Darkness (II)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"Someone of my kind?" I probed. Everyone had fallen silent.

"Yes." she nodded. "You're a Huntress. No ordinary Huntress, either. The daughter of the Chief, if my memory serves me well?"

I nodded. The way she was looking at me...it was as unnerving as it was provoking but I smoothed my features into icy impassiveness. I felt the eyes resting on me, waiting for an explosion or show of weakness. I would give them neither.

"It's true." I said. "Though I am no longer a Huntress."

She began to pace, eyes fixated on me. I stared back. "I heard that Hunters are cunning and alert, always searching for threats." Closer and closer she came until she was just inches away, head tilted. "Yet you did not even notice us at the meal. Why is that? This Circle is comprised of the most powerful pack members."

I felt the power unfurl, resting heavily in my hands. I squeezed them into tight fists.

Not yet, I inwardly whispered, running a ghostly hand over the thrumming mass. It retreated, but didn't subside.

"If your memory serves you well," I said, parroting her previous words with a dry smile, "you'll recall that I was rather preoccupied with one of your warriors last night. It seems that some of your men are not very accommodating...a show of power was my only way of changing that."

After a moment of silence, I added: "Apologies if my inattentiveness offended you, Alya."

For a moment, she was utterly still.

And then she smiled.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The mate bond tensed slightly, as if someone had tugged it. I turned around. Phoenix was looking directly at me, smiling in wicked amusement, pride swimming in his eyes. Somehow, I found the courage to offer him a tentative grin.

"What is it that you americans say?" Eric paused to think. "Ah yes. Luna, you're a badass."

"That she is, people, that she is!"

Lexus walked into the room, tailed by Vilkov. He smiled at everyone but reserved a special, cheeky grin for me.

"Sorry we're late." he said, bowing his head to Phoenix and I.

Anton's lips twitched. "Are you ever not late, Lex?"

Valeriya tugged at my arm and sat me down. "Lexus and Vilkov—the two final members of the Circle."

"The two best members." Lexus corrected.

Alya snorted. "You wish, Gamma."

"I don't wish for things that are already true." shrugged a smirking Lexus.

I watched the group interact with a distant smile. My past was barren and lifeless, lighted by the presence of only one friend; now I was here, unsure and unquiet, surrounded by people who were to become my closest confidantes. My life had spun out of my control and was unfurling like a flower before my very eyes. In one sense, it scared me; in another, despite the fact that I could feel reality slipping through my fingers like sand, it made excitement explode in my stomach. I'd never felt so...free.

"You daydream an awful lot, don't you?" Anton said dryly, the ghost of a smile playing upon his lips.

I looked up, cheeks reddening. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

He looked between Phoenix and I. "At least one of you in this pairing does."

Phoenix's answering grin was enough for me to interject, panicked by the miscommunication, by their lack of knowledge regarding what had transpired between us. "We're not mated."