3. Hunter
THREE
HUNTER
Draven!
He neither jumped, nor shivered at my presence. He didn’t even jerk his head in my direction. Instead, he side-eyed me and accompanied it with a smirk while gripping my mate’s hands. It didn’t escape me that his fingers were pressing into the human’s flesh, the pressure resulting in the skin blanching. My mate winced, but he had more to worry about than an owie.
I’d not seen Draven in forever, and while he’d always been an ass, I wouldn’t have recognized him if I passed him on the street. He’d been a scrawny kid who whined when he didn’t get his way, but he’d grown taller almost overnight when he discovered his wolf. His family met their beast earlier than most shifters, I recalled, and their wolves had a reputation for being cruel.
But the Draven that stood beside my mate was even more vicious than I remembered. This alpha was a huge hulking guy with a menacing expression. He and I had never gotten along, and that wasn’t about to change.
His father, the Alpha of the Silverback pack, was the instigator of the last shifter war when many shifters perished, including my father and grandfather. But the remnants of the pack had reformed into the Nightfall Pack, vowing never to start another war, while others were banished and had scattered across the country.
His father, the former Alpha, was dead, and if I’d given Draven a moment’s thought in the years since, I’d have assumed he was far away and wouldn’t return.
Draven. Ugh, even his name irked me. His appearance mirrored his name: dark, forbidding, calculating.
I tried to catch the omega’s eye, to let him know I’d protect him, but he was intent on getting out of Draven’s grip.
I fixed my gaze on Stefan. What was the human doing here? Did he have a connection to Draven and that was why I’d been dragged down here?
Shit. I’d been so damned cocky swaggering to City Hall thinking I could outsmart the zoning officer. But had I walked into a trap? Fur appeared on my inner arms as adrenaline spiked in my veins. Damn, the bodyguards would have been useful about now!
As a wolf shifter, few things scared me other than a gun pressed against my temple. Even then, I could maneuver myself out of a tricky situation by giving my wolf his fur or using my shifter strength. And not only could I do that, I had done it. With my brothers, I’d faced down shifters and humans intent on harming us, and other than a few scars, I’d survived.
But Draven and the wolf that glowed in his eyes sent cold shivers raking over my body as though someone were gouging it with a knife. If the alpha he’d become and his beast were anything like his father and his wolf, I could be in trouble.
“This has nothing to do with you, Hunter.” Draven’s gravelly voice had the hair on the back of my neck standing up on end.
In the past my arrogance had been my downfall and that mirrored what was happening now.
The celebrant hesitated, opening his mouth, and snapped it shut when Draven snarled at him. Power radiated from the shifter, a combination of his hostility and his beast’s ferociousness. But there was no mistaking the conceit, the domineering manner and the menace fanning out from the wolf shifter.
I had to stop the wedding—I had paused it—and getting it canceled would take all of my human ingenuity.
“A marriage should be between two people who adore one another, but your partner doesn’t seem in the mood for love.”
I should have positioned myself between Draven and the human, but my nemesis wasn’t letting go of his… prey. I glowered at Draven. “His reaction suggests you’re manipulating him.”
His nostrils flared. “Get out of my business. You know nothing.” He spat out the last word. “Odell is mine.”
The celebrant’s hands trembled as he interrupted. “There are people waiting.”
He jerked his head at the other couples who had come to cement their commitment to one another. More than one person had their mouth shaped in a huge O, while a couple said “To heck with this. We don’t need a piece of paper.” Others were shuffling their feet and some whispered to their partner. Witnessing an omega being forced to wed an arrogant alpha wasn’t on their wedding-day bingo card.
My wolf was fierce, he’d slashed throats, severing jugular veins, but there were humans present here and I couldn’t shift. Not that Draven would consider humans. He’d attempt to kill me, then slaughter any humans who hadn’t fled. If I was alive but bloodied and bruised, I’d fight him until my last breath. And not only because the human was my mate.
If I died, he’d force the celebrant to pronounce him and his reluctant partner,my mate, my one and only, husband and husband.
Why a shifter was going through with a marriage, I couldn’t comprehend. Why not just mark the guy? From my perspective, I was grateful he hadn’t. At least I assumed he hadn’t, I didn’t sense a mating connection between them.
Not mated. My beast backed me up.
“Please continue.” Draven made a mistake and turned his back on me. He understood I’d never shift here, but I hit Flint’s number and turned the phone onto speaker.
“Hunter! Where are you? Still at City Hall?”
Draven flung around at the sound of my brother. “Him!” There was a slight tremor to that gravelly voice, suggesting my older brother had undermined his confidence.
“Flint Durand? It’s been so long. But the Silverbacks are back.” Draven cackled, and the blood in my veins turned to ice. “Of course baby brother Hunter has to hide behind you.”
Flint would recognize Draven’s voice. It was one he’d never forget because it was almost identical to his alpha’s father’s.
I caught my brother’s quick intake of breath. “I knew you’d show yourself eventually. Under that fur beats a heart of bitterness.”My eldest brother kept his tone even, not betraying whatever he was feeling.
“He finally slithered out of that hole.” Slithered had become our code word for when things went to shit, and Flint would have noted it.
After recent events when Ranger met his mate, we’d agreed never to use it except in an emergency, despite flinging it at one another as kids.
I pictured Flint grabbing Ranger and some of our other men and jumping into their cars. Shame they weren’t dragons, as they could shift, fly, and burn Draven.
Not that I administered harsh justice just because I didn’t like someone. But he and his family were bad dudes, and singeing the skin off his flesh and watching him fail to shift as his body shriveled and melted would be a fitting death for someone whose family had caused ours so much pain.
“Perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere and allow the remaining ceremonies to take place,” Stefan suggested. He placed a hand on Draven’s shoulder, and the wolf shifter hissed. But he paused, almost as if he were stunned at what he’d done, and they shared a glance before Draven flung the guy away, almost knocking off his glasses. Stefan’s eyes flickered as he clenched his jaw while he rubbed his arm as though he’d been burned.
“Are you okay?” My mate was concerned about Stefan, even as Draven was forcing him into marriage and hurting him physically.
Stefan managed a weak smile and nodded.
“What are you doing here? Go back to the hole in the wall you call an office,” Draven hissed at the zoning officer.
Stefan and Draven did know one another.
Stop thinking of them and get our mate!
My beast was right. I’d allowed my hatred of Draven to overshadow protecting the omega.
“You can talk all you want. I’m taking…” I paused and nodded at my mate, as I was about to say his name for the first time. “…Odell.”
But Draven had dropped Odell’s hand, and my mate stormed past, saying if anyone touched him, he’d punch them in the face.
Feisty . My wolf approved.
Draven attempted to follow his husband-to-be, but I stood in his way. He barreled into my chest and growled, his wolf shining through his gaze. But instead of pulling out the knife that was outlined under his shirt, he raised his hands, admitting defeat.
I guessed that knife was a constant companion. When he was younger, he’d threatened other kids with a knife, and he would be more proficient now.
He and pack members who’d fled had become the boogeymen of the shifter world. But something was wrong, because backing off wasn’t his style. His demeanor suggested he was a “fight first and don’t bother asking questions later because your opponent was dead” kinda guy.
But I’d take the temporary win. There’d be payback which was a so-and-so, but I had to save my mate. Wolf shifter law put our devotion to our mates as equal to our loyalty to the pack.
“Later!” I did the pretend tipping-the-hat gesture as a thank-you, and Draven would understand it was a huge F you.
I half strode, half skipped backward, a trick shifters could manage without tripping, while keeping my eyes locked on Draven’s. A raised brow and I was out the door, racing after my mate.
He was human but he had speed, and he was tearing down the stairs into the bright sunshine, his sandy hair ruffled by the wind as he pushed past people who yelled, “Hey,” and “Watch it.”
“Wait up.”
He glanced over his shoulder, his blue eyes glaring at me, and slammed into Flint. He emitted a loud shriek as my brother grabbed him, preventing him from face planting onto the concrete.
“Get off me.” He struggled out of Flint’s grasp and ducked to avoid Ranger.
“Where’s Draven?” Ranger scanned the entrance to the building.
“Inside.” Or he had been. Whether he was still there was anyone’s guess. Ignoring my brothers, I took hold of my mate. Probably the wrong thing to do, but it was too late. He told me to piss off.
“You need to come with me.”
“What are you…?” Flint started.
“Wait!” Ranger put a hand on Flint’s chest, and my brothers shared a glance.
“Please tell me that you’re not… you didn’t…” Flint began. “That he isn’t your?—”
“He is!”
Ranger slapped a palm on his brow. “Dad is going to freak! I can hear him saying, ‘Not again.’”
“Forget that. If Draven’s returned, trouble’s brewing.” Flint jerked his head toward the building, and the bodyguards followed him as he strode toward the City Hall stairs, ignoring the just-married signs and people cheering.
“Gotta go and avoid a war, little bro.” Ranger took off after them, yelling over his shoulder. “Take care of him first, but we’ll need your help later.”
“Thanks, but I can look after myself from now on.” My mate marched along the sidewalk.
He doesn’t feel the connection . My wolf was worried our mate would get away.
“Draven won’t back off, and next time, he’ll use force. I don’t know what he has on you, but he will never stop.”
“I’ll leave town.”
I studied his chipped nails, the scuffed leather messenger bag, and the hair that needed cutting. This human wouldn’t get far because my guess was he fell into Draven’s orbit because of money. Or lack of it. Draven’s family bided their time, but they always called in their debts.
He was my mate, and I couldn’t let him leave. That was the selfish part of my brain talking, but most importantly, he was in grave danger, not that he could understand any of it.
I took his arm. “I’m taking you somewhere safe.” He protested, but I explained I wanted to help. “Draven is inside that building, and if you make a scene, he’ll come out.”
“Thanks for stopping that farce, but I’m not exchanging one overlord for another.”
Huh? My beast was confused.
He thinks I’m the same as Draven.
“I’m trying to help.” I kept my voice low, not wanting to draw any more attention than we already had and steered him to my car.
“Let me go.”
Being an old-fashioned alpha who expected his omega to obey him was not who I was. But right now, I had to make a decision, not just for my human but for our family.
I bundled him into the car and jumped in, locking the doors.
“Let me out!” He banged at the windows, and when they didn’t break—they were bulletproof—he yanked my arm, hoping that I’d what? Swerve and crash into the barriers blocking off part of the road due to construction?
“Please crack the window.”
I did as he asked and gripped the wheel with one hand and fended him off as I drove like a maniac to the club. La Luna Noir might be an odd place to take my mate, but the reason I’d been at City Hall and the issue with paperwork was because of a special place I’d installed.
Yep, it was ready, as I’d gone ahead without planning permission.
I was going to stash my mate in the brand-new panic room!