Mating Games: The Huntress

Episode 1

RESSA POV

It’s cold, but the frigid air doesn’t touch my exposed skin. The animal inside keeps me warm and alert. I’m perched on a tree fifteen feet above the ground and I can hear the soft predatory steps of the beast below me.

But it doesn’t see me, doesn’t sense me. My training ensured it wouldn’t be able to. When I hunt I pay acute attention to my distance from the target and to the direction the wind blows; so it can’t hear me, can’t smell me. My step is as soft as a feather as I perch up in the tree. Nearly undetectable.

I also keep my bow and arrow drawn and ready to fire, because the one thing I’m sure of as a hunter is to expect the unexpected. No matter what we’re hunting.

I watch the beast closely, I take slow steady breathes as it encroaches further towards my decoy.

The decoy being my best friend and fellow hunter, Mia. She has a long white coat wrapped around her and a bright red backpack hanging from her shoulders, pretending to be taking a shortcut through the forest. She might as well be a neon sign for this monster.

We’ve tracked this rogue Wolf for about a week now. It’s killed six people, but it won’t kill anyone else. It doesn’t know it yet.. but that beast is going to die today.

Mia starts skipping and my lip twitches upward, she isn’t even a little scared. Which sells the rouse perfectly. There’s no reason for her to fear for her life because she’s like me, half shifter, we have heightened senses and heal quicker than humans.

She also knows I have her back. Always.

I hear Mia’s shrill scream pierce through the quiet as she pretends to trip and fall forward. A second later a low menacing growl rips out of the beast as it lunges. The animal is practically foaming at the mouth as it runs towards Mia.

In the breath of my next second my aim is set and my silver tipped arrow is flying through the air. Straight for the heart of that rabid beast.

Before the arrow hits it’s mark I’ve jumped down from my perch and started running full speed towards Mia. I heard the weapon slice through the rogues flesh and it’s accompanying whine. Mia was already to her feet, weapon in hand and standing over the wolf when I approached.

The Wolf’s breathing was labored and it’s heart was fading fast, I didn’t miss. I never missed. We stood and waited for the shift, and as soon as the beast died it turned back into it’s human form.

“It’s veins are blue, she won’t be happy.” Mia said as she sheathed the knives she pulled out before the monster died.

“She’s never happy..” I said matter of factly “.. but your right, this is bad. This is the youngest one yet. He can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen years old.”

“You think it’s dark magic?” Mia asked as she gathered some wood to assist in burning the body, I was busy snapping pictures to send to Senna.

“Maybe. It’s definitely not natural though. We’ll head back as soon as we burn it. We should try and get back as soon as possible, before the games begin.”

“Right, the games.” Mia sighed and threw her pile of wood down a little harder then necessary.

“You still wanna go, huh?” I asked, amused. She may be the same age as me but she’s far more adventurous than I am, and quicker to flare a temper when someone upsets her.

“I have a right to go, and so do you!” She arched her eyebrow and smirked, knowing full well Senna wouldn’t allow it. She’d rather let a pack of rogues tear her to shreds than allow me to go to the mating games.

“That’ll never happen, but you could probably petition to go if it’s what you really want. But is it? More than likely your life as a hunter would be over. She-wolves are still rather docile and beholden to their mates, destined or not. I couldn’t kick back and pop out pups to appease some possessive and arrogant wolf man!” I state matter of factly, Senna may have a lot of expectations of me, but she’s also freed me. Becoming a hunter has instilled me with fierce independence, I don’t need anyone to protect me, especially not a male shifter.

“I did petition the council.” Mia surprises me in her admission and I freeze, accelerant in hand as I was dousing the dead rogue with it.

“And?” I ask hesitantly. I don’t want her to leave, I’d miss her if she ran off to be with her mate and left me here all by myself. Losing her in my every day life would be a boulder size pill to swallow. She’s my partner in crime, my sister.

“Senna made sure it was denied, told them I was indispensable. She was the one who informed me my petition was denied, she was not happy I went over her head.”

“I’m sorry..” I whisper out as we take a step back from the body, and Mia pulls out a pack of matches from her back pocket.

“Shut-up, Ressa! Her sins aren’t on you. Besides..” she smirks as she lights the match and tosses it. The pungent smell of the accelerant mixed with burning flesh is an assault on my senses. I’ll never get used to the scent of death.

“.. we both know you’d be miserable without me.” She finishes and I can’t help but smile at my friend.

“Yes, I would.” I admit and she slings an arm over my shoulder as we walk away from the burning body.

“Let’s head home, there’s too many evil things to kill. I want to devour some pizza and soak in a bubble bath before they send us back out.”

“Sounds like a solid plan. Tell me, will Wes be joining you to assist in these plans for relaxation?” I tease, Wes is Mia’s boy-toy, her term not mine.

“We’ll see.. You know for a human he’s got great stamina, must be that hunter training.” She jokes.

“Be careful with that one, he’s got hearts in his eyes when he looks at you. And I know how allergic you are to other peoples feelings.” I joke back and she snorts out a little laugh.

“You know me so well.” I nod in agreement and a small smile spreads across my face.

“Let’s go home.” I say longingly, realizing in this moment that the only reason it feels like home is because of Mia. I don’t know what my life looks like without her, and I’m not really interested in finding out.

***

One day, fives hours, and thirty-three minutes later we’re driving up the long familiar dirt road. There are a dozen hunter bases in the States, and we operate out of the largest one. The first one ever built and our command center. It’s imbedded deep into the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in Colorado.

I sigh as we come up to the security gate, and Mia rolls down the window and enters her six digit code to open up the iron wall. It’s a bit much in my opinion.

I’ve been here since I was ten, and Mia’s been here since she was fourteen. My mother forced me into this life but Mia didn’t have much of a choice. Her entire pack was killed and the few shifter children that survived went to live with extended family in other packs. But not Mia, she didn’t have anyone else and no packs wanted to adopt a half-breed. Until about three years ago it was shifter law to reject human mates, few packs allowed for the pairings. Also until recently we half-breeds have been considered abominations, diluted wolves.

Mia’s pack happened to be one of the more progressive packs, and there’s been rumors that that’s exactly why they were killed. But officially it’s been labeled a vicious rogue attack.

My mother says I’m lucky to have never been exposed to barbaric pack life. Before she came to get me I lived with my grandmother on tribe land in Colorado. Nana is a Cheyenne healer, and she married and had a daughter with a Pakistani man. I never met my grandfather though, he was a nature photographer and he died climbing some mountain before I was even born.

I don’t know anything about my own dad or my shifter lineage. Mom keeps it all close to the vest and to my knowledge she never even told Nana Toma who he is.

In this regard I’m envious of Mia; at least she knows where she came from, she had both her parents for the first fourteen years of her life and she knows that they loved her. Just as she is, half-breed and all.

If you ask Senna if she loves me she’ll tell you she’s kept my “best interests” in mind and has made sure I’m one of the most capable hunters they have. But she’s never been motherly or nurturing. I guess I should be thankful that I had Nana Toma for the first ten years of my life.

Though I wish I could visit with her more than twice a year, but Senna and the council keep Mia and I pretty busy.

“Home sweet home.” Mia grumbles as she pulls into the parking garage and kills the engine.

“Just think of that tasty pizza and the bubble bath, positive reinforcement.” I say.

“Good point. And what about you? What will you do to relax? You’re wound so tight sometimes I think your head might just pop off. Or that you might end up taking a chunk out of someone’s neck.” She jokes.

“I’m fine, just because I don’t say whatever pops into my head or jump down someone’s throat when I get a sideways glance doesn’t mean I’m wound tight..” a clear my throat and Mia rolls her eyes as we open the SUV doors and jump out “.. and just because I don’t have a boy-toy doesn’t mean I’m stressed out.”

“Fine. I guess I just don’t get it.” She shrugs as we head up the spiral staircase to the main floor, also known as the Rec room.

“Get what?” I ask.

“Why you’re holding onto that v-card. You’ve been pretty adamant about not giving two-shits about finding your mate. Shifter or human alike. So what’s keeping you from taking a ride on the magical pony?” She teases and now it’s my turn to roll my eyes.

“I don’t know, I’m just not interested.”

“Okay.. but why?” Mia doesn’t relent and I don’t answer. But she’s not having it this time around, because as soon as I go to open the Rec room door she stops me and turns me towards her.

“Seriously, Ressa. What’s holding you back? You’re not a robot and you deserve some happiness and pleasure out of this life of servitude.”

“I don’t always see it as a life of servitude. We have a purpose, and that purpose saves lives. So what if I don’t know the people we save and they don’t know me, I still matter. Because we’re making a difference.”

“Jesus..” Mia sighs and crosses her arms over her chest “.. it’s worse than I thought. You know you’re actually starting to sound like her.”

“How is that a surprising thing? She is my mother, Mia.”

“No, she’s your commander and you are her subordinate. I believe those were her precise words when she first brought you here. ‘She’s a bad ass hunter and she’s a thorough and relentless leader, but she is not a mother’. And I believe those were your exact words when we met.”

“Okay.. Christ, what do you want me to say? Everything in my life since I got here has been about being the best and about checking off boxes. Her boxes! I’ve done everything I can to please her and to make sure I don’t disappoint her with the only thing she expects from me. Being a hunter. Being the best f*****g hunter I can be. This is my life, Mia. I can’t want more, I can’t wish for things I will never have..” I shrug and cross my arms over my chest “.. I’d just be torturing myself.” I admit.

“That’s so damn sad, Ressa.. Will you at least say it to me, tell me what it is you want but can’t have?”

“You know what it is.” I say, and then I take a deep breath to try and push all these feelings back down. I have to look up at the ceiling to keep my traitorous tears away.

“Your mate? Someone who loves you no matter what?” Mia whispers, her own unshed tears breaching her defenses and starting to fall down her cheeks. I nod my head in agreement.

“It’s silly, but it’s the one thing she hasn’t been able to steal away from me.. that urge we have, that desire to find the other half of us. I don’t know..” I shrug “.. I don’t anticipate ever finding him, but I refuse to relinquish another piece of myself to this life. Loving someone, sharing my body and soul with them, it’s my choice. And it’s the one thing she can’t make me do. It’s the one thing she has absolutely no control over. I may never be claimed, but I take solace in knowing that I do belong with someone. Someone who’s meant to love and cherish me. For me.” I admit.

“You’re right..” Mia steps forward and grips onto my arms, almost desperately “.. so lets leave. We aren’t prisoners here, let’s defect out of the hunters and go to the games this year. Find our mates. Live our own lives.” she begs.

“Mia..” I pull her into me and hug her to me, then hold her tight “.. we can’t.”

She doesn’t respond, she just hugs me back and holds me even tighter. Then she cries, she cries for everything we’ll never have because she knows I’m right. If we were normal, if we were only human, we could quit. Defect and walk away. But as half shifters, without the title of hunter and without belonging to a pack, we’d be deemed rogues. They would send fellow hunters after us. Or literally feed us to the wolves.

We have choices, but we also don’t. Any path we take we lose something, we land on a sword.

“There has to be a way.” Mia whispers when we finally pull apart.

“I don’t know, if there is we’ll find it. But I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon. The games aren’t happening for us this year.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her they probably never would, she didn’t need to hear that right now.