And by hell, Liam meant literally.
Hunter had been betrayed by their Pack and had been sent to the hell realm to fight in the Demon Games. Despite being sent there to die, Hunter had thrived instead. However, he’d lost a part of himself along the way. In the end, he’d come out stronger, though more wary of those he had once trusted with his life.
It had been a stroke of luck that he’d met a demon, an angel, and a woman who had once been human during his captivity and had been able to find his freedom. That woman, Jamie, had introduced Hunter to her best friends—six other lightning-struck women, who all eventually became paranormal creatures in their own right. And that was how Hunter had met his mate.
Becca wasn’t a wolf. She was a leprechaun, who was not only the Pack’s savior, she was also their healer. She’d saved her mate, saved them all, and rescued the Pack in the process.
From the look in his Alpha’s eyes now, however, Liam didn’t think Hunter was coming towards him to stroll down memory lane. It had been a couple of years since Hunter had returned with Becca at his side, and while the other wolf had become more settled, he was no less deadly.
The fact that they were still trying to figure out their hierarchy thanks to politics and wolf dominance trials just reminded Liam of their immortality and the idea that sometimes it wasn’t as easy as saying yes.
“Another fight?” Hunter growled, his eyes glowing yellow. While most wolves had normal-colored eyes while in human form, Hunter’s had become permanently yellow and gold following his time in hell. Liam thought the man’s eyes would have turned that color anyway eventually, considering the strength of his wolf.
Liam shrugged, wincing again. “Michael started it. I ended it.”
Hunter’s nostril’s flared. “You’re not twelve years old, Liam. For hell’s sake, you let that pup play with you before you finally showed your wolf. Are you trying to start more fights? Do you not want to get in the circle and show the others what you are?”
What if I don’t know what I am?
The stray thought went away as quickly as it appeared, and he wanted to curse himself once again for allowing the weakness that had plagued him since he’d been a child to return with a vengeance.
“I beat him, didn’t I?”
“And you got hurt in the process,” Alec snapped as he stormed up. Liam had scented him approaching, of course. He could always tell when Alec was near, wind or no wind.
“I’m fine,” he lied. He wasn’t okay. However, it wasn’t the blood on his mouth or the twinges in his shoulder that mattered at the moment.
“The hell you are,” Alec whispered so low that only Hunter and Liam could hear.
Hunter looked between the two of them, his eyes seeing much more than Liam wanted him to see. “Come back to the house, both of you.” He held up his hands. “This isn’t up for discussion. Liam, let my mate heal you since you can’t seem to take care of yourself. Alec, you come too, as I have an assignment for the both of you.” He growled low. “Disobey my order, and you won’t be happy with the consequences.”
Liam tilted his head, studying his friend. Hunter rarely ordered people to do things. His dominance was so immense that others generally intuitively did what they needed to in order to keep the Pack safe and healthy. Yet for Hunter to order them just then—something he had never truly done with Liam and Alec…something was up.
He didn’t want to risk the wrath of his Alpha and friend, though it grated on his wolf to back down without a fight. Still, he nodded. The fact that his wolf even wanted to fight his Alpha, even a little bit, told Liam that he had more issues than he thought.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alec nod as well, and the two of them followed Hunter back to his place. Liam had spent countless evenings at Hunter and Becca’s home, begging for dinners and playing with their daughter, Hazel. The domicile was like a second home to him. Yet, tonight, he somehow didn’t think it was going to be quite like it always was.
For some reason, he didn’t think anything was going to be like it had been before.
He hated when his wolf got into his head. Its instincts were far more tuned in to everything around him than his human half most days.
When they got to Hunter’s place, Liam couldn’t hold back a smile as Hazel ran to them, her wide eyes so like her mother’s. She was a tiny ball of Becca with the brown hair of her father. And because the dominant genes in her DNA were all wolf, that was what she shifted into.
There were no hybrids in their world, unlike what some of the books might say in popular fiction—not that the humans knew about the supernatural. The genes that were in greater abundance were the ones that won the war regarding which paranormal creature a child of two different species would be. And unless they lived in backwoods places like the hell realm, the child’s home accepted them, no matter what they turned into.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, each of the realms enjoyed their own form of peace, mating with one another so frequently that, eventually, the paranormal strains within each child were diluted enough that they created a new type of being: humans.
Once, humans knew about their paranormal forbearers and had learned to live alongside them. Eventually, however, humans forgot about the magics and bonds that surrounded them, and the paranormals were forced to remain a secret.
In the past few years, some humans had found out about paranormals. The protection of the hundreds of realms in existence required that they keep their lives shrouded in secrecy.
Hazel, Hunter and Becca’s little girl, however, didn’t have to worry about the struggles of the realms right then. All she needed to do was grow up into the dominant and hilarious wolf she was turning out to be.
Liam reached down to pick her up, but Alec moved in front of him instead, intercepting the little bundle of joy. Alec didn’t normally smile or laugh like he was doing just then. Hazel, like her mother, seemed to be good at pulling any wolf out of their shell.
As soon as Liam straightened, he cursed, his body aching. That was why Alec had cut him off. Having the little bundle of strength slamming into him would have hurt like hell. For a moment, he’d forgotten how much pain he was in after the fight. It was one of the reasons they’d been summoned to the Alpha’s house to begin with.
Alec held Hazel in his strong arms, not bothering to look behind him.
Hazel, on the other hand, waved. “Hi, Uncle Liam!” She grinned at him, and he fell in love again. Hunter was seriously going to have a ball of trouble on his hands once she was old enough to find a mate. Liam was kind of looking forward to that, even if he would probably end up being one of her overprotective uncles.
“Hi, Hazel darling,” he said with a small smile. “I missed your face.”
She had a crush on him he knew, though she called herself Alec’s best friend. From the day she’d been born, she’d inserted herself into their lives, and he’d been content with it. Hunter and Becca had made a perfect kid, and he was damn jealous.
She blew him a raspberry. “I missed yours more.” She kissed Alec’s cheek. “Uncle Alec is still my favorite because you forgot Mom’s birthday.”
Liam held back a wince as Alec let out a rough chuckle. He wasn’t going to live that down anytime soon. As soon as he thought that, Becca walked out of the front door, her large belly appearing a little sooner than the rest of her. Hunter growled low and cupped his mate’s face before kissing her hard. He kept one hand on her belly and their unborn child, leaving Liam with a sense of longing.