Hunted (Pack of Dawn and Destiny, #1)(88)

I could feel Greyson’s eyes on my back, so I slapped on a smile as I turned to face him. “I feel a lot better now!”

Greyson flicked his eyes from Amos to me. “We need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Your hunter magic.”

Before he could say anything else, six police cars—which I was pretty sure was all the police cars the Timber Ridge police force had—zoomed into the meadow from the gravel road, scattering pebbles and rock as they slammed to a stop.

I wiped sweat from my forehead and exhaled. “Ah, good. Teresa made it to City Hall! Woah.” My legs abruptly gave out underneath me, and I would have fallen down if Greyson hadn’t caught me.

“Careful. I don’t think the magic can completely replace all the blood you lost,” he said.

“It feels weird—you being all caring and thoughtful, I mean,” I said. “Not even a snarky comment to accompany that. Hey!” I went through the motions of protesting when Greyson picked me up bridal style again.

“Relax, Lady Hunter,” Greyson said. “It’s this, or you can crawl.”

I screwed my mouth up tight and frowned at him, but hooked my arms around his neck and enjoyed the ride.

The police climbed out of the cars, the nearest officer—a tall guy with a mop of blond hair—crouched by Original Jack and young Jack, checking in to see if they were hurt.

A crackle spat out over the loudspeaker attached to one of the cars. “Hunters, you are under arrest,” Mayor Pearl declared through the radio. “For attacking the Northern Lakes Pack, and for your unpaid parking tickets! Easton, help Henry—get the one who’s crawling away!”

I laughed as I listened to the ornery woman. “I told Teresa to tell Mayor Pearl about this. I knew Mayor Pearl would be the scariest thing in Timber Ridge that we could possibly sic on them. I’m glad I was right!”

“And check to make sure they all have permits for their firearms—if they don’t, double the fine!” Mayor Pearl shouted, making the speaker blare.

Several of the police officers saluted her. “Yes Ma’am!”

I smiled, but when I let my head thump Greyson’s chest, I saw him glance down at me in concern.

This worked out perfectly. My back is patched well enough by whatever awesome magic this is that I won’t die of bleeding out, Amos got caught, the Pack made it out okay. Everything is fantastic!

Except it wasn’t.





Chapter 25





Pip





The first hint that things weren’t as beautiful as I believed was that Pre-Dominant Harka and Rafe drove up to Timber Ridge. Harka stayed so she could help sort out the mess with the Fletchings and the allies they’d called in—because they had, as I’d suspected, captured all the wolves who were going out on a run. Even worse, they’d hit them with a fae sleep spell. The only reason they hadn’t been slaughtered was that all the hunters assigned to them had abandoned their posts to follow Greyson because Amos had emphasized that Greyson needed to be captured.

But three days had passed since the Fletchings were taken into custody in the Curia Cloisters…and Harka was still around.

Why? This whole thing was about the Fletchings, not the Northern Lakes Pack.

I adjusted my hold on two sacks of veterinary prescription cat food as I toddled back to my house.

I still haven’t had the courage to ask Greyson about the reports he makes to her. I’m afraid what he’ll say.

Greyson wouldn’t pull any punches with me—even if he had carried me princess style after the fight. He’d straight out tell me why Harka was getting reports, and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know. I had a feeling it might destroy my fragile illusion of feeling like I was welcomed here.

I fixed my grip on the sacks of cat food and looked up, pausing when I saw Scarlett and Radcliff walking up the gravel pathway, coming toward me.

They were the only two Fletching hunters who’d come to Timber Ridge to get off completely free.

Mayor Pearl had searched hard for some reason to fine them—she’d wanted to hit them with a ticket for disturbing the peace—but even she hadn’t been able to find fault with them.

I don’t know why they’re still here, in Timber Ridge, though, instead of leaving for home.

“Hello,” I called out to the siblings. “How are you two?”

“Hunter Sabre, hello.” Scarlett nervously dipped her head while Radcliff anxiously swung his arms forward then backward. “We were hoping to find you.”

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“No, um. No,” Radcliff said. “We wanted to ask if we could stay,” he blurted out.

I stared at them, confused. “Sorry?”

“We want to stay in Timber Ridge,” Scarlett translated.

My forehead wrinkled as I tried to make sense of them. “But why?”

“This…incident with Uncle Amos has made it clear that we don’t understand…” Scarlett trailed off and looked at Radcliff for help.

“Much of anything,” Radcliff said. “We know what we were taught for hunter certification, but you obviously know a lot more about werewolves—about their lives and what it means to be a werewolf. We’d like to learn.”