Compromised Vampire Slayer Ch. 03 (Patreon)

August 11, 2020

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> CHAPTER 3 <

Tristan gave his daughter one last kiss goodbye and then closed the door behind us. He didn’t say anything to me as we began walking back to the secret stairwell. After a minute, I finally decided to ask him what was on my mind again.

“So, what’s a Luna? I know the word luna is Latin for moon, so then is that a werewolf thing?”

He sighed heavily. “Raelynn understands a lot, but she’s still only a little girl. I strongly doubt it would help your situation.”

“Okay…” I replied hesitantly, examining his reserved expression. Why was he avoiding the question? “But, what’s a Luna?” I repeated.

He glanced at me and immediately looked away. “I’ll tell you if you need to know,” he said firmly, implying he wasn’t going to budge on the subject. “But if you can’t kill your friend, then there’s no point anyway. Rowan will probably make me kill you and that will be the end.”

I gulped as I considered that. “I could do it easily if I had a stake,” I admitted.

He looked at me in disbelief. “Even though he’s your friend?”

I shrugged. “I mean, he’s a vampire now…” My voice trailed off, recalling his daughter was too.

In my sudden rush of embarrassment, I started rambling before I could stop myself.

“But, umm, we weren’t really that close to begin with. I mean, he did sort of like me and wanted me to date him, but I wasn’t about to do that. I don’t date. Too risky. After what happened to my parents, I realized that letting anyone get too close was a bad idea…” I paused, realizing that’s exactly the situation he was in – the kind of thing I wanted to avoid. He was being controlled because he had someone close to his heart in the hands of a vampire. I tried to recover. “But anyway, I’m just saying it would be a lot easier with a stake. The whole ripping his heart out with my hand seems a little impossible…and disturbing…”

“Well, that’s the point,” Tristan admitted as we began walking up the stairs. “The disturbing part, that is. He likes to turn monster hunters into monsters themselves. As for the impossible part, you’re stronger now than you realize.”

“I am?” I asked in disbelief.

He nodded. “Maybe I should make you practice on a human first, so you can see for yourself.”

I suspected he was joking in a super dark and morbid kind of way, but I decided to take it seriously. “Would that gain me extra points with Rowan?”

He stopped abruptly and looked at me in surprise. “You would really do that?” he asked in disbelief.

I looked away to think about it, knowing I sincerely had some aggression appearing out of nowhere. “I don’t know if it’s a wolf thing or what, but I’m just feeling…kind of violent. Like, I want to be violent.”

Tristan sighed heavily. “It’s a wolf thing,” he agreed.

“Is that bad?” I asked, concerned by his reaction.

He shook his head and started walking up the stairs again. “No, it’s a good thing. You’ll need to have those violent tendencies to do what you need to do. It’s why I tried to force you to eat that girl – I was trying to make it easier on you for what’s coming up, by provoking the wolf in you.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t realized he was doing me a favor. Dammit, the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was always trying to help me. In every way that I thought he was tormenting me, he was actually conditioning me to survive. It suddenly made me wonder if he wanted to keep me all along – if he had only waited until the last second to pull me away from death so that I’d understand what I was facing if I didn’t do what I was asked.

I decided to question him about it.

“Tristan,” I began hesitantly. “When exactly did you decide to try to keep me?”

He stopped again, turning to face me. We had just reached the top of the stairs, about to exit into the closet that led to a hallway on the second floor. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why does it matter?” he demanded bluntly.

I looked away, interlacing my fingers in front of my waist. “It doesn’t I guess, but I would like to know just how close I came to dying two days ago before you bit me.” I paused, feeling awkward about having this conversation. But I still wanted to know. “Was it because I used your name? Did that make it more personal? Or was it my begging?”

I finally looked at him again when he didn’t respond. It was obvious he was thinking about answering. After a second, he did. “I’ll tell you, but it doesn’t change the fact I might have to kill you soon.”

I nodded. “I understand,” I whispered.

“When you stabbed me with that pencil,” he admitted. I gawked at him, completely baffled. He continued. “And then when you didn’t scream after I uncovered your mouth. It showed me you were a fighter and brave.”

I tried to hide my reaction by focusing on the last part. “But I’m a coward,” I retorted. It was the truth. I killed vampires in their sleep, and I ran away from death once faced with it.

He shook his head, reaching up to grab my chin in his hand. “No one wants to die. That doesn’t make you a coward.”

My face flushed intensely, and my bottom lip began to tremble. The warmth of his hand was seeping directly into my jaw.

Dammit, I shouldn’t have asked. This wasn’t good. Because now I knew this wasn’t a last second decision. He had put a lot of intentional effort into keeping me almost from the moment he met me.

As I found myself becoming lost in his emerald gaze, I felt a ravenous ferocious desire begin to creep up again. Except this desire was different. I didn’t just want to be violent. I wanted to be violent with him.

He ripped his hand away from my chin at the same moment that I went for his wrist. I barely missed and came up snatching the air.

Unexpectedly, he shoved me away, and I slammed into the concrete wall. My desire for violence surged with his unexpected roughness.

“Stay!” he ordered.

I went for him again, and he shoved me back harder. “Autumn, sit down!” he yelled.

I bit my lip as hard as I could, tasting the blood in my mouth, and forced my legs to buckle underneath me. I tucked my head in between my knees and began shaking as I attempted to resist the craving.

“Shit! I need to kill something!” I exclaimed.

I needed an outlet. I needed my violent urge to go somewhere. I wanted to jump his bones so bad it hurt. I’d never had sex in my entire life and here I was trying to force myself on a man. Violently force myself on a man. I wanted to rip his jeans off and shove myself on his cock. I wanted to kiss his hot muscled chest and sink my teeth into his flesh. I wanted him to reach around and shove his fingers up my ass – an idea that had never been even remotely arousing up until this point. Shit!

“It’ll pass,” Tristan said gently.

How could he be so calm? Surely, he knew I wanted to fuck his brains out right now. Shit, what was wrong with me?! I slammed my palms into the sides of my head and groaned, trying not to squirm from the sensation in between my legs. My pussy was so hot right now. It felt like it was on fire, and I was fucking wet as shit!

“SHIT!” I shrieked again. I swung my arm away and slammed my fist into the concrete wall, shocked to hear a loud crack.

It startled me enough to redirect my focus, my head snapping up. I stared in disbelief to see that it wasn’t my bones that had shattered under the pressure – it was the concrete. A spiderweb of lines crawled away from where my fist had hit it.

I held up my hand to stare at my fingers like they belonged to someone else. “What in the hell?” I said breathlessly.

“Better?” he asked expectantly.

I didn’t look up at him. I needed to try to forget he existed for a few minutes – an impossible task right now. I had never really paid attention to how he smelled, but suddenly it was like the air was filled with his musk. An overwhelming enticing musk. A scent that demanded my attention.

With me sitting down, his cock was right there almost on the same level as my face, and I suddenly wanted to suck on it so bad. I wanted to wrap my mouth around it and feel it harden against my tongue. I wanted to shove it down my throat. I wanted to choke on it like I was choking on my meal earlier.

Shit.

I bolted straight up onto my feet, prompting him to take a step back. “I need to kill something,” I repeated firmly. I clenched my teeth together. “Like, now.”

“Well,” Tristan said breathlessly. “Let’s go find your friend then and get it over with. Rowan’s probably already waiting. Not a good idea to make him wait for long.”

I nodded once sharply, continuing to refuse to look at him. I was suddenly thankful my ‘friend’ was a vampire, because if he was a human then I might fuck his brains out instead. I was almost getting to the point where the exact cock didn’t matter anymore. My fists were clenched just as tightly as my teeth. “Then let’s go,” I agreed. “Before I try to do something else really stupid.”

I did my best to ignore Tristan’s audible gulp.

A few minutes later, we met Rowan in the first-level dungeon basement. He immediately shot Tristan a look when he saw my hostile expression. I was careful not to direct my scowl toward him, but I couldn’t seem to hide it. I had murder written all over my face.

It was either that, or have aggressive horny slut written all over my face, though I wasn’t sure there was much distinction between the two looks at this point.

Tristan shrugged. “You wanted a monster. You’ve got yourself a monster.”

Rowan smirked at me then, his red eyes arrogant. “We’ll see.”

I did my best not to glare at him, remembering I needed to still be respectful no matter how aggressive I felt right now. But damn, I really needed to kill something. Or fuck something. Rowan led the way for us to follow, taking the same path Tristan had used when he first brought me down here.

As we neared the room they were keeping Nate in, I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks, my hostility sobering up. My eyes were wide with shock, my nostrils flaring.

I had no idea just how sensitive vampire senses were, but Rowan stopped almost as soon as I did. He looked back at me with a warning glance, probably thinking I was getting cold feet.

Far from it. I was on edge now.

Rowan was about to speak, when Tristan abruptly held up his hand to silence him. I was shocked Rowan actually listened, without even seeming offended. “What is it?” he whispered next to me.

I glanced up at him. “I smell someone I know,” I said seriously. Part of me couldn’t believe it, but I couldn’t deny what my nose was telling me.

Rowan closed the gap between us so fast that I would have missed it if I had blinked. “A hunter?” he demanded in a hiss.

I nodded immediately. “His name is Gavin Waller. He’s one of the best – a legend even.” I glanced up at Tristan. “He’s someone who has fought vampires while they were awake. At least, he did once. And survived.”

“An accomplice?” Rowan snapped, leaning aggressively toward me. I took a step back.

Tristan quickly intervened. “She wouldn’t warn you about it now if she was working with someone. Just because she’s a werewolf doesn’t mean she’d magically give her allies up.”

Rowan nodded slowly in agreement, standing up straight again. “Fine,” he snapped. “Lead the way.” He then stepped to the side for emphasis.

I looked at him in confusion, before I realized what he was asking. “Oh. Okay.” Why couldn’t Tristan lead the way? Surely he could smell it too, right?

I took another whiff of the air and hurried down the hallway, finding myself becoming more apprehensive as we followed a path I recognized. Finally, I stopped in front of Nate’s cell. Tristan rushed right in without hesitation, Rowan close behind. I tentatively followed after them, not wanting to get in their way, when Tristan spoke up.

“Well,” he said breathlessly. “This is a problem.”

I peeked in to see what he was talking about. I tried not to react when I saw Nate’s corpse-like body shriveled up with a stake sticking out of his chest. It looked like he had been dead for months, but I knew from experience that’s just what happened when a vampire’s heart was impaled. Gavin had gotten to him before me, and the man was nowhere to be seen.

Which definitely was a problem. We had a vampire hunter running loose, and I could think of at least one vampire who I actually didn’t want to die.

The fine hairs on my body began to stand on end unexpectedly, and I started growling a low ferocious noise before I even knew what I was doing. Tristan and Rowan both looked back at me in shock, but I was already taking off down the hall, continuing to follow my nose.

They both hurried after me, keeping me in their sight. I was a little surprised by how fast I could run on two legs. I found myself sliding when I tried to round corners, even though the concrete floor was dry. I didn’t even realize I was partially transformed until I reached out to grab a doorknob, only to hesitate when I saw that my hand had small black claws and there was a trail of dark gray fur running down my arm.

Dammit! I was only twenty-seven years old! Why in the hell did I have gray hair already?!

I recovered quickly and entered the room, expecting to find Gavin. Instead, I found an empty closet with concrete walls.

Tristan entered right behind me. “Shit!” he exclaimed.

I whirled around in shock. “What?!” I knew it was a dead end, but it wasn’t my fault the scent ended here.

He reached up toward the lightbulb in the low ceiling, tapping a switch that wasn’t visible from the floor. Unexpectedly, the entire back wall began moving, sliding about three feet before coming to a halt. Behind it was a large hole in the ground with a metal ladder leading straight down to the second basement.

I gasped as Tristan headed straight for it, followed quickly by Rowan. “Wait!” I said urgently.

Surprisingly they both stopped.

I looked directly at Rowan. “You need to wait here,” I said seriously.

His eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?!” he hissed. It was obvious he was pissed.

I took a step toward him this time. “Look, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but supposedly this guy has some kind of ability to sense vampires. That’s why he’s so good at what he does. If it’s true, then he’ll know we’re coming for him. You’ll be like a beacon announcing our approach.”

Rowan scoffed. “No human can do such a thing.”

“Then how did he know where Nate was?!” I demanded. “I was locked down here for two days, and Tristan has been with me for the short time that I’ve been out! Not to mention it looks like he’s heading straight for Tristan’s daughter!”

“I’ll take my chances,” he scoffed again.

“If she dies,” I hissed. “Then you have nothing keeping Tristan here. Nothing.”

Tristan spoke up immediately before the pissed vamp could retort. “Rowan, there’s no threat to you if you lock yourself in this room, and even though I’m sure you could take this human on by yourself, it’s not necessary for you to do so. That’s why I’m here. So whether she’s right or not, there’s no reason for you to come.”

Rowan huffed out a sigh of pure frustration and then took a step back, motioning for me to pass. “You’re lucky I don’t just kill you right now,” he snapped.

I bit back my own irritation as I hurried past him, trying to come up with a response that would be pleasing to him. Tristan was already gone, having leapt down the hole without using the ladder. “Well, if you do decide to let me stay here,” I retorted. “Then I’ll put my full effort into keeping you alive.”

“Stop wasting time,” he snapped again. “Go find that bastard and kill him already.”

“Gladly,” I replied, taking Tristan’s lead and leaping down the hole without the ladder.

I landed with a thud, slightly surprised it didn’t hurt at all. A jump from this height might have broken my legs if I were still human, especially since the ceilings were so high on every level. I looked up to see Tristan waiting at the door, his expression panicked now that Rowan wasn’t with us.

“I can’t figure out which scent is his,” he said urgently. “Hurry, Autumn. I can’t lose her.”

I hurried to his side, trying to explain on the way. I understood now why he couldn’t pick up the scent. It was because it was masked so well, with virtually no trace of human in it. We were both already bolting down the hallway with me speaking in between sniffs. “It’s sort of like a mixture of honeysuckle, rosemary, and beechwood,” I explained.

His expression darkened as he finally realized which scent to follow. “I’ve got it. Do you know where my daughter’s room is from here?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Up ahead, take a right, pass two hallways, then take a left at the third. You’ll see a room full of paintings. Take another left, then the first right. You should recognize it from there. Go make sure she’s safe while I track down the hunter.”

Normally, I would have been confused as hell by his directions, but unexpectedly my mind visualized his instructions as he spoke, creating a shadowy spatial map inside my head. I took off toward my right without giving him any acknowledgment, hoping that our paths didn’t cross again until after he had killed the hunter.

For once, I wasn’t worried about my own life. I was worried about Raelynn.

After spending two hours playing with her, I couldn’t bear seeing her small corpse shriveled up like it had been rotting for months. The thought was almost too much for me, making me unable to even imagine how it would affect Tristan. It would destroy him, which made me realize for the first time there truly was no escape for him. If his daughter died, I couldn’t see how he could go on living.

Her death wouldn’t free him. It would kill him.

I gasped…It would kill him.

My bones began snapping, and my brow furrowed. I ran faster.

It would kill him.

My clothes began tearing, and I snarled. I ran even faster.

It would kill him.

A little girl abruptly screamed, and my body exploded. I was suddenly running on all fours, sprinting faster than I had ever run in my entire life. Sprinting more desperately than I had ever run in my entire life.

We shouldn’t have bothered trying to track down the hunter. We already knew who his target was. We should have just gone straight to her.

Idiot! How could I have been so stupid?!

I bolted straight into her closed door, surprised that I barely fit as it erupted into a hundred splinters.

Raelynn was nowhere in sight, nor was the hunter. But his scent was. My nose was so sensitive now that I could almost see the scent in the air, a trail leading directly to her bedroom. I bounded across the large living room in one leap and wiggled through her open door.

I snarled ferociously when I saw him. Raelynn had climbed on top of an extremely tall bookshelf, and Gavin was halfway up chasing after her. He immediately jumped down when he saw me, shock all over his face. He was a big man, far bigger than Tristan. But somehow, in this moment, I was much bigger than him.

But not big enough. He wasn’t afraid enough.

I felt my bones begin to snap again, popping and resetting as I stood up on my hind legs. My shoulders and hips readjusted their shape, my arms snapping into a more humanoid form, my paws returning to humanoid hands. I stretched out my fingers and snarled as my claws began growing longer. I now had ten six-inch daggers at my disposal.

My ears stood straight up, rubbing against the tall ceiling. Now he was barely half my height.

Gavin pulled out a pistol, firing it at the same time that I swiped my hand out toward him.

I felt the bullet hit my furry chest just as my black claws sliced through his arm, severing the bones. His entire limb fell to the floor in four chunks of meat, the gun still in his dismembered hand. There seemed to be a delay for both of us before the pain hit.

My roar was louder than his scream, though I suspected his pain was far greater than mine. I couldn’t imagine that the fire in my chest was anything like having an arm cut off.

I swiped at him again, smacking him with my open hand this time, knocking him to the floor. I then leapt on top of him, shoving him down with a massive furry hand on his chest. The dark gray fur wasn’t so unappealing now that I was covered in it. I watched him squirm for a moment, his eyes wide with panic, before I thrust my snout down toward his leg. I sank my teeth into his thigh and tore his limb clean off.

His shriek was so loud that I thought his throat was going to burst. Blood was squirting out everywhere now.

I held up my other hand then, sticking out only my index finger to point at him. I then lowered my six-inch claw to his upper chest and sank it into his muscle until I could feel the bone underneath. An upper rib snapped beneath the pressure, my claw puncturing right through. He shrieked as I dragged my claw downward, slicing through the muscle and snapping one rib at a time until I had carved through all of them.

Just as I snapped the last one, the life in his eyes faded, his body having lost too much blood to stay alive.

I huffed out a sigh of frustration, only then noticing that the burning in my chest was getting worse. A lot worse.

I looked up at Raelynn then to make sure she was alright. She was only higher than me right now because I was hunched over her assailant. I didn’t want to scare her by standing up, because I was twice as tall as the man I’d just killed. Her crimson eyes were wide, framed by her blonde hair, but I couldn’t understand the expression on her face.

My bones began popping again as the fire in my ribs increased. I felt like the room was growing larger, but when I looked down at my human hands, I realized I had gotten smaller. I gasped when the wound really began to hurt, the sharp stabbing pain erupting into splinters of radiating agony.

It was all I could do to crawl over to Raelynn’s bed and grab one of her blankets to cover up my naked body. Where in the hell was Tristan? It wasn’t like I killed this guy quickly. I tried to prolong his torture as long as possible.

Raelynn quickly jumped off the bookcase, landing gracefully despite the height, and was at my side in a flash. “Are you alright?” she asked urgently.

I nodded weakly, my body beginning to shake violently as if I were freezing. I knew I had been shot, but it was like the pain was spreading more and more by the second. Tristan barged in barely thirty seconds later in a humanoid werewolf form that was still his normal size.

He gasped when he took in the scene before him, quickly shifting back to a human. “You’re injured?” he asked in disbelief, running up to my side.

I nodded sharply, trying to control my shaking. It only made it worse.

He knelt down next to me, his expression bewildered. “By a gun? A bullet?”

I glared at him. “Yes dumbass!” I snapped. It was hurting too much for me to maintain any level of politeness. What did he think I had been shot by? A porcupine quill?

He urgently left my side and pried the gun out of the dismembered hand, popping out the magazine.

“Shit!” he exclaimed, rushing back over to me. “It’s a silver bullet! I need to dig it out immediately!” Before I could even say anything, he forced me on the ground, his body already shifting again. “Raelynn!” he ordered in a deep bestial voice. “Hold her head!”

She complied immediately, moving closer and pressing her knees against my temples while placing her hands on my forehead.

This was definitely not how I envisioned Tristan being on top of me while I was naked.

I shrieked in agony and began thrashing when his claw sank into me, digging around for the piece of metal. He was sitting on my legs and his other hand was pressed hard against my sternum, forcing me down. The fire in my chest made everything a thousand times more painful. I knew instantly when he got it out, because the flames dissipated significantly.

“Shit,” I exclaimed breathlessly, thankful it was over.

He climbed off me then, but Raelynn stayed where she was. He then sighed heavily and pulled the blanket back over my body.

“Thanks,” I whispered, still shaking.

He shook his head. “No, thank you, Autumn. For saving my daughter.” When I didn’t say anything, attempting to just focus on my breathing as the residual burning lessened more and more, he continued. “If it were a normal bullet, you would have healed pretty quickly. Silver is one of the few things that can hurt us.”

I laughed without humor. “Just like the myths.” I took a deep breath. “I wonder if he knew or if it was just a lucky guess.”

He shrugged. “No way to know now. You sure tore him up good.”

My expression darkened. “He was trying to kill Raelynn. He deserved worse.”

Tristan nodded slowly in agreement but didn’t say anything. I realized he was looking at me strangely again, but I wasn’t in the mood to care right now. I looked up at Raelynn to see she was just staring down at me, her expression blank.

“Are you alright?” I asked with concern.

She just continued to stare at me, unresponsive, her red eyes empty. Was she in shock? Did vampires go into shock?

Tristan spoke up then. “Raelynn?”

She slowly looked up at him and then tilted her head back down toward me. Her brow furrowed then. “I want you to be my mommy,” she whispered.

My eyes unfocused as I went into shock.

Thankfully, Tristan didn’t even give me a chance to answer her, immediately chastising his daughter. Not that I had any idea what to say anyway. Be her mommy? Wasn’t I too young to have a kid her age? I mean, I guess I technically was old enough to be her biological mother if I had been knocked up when I was a teenager. But if she was actually a twelve-year-old inside an eight-year old’s body, then how old was Tristan? He didn’t seem much older than me.

I interrupted their arguing, which could hardly even be called arguing. It was more like they were discussing it. I did my best to ignore them. “Tristan, how old are you?”

He glanced down at me in surprise. “Thirty, why?”

Three years older than me? I could work with that. Granted, I probably would have thought that even if he said forty.

Wait! What am I even thinking?! I must be delusional!

I tried to shake my head, only to realize Raelynn still had her knees firmly placed against my temples. Damn, how strong was she? “No reason,” I choked out. “Can I sit up now?”

“Oh!” Raelynn looked down at me apologetically as she scooted away. “Sorry.”

Tristan grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me upright. I kept the blanket bunched up around my chest as I scooted back to lean against Raelynn’s bed. Glancing down at the bullet wound, I saw that it was already closed up. There wasn’t even a scar. I was a little surprised it was already healed, but I still felt horrible. It was like the silver had drained me of all energy.

I groaned. “Why do I feel so weak and tired?” I complained.

Tristan frowned, before standing up. “It should pass soon. Eating will help, but first I need to get the cleanup crew in here to get started on this mess.” He pulled out a black cellphone, different from the one he’d been using in our room, as he spoke.

My eyes widened in shock. “You’re going to let people see this?!” I exclaimed.

He paused and nodded. “They’re flesh eaters, so they’ll eat the body and then douse the room in chemicals.”

“Like zombies?” I asked in disbelief. No way in hell those were real too.

Tristan shook his head. “Not exactly. You’ve met one already. The man who hired you, Mr. Lancaster is a flesh eater. He’s similar to a normal person except for his unique dietary needs.” He was then thoughtful. “Although if you starve one, they do become stupid and decrepit, so I guess maybe he is like a zombie. Just not the kind in myths.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. This truly was a house of horrors – a house of monsters.

Seeing that I was satisfied with his answer, he went back to making his call. How did he even get service down here? It wasn’t until he pushed a button on the side that I realized it wasn’t a phone after all. It was a small radio. They must have signal amplifiers on every floor.

“Rob, it’s Tristan. We had a code black on B2. Disposal and clean up necessary in room 237.”

“Your daughter’s room?” a man’s voice asked in disbelief. “We’ll be right there.”

Rowan’s voice spoke up then on the radio. I assumed he was still in the dungeon above us and had his own device. “Good work, Tristan. I assume your daughter is alive.”

“Yes,” Tristan replied. “Although I got here too late. Autumn killed him. We split up and she came across him before I did.”

“Really?” His tone was skeptical.

“Come see for yourself. She was shot with a silver bullet and everything.” He paused. “I think you might be pleased with her handiwork. Looks like she took her time mauling him to death.”

I groaned quietly. I didn’t want to be around Rowan while I was naked, even if I was covered up with a blanket. I really hoped he found my scent just as unappealing as Raelynn did.

The main vamp himself arrived a lot sooner than I was expecting. He really was inhumanly fast. He looked at me with a slight disgust before examining the corpse on the floor. I sighed in relief, having the exact opposite reaction as when Tristan grimaced yesterday. I was glad Rowan thought I was revolting.

After he was done with his visual assessment, he gave me a sharp nod. “Looks like you may be useful after all.” He quickly clarified when I looked at him in shock. “But you still need to prove yourself in the field,” he snapped. “I expect to see some impressive results with securing fresh food for the estate.”

I nodded hesitantly as he turned on his heels to leave. “Wait,” I said unexpectedly.

He instantly spun around, annoyance in his expression. “What?” he snapped.

I attempted to clear my thoughts. “I think…” I paused as I tried to find the right words to explain. “It’s just that, three hunters have come here now, never to return home.”

“And?” he demanded, clearly not understanding where I was going with this. “We’ve had plenty of hunters meet the same fate.”

I bit my lip. “Sure, but the three of us are all from the same Hunter Society. And we have rules about this kind of thing. Gavin was sent because he was the expert. He’s like a last resort. Well, more like the last resort, before the last resort.”

“What do you mean?” Tristan asked abruptly.

I looked up at him. “Our Society doesn’t like to fail. And they take hunter deaths personally. Once Gavin doesn’t return, they’ll probably put all their efforts into eliminating the threat here.”

Rowan barked out an arrogant laugh. “Let them come.”

“You don’t understand,” I pressed. “They aren’t just an unorganized team of misfits. They’re an army. When they mobilize in full force, they’ll descend on this place like the military going to war. Maybe you can handle a few hunters at once, but can you really defend against several hundred?”

“There are that many of you in your particular Society?” Rowan asked in disbelief.

I nodded slowly, my mind processing the situation. “And that’s just our Hunter Society. If they ask for help from others, it could be even more of a nightmare.” I took a deep breath, hesitant to continue. “Although, I might have an idea that will delay them. But I doubt you’ll like it.”

“And what’s that?” he snapped again.

“Allow me to contact them – supervised, of course – and try to convince them I’m still on the job. It probably won’t keep them away forever, but it will buy you enough time to prepare for war.”

Rowan eyed me suspiciously as he considered it.

Tristan spoke up then. “If you want, I’ll make her my Luna so she can’t hide her thoughts from me.”

I abruptly shot him an alarmed glance, my stomach suddenly in knots. His Luna? Not the Luna or a Luna, but his Luna? What in the hell was a Luna? I was afraid to find out now.

The look of disgust on Rowan’s face made me cringe. Whatever he was thinking about made him look like he would vomit if he could. My apprehension only increased.

“Fine,” he snapped. “Do what you must to ensure she doesn’t betray us.”

Tristan nodded firmly. I looked over at Raelynn to see that she was unsuccessfully trying to cover a huge grin with her hands. Didn’t I get a say in this? I supposed not, if I wanted to avoid Rowan deciding to kill me. He needed to know I wasn’t trying to betray them. But what did Tristan mean by me not being able to hide my thoughts? I decided I really didn’t want to find out.

Finished with us, Rowan turned to leave, his face still distorted with revulsion.

Tristan unexpectedly scooped me up in his arms, thankfully bringing the blanket with me, and looked over at his daughter. “Go play in the other room while they clean up your bedroom. I’ll come by to see you again before you go to sleep.”

“Okay daddy!” she said cheerfully, her grin as big as ever. “Have fun with Autumn!”

Tristan’s muscles stiffened at the same time as mine did. What in the hell did that mean? Even if she was twelve, surely her meaning was innocent. In fact, I felt confident it was, but Tristan’s reaction certainly wasn’t innocent.

I held the blanket tighter to my chest. “I’m hungry,” I announced in a shaky voice.

He looked down at me in surprise. “Of course,” he said gently. Too gently. My face started turning red. “I’ll take you back to our room so you can get dressed. And then we’ll go eat.”

I nodded slowly. Hesitantly. Our room. Shit this was a problem. What if I flipped out again like before? Would he stop me? Could I stop myself?

Food. I just needed to focus on food. Meat. Lots and lots of meat.

But not his meat.

Shit.

Despite the knots in my stomach, I honestly was hungry. I just hoped we could make it to the dining room without getting sidetracked.

Oh shit, please universe, don't let us get sidetracked.

Chapter 4 >>