Page 4 of Hunted (Love and Revenge #5)

Ruya

T he air in the lower levels of The Fox was usually light and cool. Robin’s sanctuary was immaculate. The air never felt heavy, the way you’d expect an underground hideout to feel. But right now... the air was thick with power, and frustration, and unspoken resentment. It felt oppressive.

I lightly slid my fingertips over the smoothly paneled walls and slightly textured wallpaper as I made my way through the sanctuary and to the living room.

My ever-growing magical senses pulsed faintly with agitated auras—echoes of the people currently assembled in the sprawling living room.

They called to some deep, instinctive part of me.

The part I was learning to recognize as my omega nature.

The powerful people around me were struggling.

And there was something within me that they needed. That only I could provide.

It was hard to focus on that, though, when I was struggling so hard to regulate my own tumultuous feelings.

So much had happened over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Over the last few months, if I was being honest. Things hadn’t stopped happening to or around me since the day Sanka, Dusek, and Martina stole me from the Order of the Tripple Moon.

My entire life had been blown up and re-organized, only to be shaken up again and again.

Sometimes I wondered if it would ever end.

But then, I knew exactly what I was signing up for when I chose to stay with Robin and the rebel court and help them with their plans.

I knew it would be hard. Dangerous. Emotionally fraught. For me. I just... hadn’t thought about collateral damage. Every time I thought I was past being the naive, sheltered woman I once was, another lesson presented itself.

It wasn’t just me who was endangered by my choice to stay here and support Robin. That choice affected everyone I cared about. It was one thing to know that intellectually, but it was entirely different to know it now—viscerally.

If I had left the court and taken Sadavir and Josh with me, maybe Acacia wouldn’t have decided to use Josh to prove a point.

She wouldn’t have been able to use him to control Robin and her court.

Maybe sweet, gentle, patient Josh wouldn’t be a bloodthirsty vampire with a psychotic maker whispering madness in his head.

“There’s nothing you can do about it now,” I muttered to myself as I turned the corner and headed toward the living room, and all the powerful auras gathered there.

“Chin up, shoulders back. Don’t let them see you stumble.

” Sometimes, my training from my time with the cult came in useful.

All I could do now was make the best of what was before me, one moment at a time.

And keep up a calm front until the storm passed.

Just like I always had.

The living room had become an informal meeting space lately. Usually, it was the place where movies were watched, books were read, and on a couple of memorable occasions, orgies sparked. But now... it was a war strategy room. The thought made my heart heavier than it already was.

I reached the threshold and paused. It was never quiet when the full court gathered in one place, but today was louder than normal. Even though we were missing someone.

Josh was absent, banned from leaving the guest wing.

And even though I couldn’t see the faces of the people around me, I still felt his absence keenly.

He belonged here with us. With his new family.

He and Sadavir might be new to the court, and there were things to work out still before they were truly comfortable.

But I had no doubt they were meant to be part of this court.

Part of us. And it throbbed like a hidden wound to have one of them missing.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I slowly crossed the room.

I took my usual spot on the big couch, just to the right of Cicely and across from Yukio, and let my aura settle into a neutral pulse—present but non-invasive.

It was a practiced motion, subtle, like but powerful.

I was new to the whole omega thing, but now that I knew a little more about what my role could be, things like this had started to come more naturally to me.

I had the ability to ground and steady the alphas, gammas, and betas around me with my mere presence.

And boy did they ever need steadying. I anchored myself and waited.

Robin stood at the far side of the room, her blurry physical form and her bright aura a flare of red and gold that moved with fluid swoops.

She must be pacing. Her aura flared slightly around her, adding a layer of blurry orange and gold to my limited sight.

I reached my awareness outward, letting my aura seek for hers and twine with it. Like holding hands.

My beautiful, stubborn, fierce alpha. She was too proud to admit how much she was struggling. But I saw it. She hadn’t completely unraveled yet, but I had a feeling she was fraying at the edges with every passing day.

“We need to talk about this alliance with Acacia,” she said without preamble. “And what happens next.”

That was all she had to say. The room erupted.

Martina’s voice rose immediately. “I understand about Josh, but I can’t believe we are going to actually go along with this farce.

We all know she’ll stab us in the back the second she gets the chance.

She’s just using us.” Her voice got a bit growly as she added, “We should have killed the bitch when we had the chance.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Sadavir said in his halting voice.

He rarely verbalized, but this was important to him.

I could sense him lingering at the outskirts of the group.

His strong green-and-earth aura was unsteady, flaring and receding periodically as he struggled with his emotions.

His deep, blunted voice was all sandpaper and pain.

“Oh, we have a choice,” Martina snapped from the other side of the room, her dark tone making it clear that her choice involved murder.

Yukio’s tone of voice was flat and cool, unreadable, but I felt his aura sharpen, like shards of ice.

“We don’t have to cooperate fully, Marty.

Just enough to buy us time. We’ll stab her in the back long before she gets the chance to try it on us—literally.

I’m looking forward to shoving an ice blade between her ribs.

” He sounded downright gleeful at the thought.

“Why play her games at all, even temporarily?” Dusek said, voice like rolling smoke. “Martina’s right. I say we kill the bitch and be done with it. Move quickly before she can cause Josh more suffering than she already has.”

And that was the real reason he was in the “kill her now,” camp. Dusek might want to sound unaffected. But I knew better. He had as soft a heart as anyone. He was furious that Josh had been attacked, and the gamma in him wanted swift and decisive retribution.

I felt the others flinch around me as Dusek’s aura of terror flowed over us with his anger.

I couldn’t really argue with him. I’d had the same thought, initially.

As I’d crouched by Josh’s apparently lifeless body when the vampires dumped him on our front steps.

As I realized that he was alive, then immediately despaired when I realized what that meant, what had been done to him.

As I watched him savagely feed from Sadavir and Robin when he woke, no longer himself.

As I sat by his bedside and tried my best to give him physical healing and relief even though he wouldn’t meet my eyes.

I was a healer, a passivist by nature and by upbringing.

But there was a line. And Acacia had tap-danced right over it on more than one occasion.

In those moments when I’d had to bear witness to the aftermath of her senseless cruelty, I’d wanted to rip her heart from her chest myself with my bare hands.

But there was one little problem with that approach...

I felt a flurry of movement nearby—Cicely, signing furiously by the feel of it, even as he spoke in my mind using his mind speak.

Killing her might kill Josh too! And we have no idea who will step up to take her place or what failsafes she has in place.

Killing her, or even attempting to, could trigger a whole chain of retaliation.

I reached out to find his hand and squeeze it lightly, grounding us both.

Robin, for her part, didn’t play the alpha card for quite some time.

She let everyone complain and mutter until they spluttered themselves out.

Martina and Dusek wanted Acacia dead immediately, whatever it took.

Sadavir, Sanka, and Cicely agreed but were more concerned about what might happen to Josh.

Yukio said Josh deal with things as they were for the time being, that he could suck it up until we had a real plan in place.

He pointed out that if we just got rid of Acacia, there would be another corrupt bloodsucker representative ready to swoop in and pick up the mantle of terror.

He also pointed out that the court had not worked for decades quietly undermining the syndicate just to show their hand too soon and throw everything away for one little ex-human because he had suffered a minor boo-boo.

I didn’t point out to him that kidnapping, torture, and forced vampire conversion were a bit beyond a “minor boo-boo.” He knew that. He was just being purposefully dismissive to get his point across.

Josh would live—we couldn’t change what had been done to him, but if we kept Acacia appeased, he should theoretically be fine until the court was in a better position to make a move.