Page 26 of Mate Night Snack (Hollow Oak Mates #2)

KATNISS

K atniss woke to silver light painting the cabin walls in strange, shifting patterns.

For a moment, she lay still in the pre-dawn darkness, trying to figure out what had pulled her from sleep.

The room felt different somehow, charged with an energy that made her skin tingle and her newly awakened seer abilities hum like tuning forks.

Beside her, Emmett slept deeply for the first time in days, his breathing steady and peaceful, one arm still curled protectively around her waist.

Then she felt it. The gentle burn along her neck where he'd marked her during their lovemaking, warm and pulsing with something that definitely wasn't normal.

She slipped carefully from the bed, padding barefoot to the bathroom mirror.

The bite mark glowed.

Not brightly, not like a flashlight or anything dramatic.

But there was definitely a soft, ethereal luminescence emanating from the small crescent-shaped mark just above her collarbone.

It pulsed gently in rhythm with her heartbeat, silver-white light that seemed to come from somewhere beneath her skin.

"Well," she whispered to her reflection, "that's new."

As if responding to her voice, the glow intensified slightly, and suddenly the world around her shifted.

Not physically, but perceptually, like someone had adjusted the contrast on reality itself.

She could see layers now, dimensions of existence that had been invisible before.

The bathroom mirror didn't just reflect her image; it showed the faint outline of the Veil shimmering behind her like heat waves.

Through the small window, the forest looked alive in ways she'd never noticed. Threads of light connected tree to tree, and she could sense the presence of every creature moving through the darkness. And something else, something that made her newfound senses recoil in instinctive revulsion.

Wolves. Moving with purpose through the undergrowth, their intentions dark as old blood.

The vision hit her without warning, yanking her consciousness away from the safety of the cabin and into the forest beyond.

She was running through trees that towered like cathedral pillars, their branches forming a canopy so thick it blocked out the stars.

But she wasn't alone. Behind her, gaining ground with every stride, came the hunters.

Four wolves with eyes like yellow flames and teeth that gleamed with anticipation.

Not her memory. Someone else's. A girl with copper hair who'd made this same desperate flight decades ago, heart pounding as she tried to reach sanctuary that remained forever out of reach.

The vision shifted, blurred, and suddenly she was standing in a different forest, watching different horrors unfold.

Ashwin, younger but no less cruel, circling a terrified shifter who couldn't have been more than sixteen.

The boy's pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears as the pack closed in, their leader's voice cold with calculated malice.

"Weakness is a disease," Ashwin said, his pale eyes reflecting nothing human. "And the only cure is elimination."

Another shift. Another memory pulled from the ether by her amplified abilities. A small town burning while pack members howled their triumph to an uncaring moon. Bodies left scattered like discarded toys. Children crying for parents who would never answer.

Katniss gasped and found herself back in the bathroom, hands gripping the sink so hard her knuckles had gone white. The mark on her neck pulsed brighter, as if feeding on the visions it helped her see.

"Katniss?" Emmett's voice, thick with sleep and concern, came from the bedroom. "You okay?"

She couldn't answer immediately. The images were still too vivid, too real.

She could smell the smoke from that burning town, could taste the fear of every victim Ashwin's pack had claimed over the years.

The line between vision and reality had blurred until she wasn't sure which world she was standing in.

"Katniss?" Footsteps across the cabin floor, growing closer.

"I'm fine," she managed, though her voice came out shaky. "Just... bathroom."

But she wasn't fine. The visions were getting stronger, more detailed, more invasive.

And with them came something else: the ability to sense the pack's current location.

They were close. Closer than anyone realized.

Moving through the forest with the patience of predators who knew their prey had nowhere left to run.

Emmett appeared in the doorway, sleep-tousled hair falling into his stormy eyes, wearing nothing but the jeans he'd hastily pulled on. One look at her face and he was fully alert, crossing the small space in two strides.

"What happened?" His hands found her shoulders, warm and grounding. "You're pale as snow."

"The mark," she said, tilting her head to show him the glowing crescent. "It's... doing things."

His eyes widened as he took in the soft luminescence. "The mate bond. It's amplifying your abilities."

"By a lot." She leaned into his touch, drawing strength from his solid presence. "I just saw... God, Emmett, the things they've done. Ashwin's pack. All the people they've hurt over the years."

"Visions of the past?"

"And the present." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They're out there. Right now. I can feel them moving through the forest like a sickness."

Emmett's jaw tightened, his protective instincts flaring so strongly she could feel them through their bond. "How many?"

"Four, I think. Maybe five." She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the dark presence she could sense at the edge of her awareness. "They're not rushing. They're taking their time, learning the territory."

"Planning something."

"Yeah." She opened her eyes to meet his worried gaze. "Something big."

He was quiet for a moment, processing the information.

"We need to tell Varric," he said. "If you can track their movements, that changes everything."

"Does it? Because I'm not sure I can control this.

" She gestured to the mark, which pulsed brighter as if responding to her emotional state.

"The visions are getting harder to distinguish from reality.

What if I can't tell the difference anymore?

What if I see something that hasn't happened yet and react like it's real? "

"Then we figure it out." His voice was steady, certain. "Like everything else."

Before she could respond, another vision slammed into her consciousness. This one was different, sharper, more immediate. She was seeing through someone else's eyes, someone who was watching the cabin from the treeline. Watching them through the bathroom window.

Yellow eyes filled with hunger and ancient malice. A voice like rusted metal whispering words that made her blood turn to ice.

"Soon, little seer. Soon you'll understand what you're truly meant for."

She jerked back to awareness with a gasp that was half scream, her body going rigid with terror. Emmett caught her as her knees buckled, his arms coming around her like a shield against the lingering horror of that alien gaze.

"They're here," she whispered against his chest. "Not just in the forest. Here. Watching us."

Every muscle in Emmett's body went taut, his wolf rising so close to the surface she could feel its presence like heat from a furnace. "Where?"

"Treeline. Eastern side." Her fingers clutched at his shoulders. "We need to move. Now."

He didn't question her assessment, didn't waste time asking for details. Within seconds he was pulling her toward the bedroom, gathering clothes with efficient movements while his senses swept the cabin for immediate threats.

"Get dressed," he said quietly, his voice carrying the kind of calm that came before storms. "We're going to Miriam's. She's got better wards."

Katniss pulled on jeans and a sweater with hands that shook only slightly, muscle memory taking over while her mind tried to process what she'd seen. The malevolence in those yellow eyes had been unlike anything she'd encountered, a darkness so complete it seemed to swallow light.

"Emmett," she said as they moved toward the door, "there's something else. Something I saw in the earlier visions."

"What?"

"Ashwin doesn't just want to hurt me. He wants to use me." She paused, hand on the doorknob, turning to meet his eyes. "He's done this before. Captured seers, twisted their abilities to serve his purposes. That's how he's stayed hidden for so long, how he's avoided the Council's tracking efforts."

Understanding dawned in his expression. "He's been using their magic as camouflage."

"And he thinks I'm going to be his newest addition to the collection." She opened the door carefully, checking the porch before stepping outside. "The girls who disappeared, the ones whose souls are still trapped... I think he's been feeding off their power all this time."

They moved quickly through the darkness. The mate mark continued to glow softly, a beacon that both illuminated their way and marked her as something precious and hunted.

"Whatever he's planning, whatever twisted use he thinks he can make of your abilities, it's not happening."

"I know." And she did know, with a certainty that came from more than just faith in his protective instincts.

The bond between them was strong, growing stronger every hour.

Whatever Ashwin had done to break other couples, other wolves, he'd never faced anything like what they were building together.

But Katniss couldn't shake the feeling that the real test was just beginning. The mark pulsed steadily, a reminder that her power was growing, changing, becoming something neither of them fully understood.

And somewhere in the darkness behind them, yellow eyes watched their retreat with patient, predatory satisfaction.

The hunt had begun.