“A werewolf.” Jaylon shook his head, still trying to make sense of it all. “A big white beast. Came upon him stalking a human. I got there just in time to stop an attack.”
“And you injured this werewolf? Did you sense a pack?” Dyami frowned. “Should we be worried about retribution here?”
“I engaged him, we fought. It was the girl who dropped him.” A stunning dark-haired beauty who had radiated power. It had awed him at first, her blue eyes so intense as she stared the white wolf down—unafraid, cunning, dangerous.
“The girl killed him? I thought you said she was human. It’s only a Huntress who can…” Dyami started.
Jaylon raised his hand and sighed. “She shot him with an arrow, deadly accurate. Deadly.” Like she’d been training her whole life. When her shot hit true and dropped the beast he’d been battling, Jaylon knew he needed to get the hell out of there before another arrow took him down.
“So not really a human then.” Raven ran his hand down his face and sighed. “Another Huntress? And I bet you didn’t just happen to stumble onto her either, did ya? You probably were compelled toward her.”
Jaylon’s wolf snapped to attention. Huntress, mine. He’d been tracking a deer, caught up in the chase when he’d scented the other wolf and curiosity got the better of him. Now that he thought about it, there had been an unusual pull in that direction all morning—a mouthwatering need to herd that deer farther and farther away from the mansion’s grounds. “Ah, shit.”
“You need to go back for her,” Mayhem said as he turned toward the house.
“You think she’s his mate?” Raven asked, his gaze flicking past Mayhem to the mansion where his own mate waited.
“Only Jay can know that for sure.”
“It was chaos.” Jaylon shrugged to present the appearance of calm when, on the inside, he was anything but. His wolf growled, clawing for control. In the brief moments he’d watched her, he couldn’t rip his gaze away, even if he’d tried.
“If she’s your mate, then she’s a Hunter’s mate as well, and apparently the target of another pack.” Mayhem sighed. “Fucking complications. You need to go and get her. Dy, go with him.”
Jaylon’s wolf howled with frustration, the thought of his woman in danger forcing a change despite the ever-darkening sky. Transformed into beast once again, Jaylon took off into the woods to find his mate.
Three weeks had passed, during which time, not only had Jaylon not found the mystery Huntress, but he and the band were set to leave on a European tour for two months. He was ready to claw the walls with frustration, his wolf unrelenting in its need to claim his supposed mate.
He’d searched the forest where he’d last seen her numerous times, and had even found a little cottage not far away from it that was saturated with her smell. But her trail ended there. She’d left the day she was attacked, presumably in a vehicle and had not returned. In his desperation, he’d gone back in his human form and had broken into the cottage, searching for any information that might help him find her. All he’d come away with were a few pictures and a surname. Devlin. Not much to go on, which left him growing more and more anxious as the days ticked by and the upcoming tour schedule loomed.
“Aubrey Devlin.”
Jaylon snapped out of his reverie, his hand still clenched to the bottle of forgotten beer, his ass numb from the uncomfortable stool he sat on. He glanced up to find the band’s manager, Dave, standing at the door of the kitchen, a slip of paper in his hand.
“Sister is Corra, fraternal twins, twenty-three years old, have never been registered in any government run educational system. The family name is old, goes back for hundreds of years.”
“Aubrey,” Jaylon whispered, loving the feel of it against his tongue. He’d never been a romantic man, or even one to indulge too heartily on the plentiful groupies, but for some reason, saying her name made his heart pound a little harder and his gut clench in a way that made him all the more desperate to see her again. “But how did you…”
“Think we might be meeting our first Order Huntress?” Mayhem asked as he walked into the room, coffee cup in hand.