“I’m with you, Xar,” she stated, eyeing Onyx, who hadn’t spoken through the entire conversation.
“Of course I’m with you,” she grunted, rolling her eyes. “That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, well, this next part is where you may freak out a bit. I intend to build a hunting party of our own, and figure out how to get into the Otherworld. Once we’re there, we will find a way to end this war before it even begins. First, we should gather supplies and lie low until they end their search for us. My father painted a target on my back, and then he regretted it. Kieran showed the fae I was immune to iron. But that won’t be enough for them to stop searching for Noah. I won’t let him die or allow them to reach him, either. I want to give myself time to figure out how to return with this fracture that Xavier drove between us. We’ll need them for this plan to work, but not until all the pieces are in place.”
I had mapped out a direction, but how to implement it remained a mystery. In no world would I allow the fae to get Noah. Finding out he was my brother had been a low blow, but I’d never really thought of him as anything else. He had always been a brother to me, at least in my eyes.
Turning the ignition over, I started us down the empty freeway. It didn’t matter what happened, because, in the end, we’d be okay. We were trained to survive, and that was embedded within us, taught from birth.
I had been driving for hours before a group of cars that were pulled off of the highway caught my attention. “Bingo. That’s got to be the team escorting Micah to his new location.” I declared, grinning as the unmoving, standard-issued guild vehicles sat silently on the side of the road.
I smiled, turning to the girls that were digging through their bags for weapons. My gaze settled on the motionless cars, and the blood drained from my face. The mutilated remains of hunters came into view, and my world spun around me. Cop sirens blared behind us, and while I slowed as we rolled past the wreckage, we didn’t stop.
“What could have done that much fucking damage?” Onyx asked, peering out the back window. “I count five bodies within sight, and none of them are Micah. There’s a vehicle missing, too. Look at the tire tracks at the front of the caravan. Someone wanted away from it in a hurry.”
“Well, we aren’t leaving Idaho quite yet, ladies,” I muttered, as the cop exited a car, emptying his stomach onto the ground beside the dismembered corpses. “I guess we’re going hunting for whatever, or whoever, did that to our people. We’ll need to stay low profile, because we’re not far enough away from the guild. There’s a cabin a few miles off the main road that I used to frequent with Micah when we wanted to be alone. Get your weapons out and prepare for the unexpected. Something tore through every car of the convoy easily, which means we’re not safe yet. We’re also in Lycan territory. That will complicate things a bit.”
I hadn’t expected to hunt this close to the guild, but I wasn’t going to abandon Micah. His life had been destroyed because of me. I owed it to him to make this right.
I needed to heal, but that would take a while. I’d lost everything. My identity was gone, and that meant I had to settle into my new one as Ana Hunter. I had to rediscover who I was and who I wanted to be now. I had to figure myself out because I had to be the warrior they would need me to be when I returned.
I was planning to go against the fae, to end the slaughter of our women. They were stealing our wombs, using our genetics to create their children. If the fae believed they could get away with that, they were dead wrong. I may not have been the princess I thought I was, but I would become the beast they would fear.
Kieran was insane, but he had the right idea. You didn’t have to be a hero to win. You just had to run out of fucks to give them, and I had. My basket was empty. My entire world had been flipped upside down, but I would choose how that changed me. I don’t want to be the good guy anymore. Being the better person is exhausting. I am tired of playing by the rules and sticking pins into the grenade of my emotions.
The pin was out.
My new identity is beginning to form.
With it, they wouldn’t recognize the monster they made or the beast they were unleashing.
I’m returning, and when I do, I will show them why you don’t break people, because they learn how to live with those tattered pieces. They’re scarier and more resilient because it was the only thing they had left. They were tougher because surviving what destroyed them made them choose between giving up or coming out stronger and more independent. I won’t lie down and die, nor would I give up. I am not weak. I am a powerful woman, and they are about to hear me fucking roar.
The end, for now
About the Author
Amelia Hutchins is the USA Today bestselling author of the award winning series Monsters, The Fae Chronicles, and Nine Realm series. She is an admitted coffee addict, who drinks magical potions of caffeine and turns them into magical worlds. She writes alpha-hole males and the alpha women who knock them on their arses, hard. She doesn’t write romance. She writes fast-paced books that go hard against traditional standards. Sometimes a story isn’t about the romance; it’s about rising to a challenge, breaking through them like wrecking balls, and shaking up entire worlds to discover who they really are. If you’d like to check out more of her work, or just hang out in an amazing tribe of people who enjoy rough men, and sharp women, join her at Author Amelia Hutchins Group on Facebook.
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Other series by Amelia Hutchins
Legacy of the Nine Realms
Aria and her sisters return to the Human Realm of Haven Falls to find one of their own that’s gone missing. They soon discover things have changed in the Human Realm and that nothing is what it seems, including Knox, the egotistical, self-centered, frustratingly gorgeous man who declared himself King during their absence.
Sparks fly when the two enter a fiery battle of wills as Aria learns she is more than just a witch in the Hecate bloodline; she is much, much more.
Will Aria embrace her savage side to find her sister and save her family, or will she burn to ashes from his heated kisses and burning hot embrace?
Knox has ulterior motives for being in Haven Falls and never expected the little witch to show up and brazenly challenge his rule.
It was supposed to be easy; get in and get out. Move pieces into place and set the stage for the war he’s been planning for over five hundred years. Aria is his sworn enemy but something within her calls to him and he hates himself for craving the fiery kisses that have reignited his cold, dead heart. One taste and he thought he could get her out of his system. He was wrong.
Will Knox let go of the memories of the past, driving his need for revenge that will destroy the pretty little witch he craves, or will he push the boundaries to fight for and claim what is his by right? Either way, war is inevitable. And nothing will stop him from reaching for what is his.