CHAPTER FOURTEEN || HUNTER #2
Lee let out a snarling rasp and sprang at the creature, driving it to the ground. He darted forward, his jaws going right for the creature’s neck.
The creature reached up with both arms and legs, spiderlike, and rolled them over until Lee was under it.
“Lee!” Daniel shouted, his eyes widening.
He started incanting another spell, his gaze locked on the monster Lee was struggling with.
My twin attempted to throw the monster off him, but it barely moved at all. It had him pinned firmly in place—which meant these fuckers were strong.
And then I saw that there was something wrong with its torso.
It was moving.
Or, no. It was opening.
Revulsion tore through me. Because what in the Alien fuck was that?
A tentacle emerged from the monster’s torso, going right for Lee’s chest at sickening speed.
Daniel finished his spell and more of that vivid green light shot out of his palms.
It blasted into the creature, sending it sailing across the clearing. It hit one of the massive old-growth trees with a sickening crunch.
The monstrosity on the opposite side of the clearing took advantage of our momentary distraction to launch itself forward.
Again, it ignored me, going directly for the warlock. Its chest was already open, and three tentacles had snaked out from it. They had—grotesquely—suckers on the end of them. Like a squid.
I sprang between the creature and my mate. My only thought was no, not him.
A surge of power burst through me, and then a flash of pale light—bluish white to my wolf eyes—erupted, dazzlingly bright in the darkened clearing, momentarily blinding me.
The creature hit the barrier and then recoiled, that faceless head snapping back as it wheeled away immediately. It let out another squealing-metal sound. Acrid smoke rose from its body.
It scrambled on all fours to get away from the glowing shield I’d instinctively conjured.
Lee recovered, climbing to his feet.
Behind him, the creature Daniel had blasted shot back to its feet as well. Smoke rose in curls from its body.
Lee, Daniel, and I were all breathing hard, but we were all under the protection of my shield. Safe, for the moment.
Then it popped like a soap bubble.
Well, fuck.
Beside me, Lee collapsed into his human form. “Daniel, conjure light!”
Daniel obeyed instantly, incanting his spell to conjure an illuminated sphere in his hand, just as the monsters sprinted forward across the clearing.
The creatures immediately recoiled from the light. There was more of that strange metallic squealing noise—which might’ve been sounds of pain they were making, actually—and more smoke rose from their bodies.
“Oh!” Daniel said, his eyes widening with surprise. “They don’t like light! I can work with that!”
Then he spoke a few words in Latin and the light in his palms bloomed into the size of a beach ball, dazzlingly bright, and floated overhead, bathing the clearing in illumination.
I looked away from it. Then, when the light grew even brighter, I screwed my eyes shut. But I wasn’t quite fast enough to stop myself from seeing afterburn behind my closed eyes.
An acrid odor filled the clearing and the creatures shrieked again—more of that awful, inhuman screeching—but then it trailed off, becoming more distant.
Daniel held the light spell for several moments longer. Then, with a few spoken words, he dimmed it again.
I breathed a sigh of relief and opened my eyes.
It took several seconds before my vision adjusted and I could see properly again.
Daniel’s light spell had returned to his cupped palms, much dimmer now, and he was looking pale and shaken.
Lee, still in his human form, also looked pretty beat up—there was a cut on his cheek, a massive bruise forming on the left side of his torso, and he was covered head-to-toe in dirt.
But the creatures were gone. We were alone.
“We have to tell the pack what we’ve learned,” Daniel said tightly, scanning the darkened forest warily. “The compass will still work to find them, and now we know they don’t like light. Plus, we got a pretty good look at them. That ought to be enough to narrow down what they are.”
Lee pushed himself to his feet and then swayed dangerously, his expression suddenly going glazed and unfocused.
Daniel’s eyes widened. “Lee?”
“I’m okay,” Lee said immediately.
He was way too pale and his body was trembling. Then his knees buckled.
I shifted back to human form and lurched forward to catch my twin by the shoulder before he could fall flat on his face.
“We need to get out of this forest,” I said, my gaze sweeping over Daniel. Relief flooded through me to see that he appeared to be unharmed. “I’ve got Lee. Can you hold the light spell until we get to the pack?”
“In my sleep,” Daniel assured me.
I nodded at him and then, walking in the glow of Daniel’s light, with Lee’s arm slung over my shoulder, the three of us made our way out of the forest and back to the relative safety of the commune.
* * *
We got to the cabin without incident—slowly, because I’d needed to support Lee’s weight the entire way there. The bruise on his ribs had darkened to a deep, blotchy purple that had made Daniel’s expression go stricken the moment he saw the injuries in the light.
“He’s going to be okay,” I told him firmly. “We heal really quickly. It’ll probably be gone by morning.”
Unhappily, Daniel nodded.
Then, with Daniel assuring me that he’d make sure Lee actually got some rest— because I was more reluctant to leave his side than I wanted to admit—I showered, dressed, and made my way to Harris and Reed’s cabin to let them know what we’d learned.
It was almost three in the morning, but they both seemed wide awake when they answered the door.
The moment I walked in, I noticed that the air smelled strongly of sweat and pheromones, Reed’s dark hair was slightly mussed, and Harris’s shirt hadn’t been buttoned properly. They probably hadn’t been sleeping when I’d knocked.
My bad. Good for them, though.
“Hunter,” Reed greeted me, his face cast in strange shadows from the light of the candles burning on every available space. After Reed’s display at the bar, he’d turned the power off to their cabin, not wanting to take any chances with Harris’s safety. “It’s late. Is everything okay?”
With another alpha—or even another wolf—the way we’d left things back at the bar would’ve made the interaction awkward.
But Reed was better than that. Judging by his initial reaction to finding me on his doorstep in the middle of the night, he didn’t seem to be harboring any hard feelings.
I felt a stab of regret at how I’d spoken to him the last time we’d seen each other.
“Daniel did the locator spell you asked for,” I said, forcing myself to look him square in the eye. “And we found the monsters in the forest.”
“Oh, shit.” His eyes widened and he traded a look with Harris before turning back to me. “You’d better come inside and tell us everything.”
And so I did. When I finished relaying what had gone down tonight, Harris’s expression became thoughtful. “They don’t like light. That’s something, I guess.”
“It’s definitely a place to start,” Reed agreed. “We’ll have Sarah take point on researching the monster.” He paused. “Or, the monsters, I guess.”
“Can’t say I’m a fan of there being more than one,” Harris put in wryly. “Couldn’t they at least have the decency to come one at a time? Or maybe take a number or something?”
“It does seem like cheating,” Reed agreed, shooting Harris an affectionate smile. “Wait until there’s a small army of monsters. It’s happened before.”
“Can’t wait.”
“These things are strong,” I warned them. “Lee is pretty beat up. If he hadn’t realized that the light hurts them and shifted back to tell Daniel, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
“Well, I’m glad we didn’t need to find that out,” Harris agreed, sobering immediately. He shared another look with Reed that seemed to communicate volumes. Then he turned his attention back to me with a nod. “We’ll proceed with caution.”
“Tonight was a win,” Reed assured me. “With the pack still quarantined, you three did us a great service by discovering the location of these creatures, determining their weaknesses, and providing us with a description so that we can identify them. You and your brother ought to be proud of yourselves.”
“It was Daniel,” I said firmly. “Without him, none of it would’ve been possible. Daniel is the one who protected the pack tonight.”
“Right,” Reed said, visibly startled. Belatedly, it occurred to me that the rest of the pack still thought Lee and I hated Daniel. More cautiously, he added, “You’re getting along well? The three of you?”
It was late and I was tired. I didn’t really feel like laying out everything else that had happened over the last forty-eight hours. Mostly, I just felt eager to get back to Lee and Daniel.
“It’s fine,” I said, in a tone that I hoped would shut the conversation down.
Reed frowned at that, studying my expression intently.
“Any word on how to deal with the… incidents?” Harris asked. He shot his mate a rueful look and added, “I’d love to have hot water again.”
Wow. The three of us had really been in a bubble for the last two days, hadn’t we? I’d almost forgotten about the reason why we’d all been forced together in the first place.
“Oh. Right. Um, Daniel and Lee realized that what we’re experiencing is called sympathetic whatsits—”
Harris’s eyebrows slammed together in obvious confusion.
I explained what we’d learned about the sympathetic manifestations. I ended with, “Daniel could probably explain it better.”
“He didn’t want to come with you?” Harris asked, frowning. His dark eyes searched mine, seeming to miss nothing.
“No. Lee is… like I said, he was hurt pretty bad,” I explained. “Daniel is back at the cabin, making sure he actually gets some rest.”
The alphas traded another strange look at that. Reed recovered first and asked, “And Lee is… allowing that?”
“Yeah,” I said shortly. “He is.”