HUNT (A Shifters Short Story)

I took a long, deep drink of my spiked hot chocolate, suddenly wishing I had an entire bottle of Irish Crème. Sans the crème.

I had taken Faythe’s advice, and I’d always been grateful to have it. Insisting on going to college had given me the opportunity to be myself—to find myself—before I had to become a wife or mother. But now my sojourn in the human world was almost over.

The clock was counting down toward zero-hour, and with every dreadful tick and inevitably tock, I could feel fate’s vise tighten.

“What’s wrong?” Robyn frowned at me from across the room, where she was scrolling through some game on her phone. “Your hot chocolate doesn’t have enough whiskey?”

“The world doesn’t have enough whiskey,” I muttered, and her frown deepened. “Nothing’s wrong. Just family crap.” After what she’d suffered during our fall break camping trip, I wouldn’t feel right burdening her with my problems.

Robyn only knew a little about my home-life—just the parts it was safe for me to tell her. She knew I had six highly protective older brothers and that my parents had very “traditional” expectations for me. She knew that I could handle myself in a fight, thanks to summers spent with my cousin Faythe. She knew I was still in touch with my high school boyfriend, Brian, but that I only answered about half of his calls, because neither of us knew what to say to each other over the phone.

She also knew that a good friend of my parents lived less than an hour from campus, and that he acted as my emergency contact and de facto guardian while I was at school.

What she didn’t know were words like Alpha and enforcer. And Pride, at least in the shifter sense of the word.

“So, this is our last night on campus!” I drained the last of my spiked hot chocolate and tossed the cup into the trash, then turned to my closet, which was still more than half-full of unpacked clothes. “Last one dressed has to find us a designated driver.”

Three minutes later, I zipped up my shortest skirt and was just stepping into my highest heeled boots when movement out the window drew my eye. A familiar black Pathfinder was pulling into a spot in the parking lot two floors below.

Nooooooo.

I leaned over the nightstand for a better look, and even with my breath fogging up the glass, I recognized the tall, broad figure who stepped out of the car. “Son of a bitch!”

I knew I should have answered my phone!

“Done!” Robyn called, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her stand up in the middle of the room, fully dressed. “Get ready to sweet-talk Julie Cass, because she’s the only teetotaler on this floor who has her own car.”

When I didn’t reply, Robin rounded the end of her bed and leaned over my nightstand to follow my gaze. “What are we looking a…” When her question faded into drooling nonsense, I knew she’d spotted him. “Who is that, and why the hell haven’t you called dibs?”

“That’s Jace Hammond.” I stood, trying to slow the automatic jump in my pulse. She wasn’t wrong. He was gorgeous, in a totally untouchable kind of way.

“Wait, that’s your dad’s friend?” Robin said, and I could hear the surprise in her voice, even though she obviously couldn’t tear her gaze from…whichever part of him she was ogling. “Shouldn’t he be…old?”

“He’s old enough. And he’s not supposed to be here until tomorrow.” My “guardian” had come to collect me a full fifteen hours early.

In the parking lot, Jace leaned against the side of his SUV and ran one hand through thick, wavy brown hair as pulled his phone from his pocket. A second later, mine rang, and for the fourth time in the past two hours, his name popped up on the screen. I answered the call and pressed the phone to my ear.

“You’re early,” I snapped, and Jace stood up straight to scan the side of the dorm building, surprised.

“How did you…?”

“Fourth from the left, third floor,” I said, and when he found my window, Jace took off his sunglasses and grinned up at me. Even from two floors down, his eyes shined bright blue and his grin lit little fires deep in the pit of my stomach, as it had been doing since I was eight years old.

I stomped those tiny flames until they were nothing but embers keeping me warm. Jace smiled the same way at every woman who met his gaze. That grin meant nothing, and it would be dangerous for me to forget that.

Robyn had identified the problem without even knowing it. Alphas weren’t supposed to be young and hot. They were supposed to be old and wise, like my father.

“I’ll be up in a second.” Jace’s voice surged through me, stoking the flames I’d just trampled.

“No! I’ll come down. Stay there.” I hung up before he could argue, and Robyn looked at me as if I’d just threatened to cut off my own arm.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking for my coat.” I eyed a suspicious lump beneath my comforter, but a quick poke revealed it to be my pillow.