The Hunt (Shifter Origins) Read online

  After being tossed into the dark prison cell, she had remained in the same spot for the rest of the night, sitting against the wall with her knees drawn up to her chest. Every sound had stirred her awake, so she’d spent her time passing in and out of consciousness. The cough of a guard, the hoot of an owl, the drone of the funeral horn, it all made her jump. Sometimes, she expected to wake up on her blankets at home with Alina curled up beside her.

  Cara’s chest tightened. She wondered what her sister was doing at that moment. Maybe napping. Alina had a difficult time sleeping most nights. Cara wished she could be there to tell her a story or hum a soft song until she drifted to sleep. Maybe Ryna had given her some herbal tea to help her dream.

  Cara’s eyes burned with impending tears, and she pressed the heels of her hands against them until colors exploded behind her lids. She had gone with the tiger prince and his guards to protect her family, but now she wasn’t so sure she’d made the right choice. Her only hope was that Rafé was keeping his word and caring for them. That, and maybe Prince Kael would change his mind and let her go.

  A half-hysterical laugh bubbled up her throat. She had a better chance of finding a way to escape and somehow getting past all of the tigers’ guards.

  Sweat trickled down her back and between her breasts. Every breath Cara took was warm and stale. The prison cell had towering walls of solid rock, but no roof. Only a draped red sheet separated her from the blazing sun, and the rays streamed through the threads.

  The open ceiling to the cell made Cara think of a way to escape. She could scale the high wall and climb over the top. Managing the drop down without being seen would be another challenge, but doable if she waited for nightfall. The idea was squashed the moment she noticed claw marks decorating the smooth, black walls. They scarred the rock a few feet above her head and slid all the way down to the base. A bloody nail was even caught in the stone. She hadn’t been the only one to consider the escape plan. The walls were just too slick to climb.

  Then, Cara peered over at the cell’s corners. Maybe she could use both walls to hoist herself up and out. She walked over, careful not to step in the grass pile. When she ran her hand across the curved surface, her stomach plummeted. The cell had been carved round at the corners. It would be impossible for her to shimmy up.

  Trapped.

  The only way out was through the locked door. It was covered with scratches, too, but no one had gotten far into the solid wood. Even if Cara did claw her way through the door, she would still have to get by the two guards stationed outside it. There was no way she could sneak past them, nightfall or not.

  She huffed, took a fistful of her hair, and lifted it from her moist neck. Not knowing what else to do, she sagged against the wall. She almost moaned out loud when the cool surface pressed against her skin.

  The sound of boots clapping against stone echoed outside the door. Cara froze, listening to the shuffling and muffled whispers and grunts. They must have been talking about her.

  More footsteps, but they were fading away this time. The guards were leaving.

  Keys jingled. She held her breath.

  Click. The lock unlatched. The hinges cried out as the heavy door opened.

  Prince Kael stepped through, dressed in long white robes that dragged behind him along the grass-dusted floor. Silver buttons lined the front, and a cape draped across his wide shoulders. Rivulets of sweat ran down the side of his clean-shaven face. His cheeks were flushed, and his breaths came out in quick, short gasps, like he had been running.

  That thought jerked her. Why would he be running to see her?

  “Cara.” Her name sounded different in his husky tone. Despite the heat, it made a shiver climb up her spine.

  His amber eyes roamed over her and then around the prison cell. His upper lip curled up in disgust at what he saw, and, she guessed, because of the rancid smell.

  She waited for him to speak again, but he remained quiet with his gaze on her.

  “Well, I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see you again,” Cara remarked, crossing her arms. The skin under her palms was slick with perspiration.

  Kael’s hands fell to his belt. It wasn’t until then that Cara noticed the scarf tied around it, the color of spring leaves. He untied it and held it out to her.

  “I spoke to the lynx in the marketplace,” Kael said. His voice wavered as if he was still debating his words. He cleared his throat before he continued. “He admits he traded with you. He had your scarf, just as you said.”

  Cara’s heart drummed against her ribs. She stepped closer to him. The gold thread, the silky fabric, the crystal beads—it was her mother’s scarf, and the prince held it in his grip.

  “H-How did you get it back?” Her legs wobbled. It felt as if her bones were rattling beneath her skin. “I traded it—”

  “You were telling me the truth.” He cut her off. “And I didn’t believe you.”

  Cara reached out, but then a thought came to her. She hesitated. Was this a trap of some kind, a way to trick her into a harsher sentence?

  He bowed his head. “I…” There was a long pause. “I…apologize.”

  Cara stepped back, not sure if she had heard him right. Not too long ago he was threatening her, his personal guards laughing at her. This couldn’t be what it seemed. What more did he want from her?

  “You’re mocking me,” she said. He had to be. Cara searched his expression for any clue of his true intentions. His brows only knitted together in confusion.

  “I am most certainly not.” Anger now coated his tone.

  “You must be,” she replied. “Why else would you be here, apologizing to me—a panther?”

  Kael was silent for a moment. Then, he shook the headscarf still in his hand. “I spoke to the lynx. I paid for your rabbit meat. I brought back your scarf. You called me heartless. A brute,” he said. “That doesn’t seem very heartless to me.”

  He was right. It didn’t. But that didn’t mean she trusted him.

  Cara snatched the scarf from his waiting hand, her fingers brushing against his open palm. A jolt shot through her nerves at the touch.

  “It isn’t my scarf,” Cara muttered, trying to ignore the strange tingling radiating over her skin. “It was my mother’s. My father gave it to her…for the Hunt.”

  She brought the green silk fabric to her nose. Even through the sharp urine and mold scent of the cell, Cara could smell hilisha flowers and honey. Her mother. For the first time in a long while, a smile crept across her lips.

  Kael nodded like he had expected her answer. “It means a lot to you.”

  “It is all I have left of them both.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and then clasped his hands at the base of his spine.

  As the silence stretched out between them, Cara wondered if the prince would let her go. He had apologized, admitted his mistake, and had returned her mother’s headdress from the lynx. There was no reason for him to keep her here. She wasn’t guilty, and now he knew it.

  But Kael did not move away from his place in front of the prison door.

  She needed to get back to Alina and Ryna. The small chance of freedom made her pulse race. He just needed to say the word, and Cara would sprint from the palace, down the river, never looking back. Hell, she would never leave the village again. She would do anything to make sure she wasn’t separated from her family. Anything.

  Instead, Kael titled his chin up toward the open roof. He squinted against the sun’s harsh rays shining through the draped sheet. “Tell me what you saw in the marketplace,” he said. “I need to know everything so I can to track down Rei Salus’s killer.”

  Cara still thought it was strange for a son to be calling his father by his title and name, but the tigers were not like the panthers. Kael didn’t seem to have a relationship with his father like the one she’d shared with her parents. From the sound of the horn this morning, and Kael’s white ceremonial robes, Rei Salus’s burial had to have happened only a few hou
rs ago. Yet, Kael appeared unmoved, not even a hint of sadness in him at losing his father.

  Cara clenched the headdress tighter in her hand. She wanted to make sure that if Kael changed his mind and tried to take it back, he wouldn’t be able to pry it from her grip.

  “I had just left the lynx’s tent after our trade,” she began, thinking back to the day before. It felt like a century ago. “Standing in between two tents, I watched the rei on the dais as he spoke, watched the crowd, and you—” She stopped. Cara thought about how she had been ogling him like a fool. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she glanced at him to see if he had noticed.

  He hadn’t. Kael stared straight ahead—through her—taking in every detail she said. His expression hardened. He didn’t even seem to notice she had paused.

  She quickly recovered. “I smelled the faint scent of mint leaves in the air. Then I heard cracking, like the sound of twigs breaking. It came from behind me, but before I could turn my head, the dart flew by.”

  “Mint,” he mused. “I smelled it, too, just before Rei Salus was hit and again when I pulled the dart from his chest. The point was dipped in some kind of poison. I’m just not sure what yet.”

  Cara shrugged a shoulder. “I know real mint leaves are not dangerous. My grandmother uses them in almost all her tea recipes.”

  “Maybe the assassin used mint to cover the true smell of the poison,” Kael suggested.

  “For someone who was trying to kill the rei and not be discovered, it makes sense. It’s poss—” But her words died on her tongue. A piercing whistle cut through the silence, and then a familiar breath of a scent touched her nose. Her stomach dropped.

  Mint.

  She leaped forward, using her momentum and all her strength to shove Kael out of the way. At the same time, Kael tried to step back, seizing her by the wrists, falling with her.

  A slicing pain cut through Cara’s upper arm, but she swallowed back her scream. Kael slammed onto the floor with a loud thud, and she landed with the side of her face connecting with his solid chest. All the air rushed from her lungs.

  Everything was still for a moment.

  Beneath her ear, Kael’s heart thundered. Even through his clothing, Cara felt the heat radiating from his skin. She blew tangled strands of hair out of her face.

  On the floor, just inches away, was a tiny wooden dart with a pointed tip.

  With hands planted firmly on his chest, Cara heaved herself up. She stared down at him. Kael’s dark hair fanned out. His lips parted, and he watched her with hooded eyes. They lingered on her face for a while, then lowered.

  His body stiffened.

  She was straddling his hips.

  She froze, her pulse thudding against her eardrums. A thousand racy thoughts rushed forward, all involving them both naked and in a similar position.

  What was she thinking? There was no time for this. The dart. The poison. Focus, Cara!

  But he was looking at her with hunger heating his gaze. Her stomach flipped.

  Focus! Kael had almost been killed.

  Cara swung her leg around and slid off him until she was kneeling beside him. Kael must have thought the same thing because he jerked up and shook his head clear.

  “Are you all right?” Kael asked, breathless.

  “Yes. Are you?”

  He nodded.

  Cara’s gaze flicked from the dart to the open ceiling. The only way into the prison cell was from above or the door, and since the dart had not come from behind Kael, the assassin must have shot over the wall. But his accuracy was spot-on. Cara doubted anyone could shoot from the ground on the other side and over the wall with that much precision.

  “He scaled the wall and shot from the top,” Kael answered her unspoken question.

  “If the walls outside are as slick as these, I don’t see how that’s possible.”

  “They aren’t the same,” he said. “The inside of the cells were only smoothed to prevent prisoners from escaping. No one expected someone to want to break in.”

  He was quiet for a moment, then anger flashed across his face. “My guards?” he continued, his voice shaking. He picked up the dart and examined it like he had the first. “They didn’t see someone climb up the wall and almost kill their prince? In daylight!”

  “B-Be careful with that,” Cara stammered. Her voice didn’t sound like her own when it reached her ears. “The tip may still have the poison on it.” She tried to stand, but her knees struggled to lift her. Kael hopped to his feet and held out his hand. She waved it away and tried again.

  When she was on her feet, her head whirled.

  “Are you sure you are all right?”

  “Just a little unsteady,” she murmured and forced a false smile to crack her lips. “Haven’t eaten in a few days.”

  Suddenly, Kael sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re bleeding.” His fingers wrapped around her arm and jerked her toward him. She almost lost her footing, but his grip tightened and held her upright. “The dart—did it hit you?”

  Cara looked at her arm. Just above Kael’s hand, a dark line of crimson bubbled up from a new gash splitting her flesh. Cara remembered a sharp pain while falling, but she didn’t feel it now. Actually, the skin around it was pleasantly warm, tingling even. Numb. Even Kael’s touch was becoming lost to her.

  “Just a scratch,” she choked. The taste of smoldering ash and mint coated her tongue. She tried to swallow it, but stomach acid rose up and scalded the back of her throat.

  “Cara, the poison…” Kael’s voice sounded far away.

  Colors danced in front of her eyes until Kael was no longer standing there facing her. Her head lolled to the side, too heavy for her neck.

  “Guards!” he called out, then turned back to Cara. “You pushed me out of the way!” He repeated it over and over. “Why? You pushed me…Why? Guards!”

  She closed her eyes. She was tired all of a sudden. Very tired.

  Was Kael still in the cell with her? She didn’t feel his fingers on her arm anymore.

  The last thing she heard was her name whispered from his lips.

  “Cara…”

  Chapter Five

  Kael caught Cara as her knees buckled, sweeping his arms under her legs and back before she could hit the ground. He scooped her up and pulled her close to his chest. Her head nestled in the hollow of his neck, and the Hunt headscarf fell out of her hand and fluttered to the floor.

  Cara was pale, her lips turning white. For a moment, Kael wondered if she was still alive. But then he saw the small rise and fall of her chest.

  She was still breathing.

  His heart plummeted into the pit of his stomach. For now.

  The poisonous dart would have struck him if Cara hadn’t pushed him out of the way. She took the hit. He should have moved faster; he should have been the one to pull her away in time to save them both.

  Kael’s eyes snapped to the cell’s open ceiling. The murderer could still be lurking, waiting for his opportunity to kill him, too. He listened for any warning sounds and heard only booming footsteps coming down the hall. A jolt shot up his spine, sending waves of panic through his body.

  Kael spun on his heel and jumped through the doorway, Cara cradled in his arms. The two guards he had stationed in front of her cell and then dismissed appeared at the end of the hall, spears in their hands and their eyes wide. He should have never sent them away in the first place—all because he didn’t want them to hear his apology to a panther. Damned pride.

  “She saved me…” He shoved past the guards and hurried through the poorly lit hallway to the open prison door. They shouted at him to stop and raced after him.

  The palace was the safest place Kael knew, and it was close. There was no way a dart could penetrate its solid mountain stone walls. He needed to get out of the open air and fast.

  He dashed down the path, around the perimeter of the palace, to the open archways. Cara’s body twitched in his hold. As he glanced down at her ashen face, pinched with pain,
a thought struck him. Not since Cara had been carried from the throne room as a child had another panther entered the palace. There was no written law stating it, but Kael was sure Regis Jaleh would not allow her back in, just like his father wouldn’t.

  “Prince Kael! You must stop!” The guards’ frantic cries behind him confirmed his suspicions.

  Kael’s head whirled. He couldn’t think about Rei Salus and his rules right now. Getting Cara into the palace would be the best thing for the both of them. He could assess the cut on her arm. He would be protected if the assassin still wanted to hit his target.

  But where to take her?

  His bedroom was private and enclosed. He could hide Cara in there. He sprinted across the palace’s slick, white, polished floors and through the grand foyer. Kael passed the flowing water fountain. He glanced at the throne room doors. The spot was absent of guards. They must have been trading shifts. He praised his luck. He didn’t need more curious guards on his tail or reporting back to his mother.

  Kael raced up the winding staircase to the second floor. His steps echoed down the deserted hallway. When he reached his bedroom, he kicked the wooden door, sending it clattering against the wall. The balcony doors had been left ajar, and the afternoon heat crept into the room. He went to his bed, laid Cara down on the newly folded red sheets, and rushed over to the painted-glass doors to close them.

  He flicked the latch shut.

  “Prince Kael.”

  The two guards filled the doorframe. They pointed their spears at the bed.

  “My father’s murderer—he’s still out there,” Kael gasped in a single rush of air. He moved back to the bed. “I was wrong. He shot a dart at me from the top of the prison cell wall. She pushed me out of the way… It hit her.”

  The guards stood frozen, except to exchange unsure looks.

  Kael peered down at Cara’s arm. The dart’s poisonous tip had sliced through her smooth, creamy skin. Blood leaked over the edges and dripped onto his pillows and sheets. He needed to stop the bleeding. He thought back to his combat and hunting training. He had been taught how to dress wounds if injured—stop the bleeding, clean, and wrap in a dry bandage—but this was different. This was poison, and the toxin was quick. He didn’t know how much had seeped in, and he hadn’t been taught how to extract it, either.