Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (3 page)

Hunter sat up and sighed. For the most part, he was getting used to sleeping on the floor, while on a mission away from the Village, but he had a nagging crick in his neck that begged for a good massage. The week prior he had broken down and asked Fern, his mate, to see what she could do about it, but it felt even worse now. Lycin women were known for power and speed, both of which were a bad combination for a masseuse. He looked around the sparse tent and reviewed the day ahead of him. He wasn’t on patrol until tonight, but he still had much to do. He needed to drill the troops, especially the younger wolves. He also had to deal with the food issue. They packed rations, but he expected some hunting for fresh kill. Every day, however, he sent out a hunting party that came back empty-handed. It was as if the lands had been stripped somehow. And then there was the Cass issue. He raked his fingers through his short, curly brown hair. He still had no idea how she had weaseled her way onto his mission or why. All he knew was that she was annoying and unwanted.

The mission was simple out here. An earlier recon had shown more Shifter activity than usual, and then there had been the Daemon attack on Magic User lands. Both of these things meant the need for more protection for the Village from the other races they were at war with. But there was only so much they
could do in the Village itself. Hunter had set up two squadrons of Royal Guards under his command along the Magic User/Shifter border. His goal with the mission was to see how much activity was occurring along the borders and even infiltrate the Shifter lands to possibly see what they had up their sleeves. But neither of these things had happened in the four months they’d been out here. It had been eerily quiet along the border, and Hunter still didn’t have enough faith in any of his men to send them over the line.

As Fern walked into the tent, he stood to his over six foot height and opened his trunk to find something to wear. She had been on duty the whole night and was still flushed from her transformation from wolf to human form. Her long black hair was sticking to her moist skin. She also was naked, which didn’t faze Hunter. When Lycins were on a mission in which patrolling consisted of changing into their wolf states, most of the base walked around naked at any time of the day. She stretched out her long, lean muscles, her movements more of a cat than a wolf at the moment.

“How does it look out there?” Hunter asked, pulling on a black shirt.

“Same. I thought I saw some movement a hundred yards north, but it was an animal,” she said, pulling out some clothes of her own.

Hunter looked at her. “What kind?”

“Couldn’t tell, but it was too small to hunt.”

“Damn. And it wasn’t a Shifter?”

“I’m sure.”

Hunter nodded. Although Shifters turned into many different animals, they still kept a very distinct Shifter smell. Fern turned to pull on her boots, and Hunter took the opportunity to retrieve a long leather strap from his trunk. He pulled it over his neck and slipped the end under his shirt. A familiar weight lay against his chest when he put it on.

“You should get some sleep,” he said, walking toward the entrance. The tent wasn’t large, but it was the biggest one next to the center tent, which playfully had been dubbed the “war room” by some of the younger guards because it stored the map of the area and all their surplus supplies. It was also where they held all their meetings.

“I will tonight,” Fern said, following him into the sunlight.

“You need to use more of your downtime for resting. Can’t have you burning out.”

Hunter nodded to several of the guards who were scattered around the camp. He had chosen an area that was open on only two sides. The south and west sides of the camp stood against a rock face. He also had guards stationed on the ridge above and a few meters away on the north and east sides of the camp. Their location was tactically safe and a good place to stay, but Hunter wasn’t
sure that’s what he wanted to do. There wasn’t any activity, which contradicted the report the scouting party had given. He didn’t like it.

“I won’t,” Fern said. “I’ve done much worse than not sleeping for a few days.”

He stopped and looked down at her. “A few days?”

She shrugged. “I was on patrol two days ago and last night. And the night in between I didn’t get much sleep.” She gave him a small smile. “But that was worth it.”

Hunter thought he saw a light blush on her cheeks, but there was no way Fern was embarrassed; she didn’t possess the ability. He smiled back at her. “It was.”

They headed to the center of the camp. Several of the guards were gathered around a large unlit fire pit as they ate their breakfast rations. Hunter put his hand on the back of his second-in-command, Ridge. He was around Hunter’s age, which wasn’t young but not quiet old either. Officially Hunter was 120, but Lycins aged much slower than the Magic Users they protected; he personally looked to be in his thirties. Ridge wasn’t as tall as Hunter, but not by much, and his red hair stood in contrast to Hunter’s brown. Both, however, looked like typical Lycin men, with broad shoulders and lean muscles on their arms and legs.

“How’s everything?” Hunter asked.

“Good. All patrols checked in, and the day shifts went out. I put together a group to go over the border, like we talked about. I figured we could do some specialized trainings.”

Hunter nodded. “Good idea. Anything else?”

Ridge motioned with his head to a small tent to the right. “The princess wants to talk to you.”

“She’ll have to wait.”

“You’ve been saying that for a month. I don’t think she’ll take that as an answer for much longer,” Ridge said with a small laugh.

Hunter rolled his eyes. “Go get her.”

Fern scoffed. “You should send her back.”

“I tried. Somehow all the guards I send with her turn back around because she tells them to.” Hunter looked at Ridge, who walked up with Princess Cassandrianna in tow.

Cass had changed in the past four months. Her usually well-kept short black hair had grown out and looked ragged. She had dirt on her skin and clothes, which were cotton pants and shirts since the dresses she always wore in the Village weren’t conducive to living in the camp. A small body of water led out to the Great Lake only a few meters north of camp, where most of the guards
went to wash up, but Cass had insisted she couldn’t under any circumstances bathe there or with other people. Fern had been the one to receive that message and nearly took the princess’s head off, or at least that was what Hunter was told. Hunter did his best to stay away from Cass and had spoken to her only once in four months, when they had first settled into camp. He made it very clear, mostly by his silence, that he wanted nothing to do with her, whether she was there or not.

Cass stopped about a foot away from Hunter and Fern and looked away quickly from a naked guard that was walking past before putting her hands on her hips. “I want to leave the camp,” she said without any hello or acknowledgment.

“Sounds good. I’ll have a guard escort you back to the Village right away,” Hunter said, turning away.

Cass ran around him to block his path. “I didn’t say I wanted to go back to the Village. I just want to be able to leave camp.”

“No.” Hunter tried to walk around her, but she again blocked him. “You do realize this isn’t a vacation, right? We’re at war with the race that’s just over those hills, and they’d gladly kill you for a good dinnertime story!”

Cass recoiled a little but held her place in front of him. “I know.” She took a deep breath and stepped closer to him. “And you should know I’m still a royal princess and…I’m sorry!” Tears sprang into her eyes at the last part. She looked away and took a jagged breath. “Just stop trying to punish me, please.”

Hunter looked at Fern and Ridge and motioned for them to leave and give him a moment with Cass. They both obeyed immediately. “Why are you here?” Hunter asked once they were out of earshot.

Cass looked up at him, tears still in her blue eyes. “I don’t know,” she said shakily. “I just didn’t want to sit around the palace anymore.”

Hunter repeated his question. He had found that Magic Users, especially royal ones, sometimes needed prodding to tell the truth.

“Maybe I just want to punish myself,” she said, with a new edge to her voice. “And living with a bunch of wolves is the best I could do.” She threw her hands up in frustration and stalked back to her tent.

Hunter should have been nicer to Cass, especially since she was a princess, but he just couldn’t. Not when the girl had singlehandedly ruined his life. With just a few words to her mother, the queen, Cass had given away Hunter and Syney’s plan to run away together, to get away from the restricting rules of the palace and be happy together. The queen had given Hunter the choice of leading this mission or being put to death. He had taken the assignment only under the condition that Syney had no idea they had been found out. Someplace deep inside him screamed that since he moved on with everything else, he should move on with Cass as well. It seemed impossible but he had to at least try.

Fern slowly walked up. “Is everything OK?”

Hunter nodded, pulling his thoughts from things he couldn’t change. “Can you choose a female guard and go with her and Cass to the bathing spot?”

Fern hesitated but gave a curt nod.

“And…take her the long way or something. Let her stretch her legs.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“No, but I can’t keep arguing with her, and the Shifters are going to be able to smell her over the border soon.”

“All right. I’ll take Ivy. She seems to be able to put up with her a little more than the rest of us. But don’t let her hold anything over you.”

Hunter stared at her. He assumed she was talking about the reason behind him being on the mission but Fern didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t ashamed of his relationship with Syney. “She has nothing to do with that.”

Fern nodded and headed in the other direction. She was still so impersonal. Even when they were intimate, Hunter felt as though she was just doing things that she felt was necessary and not for pleasure. He made it his personal goal to defrost Fern a little, seeing that they have the rest of their lives to spend together. The other night he succeeded in at least getting her to let go while they made love. For ten whole minutes, he saw the wild abandon she held within her. He needed to make her feel that way when she wasn’t in bed with her mate.

Hunter caught sight of Ridge standing with six young men off to the side and went to join them. Ridge had done well picking these five, but they still had a long way to go before Hunter would let them cross the border. He told Ridge the drills they should work on. Hunter watched as they went through some hand-to-hand combat maneuvers then moved to transformations in motion, something young wolves had a lot of trouble with. Two hours later Hunter still wasn’t completely satisfied but had chosen the leader of the mission. Wind stood out during the drills, and both Hunter and Ridge agreed on him being named team leader.

“I want them to go on a long mission but inside Magic User land. Maybe to the Great Lake or something,” Hunter told Ridge as they watched the final drill. “I want to make sure they can handle being on their own for a week or so.”

“This is part of their guard training.”

Hunter looked at Ridge. This wasn’t the first time Ridge had pointed out something like that, as if Hunter didn’t know anything about guard training. While technically he hadn’t undergone the same training as the others because of his family’s status, he had done enough and learned the most from his uncle on his mother’s side, who had been head trainer for years. No one really talked about Hunter’s family’s banished status, but it was always there. Hunter’s father had been a Protector but failed at his duties, letting his charge die under his
watch, causing not only his own execution but also the tarnishing of his whole family. It was only when Hunter had been called as a Protector, something the queen had fought against, that he officially had been allowed into the palace.

“I know that,” Hunter said firmly. “But I won’t send them over that border unless I’m satisfied they’ll actually come back. Let me know when you’ve organized the training mission” He walked away without waiting for an acknowledgment. He needed to put his foot down at times. They may all have been well-trained, loyal guards, but Hunter realized after about a month out here that they were just wolves at heart; he was the alpha male, and they all needed to know it.

Hunter walked out of camp and easily climbed the rocky hill to the south. At the top he looked over the camp below. He needed to keep his mind on the tasks ahead of him. All these men and women had put their lives in his hands, and he had to make good on his promise to Leaf that he’d bring them all back safely. He absently put a hand to his chest, feeling the weight at the end of the leather strap through his shirt.
No distractions. Mind on the task. Everyone home safe
. He repeated his mantra a few more times before he dropped his hand.

Noelle pushed Syney toward their usual table in the dining hall. “Come on. Be a good sport,” she whispered. Helen and Leaf already were seated. Noelle and Syney smiled at them as they sat down.