title and the role. But that’s pretty old school and most of the fathers don’t let it get to that point. Too risky.” She says.

“How so?” I ask.

“Because in a challenge for Alpha it’s a fight to the death, even if your father and son. Win or lose the father loses. Either he dies or his heir dies.” She says as she eyes me in the rear view mirror.

“I knew that. I think I just forgot it, a lot of things are coming back to me.” Mia said absently as she stared out the passenger window.

“Back to you? Did you grow up in a Pack?” Elsa asks.

“Yes..” Mia nods “.. the Silent Moon Pack, until..” she cleared her throat “.. until I was fourteen.”

And that’s all she says, then she looks back out the window. I don’t blame her, I’m not exactly excited about digging into my crap, but the Luna’s right, I might finally get some answers.

“I remember hearing about what happened to them..” Elsa grips the steering wheel harder as she speaks and when I look back outside I see that we’re pulling up in front of a castle, an actual honest to God castle “.. I’m sorry for what you loss, Mia.” Elsa says with true contrition, as she parks the SUV and looks at Mia.

“Thank you, I appreciate you saying that.” Mia says, she offers up a small smile and then we all get out and head up the stone walk-way. And again, we’re walking into a freaking castle.

“What about you, Andressa? Have you ever lived in a pack?” Elsa asks.

“No.” Is all I say and she seems to understand I won’t be elaborating.

“So.. what’s it like being a Hunter?” She asks, and I admit the question surprised me so I paused before answering.

“It has it’s moments. There’s nothing like it, the danger of hunting something that doesn’t have a problem killing you, and the anticipation when you take the shot that will end it’s life. We’re probably good at it because of the beasts inside of us.” I say casually as I look around, at the high ceilings and deep red colored walls connected with gold crown molding.

And when my eyes fall back on Elsa she’s looking at me strangely. Like she didn’t understand what I just said.

“Is that how you refer to your Wolf? As a beast?” She asks and she crosses her arms defensively.

“Sometimes. But only because she can be beastly.” I say with a small smile, unfazed by her temper spiking.

“She doesn’t mean it in an offensive way, in the place where we’ve been living it’s a casual term for the Wolf side of us. But I’ve never met anyone who is more in sync with her Wolf. Ressa is a Huntress, through and through.” Mia defends and Elsa seems to ponder this for a second.

“Alright. But I’ll warn you, some of the wolves in there..” she points to a set of big double doors ahead of us “.. might have a problem with that term being so.. casually.. used. It’s a derogatory term in Packs; basically like calling someone a dirty rogue or a nasty bitch.” Elsa explains. And I must say I’m finding her blunt nature to be more and more endearing, maybe because it’s so genuine.

I smirk but nod in understanding.

“Noted.” I say, just to reassure her, and she nods stiffly in acceptance before leading us the rest of the way.