Middle of Summer

The house was in chaos.

Hunter and Zekaj barely caught any of the ramblings as wolves and mages were coming in and out. They both just sat there working on various runic traps that were to be placed in the woods surrounding the nearby wolf pack as well as the coven’s main meeting spot.

“Why are we making these?” Zekaj asked Hunter, who was sitting in his mind as usual.

“Not entirely sure. They’re keeping it very secret.” Hunter said as he finished the lightning runic trap and handed it off to a member who was right next to him. The traps were a simple circle with a lightning rune that would explode upon stepping on it.

His parents as well as his sister were in the basement talking with the Alpha, Beta and the soon-to-be’s. Hunter wasn’t allowed into the talk like usual.

He began working on another trap when wolves barged into the house and quickly headed downstairs.

“So they’re allowed down there but not me.” He said to Zekaj continuing to draw the rune into the rock that would be hidden in the woods soon.

“Apparently.”

The wolves including the Alphas and betas left the basement and motioned for their wolves to leave as well. All of the traps were gathered up including the one Hunter was working on.

“Wait that’s not fini-” He started as the wolf had already left the house with it.

His parents and Hannah entered the living room as all the mages in the room looked at them.

“So,” His father started. “You’re all wondering why you were brought here today.”

“Well I live here.” Hunter whispered to Zekaj who laughed. Hunter hated how they talked to him like he wasn’t even family. Other members started quickly asking questions before being silenced with one sentence.

“The Pack Killer was spotted south of here.” The room instantly enveloped in silence. You could hear a pin drop in there.

“Who?” Hunter asked Zekaj.

“He was spotted heading west, but we must take all precautions just in case his path turns towards us. Your traps will help keep other hunters at bay but not him. For those of you who don’t know, he is a hunter, not just of werewolves, but of everything. The Pack Killer as well as the hunters mainly go after wolves though. He only just started showing up two years ago but his body count is in the possible thousands and continuing to grow. We aren’t sure what he is. He has yet to be defeated.”

Hunter was terrified. Zekaj was being cocky.

“I could definitely take him down.”

“You really want to go up against some super soldier hunter?” Hunter questioned.

“Yes.” Hunter rolled his eyes to himself. “Hey! I felt that.”

“He’s been stabbed and bitten through the leather armor he wears and still wasn’t taken down. He’s strong enough to hold down multiple alpha and beta wolves.”

“Me too.” Zekaj added.

“Yeah you never fail to remind me.”

“The Pack Killer is tall, said to be around 6’6” and the size of a bodybuilder. We can not figure out his identity due to the hood over his head and the magical properties it has.” His father added, holding up a photo. The photo was slightly blurry but you could see the huge figure standing in front of a burning pack house. His armor was dark leather with various weapons on him, including a crossbow hanging on his belt and a longsword in his hand. The peculiar thing was the fact that his face was enveloped in darkness and glowing solid red eyes could be seen in the hood.

“If he does happen to attack here,” His sister added. Hunter immediately tuned her out. Zekaj was still listening. “They will most likely go after the wolves and not us. We must do our best to be able to get wolves to the safe houses located on this map.” She held out a rolled up map and set it out on the coffee table.

“Look at the map Hunter.” Zekaj said. Hunter mumbled an apology and looked at it. Many houses in the city were marked including their own. Each house included 1-2 wolf families that would be put in that house. Their own house would be the safe house for the Alpha Family and Max’s Beta family.

“Great.” Hunter said to Zekaj in his mind.

“I won’t hesitate to break his kne-” He was cut off as Hannah started speaking again.

“Both the coven’s and the pack member’s phones all have alerts if an attack does happen. If any hunter is spotted in the area, but there's an attack, both coven and pack members will go into standby waiting for the possible attack. If you see any glowing white or red eyes make sure to send in the sighting.”

“With that you’re all free to go.” Hunter’s mom said. The coven members began leaving the house one by one.

Hunter sat on the couch as his parents congratulated Hannah on a job well done with handling the situation and speaking to the coven. Hunter rolled his eyes as he left the house himself.

“Don’t you think your parents would prefer if you stayed home?” Zekaj asked.

“Maybe if they actually seemed to care about me for once. We both know they won’t notice I’m gone for another couple of hours. They’re too busy praising Hannah on every little thing.” He said, kicking a pebble laying on the sidewalk.

Hunter wished his parents would be proud of him for once. But even he thought there was nothing to be proud of him for.

Hunter continued to walk the streets until Zekaj spoke up.

“Let’s do something fun.”

“What did you have in mind?” Hunter asked.

“We could go shopping a couple towns over?” Zekaj suggested. They had done it a few times before. It was the only way for Zekaj to be able to shop outside of Hunter’s body without the risk of them being caught. It was only 1pm in the afternoon so they had time to be able to.

“Sure.” Hunter said, taking a detour into the forest to let Zekaj out so they could travel through the shadows.

Zekaj quickly left Hunter’s body and pulled him close and entered the shadows.

Zekaj’s hard body was pressed up against Hunter’s and Hunter couldn’t help but blush a little. His body was the warmest thing in the cold, dark shadows.

Hunter quickly saw the light as they appeared in an alleyway.

Zekaj started stretching again, his shirt rode up and Hunter saw the hair covered abs peeking through and his blush worsened.

“God I haven’t done that for so long.” He said flexing his biceps. Zekaj just liked to show off around Hunter, he didn’t need all of this stretching. Zekaj was wearing a typical outfit for him consisting of a pair of dark blue jeans and a black shirt. The colors accentuating the gold markings along his arm.

“Let’s look around.” Hunter quickly said brushing alongside Zekaj, staring at the floor.

They both walked out onto the sidewalk, few people were out and about and there was the occasional car parallel parked along the street. There were many shops that sold all kinds of things. None of them were chains.

There was even a thrift shop Zekaj was familiar with. For it was the store he had purchased a Wii Remote in two years ago.

“Let’s go in here!” Zekaj exclaimed, pulling him into a music shop.

The store was filled with records, cassettes and cds of all types of genres. There were plants hanging in the windows with their vines hanging close to the floor. There were a couple people in the shop already searching through the various forms of music. Zekaj had quickly found himself across the shop staring at the various album covers.

Hunter looked through various old records not looking for anything in particular, occasionally looking at Zekaj who had found a cat roaming the place. He was always so curious about the little things in the world.

Hunter had been scrounging through the records when Zekaj was at his side asking him a question.

“Does she really look like this?” He asked, holding up a cd. The CD depicted a woman holding her hands up to her face covering her eyes. Her hair was short and blonde and an eyeball was in her mouth.

“Oh yes definitely.” He said sarcastically. Zekaj squinted his eyes at him, picking up the sarcasm.

“Jerk.” He replied.

“No. She doesn’t Zeke.” Hunter answered truthfully, using the human name he had given Zekaj. “It’s deluxe and only 9 dollars, we can get it if you like.”

“Yes!” Zekaj said smiling, leaving to go pay for it. Hunter quickly followed him.

They were soon leaving the music shop, Zekaj proud of his purchase. Hunter followed behind Zekaj who had quickly smelled food and was following it and they ended up outside of a coffee shop.

They both headed in and Zekaj quickly was at the counter looking at all the pastries.

“What should I get? They all smell so good!” He exclaimed.

The lady at the counter quickly replied with her own answer.

“The chocolate croissant is a fan favorite. Favorite of mine too.” She said with a wink.

“Make it two then!” Zekaj said. “I’ll also take a chocolate chip cookie and a black coffee. Hunter, what do you want?”

“Uh, um a frozen hot chocolate is fine.” He stuttered, being uncomfortable having to order food.

“That’ll be 21 dollars, cutie.” She said staring into his eyes. “You have cute eyes.” She added.

“Thank you!” He said, turning around and pulling Hunter to a seat.

They both sat there for a bit, Hunter staring at the floor embarrassed for being upset that Zekaj was being flirted with. Zekaj just kept thinking about his food.

The same lady soon brought their drinks and food to the table, quickly setting Hunter’s drink by him and turning to Zekaj. Hunter watched as she examined every bit of Zekaj, who wasn’t staring at her but the food and drink in her hand.

“Here you go sir.” She said, slowly setting the food down.

“Thanks again!” He smiled, quickly taking a big gulp of the hot coffee and biting into a chocolate croissant. He slid over the bag containing the cookie to Hunter. “I saw you eyeing it in the display.”

Hunter blushed, letting out a muffled thank you. Zekaj smiled at him as he drank more coffee.

“What does 207-555-8921 mean?” Zekaj asked, examining his drink.

“What?” Hunter looked over at Zekaj who was staring at his drink. Alongside his drink were the numbers. It was the cashiers phone number. “It’s not important.” He quickly spit out.

Zekaj hummed in response. He continued to sit there enjoying his foot and eyeing the cd in the bag.

Hunter watched as his muscles rippled under his shirt as he moved, the blush on his face deepening.

A/N:

I try to get a chapter or two out a day since a lot of this book has already been written.  Once this book is caught up with everything else chapters will come out SLOWER than they have been.  

I can not stress enough that updates will not be coming out 1-2 a day like they have been.  I typically try for 1-2 new chapters a week.

I'm sorry about not updating for a couple days due to my busy schedule.  I'm a college student and have a job and I didn't have much time to sit down and bring chapers over to tapas so that's why I'm double updating today.

Continued:

Set up some worldbuilding. The Pack Killer is a character I knew I needed to set up as he is an important character in this 4 book series I’m making. He is a key character in the 3rd and especially the final book. He may or may not appear in this story again, who knows! ;)

FYI he is not the main antagonist of this book. I’m not sure if there really will be. I guess in a way there is with AJ and kind of Hunter’s parents.

-MEK