Queen of Death
Chapter 20

Hunter

My heart thunders against my ribs. When I left the Grove I had two things on my to-do list; avenge my bride and get back to her as soon as I could. Then I met Tate and the guys. In the beginning they gave me a wide berth, they didn't ask about my comings and goings and I didn't offer up any explanations.

But as the weeks rolled into months, and months crept into years... hopes of revenge and returning to the Grove died a slow and gradual death.

Yes, I had killed the people responsible for kidnapping Sol. Yes, I joined Ace and helped legitimize our common goal of hunting breeders and ending trafficking. While those are all commendable actions, they never erased that voice in my head that doubted Sol would believe that I had nothing to do with the attack on her life.

Eventually I had managed to loathe the idea of returning to the Grove and I convinced myself that her family would kill me on sight anyway. Sol was safe. She'd be protected there and live happily for all eternity. Centuries would pass and I'd just be a blip in her memories.

A childhood friend who one day disappeared.

I stopped hoping I'd ever get her back. I stopped trying. I never stopped loving her, though.

It took me a little longer to realize that Solana wasn't the only thing I ran from when I left. I ran from her family who always treated me like one of their own, I ran from my best friend and future alpha, and I ran from my own parents.

Needless to say, I'm justifiably apprehensive about showing my face to her family.

"Elena is dangerous. She's a threat to my family and the Grove —"

"Allegedly," Tate interrupts her and earns himself an eyeful of daggers.

"Excuse me?" Solana breathes fire.

"That's how your family will see it, Sunshine. It's currently your word against hers." His words do little to placate her.

"Which is precisely why Hunter needs to be there. Him, Griffin, and Ember. They were there, too."

"Princess," Ace steps up to bat. "What he means is we can't walk him into their territory and expect them to be ready for a civil conversation."

"They're right, Sunflower. It's too much of a shock to the system. We can't just cannonball into the water and expect not to make a splash." I corroborate Tate's and Ace's concerns.

"If we want to dive in without making a splash, as Hunter so aptly described," Tate preens, "we'll need to breach the surface first. Bring someone from your family up to speed. Alone."

Solana paces back and forth a short distance, one hand on her hip the other fisted by her mouth. "It can't be Griffin or Ember. My parents will think they've known all this time that he was alive and kept that a secret too. We need someone who was close but who can appear unbiased, so that rules out his parents."

"What about your brother Rhys?" Eli suggests while he sucks the meat off of a chicken wing.

"No," I lead Solana back to the couch and pull her down into my lap. "It needs to be Cole."

I catch her side-eye to Ace, that little check-in on his reaction and opinion on things. They can have a full length conversation with a single look and I'm not sure if they're even consciously aware of it yet.

He's absolutely lost to her. Has been since the moment they met but it took all of us a minute to realize it. Now, though, it's as clear as crystal. He wears his love for her like a tattoo, like it's imprinted on his soul.

I should know — I'm equally afflicted.

We've spoken about marking her. It's something we both want and think that she'd allow. But with the way things have been going... what we feel is bigger than what can be expressed by one mark.

If that were to happen, it needs to happen organically. We can't push the others into feeling what we feel. And it's essential that we all feel the same way. Tate is there. I'm shocked that of the three other guys he was the first to fall for her, but I guess stranger things have happened.

By their scents I can tell that she and Dean have bonded, and by the dopey, love-struck look on his face I'd wager that his heart now belongs to her.

Which leaves Eli. Arguably the most burned of us all. Fate hasn't been kind to any of us, but to him least of all.

"I don't know, Hunter. He's a big gamble. He's an alpha wolf so he's stubborn and prideful," Sol lifts a shit-eating grin at Ace. "He's my eldest sibling, and you were his Beta. His fury burned for a long time, at you and at me."

I prop my chin on her shoulder and speak softly, "exactly why it needs to be him. If I can get him to believe, everyone else will be a piece of cake."

Silence settles comfortably over the group, we eat at our own paces and get lost in our own thoughts. Until Ace's aura fills the room like smoke. But instead of suffocating in it we're comforted by it — by him.

"We're bringing in Cole. He's confronted us once about Hunter's scent and even then his expressions never so much as hinted at wanting revenge. He lost his beta, his best friend, and his sister in the same night... he wants answers. He wants his world to make sense again."

— — —

Solana

Ace and Hunter are right.

The words are like vinegar in my mouth but it doesn't make them any less true. They're right.

When I first met the guys I would have found a way to argue with them or begrudge the fact that they were right. That feeling doesn't reside in me anymore, or at least not in this situation. They're right. It's okay to let them be right and to let them feel my trust and support in that belief.

Despite agreeing with them, and having all five of them back under the same roof, I barely slept that night. In the morning we were going to their offices and calling my brother to meet with us.

Now that time has come and I'm stuck in the bathroom giving myself a pep talk. Any attempts to splash cool water on my face are in vain as it evaporates before it even touches my skin.

I walk out of the bathroom and towards Ace's office. The memory of him taking me on his desk for the first time hits me, my mouth and my core watering at the same time in want of a repeat. I have half a mind to demand help releasing the tension coiled within me when I catch their hushed conversation.

"I'm just worried that if we're all in that room he's going to know. He's obviously familiar with the feeling given who his mother is," Dean's voice is calmer than his words suggest.

Well this is interesting. The boys are gossiping. Honestly, they're worse than the fledgling girls back in the Grove sometimes.

"Would it be the worst thing?" Tate questions. "It's only a matter of time before the wolves sense it...if they don't already."

"Hunter is there. He knew it even before I did," Ace says, his aura radiating pride and respect. "But even if E gets there it has to be unanimous. Meaning her, too."

Oh. They're gossiping about Eli...and me? Suddenly what was supposed to be harmless fun eavesdropping turned into a full recon mission.

"She's there," Dean asserts. "She may not have connected the dots and said the words but she's feeling it."

There's not much I detest more than people speaking for me. So now that I'm properly inflamed I barge into Ace's office like I own the place.

"Having a pack meeting with half the pack?" I tut at them.

"Dragons only, I'm afraid. Pup." Tate taunts me.

My wings expand out like an airbag deploying creating a gust of wind that knocks over a picture frame from Ace's desk.

"Mm, I love it when you spread yourself open for me, pet," Tate purrs, sliding a hand behind my head and threading his fingers through my hair.

"Tate," Ace says on an exasperated exhale. "Get the fuck out. You too, Dean. Make the call and then go wait with Hunter and Eli."

Tate growls playfully and then nips my nose with his teeth. Dean follows him out of the office leaving me confused, upset, and wound the fuck up alone with Ace.

"It's going to be okay, Princess." Ace retrieves the toppled picture frame and sets it back on his desk where it has pride of place. He looks at it for a moment, piquing my curiosity.

When I round the desk I'm rendered speechless. It's a picture of me. Just me. A candid, where I'm smiling or perhaps laughing about something.

"I like seeing you smile. You don't do it nearly enough, Princess," Ace draws me into him — and not just by his arms. Everything about him draws me in and I'm getting tired of having to censor this fact in front of the rest of the guys. His scent, his aura, his warmth all lure me in like a moth to the flame.

I nuzzle against his chest, breathing him in and enjoying the solitude of just me and him. Not that I love him more than any of the others, I just enjoy getting them each alone. There's time to be a pack and then there are times to be mates. I mean, at least in Ace's case...

I shudder against him when I accept that I thought of them each as a mate would. His hold on me tightens. His gentle purr is a welcome distraction, because I'm not ready to deal with the implications and repercussions of what I just thought.

"Boss?" Eli knocks twice on the open door. Ace and I both turn to look at him. "They're here. Conference room A whenever you're ready."

Ace nods, "Thanks, E." His chin tucks down so he can look at me, "ready?"

"They?" I ask as I pull out of his embrace, giving myself a once over in the mirror by the door.

"Cole and Griffin. Call it a compromise," he shrugs like it's no big deal but his eyes show me how important it was to him to help me feel as comfortable as possible.

"Right," I clear my throat of the lump of emotion bubbling up.

There's no turning back now. Squaring my shoulders back, I lead the march over to the conference room.

Cole and Griffin are sitting at the far end of a long conference table. When they see me and Ace enter they both stand to greet us.

"Good to see you gentlemen," Ace reaches over and shakes both of their hands. "Thanks for meeting on such short notice."

Griffin gives me a hug amidst Ace's wolf's grumbles. We didn't discuss admitting to anything beyond what pertains to Hunter. So if he wants to keep the facts that he's my mate hidden for a little while longer, then letting his wolf get territorial over a hug is not the way to achieve that.

Luckily they either don't notice or choose to ignore it. "Eli made it sound urgent. Everything okay? Are you in trouble?" Griffin goes from skeptical but relaxed to defensive and overprotective before his breath runs out.

"I'm fine, no more in danger than I was yesterday. But, uh," I hesitate, instinctively looking up to Ace for support and encouragement. He nods at me to continue, placing a gentle hand on the small of my back. "I don't even know where to start," I admit more to myself than anyone else.

Ace pulls out a chair for me to sit in, "let's get comfortable. Please, gentlemen, have a seat." He gestures to the chairs in front of Cole and Griffin and after a shared look they both take a seat.

"Sol, what's gotten you all rattled? It's just us. Tell us what's going on," Griffin says conversationally.

I inhale a deep breath and then take the plunge, "I think Elena has something to do with my bounty."

They wear matching expressions; creased brows, deep frowns, parted lips. Cole half-laughs, half-scoffs, but Griffin just looks at me with knowing, sympathetic eyes. He knows where this is going.

"What could possibly have given you that idea, Sol?" Cole finally asks, quickly realizing his mistake. "I mean, I know there's history but no one blames you for any of that. You know that, don't you?"

My silence says more than my words ever could. "Elena blamed me. For all of it," I scoff. "She hated me because I was what stood between her daughter and her mate. Her children obviously hated me for the same reason. I was too naive to realize how deeply rooted that hatred really was. How far they'd go."

"That is not your fault, Solana," Ace snaps at me, but I can feel through our bond that he means well.

"Four years ago, the night they all disappeared, I called Griffin to come pick me up. Do you remember, Griffin?"

His head swivels between me and Cole. "It's impossible to forget," he laments. "Are you sure?" He whispers to me from across the table and I nod for him to tell Cole the story. "When you called you could barely get any words out. But I heard you say Illicit, the tattoo place in the abandoned strip mall. You were barely breathing when I got to you. Beaten black and blue, multiple broken bones, and bloody. So much blood. I healed what I could but the blood wouldn't stop so I panicked and brought you to my mom's office. The blood...she said...it was...I couldn't..." tears well in his eyes.

"It's not your fault, Griffin." I assure him.

"You were attacked? By who?" Cole's anger begins to simmer.

"Annie's brothers. Hunter and I were supposed to go with them to meet with some people who could help me get into hunting breeders. But Hunter never showed. And the people we were meeting with were breeders."

"Why would they do that?" Cole asks and I'm irritated that I have to spell this out for him.

"To get me out of the way. So Hunter could be with Annie. I found out that morning that Hunter and I were going to have a pup. They must have smelled it on me because the breeders refused to take me. So they each took turns beating me instead. Beating my pup out of me."

Ace reaches under the table and squeezes my knee. A gesture that's just as much to comfort me as it is for him, because our bond is red hot with his rage. I know he knows the story but he's never heard it in detail, and he's never heard it from me.

"Sol," Cole's face drains of all color.

"Oh Gods," Griffin looks like he's going to be sick. "I called Hunter. After my mom told me about the pup I called Hunter and told him I would kill him myself. But he was just as confused as I had been. He was practically feral when I told him how I had found you and how they attacked you." He continues.

"He avenged me," I say with a slight tilt of a smile. "He killed Annie first and then went after her brothers."

"That's why he disappeared," Cole finally understands.

"And that's why Elena blames me. Not just for coming between Annie and Hunter, but for losing her children as well."

"That's why you left," Cole states it as a fact.

I nod once, "yes, in part. I didn't know at the time about Hunter killing Annie and her brothers. I didn't find that out until recently. To my knowledge he had been in on the plot to get rid of me, he was partly responsible for my lost pup, and then I woke up days later in the hospital and he was gone. They all were. I stuck around for a while but nothing was the same. And my fire was burning me from the inside out. I left to find him and kill him for what he had done to me."

Ace takes my hand in his, pushing his aura onto me to support me. I don't give a damn if my brother sees us and does the math, it feels really good to have Ace here with me for this.

"You found him, didn't you? That's why I smelled him on you the night before our centennial," Cole looks around the conference room and out into the hall behind the glass windows.

Just then, Hunter walks past the windows, holding my brother's stare all the way through the doorway. "Hey Cole," he says with a half wave and sheepish smile, "long time, no see."

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