The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (17 page)

Kyran stroked Alexis’s hair and watched a contented smile come across her features. He owed her everything he had for taking care of his brother when he couldn’t. He would start with the one thing that
had been bothering her the most, her safety. He
’
d grant it. With his life.

He laid Alexis down and kissed her gently on the lips before he
turned and left the room. He reached Ronan
’
s door, but a text came
to his phone before he could knock.

‘I need the warriors you promised ASAP. The LC pack has sent an emissary
with a missive that they will attack tonight. Tell Marcela that she is to stay with Ronan.
’

Kyran shook his head and knocked on the door, knowing how well
that information would be received by his mother’s Tepinok. He was greeted by his brother, whose shirtless body was glossy with sweat.

“Wow, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Marcela laughed from the sea of pillows on Ronan
’
s bed. She was
fully dressed, which said how many ways this was awkward.

“We’re just watching this awful werewolf movie. Ronan’s trying
to prove that his muscles are bigger.” She laughed again when Ronan
flexed at her. “I’m not convinced.”

“Yeah right. You just pulled a Little Red Riding Hood before Ky got here.”

“So you do have big ears?”

Ronan launched himself onto her and playfully tickled her. He was
rewarded with a girlish squeal for his effort. He crawled off the bed
laughing, taking in Kyran’s bemused smile.

“Sorry, Ky, what’s going on?”

“I’m going to Keowee territory. Angel will come with me, but I’m
leaving the rest of team one as defense. Teams two and four will also come with me.”

“Do you think the LC has enough Talas to warrant taking so many?
Twenty guys seem like overkill.”

“I know, but I’m making a point.”

The LC, or the Low Country pack, liked to run off smaller packs, but their favorite targets were matriarchal packs. Unfortunately, the
LC didn
’
t have the kind of fighters that Kyran did. The Blue Ridge pack
was a pack where everyone played their part and did it with obsessive
attention to detail. Though Kyran wasn’t taking the pack’s strongest team, he wasn’t taking the cleaning crew either. Every single Tala on his four squads was prepared to fight and die if necessary.

The LC, however, was full of a bunch of brawlers and their use of
technique and strategy left a lot to be desired. The only reason that his
mother approached him for an alliance in the first place was because
they were heavily outnumbered. Now with Kyran
’
s presence, the fight
would be in her favor.

Kyran
’
s attention was brought back into focus when Marcela climbed
from the bed and began putting on her shoes.

“Marcela, Mikkoyi Erma says that she wants you to remain here with Ronan.”

Her head snapped up. “She what? I’m her Tepinok; I need to be
there.”

Kyran showed her the text, giving her an understanding nod. He
used to hate it when Arik would leave him behind while he was forced
to wait to see if his father made it home alive or not.

He squeezed her gently on the shoulder. “Don’t worry; she’s my mother. Nothing will happen to her.”

Marcela nodded and dropped ungracefully back on the bed.

Ronan went to her, whispered something in her ear that caused her
to laugh before he turned back to Kyran. “So half an hour?”

“Yeah, tops. Send Jillian with some guards to check on the Hunter
. I’ll text you when I’m on my way back.”

He left the room with a certain bit of reality beginning to surface
regarding what the relationship between him and Alexis would neve
r
be. He pushed it to the back of his mind, because at the moment, it
served no purpose.

RONAN WATCHED AN UNREADABLE
emotion pass through his
brother
’
s eyes before Kyran left, closing the door softly behind him. He
didn
’
t know what to make of it, so he ignored it and turned his attention
to Marcela.

Giving her a quick kiss, he glanced at the movie, which was going off.

“We have to start the movie over.”

“Ugh,” Marcela said with a laugh. “No, we don
’
t. That movie sucks.”

“Female, that
’
s the point. Unless you want to – ” He turned to his
phone after it started beeping. “Hold on a sec.”

Ronan jumped from his bed and went to his desk. The alarm on
his phone was a reminder to do his four hour checks of the security
systems. Someone was always watching the various feeds in the front
of the compound in the security room, but he preferred to maintain his
own routine checks.

He shuffled though the cameras that filmed the compounds common
quarters before he checked the feed for the cell where the male had
been moved after he attacked Kyran.

The video showed slack shackles in the darkened room, which was
weird because the room was supposed to be lit when someone was
inside. Ronan squinted a little and saw that nobody hung from the
shackles. He checked the feed from the infirmary but found it empty.

He vaguely heard movement in the room indicating Marcela had
risen from the bed as his keystrokes became more determined. Ronan
found that he had four cameras offline, but he knew he hadn
’
t been the
one to take them down. He put them back online and checked their
recorded history.

According to the last time stamp, it had been nearly fifteen minutes
that the cameras had been off, which meant they went offline shortly
before Kyran left the compound. Ronan cursed and called down to th
e security room.

“Who’s on shift now?”

The male on the other end said that he had just begun his shift fifteen
minutes ago. When he asked if there was a problem, Ronan told him that he was doing a check-in before he went on a run.

He hung up and took in Marcela’s concerned features.

“I have to go by Kyran
’
s room and check on Alexis. Then I have to
go and find my missing Hunter, as well as the last Tala on shift.” He put on his shoes and walked to the door.

“What do you need me to do?”

“You’re coming with me. We’ll cover more ground that way.”

She put on her shoes and followed him into the hallway. “What
about Kyran? Are you going to tell him?”

“Yeah, but I’m going to wait. There
’
s no sense in causing a distraction
if it’s something that I can handle.”

Ronan led them down to Kyran
’
s room where he knocked and
waited for an answer. When he got none, he turned the knob and entered
the room.

The bed was made and neat in a way that Kyran never left it. On his desk, Kyran’s monitor showed various open files, and all of them had to do with the pack’s organization.

He turned to Marcela. “These files were encrypted.”

She peered at the screen and then, upon seeing what it was, averted
her gaze. “Do you think that she was spying?”

“That
’
s what it looks like, but if she was, she could have found
more useful stuff on here.”

Marcela folded her arms. “You need to call Kyran, now.”

Ronan nodded and put the computer on sleep so that his brother could see for himself what files had been opened.

He was leaving the room when a scent, something out of place from
what was supposed to be there, gave him a sense that something was
off. He couldn
’
t place it, though it seemed familiar on some level. Ronan
memorized it to assess later and sent the text detailing only the missing
status of Alexis and the male Hunter. He left out the information about
the files, because something wasn’t right about how readily the evidence
was for him to see, especially since Alexis wasn’t in the room.

The minute that he and Marcela stepped into the forest, Ronan
received a reply detailing Kyran’s pending arrival.

“He said he will be here in twenty.”

“He must be running.”

Ronan nodded, knowing that his brother would take the most
efficient way back home. The wolves, their animal cousin, were marathon
runners. The Tala were twice as fast with increased stamina. Add those
baseline stats to Kyran
’
s likely state of aggression and it was more
likely that Ronan would be seeing him in less than fifteen.

Marcela shifted into her Tala form, which was covered in a crimson-
colored coat. The ease of her shift was a mark of her strength and left
Ronan wondering if either of her parents had been Alphas. The smoother
and less agonizing the shift, the stronger the Lycan
’
s lineage, and Marcela
shifted nearly as easily as he and Kyran did.

The rustling of the dead leaves snapped Ronan
’
s thoughts back into
focus. A Tala, one from the merged pack, came walking in from the east.

“Where were you?” Ronan asked.

The male pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “I ran out after my shift
to grab some. They don
’
t do anything for me, but I like the taste of them
. Is something wrong?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ronan saw Marcela’s muzzle bunch in disgust, which made him want to laugh.

“No. Go inside. I will be back in ten.”

The male nodded and walked at a casual pace into the moss covered
entrance.

“He
’
s lying, but I
’
ll deal with him when we get back,” Ronan said.

He shifted forms after a curt nod from Marcela and retraced the
quickly disappearing scent of the treacherous Lycan and the barely
disguised scent of Alexis.

***

Alexis cautiously examined the bedroom and the bed that she wa
s
currently tied to. Though it was decorated with the same lackluster
attention to detail, she didn
’
t recognize the room as one of the Hunter
cabins she
’
d ever been to. She turned her head to the dresser and
watched the way that Theo methodically went through his duffle bag.
He seemed completely healed and had apparently escaped punishment
from Kyran.

“Where are we and what are we doing here, Theo?”

He turned to her and rolled his eyes. “This is the cabin we were supposed to be at. Don’t you remember?”

“Um, no, or I wouldn’t be asking.”

“Your Lycan booked it for us. He was even so kind to send a message
to HQ to leave us alone, because we were spending a little time alone.”

“I hope you aren
’
t getting your hopes up, because this,” she yanked
her binds, “isn’t exactly a way to get me in the mood.”

“Sorry, I can’t exactly turn furry for you. I could kill something that
does and make a rug for you.”

“I would think that the thought of me rolling around on top of him
would still bother you. Guess not.”

Theo gripped the knife he had pulled from his bag until his knuckles
turned white before he turned to stare out of the window. “
I don’
t need
any reminders of your brush with stupidity, Lexi.”

“How many times do I have to tell you – ”

“Yeah, I know. Stop calling you that.”

He walked from the room, his footsteps thudding against the
hardwood floor as he made his way through the cabin. What sounded
like locks clicking into place broke the moments of ominous silence.
When he was apparently satisfied with his attempts to fortify the
building, he returned to the room, narrowing his eyes when she rolled
her eyes in his direction.

“You’re a dumbass,” Alexis said. “If Kyran comes here, he damn sure won’t wait for an invitation to come inside.”

“If your Lycan does come here, it will be to die. I have something
here for him that he won’t live through.”

Alexis pulled harder on the binds and managed to snap the small
rail that she was tied to.

“I took the dart for him last time. Do you really think I’m incapable
of doing so again?”

Theo laughed. “If I were you, I wouldn
’
t bother since he will likely
be here to kill you, too. I doubt he appreciates you spying on his pack
and setting me free.”

Alexis glared at him. “I didn’t spy on Kyran.”

He stood near the bedroom door. “Don
’
t play innocent, Lexi. You
hacked his encrypted files so that you could report to HQ when we
get back.”