“It has been a long time since we’ve succeeded in finding a Huntress. Up until we had the Oracle, we relied on these ancient texts to help us locate the next girl and we weren’t usually successful. For years, we consistently arrived too late. The beasts are drawn to their Huntresses on instinct, stumbling into encounters by accident, usually. But that’s not the case with Lazarus and his pack. We’re not sure how, but it appears that he’s able to locate Huntresses just as we are, sometimes more efficiently. There have been twenty-four girls, before you, who have been found by Lazarus and his pack first.”
“Wh-wh-what happened to them?” I stuttered, my mind slowly working through the fantastical information.
Cal shook his head. “Dead. All of them. That’s why you’re so special—we got to you first. And there’s a link between you and Lazarus, something in you that he wants. If you fight and defeat him, you could save us all. Without their king, the other wolves will be easier to dispatch. And we need to get control over this situation. The wolves’ ranks are growing. Lazarus’s pack is huge, with lieutenants heading smaller packs under his command all over the U.S. They’ve begun attacking humans, killing the ones they don’t select as additions to the pack. It’s the role of the Huntress to protect the humans from the wolves—with her Hunter’s help, that is.”
“Okay, this is very hard to accept. I mean, look at me.” I raised my arms out in front of me and scanned my body. “I can’t fight, I can’t kill anything. I can barely fend off a bee. How am I supposed to battle a werewolf?”
Cal sighed again. “You’ve been chosen. It’s part of your DNA. You were born to be a Huntress, but you won’t feel like one until we’re bonded. The bonding that should have happened between us already.” He clenched his jaw briefly, clearly picking over his words, deciding what to tell me.
I reached over and touched his hand. “Cal? Will you please just tell me the truth?” Words from Cal, truthful words from him, seemed to be easier to take, and to believe for some bizarre reason.
Cal locked eyes with me again. “Okay. The truth.” He ran his hand along the back of his neck. “So the truth is, when we bond you take on my powers, and you adopt part of my strength as well. You become infused with my knowledge. You will know everything you need to know.”
I pulled my hand away. “How exactly does one bond? I mean, it sounds like some kind of union…like sexual…are you saying I have to have sex with you to realize my full potential…because if you are, that’s the lamest…”
“It’s not necessarily about sex, Morgan.” He paused and frowned. “Although one usually comes with the other.”
When I opened my mouth to speak again, he shook his head and continued, stealing my words before I could utter them. “I know it sounds like a shitty pick-up line or something, and technically, I suppose we don’t have to have sex to bond…but it’s kind of…unavoidable. When the bonding process begins, we’ll both be overwhelmed by the desire to be with each other in every possible way. I don’t know why it works that way—it’s not explained very clearly in the texts. It’s something to do with both a spiritual and physical connection that helps a bonded pair to defeat the beasts. It’s meant to be a deep connection. I’ve been told that it’s the strongest relationship you’ll ever have.”
I swallowed, my mind racing ahead of me. “So that’s why you climbed into my bed last night? You expected to have sex with me when we bonded? If it’s so important, then why did you let me stop it from happening?”
Cal lowered his gaze to the floor, his hands clasped in front of him. “I won’t make promises to you that I can’t keep.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
When he looked back up his expression was pained. “I can’t promise to love you. I can’t promise that I won’t hurt you.”
Realization donned on me and I pulled my lips into a tight smile. “So you expect to bond with me but not become one with me, not to have that deep relationship you mentioned? And what? If sex is a byproduct of that union, then it’s all good for you? Is that what you’re saying? It’s all business.” And I thought I’d been in control of the situation. His admission stung more than it should. I’d stopped the intimacy because I needed to know more, and now that I knew more, the romantic aspect was filling my head with a fantasy world of being loved and cherished to a degree I’d never known in my whole life, just as I’d always craved. Just like the psychic said. The only problem was my hero wouldn’t give me his heart.
Cal shrugged. “It has to be.”