Hunter’s chair squeaked as he leaned back. “Aylin is supposed to mate with him next month.”
A chorus of curses and groans made their way around the table. “I’m guessing that’s not going to happen now,” Jaggar said. “And I’m also guessing that’s going to be a huge problem.”
“Which is why I called you here,” Hunter said. “I’m supposed to mate with Rasha in two weeks, but I’m not giving up Aylin.”
“So basically,” Riker said, “you have two choices. Mate with Rasha and keep Aylin, which isn’t going to go over well with either of the other clans. Or you can refuse Rasha and keep Aylin, which will go over even worse, since you’ll be breaking the contract with Kars.”
“That about sums it up.”
Baddon flexed his fingers on the tabletop, leaving grooves in its surface. “So you f**ked Aylin and us.”
Hunter didn’t remember shoving to his feet. Didn’t remember diving across the table and taking Baddon down to the floor in a tumble of bodies and chairs. But he remembered slamming his fist into the male’s face. Several times.
And he’d remember the knee to the gut Baddon gave him for a while.
“Knock it off!” Riker’s bellow echoed in the chamber as he and the others hauled Hunter off Baddon.
Blood blazing with anger, Hunter struggled to land a few more punches. He managed two hard hits and one kick that would have shattered a lesser male’s thigh bone, and then he was wrestled to the ground and pinned there by Katina, Takis, and Jaggar. Riker tackled Baddon, knocking him into the wall.
“You stupid son of a bitch!” he yelled at Baddon. “You should be happy for him.”
“It could have been me.” Baddon’s furious tone carried a note of pain Hunter knew wasn’t physical, and his own anger eased a little.
Long ago, Baddon had lost a female he loved, and after decades of mourning, he’d gotten back into the game with a vengeance. He was desperate to find a mate, was desperate to imprint on a female, but he’d already slept with pretty much everyone at MoonBound. Outside the clan, worthy females weren’t easy to find.
“You know that’s unlikely,” Riker said. “So let it go.” When Baddon ground his molars and said nothing, Riker gave him a little shake. “Hey. I said to let it go. This is your first warning. There won’t be a second. You’ll go straight into the pit. Feel me?”
Baddon inclined his head in a single sharp nod. Riker released him and turned to Hunter. “Let’s get this figured out.”
Although Hunter’s blood still ran hot, he wasn’t a complete fool. Baddon was right, and he’d probably voiced what everyone else had been thinking.
“Thanks, Rike, but Baddon isn’t wrong. I put the clan in a dangerous position. I intend to accept full responsibility, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep everyone at MoonBound safe, even if that means stepping down as chief.” Swallowing his pride, which felt like a flint arrowhead was lodged in his throat, he said grimly, “I’m sorry. I’ve let you all down.”
Baddon swore, and Hunter braced himself for the others to jump all over this. If Hunter were them, he’d be pissed as hell, and he wouldn’t blame them if they dragged him before the clan and forced him out.
“Fuck that,” Riker said quietly. “You’ve led us through wars with other clans and battles with humans, and you’ve done what you needed to do for our survival. You deserve to be with a female you love.” He glanced at the other warriors in turn. “I’m standing behind him.”
Katina stepped forward. “Ditto.”
“You aren’t going anywhere, man,” Jaggar said. “You’ve saved this clan more than once. We’re in this together.”
Takis bowed his head deeply. “My loyalty has always been yours.”
Hunter didn’t bother looking at Baddon. He’d be the dissenting vote, and it was what Hunter deserved.
“Mother. Fuck,” Bad muttered. “Yeah, you f**ked up, but I’d have done the same thing. You’re not going anywhere, chief.”
Son of a bitch. Damn, but their loyalty touched him, humbled him, honored him. There had been occasions – not many, but a few – in the past when he’d wondered if his father’s methods of leading the clan had garnered more respect than Hunter had earned, but he would never wonder again.
His father would have demanded devotion; these warriors gave it freely.
“Thank you,” he croaked. “I promise —”
The chamber door flew open, and Aiden burst into the room, panting, his blond hair damp with sweat. “We have a problem,” he blurted. “Tena and I ran into ShadowSpawn warriors —”
“ShadowSpawn?” Hunter interrupted. “Here? In our territory?”
Aiden’s voice lowered ominously. “There are dozens of them. They’ve set up camp not far away. Kars is with them.”
“Why the hell would they be here?” Katina’s dark skin flushed even darker with anger. “The mating isn’t for two weeks.”
“It gets worse.” Aiden jammed his hand through his hair. “NightShade is here, too. And Tseeveyo is demanding Aylin.”
Hunter didn’t like surprise visits. He especially didn’t like surprise visits from enemy ass**le visitors. And now he had to choose which enemy ass**le visitor to confront first.
While Hunter assigned a permanent shadow for Rasha – no way was he letting her have full run of the compound after what she’d done to Aylin – Riker and Baddon went to scout out the enemy camps and determine the threat level. Barely half an hour later, they returned with a message from Kars.
Apparently, the ShadowSpawn leader wanted to meet right away.
“Both clans are camped out a quarter of a mile from here.” Riker addressed Hunter and the others now that they’d reassembled around the massive battle table. “There are approximately thirty enemy warriors in the ShadowSpawn camp and forty in NightShade’s.”
“That’s a lot of damned vampires gathered in one place,” Katina said. “How are they concealing themselves from the humans?”
“ShadowSpawn brought a mystic-keeper to piggyback off our wards.”
“Bastards,” Baddon growled. “We’d be within our rights to demand payment.”
Yes, they would. But until Hunter knew what ShadowSpawn was up to, there was no point in antagonizing them. Besides, their mystic-keeper could only strengthen MoonBound’s wards, which were intended to repel humans so subtly that they didn’t even know why they would feel the need to turn around and go in the opposite direction.
“Is NightShade doing the same?”
Riker shook his head. “They concealed their camp from human eyes by themselves. Seems that one of Tseeveyo’s mates is a dark shaman.”
Hunter drew a sharp breath, and so did pretty much everyone else. MoonBound’s mystic-keeper drew from positive natural energy to create wards and to activate a spell that concealed the entrances to the clan’s headquarters, and maintaining the wards and the spell took up every drop of his power. Dark shamans used negative natural energy to spin up their magic, and even weak dark shamans were generally more powerful than the strongest mystic-keepers.
But for a dark shaman to hide an entire camp from humans, even if those humans were standing right next to a tent, took more power than Hunter had known existed.
“Both chiefs are demanding an audience with you,” Riker said. “They’re waiting for an escort.”
Hunter stood. “There will be no escort. I’m going to them.”
“Sir,” Riker said, “I strongly advise against that. Bring them here, where we have the advantage of numbers and the comfort of our home.”
“They’re already in our home,” Hunter pointed out, thinking of Rasha. “Now they’re on our property, and I won’t cower behind walls.”
Riker’s vile curse rang out. “Then give me an hour to get teams of warriors posted around their camps. They won’t even know they’re there.”
Hunter gestured to a framed Lakota quote on the wall and shook his head. “‘Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance,’” he said. “No. I’ll go with no more than two warriors to accompany me. And don’t argue.” He crossed the room to the closet where he kept his battle gear and grabbed his weapons harness. Where’s Myne?” He might despise the male, but he was one of the best fighters in the clan.
Riker’s pause sat heavily in the air, and Hunter knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. “He’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“His chamber is empty.” The worry in Riker’s eyes said it all. Myne wasn’t off on one of his usual unannounced solitary disappearances.
Hunter’s first reaction was to wish the f**ker good riddance. But dammit, the clan needed him. “When this is done, find him.” He buckled his harness to his chest. “Now, let’s see why these bastards are here.”
35
Hunter met with Tseeveyo first. Strategically, it made the most sense; NightShade was the lesser threat to MoonBound, and if Hunter played his cards right, he might gain vital information he could use against ShadowSpawn.
But it still pissed Hunter off that the bastard was on MoonBound property.
NightShade had erected several crude lean-to shelters around a central campfire, but Tseeveyo’s shelter was the largest and most private. When Hunter entered, he found several fur bedrolls on the floor, some containing sleeping females.
In one corner of the tent, a young female, who appeared to be no more than eighteen, tended to a toddler with pink ribbons in her jet-black hair.
Hunter had heard that Tseeveyo didn’t travel anywhere without at least five of his mates, and it looked like that rumor could be confirmed as true.
Tseeveyo, a born vampire with muddy brown eyes and long black hair that was just starting to go silver at the temples, took a seat in one of two folding camp chairs. The table between them held a bowl of nuts and berries, a skin of what Hunter guessed was blood, and a plate of steaming corn cakes.
“You can sit or not.” Tseeveyo squeezed the contents of the wineskin into a wooden cup. “I don’t give a f**k.”
Pleasant guy. Hunter remained standing, angling his body to keep one eye on movement outside the tent. “Tell me why you’re camping on my land without permission.”
Tseeveyo snorted and took a swig from his cup. “Didn’t think I needed it, since I’ve come to collect my promised bride.”
Hunter’s hand drifted toward the dagger at his hip as he entertained fantasies of driving it through the bastard’s heart. “Did you alter your deal with Kars to take Aylin sooner?”
“Fuck him.” Tseeveyo wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his buckskin tunic. “He promised me that virgin bitch, and I want her.”
Hunter’s fingers curled around the hilt. “What if she’s no longer a virgin?” Not that Tseeveyo was going to get Aylin. But this shit would go down a lot easier if Tseeveyo gave up Aylin willingly.
The other chief hissed as if Hunter had just thrown a poisonous snake in his face. “I still want her. I’ll beat her to within an inch of her life for f**king someone else, but I want her.”
Hunter so wanted to knock Tseeveyo’s teeth out. And then stab him. “If we all got what we wanted, you’d have a blade through your heart.”
“And your clan would be extinct,” Tseeveyo said, almost pleasantly. “But as you pointed out, we don’t all get what we want. Now, hand over Aylin. My clan is moving, and I want to move her with us.”
“Your deal is with Kars. You need to talk to him.”
Tseeveyo leaned back in his chair and stared down the bridge of his broad nose at Hunter. “That bastard will require an outrageous payment.”
“Not my problem.”
Tseeveyo’s oily smile made the hair on Hunter’s head stand up. “How about an incentive?” He curled his finger at the young female in the corner, and she came over, the toddler in tow. “I’ll offer my daughter to you.” He snatched up the child and held her out as the mother fell to her knees and sobbed. “I was saving her for myself, but the trade for Aylin will be worth the loss.”
Raw fury scorched Hunter’s throat. The sick bastard was going to mate with his own daughter? And he was willing to hand over an innocent baby to a strange male who could do who knew what with her?
Hunter had seen enough. Even if he hadn’t fallen for Aylin and the mating with Rasha was still on track, he’d never have handed Aylin over to this monster. And if Tseeveyo hadn’t been holding a baby, Hunter would have knocked his teeth out the way he’d wanted to a moment ago.
“You,” Hunter growled, “are a twisted abomination. You have until nightfall to get off my land.”
“Don’t threaten me, ass**le. My dark shaman can more than defend our camp.”
“Not if your dark shaman is dead.” Hunter spun on his heel and headed toward the exit. “Be here after the sun goes down, and you’ll see.” Every male and female at MoonBound would happily join in the battle to rid their territory of NightShade’s infestation.
Tseeveyo’s roar of fury followed Hunter out of the tent and all the way to the edge of camp, where Riker and Aiden were waiting. When he heard the child whimper and one of the females cry, he wheeled around, dagger drawn, and both Aiden and Riker had to hold him back.
“Easy, chief,” Riker said, eyeballing the wall of Tseeveyo’s armed warriors who had closed around the tent. “Going back would be suicide.”