Wolf's Huntress

Chapter Seven

Alastair's POV:

"You found out the information on, Ruth?"

"Yes, and it was just as you said, I'm afraid." He motioned for me to sit before pushing the rather fat file across the desk to me. Opening up the folder, the first thing I saw was a newspaper article with a picture of Ruth standing in front of a hospital. The title read "Missing Woman Found by Sister".

"Oh no," I whispered before flipping the page to another newspaper article. That one had a photo taken from security footage of Tia with a man. That title read "Police Still Searching for Anita Livingston, Last Seen with Man in Photo". Clipped to the article printout was a much more explicit photo of the man that was with Tia, or Anita as it seemed. The following page was the registry of the Dark Moon Pack. The man was Gamma Cooper from the pack that was killed off years ago. I flipped back to the newspaper articles, and the dates matched the timeline. Anita was brought to the hospital the same night the pack was wiped out.

"Alastair, I hate to say it, but there is a chance your mate is connected to hunters." I shook my head, not wanting to listen to him. The following few pages in the file were copies of land and business ownership in Ruth's name to the nightclub, transcripts of her time in college, and then police records. "It adds up, Alastair. She has no record from before she was nine, three years following the war."

Her childhood was all in that folder. All the foster families she went to, the orphanage, the things that were done to her while in those places, and all the times she ran away. Her adoption paperwork was also in there, which explained why Ruth and Anita looked nothing alike. What was missing was a birth certificate and her last name before being adopted. She was initially picked up by police towns away near the state border so that she could have been from anywhere. "She has to be a hunter going by everything in here, or at least connected to them somehow. And after hearing where she took you, there isn't a doubt in my mind that I'm right."

"She isn't a hunter," I yelled while slamming a fist on the desk.

"Alastair," spoke a soft female voice behind me. I turned around and saw Preston's mate Kelley standing there behind me. My Luna was sweet, kind, and nurturing to the whole pack. However, she was also strong, brave, and could stand toe to toe with her mate. She was everything you could hope for in a Luna. "You have to consider the possibilities."

"I don't care even if she is a hunter! She is my mate!"

Kelley walked over and put a gentle hand on my shoulder. Her Luna abilities soothe me to some degree. "Then you need to consider rejecting her as your mate if she is a hunter. Think of the pack."

I got out of the chair and shook my head no. It felt like my heart was being pulled from my chest. "I can't… I won't. Don't you know the odds of me getting a second chance mate?"

"You can pick a chosen mate then," Gregory spoke up.

"I would rather die than be without my fated mate!"

I looked at Preston, and his face was stern, scowling. He didn't like what he was hearing, but I didn't care. "You don't know anything about this woman, but you'll put your life on the line for her?"

"You knew nothing about Kelley when you met her at the Full Moon Blessing. Yet you marked and claimed her as your own that night and never looked back."

Preston let out a sigh before giving me a crooked smile. "If you feel that strongly about her, then I have no choice but to support you. I just pray to the Moon Goddess that you don't live to regret this." I turned to Gregory and Kelley. Both nodded their heads in agreement. "So, what's your next move?"

Ruth's POV:

After the failed attempt to scare my so-called mate into rejecting me, I went to Stephon’s place for ideas. With no idea of when Clover and the others would return, I immediately needed a backup plan. When I got to his apartment, I knocked on his door a bit louder than I wanted. I must have still been mad about how that damn wolf got away from me. Stephon opened the door, not looking amused. “You realize what time it is, right?”

“I know, but I need to bounce some ideas off of you about my latest problem.” He sighed before stepping aside to let me in,

“I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered.

“Nonsense, you were too old for this s**t ages ago,” I joked. He glared at me before walking me over to the living room.

“Something must have happened for you to come to me during the time you know that I sleep.”

“I ran into him at the diner earlier when I was meeting with Anita. The bastard must have somehow learned about me meeting up with her.”

“Or it could have just been a coincidence that the two of you ended up at the same place at the same time? The world is not out to get you, Ruth.”

“I know the whole world isn’t out to get me, just the magical part of it. And this particular nuisance is the latest threat.” Stephon sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Ruth, my dear child, the world you see isn’t the full picture. There are good men out there—good men living in both the magical and nonmagical parts of the world. Yes, what happened to your sister was terrible, but you need to learn to move on from it, just as Anita is learning to move on. There is someone out there meant for Anita, just as there is someone out there meant for you. And maybe this werewolf is who you are meant to be with.”

“Absolutely not! Humans aren’t meant to be with shifters or immortals. If they were, humans wouldn’t be the way that we are. Just as dogs don’t breed with birds, I won’t be with a werewolf. I will make him reject me, or he will die!”

Stephon gave me a look that was sad, disappointed, and tired, the same look he had been giving me for years now. “What happened?”

I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees, remembering every detail of what happened between me and the werewolf. During the time that I had pulled out my silver blade and was ready to defend myself from an attack, the werewolf looked excited, like he wanted to fight me. “I took him to the warehouse, and he figured out that it was fake rather quickly.”

“I told you that setting that thing up was a waste of money.” You might be wondering how I came by the money to build the craziness of the nightclub and the warehouse. The answer is straightforward: I didn’t come by it honestly. On top of being a runaway orphan who caused problems at the orphanage and foster homes and broke a few laws while on the run, I also stole.

Very few of the hunter faction houses had been found in the early years after the war, so I went to a number of them and stole money and anything of value that I could carry. I made up hidden stashes everywhere I went to hide my stolen loot, much like a squirrel that hides their food before winter. When the time came that I needed the money to start up my protection program and business front, I sent Stephon out to collect everything. You can’t just have money magically appear out of nowhere, however. People get suspicious and too nosey for their own good.