Huntress

Chapter 27

My fate was being delayed. I didn't entirely understand why, but I also didn't think I had the capacity to ask. To be fair, I could barely understand the words being spoke around me. I saw Ryder move, like he was coming towards me, but when he froze, it was Ajax that stepped forward. My body felt like a bag of bones and blood in his arms as I was scooped up.

The shed that I had come to hate was left behind and I was brought outside. The sun was still high in the sky, but my sense of direction was skewed. Was it sunrise or sunset? How was I even able to tell?

A furious, rumbling snarl made me jerk my head around in his arms. A grey wolf was barreling towards us, teeth bared, ears back against its head. So, this was where I was going to die. For all Keiko's talk and the mention of someone called Hades, this seemed quite reasonable really. I waited to Ajax to dump me on the grass so the beast would have better access to finish me off.

Keiko just raised a dainty hand and the wolf skidded to a hard stop. With a flick of the wrist, she sent it along in another direction, thought it made its displeasure known by growling the entire time.

No one else disturbed us on our way to the house.

"Mommy!" a child shrieked as soon as the door was opened. Her voice was so shrill, it felt like it was going to split my skull. And there was the little girl that I could not kill, her dark hair pulled back in smooth braids, her eyes so wide on her little face. She faltered when she saw me in her father's arms. "Mommy?"

"Mommy's coming, my little orange," Ajax assured.

"Who is that?" Clementine asked.

"We're just attending to some things. Why don't you go upstairs?"

The little girl refused to move until Keiko stumbled into the home and saw her daughter. It was swift work to get the most vulnerable family member away from me. The two walked upstairs hand in hand as I was plunked down on a bar stool that thankfully had a strong back I could slump against.

"Small amounts of water," Ryder commanded. "We don't know where her body is at right now. If we get some fluids in her and we can make sure she keeps them down, then we can work on getting her clean, then maybe some food in her." It came out of him so methodically. A list that he had recited before. Who had he been trying to save then? I doubted another werewolf hunter would be offered these luxuries.

Ajax kept his eyes trained on me while Ryder got to work in the kitchen – a homey and rustic space. A glass was placed in front of me with a laughable amount of water. I guzzled it down immediately. It didn't feel like it helped much. Instead, it was a reminder to my body about what it had been missing. I felt like I could slam water until my belly ached and I felt physically ill. But, Ryder did not refill it right away. His gaze was on me, steady and hard.

"How are you doing?" Ajax asked carefully.

"I wish I never fucking came here," Ryder ground out.

"I wish I could tell you it was going to be okay."

"I know there's a good chance we are both going to be dead within the next couple of days."

"It doesn't have to be that way. Yeah, she's your mate. But we would never hold what she has done against you obviously. Just say the word and we can end it all right now."

"Would you ever even consider letting Keiko go? Even back then when you first met her?"

"No, the mate bond is a strong thing."

"Too fucking strong," Ryder sighed.

I seemed to have past whatever test he laid out for me because I was given the glass back, with a little more water this time. I drank it just as greedy. And it wasn't enough. It wasn't even close to enough. But it felt like my body was restarting. The gears that had seized began to grind again. I was in the royals' home. I should have been trying to hold onto everything and anything. Were there car keys around me? Could I make it out of here? Could I report something back to Armond and Dawn? It didn't matter. I still felt every bit of weakness that I had felt before. Even swiveling my head was too much work.

"Do you have any electrolytes?" Ryder asked.

"Yeah, but I've never used them for anything beyond nursing a hangover." Ajax rummaged around in an overhead cabinet before tossing a small container at Ryder.

I vaguely wondered if I would have chugged the murky pink liquid so eagerly if I hadn't watched them mix it, but with the way my organs were groaning, I knew I would have. I couldn't even identify what it tasted like, I just cared that it hit my stomach. By the time I finished, Ryder had his back to me and was digging around in the pantry.

I scrambled to try to take in any information that might be valuable. There was a knife block. Knives could be good. Or they could be bad...very bad. I couldn't see any car keys. No maps with definitive markings on them, no charts or family trees. Because it was just a home. Leather couches were broken up by a bright pink princess tent. A television was left on, the sound too quiet to be heard fully. An empty glass sat on a side table, speaking of a nightly beverage or maybe a glass of water first thing in the morning.

"Here, eat these," Ryder ordered, placing a cup of applesauce and some cucumber slices in front of me.

I gobbled them down without a second thought.

"We'll let Keiko handle the next couple parts," Ajax said softly, putting a comforting hand on Ryder's arm after he put a full cup of water before me.

"I can handle it."

"You don't have to."

When the queen of werewolves made it back downstairs, I could tell I was the last person she wanted to deal with. "She better be able to walk, because I'm not carrying her," she spat.

Something about her tone made me slide off the chair onto my wobbly legs. "I'm fine." I was very much not.

She eyed me for a moment. "Let's get you cleaned up and changed then."

We left the men behind and ascended the stairs that she and Clementine had disappeared up before. There were a hulking mass of wood, some stairs with live edges, others smooth and refined. I used the little knobs in the wood to hoist my upper body along the railing to give my legs some help. It was a mess, but I did it.

When we made it to the top, there was a short hallway with three doors. A pink foam crown was hanging off one. It seemed odd, like a suburban family with a spoiled daughter, not something a real princess would have.

Keiko noticed me looking, her entire body tight. I didn't need to know her personally to know that a mother's protective streak made her want to choke me right then and there.

"I could never do it," I finally admitted. My voice was hoarse and my throat dry. "I practiced so hard. I felt like a failure. They told me I needed to kill all of you. But every time I looked at that target and thought about a little girl, I felt sick. When I heard her voice, my arrow got loose. That's why Ajax is still alive."

Keiko studied me hard then. Her lips were pressed into a firm line for a long time.

"Well at least you're not a complete monster. Now, let's get you showered up. If you survive Hades, we don't want you dying from an infection."

~~~Distraction Section~~~

Hey friends! I'm going on vacay, so here is an early update! I'll see you guys next week!