Not Quite Hunter Read online

  Gods, what was wrong with him? Was he that desperate for friends?

  He looked away from the ogre, hoping the man's talent for reading people didn't extend to Theo just then. "I just did what a good ruler would. The many over the few. Even if the many aren't particularly happy about it."

  Emerson grunted, but didn't say anything more.

  Theo settled in and tried to resign himself to feeling useless where it really mattered.

  It was the story of his life.

  Chapter 11

  As a cur, I had a stronger constitution than any human. But falling into a fucking hole in grip of a hard-shelled monster still hurt.

  I think I passed out when we hit the bottom. It felt like only seconds later that I blinked to try to focus in the dark and lifted a hand to wipe blood and dust from my eyes. I tried to look around, but I was surrounded by the kind of complete blackness you only get below ground. My damned heart responded by immediately trying to pound its way right out of my ribcage. My fangs descended. How long had I been trapped down here? I needed to get up and get out. The cushion under my head was soft flesh, not hard scorpion thorax. So, I had been out at least long enough for Ahura to shift and get me situated.

  "Hey there, hunter," she said, her rich alto voice unperturbed by our current circumstances or my clawing panic.

  "Hey," I croaked, trying to push down the rising need to growl. I winced when I tried to sit up and found a few more sore spots and scrapes. Taking a deep breath, I tried again and managed to get myself into an upright sitting position.

  There was no light down here. Only a vaguely lighter gray far above us, where the hole to the outside must be. It did nothing to help my searching eyes make out Ahura's form. "How long was I out?"

  I sensed movement at my side, and I caught the red glow of Ahura's fiend eyes. "Hard to say. Maybe ten minutes?"

  Not only was I trapped underground, but I was in here with a full fiend—and a type I'd never encountered before. I sighed, trying to keep my voice calm and even, even as my gut clenched and my palms began to sweat thanks to my fucking claustrophobia. "Any sign of movement up there? Or in here?"

  She huffed. "No. Hopefully the rest of the idiots we traveled with are smart enough to wait 'til daylight before they come looking for our remains."

  I nodded, then realized she probably couldn't see me in the dark. "Hopefully," I agreed. "And…wyrms are pretty solitary and territorial, so we shouldn't have to worry about any more of that bullshit."

  She laughed. "So, how would you like to spend our nice, quiet vacation?" she asked wryly.

  I rummaged around in my pockets, relieved to find the familiar lump of my flint. The panic was a live thing in my chest, writhing and calling for blood. "I can make fire, if we can find anything to burn without falling into another hole or running across more fiends."

  She sighed and I felt movement at my side. A hand brushed my shoulder and I tensed, biting back the urge to lash out. "Come on," Ahura said calmly. "We'll hold hands or something, so we don't both go off the edge of a cliff."

  I fumbled to find her hand and she pulled me to my feet. I took a minute to stretch and bend, testing sore muscles and bones. Nothing seemed to be broken—or if it had been, it was minor and had already knit back together. I was stiff, but serviceable. "Onward," I intoned, taking a shuffling step into the complete darkness that surrounded us. I couldn't push back my shift, and my fangs dented my lips, but I didn't think even a full fiend could see me in the inky dark.

  Ahura shifted her grip so we clasped forearms, in case she really did have to reel me in or slow my fall. I wanted to sink my claws into her soft flesh, but I managed to merely grip her back.

  I'd been claustrophobic ever since a bunch of full shifters locked me in a dark cellar with a nest of fiend vipers. Between that and the attempted drowning, it had taken me years to be able to stand enclosed spaces or darkness. As an adult, I'd finally gotten to a point where I could sleep in the dark and tolerate being shut inside cars and small rooms. But apparently, being pitched into the utter darkness and unknown of a cave was just too much.

  My legs started to itch with the remembered sting of viper bites. My thundering pulse was hot with the remembered burn of poison. I forced it down. I wanted to crawl out of my skin, maybe run off a cliff or get black-out drunk on fairy moonshine just to drown it out, but I managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

  After what seemed like hours of shuffling around, bumping into stalagmites and random cave walls—and one near miss with an echoing drop that probably wouldn't have ended well if it wasn't for Ahura pulling me back with all her inhuman strength—I stumbled into a stack of something that sounded and felt like wood, but smelled faintly like animals.

  Crouching, I stretched out a tentative hand and tried to identify what is was by touch. My skin crawled, expecting the slicing pain of snake bites. "What is it?" Ahura said, clearly impatient to stop wandering in the dark. "Wood? How did wood get down here?"

  I lifted a "twig" and sniffed. "Nope. Bone. But it feels like…," I paused to trail my fingers over the pile. "Fuck yes! It's wyrm pellets."

  She snorted. "You mean…shit. Wyrm shit. You're excited by the strangest things, hunter."

  I laughed. Wyrms had a weird digestive process, kind of like owls. They'd digest what they could of whatever they ate, then barf up the rest in weird, pellet-like clumps. Basically, it was dried bone, hair, and whatever else wyrms ate, with all the moisture sucked out of it. "It should burn, moron," I said to her, digging around for my flint.

  It took a few tries, since it was pitch black and my hands were shaking, but eventually I was able to craft a sort of torch from some of the wyrm pellets and some dead plant roots that dangled from the cave walls. We didn't want to be too far from the opening where we'd fallen in, so we took what fuel we could find and hauled it back to approximately where we'd started. I would have been lost, with all the twisting and turning we'd done in the dark, but with my shifter sense of smell, and Ahura's freaky fiend senses, we managed.

  Ahura jumped up and down like a freaking kid at Christmas when we discovered a little stream of water sliding down the cave wall a short distance from our smoky fire. It was a natural spring, clean and fresh. I had to wonder if there wasn’t a little leprechaun out there somewhere showering us with his freaky luck magic. I cupped double handfuls of the cold water and used it to wash the blood and dust from my head and face, reveling in the way the cold shoved back the imagined torments and soothed my cuts and bruises. The crawling sense of unease was still there though, chipping away at my sanity, filling me with pent up energy. I wouldn't feel at ease until I was able to see the open sky again.

  Ahura pushed me aside, and I laughed when I realized she had stripped and was intent on a full bath. Her red eyes met mine and she arched a dark brow. "What's the matter, hunter? Shy?"

  I snorted. "Yes. I'll wait 'til you're done." Every bit of my primal, shifter instinct was shifting from fight to fuck at the hints of her lush body revealed in the dim light cast by the small fire. I swallowed hard. This was a terrible idea.

  But her hands were already tugging my shirt up, and I was too desperate to really put up much of a fight. The cold water would feel good on my sore body. And I was sick of feeling like every inch of me was covered in the gritty, sandy dirt of the wastelands. If I also ended up fucking out my frustrations, well, that would just be an added bonus. I was about to go mad from shoving down the panic.

  Ahura's hands brushed over my ribs and the sides of my sports bra. "Oh. I never could tell, you know," she said, slipping her fingers under the tight band to tug that up too. "If you were really a guy or a girl. But I should have known. You're way too pretty to be a man."

  I pulled away from her, yanking the sports bra off and quickly sluicing water over my upper body. My nipples pebbled at the sharp cold, but it felt so good just to be clean, and to have a distraction from all the pent-up energy running through my body from fear and restless
ness. Thankfully, it was still dark in the cave, even with the distant glow of the fire we'd built. So, Ahura probably couldn't see my blushing and averted eyes.

  Cold fingers slipped across my abs and dipped lower, tugging at the button of my fly. I sighed, even as my body said yes to the potential distraction. "Ahura. I can bathe myself."

  She chuckled, low and rich. "Of course you can. But why? We've got nothing better to do until the rescue crew comes looking for us. And I've wanted to see you out of these clothes forever, little cur."

  Adrenaline mixed with arousal, making me dizzy. Fiend. Ahura was a fiend. And I was a cur. A weak imitation. She could probably gut me without a thought. I pulled my hips back, but met with a stone outcropping, so I didn't quite manage to escape. "I'm not a girl, Ahura," I managed, my voice low and breathy.

  She pressed closer, and I could see her face more clearly, her red eyes glimmering up at me and her full lips curving upward. "Really? Could have fooled me."

  I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Don't listen. What would I know about it?"

  She tugged my zipper down. "Oh, lighten up, kitty cat. It's just a little fun." Her motions stilled. "Or will your mates be upset? I just thought since you had two already, you might be open to a little…playtime." I felt her shrug. "I've never really understood how that all works. It's different for my kind. Fiends mostly just do what feels good."

  My mind was scrambled. I just needed the fucking fear to end. I needed to survive an encounter with a fiend in the dark and not come out of it with PTSD. I needed…something. I wasn't even sure what, at this point. "That's not it," I replied, trying to remember her question. In a better state of mind, I might have stopped to wonder if Fin, or even Emerson, would care. But I hadn't made Emerson any promises, and Fin was from a race of polyamorous creatures, just like me. I was sore, tired, and so fucking over everything.

  I pulled my pants off and kicked them aside. Ahura cupped cold water and sluiced it over me, giggling when I hissed in surprise. "Poor baby she cooed."

  I grabbed her hips, my fingers denting into the generous padding there. I struggled with my beast side. We couldn't throw her down on the rocks and have our way with her. For one, she was stronger than me. And secondly, I didn't actually want to hurt her. Her stroking hands grazed over the curve of my ass, then slid around to cup my front. She paused, red eyes flashing at me again in the murky semi-darkness. Our situation, and the shelter of the darkness, gave me a courage I didn't usually possess. I smirked down at her, showing fang. "Yeah. That's a dick. And a pussy. And no, it's not just the cold water. I'm hung like a fucking mosquito."

  She let out a throaty chuckle, pressing her lush curves to my body. "Oh, Sam. You are just full of surprises. And that would be a rather big, for a mosquito."

  My hands squeezed her hips harder, and I pressed her closer, loving the friction of her heavy breasts against mine, of my dick pressed between us. I growled, and my inner beast just…took over. I needed to lose myself in Ahura and forget where I was and all the fear coursing through my veins, or I was going to lose my damned mind. Hell, maybe I'd already lost it.

  Her full lips met mine, every bit as pushy and demanding as I'd expect. She wrestled with me for control, shoving my body back against the cave wall again and rubbing against me like a cat in heat, her soft body full of fiend strength. I slid my hands down to cup her generous ass and slipped a leg between hers, grinding her into me. She groaned into my mouth and tangled her fingers in my hair, pulling hard, sending delicious shivers down my spine at the hint of pain.

  One of my fangs snagged on her plush bottom lip and the coppery tang of blood filled my mouth. Ahura just moaned and pressed even closer, bringing her hands down to cup my breasts and pinch my nipples. She matched my fierceness and urgency, not afraid to be rough with me, giving as good as she got. It was raw and primal, every touch riding the edge between pleasure and pain.

  I was surprised how much I liked it that way. How easily it let me stop feeling anything else.

  We stumbled over by the fire and Ahura went to her knees, taking my small cock in her mouth like she was starving for it, scraping her nails up and down the tense muscles of my thighs. I fisted my hands in her thick, springy hair and thrust into her hot, wet mouth, feeling something uncoil in me, like a stalking cat ready to leap on their prey.

  Ahura slipped two fingers inside me without asking or hesitating—as if my freak body was nothing new to her. I bucked against her, tilting her head back and thrusting deeper. She swallowed around my dick and I growled, yanking back. I had just enough sense left to know I couldn't just use her like a whore and toss her aside.

  She'd probably kill me if I tried.

  I tugged her to her feet and knelt, then pulled her down to straddle me, rubbing my cock along her clit as I nipped and suckled at those amazing breasts, loving the contrast of all her softness against my own wiry body. She arched into me, her eyes glowing even brighter, ruby red in the darkness, glinting with firelight. Ahura moved suddenly, pushing me flat on my back with scary strength. I welcomed the scrape and press of stone beneath my back as she sat astride me and took my cock as deep as it would go, riding me like a woman possessed.

  I gripped her hips and thrust up as hard as I could, the slap of our bodies meeting echoing around the cave. Slipping one hand around to rest on the curve of her stomach, I thumbed her clit, swirling it hard. She mewled and writhed, chasing her orgasm until it burst upon her, and her wild, unbridled shouts hurdled me over the edge with her. I came so hard I had trouble breathing.

  Ahura collapsed on top of me, squashing her breasts against mine, her weight pressing me even harder into the rocky ground as firelight danced over our sweaty, naked bodies. "I think we need another bath," she murmured, smirking at me.

  I shoved her off so I could sit up. "Good idea. You can pick off the damned stones embedded in my skin while we're at it."

  She snickered. "Deal."

  I let her pull me to my feet and followed her to the icy stream once more, my panic pretty much gone, for now.

  Once we were relatively clean again, we baked ourselves dry by the fire, then hauled on our dusty clothes. Fire or not, we were below ground, so there was a lingering feeling of cool dampness in the air.

  With nothing else to do to pass the time, I found myself chatting. This trip was taking a big toll on me. I wasn't chatty.

  "So, you're a fiend," I said, dryly, poking the fire with a long, desiccated bone that looked just a little too human.

  Ahura shrugged. Her face was calm, but her red eyes were watching me as if waiting for my next move. "I am. Human hunters killed my family, so it seemed only fair I should get paid for killing humans." She arched a dark brow at me. "I eventually ended up working as an unsanctioned hunter." She smirked. "It's kind of funny, you know? Humans and curs paying me to kill other humans and curs."

  I narrowed my eyes at her. I didn't see the humor. "Yeah, a real riot."

  She stretched her hands out, soft brown palms to the fire. "I'm just lucky my shift looks close enough to human to pass as a cur—that I can force it to look this way."

  I tilted my head to study her. "You mean that isn't your real human form?"

  She laughed, the sound echoing off the walls and giving me goosebumps. I was in the presence of a monster. Hell, I'd just fucked a monster. And here I was, asking questions like an eager child. You've got more sense than that Sam, for fuck's sake, I mentally chided myself. I should probably be deciding where best to stick my knife. Not whether I still wanted to stick her with my cock. Fuck my life.

  She ran a hand through her puffy hair, making it stand on end even more. She sure as hell looked like a beautiful, dark-skinned human. Except for those creepy red eyes. And then…she didn't. She let out a breath and her chocolate skin darkened to a deep black, like her bug form. Her ears were pointed on the bottoms, and when she smiled, her teeth were pointed too. Okay…so, not quite human-looking after all.

  "How do you change your form and keep
it that way?" I asked calmly. I'd seen worse monsters. Usually while they were trying to tear my face off.

  Changing her form and maintaining it constantly would take a shit-ton of energy. It must be draining. Either that, or she was even stronger than I thought. I tried not to feel jealous. But fuck, if I could change the shape or appearance of my body, life would sure be a shit-ton easier.

  She seemed to know what I was thinking. Her form melted back into her usual human one. "I'm old," she said simply. "And I've had a lot of practice. Plus, it was the only way to survive. It was learn to adapt, or scrape out a life here in the wastes with the rest of the monsters. Most of them are nothing more than beasts. And all of them are hunted." She shrugged. "Safer to be the hunter than the prey. Right?"

  Her gaze probed mine. She was right. We had that in common at least—the need to avoid becoming prey in a world determined to wipe you from existence. I nodded. "Dangerous in its own way, though," I added, tossing the bone I was holding into the smoky fire. Being a cur in a human city was hard enough. A lot of humans hated us just on principal. And half my fellow curs considered me a traitor for joining the hunter's association. But a full fiend? It was legal to kill fiends on site if they "posed a threat." And it wasn't legal for fiends to reside in human cities. Certain lucky ones—like Angel's mother—managed to obtain permits that deemed them harmless. Usually by paying a shit ton of bribe money and being on their best behavior. But I doubted Ahura had that kind of official protection in place. If anyone realized she was a full fiend, not just a cur crossbreed, she'd have a target painted on her back.

  "I won't expose you," I said, staring at the dancing orange flames.

  She sighed. "I know."

  At my surprised glance, she shrugged. "I've seen enough to know how your moral compass works, Sam. You've got one of those noble human hearts in your DNA. Lucky you."