Alpha's Hunt Read online

  Alpha's Hunt

  Moon-Crossed Wolves, Volume 2

  Aimee Easterling

  Published by Wetknee Books, 2020.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  ALPHA'S HUNT

  First edition. March 13, 2020.

  Copyright © 2020 Aimee Easterling.

  ISBN: 978-1393956822

  Written by Aimee Easterling.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 1

  The second werewolf I’d ever seen limped out of the forest. From a distance, his scent had been wild, bitter, terrifying. But the beast himself was grizzled and bleeding from deep gashes on his chest, belly, and flank.

  The stranger was barely able to shuffle, let alone jump us. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he keeled over on the spot.

  My own lupine shoulders drifted downward. This wasn’t the terrifying skinless I’d been scared of since childhood. I’d overreacted. Just like when I first met Luke.

  I let my eyes skitter sideways, expecting the first werewolf I’d ever seen to grace me with an amused smirk. Only...Luke’s glare was so firmly fixed upon the older wolf that he seemed to have forgotten I was present. Not just his ruff but the fur along his entire back lifted up threateningly. Then the tiniest thread of a growl, more menacing for its quietness, rumbled out of his chest.

  My gaze slung forward in search of danger. The old werewolf stumbled then lurched another step forward. I cocked my head, struggling to understand how a shifter who seemed one second away from collapsing could be a danger to us both.

  Oldie might appear past his sell-by date, but I trusted Luke. So I braced my paws, preparing for battle...then whimpered as attack came not from the newcomer but from the skinless I’d come to trust.

  Earlier today, Luke had presented me with a sword, the gift rife with unspoken promises. Later, he’d accepted my refusal to be protected when the scent of werewolf came upon us. He’d padded up to stand shoulder to shoulder beside me in a show of true partnership and strength.

  Now, Luke lashed out without warning. Well, no, that’s not quite true. The old wolf barked out a bell-like tone one millisecond before Luke attacked me, the sound rubbing my nerve endings raw. In answer, Luke’s teeth clamped down on the soft flesh of my neck, drawing blood before I understood what was happening. Lightning sparked hot and electric underneath my skin.

  Words emerged inside me at the same moment, silent yet fully understandable. “Honor.” The syllables of my name reverberated in Luke’s deep baritone. “I’ll fix this.”

  I pawed at the strangeness, trying to dislodge his voice from inside me. This was new...and not particularly palatable.

  Stranger yet was hearing someone else’s words—Oldie’s?—flowing through Luke and into me. “It’s time for you to stand up and do your duty, son.”

  “Do my duty?” Luke’s rejoinder was pure fury. “You killed my brother and threatened me with death if I didn’t leave my home and family.”

  Oldie—Luke’s father—shrugged. “Changed my mind. Alpha’s prerogative.”

  “And the bite?”

  My ears perked up. My neck bled, but, strangely, the sensation was pleasurable. Like when Luke’s fingers stroked through the long fur of my shed pelt.

  Still, the old wolf had forced the bite, whatever it represented. So I growled out unity with Luke’s demand for further information. Took a step forward to match the one Luke had already taken.

  By this point, the old wolf was barely able to lift his head. But his voice in my mind was both smug and powerful. “Your sister was sufficient sword maiden for me, Luke. But you’ll need all the help you can get.”

  Rather than answering this time, Luke continued advancing upon his father. His world had narrowed, I knew, because my own sight was strangely doubled. I saw Luke before me, and I saw his father as if through Luke’s eyes.

  “A mate who’s also a sword maiden,” Oldie continued. “That will calm the pack. Especially once you beget an heir.”

  Beget? I would have raised an eyebrow if I’d been human. But the archaism slipped past me as two more skinless slunk out of the summer greenery.

  Luke hadn’t seen them. He was too intent upon his father.

  So I barked a warning...only to have it emerge as silent words spinning between us. “Luke, behind you!”

  And Luke understood. Didn’t glance around wildly. Just spun to face the oncoming wolves.

  THE NEWCOMERS WERE a male and a female, the former with dinner-plate paws at the end of skinny legs promising he hadn’t yet grown into his adult strength. It was the female who led, however. The female who unfolded upward into a mid-twenties woman and speared Luke with eyes as stormy blue as his own.

  This was the aforementioned sister, I guessed. Not just because of the obvious physical resemblance, but because of her greeting. A single word, full of decades of shared knowledge. “Luke.”

  Luke’s sister was naked, of course, with no pelt to shield her. That’s what it meant to be a skinless rather than a woelfin. They kept their lupine nature inside while transforming. Kept the wildness of the beast simmering behind their eyes even while walking upright.

  I’d been told that nudity was irrelevant to skinless, and this woman certainly made no effort to shield her privates. But her nakedness was far less shocking than the network of scars crisscrossing her body. It looked like she’d fallen through a razor-lined net.

  I felt rather than saw Luke wince in reaction. “Ruth.” He stepped past his father’s slumped body, making connections faster than I was able to. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have prevented this.”

  This? The scars, I guessed. Which related to their father’s mention of a sword maiden, maybe? I itched to shift upward and request further information, but it was too dangerous to share the presence of my pelt.

  While I puzzled together guesswork, Luke leaned forward as if he intended to hug his sister. But she was having none of it. Ruth straight-armed him away even as she replied.

  “That’s precisely why I didn’t call you.” Her eyes narrowed. “The pack didn’t need your help. We have an alpha, a sword maiden, and an heir.”

  With the final word, she gestured toward the young male, who was transforming into humanity far more slowly than the others had. “Or we did,” she added. “Now we just have a mess.”

  Between Luke’s failed hug and Ruth’s words, the air grew even more electric with tension. I sidled forward until my forepaws landed one inch away from Luke’s bare foot. If his family went furry and attacked him, I’d be ready to drive th
em back.

  Instead of attacking, though, the boy emoted as soon as his wolf fur faded and human vocal cords settled. “I’m not doing it!”

  He looked just like Luke might have fifteen years ago, before life hardened up soft edges. This had to be Michael, the newborn brother Luke had barely met before being cast out of his pack for the crime of trying to save their oldest brother from death.

  Tears glimmered on the youngster’s lower eyelids. Luke, in contrast, appeared calmer than he smelled as he confirmed my guesswork. “It’s the only way to become alpha, Michael. Do you want to be alpha?”

  For one long moment, Michael was silent. Then, he spoke through a sob. “No.”

  In the tense silence that followed, the wily old wolf leapt.

  Chapter 2

  Oldie didn’t go for Luke or Ruth. No, that would have been too obvious. Instead, he aimed for Michael...or tried to. I struck him broadside the instant all four of his paws came off the ground.

  Human, I was slower than any of the skinless. Lupine, I matched them step for step. So when Oldie twisted midair to go for my jugular, I lashed out with one paw. His existing wound was a mass of exposed nerve endings. Four claws ripping into raw flesh was bound to slow him down.

  It didn’t. Instead, Oldie ignored the pain. Wrapped around me so we came down on the ground tangled together.

  His teeth fumbled through fur, seeking my windpipe. But it was the rock biting into my hindquarters that made me yelp.

  Then Luke was between us. Human, he grabbed the old wolf’s tail, ignoring the stupidity of such an action. One hand on the tail then the other on the ruff, he shook the injured wolf so hard his teeth rattled.

  A single word was all Luke uttered, but it was harsh as any wolf’s growl. “Mine.”

  So many blue eyes struck me at once that I took a step backward. The old wolf’s nostrils flared. Ruth’s eyebrows rose so high they got lost in her bangs.

  Michael was the one who demanded: “Introduce us.”

  “No.” Now Luke’s naked calves blocked my vision. He was standing between me and his siblings just as he’d tried to do when we first scented werewolves. The gesture should have seethed with protectiveness, but instead it made me feel like our relationship had taken one long stride back.

  Especially when Luke changed the subject entirely. “How close is the pack?”

  Misdirection didn’t ease the ache in my belly, but it worked on Michael. The boy swiped hair out of his eyes as he rebutted Luke’s assertion. “No one followed us!”

  An almost-smile from Luke. Calming words. “Will you check for me? Scout your back trail? Howl if you see anyone?”

  The boy was being sent away from the upcoming conversation for his own safety, and the scuffing of his feet among old leaves suggested he knew it. Still, he nodded. Forced himself through the laborious return to wolf form then slunk back into the trees he’d emerged from not long before.

  “You can see the problem,” Ruth said once the boy was too far away to hear her. “He doesn’t look like it, but Michael has what it takes to be alpha. He puts the pack first. He just needs to finish growing up.”

  “And you want me to be alpha in the interim.” Luke nodded. “I told you when we were kids that I’d come back any time you asked me to. Just....”

  Now he did step out from in front of me. “You can shift now, Honor,” he told me. When I hesitated, he added: “I trust Ruth with my life.”

  And his father? I spared another glance for the old wolf, noting the depth of his gut wound and the laboriousness of his breathing. I saw Luke’s point now. He hadn’t mentioned his father because the old wolf didn’t have long to live.

  So I shifted. Inhaled wolf and exhaled human. My pelt slid off my back, but I caught it before it hit the ground.

  And Ruth exploded. “You really are an idiot, Luke. What were you thinking?” Now she was the one advancing on her sibling, but with fists raised instead of a hug offered. “A woelfin as a sword maiden? They’ll gut her then the pack will fall apart.”

  LUKE’S ARM CAME AROUND my shoulders, half protection and half restraint. As if he expected me to tear into his sister physically in response to her aggression.

  Which is probably what a werewolf would have done. But I was woelfin. I fought words with words and ignorance with questions. “What’s a sword maiden?”

  My effort to defuse the tension worked, ironically as it turned out when Luke explained. “She’s a pressure-release valve for the pack.”

  The rumble of his voice sank into my skin even as a burst of his signature cinnamon surrounded me. “But that’s not what my bite made you, Honor. It’s half of the mating ritual. A form of protection.” He glared once at his father, then returned his attention to me. “Albeit a weak one. Ruth is the only one I trust to see you this way. When Michael howls, shift back.”

  That wasn’t a request, but rather an order. Still, I gave him a pass on his wording. It wasn’t every day a dying father showed up on your doorstep along with a sister demanding you drop everything and accept the reins of a werewolf pack.

  There wasn’t time to take offense, anyway, with Ruth snorting out disbelief. “You’ve been gone too long, Luke. Have you forgotten that a mate is the first choice for sword maiden?”

  “Our mother....”

  “Was pregnant with Michael when the role opened up, and she didn’t last long afterwards. Even so, the pack wasn’t pleased to have a daughter be sword maiden when I started. That’s why Father had to kill off so many competitors.”

  “Not enough.” The rusty voice rose from beneath us. No longer lupine, the old shifter lay on his back, eyes closed and one hand pressed against a wound in his belly that looked even worse with no fur to shield its extent. “I didn’t kill enough competitors”—his breath caught for a moment, then he pushed through the pain—“or I wouldn’t be in this state.”

  “Who did it, Father?” Ruth dropped to her knees beside the old man, Luke and I forgotten. It wasn’t love passing between them, precisely. But something powerful linked the two nonetheless.

  Her father shook his head rather than answering. “Someone too weak to call an Alpha’s Hunt.” His eyes closed as he dredged up the memory. “I couldn’t see who in the dark.”

  I’d been trying to keep quiet and let Luke deal with what was clearly a family problem, but that was bullshit. “You’re skinless. You could smell them.”

  Ruth tensed as if she wanted to slap me, but the old man just shrugged as best he could. “It’s irrelevant now. The pack needs an alpha.” His eyes latched onto Luke’s. “Tag.” His smile was full of wolf-sharp teeth. “You’re it.”

  “WE CAN DO THIS, LUKE.” Ruth didn’t return to her feet, but her back lengthened enough that she gave the impression of being in command anyway. “You’ve missed a lot, but I’ll act as your sword maiden and advisor. We need to find whoever injured Father and execute them publicly. Not just in front of our pack. We’ll invite the neighbors also. Make it a public spectacle....”

  “No.” Luke’s interruption struck me the same way his father’s bark had, like a physical blow rocking me back onto my heels. His arm was barely enough to hold me upright.

  “No what?” Ruth demanded.

  “No, I won’t govern the way our father did.”

  The veneer of civilization that had clung to Luke as long as I’d known him seemed to slip aside the same way my pelt did when I shifted. Was this the real Luke taking advantage of his superior height to glare down at his sister?

  Abruptly, I remembered my father’s warning. “Skinless are all about power,” he told the four of us when we were eleven. “Their lives revolve around dominance. Don’t be lulled into thinking they’re like us.”

  The lesson had never felt more true than when Ruth sprang to her feet and took a step closer. She and Luke were nearly eye to eye, Ruth only two inches shorter. “You won’t govern the way our father did,” she bit out, “or you can’t?”

  “Is that why you begged
me to leave after he killed Gabriel?” Luke rebutted. “Because you don’t believe an alpha can lead with justice and compassion?”

  I opened my mouth to break into the sibling’s argument, but their father got there first. “Try if you want, boy.” His voice started low and quiet, then gained momentum once he had both of his children’s attention. “Try ruling this pack with peace and love. By the end of the first season, lone wolves will be circling like jackals. You’ll end up killing half your pack mates in an Alpha’s Hunt. All-out warfare. No rules. Just one surviving dominant—you, if you’re lucky.”

  The old man shook his head. “So much work to prove you’re powerful enough for the role you could take now easily. Smart move, son. Very smart.”

  Luke’s arm fell away from my shoulders as his fists clenched. “I won’t be you, Father.”

  “You think?” The old shifter coughed once, so hard I thought he was finished. Not just speaking, but possibly also living.

  Then he inhaled a raspy breath and his voice grew stronger rather than weaker. “Threat of an Alpha’s Hunt not enough to deter you? You’ll change your tune when the neighbors catch wind of pack rot. Remember the Vanguards? Remember how their new alpha failed at consolidating control after stepping up as pack leader? We seized their women, their territory, and burned down what wasn’t worth seizing. You think that can’t happen to us?”

  “The pack needs you to step up to the plate, Luke,” Ruth said once it was clear their father was finished. The air between the siblings sizzled. But Ruth’s eyes drifted downwards, the gesture easing the tension in Luke’s shoulders a bit.

  Only then did Ruth continue. “After the pack settles, you can make changes slowly. Designate Michael as your heir. Soothe the pack until you can speak to each member in their mind. Then it’ll be safe enough to bring back your woelfin. Or Michael can become alpha and you can leave if you want to. We just need to unite the clan first.”