The Hunt (Shifter Origins) Read online

  “I’ll have Felic, Barun, and Sani take turns guarding you. Hell, Danil and I can—”

  She shook her head, stopping him. Even as children, Rafé always seemed to hover over her, protecting her from anything and everything he deemed as too dangerous for her. Time hadn’t changed a thing. “No, Rafé. I won’t let anyone else get hurt or dragged to the prison because of me.”

  Ignoring her, he raised his fingers to his mouth and whistled again. Felic and Sani, still in their panther forms, padded over. Barun was not too far behind, flicking his two knives in and out of their handles. His short stature and wide shoulders made him appear almost square.

  Three out of four. The newest and youngest addition of Rafé’s small militia, Danil, was missing. He most likely had Danil positioned somewhere, awaiting the prince’s return. Rafé made five. When things had begun to get bad for the panthers, Rafé started recruiting the biggest and strongest men in the village to protect their kind. He named them after the Nobles’ guardians when they had reigned, the Majasha.

  “I won’t let them just take you away,” Rafé said.

  Cara sighed, taking a step back. “I need to go. It will be easier for everyone.”

  “They’ll kill you,” he shot back. His eyes were bright as they searched her face. She wondered where his anger was really directed. At her? The tigers? The prince?

  “Then I’ll need you to watch over Alina and Ryna for me.” It hurt to say, but she had to be sure that when she was gone, her family would be taken care of. “Please, Rafé.”

  He raked his fingers through his dark hair, pushing it back from his face. With the Hunt approaching, Cara could see why so many women thought of him as a good mate. Rafé was a leader. He radiated power. The curves in his face were sharp, and fine hairs shadowed his jaw and upper lip. He was handsome, but something about him made the skin prickle on the back of Cara’s neck. Especially when he looked at her from underneath his thick, black brows.

  Cara wondered if he was just as determined to make her his mate as he had been during last year’s Hunt.

  Rafé’s shoulders slumped. The glow of his eyes dulled. “Yes, I will watch after them.” He gestured to the three Majasha men, and they retreated back into the forest. When he looked at Cara again, his expression was pained. He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but the words were lost in his throat. “Be careful,” he mumbled after a moment. “You know, above us all, how cruel the tigers can be.”

  Cara bit her lip as the memory of being carried out of the palace, pleading with the tigers to help her dying parents, resurfaced. Rafé was right. She did know of their coldness more than most people. She nodded, not sure what else to say.

  She walked back to the house. If these really were the last few moments she had alive, then she couldn’t think of a better way to spend them than with her small, broken family.

  …

  Kael trudged down the bank of Sajra’s long, winding river. Ten guards followed close behind him, their steps loud and clumsy. If the panther woman, Cara, was smart, she would come with them without a fight, and if the village’s people wanted to stay alive, they wouldn’t interfere.

  He led his guards around the patch of tall, stinging river grass. When they reached the end, where the ground turned soft and the hilisha flowers grew wild, Kael froze, unable to believe what he was seeing. The panther woman, Cara, stood on the muddy riverbank. Her gaze stretched out over the rushing water, to something at the top of the river. With shoulders bowed, she ran her hands up and down her arms.

  Kael scanned the area for others but saw no one else. She seemed to be alone. “Panther,” he huffed.

  She turned. When their eyes met, Kael’s chest tightened. The blossoms around her feet seemed to catch the remaining rays of the evening sun and reflect the warm glow onto her glossy brown skin.

  Even though she still wore the same gray dress as before, the image of her standing bare and naked before him flashed across his mind. What would it be like to glide his fingertips over every curve of her body? To feel the smoothness of her skin?

  His stomach somersaulted, and he quickly shoved the ideas away. She was a panther—no matter how beautiful she was.

  Murderer. He repeated it over and over in his head to shake away any other thoughts.

  “Cara. My name is Cara,” she said as she took a step toward him.

  “Cara.” Her name still felt strange on his tongue. “You are being arrested for the murder of—”

  “Rei Salus. I know.” She glanced at the guards beside him as if she was sizing up their weapons.

  Kael looked over to the village tucked away in the Bilha Forest. He wondered if the panthers would appear to defend her like they had before. “Where are the rest of your people?” he asked.

  “Hopefully enjoying their meals.” She frowned, and her eyes drifted to the village’s entrance.

  “No one is coming to your aid this time?”

  “No,” she whispered. “Your threat was quite clear. I came here on my own. To protect them.”

  “And where is your mate—Rafé?”

  Her brow rose. “Rafé isn’t my mate.”

  Kael’s heart beat a little faster. A beautiful woman like her without a mate? Strange.

  “Please, let’s get this over with.” Cara lifted her hands, wrists up. The gesture made Kael think of a sacrificial offering. “I’m ready.”

  One of the royal guards, a cheetah, marched up to her. “Murderer,” he hissed as he seized her by the arm. He jerked her toward Kael and then threw her down. “On your knees before Prince Kael.”

  She obeyed without question. Kael watched as the cheetah wrapped a heavy rope around her wrists and tied a knot. Another guard stepped forward and threw a looped rope around her neck.

  His gut twisted at the sight of her on her knees, eyes blank, hands bound, with a noose hanging around her throat. Was there a need for it? She was coming without a fight.

  “She won’t be able to shift now,” the guard said. He yanked the rope, and the noose closed in.

  Cara’s face twisted in pain as the rope bit into her flesh. Gasping, she tried to grab at her neck, but the cheetah used the rope binding her hands to pull them away. The guards howled with laughter as she struggled to breathe.

  Kael didn’t know why, but seeing her writhe in pain made him suddenly sick. Cara hadn’t fought them. She had offered herself willingly. Alone, she wasn’t much of a threat. In her human form, she looked light enough for Kael to throw over his shoulder and carry to the prison himself.

  “Enough,” he demanded, and the guards’ laughter stopped abruptly. Kael snatched the ropes from their hands and went over to Cara. Turning a hard glare on his men, he loosened the knot at her throat. She sputtered and coughed as she drew in a breath.

  “We are here to take her back to the prison alive. Not kill her.” The words that left his lips surprised him. Was he defending her? “Yet,” he added.

  The guards straightened their spines. “Yes, my prince,” they said in unison.

  Kael looked down at Cara. She was staring at him with a perplexed expression. An apology for his men’s actions hovered on his lips, but he thought better of it. He didn’t want to see her tossed around, but she did kill the rei and deserved to be punished; it called for death. The fury at his father’s death had been so feral at first, and now, he was hesitating. When had it all changed?

  She’s getting into your head, like your father warned you. Stay strong. He would lock her in the prison, then he’d decide her fate.

  “Stand,” Kael ordered.

  Slowly, she rose to her feet. Kael made sure to keep the tension on the rope loose.

  He gestured for his men to start back up the river to the palace. The guards split their numbers in half as they walked. Five men stayed ahead of them and five followed behind. Kael held on to the ropes, and Cara strode beside him with her head down. They went on like that for some time, saying nothing. The crunching of uneven footsteps
on new grass and Cara’s shallow breaths filled the silence between them. Kael tried to focus on the distant hum of Sajra’s marketplace, which was still alive and pulsing during sunset. He wondered if his father’s people really did care that their rei was gone, or was his death on the dais just another thing to talk about?

  When they reached the only bridge that crossed the winding river, Cara slowed down. She stared straight ahead again, like she had at the riverbank. Kael looked up. At the base of the mountain, the tiger’s palace sat. The circular gold dome on the roof shone with the light of the descending sun. Tall, stone pillars surrounded the structure, and a roaring fire burned on top of each one. The flames threw dancing shadows on the palace’s marble face, and blood-red curtains billowed out of the open arches with every breeze.

  To Kael, this was home.

  “It’s been so long…” Cara said, breathless. She stopped walking, causing Kael and the guards to halt.

  Confused, Kael glanced at her. “You talk as if you’ve been here before,” he said.

  “She must have been dreaming,” a guard teased. “A panther in the palace?”

  “She must be raving mad! Was she in prison before?”

  The guards hooted with laughter.

  Kael’s gaze shifted to the knoll where the marketplace sat at the top. Two blurred faces stared down at them. They seemed to be talking, but distance muffled their voices. Five more heads appeared, then ten. A crowd formed at the crest, and their voices rose up, shattering the stillness.

  “It’s the prince!” someone shouted. “He’s got the panther!”

  There was applause and excited cheering.

  “Kill the panther!”

  “Kill it!”

  A black dot appeared in the air, growing bigger and bigger the closer it became. It landed on the hill a foot away and tumbled down the rest of the slope until it stopped at Cara’s feet.

  A rock.

  Someone had thrown a rock at her.

  When Kael peered up again, shadows dotted the rose-streaked sky.

  Cara leaped back, slamming into Kael’s chest.

  Rocks and clumps of mud rained down on them. Kael covered his head and cursed. When the hard thuds against the ground stopped, Kael lifted his head, anger building inside him. They were lucky he hadn’t been touched.

  A few of his guards dashed after the crowd and pushed them back over the knoll. The cursing and yelling died away.

  With Cara’s body still pressed up against his, he felt her tremble. He reached out, his fingertips grazing her shoulder.

  “Don’t touch me,” she snapped, jerking away. She whirled around, and a glob of mud slid down the side of her face. With her hands still tied, she wiped it away with one angry swipe. “I don’t need your help. I don’t need help from the tigers anymore. It always comes with a price.”

  “How dare you,” Kael spat. “We’ve done nothing but save Sajra from ruin after the fall of the Nobles.”

  “Brutes. The tigers are heartless, cold-blooded creatures.” Her yellow eyes snapped to him. “I did ask for the tiger’s help before. Seven years ago.” Cara’s expression shifted from fury to anguish and back again. “My parents were sick. I came to ask the rei and regis for help, and I offered them everything, all of me, just for medicine, a bit of money—something.”

  Kael hesitated. As she spoke, his memory stirred.

  “I pleaded and begged and prayed for their help, but they turned me away. The guards dragged me out…”

  Goose bumps rose on his skin. Kael knew the night she spoke of. He had been there.

  He had been just a boy still, only fifteen or so. He remembered sitting with his mother and father in the throne room. The doors flew open. A girl, not much younger than he was, threw herself onto the floor. Black hair and gleaming hilisha-yellow eyes—a panther.

  She begged. She cried. And she was carried out.

  After it all, Kael had asked his parents why they hadn’t given her the medicine she needed.

  “Panthers are liars, Kael,” his father had said. “They’ll say anything to steal from you. If you believed that, then you’ve fallen for the panther’s trickery. You’ll never be the rei that Sajra needs.”

  “My parents died the next morning.” Cara’s shaking voice brought him back to the present. “I was the only one left to care for Ryna and my newborn sister. For seven years, I’ve cared for them. I am all they have.”

  Kael tried to swallow down the lump in his throat. Because of his father and mother, her parents had died. And now he was about to break up what family she had left. But was it all true, he wondered. Or was he falling for a panther’s lies again? Either way, something inside him wanted to hear what else she had to say.

  “You are taking me from them because of what I am. I told you the truth. I was trading for food. Ask the lynx and he will tell you I was there. But you won’t, because what does it matter? I am a panther, and that is all I’ll ever be to you.” The remaining guards inched closer to her as her voice rose. “The tigers are heartless. Incapable of love. They were then, and they are now.”

  Whack! The cheetah guard who had bound her wrists hit the back of her legs with the wood of his spear. Cara fell hard onto the ground.

  Kael roared, snatched the spear from him, and struck it against his knee. It snapped in two like a twig.

  “She’s dishonoring your family,” the guard said.

  “You will not touch this woman again, do you hear me? Everything you do will only be from my order. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, my prince.” The cheetah sank away to the back of the group.

  Kael slid his hands under Cara’s arms and hoisted her to her feet again. He had been right. She weighed next to nothing.

  When Kael looked at her again, he was surprised to see that she didn’t appear angry anymore. Instead, a tear rolled down one of her cheeks.

  “You are wrong,” he muttered as he stepped away from her. “We are not all coldhearted.”

  Her gaze hardened on him. “Instead of mourning the death of your father, you chased me into my home. You frightened my family, my people. Even now, instead of grieving, you insist on taking me to the prison, yet I am going with you for a crime I didn’t commit just to protect my family from your threat.”

  Kael’s eyes widened. Yes, he wasn’t mourning his father’s death, but the rei would have wanted it that way. Rei Salus also wasn’t the type of ruler to let a killer get away, and neither was Kael. Then, why was he feeling guilty? How could this panther make him think that he was the one doing the wrong thing? A part of him thought that Cara might be telling the truth, but then the other part—Rei Salus’s son—knew the panthers couldn’t be trusted. Growing up, he had seen them arrested for stealing and lying. He knew the rumors about them snatching jewelry from women’s necks and terrifying children.

  Kael had seen Cara’s grandmother and sister in the hut, and the fierce protectiveness she had for them. Her parents must have indeed died. But that meant his father had been wrong all those years ago. All Cara had wanted then was help for her parents. If she hadn’t been lying about that, why did he think she was lying about this?

  “You ran,” Kael blurted out. His twisted and jumbled thoughts finally rested on what he had seen this afternoon. “Today, after the poisoned dart hit my father, you ran.”

  “I ran,” she retorted, “because the moment you saw me, you thought it was me. As I’ve said before, Tiger Prince, not many of your subjects think highly of me or my people.”

  “She’s lying,” a guard yelled as the others climbed down the hill and joined the rest. “She killed the rei.”

  “Panther filth!” another sneered. “To the prison.”

  The men split their ranks again and started marching. Kael pushed on without another word. They made their way across the river on the old stone and wood bridge. Cara walked along in silence. She set her jaw and lifted her head high. Again he was reminded of a sacrificial offering, and the thought disturbed him. An
other silver tear cascaded down her cheek, but she let it fall and kept her attention locked forward.

  On the other side of the river, they walked the stone path around the palace to where the prison lay. Kael wanted to say something more to her. Cara’s angry words swirled around in his head like the strong current passing under the bridge. If Rei Salus were still alive, Kael knew he would be proud of him for bringing the panther to the prison and not being pulled into her story. But his father was gone, and Kael couldn’t help but feel that—like that night seven years ago—his father may have been wrong once again.

  Chapter Four

  The steady, singular beat of a drum, coupled with the low drone of a ceremonial horn, rose up Sajra’s great mountain. The death song vibrated off the slippery stone face, rode on the passing breeze down the river, and invaded the city’s peaceful early morning. Four royal guards slid Rei Salus’s white stone coffin into the cavern at the base of the mountain. Kael stole a glimpse at their faces. Hard. Focused. Not a hint of sadness.

  He turned to his mother. Throughout the private burial, she had stood at his side without uttering a sound. Regis Jaleh’s silver and black striped hair, pulled up in a cloud on top of her head today, revealed her animal form—a white Bengal tiger. She watched as her husband’s coffin disappeared into the recesses of the cavern, behind the veil of darkness. Red veins lined her icy blue eyes, but they didn’t glitter with unshed tears. Her thin lips didn’t quiver as the sad song ended and silence engulfed the space. She stood there, unmoving, with arms folded over her middle. Only her sterile white gown showed movement as it fluttered in the breeze around her petite, bony frame.

  Cara’s spiteful words echoed in his ears again. “The tigers are heartless. Coldhearted. Brutes…”

  He thought back to the first moment he’d seen Cara. In the throne room, during another heated summer evening, his mother and father had been discussing their plans for Sajra, and that meant Kael’s future as well. Rei Salus sat in the stone chair with the most height, making everyone, including Kael and his mother, look up at him from their lower places. Kael’s seat was at Salus’s right hand and Regis Jaleh was on his left. Feeling stiff in his hard seat and eager to please his father, Kael listened to the words exchanged between his parents.