Page 101 of The Fated Hunter Wolf

His smile was warm, paternal, completely at odds with reality.

“Hello, daughter.” He spread his arms in a gesture of welcome. “You’ve grown.”

35

RHYS

Daddy dearest was one wretched motherfucker of a vamp.

The ancient vampire stood like death personified in expensive tailored clothing, his pale fingers clasped in front of him—Astrid hung limp and unconscious. Every instinct I had screamed at me to tear him apart, but the rational part of my brain knew I was outclassed.

It still didn’t stop my wolf from wanting to try.

I crouched behind Sable, ready to spring if she needed me to. She didn’t want anything to do with him, for all kinds of reasons, and if she so much as blinked her wish at me, I’d be on him in wolf form in half a second flat. Even if it killed me.

Sable was frozen, her entire body radiating a tension I could taste in the air between us. The silver magic that usually hummed beneath her skin went eerily quiet, as if her power recognized the magnitude of the threat standing before us.

“It’s a shame you’ve kept up this façade for so long.” The vampire’s voice carried centuries of authority and absolutely zero warmth. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised, given that hiding your true nature is what allowed you to survive among the animals for so long.”

My wolf stilled, confusion cutting through the bloodlust. The vamp wasn’t talking about her meddling with his business or raising hell with his minions..

Something didn’t feel right.

Sable’s shoulders straightened, and even I felt a spark of awe at her courage. “Let the shifter go and face me yourself, not like the coward you’ve always been.”

He laughed. “Such fire. You get that from your mother, I suppose. Along with her unfortunate tendency toward heroics.” He cast a wind with his fingers that made Astrid’s body swing as though she was a toy, but he never took his eyes off Sable. “Tell me, child, do you still dream of avenging your mother’s death?”

“Every. Single. Night.” Each word dripped acid.

Something was off. The vampire looked… bored. Like he was going through the motions of a conversation he’d rather not be having. His pale eyes kept drifting to me.

My wolf stirred uneasily.This isn’t about her.

“Mother died because of you,” Sable continued. “Because you couldn’t stand that she left you for a better life. So I could live free from?—”

“Oh, for the love of—” The vampire rolled his eyes with theatrical annoyance. “Insolent children, always making everything aboutthem.” His gaze locked on mine over Sable’s shoulder, and his smile turned predatory. “Hello, Rhys Orion. You’re more damaged than I expected.”

Ice crawled down my spine.

Sable went rigid. “Leave him out of it. Why have you come for me?”

Instead of answering Sable, the vampire stepped around her. As if she wasn’t even there.

He circled me slowly, the way a buyer would check out livestock at a market. “Fascinating,” he murmured, close enoughthat I could smell decay and expensive cologne. “The reports hardly did you justice.”

My wolf was close to the surface, but he and I both knew we had to understand the game the vamp was playing.

Sable leaned forward. “What reports?” Confusion crept into her voice.

He ignored her completely, continuing his slow orbit around me. “Six years of searching,” he said conversationally, as if we were old friends catching up. “Following every lead, tracking every whisper of a royal bloodline.” His fingers trailed through the air inches from my shoulder, not quite touching. “And here you are, broken and bleeding and absolutely…”

He paused directly in front of me, head tilted as if he was solving a particularly complex puzzle.

“Perfect.”

The way he said it made my skin crawl. Not perfect, like attractive. Perfect, like I was exactly what he’d wanted me to be and finding me this way had made his fucking day.

Sable took a step forward, silver magic crackling around her fingers. “Leave him alone. Your business is with me.”