Tiger's Mate

Chapter 47

•Ethan•

The sun beat down on my back; rather bright for such a cold day. Winter was coming soon. Sooner than we all thought it seemed.

I walked alone down the path towards the offside of town; the place where most of the country houses with small crop fields resided, along with the one place I knew I would find him.

The motel had been here since before even my parents were born: evident in its exterior look. It was a single strip of concrete and plaster that was divided up into no more than six rental rooms. No one ever stayed here unless they were broke or desperate.

I didn't think Katski's Hunter was either, judging by the lengths he had gone not to give up on finding him. Therefore, he most likely came here rather than the nice hotel in the main town for one thing; to stay hidden. Too bad for this guy nothing stuck out more than a newcomer in this town that tried to stay unnoticed.

I narrowed my eyes as I set my sights on the door to room 6. I learned pretty quickly from the boot prints outside the door that this was the only one that had been occupied in a while. And the tracks were fresh. He was in there.

Someway or another, he knew about werebeasts. I didn't know how much—it could be nothing or it could be everything, but knowledge like that in the hands of a murderous human was enough justification for what I planned to do. This was for the safety of my mate and everyone else who lived here.

He needed to be gone.

I rapped my knuckles on the door, old paint coming back with me as a drew my hand away, making me grimace in disgust and fling it away. The door opened with the second round of knocking. And there he was; the build of an older hunter and everything, skin tanned by the sun, hands scared and calloused from tools. Guns. He wore old cargo pants and a brown shirt stained with black dust. He looked like he'd just woken up too, his ashy blond hair unkempt.

"Who are you?" He demanded, eyeing me like I was some kind of nuisance that washed up on his door. Oh he had no idea.

"Unimpressed," I said, returning the favour and eyeing him distastefully.

"What's that mean kid?" He barked impatiently, moving to slam the door. I held it open.

"Believe me, I'm not just some 'kid'," I said as I watched his eyes widen with anger and confusion when he realized he couldn't close the door with just my hand holding it to the wall.

"What the hell?" He muttered as the veins bulged in his neck and wrist.

To make a point, I let a second of leeway go on my strength so the door moved with me and then slammed the door full force into the wall that it cracked.

"This is a friendly message from me to you," I said. "You're going to go back into your shithole, you're going to pack up whatever it is you brought here, and you're going to get the fuck out of my town and never come back."

He glared at me, eyes like the pit of an abyss that held nothing but empty darkness. "Or. What?"

I narrowed my eyes and straight into his. "I'll kill you."

"Not many come around and get away with threatening me, kid," he said. "You're lucky to be alive."

"So are you," I replied. "Considering you're still here chatting."

I should have taken that smirk that twisted upon his lips as a warning.

Because the son of a bitch in hell decided to pull a knife on me.

He went straight for the chest—which gave me little choice but to block rather than dodge given the proximity. He was fast, I'd give him that. And he even managed to nick my outer forearm before I kicked him, drawing a thin red thin down my flesh that oddly burned for such a shallow thing.