Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Victor Hawthorne settled into his perch on the outskirts of the wolf pack territory in Northern Ohio, where he’d been hanging out since before the sun set. He’d come to Ohio a few weeks ago because it was a unique location within the States that had multiple shifter groups near each other. Generally, shifter groups claimed an area—usually a town—and no other shifter groups would come anywhere near them.
He'd heard there was a large wolf pack in Columbus a few hours south of Cleveland, and it was the only shifter group who called that area its territory.
Like their natural counterparts, the shifter groups tended to be territorial and not set up their territory anywhere near others.
Except in Cleveland.
And since Victor was very interested in shifters, he’d decided to come to Northern Ohio to see for himself.
Because he had some clients waiting for his next big score.
A unique shifter.
Victor had grown up in a wealthy family of big game hunters, but he’d quickly grown bored of traditional prey. In his twenties he discovered shifters and became obsessed with hunting beasts who were more than mere animals, particularly those who could turn into unique and rare animals.
Over the years, Victor perfected his hunting skills and became renowned in the underground world of elite hunters. With clients who were not only wealthy but morally bankrupt, he hunted for the rarest and most unique shifters for their collections. Sometimes, the clients wanted the shifters alive to be kept caged as exotic pets, but usually the unique shifters were killed, stuffed, and mounted like trophies in a display of power and wealth.
In the distance, Victor heard the howl of a wolf and after years of learning about his prey, he knew that it was the alpha male calling his people to the hunt.
He wasn’t hunting for anything in particular tonight. He was scouting this pack to see if there were any unique wolves among their kind.
There was one wolf he wouldn’t mess with, no matter how unique and rare she was: the pack lygisa . She was some kind of mystical cross between a witch and a wolf, protective of the pack in a way that meant anyone who crossed their borders with bad intentions would be cut down immediately. Hence Victor hanging out on the outskirts with military grade night vision googles. But…if there was a unique wolf among the pack, he’d track and capture them and sell them to the highest bidder.
Pulling the night vision goggles down, he adjusted the sight and scanned the area. He heard the distant call of the pack howling as they headed off to hunt.
It wasn’t long before he heard the pounding of paws on the ground and was surprised to see a lone wolf racing toward him.
This was no ordinary wolf though.
The small stature told him it was a female, but that wasn’t what was interesting: her fur was completely white. The night vision goggles made the fur appear to be glowing. He assumed she was an arctic wolf, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he got a closer look.
She sped by him, unaware that she was being watched by one of the best shifter hunters in the world.
He watched in silence for a few moments, but no one followed her as she left the territory, which meant she was blissfully alone.
With a hum, he moved down the tree, making his way quickly to the silent electric bike. With his night vision goggles, he was able to follow her from a distance as she ran like her tail was on fire.
Something flickered on a tree a few dozen yards in front of him and he slowed to a stop and read the sign.
You are entering the territory of the tiger pride at your own risk. Trespassers will be dealt with harshly.
The white wolf loped past the sign without care.
Tigers?
Why would a wolf want to be in the tiger territory?
He stared at the sign marking the tiger pride territory and realized that he’d traveled nearly twenty miles following the wolf. Well, she was clearly part of the wolf pack so she’d return at some point, but in the meantime, she seemed to be hanging out with the tigers, and he knew someone who’d tried to take out the tigers not too long ago.
Victor made his way to a nearby road and took out his phone, looking at the GPS and setting a course to make his way back to his RV. He took off his goggles and put them in the case, and then he used his phone to pull up the motion cameras he’d set up around the perimeter of the wolf pack. He quickly found the footage of the white wolf female running out of the pack’s territory.
He paused the footage. Had he seen that right?
Rewinding the footage, he slowed it down and stared intently at the female’s face.
Holy shit. Her eyes were glowing red.
He watched the footage a few times and could see the glowing, red eyes that hadn’t been visible with his night vision goggles.
He grinned. A white wolf was one thing. Arctic wolves didn’t have a big population in the states like the grey wolves, but an actual albino wolf? That was something incredibly special.
He closed the video app and opened his contacts. Dialing the head of the most dangerous anti-shifter group in America—Humans Against Shifters—he touched his earbud to transfer the call to hands-free and waited for it to connect.
“Foley.”
Victor turned on his bike and accelerated toward his RV, which was back near the wolves.
“Hello, Brent. My name is Victor Hawthorne. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”
There was a pause and then Brent said, “Hawthorne? The shifter hunter?”
“Yes.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I heard that you don’t like the tiger shifters.”
“I don’t like any shifters. Why?”
“Well, I just followed a very unique wolf into the tiger territory, and I wanted to know if you were interested in teaming up with me on a special project.”
“What sort of special project?”
“You make your resources available to me to hunt this special wolf and I’ll help you take out as many tigers as you’d like.”
“All you need is my help finding this wolf? What’s so special about it?”
“Nothing you need to worry about, just know that if a wolf is hanging out with the tigers there’s really only one reason for it.”
“Which is?”
“You know the beasts have truemates? I’m guessing this female is planning to hook up with a male. I need to know everything you do about the tigers.”
“They’re tricky.”
“I’m trickier.”
Brent snorted. “Okay. I’ll help you. I’ll text you a location to meet up.”
“Perfect. See you soon.”
Ending the call, Victor smiled to himself. Using Brent’s resources would ensure that Victor didn’t waste valuable time scouting the tigers just to find the wolf. He was fairly certain the albino wolf was going to the pride because of some sort of animal need to be with one of them, and while he didn’t consider shifters to be beings with lives and emotions but instead challenges to be conquered and trophies to collect, he could admit that her leaving the pack territory for whatever reason had been good for him.
It wouldn’t be good for her though.
Enjoy the full moon, honey. It’s going to be your last.
Gavin had spent the day of the full moon patrolling the territory as he’d done every other day since he’d taken over the security team position. The day had dragged because he was looking forward to the hunt with his sister and family. He’d already been at his parents’ when they arrived before dawn to settle into his house for the day so he hadn’t gotten to say hi to her.
He found his sister and her mate at the clearing behind Midas and Maya’s home. The king and queen of the tiger pride had recently announced their pregnancy and this was the first full moon that Maya would be staying at the house and not spending time with Midas in his shift.
“Hey,” Gavin said to Aeryn as he stopped next to her.
“Hey,” she said. She passed Seraphina to Merrix and gave Gavin a hug.
“Hey, yourself.”
Merrix nodded at him and handed over the baby, who looked just like Aeryn. “Hi, cutie,” he said. “You’re getting so big!”
“She’s growing like a weed,” Aeryn said. “I heard you’ve got a new job and you won’t be going downtown anymore?”
“Yep, I’m on the security team full time now.”
“Wow, that’s awesome. I know you always wanted to be part of it. Congrats.”
“Thanks.”
Seraphina fussed and reached for Aeryn, so Gavin passed her back. “I’m so ready to shift and hunt.”
“Oh yeah? Ready to get your butt kicked?”
“Hey, the last time we raced, I beat you by a mile.”
“You never know, tonight could be different.”
“I doubt it. I’ll always be faster than you, sis.”
“We’ll see.”
“You’ll see my tail when I leave you in the dust.”
“Just don’t leave her alone,” Merrix said, his voice tinged with worry.
“I promise I won’t,” Gavin said. “I’ll just taunt her as I kick her butt hunting. Midas doesn’t want anyone hunting alone.”
“That’s a good idea,” Merrix said.
“I’ll be safe, I promise,” Aeryn said.
Midas and Maya called for the pride to enjoy the full moon and hunt, and the large crowd dispersed into the woods to shift and head out. It was a warm night with a light breeze, which would be helpful in hunting the game in their territory.
Merrix and Aeryn moved away for privacy, but Gavin didn’t care if anyone saw him naked. Shifters were pretty casual about nudity, but if he was mated, he wouldn’t want his female stripping where anyone else could see her either, so he understood Merrix wanting her out of sight.
Gavin stretched once he was in his shift, his cat chuffing in his head.
All day he’d been feeling strange, like something big was going to happen or a change was coming. He couldn’t place it but it had been making him nuts. His cat was on edge and now that he was in his shift, the beast wanted to run away immediately.
Hell no, we have to stay with Aeryn .
His cat let out a disgruntled growl.
Aeryn padded over with a purr and swatted at Gavin as little Seraphina let out a happy giggle as Merrix lowered her to pet her mother.
“Have a good hunt, you two,” Merrix said.
They joined up with their parents who were waiting just outside the clearing and they bounded off into the night to see who the better hunter was.
Gavin knew it was him.
The breeze changed direction as they were on the trail of some deer, and he paused, lifting his muzzle and inhaling. Sorting through the scents, he picked up something sweet that made his cat sit up and take notice and his heart clench.
What was that?
He had the urge to follow the scent and although he knew that Midas wouldn’t be happy with him, he didn’t wait for anyone to follow him so he wasn’t alone. Checking to make sure his sister was safe with their parents, he took off in the direction his heart was telling him to go.
He knew he was near the edge of the territory when a white blur nearly collided with him. He let out a growl and the white blur spun and froze.
Reddish eyes glowed brightly in the darkness and Gavin let out a curious chuff.
An albino wolf?
Holy crap.
He’d nearly run into his truemate.
Was this what all the fuss from his tiger was about?
His cat let out a happy purr and Gavin grinned, his whiskers twitching as he picked up the sweet scent he’d caught on the wind and realized it had come from his mate.
She was gorgeous and clearly not from the area because he’d never heard of an albino wolf anywhere in Northern Ohio, let alone near Whisper Creek.
He padded closer and she sat on her haunches with a whine.
How had his cat known that he’d meet his truemate tonight?