Wolf Hunter (Moon Kissed Book 1) Read online

  Wolf Hunter© Copyright 2022 Harper A. Brooks

  Visit my books at https://harperabrooks.com

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  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher/author.

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

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  H.A.B. Publications LLC

  Cover Design: Ryn Katryn Book Covers

  Interior & Formatting: Formatting by Jennifer Laslie

  Editor: Words of Advice Editing

  Proofreading: Krista Cook

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Also by Harper A. Brooks

  About the Author

  Wolf Hunter

  Falling for her target wasn’t part of the plan.

  Tasha Ward exists as a phantom. Drifting from place to place, she can blend in to the point of invisibility—a trait highly useful for a deadly assassin like her. But after years of perfecting her skills, she wants to be seen.

  No… It’s more than that. She wants the alpha of the murderous Redcliff wolf pack to look her in the eye as she plunges her knife straight through his heart. Traveling deep into the pack’s territory alone, Tasha’s prepared for war… until she finally faces the pack’s ruggedly sexy leader and does the one thing she’s never done before. Hesitate.

  As the new alpha, Reid Holden doesn’t agree with many of the traditions his father believed in. Especially taking a woman to sacrifice once a year. Unfortunately, being on top means he’s always a target, and venomous snakes are everywhere. Even in his own family.

  Tasha’s meant to be another enemy, but Reid is finding it impossible to hate her. It doesn’t help that his wolf has already claimed her. She may want him dead, but she might be the one person he’ll end up risking everything for.

  For all the people I lost this past year

  I’ll keep the memories with me forever

  Chapter

  One

  Tasha

  Open the window. Kill the vampire. Get the hell out.

  It was supposed to be easy. One of those quick, snap-your-finger contracts. This is what I do for a living. I kill people. Not to boast, but I am pretty damn good at it.

  So why is this window being such a pain in the ass?

  Probably because I’d taken a job back in my hometown, and now the universe wants to punish me for it. Bad memories, right along with a bastard window not wanting to cooperate and a vampire to stake.

  The wood squeaks and groans, swollen from a recent rain and the unseasonably warm winter weather in Maine. Give it a day and all that will change. I know from personal experience.

  Tonight, though, I have a boot braced against the wall and both hands in prime prying position. Except it refuses to budge.

  I also know better than to grunt or groan or give away my position, even when I really want to scream at the thing. Curse it off. My last nerve is paper thin and ready to snap.

  I pull out my hunting knife and run it along the edges of the pane for the tenth time and then jam the blade between the sill and window. After some fierce wiggling and four broken nails, I manage to get the window pried open without much noise. Score one for me. Only now I have to catch my breath.

  I’m getting too old for this.

  When I finally have enough space to fit, I fold my body through the opening and jump down into a dark sitting room full of couches, bookshelves, and a cold fireplace. The place is quiet and a chill clings to the air.

  The fanger must be sleeping. Perfect.

  I just have to find his hidey-hole, stake him, and get out before the sun sets.

  Sounds easy enough. Hopefully the window will be the worst of this job.

  On tiptoes, I creep over to one of the bookshelves and scan the book spines and trinkets the vampire’s collected during his many years as an immortal. I choke back a laugh when I find dozens of cheesy romance novels instead of classic literature or priceless first editions.

  Hey, no judgment here. Everyone has their thing. I just didn’t peg a five-hundred-year-old blood sucker to collect Fabio-covered paperbacks.

  “I enjoy their simplicity and their… imagination,” a voice rumbles from behind me.

  My gut plummets.

  I whirl around and come face-to-face with the fanger I’m supposed to take out.

  You’ve got to be kidding me.

  My luck is shit today.

  His eyes glaze red as he stares straight through me. At last, he smiles and the points of his red-stained teeth dig into his lower lip. Ah, shit. I must’ve caught him during a feeding session, which means two things. One, he’s at his strongest now, with the fresh blood coursing through his veins, and two, he’s pissed I interrupted his meal.

  “Did you want something? A recommendation?” he asks.

  “I’m more of a thriller and mystery lover, myself.” My fingers squeeze a little tighter around my blade’s handle. Even though it’s the slightest bit of movement, his gaze drops to it, and his entire face contorts with anger.

  I don’t have time to swing my knife before his arm lashes out, and I’m flying across the room. The side of my head collides with one of the shelves, and trashy romance novels rain down on me. My breath is punched from my lungs, and pain shoots down my back, but when I try to shield my head from Fabio’s assault, I realize I’m empty-handed. My knife! Where is it?

  Even worse, the vamp is coming for me, snarling like a wild animal with his fangs on full display.

  I try shifting through the paperbacks, but he’s rushing at me too fast.

  I need something else.

  Pulse in overdrive, I reach into myself for that familiar tingle of magic I know so well. The kind that allows me to shift my appearance so that I can blend into my background. I can become invisible… as long as I stay still. Changing on the move is nearly impossible.

  Being a living ghost has its advantages in my line of work. It makes me the best in the biz because hey, you can’t see me coming.

  Usually, that is. This time, as I grasp frantically for my power, I can’t get it to activate. Whether it’s my erratic heartbeat or something else, I don’t know, but the vampire continues to stare directly at me as he closes the distance between us quickly.

  Hell of a time for it to be on the fritz.

  Fear mounting, I try to get ahold of my power again and blend in with my surroundings, but no, nothing. Still standing at five-six. Still pink haired. Still entirely fucked.

  Uh-oh.

&n
bsp; The vamp grabs my shoulders roughly and yanks me back onto my feet. His nostrils widen as he inhales, taking in my scent, and his pupils dilate out of hunger.

  “What are you?” he rasps, his breath smelling rancid, like the blood he just drank before I stumbled in here.

  I gag. Gross.

  Nails biting into my arms, he shakes me hard, and my brain rattles inside my skull. “What are you?” he repeats, more forcefully this time.

  I reply by punching him in the face with all my strength. It may not be enough to knock a vampire out, but it stuns him so that he lets go. I drop, crouch low, and sweep out my leg, catching him behind the ankle and making him topple over.

  When I bounce back to my feet, there’s something else in my hand. Not my knife, but one of the thick books that had toppled from a shelf. I whip it across his head. It does the job and gives me that extra oomph I needed to send him to the ground.

  Glancing at the cover of a shirtless man with flowing golden locks and a beautiful maiden on his arm, I realize I may have to take back everything I said about reading these. Damn book came in handy.

  I should take this one home with me and give it a read. Feels like I owe it to the thing somehow.

  When I look back up, I find the vamp’s spot on the floor empty, and my breath catches.

  Ah, fuck. You’d think he’d have a concussion from that, but these bloodsuckers heal fast. I should’ve never taken my eyes off him.

  There’s a flash of movement from above, and when I look up, a blur is racing toward me. It crashes into me, throwing me onto my back, and its massive weight grinds me into the floor. Even though his pale skin is stretched tightly over his face and neck in fury, recognition seems to spark in his eyes.

  “I know who you are!” he shouts at me, spit flying.

  “Oh, yeah? You do?”

  That doesn’t make him ease up on me at all. Quite the opposite, actually—he grabs me by the shirt and uses it to slam my head against the hard wood.

  My vision darkens as more pain erupts behind my eyes. Even his face becomes nothing more than a smear of color against the room’s shadows.

  He growls the next words. “Wolf Hunter.”

  So he does know who I am. Or, at least, he knows the nickname I’ve acquired over the years.

  You may be wondering: why wolves when my work has me tracking down and taking out all kinds of supernaturals? Like this vampire here?

  Simple. It’s because wolves are my specialty. And they hold a very, very special place in my little black heart.

  The vampire looms over me, snarling like a wild animal. Any bit of human veneer disappears under the weight of his bloodlust and wrath.

  You know what would be great right now? Being able to go invisible, take him off guard, and then really shock him with a swift knee to the balls. But any time I try to dig inside myself to find my power, I can’t grab hold of it long enough to get it to activate. It keeps slipping through my fingers.

  “Where’s the deadly killer everyone talks about?” he sneers. “The one that can turn invisible? Like a chameleon.”

  A chameleon?

  Well, I can honestly say I haven’t heard that one before, but my power is extremely unique, and I can change myself to match my surroundings so… it fits.

  I’ve been called worse.

  “All I see is a pathetic little girl.” He uses his grip on me to give himself clear access to my neck, and when he leans in closer, my muscles tighten. “But how will you taste?”

  Fuck no, not my neck.

  I buck and twist underneath him, trying with all my strength to somehow get him off me. With my invisibility not working, I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Except I’m rusty at it because I’ve been doing things my way for far too long.

  I’ll beat myself up about it later. First, I need another weapon.

  By some miracle, I get my arm out, and I reach for one of the guns at my belt. It’s my left hand, so I’m a bit more shaky when firing, but I’m able to shoot off three rounds at point-blank range.

  One to the head, one to the stomach, and the other to his thigh.

  The bullets only seem to get absorbed into his body, the holes quickly filling in and closing up before my eyes. He barely blinks.

  I swing my arm, hoping to clock him again since it worked before, but his vampire reflexes are too quick, and he’s able to snatch my wrist midair, rip my fingers apart to drop the gun, and pin my hand by my head instead. Then, amused, he laughs.

  Bastard.

  “You’ve got fire in you,” he manages to say over the fangs crowding his mouth. His smile is like that of a shark’s, all those sharp, shiny teeth. The stuff of nightmares. Whoever wrote vampires as being tall, dark, and sexy are liars. “I like it. I’ve always enjoyed playing with my food.”

  His teeth bury into my neck a second later, and I cry out at the spike of agony.

  I can’t die. Not yet. I still have so much to do, so many more people to kill. Like murdering the one son of a bitch in this world I really want to…

  And it isn’t the vamp.

  Exhaustion starts to set in as he continues to suck the blood from my veins. His pleased growls vibrate against my skin, and even the sharp tug is becoming lost to numbness. My limbs are growing heavier by the second, and my head whirls. I’m going to pass out.

  Carmen…

  My sister.

  She’s the reason why I trained so hard, why I became a killing machine. The Wolf Hunter.

  And I’ll be damned if I die too soon to find her.

  The vampire draws me in to him with a moan, his other arm shifting around my waist to press our bodies even closer. Terror floods my system.

  Against my best efforts, my eyes flutter closed. My body sags against the floor.

  But then, to my surprise, he pulls back and licks his lips.

  Without thinking, I seize any ounce of strength I have left in me and throw out my arm blindly. I end up nailing him straight in the throat.

  Blood explodes from his mouth, and he gurgles and chokes, clutching his neck. His eyes are wild with shock, and I use his moment of disorientation to thrust my head forward, destroying his nose.

  Roaring, he jumps off me, his blood and mine staining the entire front of his clothes. Knowing I don’t have much time before the healing starts, I leap to my feet, grab his wrist, then spin and wrench it up. The break snaps with an audible crack.

  Lightheaded and dizzy, I scan the floor around me, struggling through my double vision, but that’s when I see it. A flash of silver partially buried underneath the pile of knick-knacks and books.

  My knife!

  I snatch it and whirl on the vampire, only to find him doing the unthinkable.

  He’s fleeing. Like a coward.

  Or maybe I should say he’s smart for running from me, but unfortunately for him, I don’t get paid unless he’s dust, so…

  I narrow my eyes, trying to track him as he races across the living room and into the kitchen. There’s no back door that way, but there is a staircase to a basement.

  Anticipating his next step, I fling the dagger with a flick of my wrist, and it twirls through the air lightning fast. Then, it hits its mark, right in the center of his back. Right through his heart.

  Piercing the undead thing won’t kill him, but it’ll keep him immobile long enough for me to scramble it to bits. That’ll do it.

  He stumbles, hitting the wall before tumbling down the entire flight of steps. Wasting no time, I hurry after him, descending deeper into the dark coldness of the house’s cellar. The vamp is a crumpled mess at the bottom, my knife still embedded in his back, so I straddle him, grab the handle, and wrench it around, making sure to cause as much damage as possible. Blood seeps from the gaping wound, making my grip slippery, but I hold on tight, thinking of nothing else but this fucker’s fangs in my neck as he tried to drain me dry.

  When he’s mangled up enough, I wrench out my blade, and his body begins to sink beneath me as t
he rapid death process takes hold. His limbs shrivel inward, his skin grays, and his hair dries out until he’s nothing more than a husk of a corpse.

  Pushing to my feet, I wait for my favorite part when it comes to killing his kind, and a second later, he explodes into a quick eruption of dust. Like a little fucked-up firework.

  It was rough at first, but that’s another successful job in the books.

  Finally, I draw in a breath, and with it, every ache and pain pushes through the adrenaline. I’m definitely going to be bruised up tomorrow.

  I touch the side of my neck, then look at my fingers to see them still shining with blood. It only reignites my anger all over again.

  Shit. Two more scars to add to my collection.

  I’ve got to get it together. Go home, eat something, drink a shit-ton of orange juice, and nurse my wounds. And maybe my pride. For now, I grab my throwaway cell and text the only number I’ve been given for this assignment: It’s done.

  Then, I throw the thing on the floor, stomp on it, and kick it deeper into the shadows of the basement. Whatever happened tonight with my power, whatever went wrong, I refuse to let it happen again. I can’t let it happen again. My invisibility isn’t the only thing that sets me apart from other supernaturals in my line of work, but it’s what’s going to make infiltrating the Redcliff Pack and spearing my knife through their alpha possible.

  Carmen’s life depends on it. If they haven’t already killed her, that is.

  Chapter

  Two