Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series) (29 page)

The problem is I have no idea what to do...

Lexia suddenly had the feeling she was being watched, the forest around her had grown silent, even the wind seemed to have quietened. She thought maybe Lucy had sent someone to get her but it was very unlikely they’d spot her up here. Even if they managed to see her tracks, the Hunters weren’t adapted to the forest. They hadn’t been trained like she had, they couldn’t move through trees like a cat but she could. Deciding to move on Lexia used the light from the moon to slowly move from tree to tree. When no one followed, when she heard no movement below her other than the scurry of small animals, Lexia stopped. She sat in a tree and watched as the sun began to rise.

As the sun peaked slowly above the horizon Lexia saw for the first time what the Hunter compound looked like from the outside. From her position she could see the slope she’d run up and then beyond that another hill covered in snow and scattered with trees. But under that earth lived hundreds of Hunters, hundreds of killers. The boundary fence was hard to see from her spot. The fence ran around the lowest point, dense trees scattered around hiding it from view, but really, why would anyone be out here? The compound must have been here for years and no one had found it and if they had; they’d not live to tell another soul.

As the sun started to filter through the trees lifting the darkness of night, Lexia felt that presence again.

“Who’s out there?” she called, her head leant back, eyes closed.

No one answered.

“Not talking to me? Well, I could just see who you are.”

Lexia closed her eyes and opened up her mind. “Hmm well, little wolf, are you going to come talk to me?”

A small grey wolf moved into her view, its misty blue eyes locking with hers in the tree. Lexia let her legs dangle either side of the trunk she sat on and leaned forward, resting her head on her folded arms.

“Hello wolf, what are you doing all the way out here?” Lexia sat up and pulled off her jacket shivering as her bare arms met cold air. “Here stick this on and we can talk... I don’t speak wolf.”

The wolf looked at the jacket she’d dropped down but didn’t move.

“Come on little wolf, one way conversations are so... Well, one sided... I know what you are, now shift and tell me what you’re doing out in the middle of nowhere on Christmas day.”

The wolf looked at her and then the jacket, with one last glance around it shifted into a young man, his messy blonde hair fell into his misty blue eyes as he looked up.

“It’s Christmas day?” he asked in a croaky voice as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. He picked up the coat and slipped easily into it.

“How old are you?” Lexia asked, thinking he was just a boy.

“Seventeen, why?”

“No reason.”

“How’d you know I was a shifter?” he asked.

“Just did... So what’s your name?”

“Sammy. You?”

Lexia
nearly slipped from her tongue. “L- Laura.”

“Laura, ay... So what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere on Christmas day?”

“Just am,” Lexia smiled.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty.” Lexia’s head whipped around; in the distance she heard the sound of a commotion, pushing her mind out Lexia picked up four people at the entrance to the Hunter compound. One of them was Derrick.

Lexia dropped from the tree, landing in a crouch. She looked up at Sammy, “Come on, time to leave.”

“Who is that?”

“You don’t want to know... Come on, you might wanna shift before your toes drop off.”

“No wait... I’m out here for a reason... My Alpha, he went missing. I tracked him to here.”

Lexia turned around and looked at Sammy with his ruffled blond hair and sad misty blue eyes, he was tall but had not filled out yet, right now he looked more like fourteen than seventeen.

“Sammy listen, if your Alpha’s trail ends here, then it’s too late. I’m sorry but we need to move unless you want to join him.”

“This way I have a backpack stashed with clothes in it.”

Lexia followed Sammy a little ways up. When he paused he pulled a black bag down from a tree, Lexia turned her back as he dressed. “How’d you get that out here? I’m guessing you travelled as wolf.”

“I carried it in my mouth... So you know why I’m here, now tell me what a girl’s doing out in the wild.”

“They’re coming... Come on and I’ll tell you.” Lexia dragged him off until they’d circled over the tracks a few times and when she found the perfect tree she covered their tracks as they went and prepared to climb.

“Hey, I’m a wolf not a cat,” he said, looking up the tree.

“Come on, it’s easy. Just watch where I put my feet.”

Lexia watched as Sammy climbed whilst her mind’s eye focused on the dark auras coming towards them. If Lexia had just been on her own she probably would have just gone back but meeting Sammy made her just want to forget the Hunters for the day. She could talk to a stranger and be whomever she wanted to be, he had no idea who she was and it was refreshing.

His foot slipped as he pushed higher, he lost his grip and started to fall. A startled gasp left his mouth and Lexia reacted instantly and reached for him, her hand catching his arm. Immediately he wrapped his strong calloused hand around her, Lexia pulled him up amused at the stunned look in Sammy’s eyes. “Got yah,” she whispered, as she pulled him onto the branch with her.

“How’d y-”

Lexia cut him off, placing a finger to her lips, she signalled for him to be silent. The three Hunters walked by the tree but never noticed them. Sammy breathed deep as they passed, his eyes widening and going wolf as he picked up their scent.

Lexia shook her head, pleading with her eyes for him to stay put, but he had that look she’d seen a hundred times in Lincoln’s eyes, the one that said ‘I must protect you’.
God damn shifters are all the same,
she thought, clasping his hand to stop him from moving on.

Lexia didn’t want to start fighting, plus they carried the same guns used for sedating her. When they’d moved on Lexia whispered to Sammy, “They’ll get bored and cold soon and head back, we’ll just wait them out.”

“Go back to where?” he asked.

Lexia just shook her head.

“So let me get this straight, you can’t tell me how you knew I was a wolf or why you’re so strong or why you are out here in the middle of nowhere with people obviously after you and you won’t tell me who they are.”

“Nailed it in one,” Lexia smiled. “Shush, they’re coming back.”

The Hunters walked by again, this time talking and not even looking for her. They muttered to each other about what they’d tell Lucy and as Lexia was about to breathe a sigh of relief, one Hunter turned back around, his face tilted up slightly. He wasn’t looking at them but Sammy saw the color of his eyes and, as Lexia squeezed his hand desperately not wanting him to jump down, a low growl slipped from his throat.

“What was that?” one hunter asked.

“Probably some animal... Come on, it’s freaking freezing out here, I didn’t sign up for this!”

“Yeah alright,” the Hunter sighed and they disappeared from view.

Lexia and Sammy sat in silence staring at each other. When no other sounds stirred below them, Sammy snatched his hand back and glared at Lexia.

“They were Hunters, weren’t they?”

“Yes,” Lexia whispered.

“Are you in trouble Laura?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Really? What are you, Laura? You smell,” he took a deep breath, “you smell of them but there is more. I can smell cat, but you’re not a shifter, are you? You smell human and yet you don’t.”

“Anyone ever told you it’s rude to smell people?”

“All the time but I’m a shifter what you expect?”

“Hmm you shifters are a pain in my ass,” she laughed.

“How many shifters you know?”

“Plenty.”

“Come on, Laura, I’ve told you why I was here, give me something.”

Lexia sighed, “I’m mated with a cat, that’s why you can smell cat on me.”

“So where is he now?”

Lexia looked around her as if any moment he may just crash through the trees. “Somewhere... Looking for me,” she whispered, looking up at the sky.

“I don’t understand, do you not love him?” Sammy asked.

Her eyes snapped back to Sammy. “More than anything.”

“So then why are you here?”

“Because staying away is the only way for him to survive.”

“That makes no sense, Laura.”

“No it wouldn’t to you because you’re a shifter, you’d rather die than give up those you love but have you ever thought what the person you sacrificed yourself for feels like? Sometimes we have to give up everyone we love to keep them safe.”

“So you’re here so he can live?”

“Yes.”

“What’s here?” Sammy asked.

“Sammy, I’m only going to tell you this once... Those Hunters are dangerous and being in these hills will get you killed, there are hundreds of them. You need to leave, go back home to your family, your pack, forget you ever met me.”

“Why don’t you just leave? You can obviously survive out here, so why not just leave now. Come with me.”

“You’ve no idea how much I’d like to do that but things are never as they seem, if I leave people will get hurt, die, innocent people that do not deserve to be hurt because of me. I have to go back.”

“What’re you doing out here in the first place then?”

“I just needed to breathe.”

“How’d you get past them?”

“I’m stronger than I look,” Lexia smiled, “Anyway enough about me and my problems... I came out here to get away from them.”

Lexia and Sammy sat and watched the sun rise high into the sky. Sammy told her about his home, about his alpha and what he wanted to do when he left school. Time flew by and when Lexia jumped down from the tree, laughing as Sammy landed in a heap, she didn’t want him to leave.

Sammy had brought laughter back into her life. She’d had just a few hours where she’d not thought about her problems and she’d laughed and joked with a young lad that hadn’t felt how cruel the world could be yet. She hoped he never would but Lexia knew deep down that he wouldn’t find his Alpha; if his trail ended here, then he was dead.

Standing Sammy looked at her and a silence settled around them. “Are you sure you won’t just come with me now? I can protect you.”

“I can protect myself, Sammy, but thank you for being concerned. Sometimes life throws things at you that you’d rather not do but right now I have to stay here, there are people that need me.”

“Okay... Well, bye, Laura.” He turned and started to walk away.

Lexia pulled her coat tighter around herself and watched him. “Bye, Sammy,” she whispered.

As Lexia watched him she had an overwhelming feeling to stop him. “Wait!” she blurted out and then stood frozen.
What do I want to say?

Sammy half turned. “Yes?”

“Can you... Can you give someone a message for me?”

“Sure who?” he asked, still not quite looking at her.

“My mate... Lincoln Turner,” she whispered.

Sammy turned now, his eyes hardened as he spoke, “Your name is not Laura at all, is it?”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Because there is not a single shifter that does not know about Lincoln Turner and the war path he is on. The rumor is he mated with a Hunter and now she’s been taken from him and he will kill anyone who gets in his way.”

Lexia could feel her heart picking up speed whilst Sammy’s words echoed around her head, making the world spin.
Why did you open your mouth, Lexia? Why couldn’t you just let him walk away?

Sammy started to slowly walk towards her. His whole demeanour had changed, he no longer looked like a young lad who was quick to laugh. He looked like his Alpha’s second, he looked like a predator.

“So Lexia... Would you like to tell me the truth?”

Lexia frowned,
the truth?
She looked up into wolf eyes and felt anger swell within her. “The truth? I have told you the truth bar my name! Nothing has changed, I’m still the person you met earlier, I still cannot leave... Now will you pass on a message or not?”

Sammy walked around her as if sizing her up. “You’re a Hunter and yet not, you don’t smell like them but I can smell them on you... But still, you’re different and your eyes, they don’t look like Hunter’s eyes.”

Lexia let her power to the surface. She laughed as Sammy jumped back. “It all depends on my mood, Sammy. Piss me off and I let the Hunter out to play. When you see these eyes, that’s your cue to run.”

Sammy laughed, “Amazing, you really are amazing. I’ve heard so many rumors, most don’t believe them but still I can feel the strength you have... So why stay here?”

Lexia sighed and reined in her inner Hunter. “I already told you, there are people that need me. I could have found a way to escape ages ago but it is not as simple as just escaping.”