3

~Hunter

I stare at the ceiling, jaw tightly clenched.

This went wrong. So terribly wrong.

I’m stuck here, at the mercy of a ditzy girl in the home of others related to the Alpha. There is someone that can’t know where I am, and the longer I am here, the more at risk I am of being hunted down again.

I feel as though I’m just sitting, waiting for him to show up.

The moment I’m healed, I’m out of here, but not before killing the Alpha.

I don't know this Alpha, but I know that they will happily hand me over to my pursuers. And because I'm injured, I won't be able to escape him either...

The bedroom door opening has me sitting up.

It’s him…Kaan.

The hunting attire he was once wearing is gone, replaced by a neatly pressed tunic. He looks more like an Alpha, with his deep brown curls neatly placed, his skin smooth and unmarred.

It’s the hidden muscle I noted beneath his clothing that deceived me into thinking he was more than a royal.

"Come any closer and I kill you,” I warn, pressing my back into the wood-carved headboard.

He stalks in, thumb playing with a silver ring on his index finger. His sharp green eyes survey me, likely not impressed by my bed-ridden state.

I’m more concerned for him finishing me off than terrible I currently look.

"Don't be so dramatic," he mutters, looking around the room distastefully.

By the way his nose scrunches up, he isn't impressed by the cloying smell in here coming from all the wilting flowers. To be fair, neither am I.

"You shot me. You're the reason I'm stuck here," I snap. I get the feeling he's as arrogant as every Alpha I've ever met, and feels entitled to kill me if I become a liability.

"You were in dangerous lands. I was telling you to leave, or to announce yourself."

"If they are so dangerous, why were you out there?" What could possibly be dangerous here? I've heard little about this small Kingdom for a reason.

I was hoping I would just pass through it. So much for that.

"My sister and I were hunting," he comments. I watch him pluck a petal from a blush pink rose. He runs it between his fingers as he watches me.

"Hunting for innocent people to shoot in the back?" I retort.

His lips curve up ever so slightly. "Animals, actually. My sister doesn't know much about the forbidden lands, and as the Alpha's sister, she needed to learn."

Forbidden lands? That sounds ominous, despite the environment being anything such.

Still, a animal hunter doesn't carry poisonous arrows. There was something else out there that they were hunting.

"What is so forbidden about that land? It looked fine to me."

I'm not interested in chatting with him, but I am curious. At home we had no such thing, but varying Pack's operate differently.

He gives me a hard look. "Am I supposed to believe that you are completely unaware of the lands your entered into."

I clutch the sheets tightly. "Shooting me in the back was not a fair reaction."

He raises his brows.

"I suppose I could have chased you down, grabbed you and brought you back here, although I doubt the civilians of this pack would appreciate me carrying a kicking and screaming criminal over my shoulder."

"I'm going to kill you," I tell him coldly.

My idle threats don't faze him. I don't seem very intimidating right now, but once I'm committed to something, I'm not going to easily back down.

"I wouldn't, if I were you." He smirks a little, looking over me. "You're the one in the bed, and I'm the one with your weapons."

My mouth dries. Shit.

He doesn't have my weapons on him now, as far as I can tell. He is wearing an ambigious black jacket that could have my favourite dagger tucked beneath it...

"So you just came here to taunt me?"

"I came here to see you, to ascertain why you were in our lands,” he muses, stalking closer. If I didn’t have my wits about me, I would lash out I an attempt to harm him.

I swallow tightly. Under no circumstances can I reveal my true intentions for passing through that forbidden territory.

"I'm not from here. I had no idea I was trespassing,” I tell him, trying not to convey my raising panic.

He narrows his deep green eyes.

"Where have you come from?"

"I'm not telling you." I can’t tell him.

If the truth is revealed, I’ll be sent back. I may even be sold once he realises the value of what is sitting in this bed. I don’t think I’m inherently anymore valuable than anyone else, but to my the man I’m running from…apparently I’m priceless.

"What are you doing here?" He presses.

"Again, I'm not going to tell you." I grit my teeth, holding his gaze with a ferocity to match his. Everything about him is calm and stoic, although I can see him contemplating snuffing me out with a pillow.

"What if my family decided to have you arrested? Then you will be forced to talk,” he notes.

Being shoved deep into a prison could be a bad thing. I would be sitting, waiting to be found. It could be a good thing, however, as I may be able to disappear into the endless shadows of a prison, never to be accounted for again.

Either way, in a prison would be better then being near him.

“Arrest me then. You would be doing me a favour,” I comment snidely.

He lets out a long breath, his frustration mounting. “What is going on?”

“Please just leave me alone. Once I’m healed you will never see me again.” I turn my head, looking out the window, trying to signal that this conversation needs to end.

"I still require answers,” he pushes.

“Why?"

"It is expected of me to keep this territory safe." He doesn’t seem so amused anymore.

I hold back an eye roll. I’ve been surrounded by men sporting the same attitude my whole life. Protecting their Pack is of upmost importance, and nothing else compares.

"Because you're an Alpha, huh?"

"You speak so lowly of us Alpha's. Do you come from a lawless place?” I can't tell if that's an insult or a genuine curiosity.

“I come from a place I want to return to, which I shall do the moment I feel better," I mutter.

Tugging the duvet up to my chin, I consider pulling it over my head so I can drown in the darkness. Kaan freaks me out, and not just because he's capable of overpowering me at this point...

It's because he's capable of revealing my secret.

“I recommend never returning here again.” His voice sounds a little more distant as he backs away to the door.

I peak out from under the covers. "I just want to heal and get out of here."

The irritating part of this exchange is that I'm telling the truth. I have no interest in this Pack and in Kaan and his sister. I truly want to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Tay is fragile, she isn't exposed to other girls her age very often, so watch how you act around her," he demands.

I nearly roll my eyes. Ideally I don't see his sister again through this healing process.

"She's the one forcing herself on me," I tell him through gritted teeth. "Have you really not spoken to others your age for years?"

His brows crease.

"It wouldn't be right for the royals to integrate with the general public," he says after a long moment of silence.

I slap a hand over my eyes. He sounds indoctrinated, but he also sounds careful with what he is saying. I sense there is just as much deception and secrets going on here as there was at home.

"I hate this place so much already," I mumble.

"Stay in your bed, say little to Taysa, and leave as soon as you're better," he orders in a tone that is purely Alpha. "Otherwise I'll kill you."

I narrow my eyes on him. "Not unless I get you first."

His lips tilt up as he gives me a final look. "Challenge accepted."