Huntress

Chapter 24

I was on the verge of screaming at him. Get out. Run. Don't try to save me, I'm already too far gone. Just save yourself. Because the only reason he could be here was to rescue me. My mind convinced me that he had somehow followed me here, thinking I was acting strangely and had witnessed me getting kidnapped.

"Ah, Allen," Keiko said, waving at him.

Waving him into the shed like she knew him. Like he wasn't just some human with a hero complex. But she didn't know his name.

For a second, I wondered if I had confused myself, if my mind was too muddled to know who was standing right in front of me. My eyes darted back to Ryder, back to the man I had kissed so roughly in my own home, the man who had taken me to snuggle kittens. I knew him. I knew the sound of his laugh and the feel of his hands. It was him. It had to be.

And I watched him take in my state. He ran his eyes over me, a brief second of recognition filling his features before it vanished into nothing. It was just... gone. Then, there was vacancy. No lip curled in disgust, no narrowed eyes, no concern, no panic. Just completely blank. Not the face of a hero who had come to serve justice.

"Ajax called me in, he said that you caught one of them," Ryder said. and hearing his voice was just another confirmation, another punch to the gut that it was in fact him. I didn't know him for long, but I felt like I could pick his voice out of a million.

"Like a rabbit in a snare," Keiko said, grinning. Her dainty hand with a fat diamond ring gestured to me. "I would like to introduce you one of the werewolf hunters that has been terrorizing us. She just happened to shoot Ajax with one of her arrows, so now she's enemy number one." Keiko then turned to me, the grin remaining glued to her features. "What a special treat for you. You see, Ryder Allen is the man we have to go after scum like you. He's been studying your little werewolf hunter gang for as long as you have been around. He'll know just how to make you crack."

"Look at her," Noah piped up. "She looks like she's going to piss herself already."

Noah might have been right if I believed what was before me. But it was all so impossible. Ryder was human. He had to be. I would know. I wasn't sure how, but I had been training for years. There's no way one could be hiding right under my nose. In my own home. And he would know nothing about werewolves because so few humans did. This was just a game. My mind was cracking. It could have been the wolf drain, the dehydration, the hunger, the lack of sleep, of a combination of all of them. It didn't matter. This wasn't true. Ryder was not here. It was just some man and I was letting my mind get the better of me. I lowered my gaze to the floor and took three breaths in an effort to steady myself.

"Are you sure she's a werewolf hunter?" Ryder asked. His voice swirled in my head and I jammed my eyes shut. This wasn't happening.

"Well, she was the one running away through our lands in the dead of night with a silver knife in her hand right after my mate had been shot with a silver arrow. I would say all signs point to her," Keiko stated. "And if she wasn't the one who shot him, she's going to know who did. Obviously she was ready to kill, one way or another."

I just kept my gaze on the floor and focused on what I could control: my breathing. In and out. In and out. This nightmare would end eventually. I just had to get over this hurdle. That's all this was. A blip. A twist of the mind that would pass. My suffering would end soon enough.

"Was there anyone else in the woods? It seems odd that this would be a solo attack. I don't want to put all of the blame on a single person, or maybe even the wrong person, if there are others," Ryder pressed. There it was. There was the proof that my mind was slipping. Ryder's voice was never that flat. It always buzzed with enthusiasm, wonder, humor. It was never so monotone.

"No one else was found. After we dragged her back, I sent out three teams to search the area. Not even another scent trail was found. I don't doubt that she's working with others, but she was definitely the only one on our lands at the time," Keiko confirmed.

There was a moment of silence. And in the dead quiet of that shed, I felt like the ringing in my ears was becoming violent. I had to do something. Anything. Step. Step. Swing. I fell right back into my night habit without giving it a second thought.

"How long have you had her like this?" Ryder asked.

I kept moving, didn't even flinch at the sounds invading my mind. Lies. All of it was lies.

"A while. Close to twenty-four hours at this point," Keiko admitted.

"When was the last time she had anything to drink? Something to eat?" he pressed. It was still so flat.

I raised my head, no longer wanting to stare at the old hiking books that were making me feet ache. The mercury eyes that had watched me coo over a tiny orange kitten were studying me now. There was not an ounce of emotion in them though. And the second our gazes met, he glanced away, only having focus for Keiko.

"Whenever she gave herself water or food last. She hasn't had anything while she's been in our...care." The queen was picking at her manicure, but there was a firm grimace on her mouth.

"How long has she been like this? Pacing."

She shrugged. "Hard to say. I'm thinking that it started sometime during the night. She had a lot more fight in her yesterday than she does now. Maybe we pushed her too far. We might not be able to get sound answers from her anymore. That's my fault. I just—she shot my mate with a silver arrow. And Clementine was outside. She could have..."

"I understand," Ryder said.

"Maybe we should have waited for you, but my emotions got the best of me. I just wanted to make her suffer. But now, you do what you think is best."

Ryder approached me. I sized up this image that my mind had created and almost marveled at how inconsistent my imagination was to reality. Ryder was not stoic. He wouldn't be able to look at me in this state without flinching. His mouth wouldn't be in a firm line as he untied my wrists from behind my back. But there were some things that my brain did get right. His scent or the way my skin tingled every time we touched.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Keiko asked.

"I don't even know if her legs would carry her out of this shed, to be honest," Ryder explained. His touches on my flesh were brief, undoing the knots with efficiency. "If we want anything out of her, we need to get her head on straight. Once the brain starts to slip, it's hard to tell fact from fiction."

Was it ever. My arms fell limply by my sides as soon as the rope was released. The feeling of having them in a normal position was heavenly, blood rushing through my veins in excitement. But, as if to prove his point, my legs gave out. The exhaustion caught up to me, no longer being held at bay by searing pain or consequences. I fell right against Ryder, feeling an arm curl around my waist to support me. My hands flopped forward without a pinch of grace onto his chest. Warmth flooded my body, as if it had already forgotten what had happened to it.

"Who did this?" Ryder rumbled, his voice low. When I was able to hoist my head upward, I saw his gaze locked onto my fingers and the bloody stumps where my nails had been.

"I did," Noah stated.

I was released from Ryder's grip, my body swaying weakly. And Ryder was lunging at Noah. 

~~~Distraction Section~~~

What is the worst piece of advice you've been given?

Honestly, for me old school relationship related. I hate the saying "happy wife, happy life". Makes my skin crawl.