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CHAPTER FIVE

HUNTER

Despite the second relaxing shower to wash off the blood and sweat from their fight and laying in bed listening to Neri’s soft breathing as she slept in his arms, Hunter couldn’t shake the rage at the shifters coming after her, invading the space where she built a life for herself. Every time he closed his eyes, he pictured the shifters advancing on him, searching the area and trying to scent her nearby.

Why are they after her?

He tried to understand their advantage if they kidnapped Neri, knowing she’s half vampire. They made their disgust obvious whenever they fought the assassins, zeroing in on Kai, Kane, Thomas, and Isaac and doing their utmost to stay out of their path whenever they fought. The vampires had never contemplated biting the shifters they fought against because of the unknown effects if they ingested shifter blood and they never left themselves vulnerable to attack. The assassins were anything but stupid.

Did they want to study her? Dissect her? Why?

Neri, to any immortal who was to look at her, would realize she was a vampire. Her silver eyes were as distinct as Liv or Kai’s and after tonight, there was no doubt she had vampire venom. But she ate human food, had no craving for blood, and she had no aversion to the sun, which wouldn’t be obvious unless you watched her. Hunter remembered Kai telling him it took several decades before he stood in the sun and even now, two hundred and thirty-three years later, he avoided it most of the time.

The obvious conclusion; someone ordered them to find her. It would have been easy to track Kane, Drew, Neri, and himself back to Kai and Liv’s after their earlier fight. They needed only to wait several hours until Neri emerged from the house to follow the two of them back to her place. Again, which led to questions about why they wanted a vampire, wanted Neri.

Unless they understand something we don’t. How?

Xander had found nothing on Anzû’s old crew and why he wanted Frost. A connection between the former scientists at Standard and the shifters loyal to Anzû was tentative. But it was all they had.

Hunter had thrown himself into the fight because they were there to harm Neri. He knew how to fight and kill, but when he watched her walk around the side of the house, his heart stopped.

For a moment, he’d missed the fierce determination etched on her face as she dove headfirst into the fight. Although everything inside him screamed for him to defend her, to protect her, he watched in awe as she flew onto the first shifter’s back and dispatched with him and his head within seconds.

Without taking his eyes off Neri as she went after another, he turned some of his attention to the fifth shifter of the group. With two well-placed stabs to the heart, he then removed his head as he watched Neri sink her teeth into the shifter she was fighting. He held his breath as the shifter screamed and dropped onto the ground, still writhing in pain until he took his last breath.

Neri’s abilities hadn’t surprised Hunter. When she ran from the house, his enhanced sight caught a blur of silver hair as she darted up the stairs and outside as he followed. Although Liv checked and Neri confirmed she had no fangs, he knew what an immortal could accomplish when someone threatened their mate.

And he knew she must have accepted him as her mate to protect him with such fierce determination. Her concern for him after the fight warmed his heart, and he was proud of her. She defended herself with ease. But it didn’t make him any less protective of her. He wasn’t so much stunned by her actions, but that she’d come back at all.

Earlier in the shower, Neri explained how she found herself right next to Kai and Reaper when she thought about Kai’s house. Thinking she had to get back to him, she somehow brought both men back with her to the fight.

Hunter relaxed as he replayed their conversation until her mouth pressed against his. He reached to cup the back of her head and tilted his head to deepen the kiss, loving the sweetness of her mouth.

He blinked when, with ease, she climbed over his legs and straddled his thighs, all without breaking the kiss. A deep, grumbling moan escaped his chest when her tongue licked at his lips, teasing. His hands wandered up her thighs to her hips, giving them a brief squeeze before he snuck them underneath the white tee she wore to bed. Her silky skin heavenly under his rough hands.

Neri smiled against his lips, nipping at the corners as her hands traveled over his stomach with slow, deliberate movements. He shivered as she teased his lips. The scrape of her teeth as she captured his lower lip in between them shocked pleasure to his cock. But when he watched as she rubbed her thumbs against both of his nipples, he bucked up and his hard cock throbbed against her heat.

Unashamed, he moaned into her mouth as their kisses became more desperate and demanding. He had kept his almost constant state of arousal hidden for most of the day and night, not wanting to scare Neri or pressure her into more than she was ready for. But as his cock thrust against her hips as she pressed down, a low, deep growl erupted from deep in her throat.

Earlier, he experienced her desire as she rode herself on his clothed cock, but the sensation through the thin material of her panties and his boxer briefs intensified his desire for her. With a low growl, he gripped her hips and held them away from his straining cock as they broke the kiss. He captured her gaze.

“Neri?”

Her eyes shuttered closed but what concerned him was her mouth turned down and her bottom lip quivered as if she would cry.

“You don’t… want—”

“Yes, I want you. I want you more than I can put into words, but I want to know you desire me and not as a reaction to seeing me fighting and bloody.”

“What do you mean?”

Hunter brushed a kiss to her lips before he explained. “Mates are protective of one another and seeing them in danger sends every emotion into overdrive. The one way to rid yourself of that increased emotion and need to see your mate safe is through physical release. Sex or fighting.”

Neri blinked and sat up to rest her weight against his thighs. She opened her hands and rested the palms on his stomach. Then she ran her hands along his skin, sending delicious shivers through him, as she thought about his words. After a long moment, she shook her head but made no move to get off him.

“No, I took out my rage on the two of those who attacked you and while I was angry enough to kill the rest, there was no need. To be honest, I worried you would see me in a different light after I bit and killed that shifter, but since you assured me we’re mates and we’re fine, well… I want you.”

She shrugged, but her nonchalant statement had every emotion Hunter fought to repress flare to life.