Shadow wolves: The Demon Hunter (Book 9)

Chapter 1 - Mate!

Skye

The horn blew, and I turned and made a run for it. After a while, I had no idea how long I’d been running. All I knew was that I was running through the forest. I could almost feel their canines biting into my flesh, their claws ripping into my back.

I could hear their howls not far off as branches hit me in the face, cutting my arms and legs. I didn’t know where I was going, or even which direction I’d come from. I could have been running right back into the demons’ claws for all I knew! All I could think about was that I had to keep running, or they would kill me.

I didn’t want to die. When I saw the castle lights in the distance, I pushed the last bit of my energy into my legs, willing them to run faster, feeling the dirt under my paws. I’d been shifting between forms, unable to stabilize, unable to remember what happened and why it happened, but if I could just get to that castle with the lights.

I felt it when I crossed the energy border and took the chance of taking a quick look behind me to see if they were following me, and the next thing I knew, I felt a stinging pain as my foot connected with something and everything went dark.

Theodore

It was the last night of the mating week and after everything that happened, all I needed was some fresh air and some damn time alone for a little while. It had been one hell of a week! People finding mates was the easy part, but when someone was murdered and my dear sister somehow seemed to be involved …

Thankfully, her new mate seemed happy to take her off our hands nonetheless. I loved my sister, but she could be more than a handful the day she decided to turn sideways and fight you about something. I could only hope that my mate would one day be calm and agreeable.

I walked around the edge of the forest and heard the wolves howl in the distance. They sounded angry, and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but it wasn’t my territory, and I was sure that the royal’s guard had it under control. I couldn’t wait to get back home in the morning. That was when I saw her.

The pale girl between the leaves with her platinum hair. She couldn’t be more than sixteen! She looked back, and a scream cut through the night air as she flew through the air. I rushed to her side and picked her up, looking around for a moment before making a run for the castle. Whoever she was, I had to help her, then she opened her beautiful gray eyes and my wolf howled.

“Mate!” I didn’t know who was more shocked when the word popped out of my mouth. Her eyes fluttered, and they closed again, and I could feel her heart rate slow down.

“HELP!” I shouted as I rushed into the castle, and I was lucky to find Queen Lucille in the foyer. Everything happened so fast as we rushed through to a room and soon a doctor arrived to look at my beautiful little mate.

I didn’t know who she was or even what she was. Her scent was strange and mixed with something stronger. All I knew was that I had just found her, and they had to save her! I couldn’t lose her before we even said one word to each other. Surely, Moon wouldn’t be that cruel!

Skye

“You have to fight Skye. I can’t do this alone.” Ady cried. I could hear her, but it felt as if she was so far away.

“Where are you? I’m so tired, Ady. I’m so tired.” I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I couldn’t run anymore.

“I know you are, sweetheart, but I need you to fight!” Everything went dark again. I was running again.

“Ady, I’m running. Where are you? We have to keep running!” I felt strong hands grip my shoulders. That was it! They had me! “NOOOOO!”

“It’s okay, sweetheart, you are safe. It’s okay.” The soft hands slid around my shoulders and I felt the warmth of his chest press up against my cheek. His heart was racing. His heart!

My eyes popped open at the realization that whoever was holding me wasn’t a demon, and my instinct was to slam my nails into the first thing I could find and get away as fast as possible. I felt the texture of my nails as they tore through his skin before I turned and ran into a brick wall that put his arms around me.

“It’s okay. You are safe.” The same voice came up behind me, and the man in front of me took a pointy thing and shoved it into my arm! So, this was how they won their damn hunt! If we were too strong for you, they drugged us! But I heard a heartbeat! No demon I knew of had a heart! Whatever that was started to work and everything went dark again.

Theodore

It was the best and the worst day of my life! I’d found my mate, but was it possible that she was so damaged and so wild that she might never recover? I studied her body from head to toe, making a mental note of each scar. Her skin was so pale that you could see the veins through it. She smelled like a wolf, but not. Nobody around the castle seemed to know anything about the missing girl, and the queen had people searching for any information they could find.

Until then, I had to wait until she woke up, so she could tell me who she was and where she came from. Who could do that to this beautiful girl? What had she been through? My heart was breaking, and my wolf was in agony while we waited.

Skye

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. The air was clean. There was no sulfur smell. If there were demons around, I would have smelled Sulfur for sure! I turned my head to try and see where I was, and there he was. Holding my hand. His dirty blond hair softly flowed over my hand, with his head resting on the side of the bed.

“Mate.” Ady whispered.

“No, it can’t be.” I felt my heart start to race. There was no way it could be this easy. Did I really just escape the demons and find my mate?

“Oh, thank the goddess, you are awake!” His beautiful eyes made contact with mine and I scurried upright on the bed, pulling my hand out from his grip. I understood what he was saying, but after being with the demons for so long, I couldn’t remember how to speak his language. I could speak demon pretty fluently, but not human!

“What is your name?” His voice sounded soft and slightly wounded. I looked around the room for a way out and made a run for it, but my leg hadn’t healed completely, and he caught me right as I was about to fall flat on my face and screamed in pain. The room started to spin and I felt nauseous.

“Hang on. I’m not going to hurt you. Please.” I growled at him when he touched me and aimed to bite, but he quickly put me down on the bed, letting go. “Okay, I won’t bite, I promise, but I guess you do. Are you hungry?” He turned his back on me and this time I knew I couldn’t run. I glared at my broken leg and then the smell of food drifted my way when he brought a tray closer.

The food smelled so good that I grabbed the plate and started eating before he could take it away from me, keeping a careful eye on him just in case I needed to defend myself.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. There’s more where that came from.” He showed me his teeth and I growled at him, covering my food to protect it. There was a sudden movement on the other side of the room and I threw the plate to one side and got onto all fours, growling at my leg when the pain ran all the way through to my hip. The door slowly opened.

“WAIT! Careful. She seems to be a bit rabid.” He made a funny noise that I hadn’t heard before, but I liked it and I sat back down, keeping a careful eye on the door. The door opened and the same one I saw in my dream walked in. I remembered him! He stuck me and it hurt! He made me sleep! I jumped back up on all fours and growled, but the one who was sitting beside me jumped in between us and locked eyes with me.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. The doctor just wants to check on you. He won’t hurt you.” He held out both his hands and showed me that they were empty and motioned for the doctor to do the same. I sniffed the air to see if he had another pointy thing with him, but I couldn’t smell anything, so I sat back down, softly growling to warn him not to try anything.

He walked over to a small bag and I watched as he replaced the bag. That’s when I saw that there was a pipe running down and into my arm! I saw the pointy thing and the first thing I wanted to do was rip it out, but they stopped me.

“No, don’t do that! It’s fluid. You need it!” My mate held his hand over the pointy thing and I tilted my head and frowned.

“No.” I copied what he said, and he smiled, but this thing in my arm was hurting me and I wanted it out, so I tried to pull at it again.

“Theodore, we can take out the drip. She should be hydrated enough by now.” The strange man talked, and I tilted my head again. When he stepped closer, I growled at him, showing him my canines, but he held his hands in the air and stepped back.

The one I trusted more came closer, and he pulled the sticky thing from my arm and I yelled out in pain. The pointy thing came out of my vein and a trickle of blood followed, and I quickly grabbed my arm and licked it to heal the wound.

“Her leg will take a bit longer to heal, but she should be able to take a shower. You can remove the boot and help her if she allows you to.” The one I didn’t trust was talking so fast. What were they talking about? They talked too fast and I struggled to understand!

Why couldn’t they speak in demon? And why did they smell so funny? I sniffed the one standing closest to me while the other one left. I still didn’t know where I was, but it seemed that I might be safe for now. I hoped.

At first, when I saw the water falling from the side of the strange cave wall, I opened my mouth to drink, but it was hot and tasted bad, and I spat it out. The man-made that funny sound again and I growled at him. He took his clothes off and climbed into the small cave to stand under the water. I remembered this. From long ago. Something about it felt familiar, and I slowly stuck my foot underneath the water, immediately pulling it back when it hit my skin.

Fear pushed up my throat and I looked into his eyes. I didn’t know why I felt this way, but I knew I could trust him. Ady said that he was our mate, but I was a demon slave. No demon slave had ever had a mate!

I watched as the water pooled around his feet and I stuck my foot into the water again. This time it wasn’t so bad, and I slowly climbed in. When the water hit my head, I screamed and growled at it, but it didn’t stop. When I wanted to jump away, a pair of strong arms grabbed mine, and I squealed and snapped to try and get away.

“It’s okay, it’s okay sweetheart. I wish you could tell me your name. I’m Theodore.” He spoke, and I felt myself calm down a little. I turned to look at him and tilted my head. Feeling the dirt slowly washing away as the water rushed down my body, I realized that it was not as bad as I thought at first, and I held my hands up to try and catch it.

I watched him as he poured something onto a soft squishy thing and I sniffed it, but it made me sneeze with the lemon scent, and I jumped back, feeling the cold of the wall hit my back. He held up his hands before slowly starting to touch his skin, and it made a white foam all over.

I shook my head trying to get the smell out of my nose, but it seemed to get more the more he rubbed it over his body and I grabbed the squishy thing from him and copied what he did. I watched as the water slowly washed the foam off his body and quickly rubbed the water down mine to get it off me.

He showed me his teeth again and made that funny sound, then stopped the water from falling. I grabbed at the wall to try and pull it back, but it was gone! Where did the water go? When I looked at him, he was holding something in front of him and showed that I should follow him.

I jumped when it touched my skin at first, but he slowly kept touching me and I leaned in, feeling the soft and comforting touch of it. He put his hands on my shoulders, and we walked back to the other cave.