Hunting Tess by Kathryn Summers (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

to the road while one hand restrains an arm, the other hand putting a coaxing pressure on the back of his neck. I lean close to make sure he can hear me, ignoring the sickly-sweet scent filling my nostrils. “One way or another you will reach that house. Whether all your limbs are still attached to your body when we arrive is up to you.”

Certain he got the message, I haul him to his feet, following my guide to a basement room I hope is reinforced with silver. Members of the pack converge on the house when I travel back upstairs, so I assume it belongs to the alpha.

Patricia beelines for me when she enters, throwing an arm around my shoulder and squeezing. Her eyes convey a worry she doesn’t have to verbally express. Others file in and it takes me a moment to realize I’m looking for Parker amongst the rest of the group.

“Do we know why we were targeted?” a voice asks from the other side of the room, opening a floodgate of voices and answerless questions.

“Will they come back?”

“What were they searching for?”

“Did they know they were on our land?”

“Enough,” a singular command declares and the room falls silent. Definitely the alpha. “There is much we don’t know but for tonight it seems the threat has passed. There will be more information by morning. The council will meet then and communicate any pertinent information to the rest of the pack.”

Guilt worms in my stomach of the real possibility that the attack was because of me. It would match my track record. Parker sidles up to me and his mother with wet hair and fresh clothing. I don’t catch whatever was said next because of, I’m partly ashamed to admit, my ogling Parker. Only when dozens of eyes turn toward me do I wish I heard what was said.

“No,” the alpha says in response to whatever was asked.

“I don’t understand why she isn’t a suspect,” the brunette snips, calling to attention the fact I’m the only foreigner in the room.

“Don’t,” Parker retorts, his shoulders straightening back to make him appear bigger. Others shift uncomfortably, or maybe it’s just my perception.

“We deserve an answer. It’s unnatural for a human to do what she did. Maybe she’s working with them.”

Parker’s eyes turn a stormy gray and I put my hand on his forearm, somewhat worried he’s going to attack her. “Parker,” I whisper.

“It is in your best interest to stop talking.”

“I think she’s working with them.”

“Stop.”

“Why? Because your perfect mate would be uncapable of such an act? Don’t you find it odd that the night she is here our people are attacked?”

Mate?

“That’s enough!” the alpha orders, his voice containing power behind the command. “She is not on trial and is a member of our pack. The matter is closed. What we need to discuss . . .”

His voice carries on but I’m no longer listening. My eyes trail up to Parker’s face, waiting for him to deny the brunette’s accusation. It feels like an eternity before Parker returns my gaze. His eyes are now clear and I realize he won’t deny it.

Oh gosh.

My foot bumps into the bottom stair behind me, but before Parker can reach out to steady me I’m already bounding to the front door and down the street. Taking the staircase two steps at a time at Patricia and Rich’s home I burst into the guest room, closing the door behind me before sinking to the floor. My heart pounds in my chest like I just ran ten miles but I can’t slow it down.

He bonded. And with me. But the only way for them to know about a bond is finding out in their wolf form, and the only time I’ve seen him is tonight.

No, that’s not right. That first night. The night Dmitri and Viktor attacked when I was on a date with Nathan. He leapt from the roof in his wolf form. This whole time. He knew this whole time.

My face burns with embarrassment at my naivety.

Blood roars in my ears muffling the knock from the other side of the door. I don’t answer. I don’t even move. It feels like time is racing forward at breakneck speed but I’m stuck in slow motion. After a while the knocking stops.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning I drag myself to the bed, refusing to sleep on the floor just because some boy kept a secret to himself. Part of me wonders if I should lock the door, but that part is quickly overridden by sheer exhaustion pulling me toward fluffy pillows and blankets. Before I can talk myself into getting up, I’m asleep.

A buzzing somewhere near my ear pulls me from unconsciousness. My phone vibrates against the sheets and I see Eliza’s face filling the screen. Hoping my face isn’t too puffy, I answer the early morning call. She looks frantic, her messy hair puffing around her head in a disheveled mass like she hasn’t slept. Ben’s face bobbles in and out of view with similarly wild hair and I wonder what kind of night they had.

“A while ago we were talking to this guy online—”

“Not just any guy. He’s well versed in—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eliza interrupts, waving her hand like she’s shooing away a fly. “We were talking to this knowledgeable guy about the influx of vampire activity in the Denver area and what could be causing it. Well, he got back to us last night, and what he found isn’t good.”

Ben’s head bobs sideways into view as Eliza adjusts the angle. “He studied Mythology and Folklore at Harvard and is pretty decent at tracking vampire activity through an online community. Based on what he’s found, he has a theory—”

“They want you to make babies.”

“What?” I ask, my jaw dropping slightly as I’m unsure what Eliza just said.

“There’s a crazy rumor floating around, I have no idea how it started, that you will be able to produce a daywalker. The idea of a