The other guys gather close, sensing this is a turning point. Once we tell him everything, we can start planning. We can get her back.
“Aly,” I pause, unsure how he’s going to react, “is a hunter.” If he handles this poorly one of us might attack him. No one can handle an insult to their mate right now.
He reels back in shock, like I hit him. At first, he’s clearly in denial, staring at me like I’m messing with him. Then the pieces start to click for him too.
Her lack of powers, her fighting abilities, the fact that she didn’t fit into any category we know.
“How do you know?” He whispers.
“Jax and I had actually just figured it out moments before everything happened. We found a hunter’s mating mark and it’s a replica of ours. The book said it hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years, but we didn’t check how old the book was, it could be thousands at this point.”
He reaches up and touches her mark on his chest. His face is in agony as he gets a stronger connection to her current panic. At least we know she’s not in pain, for now, but she is freaking out.
“What is she feeling? How is she doing?!” Kiran shouts, his shadows wrapping around Jeremy’s arm.
I stare at his eyes and they’re crazed. I think he’s dying for the connection we have to her. And I wouldn’t give it up for anything but at least he will be able to keep a clearer head than us. As we continue to be apart from our mate, the bond is going to react to the distance. I can already feel a twinge in my chest urging me to go to her. I’m sure Jay’s is worse since it’s newer than mine.
Jeremy is lost in his own moment, so I answer Kiran. “She’s panicking, but she’s not in any pain.”
Kiran and Ajax sag in relief. I didn’t realize how much knowing that helped me. I’ll have to keep them updated as we search for her. I think Kiran is going to tackle Aly and demand to mate right then and there when we find her. I doubt she’ll turn him down.
Jeremy finally looks back up at me, so I continue, “killing you triggered her hunter gene, even though she didn’t actually kill you. Her mark showed up and… so did her mom.”
He cuts me off, “how do you know it was her mom?”
Ajax answers before I can, “she looked just like her.”
“And Aly called her ‘mom,’” I add because I sense Jeremy’s anger.
Jeremy nods but I can tell he’s come to the same conclusion we have. If Aly’s mom is a hunter then Aly isn’t safe.
“We need to find her! Now!” He sounds like he’s barely holding onto control.
“We will. We need to make a plan and gather everything we know about hunters,” I say.
Jay whines at my feet and I don’t want to do it, but we need him.
“Jay, shift back. We need to get our girl back.”
It takes a minute but he complies, shifting back. He’s sunken, defeated and depressed after only a short time, but he’s going to need to get it together. We need him. It’s going to take all of us to get her back.
And we will get her back.
Three
Aly
I’ve been trapped in this room for hours. I finally relented and tried to rest but sleep never came. Instead, I’m being tormented by snapshots of my past that were taken from me.
They’re all about training me to be a fierce and deadly hunter. About hating supernaturals, how to kill them, and why they’re evil.
Except, there hasn’t been a good reason yet. It’s all about how dangerous they are or how they’ll hurt humans, and we need to protect them. But I know the guys, and they would never do that.
I can’t imagine them associating with people who do, and they’ve always talked about their families fondly. My parents made it seem like it’s impossible for them to not be evil.
They were training me to be the perfect hunter warrior but only if I triggered the gene. Apparently, they weren’t going to force me to trigger it, or at least not yet. The memory for why they didn’t hasn’t come to me yet, if there is one.
I’m not going to be the killer they wanted. I have mates and I understand more than they do about them. So what will they do with me now that I’m here?
