Part of the Pack
Vivienne,
I know you’re mad. I didn’t explain much before leaving, but in time you’ll understand. Mind your manners. Don’t give Phillip a hard time. Remember your training.
Never stop being who I raised you to be. Never settle for anything less than what you deserve. Smile, laugh, live, love, and never forget I cherished every moment I got to be your grandmother.
You’re the same strong woman your mother was, and you’ll take on this world the way she did. You’ll do everything you were meant to do, and I’ll always be proud of you.
I love you with all my heart.
—Grams
Istared at the letter, hot tears making pathways down my cheeks. No matter how I read it, the way Grams wrote it sounded like she wasn’t coming back. Pain seared into my throat when I thought Grams left with the intention of never returning.
Did she think she’d die?
Legs crossed over, I slouched on the guest room bed, head an utter mess. But I only permitted that single moment. A second later, I neatly folded the letter and returned it to the envelope.
Like my life wasn’t imploding. Like I didn’t want to scream and shout and curse the woman who never did anything the normal way. Not once. Not now and very likely not ever.
She could’ve at least given me a hug or something.
Everything in the letter was written in the personal encryption code only Grams and I knew, so I didn’t go through the trouble of hiding it. Instead, I kept it with my belongings to take with me everywhere I went after this.
Because it’d taken me nearly five days to read it. Because I’d spent two full days glaring at the letter on the dresser where I tossed it. Because I knew exactly what it was: the last correspondence I’d ever get from the one person who was my entire world for seventeen years.
Grams didn’t leave to come back. She left to disappear, and I hoped one day I’d figure out why.
Phillip talked a big game, saying we’d see her again, but something in his expression said otherwise.
He didn’t believe a word he was saying, and I sort of wished I hadn’t been perceptive enough to pick up on it.
I wished I could blindly hold onto the hope I’d see her again.
It’d make this whole day a hell of a lot easier.
But I wasn’t ignorant.
Nearly a week had gone by, and we were finally set to meet the other Hunters the Organization sent. Last word I got, Nigel and Topher convinced the other three in the pack to help raid the Shadow Goblin nest, and they were out there nearly every day attempting to track its location.
Phillip explained that heavy magic was used to conceal the entrance, and without a way in, it was nearly impossible to find an exact location. Shifters could track scent better than we could, so it was our hope they’d find a way in.
But so far, nothing.
The damn things were living up to their name. Now I understood why they were so problematic, and why so many went unnoticed if a Hunter or other supernatural entity didn’t outright encounter them.
Three more people were killed and the authorities were getting antsy, suspecting a large carnivore on the loose despite no reports of there being one.
Phillip narrowed down a few areas, and we’d start scoping them out today with the arriving Hunters and Nigel’s pack. Split the work and report any findings.
To be honest, I was desperate for the distraction.
Phillip appeared in the doorway. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I cleared my throat and wiped my eyes, expelling any evidence I’d cried. “Just some nonsense about how I shouldn’t give you trouble and mind my manners.”
Phillip’s mouth twitched affectionately. “Too late.”
“Jerk,” I sassed, laughing against my will. “Nearly that time?”
Phillip nodded and brushed back his dark hair, then strode into my room. “Nearly. They’ve sent two Hunters to start. We’ll check out a few areas of interest.”
The other Hunter was decked out in his usual smart attire with Blood Slayer already strapped to his back.
Today, his hair was left loose and hung over his eyes when he bowed his head to come inside the room.
His tattoos were on full display in a simple black tank top, and every bit of his delectable muscle tone on both arms and shoulders was left exposed to my greedy eyes.
In this heat, I didn’t blame the Austrian for ditching his usual jacket. It was nearly eighty-five degrees at nine in the morning, and the humidity would be stifling.
You know, for people who breathed.
Ironically enough, we could sense the water in the air.
Despite our vampire genes, we unfortunately felt the difference in temperature.
Phil said it was probably why we felt pain—they hadn’t bothered to turn off our nerve receptors, so it meant we sensed fluctuations in many ways.
Although, he later joked that pain was what made him feel most alive, and I’d basically concluded he was a total masochist afterwards.
I admired the vampire hunter’s strong physique for a second in spite of many internal lectures about why I shouldn’t.
“Sounds like a plan.” I retrieved a few weapons and strapped them to a harness across my chest. “Anything else?” I asked when Phillip didn’t immediately leave.
The Hunter hummed to himself and stepped closer, light eyes sweeping down my body.
“You’re not equipping your weapons right.
” Going to a knee in front of me, the other Hunter took out a thigh strap from his pocket.
“You need to utilize all the major areas of your body so a weapon is always within reach wherever you move.”
I stiffened and nearly gasped as his large hands wrapped intimately around my thigh, fitting the strap to it.
He pulled the leather tight and his fingers worked the excess length into a holding loop.
Then his pale eyes flicked up to my face before his rose-pink lips twitched and he effortlessly sheathed an appropriately sized dagger into the strap.
“I could’ve—”
“You were close, don’t get me wrong. Just serves you better from this spot.”
The blue-eyed Hunter’s fingers danced across thin fabric and stroked my inner thigh, the sensation of it electric. A sound escaped my throat that I couldn’t smother, and I instantly flushed.
His touch was clearly intentional, and I couldn’t pretend I didn’t want to feel it again. It was that very thought that sent me into a shame spiral, outright disgusted with myself and how little it took for Phil to put me under his spell.
I should be better at this.
Phillip’s devilish smirk met my wide-eyed gaze. “Easier to reach these, don’t you think?” He traced a dagger with his finger, then dragged it down my thigh with a pointed stare.
He’s testing me.
My head told me it was a test, but my body didn’t get the damn memo.
It did exactly what he expected. I visibly reacted, unable to shake the trance I’d been put into.
Rigid, I didn’t breathe at all as he continued to place small daggers along the strap, his grip holding strong around my thigh to keep me from moving away.
I was so surprised by his self-assured movements that I stood in front of him like a total asshole, mouth agape.
I couldn’t even verbally bash the dude for touching me without permission or letting me do the damn thing myself like a normal instructor would.
For some reason, my voice didn’t work. Only whispery sounds of surprise left my mouth, and nothing but blushing shame followed their departure.
Phillip hummed a tune lightly to himself, retrieving a few pen-like items from his pocket. “These are ultraviolet light beams, and while it won’t do much in the way of damage, it can give you a critical edge to fully decapitate a Shadow Goblin.”
“Uh huh,” I murmured.
Phillip leaned closer, his sharp eyes straying up my body in a way that made my pulse throb. “It’s amazing what you can fit between your legs, hmm?”
Old V would’ve had him laid out over the floor already.
If not for the perpetual cycle of ‘what the fuck’ going on in my head, I’d be smacking the sexual harassment right from his mouth.
But the stimulation of his fingers as they moved across my leg, and the sight of him knelt so close to a place only I’d ever touched, was as erotic as it got—and frankly, I couldn’t deal.
I tried repeatedly not to fantasize or imagine all the possibilities, but I was quite literally Hormone Central these days. Pretending I wasn’t riddled with the qualms of being a young girl going through a devastating attraction to an older man didn’t do me any good.
Damn hormones.
But then his face was in front of me, no longer at hip level. “That’s better. When you’re ready, I’ll meet you out front.”
I watched as my supposed teacher walked out of the room, utterly nonchalant, with what appeared to be a little skip in his step. The asshole actually frolicked out of my room. Frolicked, in combat boots, carrying a torso-long claymore.
I seriously can’t right now.
Staring at the doorway, I stood frozen for nearly two minutes before I got my ass into gear and grabbed the duffle bag I’d packed several guns into, alongside a fresh pair of clothes in case I got goblin goo on me again.
We equipped several semi-automatic guns with silver and gold bullets to be used alongside our melee weapons, just to be safe. Guns were loud and hard to mask from the public, even with silencers. So, understandably, a last resort.
But a girl couldn’t have enough weapons.
Clicking my tongue angrily, I tossed the bag over my shoulder and stomped out of the room in pursuit of a Hunter who’d be lucky if his partner didn’t commit homicide just to teach him a lesson.
Nigel and four others were already waiting at the meeting spot when we arrived. Sunlight rained down on a set of cement picnic tables the group stood in front of. Lucky for us, no one else thought today would be a good day to take a hike and I couldn’t sense any normal humans nearby.