For the Hunt Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2019, Debbie Cassidy

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by Vanessa Garkova

  Chapter One

  I moved atop Elias, the tempo of my rhythm increasing as I approached climax. He thrust his hips up to meet mine, his fingers biting into my hips with pleasant intensity. I tipped my head back, and one of his hands relinquished its hold on my hip and moved to my breast. He was rough, kneading and tugging just the way it worked with us.

  Close, so close.

  Oh God.

  Awareness rippled through me, a tugging of a different sort. The Hunt. The dead. I had to… Oh God… The orgasm ripped through me, accompanied by Elias’s moan. Green flashed before my eyes and Caister’s voice cut through my groan.

  “If you’ve quite finished.” He stood at the head of the bed dressed in his inky-black Hunt gear, leather and cotton and more leather. His emerald gaze swept over my naked form with something akin to arrogant ownership. The heat of passion died as anger flared to life in my chest, along with the bite of something else that I couldn’t define.

  “Get out.” Words that should have been clipped came out breathless, which annoyed me more.

  Elias cursed colorfully and attempted to pull out of me.

  I placed a hand on his chest to hold him in place. “Not you.” I glared at Caister, ignoring the flutter in my belly at the way his eyes blatantly roved over my body. “You. Get out now.”

  He crossed his arms and raised his attention to my face, slow and leisurely. “We have a calling.” My horn materialized in his hand. “Blow this for a change.”

  I glared at him, resisting the urge to take the horn even though every fiber of my being wanted to. “The dead can wait a few minutes.”

  His jaw clenched and his eyes flashed emerald. “Your orgasm can wait a few hours.”

  “Fuck you, Caister.”

  A dark look flashed across his eyes and his lip curled. “You wish.”

  My hand was already closing around the horn, and a ripple of power tingled through my fingers and up my arm. Yes…this was right. I brought it to my lips and blew. The sound echoed through me, but there wasn’t a peep in the room.

  Caister exhaled and closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they were glowing like twin emerald flames. “You have two minutes and then we shift out.”

  He strode past me toward my bedchamber door.

  He needed me to blow the horn to release the Hunt to ride, but he couldn’t force me to shift with them. He knew I wouldn’t allow him to go without me, though. I was in charge—the Hunt needed to see me at the helm, not him. The fucker wanted my job, and as much as leading the Hunt had not been on my to-do list, this was now my gig and I’d be damned if I let him take it from me.

  “You better go,” Elias said softly. “You can’t let him undermine you like that.”

  I climbed off him. “I know.”

  “What are you going to do?” He rolled onto his side, his gorgeous marble body highlighted by the shafts of moonlight filtering in through the windows of my bedchamber. God, I wanted to crawl back into bed with him and lick him all over.

  The Hunt tugged at me, insistent but almost wary.

  “Right now, I’m going to get dressed.”

  I flicked my wrist, and my body was encased in my battle gear. Not that gathering the dead was ever a battle. By the time we got there, they had no fight left in them. Fey didn’t have souls like humans. When they died, they released pure power, untethered energy waiting to be siphoned and sent to Nawia. The Hunt fed off the memories and experiences woven into that energy, and by the time it reached Nawia, it was pure and ready to be reborn. At one time this power had filled Faerie, slowly finding its way to Nawia at its own pace, but a group of lower fey, the danaan, had attempted to harness it and use it for their own gain. They’d sought to manipulate this power and rise above their station to rival the Tuatha, and they’d suffered for it.

  The Tuatha had tethered them together and called them the Hunt. They’d bound them to a horn – Cernunnos’s horn, which now belonged to me. The Hunt’s hunger for power was now a hunger for lives lost, and me…I was their ringleader, the one meant to head up the operation, except it didn’t feel that way. It felt like I was merely a figurehead and Caister was the one in charge.

  The last four months had been collection after collection, death too frequent in a world where most beings were immortal, and it all left a funny aftertaste in my mouth.

  The Hunt tugged one last time, and then I felt it shift out. That bastard.

  “I’ll be back soon.”

  Green whips cracked and energy thrummed around me. I stood in the center of the storm, head thrown back, eyes closed as the Hunt collected the souls of the dead. Sorrow warred with the triumph of a job well done.

  The sorrow was the old Eva, the triumph the new Eva, the one who owned the Hunt, the one who was the Hunt. I took a deep breath, and the sharp, distinctive scent of Faerie filled my head. There was violence here, an edge of darkness that was obsidian in intensity.

  Fingers brushed the nape of my neck as if marking me and staking a claim. Caister. He was getting bolder and bolder of late. In the four months we’d been in Faerie, he’d continued to push the boundaries, challenge me at every turn. Cernunnos had said the Hunt would obey me, respect me, and maybe if Caister backed down, they would. But to him I was an imposter, a stand-in for the real thing. He wanted to lead, and if I let him, maybe he’d back off. But stepping down wasn’t my thing.

  The Hunt’s whips flashed as they galloped, snatching the power hovering in the air, and then there was silence. Bodies littered the ground—dead fey, cut down too soon. A hunting party that had turned on each other. This was happening more and more of late. Fey against fey. Altercations resulting in death. Anger, confusion...rage.

  I’d sent a message to King Alaron in the winter kingdom to ask what the fuck was going on, but I hadn’t received a response yet. I guess he was busy doing king things, or maybe he was off on another quest to find his missing daughter.

  “What now?” Caister asked with a bow. “The deed is done.” The left corner of his mouth curved up almost mockingly as he faux-waited for my instructions.

  Dia, his lieutenant, stood slightly behind him, her face impassive. She was a tall, slender woman with elven features. Had she been part elf when alive? I’d done my research on my new home—or at least Jace had—and we’d learned that Faerie had once been connected to another land, a land of creatures called elves. The two worlds had mingled for eons, until recently, when the thinnings had been closed by order of the high queen, Morrigan.

  I met Caister’s emerald gaze, which was still glowing from his exertions. His face was flushed, his chest heaving with the after-effects of the hunt. His tongue flicked ou
t to lick his lips, and I couldn’t help but track the movement. He was an insufferable ass, but there was no denying his attractiveness. He always did this fake subservient shit in front of the Hunt, but the tone, the tone was sardonic, as if he was sharing a secret with them, as if he was saying, Hey, look, let’s humor the newly minted god. Let’s make her believe she has any fucking say whatsoever when in fact it’s me you look to.

  He arched a brow. “What now?”

  “I’m beginning to think you might need instructions to your own ass, Caister.”

  He gave me a small smile. “You’ve been thinking about my ass?”

  “I’ve been thinking you are an ass.”

  His smile dropped. “You’d be lost without me.”

  “I doubt that very much.” I turned to the others, who were watching the conversation with interest. It was a power struggle all right. “Let’s go home.”

  No one moved, and anger bloomed hot and potent in my belly. I opened my mouth to give the command again, but Caister beat me to it.

  “Homeward!” he snapped.

  Green energy swept over me, and we were away.

  The mansion coalesced around me. I was home, and the Hunt had dispersed. They were here somewhere, but they didn’t show themselves to me unless I called them. They had their own hangouts, their own relationships, and part of me wanted to be with them, to join them and revel with them after a hunt. The power they gained from funneling the dead to Nawia was thrumming in my veins too. A low-level buzz that was made to be shared. I was their leader, but I wasn’t part of their posse, and the thought left me hollow and incomplete.

  Elias stirred in the bed where I’d left him over two hours ago. He rolled onto his back, and his silver-white hair slid back off his forehead. His bare chest was smooth and taut in the dawn light and his mouth was slightly parted, as if ready for my kisses.

  For a moment, I was torn—the new Eva wanted to go in search of Caister, to find the Hunt and make them accept me, but the other part, the old Eva, won. I shrugged off my battle gear and crawled onto the bed. The covers were tangled around his powerful thighs, and I tugged them off with a flick of my wrist, exposing him.

  His eyes snapped open, violet and stunned, and then bled with hunger at the sight of me. I claimed his mouth and threaded my fingers through his hair, sinking onto him so our skin finally kissed. He sucked in a breath at the contact, his hands tightening on my hips, and then he flipped me onto my back and was on top, inside, thrusting hard and fast, fucking, just fucking.

  I came quick and hard, and then he kissed me, slow and leisurely, swallowing my groan, his cock still throbbing inside me.

  There was a knock at the door. “Eva?”

  Logan.

  Elias smiled against my lips. “Time to share, I guess.” He climbed off me and, still naked, padded across the room to open the door. “Can I help you?”

  Logan’s jaw tensed at the sight of him. He looked past him at me, his gaze heated, and his throat bobbed. “We’re headed out to the village to finish the repairs. Wondered if you wanted to come?”

  “I’d love to.”

  He nodded curtly and strode off.

  My heart sank. Shit.

  “I think someone feels neglected,” Elias said. But there was no teasing or snideness to his tone. He tugged on his clothes. “I’ve been monopolizing you, haven’t I?”

  I shook my head. “No, this is my fault. I haven’t been making the time or the effort.”

  Elias sought me out whenever he could, and we’d been spending a lot of time together when I wasn’t with the Hunt. But the others had been working in the village, helping repair the old tavern and fix up the mill, and generally ingratiating themselves with the locals. The Hunt had no fixed abode; our mansion moved, but for the guys’ sake I’d chosen to settle in the village where I’d first met Alaron and bonded with the Hunt.

  My guys had come here with me, they’d left their world to be with me, to anchor me, and they’d kept their end of the bargain. It was me who struggled to find a balance between them and the Hunt. I was torn, only half a person with each.

  I was confused, clinging to the guys, fearful that the Hunt would swallow what little humanity still lingered in my heart, but I yearned for the connection the Hunt shared with each other, the camaraderie and the unity.

  Elias turned me to him and then cupped my face. “You’re doing the best you can, and if Logan can’t see that then he needs his head examined.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at his words. The man who’d been my enemy had somehow become one of my closest confidants. Being the enemy for so long must have made him understand what it felt like to be the outsider.

  “Are you coming?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ve monopolized you the last couple of days, and I don’t think I could handle Ash’s silent glares.”

  Guilt twisted my insides. “Two days?”

  Had it been two days? Time passed differently here, or at least it did for me. Being a god meant that two days felt like the blink of an eye.

  I went to flick my wrist to dress but checked myself. No. I’d do this the regular way. Grabbing some clothes, I headed to the shower.

  As I walked down from the mansion at the outskirts of the village, the sun was high but the air was chilly. These were the Winter Lands, after all, and snow and frost were par for the course. My boots bit into the snow, leaving neat marks, and I pulled my coat tighter around me, imagining that the chill bothered me. Down here, in the village, I was just Eva in my regular jeans and long-sleeved top. I’d pulled my silver-white hair back into a braid and tugged on a woolly hat all the better to blend in. The god inside seethed.

  Why should I blend in? Why should I hide? I was a fucking deity. The people should see it, they should recognize it, and they should bow to it.

  I tamped down on the thoughts and focused on my guys. Ash, Logan, Jace, and Sage. My anchors. They were down here amongst the people, accepted as one of them, and my heart swelled with pride for what they’d achieved since joining me here. The villagers knew what they were, who they were, and were more than happy to feed them both food and blood. When they’d agreed to come with me, we hadn’t thought about their food source, but we learned that fey blood sustained them; it was so potent that they only needed a thimble full once every couple of weeks.

  The village opened around me, sounds and smells and slatted roofs. Children played in the snow, wrapped up warm and rosy-cheeked. I trudged past without garnering a second glance, and the knot in my chest loosened. A small group of women holding baskets came into view, their long dresses ending an inch above the ground and heavy, hooded shawls covering their bodies. Their hands were pink from the chill as they clutched their wicker baskets filled with wrapped goods from the market in the village square, where barrels of fire would be lit to keep the area warm and encourage the villagers to shop. The women were chatting amiably, one eye on the children, but their gazes slid to me as I passed. Faces turned stony, eyes slid away, and mouths tensed.

  The knot in my stomach twisted, and anger bloomed in my chest, rising up to my eyes and burning out to sear them. They ducked their heads and hurried away, calling out to the children to follow.

  The urge to shout out, to order them to stay, was on the tip of my godly tongue, but I bit it back. Fuck this.

  Where were the guys?

  I spotted them a moment later at the local tavern, Logan and Jace hammering away on the roof, Ash and Sage working on the shutters. When we’d first arrived, the tavern had been a death trap—missing tiles on the roof causing multiple leaks, shutters hanging off, and rotting wood frames.

  The guys had spent a week or so down here, hanging out with the locals while I was out doing Hunt things, and before I knew it, they’d taken on a rebuild project while still keeping the place operational. It was a wise move, a way to ingratiate themselves and integrate with the villagers, but even as I thought this, I knew that wasn’t why they’d done it. The guys were j
ust being the guys. They were helping because they had good hearts.

  That was why I loved them.

  Logan looked up from his hammering and locked gazes with me. I smiled up at him, and the ice in his façade cracked a smidge. He sighed and shook his head, then said something to Jace, who stopped working and grinned down at me, his blue eyes lighting up. And then Sage was bounding across the snow to sweep me up into his arms and press kisses to my face. His huge frame was warm and comforting, his arms secure as they tightened around me, and shit, my eyes were pricking because I’d missed this so much. How had I stayed away for two days?

  Sage’s arms flexed, and then he swept me up and carried me toward the others.

  “Look what I found.” He held me out, and Ash plucked me from his arms.

  His pale gray eyes were stormy with intent as he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine in the softest of kisses, his mouth lingering against mine for a long beat as he inhaled me. He broke the kiss to rub his nose against mine in a move that made me ache with love for him, and then he set me on my feet.

  Jace climbed down but didn’t pull me into his arms or try and kiss me like the other two. We hadn’t had any real alone time since coming to the Winter Lands, and Jace…well, Jace wasn’t into public displays of affection. But his smile was like the sun, and when our eyes locked there was no denying the spike in my pulse.

  Logan continued to hammer, and Jace rolled his eyes. “You want me to get him?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll speak to him.”

  “I say we take a break and order some lunch.” Sage rubbed his hands together.

  I let out a bark of laughter. “You and your obsession with food.”

  He chuckled. “Being in a host body dampens physical hunger. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I got my own body back.”