Hunted : A Steamy Fated Mates Fantasy (Stories from the Realm Book 2)

A woman haunted by her demons, the beast that traveled across the universe to find her, and the world waiting for them to return...

The moment I stepped off the plane in this remote Alaskan town, I walked straight into a nightmare when I'm kidnapped.

Blindfolded and dumped in the forest, I have twenty minutes to run as far as possible before the men are released for their annual mating hunt.

But will the handsome sheriff rescue me in time? Or is he the monster I need to be rescued from?

The clicks of his stupid cowboy boots got louder until a stack of papers dropped in front of me, but this time I could sense something was different in what lay inside the pages of the dossier. “Maybe you’ll strike gold this time, Voli.”

Both heels came to my desktop as Tucker leaned back in the chair across from me and pushed his ball cap up over his head just enough for his red hair to poke out the bottom. “Is she in there?”

For decades now, I stared at the lists of names and photographs, and I’d nearly given up hope of ever finding her. But when the static moved up through my fingers as they hovered above the stack like the night I claimed her, the first smile to cross my face in ages came to me. “Yes.”

Being reborn exactly the way one left the world was a curious thing for our kind. Still, when I came to the last page and the final contestant, she hadn’t changed at all. Still perfect with her fiery brown hair and the softest green eyes that ever honored me with their gaze.

In the corner of my vision, I caught movement, and I glanced up at my brother as he came through the door. “She’s here.” The pinnacle of man, I’m supposed to be. Yet, here I was with tears dripping from my bushy blonde beard like a child. “She came back to me.”

Both of them leaned over the side of my desk, and Joseph spun the papers around under my fingertips. The edge of the printout curled up from the air that rushed through his nose when he smiled at her and pushed his pale blond hair from his forehead. “Dear gods.” The whiskers on his chin crossed over his shoulder as he yelled out the door. “Amber. Come now.”

The door shut behind her, and when she came face to face with the roster in Joseph’s hand, she froze in place. At the other desk in my office was the rarely used computer for background checks, and she rolled the wheeled chair over. “What’s her name now?”

While her red ponytail swung back and forth across her shoulders, she tapped the keyboard to wake it as Joseph yanked the paper from my grasp. “Rowena Shipton. Beans Cove, Pennsylvania.”

None of those women deserved to breathe the same air as my beloved, and I tore her away from the list. Every corner folded under until all that remained was my queen, and I kissed her face finally after all these years. “Soon, my love.”

“Oh, no.” Pale fingers bent back at us as Amber waved us over. “Look at this.” The tip of her finger underlined each sentence. “Stalked by a former patient. Order of protection. Kidnapped. Stabbed.”

Perhaps the only person who might long to be in her presence as much as I do, Amber’s voice faltered as she sniffed and swatted at her face. “Both parents were killed in a murder-suicide. Brother...” Every fact was more horrible than the last, and her palms came up to the screen when she pushed the seat back from the desk with her boot. “She has no one.”

The picture of her tucked into my chest pocket, and I grabbed the keys from my drawer. “I can’t wait until Autumn. I’m going to fly out tonight.”

With the toe of his shoe, Tucker rocked in his chair and crossed his hands over his belly. “Afraid that’s not going to be possible.”

My chair jerked around toward the wall as I ripped my jacket free from the back of my seat. “Try to stop me.”

The brim of his hat snapped back and forth while he pointed at the phone. “You can call her employer if you want to hear it for yourself. She’s on assignment somewhere, and they won’t give out any other information.” He pulled the rest of the list from my desk and wound it around itself into a neat roll. “They said they’d pass the offer along and that she usually says yes, so we’re just waiting for confirmation that she’s accepted.”

The tips of my fingers shook so much they beat against my skin as I pushed them through my hair. “I can’t let her come here.” My hand wiped my mouth, but it was a desert and I couldn’t even swallow anymore. “I can’t make her run again. She’ll never forgive me.”

To stop me at the door, Joseph’s hand landed on my center. “There are rules.” Both his palms came up between us. “We can’t break the traditions of this territory. The council won’t stand for it. Here, we are no one.” His eyes flicked to the man in the camouflage t-shirt cracking sunflowers seeds between his teeth. “But we’ll make sure that the Sheriff gets to meet her first, right?”

As he shrugged, Tucker tossed up all his fingers. “Sure. You know how we do things. As long as you can keep your hands to yourself, won’t be no problems.”

Both hands surrounded my face, and Joseph brought his forehead to mine and blinked at the photo poking out from my pocket. “All this is almost over.”

The sting overcame my eyes, and I pinched them shut as he pulled me into his shoulder. “Two hundred years, Voli. Another two months is nothing at all.”

Close to my heart as she always ways, I peeked down my chest to find her smiling face staring back at me. But I knew deep in my soul where I kept her safe with me all this time, the waiting would be the easy part.

Because I had a lot of wrongs to answer for as it came to my mate.