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Shifter senses were a lot like echolocation. That, combined with a rich bulbous membrane inside his olfactory organ, made the alpha’s defenses thick as steel. At that moment, he was swamped by the sense of fear he saw in Lily's eyes, as well as concern for the condition of his beta. All of that was like a wall in the alpha’s mind, but he quickly punched through it and identified the one thing that was going to save all three of their lives.
The scent of leather and deer hair.
A woman, the person who was hunting them, had launched her body off the small hill they had rolled down and was set to sail the arrow through Gabriel’s spine. But as she jumped, a gust of wind signaled the identifiable smell of her leather-clad attire, as well as the bouquet of long white curly hair from a deer’s belly. She had been reusing arrows that they had been hunting stag with, and he knew it the moment she yanked back the string of the bow.
“Gabriel!” Lily bellowed.
Gabriel lifted off Lily’s body and spun around in a single graceful motion. The look of surprise on the woman’s face was almost beautiful just before Gabriel managed to grab the bow and aim the arrow upward and into the canopy. She landed with a thud back up the hill from where she had been perching, waiting for them.
Gabriel landed on his knees with a hard blow to his bones. Lily scrambled to her feet and crawled up the hill, the two of them searching frantically for Lucas.
“Where is he?” Lily yelled.
The woman scurried to her feet, too, and stood in the moonlight that cast itself through the coniferous trees. The arrow had been swallowed by the darkness, but her cruelty and determination remained.
Gabriel knew then that she was one of them. One of the ruthless hunters who would do anything to get their hands on that relic. He could smell it on her.
She was wearing leather just as Gabriel had envisioned, and it clung to her lean and agile form. The sheen of her raven black hair, pulled into a neat bun, blended into the oily darkness, but her eyes stood out with a macabre emptiness.
The bow was still in her hand, a multitude of arrows sticking out of the sheath attached to her back.
“You fucking shifters,” she said, fixing the straggly bits of hair that had come loose from the scuffle. "You really don't know when to quit, do you? Your kind are so useless."
The woman reached behind her to slide another sleek arrow between her hands, but Gabriel was too fast. He ran at her in his human form and punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
She rolled around on the ground and landed a lucky kick against Gabriel’s face as he tried to grab hold of her. It rattled the brain in his skull as she remained slippery and elusive to his grip.
“Where is Lucas?” Lily called out, chasing the woman as she retreated up the hill.
The woman merely chuckled. They looked around and found a pool of blood where Lucas’s body had been, but there was no Lucas.
“One less shifter to worry about,” she snorted, then vanished back into the dim.
Gabriel could have chased after her, but it would likely have been an ambush. He needed at least one other shifter to fight off humans with guns, and he also didn’t want to put Lily in unnecessary harm. Ever.
Lily made her way back up the hill and fell into his arms. She was upset but wasn't crying. She had that hardness about her, which made her tough.
“We need to find Lucas,” she muttered to him.
Gabriel stretched his jaw, rubbing the end of his chin where the woman had landed the kick. He had heard about her, a practiced tracker who was hired to deal with shifters. She had also been somewhat of a fictional being. But she was very real. His bruised face was enough proof.
“That’s Ava,” Gabriel said. “She works with the hunters. We will find him, Lily. You have my word."
They held each other in the moonlight for what felt like a long time until they decided to continue on. The blueprint was tucked into some bushes, stained with Lucas’s blood.
ELEVEN
LILY
Lily was visibly shaken by how close she was to either being impaled or watching the man she cared about most in the world get impaled right in front of her. It was rather remarkable how quickly he had moved and rather scary how quickly the human clad in leather had also moved. Gabriel seemed to know who she was, though.
“Ava?” Lily said, following closely behind the alpha with her hand on her chest.
He retrieved the blueprint, which was tucked under a nearby shrub. Lucas had somehow, amidst the brutality, managed to hide it away before the Ava woman was able to gain on him. That was rather astonishing also.
“Yes,” Gabriel said, picking up the map delicately with two fingers. “We’ve also heard of her before. She’s an incredibly talented hunter who focused her wrath on shifters for some unknown reason.”
Lily felt like folding her arms over her chest in a scolding stance, but it was far too dark, the moon having been blanketed by the treetops once more.
