Parker

I hardly take notice as the men who weren’t chosen are shuffled away off the field. I’ve paid attention to them in past years because they stay behind while the new mates go off on the hunt together. I’ve always observed how angry it makes them. But tonight, my thoughts are a million miles away from them because I’m about to have my official first hunt with my mate.

“Bring out the quarry!” Alexi calls.

A group of five Bison packs, bound at the wrists and attached to a long iron chain, are led out. It was a pure accident that we learned that iron disrupts their magic, but I’m glad we know it because it allows us to keep them captive. These five would have been killed when they were caught if we hadn’t needed them for the hunt. As it is, we’ve been saving them all year.

Which means this isn’t going to be a real hunt. These prisoners aren’t anywhere near their full strength. They’ve been deprived of nutrition and sleep, unable to use their magic, for months. Maybe they hope to escape, but there’s no real chance for them.

This is just about the ceremony.

The newly mated couples turn to face their prey. Beta Ryu flashes me a grin, and I return it. This is going to be fun.

The Bison pack in front of us is a man maybe five years older than I am. He looks at me with an inhuman sort of panic in his eyes.

I don’t give a damn. He’s not human to me, not really. Every single Bison pack on this planet deserves death for the things they did. If they hadn’t used their moon magic so greedily, drawn on the moon’s power so heavily that they pulled it out of its natural gravitational alignment, our world wouldn’t be falling apart.

“Release the prisoners,” Alexi orders.

The chains are removed. Immediately, the Bison packs sprint away into the woods.

Beta Ryu laughs. I chuckle too. We both know they don’t have any chance of outrunning us.

“One kill per couple,” Alexi instructs. “When you’ve made your kill, bring the body back to the fire as evidence.”

He doesn’t say what comes next, but we know. After the hunt comes the first mating. That’s the part I'm Looking forward to.

“Go,” Alexi says, and we’re off, stripping out of our clothes. I just have time for a glimpse of Beta Ryu’s body before he shifts, taking on the form of a large gray wolf.

I let my wolf rise beside him. It’s easier to focus on the hunt in this form. The wolf has things she wants more than Beta Ryu’s body.

I keep pace with Beta Ryu as we run, following the scent of the Bison pack. He’s easy enough to track, even though I’ve only smelled him once. He’s been locked up so long that his stench is strong.

If they were smart, they would immediately do something to disguise their smell. They would immerse themselves in water, rub their skin in aloe, or do some of their magic. That would be a lot more effective than trying to outrun us.

Of course, if they were smart, they wouldn’t have broken the world in the first place. We wouldn’t have devoted ourselves to the cause of hunting them down.

Beta Ryu runs faster, glancing over at me, and I can tell he’s daring me to try to keep up. It’s a challenge I’m up for. I push myself harder as well. I’m easily the fastest woman of my age.

There’s a reason I was mated to our strongest fighter. I think he might be testing me, and I’m determined to prove myself.

Beta Ryu starts to veer off to the left—

I stop. He’s going the wrong way.

I don’t know how I know. I’m feeling a pull and that heart flutter is there again guiding me. He’s still following the scent.

By all accounts, he’s doing exactly the right thing. And yet, I know, somehow, that the mooncaster we’re looking for is ahead of us, not to the left. This is a trick.

He looks at me in exasperation.

I shake my head.

He rolls his eyes and follows me. I can tell he’s humoring me, that he’s fully expecting to mock me for this later.

He’ll probably get to it. There’s no way I can know this thing I think that I know.

And then I catch the scent again, and it’s right on top of us.

The Bison pack was smarter than I thought. He must have looped outward and then doubled back, hoping to lose us. Maybe he did cross through water and thought it would break the trail.

Maybe it would have if we hadn’t gone this way.

He’s standing right in front of us, and when he sees us, he starts to rise off the ground, hovering in the air. Freaky. I hate seeing them do this shit. So it’s very satisfying to see what happens next.

Beta Ryu is on him in a second, jaws clamped around his ankle, tugging him back down to earth. I stand back and watch the fight because that’s my role in this—the women help with the tracking, but not with the actual killing. That’s the way the ritual is set up.

It sucks, though. I don’t like standing back here and watching. I want to help. I want to be in the thick of things, showing my new mate what I’m capable of. I’ve never killed a Bison pack before—nobody does until, after age 23, only those who are of age go on the hunts. But I’m sure I could do it.

Beta Ryu doesn’t have any trouble without me, though. The fight only lasts a minute. Then the Bison pack is on the ground, blood pooling beneath him, eyes staring at nothing.

I look at him dispassionately.

He got what he deserved. I’m glad to see him dead.

Beta Ryu shifts back to human form. I do the same, and for a moment, we size each other up. I know he’s taking in my body, just as I’m taking in his. We both know what’s next.

“We better get this thing back,” he says, nudging the corpse with a toe.

I nod. The hunt is over early. There’s only one thing left for us to do tonight, and we have hours and hours left to do it, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I want him now.