Hunter Reborn

1

Sunlight blinded me as it reflected off the sandstone of my home, the walls stretching to the sky in an impressive show of intimidation. While it wasn’t the largest castle I’ve been in, it was close, and I couldn’t be happier in the walls.

It for sure beat living on the streets.

I unconsciously tapped the nine mil Smith and Wesson when I remembered sleeping behind dumpsters and begging for food when I was a child. Anxiety always had me reaching for the weapons I found myself strapped in 24/7; when you spent most of your young life being vulnerable and pushed around, you clung to anything that gave you a secure feeling.

Hence the four guns, six knives and one sword on my person.

I ducked into the cavernous opening of the castle, the cool air sweeping over the sweat that gathered at my temples and neck. Being so early in the afternoon, most of the other hunters I lived with were out scouting, finishing missions or gathering supplies, which meant that the front desk was blissfully empty except for Olivia.

Olivia’s plump cheeks were bright red, as if she was hotter than balls, and her frazzled red hair was piled at the top of her head in a messy bun. She was in her normal t and jeans, and I could catch a slight whiff of sweat coming off of her when I got close. When she looked up and noticed it was me standing there and not one of the asshole Elite Hunters, she huffed out a breath. “Roman, I didn’t think you’d make it back so soon. Wasn’t your case in Cincinnati?”

A grin split my lips. “That’s actually a funny story; you remember what the case was?”

She frowned and looked at one of the open files on her desk. “Er- yes. A man called to report a rabid wolf shifter in one of the suburbs around Hamilton.”

As she spoke, I picked through the bowl of sweets she had setting on the edge, found my beloved blue sucker and unwrapped it. “Turns out, the man that called was a pissed off ex, calling us over his ol lady’s choice of bed partner. I rolled up, fully prepared to see what the hell was going on when he came out and started railing at me. The woman came out, over heard what was going on, and they ended up almost trading blows. Called the human police and held them away from each other and…” I spread my arms out with a smile still on my lips as I savored the sucker.

Olivia chuckled, the sound deeper than what a woman’s normal pitch and shook her head. “How did the wolf take it?”

I shrugged. “Never saw the guy.” I spun the sucker in my mouth for a second before saying, “police wasn’t too pleased. They kind of had a small standoff with me when they got there.”

“What for?”

“Apparently a hunter’s presence around humans without an obvious reason puts the sheep on edge. Thought that I would still take my pound of flesh before heading back home. Outright told me to wait for a call from someone who knew when to call the exterminators in.”

She rolled her blue eyes before leaning back in her chair, the plastic groaning slightly at the movement. “I’ll let Dwayne know; ever since the Foreman trial, the human authorities have been pushing back on us over our methods and he doesn’t appreciate them trying to chop him at the knees.”

I tapped a knuckle on the smooth wood grain. “Speaking of our fearless leader- I was going to go and see if he had anything for me since my excursion turned out to be a bust.”

She waved, me away, making me promise to personally tell him about my run in with the human police.

The castle was very typical in its construction, though it had been remodeled to accommodate the amount of people we could potentially have- the ground floor held a larger-than-life dining hall and a large kitchen, it was also where you would find our classrooms, meeting rooms and offices of those who ran the place. Second story held most of the rooms where we stayed, with a few classrooms. Third floor was generally left alone except for the storage.

And you can’t forget about the dungeons… yes, honest to God dungeons.

I ducked my head respectfully at the few members of our coaching staff that I walked by. Most were neck deep in their classes but the two that were just sitting at their desks waved as I made my way to Dwayne’s office.

Our facility wasn’t large enough to warrant him to have or need an assistant, something he always said he was thankful for. So when I stomped up to the door and stalked in, my eyes were almost burned from my skull at what I inadvertently walked in on.

Dwayne was balls deep in his mate on his mahogany desk, the sounds of their skin slapping together, and their moans of pleasure having not met my ears through the thick door he had. His slacks were barely at his knees as he had her bend over, while her dress looked torn to shreds around them, as if he hated the fabric keeping her pale skin from his eyes.

“Fuck!” Dwayne stopped mid thrust, his golden eyes practically pinning me to the polished wooden floor, his canines lengthened as he bared his teeth at me. “Have you ever heard of knocking, Blakely?”

His mate, a smaller fox shifter barely five foot tall, squeaked as she realized why he stopped. She turned her flushed face away from me, seeming to shrink in on herself in shame.

I turned my back to them, even when my instincts about choked me with the tightening on my throat at putting my back to a predator like Dwayne Montgomery. “Sorry, sir. If I had known you were…” I just barely stopped myself from saying something inappropriate. “preoccupied, I’d have waited to talk to you. I’ll just wait outside.”

Without him even dismissing me, I hightailed it from his office, now slightly concerned over having to face my boss after all that. There’s a lot of things that a person should never see and your boss bending his wife over the desk is high on that list. I felt like I needed to go wash my eyeballs with bleach.

Ten minutes later, he opened the door with a flourish, fully dressed and with a scowl on his face. “What did you want?” His tiger was pacing back and forth in his eyes, the brightening in his iris’ making my throat tighten again.

“Police in Cincy was giving me a rough time about going to diffuse a situation I really had no reason being there for.”

When he did nothing but glare at me, I trudged on. “My file this morning consisted of me taking a trip to a suburb there to deal with a rabid wolf; when I got there, I was then informed that the gentleman that called the shifter in was a scorned ex who noticed the woman who left him had shacked up with a fully functional and sane wolf shifter. The said woman came out, overheard the conversation between us and then proceeded to swing a fist at the caller. I was forced to call the authorities there and hold the couple away from each other. Once they arrived, I was firmly told that I had no reason to be there, that I should leave before I caused a panic. Seems that they are under the impression that I would do harm to get ‘my pound of flesh’ since I was out there.”

A troubled look tightened his features, and he ran a large hand over his clean-shaven jaw. “That is a bit more disturbing, more so than the past few ‘run-ins’ your other hunters have had. They didn’t act aggressively towards you, other than the demeaning words, correct?”

“None, sir.”

He nodded once. “Alright, well; I’ll let Olivia and the others know to keep an eye out for the cops there. In fact, we could way lay the whole city until there’s a dire situation…” he trailed off, his thoughts quiet now.

Unease slithered through my gut. “Sir, if I may- we really shouldn’t table the cases that come just because the cops are being assholes. You know as well as I do that with these times, a lot of the humans in larger cities would rather call us than the police. If we take that away from them, even for a short period of time….”

He cocked his head at me in consideration. “Good point, Blakely. I’ll think on it for a while longer. Anything else?”

“Is there anything you can think of to do, since I ended up coming back before lunch?”

After a second of thought, he shook his head. “Nope, if all the cases are going well and you don’t get called out, I got nothing.”

I sighed, shoulders slumping. I hated being idle and not having shit to do. Maybe I could go visit Em with the free time though. “Copy, thanks.”

Just as I turned away, he cleared his throat. “Oh and another thing, Roman?” When I stood stock still, waiting for his comment, he damn near snarled out, “you ever make my mate feel shame for being worshipped again, I’ll gut you.” He slammed the door closed, the sound final.

Despite the vicious threat, I couldn’t help the small part of myself that felt a bit of jealousy. While I myself couldn’t see myself ever ending up with a shifter (not in to the fur or the claws or anything near it) I had to concede that they were the lucky ones of our world. Every shifter across the board was born and raised knowing that they had someone that was created just for them. And, in some rare cases, there was more than one person. Monogamy be damned.

Another reason why I couldn’t ever see myself with a shifter.

One the one hand, it was better than finding yourself with a vamp; all of the blood sharing and crypt sex just screamed serial killer to me, something I could never find myself falling for.

A fae would be fun… but they had something similar to shifter’s mating- they believed there were bond mates, and most of the fae I have ever had the displeasure of interacting with dropped that most males and females will abstain until their bond mate is found. Bunch of prudes they are.

By power of deduction, that left mages and humans.

I huffed at the thought trail; I wasn’t a nun by any means, but I hardly ever found myself pining for someone’s undying love. When I got the urge to have a romp, I went to a local bar, found a conquest, had a good weekend then came home, urge eased. Simple, quick and I still had time to go out and save the humans from the monsters of our world.

“Hey, Rome!”

Emmet’s childish voice cried my name out in joy as he turned the corner from where I had been earlier, his dark hair sticking up in tufts. His school uniform was untucked, and his little bow tie skewed at his throat, but he looked happy and healthy; he was only six and I never, ever wanted to see a boy his age look broken and defeated like he did when I rescued him a year ago.

My heart soared as he bounded forward and wrapped his little arms around my hips, his face pressed in to the shirt I wore. “Hey, sweetheart, how’s school going?”

When he pulled back and grinned up at me, I lowered to a squat, ignoring the slight crunching sound in my right knee as I did so. He reached out and patted me on the cheek, his own cheek marred by scars, a gift from his dead father. I squashed the fury before I could get out of hand and smiled at him as he prattled on about his new friends and how they were going to be looking for algae and other stuff in the lake out behind the castle.

“Sounds fun, little man. Who’s your teacher today?”

“Mr. Fawkes, the really big and cool bear shifter. Have you ever seen his bear? It’s huge! I hope that when I get older and shift I can be as big as him!” He pushed his little chest out in pride, a grin on his face.

I laughed at him, shaking my head. “I have, actually. And who knows, maybe one day you can actually kick his butt.” I ended the comment with a whisper and leaned forward and kissed his scar.

The giggle that left him had me wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug.

“Glad to see that’s what you want to see happen, Blakely,” a dry voice rumbled from behind Em.

I peeked up at the giant bear, my mouth going dry as it always does around the man. He was dressed in tight blue jeans and a button up blue shirt that brought out his electric blue eyes. The ring of gold around his pupils seemed to glow as they connected with mine, the look taking him from ooh-la-la to please-let-me-have-your-babies, something that I clenched my jaw over.

Ever since I hit puberty and had to be around him in our own schooling, I had this insane urge to lick every inch of him, from his high cheekbones and dark beard down to his perfect feet… see? How the fuck does someone have perfect feet!?

He always seemed to take my silent struggles as a point of pride, if the slight smirk on his face that always cropped up around me was any indication. He had never propositioned me, but he never let the chance to talk to me go by.

Emmet pulling on my hand had me glancing back to the little boy. “Can you come out with us, Ro? Please?”

My heart clenched as I looked down at him and there was no humanly way I would say no to him. Even if it meant facing the man that always made me second guess my beliefs. “Sure, do I need to change or-”

“NO.” Fawkes damn near snarled the denial, making me scowl up at him. When he noticed the expression on my face, he suddenly looked cool as a cucumber and leaned against the wall nonchalantly. “I mean, we’re just taking them to the lake and having them wade around. You can too, that’s totally up to you, but that doesn’t mean you have to change or anything.”

Em yanked on my hand. “Yeah, you’re fine! Just take off your boots and you’ll be alright! We gotta eat our lunch first though- you can come too and meet my new friends!” He stopped to take a deep breath and then looked at the sword strapped to my spine. “Ooh, can I see your sword? Can you slay dragons with that?”

A laugh escaped me. “No, no dragons, little man. Let me go drop my stuff off at the armory and then I’ll gladly go to lunch with you.”

He beamed at me before dragging me past Fawkes, leaving him behind without another glance.