Nemesis - Book 3 of the Hunted series.

Chapter 1 - No time for peace

They went there.

Reece and Jeremy agreed to do 'baby duty' so the four of us went after the kids, finding their bikes on the edge of the two properties, the gate in the fence wide open, Stonehaven's forest a bit too thick in that area for kids bikes to handle.

Nick lifted up Matt's bike off the mud, muttering about how it was brand new, resting it on the fence. Clayton didn't seem to care as much, he was still stunned that his kids had learnt how to ride at all, but he didn't like them wandering away too far like this.

"Should we chase them as wolves and herd them back? Or go as humans and carry them back over a shoulder?" I offered. Nick almost seemed tempted by the first choice.

We were already heading through the gate and into the property. Elena's cellphone rang, she ignored it, reaching down to inhale the scent of her kid's tracks, handing it to Clayton. He opened it.

Then suddenly everything happened at once.

She tensed, as if she'd smelt something she didn't like, Clayton's voice going "Wait, Jer, slow down...", and Nick fell back against the fence for no apparent reason. Seconds later, as Elena went to stand, she too suddenly was knocked backwards off her feet into the dirt.

Clayton dropped the phone and dragged her and Nick backwards, behind the fence, back behind the trees on the Forestwatch side of the fence. I grabbed the phone, hearing feet running, and slid backwards as well, behind my own tree, hearing Jeremy's voice calling for someone to pick it up.

"What's going on?"

A crossbow bolt slammed into the tree behind me, inches from my shoulder, and I froze. Eyes snapping across to where Clayton had dragged Nick and Elena, some five metres away, their faces white. Blood dripping on the ground. I could smell it, smell his rage at it, hear Jeremy's voice trying to get someone to answer as I held the phone against my ear in shock. Clayton was tugging off his shirt and ripping it, pressing it against where the scarlet of blood was shining in the sunlight.

"Is anyone there?"

"What's going on?" I snapped into the phone.

"Anne? Stay off the Stonehaven property. Don't cross into it." Jeremy spoke but I cut him off.

"It's a bit late to tell us that!"

"The kids are in there." Clayton called, softly, flinching as he heard something slam into a tree nearby.

"The kids are in there, Jeremy."

"I know. Come back to the house."

"They're shooting at us!" But, I realised, not at us. There was the occasional crack of a bolt into a tree, the tremble of a heavy branch as the force of it struck it, but it wasn't near us at all. It was a warning. Panic was starting to rise, panic for the kids, for Nick, for Elena, the stench of their blood and fear filling my nostrils like a drug. "What about the kids? Nick? Elena? They're hurt! I don't know if we can mo-"

"Come back to the house." An order, not a request, and one that my instincts wanted to obey. Follow the alpha. Listen to the alpha. No more needing to panic. "We move from there."

Clayton had heard it too, even from that distance, gesturing for me to come across. I resisted a moment, fear throbbing through me, fear of those deadly little black things, but when it looked like he was tempted to drag me across himself, I finally skidded across the clearing, expecting to be struck, but the bolt again went wide, missing me by metres, another warning shot. Stay off the land.

"Can you lift Nick?" He asked, already lifting Elena, who cringed at the movement. There was something sticking out of her hip. Clayton's eyes were almost pure white and blue, like his pupils had shrunk, his nostrils flaring as he stared at her blood. He was calm. Extremely calm. The kind of scary calm you'd expect before a tornado came and whipped your house to Oz kind of calm.