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CHAPTER TEN

HUNTER

The nerves coming for Neri had been palpable on the drive down the mountain and he wondered if she might hyperventilate as they turned onto the street where Thalia lived. Her eyes widened as she took in the aspen and pine that dotted neighborhood with ranch-style houses. They were ordinary and yet inviting. Despite the snow earlier in the month, the colder weather hadn’t set in, so the grass was still a lush green from the warmer than average summer that year.

Hunter pictured Neri’s life here. Her fighting Thalia as she tried to wake Neri for school, running errands for her mother, laughing and enjoying life.

“You’ll be okay. If the situations were reversed, you would want answers?”

Neri blew out a sigh and nodded. “Yeah. But four years is a long time.”

Hunter squeezed her hand and opened his mouth to encourage her without pushing her before she was ready when the front door opened. Neri froze, and he snapped his mouth closed.

Both of their eyes moved toward the front door and he flinched at the loud squeak of the screen door opening.

I’ll take care of that.

They were both silent as who he assumed was Thalia stepped out onto the porch.

Thalia Costa surprised him. He expected someone in their fifties or older, but Thalia looked to be no older than thirty. He sensed her eyes on him and when he met her gaze, waves of confusion hit him. Not fear, only confusion.

Because of his size, when he wasn’t working, he tried to blend into the background. For this visit, he dressed in a simple gray long-sleeved shirt and worn jeans with tennis shoes. But at over six foot and built, he looked like a threat no matter what he wore.

To distract Thalia away from him, he glanced down at Neri at his side.

He sucked in a breath. Neri had tears flowing down her cheeks and while everything in his being wanted to wrap her up and protect her from this moment, she needed to confront her past, for both women’s sakes. The tears turned into a choked sob at Thalia’s next question.

“Moró korítsi?”

Hunter, confused by the obvious question in her words, turned to Neri who nodded.

“Yes, mamá, it’s me.”

Not understanding the flurry of emotions on Thalia’s face and in her dark chocolate eyes, Hunter jumped, although he would deny it to anyone who asked, when Thalia screamed in delight and launched herself at Neri.

His mate allowed Thalia to run full force into her arms. With the gentle ease, in the same way she held Silas whenever he jumped into her arms, she wrapped them around Thalia as the woman cried.

The sobs tore at his heart, but it was the way Thalia gripped Neri’s shirt with one hand and her hip with the other, as if Neri would disappear and all of this was a bad dream, had him swallowing down the lump that formed in his throat. He understood in a way he never had before he met Neri. The constant worry of someone after her, wanting to hurt her or kill her.

But his life, the darkness and death, the blood and the fear, never should have crossed paths with these two women. They lived their lives ignorant of the dangers lurking not ten miles from where they stood, and yet, Neri, pulled into this nightmare, became part of his life, part of him.

He understood in that moment what he hadn’t standing outside in the periphery as he watched his fellow assassins find who destiny deemed them worthy to find. Mates, the one’s you loved with your entire being, not only your heart, and protected with your life, are the end all, be all of your existence. And because of who Neri was to him and would continue to be for eternity, he understood Thalia’s grief in striking clarity.

Hunter hovered near the two women. He didn’t want to intrude in their reunion, but knowing emotions drained every ounce of energy once the tears stopped flowing, he took one step closer to be there when either of them needed him.

Standing stock still, some time passed before Thalia lifted her head and cupped Neri’s cheeks, wiping away the tears with such love etched on her face. Neri smiled, which turned into a laugh, when Thalia beamed at her, her heartbreak soothed for the time being.

“Where have you been, moró korítsi? And your hair and your beautiful brown eyes.”

“Um, it’s a long story,” Neri hedged.

Hunter shook his head. “You should tell her the truth. She’s family.”

They had gone back and forth as they ate breakfast that morning and gotten dressed. Hunter understood that some humans couldn’t handle a secret such as immortals, but Thalia was her family. That made Thalia his family.

Thalia turned her curious gaze back on him. Although she couldn’t read his mind, something about her warned him about the danger of crossing her.

“And who are you?”