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T here was nothing Calliope hadn’t been prepared for. She crammed for every single test. When it came to cooking dinner, she practiced until she could now cook many foods with her eyes closed. She liked to be the best she could be.

She liked to be prepared. This was not prepared. This was the biggest mistake of her life.

From the moment she turned eighteen and the elder declared the two of them mates, she should have been preparing. Getting close to Jaxson once again, and understanding and believing The Hunt was very much real.

She had witnessed other couples who had come out of this and were closer. Every part of her being always told her to not look away, to not back away.

She took a deep breath and couldn’t help but feel a little sick. This was her fault. Instead of going to the elder herself, or being by Jaxson’s side when he went, the elder clearly thought they wanted to be together.

“What did the elder say when you went to him?” she asked.

“What?”

“You know, you were going to the elder to petition him to retract his ... mating thing.” Jaxson squeezed her hand a little tighter, and they may not have been friends for quite some time, but she knew what that squeeze meant. “Jaxson?”

“I didn’t go!”

“What?” Calliope asked.

“I didn’t go to the elder.”

“How could you not have gone to the elder? You’re a wolf. You said you were going.” She tried to pull away from him, but he refused to let go of her hand. Instead, she came to a stop. So, he had no choice but to either let her go or stop. It wasn’t like he was going to get very far.

“Damn it, Calliope. Does it even matter now?” he asked.

“Of course it matters. We’re in a damn maze or a game, whatever this is. You did this, Jaxson. You should have gone to the elder. Damn it, I should have gone to the elder.”

“We’re both to blame for being in this situation, so stop playing the victim.”

“How dare you!” She wanted to stamp her foot, growl at him, but the truth was, he was right. Exactly right.

She hadn’t gone to the elder, because in the back of her mind, she figured it would have been rude. Instead, she sent Jaxson, which had been the cowardly thing to do. He didn’t deserve her yelling at him. She was just about to apologize when a roar suddenly permeated the air.

Looking toward Jaxson, he tightened his hold around her wrist, and together they didn’t argue but took off running. Neither had a weapon on hand, and they kept running.

She didn’t know how, but the bushes that suddenly appeared seemed to be getting thicker, making it impossible for them to get away.

“Don’t look back,” Jaxson said.

Now, most people when told not to look behind them, automatically did. Not her, she was going to take Jaxson’s word for it. She wanted to keep running and moving forward.

Part of her wanted to scream.

Instead, Jaxson’s grip tightened, and then, as if my magic, they came to a cliff edge that hadn’t been there, and the sound of running water exploded into their senses.

Her heart pounded and as she looked back now, she saw it. The roar had come from something that looked like an ogre. One look at Jaxson, and they both knew what to do.

She held on tightly to him, and together they jumped over the edge, heading straight toward the water.

Calliope prayed that whoever was controlling this world kept the water exactly where it was, and made it deeper so she and Jaxson didn’t plunge to their death.

They both connected with the water, and during the hit they somehow let each other go.

She didn’t open her eyes, because the truth was, she had a little fear of the water. At least she did here, as she didn’t know what could be lurking beneath.

Quickly breaking for the surface, she gasped for breath and opened her eyes. There could have been sharks, or mermaids, or the kraken, or other sea monsters that scared the crap out of her.

Jaxson suddenly grabbed her, began to swim to shore, and she did the same. The moment they were out of the water, she crawled a little further away, and then kissed the ground.

“You kept your eyes closed, right?” Jaxson asked.

She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I kept them closed.”

“That’s good. That is a good thing.”

Calliope frowned and turned to look at him. “Why?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“No. There is nothing for you to worry about.” He looked ahead of him. “I guess we must have passed whatever the test was.”

She couldn’t look where he had, but glanced back to the water. Was the water moving? Did something appear? Okay, her imagination was running wild now.

“Jaxson, what did you see?” she asked, rushing toward him.

Now, she was able to see what he meant. There were several backpacks, and Jaxson was already opening them. He pulled out an apple, and as if right on time, her stomach decided to start growling.

“Food,” he said.

She took the apple from him and had a large bite. She was starving. Calliope looked back to the edge of the water.

“What did you see?”

“Did you notice how that ogre roared when we had an argument?” Jaxson asked.

“Yeah, so. Isn’t that the point of this place, to test us?”

“That’s the point,” Jaxson said. “I know how freaked out you are by the water and what could be lurking beneath. Even though it scares you, you’re always watching those kinds of movies, and well ... something was in the water.”

“It was?”

“Yeah, and I have a feeling this place is a combination of challenges and manifestation.”

“Did anything in the water attack you?” she asked.

“No, nothing, which is why I think it’s all connected.”

“But while we were arguing, I didn’t think of an ogre? Did you? Did you think I was being an ogre?” She didn’t know if she should be insulted or not, instead, he chuckled like it was the funniest thing he had heard.

“No, I didn’t think you were an ogre, but it was a distraction—which is what I meant by a combination of challenges and manifestations.”

“If I opened my eyes, would I have been attacked?”

“I honestly don’t know. They were just there.”

“They were?” She felt the fear starting to tangle up inside her.

“Yeah, there were mermaids, sharks, and a couple of octopuses, other bits that clearly freak you out. So, we’re going to avoid the water, that way we don’t have to deal with your fear manifestations.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I like this plan,” she said.

She’d never been one who needed to swim. Not even in the height of summer. She was perfectly content to enjoy some ice cream and complain about the weather.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We ... make it work.” He finished his piece of fruit, and then dived back into the bag, holding out a cheese and pickle sandwich for her.

“How do we do that?” she asked, taking the sandwich from him.

“Simple, if these are challenges and manifestations, we focus on being friends. We were once, so that would be easy.” He took a large bite out of his own sandwich.

“And what do we do about your manifestations?” she asked. Hers were all horror related, but she knew when they were kids, he feared being thrown out of the pack, tossed aside as if he wasn’t good enough.

“I’ll handle them. I have a feeling they only work if you and I are arguing.”

“I don’t know,” Calliope said. “This sounds a little too easy. Don’t you think?”

“Right now, it is all we’ve got to go on.”

She couldn’t argue with him and took another bite of her sandwich.

****

I t had been freaky as fuck.

The mermaids in the water, as well as a couple of giant white sharks, some killer-looking octopus, and there may have been some kind of alien. Again, Jaxson wasn’t sure, but he knew it was Calliope’s imagination running wild. That had to be part of the challenge of this place.

“It’s getting dark,” he said. Only a moment ago, it had been lighter.

“Can we find somewhere else to sleep that is not next to the water?” Calliope asked.

“You’ve got it.”

He didn’t know how long they had been in The Hunt. There was no time limit, unless it was due to death, or mating.

The bag had more food inside, and he wasn’t going to let that go. They needed sustenance. Zipping it up, he slid it onto his shoulder and then reached for Calliope’s hand, which she did hesitate to hold.

“Come on, the last few hours haven’t taught you anything? We’ve got to make this work.”

She slid her hand into his. They used to hold hands all the time.

It hadn’t been a big deal then, but clearly it was a big deal now.

He tightened his hold on her, and they made their way further inland, away from the water’s edge.

Once again, the landscape became the same, and they didn’t know if they were getting closer to the forest, at the edge, or what.

All too soon, it was dark and they came to a stop. His sight was perfect, being part wolf.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

When they were kids, Calliope had been afraid of the dark. He didn’t know if that had changed in recent years.

“I don’t have much choice. I’m okay, but I don’t like how quickly it got dark.”

That was his answer. There was no glare of the full moon. Nothing.

He was more than able to see her wide-eyed stare as she looked back at him. “It’s going to be okay,” he said.

“You don’t know that.”

“Calliope, I know you hate losing, and failing is not an option for you. Give me some credit for having the same feelings.”

She nodded her head. “You’re right.”

“We’re going to have to make do here.”

“Camping outside,” she said.

It had been a long time since they had slept outside, staring up at the stars. They used to do it all the time.

The ground was firm. They had no blanket. He took the bag off his shoulder and pushed the food to one side. With the other part of the bag, he made a makeshift pillow and placed it on the ground.

Lying down, he reached for her. “Come on.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“Sleep? There is nothing else we can do. There is no camp, no sleeping bags. It’s going to get cold, and you’re going to freeze, and I’m warm. You know this. Stop being a pain in the ass, just lie down and snuggle with me. It’s not that hard. We used to do it as kids.”

He was pretty sure she rolled her eyes. Jaxson had good vision, but that didn’t mean he could see every nook and cranny.

Calliope didn’t argue with him and collapsed onto the ground, moving close to him.

“I can’t believe we actually have to do this to survive. Don’t you think it’s crazy?” she asked.

“Yeah, it is totally crazy.”

She laughed.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I don’t know. You saying the word crazy , it is kind of funny.”

He couldn’t help but smile himself. It was good to hear her laugh. It had been too long since he last heard it.

“So, an ogre on our first day. That is pretty impressive, huh?” she asked.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking of turning this into one of the scariest adventures the pack has ever heard of.”

“As fun as that sounds, and attempting to put your theory to the test, I don’t have a death wish.

We have no way of defending ourselves. All we’ve got is you being able to turn into a wolf.

” She placed a hand on his chest. “Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is perfectly fine, but that’s the point.

You can turn into a wolf, and I won’t do anything to risk your life.

I’m not going to think of something we can’t .

.. get free of. It’s just not going to happen.

We’ve got to make it out of here alive.”

He wanted to point out the way to do that was to mate. Neither of them said a word, but he had a feeling she already knew that. They were not at that point yet, to just sink into each other and give in to mating.

Calliope sighed. “It has been years since I’ve camped outside. I mean, it is freaky there are no stars.”

“Yeah,” he said.

“But this is kind of fun. Do you still do it?”

“Not since you and I used to do it.”

There was a brief silence.

“That seems like such a long time ago now,” she said.

“It was,” Jaxson said. “We’d spend hours outside.”

“Climbing trees, finding our own sense of adventure. I know you were teased a lot because you spent all your time with me, and never with anyone from the pack.”

“You were pack.”

“I’m part of the human segment.”

“Doesn’t matter. You were still pack, and those days of adventure and camping, and climbing anything that was tall ... they were awesome, and no one is going to take that from us.”

Calliope tilted her head back. “Do you promise?”

“Yeah, promise.” He kissed the top of her head and then they both froze.

“Ugh,” Calliope said.

He was about to apologize. Why the fuck did he kiss the top of her head? What was going on with him?

“Let’s get some sleep. I think that would be good. We’re going to need our strength for tomorrow,” Calliope said.

It sounded like a plan.

Even still, he kissed her head and she was curled against his body. It had been so long since they had done this, but it felt good. It felt right.