“You have no business telling me what to do!”
“I have every right to tell you what to do. We’re to be married soon, and you’ve put yourself, your brother, and our entire way of life at risk by coming here. I will not have it!”
The one thing her instructors had always hated most about her was her willful streak, but she wouldn’t be ordered around by anyone. Not her father, not her brother, and certainly not the man who she had no choice about marrying.
“I will not have you talking to me in such a way,” she grated from between her teeth. “We may be getting married, but no one will order me around, Logan. Not even my husband.”
She jerked out of his grasp and gave him a scathing glance before focusing on the door again. Around them, people danced and swayed, the lights flashed over the walls and floor, but she tuned it all out to focus on hearing anything from the outside world. Her father’s line of hunters had always been the strongest; it was why their line had been the leader of the hunters since the beginning. She and Nathan were faster and stronger than the others, their senses more honed.
Because she was a woman, she would not have been allowed to lead even if she were the only living descendent, but she carried the strength of that line in her blood. If Nathan were killed before he could produce an heir, her husband would lead the hunters until she produced a male heir who would one day take control. If she had only a female child, her daughter would face the same fate. Only three times in their history had someone outside of their line been a leader until an heir was born.
“I am only trying to keep you safe,” Logan said.
He broke her concentration on the outside when he rested his hand on her shoulder. His finger slid up to stroke her cheek. She resisted cringing away from the tender touch. She loved Logan as a friend, she always had and always would, but she was well aware his feelings for her were more than friendly.
He clasped his hand possessively around her nape, drawing her a step closer. Kadence stiffened beneath his touch, but it was something she would have to get used to if she were going to survive her marriage to him.
Her stomach rolled at the thought of their wedding night, and the many nights that would follow, before she blocked it out. If she pondered it too much, she would never make it through the wedding ceremony, never mind the next hundred and fifty or so years they could possibly be married, if Logan didn’t get killed on a hunt.
A gunshot from outside barely registered through the music, but she knew what she’d heard. Plunging forward, she slammed into the bar on the door and shoved it open. The cold air robbed her breath as the second gunshot sounded.
Logan grabbed her arm, pushing her back toward the club. “Get inside!”
Kadence staggered backward, but she didn’t turn toward the closing door. Instead, she followed Logan down the alley, running as fast as her legs would carry her. One vampire versus three hunters, her brother and the others should have easily taken him down. Yet, she could hear the sounds of fists hitting flesh, the twang of a bolt firing, and the scuffle of numerous feet from deeper within the alley.
Something had gone wrong.
Not my brother, please not my brother too. She couldn’t handle it if she lost her father and Nathan.
Her brother was the only family she had left. Nathan wouldn’t stand in the way of her marriage; as the leader, he would follow tradition, no matter how unhappy it made her. However, he would be there for her to lean on when she needed it. She hadn’t complained to him about her marriage—she couldn’t when he had enough weighing on him right now—but she knew he was aware she wasn’t happy about it.
Just as she knew that being the newly appointed leader wasn’t something he wanted, though he’d never said it to her. As twins, they had always been close. They’d been closer when they were younger, before Nathan went into training and she was forced to learn how to be the perfect wife and mother. They followed separate courses in life, but he’d still been her best friend over the years, her rock.
Legs aching, lungs straining for air, Kadence flew around a corner of the alley and skidded to a halt. The alley reeked of the coppery scent of fresh blood and garbage. Bile rolled up her throat, and it took all she had to keep from vomiting. The last time she had smelled blood so strongly…
Memories of her father’s broken body tried to drag her under before she locked them away.
She found Nathan instantly, unharmed and holding the vampire in his grasp. Hatred blurred her vision as she gazed at the creature who had murdered her father and torn her life apart. The vamp was beaten and bloody, and though she scented him on the air, it was not his odor filling her nostrils now. This scent was different, spicier, and held no hint of the evil pouring from the vamp.
Her eyes latched onto a heavily muscled man shoving Asher aside. Blood poured from Asher’s broken nose, but it wasn’t his blood she smelled either. It was the blood of the man who had shoved Asher away. A man with lethal fangs fully extended and an overwhelming aura of power emanating from him.
Disbelief screamed through her as she recognized him as the man who had been standing on the balcony watching her. The man who had finally made her understand some of what she’d read in those romance novels. A man who was not a man at all, but one of the twisted freaks who thrived on killing.
How could his blood smell like that? All vampires smelled like rot! Over the years, the male hunters had captured some vampires and brought them to the stronghold for training purposes. They’d allowed the women of the camp to get close enough to detect the stench vampires emitted. It was a smell she would never forget.
As this vamp turned toward her, she saw the bolt protruding from his shoulder and the blood oozing from the puncture. His coat was pushed back, his black shirt ripped open to expose a slash of bronzed flesh across his broad chest.
His sunglasses remained in place, but she knew he watched her. Molten lava spread through her veins as those covered eyes exposed her and ripped her soul bare. He stared into her in a way no other ever had. Kadence shuddered while her heart leapt into her throat. Despite the fangs and the fact he was a creature she’d been born to hate, she couldn’t deny her pull toward him.
Shock slid through Ronan as he stared at the female hunter. He hadn’t expected her to leave the club, to come out here, and he certainly hadn’t expected the rapt way she watched him. He’d seen many beautiful women over the thousand years of his life, but none of them had captivated him in such a way.
The battle and his men faded away as he stared at her. The wind tugged at her silvery hair, whipping the loose strands of it around her oval-shaped face. Her azure eyes watched his every move. The look on her face said she couldn’t figure him out, but then he had no idea what to make of this woman either.
Kadence felt time crawl by as they gazed at each other, but when Logan suddenly crashed into the vamp, she realized only mere seconds had passed. Asher barely dodged out of the way of the vamp and Logan as Logan propelled the vamp into the brick wall.
“Ronan!” the auburn-haired man shouted.
“I’m fine,” the one wearing the sunglasses grunted, and she realized he was Ronan.
Kadence took a step forward to stop Logan from attacking him, but then her heritage, her common sense, kicked in and disgust at herself filled her gut. He was a vampire for crying out loud! What was the matter with her?