Hart and Hunter

Chapter 33

Ch. 33: Dane

With anger coursing through me like fire, I reach the ridge in record time. There, I stand on the precipice, overlooking the land that I've come to call mine.

If everything had gone according to plan tonight, I would be bound to it already, with my mate and my sisters at my side. Instead, one of my sisters is kidnapped and my mate's cries of anger and dismay still ring in my ears.

Another voice echoes in my mind as well: my father's from long ago, teaching me a lesson after I'd grown too cocksure for my own good.

An Alpha doesn't demand respect, he'd said. He earns it.

Isn't that what I'm doing, though? Taking action; doing the right thing.

Can the right thing be a mistake? my father's imagined voice asks.

Unable to consider this properly as a Wolf, I Shift once more, the crack of bones and joints a little more agonizing this time. Shifting is tough on the body, and doing so too often takes its toll.

Human once more, I sit on a smooth, rounded rock, releasing my breath in a groan of mingled frustration and pain, and survey my potential territory as I struggle to arrange my thoughts.

In the heat of anger, the choice had seemed obvious: take the Alpha, gain the power, rescue Ingrid. Now, alone when I should least be alone, my doubt returns full strength.

Life is a series of choices, is another thing my dad would say. And a handful of those choices reveal who you really are.

This certainly feels like one of them, and despite my earlier eagerness to dive straight into action, consequences be damned, now 'damned' feels like exactly what I am: damned if I do; damned if I don't.

If I don't take the alpha tonight, I could lose Ingrid.

If I do take it... I could lose everything.

I don't need to ask what my dad would do in my place. I know. My mom's an alpha, too, and they've always worked together. They each have their strengths, and areas in which they lead. They rarely even have to verbalize decisions. They just know what the other thinks and trust each other implicitly. Whatever my dad chose to do would be what my mom decided, too, and vice versa.

Unlike my dad's, though, my mate's not a Wolf. He's a Fae, and a man, and sometimes a mystery. I wish more than anything that I had him at my side right now, but I don't, and that's the difference.

I fucked up. I knew I fucked up the second I pushed Julian aside and ignored his pleas to stop and wait for him, and it feels like whatever I do next, I'm gonna fuck up again.

"Damned if I do; damned if I don't," I mutter.

I have until dawn to decide which hell I'd rather live in, but as I watch the moon's slow journey across the sky, my heart tells my choice is already made. I just hope it's not a terrible mistake, and that I can be forgiven for making it.

***

As dawn makes the eastern sky blush, I return home. Shifting once more, I cover the distance in two hours, taking my time, and arrive at the cottage just as the sun lifts clear of the horizon. Trotting around to the back porch, I Shift again and take a few minutes to catch my breath before heading inside. The house seems quiet, and while I'd imagined Julian wouldn't have been able to sleep, if he had, I don't want to disturb him.

Inside, however, I find the house abandoned.

"Julian? Freya?"

Concerns for restful sleep forgotten, I call their names at full volume, but receive no reply. My unease escalates to panic as I check each room twice and find no sign of either my sister or my mate. Cursing myself, I retrieve my phone from the bedside table where I'd left it two days earlier, and curse myself again for not having plugged it in before I left.