AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 2:
“Wait.” Hunter tried to keep up with his sister as she practically sped away from Club Cherry, leading them down a twisting alleyway and then across a bustling street. He hesitated with his foot on the crosswalk, a sense of dread spreading throughout his entire body at being this far from home already but—
Home.
When had he started considering the club his home? Had it been before he’d mated Odin or after?
“Hurry,” Meg called to him, already on the other side. The light to the crosswalk had begun to countdown and he had less than ten seconds to join her. There was a dark expression on her face, a face shrouded by the thick hood of her sweatshirt, obscuring everything from her nose up from his view.
But he recognized that sneer. He’d recognize it anywhere.
Tucking that tiny voice that warned him this was a bad idea away, he jogged after her, cursing when she’d already turned and continued walking without him before he’d made it.
She was leading him further from the club, further from the protection of the Snow Brumal. It made sense that she’d want to though, that she wouldn’t trust Odin after everything they’d been through as kids.
“I thought you were dead,” he said to her once he made it back to her side, grabbing onto her elbow to steady her before she could turn down yet another secluded alley. “Stop. Talk to me.”
“There’s no time for that,” she told him, yanking her arm free. “We have to keep moving.”
“Or?”
“He won’t be pleased.”
Hunter frowned. “Who? Odin? He isn’t going to be happy I left no matter what.”
She tipped her head to the side slightly, still shielded by her hood. “So, you are with him.”
“It’s…” He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain everything to you later, but right now we should find somewhere safe where we can catch up. You mentioned you have a safe-house? Where have you been all of this time? Have you been okay? Healthy? Warm?”
A million and one questions raced through his mind but he quelled them, not wanting to bombard her, especially since she appeared to be skittish already.
“Let me see—” His hand was slapped away when he reached for the hood and he hissed at the contact.
“Don’t touch me,” she snarled, and he froze at the pure animalistic sound of it. A sound only someone who’d experienced pain before would make.
“Meg…” He swallowed, suddenly even more afraid to find out what had happened to her over these past years. A decade. A whole decade and now they were finally back together and…Hunter glanced around them at the crowd. It was the end of the day and people were in constant motion, paying them no mind as they went about their business, but that still didn’t make him feel safe out in the open like they were. “We can’t stand here all night.”
“Come.” She turned on her heel and started again for the direction she’d been leading him.
He wanted to argue, but since she was so adamant opted to shut his mouth and let her do her thing. Ten years was a long time, more than enough for people to have changed. The Meg he’d known, that bright, firecracker girl she was in his memory, was most likely no longer here.
Sadness engulfed him, followed swiftly by a gnawing guilt. Whatever she’d experienced since their last meeting, it was his fault. Any hardships she’d suffered were on him. It’d been easy enough to wallow all these years when he’d believed he was the only one alive and suffering for his choices that day, but now…
Meg was alive. His sister was alive and that meant not only had he’d screwed her back then, he’d also abandoned her.
He tried to assess her from behind as they went, noting there was nothing off about her gait. Her clothing kept most of her form hidden, but with her movements as clean as they were and the fact they were going at such a fast pace, yet she wasn’t out of breath, made him think she was at least in decent health.
“What have you been doing all this time?” Hunter asked as they came to the end of the alley, and he got close enough that he didn’t feel like he needed to raise his voice to be heard. “Have you been staying in the city? Why—”
Something hard hit him from behind, directly over the head, and Hunter stumbled forward. He ended up falling into Meg’s arms, the weight of him taking her down to a crouch since she couldn’t hold him up, the perfect angle for him to finally see her full face.
Maybe it was the head injury messing with his vision, but Hunter stared for a long while at the place where her right eye should have been, waiting for the cloudy fog in his brain to clear. Only, it never did, and it became painfully obvious after a moment that what he was seeing wasn’t a concussion-induced trick at all.
“Meg.”
In the place where her eye should have been there was nothing but a gaping hole. There wasn’t even an eyelid left to help conceal it, just an empty spot in her skull. The eyebrow above it was mostly gone as well, an angry red scar slicing through most of it, leaving only the tip and the end. That same scar patched over her eye socket and traveled a little over her cheek toward her right ear, but her hair covered the rest and he couldn’t tell how far it actually went.
He opened his mouth to ask her what happened, but nothing but a garbled sound came out. Something shifted off to the side, and he turned, grimacing when that caused a shooting pain at the back of his skull. Still, he froze and forgot all about the discomfort when his gaze landed on First, Frost’s underboss.
