Hunter's Heart

Chapter 12

"I see me," she said before she turned back the man beside her. What was she supposed to be seeing?

He smiled at her and pointed back to the water. "Look again. A little harder this time."

Quinn sighed and looked back at her reflection skeptically. She still saw herself, exactly as she was. Porcelain skin, long black hair balayaged with blue and green color, deep green eyes ... She was about to ask the man what she was supposed to be seeing when she watched her eyes change color from green to gold.

The kind of gold werewolves' eyes turned when their wolf side was in control.

A movement on the far side of the lake caught her attention and she looked up to see a large, snow white wolf standing on the opposite bank. From the size of the creature, Quinn knew instantly it was a werewolf, but it was one she didn't recognize.

As she watched the wolf, it watched her, its green eyes almost expectant as if it were waiting for Quinn to realize something.

My eyes, Quinn realized with shock. It has my eyes!

"She's been locked away here for a long time," the man told her. "Waiting for you to set her free again."

Quinn tore her gaze from the wolf to look back at the man. "Again?"

He didn't say anything to her question. He merely watched her with the same expectant expression as the wolf across the lake.

It was then that the wheels began to turn.

Her high tolerance for poisons, her ability to see into other people's minds, to sense their emotions, the fact that she hadn't changed into a werewolf in almost two months since being bitten, why she'd never felt like she belonged anywhere before she'd lived with the pack ...

"Gods," she whispered as she began to understand.

She was already a werewolf.

Her eyes began to sting. "I'm one of them."

Why hadn't she changed when she came of age? Werewolves were supposed to go through their first change when they hit puberty. Why didn't anyone in the pack recognize her scent as one of theirs? Was she ever even a Hunter? How is it that no one knew what she was? Had her mother known? Is that why she'd never said anything about her father?

Nothing made sense to her.

The man beside her shifted in closer and gently took her face in his hands, using the pads of his thumbs to wipe away the tears that silently rolled from her eyes.

"You're going to need to learn to use the pain and the heartache instead of running away from it," he said. "Turn it all into strength and let it drive you. Show your Alpha you are more than just a girl who was taught to hunt and kill monsters."

Quinn shook her head, about to tell him that Christian would never see that, but the man cut her off.

"Listen to me, Alexandra!" he insisted. "Do you love being with the pack?"

She thought for a moment. Despite her troubles with Silvia and her little pack of bitches, the rest of the pack had learned to be civil with her. She respected their way of life, how they cared for each other. She'd even gotten over her initial shock of all the blatantly intimate and sexual scenes she'd witnessed during her time with them.

She could even respect Christian as an Alpha. He was a good man, even if he did hurt her practically every time she saw him. He genuinely cared about every member of his pack and made sure all of them were looked after.

And she'd had Liam and Sophia.

Thinking about them had the tears flowing even harder. Sophia lying trapped under a fallen tree, her body broken, and Liam screaming with grief ...

Slowly, she nodded.

"Help them fight," the man said firmly. "None of them are going to survive without your help. Viktor has never liked his people using methods that can bring attention from the human world. He's got someone posing as you. Something has changed."

While he spoke, the fog had begun to thicken around them and when he released her face, he offered her a smile.

"It's time to go back now, Alexandra," he said, backing off into the fog until he disappeared from her view. "It's time to be strong."

She wanted to call out to him, ask him who he was and why he appeared to her. She wanted to ask him how he seemed to know so much about her.

But the fog was closing about her, too, so think she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.

"Be strong ..."

*

Still caught up in her dream, she was momentarily confused when she woke to find herself back in her room in the Christian's pack's mansion. Her head was pounding, her body was one massive source of pain and she was lying in the middle of her bed. She tried to sit up, but her body protested and she let out a soft moan of pain.

"Easy," a deep, male voice said from somewhere to her left and then large hands were gently pushing her back until she was lying down. "You're still hurt."

Quinn turned to the owner of the voice and frowned. Standing beside her bed was Grayson Stone.

"Alpha Stone?" she asked, her voice husky and soft as if she hadn't used it in days.

"Welcome back," the Alpha replied, offering her a smile. "You've had us all worried. How do you feel?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Like I got run over by a pack of wolves."

Grayson chuckled at her weak attempt at humor and sat down in an armchair that had been pulled up beside the bed.

"After what happened the other night," he said. "I think that's to be expected. You took one hell of a blow in the explosion."

At his mention of the explosion, everything came flooding back. Ignoring what he'd told her, Quinn forced herself to sit up and she bit back a cry of agony. Her eyes began to prickle as she remembered the only friend she'd ever had lying on the forest floor dying in front of her and feeling the weight of Liam's pain and grief wash through her.

Before she knew it, she had dissolved into tears.

"Sophia," she whispered sadly.

Grayson quickly moved out of his seat and sat down on the bed beside her, gently wiping her tears away.

"Don't cry, little Quinn," he said. "Thanks to you, Sophia's just fine."