Chapter 49

I need you to answer me, Genevieve. Please.

Istared at the stupidly obscene amount of messages I’d sent Genevieve—none of which she’d fucking answered. My heart galloped wildly in my chest. I wanted to be anywhere but the fucking pack house having this damn conversation. I understood why we needed to have the damn conversation, but I didn’t want to.

I wanted—needed—to see for myself that she was safe.

I’m not fucking around, Genevieve. You need to get the hell to the pack house.

I clicked my tongue, reading the unread messages all over again.

Your parents too, Genevieve. Get them there too.

That should tell you I’m fucking serious, princess. This isn’t a fucking game. I need to know you’re safe.

Damn it, Genevieve, I’m not fucking around. Answer your damn text messages.

There was a fucking hunter in Cedar Harbor and my wife chose now of all fucking times to shut down on me.Jesus fucking Christ. I was losing my goddamn mind.

“Right,” Isla piped up. “You say you know this is a hunter but how?”

I frowned. Hadn’t I said all of this already? Or was I just lost in my own head and not realizing it?

Probably the latter.

“Because I know a lot more about hunters than any of you,” I snapped.

“Cool the fucking attitude,” Declan told me. “We all know you know more. We want to understand what the hell is happening before we talk to the Harveys and before we call every pack member to the house. We have to have all the facts before we cause major concern.”

“We should cause major concern,” I said. I kicked at the arm of the couch, needing something to do with the rampant energy inside me. The walls of the leader room were suffocating. Why the fuck were there no windows? “If there was ever a time for major fucking concern, this is it. Hunters are… they’re fucking monsters. The worst of the fucking worst.”

“Give us the rundown,” Cole ordered. “And why the hell you think—”

“Know.”

“—there’s a fuckin’ hunter after y’all.”

“Know,” I repeated with a growl. Fucking dick. “She didn’t struggle—Charlotte didn’t struggle. She couldn’t. That’s the thing about a hunter’s magic. They can control our animals—our wolves. It’s why there were no signs of a fucking struggle. Charlotte couldn’t fight back.

“And then there’s the way she was…” Fuck, I hated talking about this. I wasn’t squeamish, but I knew Charlotte. I grew up with her. This wasn’t a normal situation. Powering ahead was the best fucking way to go, but it sucked. “The way she was killed was unusual—completely clean cut. It wasn’t a knife that did that to her. It was magic.”

“Magic can do that?” Finn asked.

“Their magic can do a lot of fucking things, kid. It’s fucking awful.” What a fucking way to describe it. Shit, I needed better words. “And that message? They’re not fucking around. They’re coming for us, and we need to get defensive real fucking fast. If a hunter is here, they won’t leave. Our numbers won’t scare them.”

“How do you know all this?” Nolan cut in. “I’ve heard of hunters. We’ve all heard of hunters. But all of this… it’s more information than I’ve heard any shifter has.”

“How many shifters are you out there talking about hunters to?” Lucas demanded.

“I have friends!”

“You have Ginny,” he shot back, rolling his eyes.

“Either way,” Declan began over them, “the question still stands.”

“I met one while on a job in Boston a year ago,” I said. The silence was deafening. “I met him in a hotel bar. I was there for dinner, he thought I was there to kill him. It was a real bang-up fucking conversation. He knew what I was the minute I walked in, and I didn’t have a fucking clue what he was.”

“He let you live?” Maverick asked.

“No. He sat down and ate my fucking fries—of course, he let me fucking live!” And he ate my fries but that shit was neither here nor there. “He wasn’t in the business as he called it. Hadn’t been his entire fucking life. It was his dad’s thing going back generations, but he still knew his shit.”

“So, you met a hunter in a hotel bar and you talked?” Isla summed up. “You had dinner with a hunter and he just… told you all his secrets?”

“It wasn’t a fucking secret,” I said. “None of it fucking is. No shifter has ever lived after meeting a hunter to tell about. He was a fucking lawyer, didn’t hunt anyone, and didn’t fucking care who he told what to.”

“So, do you think it’s him? That he’s in Cedar Harbor?” she replied.

“I know it’s not him. There’s not a chance in hell it’s him.”

“How?” Declan demanded. “How do you know that, Killian?”

“Because I killed him.” I had no fucking shame. If I could go back, I’d do it all over again.

“In self-defense?”

“No, I learned his routine, who he interacted with, and picked the best fucking time to put a bullet in his head,” I growled. “And then I got rid of the body.”

“That’s murder,” he whispered.

“That’s putting the pack first,” I told him.

“Tell me he did something first—”

“Don’t try to make this into some self-defense bullshit,” I cut him off. “I saw a problem, and I took care of it. I wasn’t about to let a hunter put our pack in danger.”

“Jesus fuck.” Declan ran a hand over his beard as he picked up pacing the room. “Do you hear yourself? You murdered a guy!”

“I did what I had to!”

“And now we have a hunter in Cedar Harbor!” he shouted.

“Better one than two!” I yelled back, my temper flaring. I didn’t expect him to understand—hell, that was a hard fucking ask of anyone. I fucking killed a guy. I just wasn’t about to apologize for it either. Not considering what he was. I didn’t trust the whole not really a hunter thing. To me, that man was a monster, and I dealt with it. There was nothing more to it. “They’re hunters. This is what they do, Declan. They fucking kill our kind. There’s no playing nice and hoping they do the same. Your little delusional fantasy world of everyone playing fair and doing the right goddamn thing doesn’t work outside of Cedar Harbor! Bad shit happens and hard choices are fucking made. You get used to it.”

“I hate to agree with him,” Maverick began softly, “but he’s got a point. I’ve heard some horror stories about hunters—nothing like what he’s saying—but I would’ve done the same.”

“So would I,” Cole said. “Fuckin’ with hunters never leads nowhere good. He may know more, but I know enough. Y’all need to hunker down and be fuckin’ smart about how you handle this. More people are goin’ to end up dead.”

“You say that like we can’t stop this,” Lucas snapped.

“Boy, he’s just gettin’ started, and you don’t know a damn thing,” he replied. There was no malice in his fucking voice. It was just fact. “You ain’t savin’ everyone. You better get real fuckin’ comfortable with that fact. People in your pack are goin’ to die. One of you might die. All you can do is fuckin’ stay the course, find this hunter, and kill them before they kill you.”

“We can stay,” Maverick offered.

“You need to get back to your packs and protect them. We have no idea if any of your packs have been targeted too,” I said. I glanced at Declan. The look on his face as he rubbed his hand over his chest was the hardest pill to swallow. It was as if he was realizing he didn’t know me anymore. He didn’t, which was probably for the better. “Besides, we have no fucking clue how long this will go on. It could be weeks to months before another attack.”

We were shit out of luck and left to tread water. There was no telling what the fuck would happen next.