Jane’s POV“S?” I rasped. Blood choked me; I coughed, the sound rattling and reedy, and blood hissed from my lips, splattering down my front and onto the floor. I blinked. When I managed to focus my gaze on the windowsill once more, S was gone. My head hit the floor. I couldn’t hold it up any longer. Terror sliced through my veins, making my heart beat faster, making me lose more blood more quickly. Had I really seen S? If he was here, did that mean that he was, too? If he wasn’t already, was S going to get him?This was his perfect chance to strike. I was dying; he could do whatever he wanted to me in this state. I tried to cling to wakefulness but it was dimming, even the dull lamplight too bright for my eyes now.‘Hold on, girl!’ cried Ina. ‘Don’t go into the light!’‘There’s no light, Ina,’ I said on a sigh, my eyelids drooping. Everything felt strange, weightless and incandescent. The pain faded and flared, faded and flared, spiking and drifting away on each laborious hollow an
Hunter’s POVI lay entwined with Jane, our legs tangled, my hand splayed across her belly. I didn’t think anything could worry me, not here, not with her.“That’s funny,” Jane murmured, toying with my fingers, looking up at me with a tight smile, “he said I should be careful around you, too.”Damn Leif, I thought. He clearly didn’t trust me any more than his mother did. I just had to hope that Jane trusted me more than either of them. After all, she may not know who I really was, but she did know Colin pretty well now. She knew he – I – had saved her from the auction, from Leif’s whip, from coming here alone. And, if what we’d just done was any sort of sign, she liked me. She liked me a lot.I’d known my plan would work, but the reality of it – the feel of Jane clenching around me, of seeing her pretty face flushed as she rode me, of the way she looked with eyes gone heavy-lidded with lust – was something else entirely to the way I’d imagined it. I’d stopped her from saying my – his
Hunter’s POVI stewed over the knowledge that the real Alpha Colin was on the loose the whole way back. I had told S to keep searching and to send some of the Shadows after him; he would have left a trail, and a trail could be followed. I had to make sure he stayed well away from me and my business.If Alpha Colin came here, I was screwed. If he went back to the Desert Assassin pack, I had no doubt that word would spread all too quickly and I would, again, end up screwed. I’d worked way too hard to let that happen. No matter what, I had to finish what I’d started here with Jane. * * *My new plan started to come together after Jane texted me something vague about someone that needed help. Joy swelled in me - real, genuine joy - at the thought that she was using the phone I'd given her to ask me for help. She was starting to fall for me, I could tell. It wouldn't be much longer and I could reveal who I was to her - on my terms, of course - and we could finally leave this dump behind.
Hunter’s POVGetting Yuan outside was easier than I’d anticipated. Getting S to agree to look after him, though? That was the tricky part.It was rare for S to disagree with me. Hell, he’d followed me into the desert and had done everything I’d asked, even after I’d decided to pretend to be Alpha Colin. S was a good soldier.“Alpha, I am not sure he will survive the journey.”“Then run fast,” I replied flatly. “Here, take him. We don’t have much time as it is, S.”He was never one to fidget, but S almost looked as though he might. “You want me to take him to the old man’s place? Are you sure?”I held his gaze. “Positive. And once you have, S, I need you to get any information out of him you can. After that…”He nodded. “I know my orders, Alpha.”“Then see to them.”* * *Keila caught me as I was sneaking back inside.“Ohhhhh Colinnnnnn!” she cried, lifting up her hands as though she were lifting a heavy, multi-layered skirt rather than skin-tight leather pants she actually had on. Her
Hunter’s POVMy spine prickled uncomfortably with the feeling that I was being watched as I slipped into Jane’s bedroom and hid in her en-suite. It didn’t take long for me to hear her moving around in the room adjacent.I stuck my hand out and grabbed her arm. “Jane,” I hissed, tugging her closer. Just touching her got rid of all the unease making my muscles bunch. Somehow, Jane made everything okay.‘Aw, Hunter, you old sap!’ Reg wiped tears from his eyes. ‘I knew that tin chest had a heart in it somewhere.’“Were you hiding in my bathroom?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at me and trying to hide her smirk. “Classy, Colin.” It smarted to hear her call me that, even when we weren’t having sex. My mouth pressed into a flat line as she went on. “Did Yuan get away?”I told her what I could – that my wolves had made sure Yuan had been taken safely to the old man’s house. I also said that I’d commanded some of the wolves I trusted to remain there and keep an eye on her boys, too. I’d thou
Hunter’s POVI risked a glance at Jane. Her brow was furrowed; her gaze was distant, like she was lost in thought. If she put this together, I was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed.Unless…Unless she was ready to know who I really was. Keila’s abrupt, loud laughter brought my anger back to its boiling point. “The most powerful?” she repeated mockingly, pulling a silly face at me as she parroted my words back to me. Then she tapped her chin and grinned. “So that means the most powerful Alpha in the whole wide world has let me dress him up in a maid’s outfit, then?”She bent double, wiping tears from her eyes and hacking up bile she was laughing so raucously. My eyes jerked past Keila, though.I had to look at Jane. Had she heard?‘Jane’s going to be getting ideas now, Hunter!’ laughed my dickhead wolf. ‘Maybe she’ll want to dress you up in a maid’s outfit, now she knows what a good little submissive you are. I’ll definitely make sure Ian gets a snap of that!’My heart was poun
Hunter’s POVBefore I could even finish processing the fact that Keila knew my real name, she knocked me out. “Better to be sure that you can’t mess with my plans,” she whispered, her voice as soft as a lover’s caress – only she followed it up with a hard punch to the back of my head.I woke some time later to S untying me, his face pale.“What is it?” I croaked, struggling to sit up. My mouth felt dry, my tongue like it had been replaced with a fat cotton ball, and my temples pounded. That might have had something to do with the fact that Reg was whining, loudly and constantly, in the back of my head.‘I’m sore all over, Hunter! I can’t believe you let that crazy chick beat you up like that. I thought you were an Alpha.’ He huffed and crossed his front legs like arms. ‘First, you wouldn’t let me shift and take care of business. That was bad enough! But now, Hunter, now you’ve let Little Miss Psycho take care of you – and not in a good way, bee tee dubz.’‘Bee tee dubz?’ I muttered. ‘
Hunter’s POV‘Wait,’ I snarled. ‘They need to stew in there for a while, and I’m not leaving here until I know Jane is okay.’‘How is she?’ S asked flatly, with no emotion in his voice at all. ‘She’s fucking dying, S!’ I snapped. I drew in a long, deep breath, held it, then released it.‘Look. At. That. Breathing. Pattern!’ Reg cheered. ‘Someone’s been listening to me. Finally, might I add. I’ve had this stuff down for years, and you’re only just learning the basics now.’‘Reg, shut up,’ I growled. Then I mindlinked S again. ‘Do the usual, S. Make it cold, then too hot, and make sure the bars of the cells are nice and sticky. Don’t say a word to them.’ Not that S needed to be reminded of that, anyway. ‘Make them as uncomfortable as you physically can and then just sit and watch them.’‘Got it, Alpha.’I let out a breath – and then tensed again as Reg started talking. ‘Yes, yes, yes! Hunter, you’ll be a pro at this breathing business before you even know it.’ He wiped a tear from his