Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins

Cyran POV

How in Fenrir’s name had Naomi gotten entangled in Hades’ cult? How had he not noticed her strong voice and passion before?

He’d just been happy for followers, that was it. Pure ego.

Shuffling his feet on the spotless floor, he looked at her shyly, noticing her incredible smell. Crisp mountain air.

Alpha Jiro’s voice demanded his attention. The man cocked his head, his turquoise eyes not missing anything. “I take it you’re moved by Miss Tenebruso’s argument.”

“She has a … unique style,” Cyran said, not wanting to lend TOO much support.

Naomi’s look could singe his fur if he’d been in wolf form. “On that pledge you signed, you said you’d look out for me.”

He growled. “That’s what I’m trying to do. I lured you in–”

“I could have gotten out the instant I saw what was going on,” she shot back. “Without followers, Hades is nothing. He may have magical power and the Dark Goddess, but he NEEDS believers. Without the drones of the hive, a queen is nothing.”

“Except a queen gives the bees of the hive more than Hades gave us,” Cyran mused. “You’re right, I do need your help.”

“Of course you do.”

He laughed softly. “You’re incredibly confident, which reassures me.”

Naomi’s insight impressed him. This incredible female had followed him into the cult, and he wanted to know why. The mate pull? Surely that didn’t lead a person into madness! He needed to know, especially if he and Naomi planned to wrestle Hades’ followers from him.

Naomi turned to Alpha Jiro, who was observing all this with a small smile on his face. “If we take away his followers, Hades will be weaker,” she said.

Jiro smiled more broadly. “Excellent, and that insight is why I accept your offer. We had the same thought. Intelligence Chief Brigid–”

“NANA Brigid?” Cyran asked in surprise. “She took over from Beta Barrett?”

His wily grandmother had always impressed him with her stealth. But Intelligence Chief?

“She took over from your sister,” Jiro corrected. “Barrett was like her mask. Any intelligence gathering came from her.”

Naomi gasped. “I never knew.”

“Neither did I and in the same house,” Cyran muttered.

How badly had he treated his sister–the most important person in the world other than Naomi? How much had he used her and manipulated her? And yet she forgave him, going to any lengths necessary to help him, even getting this hard-as-iron mate of hers to bring him back to the right path. Brilliant on Garnet’s part. No one in their right mind would consider Jiro Cresta soft … and yet he’d named Naomi as Cyran’s possible mate.

“In any case, Intelligence Chief Brigid has some information on Hades’ whereabouts,” Jiro went on, smelling satisfied. “Admittedly, only bits and pieces, but she’ll gladly give you everything she has.”

“Along with a thump on the head for my foolishness.” Cyran couldn’t wait to see his grandmother. “I take it she still lives here?”

“Oh yes, although she insists on keeping her own cottage,” Jiro said. “But she and the rest of the family have gathered under this roof–she should be up and exercising in the training area, where you and I have an appointment later.”

“And I take it that you have my escort standing by?” Cyran asked.

Jiro nodded with a look that said he didn’t even have to ask. “Don’t give them any trouble.”

Naomi touched Cyran’s arm gently. “I can enlist some of the hunters … they’ll be useful.”

“Let’s go find Nana Brigid,” Cyran said. “Ah … with your permission, Alpha.”

“Whatever she says, you’re to scout for signs of Hades and his followers and then report back before dinner,” Jiro said.

Cyran had to admit, a family dinner would be welcome. “And if we find them?”

“Report back immediately,” Jiro said in the Alpha Voice. “Do not act on your own. Am I clear?”

Cyran wanted to argue, but Naomi spoke up, gripping Cyran’s hand. “Yes, sir.”

The turquoise eyes targeted Cyran and held his gaze. “Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Cyran answered.

Jiro dismissed them with a nod. Naomi and Cyran walked out of the room with their heads held high.

“Was it as terrible as you thought?” she asked.

“Yes and no. What do you think?”

Naomi shrugged. “He’s showing as much mercy and compassion as he can. Probably a little more in your case.”

“No, you’re the one he’s giving a break to. As he should.”

Her eyebrows arched. “My family isn’t going to like me being on his list of rules for you.”

“I have to admit, that was a little more ham-fisted than I expected. He should have asked you first.”

Naomi shrugged. “But he is the Alpha, which means my family and I respect his decision and his right to do as he sees fit for the good of the pack.”

He heard the unspoken words: just as we did with you.

Not wanting to think about what he’d casually and wastefully given up, he led Naomi to the training area where Nana Brigid raced around in wolf form, her fur a lighter red than the rest of the family and speckled with white.

Cyran transformed into a red wolf and Naomi shifted into a reddish-brown one. Lean and muscular and sleek, she padded over to Nana Brigid and they greeted each other, sniffing all over, especially each other’s tails.

Ahhh. Cyran felt as if everything was right with the world when he was in wolf form. He’d MISSED the freedom. He never felt completely like himself, even though Hades promised to make them all stronger, mightier wolves and unleash their full power.

His sweet-smelling grandmother bumped her nose against his and they sniffed each other. He thought they might spend a few minutes thoroughly smelling each other, but he was mistaken.

SMACK.

Her paw slammed against his nose and she pounced on him, pinning him to the floor, snarling. “Don’t you EVER do ANYTHING like that again. You irresponsible, reckless pup!”

His throat exposed and the black ceiling spinning, he managed to gasp, “Forgive me.”

“I’m your grandmother, so I’ll love you regardless. Idiot. You need to make this right!”

“Yes, Nana. Whatever you say.”

She huffed, her warm breath bathing his face. “You should have remembered that before you got mixed up in that nightmare.”

“I know.”

Her red eyes becoming gentle, she nuzzled him and licked him. “I know you’ll do the right thing.”

She let him up, and he shifted back to human form, as did Nana Brigid and Naomi. The silver-haired older woman still looked vital, as shifter elders did. She gripped his hands, with the Sinsworth trademark topaz eyes fixed on his. “So, the Alpha sent you both my way, did he? You had the brains to work with the best hunter in the pack, apart from her mother. That’s a good sign.”

“It was my idea with the Alpha’s blessing sprinkled on top,” Naomi replied.

“Bright boy.” Nana Brigid’s tone was far too fond for Cyran’s liking.

D*mn this jealousy. Even if he no longer considered Jiro just a pretty boy Alpha, he couldn’t stomach all the affection the man was getting.

Nana Brigid continued, oblivious to his silence. “Well, I don’t have much to go on. I believe that he and his followers raided the storehouses to the east, or attempted to. They didn’t get much of a haul, just some supplies that hadn’t been stored yet.”

“What supplies?” Naomi asked.

“Ordinary things like candle wax, ropes, and even traps,” Nana Brigid reported. “All perfectly normal if you want to survive.”

Cyran nodded. “Hades was strict about using what we had, but we would steal from merchants and caravans when we needed something. He wouldn’t let us use magic to make life easier because everything was about balance.”

Nana Brigid looked faintly admiring. “So, he didn’t promise you unlimited power and doing whatever you wanted. He had rules. He’s not as daft as I thought, more’s the pity.”

“He’s clever,” Naomi agreed. “What kind of candle wax?”

Nana Brigid beamed at her. “Beeswax, naturally. But the batch in question came from bees that had gotten nectar from red clover. That’s good news for you, because the candles in the city came from wild bittersweet beeswax. Now, go pick up the scent.”

Cyran and Naomi met their escort outside of Sinsworth House. Four hunters, four guards … and alpha Jiro, all in wolf form.

“Isn’t your presence required elsewhere, Alpha?” he asked politely.

Jiro lifted his head and looked down his nose. “My presence is required wherever I please, and you serve at the pleasure of the Alpha.”

Didn’t Jiro even trust him to do this? But given the agreement he’d just signed, he couldn’t refuse the Alpha’s order. “Of course.”

He put his nose up and sniffed the air, sifting through the scents.

To the east, the smell of red clover beeswax lingered. “We need to head to the east past the storehouses,” he announced.

“Then let’s move out. Huntress Naomi, lead us,” Jiro ordered.

She raced off, a beautiful reddish-brown wolf, and he loped after her, glancing behind him as he did so. His sister stood on the steps of Sinsworth House, waving at them. He howled softly in reply and turned his attention back to Naomi’s tail wagging back and forth.

They reached the outskirts of the city, and he felt relieved to see that the city still looked beautiful and strong and a community to be proud of. Patch and Dirge had told him just how much they liked the city now, with Patch praising the taverns.

They hadn’t traveled through the section of the city near the tavern where the riot took place. A lesser man would have rubbed Cyran’s nose in that, but Alpha Jiro was focused on the hunt. For some reason, that annoyed Cyran more than outright bullying would have.

He sped ahead beside Naomi, despite the Alpha’s warnings not to stray too far from the scent trail.

“I smelled something,” she confided. “I’m not ready to tell the Alpha about it.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“Well, it’s more than beeswax … I smell incense, the kind Hades burned.”

“He’s just walking around here with incense?”

“I KNOW what I smell. I don’t know why it’s here.”

Cyran sniffed more deeply. Fragrant smoke. Where was it coming from?

“You’re right. You really are the best hunter in the pack,” he complimented.

She made a contented growl. “Thank you.”

Enjoying the grass under his feet, he raced nose to nose, feeling the stretching of his muscles and the caress of the wind on his face.

The spell of the moment didn’t stop him from smelling trouble when it first appeared.

Two of the hunters and five other shifters from the pack ambushed him and Naomi, springing at them in what appeared to be a planned attack. Their shouts killed any doubt about their intentions.

“You disgraced our pack!”

“How dare you show your tail here. You and your girlfriend.”

“No mercy for traitors!”

“That includes their wh*res.”

He froze, uncertain. If he attacked, that was probably what they wanted. To prove their point. To make him look dangerous.

“Leave Naomi out of this.”

They all laughed at him, cruelly. “‘Leave Naomi out of this,’” one of them mocked.

“Not a chance, lover boy,” another added.

Naomi growled, a sound of hurt and betrayal.

Then, burning rain landed on him. A few silver drops sprayed from some sort of squirt gun. Goddess knew how they could be near the silver and not feel their bodies going up in flames. Naomi howled in agony as she got a full blast, and he could feel her trying to shift. He slammed into her, knocking her to the ground and out of range of the spray.