It was terrifying to think that I would never have freedom from Blaine and his minions again. Always looking over my shoulder and keeping out of evil alphas’ clutches. My best hope was Hunter and our pack, and for that I needed to trust them with every part of my past—in the hopes we might have a future.
“I will tell you,” I promised, “the next time we’re all together. I was going to the day we got smashed into by the witch, and then our lives briefly went to shit, but I agree that’s its safer foryou to know everything. I just—I just hope it doesn’t change our dynamics.”
Hunter flexed his fingers on my thigh, drifting his palm higher, his finger pressed against the heat of my core. “There’s no chance it will change us, Emme. But I acknowledge and understand your fear. Let’s just take it one day at a time.”
I wasn’t sure I shared his confidence, even though Kellan wasso farunchanged in characteristics, but I desperately wanted to believe him. So, for now, this would have to do.
CHAPTER 37
EMME
For the rest of the drive I was more relaxed than I’d ever been in Hunter’s presence. The wall between us had crumbled piece by piece, and it was like a breath of air when I’d been struggling under water.
We filled the time chatting about our lives, and I enjoyed learning different facets of what made up Hunter Reeves. “Your favorite color is black?” I said with a snort. “Could you be more of a brooding alpha cliché.”
He growled playfully. “Slade is the broodiest of the lot, and his is green.”
With a shrug I said, “Based on his wardrobe, I’d have said black too. But his eyes and dragon coloring are stunning, so it makes sense.”
Hunter’s smile was gentle, and I barely managed not to crawl across the console and into his lap. “What are your guesses for Fin and Kellan?” he asked, slowing for a light.
I thought about it for a second. “Maybe red for Finley, and teal or gold for Kellan.”
Hunter nodded like he was somewhat impressed. “Kellan’s is yellow, sunshiny bastard that he is.”
Where was the lie? “And the bear?”
This got me a side-eye and smirk. “Light, icy blue. A colorveryclose to your eyes, actually.”
There was a jolt in my stomach, and for my sanity, I pretended it was food poisoning from the stadium food. “How long has it been that color?”
His smirk grew. “A long time, Emme. What a delicious coincidence… or not.”
“He does love ice,” I reasoned, “so I would guess that was where it originated.”
That got me another raised brow and a slightly impressed expression. “You appear to have a pretty good read on him already.”
The satisfaction in his tone annoyed me. “Don’t make more from it than is warranted.”
Hunter was choosing his battles wisely today too, and just nodded. “As you wish, little omega.”
Our conversation shifted to the places we’d lived over the years, and I was surprised to find that outside of the first ten years of his life in Golden Claw, Hunter had spent the rest of his youth in Europe, following his dad on scavenger hunts.
“If he wasn’t making money, he was excavating for ancient and unearthed shifter cities,” he said, tone flat. “That was how he found Slade. He’d heard the stories of a treasure buried beneath this ancient volcano, and when it erupted, he knew it was his chance. I wasn’t even born when he found Slade’s egg about to hatch.”
“Was he surprised when out popped a beast instead of a baby?”
Hunter laughed, a dark, raspy sound. “He loved it, the evil bastard. Allowed him to treat Slade like a dumb animal rather than the genius shifter he is. He deserves to die for how he treated my brother, but for some reason, Slade won’t take him out. And he won’t let me either.”
Knowing Slade, it was either a misplaced loyalty to the man who found him… or it was because of his loyalty to Hunter.
“How did you handle rolling around with a baby dragon as a wolf pup who couldn’t shift yet?” I asked, hoping the subject change evoked happier memories. “What was Slade like when he first shifted into his human form?”
A wistful expression crossed Hunter’s face, and I got a sense of those happier moments intermingled with the darker. “He was wild. It took years to domesticate him. My father used specific techniques that I won’t ever speak of without Slade’s permission, to break the dragon in him. It didn’t work of course, but he did teach my brother how to control it in the worst possible way.”
“He destroyed the connection between Slade and his beast?” I guessed, my words a whisper of horror. AndnowIhated Hunter’s father with the same fervor as I hated my mom and her pack.
Hunter’s jaw tightened, and he didn’t deny it.
