Hunted in darkness, p.1
Hunted in Darkness, page 1
Hunted in Darkness
AN ASPEN PACK NOVEL
CARRIE ANN RYAN
Contents
Copyright
Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan….
Hunted in Darkness
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
Chapter 24
A Note from Carrie Ann
Also from Carrie Ann Ryan
About the Author
Hunted in Darkness
An Aspen Pack Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
© 2022 Carrie Ann Ryan
eBook ISBN: 978-1-947007-50-5
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-947007-51-2
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Cover Art by Sweet N Spicy Designs
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This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan….
“Count on Carrie Ann Ryan for emotional, sexy, character driven stories that capture your heart!” – Carly Phillips, NY Times bestselling author
“Carrie Ann Ryan’s romances are my newest addiction! The emotion in her books captures me from the very beginning. The hope and healing hold me close until the end. These love stories will simply sweep you away.” ~ NYT Bestselling Author Deveny Perry
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes the perfect balance of sweet and heat ensuring every story feeds the soul." - Audrey Carlan, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
“Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner
“Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT
"With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend
“Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon
Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn
"Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte
Dedication
For Grandma Sharon
I miss you.
Hunted in Darkness
The Aspen Pack series from NYT Bestselling Carrie Ann Ryan continues with a fated romance that was never supposed to happen.
Skye Jamenson-Anderson knows the legacy she must live up to. She’s the daughter of warriors and the granddaughter of the late Alphas who sacrificed everything so their den could survive. Though she feels she doesn’t have a place in her Pack, she does everything in her power to keep them and their allies alive—including saving the Aspen Alpha.
As Alpha of the Aspen Pack, Chase Leyne knows a thing or two about one’s legacy. He’s the son of a traitor and the most powerful wolf in his territory. He also knows without a doubt that Skye is not his mate. When the two decide to lean on another in every way possible, they both go in knowing nothing forever can come out of it.
The enemy is stepping up their game and threaten the stability of the alliance forged in blood. With one bite, Chase and Skye’s world changes, and the one thing that is keeping them apart might be the only promise to save their Packs and their future.
Chapter
One
Chase
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While I would’ve preferred my paws to touch the ground, for the dirt to sink in between my toes as I leapt over a fallen log and wound between the trees, I needed to be human for this. I had to go back and meet with the council, as well as a visiting Beta. There were things to do with an upcoming war on the horizon, like the fact that we wouldn’t be able to hide the vampires from the humans for much longer. As it was, we were certain that the government already knew something was changing. How had the vampires hidden for so long—at least thirty years from what I could tell—and were now rolling out so quickly?
They were doing this for a reason.
That worried me.
Because we weren’t ready, we were barely rising from the ashes as it was, but we needed to be better than this. We needed to focus and push through.
And that meant I needed to be at the top of my game.
I needed to stop with the nightmares. I needed to sleep through an entire night without waking up in a cold sweat, the feel of silver and metal against my back as I screamed in agony. I shouldn’t have those dreams any longer.
I couldn’t.
I had to be the Alpha the Aspens deserved.
I jumped over another log, my wolf at the forefront. He was pacing, eager for a hunt, but I knew it wasn’t time yet. We would go on a hunt for the full moon in the coming days with the rest of the Pack. They would wait for me, and I would lead them.
They needed me to be their leader.
I had been the Heir who hadn’t been allowed to be that person for so long. I’d been hidden away and hadn’t saved my people.
But now I would lead them, and I would protect them.
There wasn’t another choice.
I leapt over another log and kept going, annoyed with myself for letting the gloom hit me. I had so much energy, this rage that had been beaten and hidden within me for the years I was caged and locked away.
I still remembered Audrey’s screams when she had been tortured next to me, stabbed over and over again in places that wouldn’t damage any organs, but would still hurt her. We had been caged together, metal separating us, and I hadn’t been able to save my best friend.
And she hadn’t even known I was alive there.
The world had thought I was dead, hidden, but I had been there.
Somehow, I had survived. Maybe not whole, but enough.
I needed to survive.
I needed to protect my Pack.
I turned the corner, heading back to the den. They needed me, and while Steele didn’t appreciate the fact that I was running alone, I was still within the den’s reach. Anybody could get to me in less than five minutes. But I was an Alpha, and I could hold my own.
Far more than most people thought.
The first scent hit me, and my wolf went on alert as I slowed.
The moment I turned the corner, they moved.
As if they had been waiting.
Oh, they had known where I would be. They had to have. But how? How had they known?
I looked around, searching.
Vampires slid out of the darkness, but they were not overcome with blood hunger. No, these were sentient, with angry red eyes and immaculate control.
And they were waiting.
For me.
As they circled me, my claws slid out of my fingertips. I wouldn’t have time to change into my wolf form, even though I was faster than most.
No, I would have to fight as human.
A wolf howled to the moon behind me, so close that I could scent her, and I hoped she would be quick enough.
Because I knew who was coming for me.
Who was going to try to save me.
I just didn’t know if she would make it in time.
When the first vampire sliced at me, far quicker than any other vampire I had seen, I took the cuts to the arm with its claw, evading its fangs, and wondered if this was my end.
And then the rest of the vampires lunged, and I could think of nothing else.
I ducked out of the way of the closest black-tipped talon-like nails. My wolf pushed at me, coming to the surface.
My eyes glowed gold, the dominance of my animal far more than the vampire in front of me. It didn’t matter that this looked to be one of the most sentient and powerful vampires I had ever seen. I was going to defeat him and all his little buddies.
Though their red eyes were narrowed into slits, they were still sentient. T
One of them came at me, fangs bared. I slammed my hand into its throat and it staggered back. I twisted, going at another just as one of the damn vampires slid its fangs into my flesh. I half-shouted, half-howled, as I pried the vamp’s mouth off me and twisted its neck. It fell into a dead heap of flesh at my feet.
Venom sliced through my veins, and I cursed. I knew this couldn’t turn me, not from what we’d learned so far, but I didn’t know if it could weaken me. I needed to get to my Healer so Wren could work the poison out of my system.
We honestly didn’t know what happened to wolves or other shifters once a vampire bit into them. We only knew that like turning a human into shifter, it took near death to turn a human into a vampire. That’s what we had gleaned from the vampire general and his cronies like the dead Jagger. That vampire had killed himself rather than answer our questions.
My arm throbbing, my body radiating with tension, I came at the other vampire. One jumped onto my back, more vampires coming out of the woods, and I had to hope the fight was making enough noise that the Aspens on duty would come. I could damn well take these, bite notwithstanding, I just didn’t want anybody to get hurt because of me.
Not again.
Before I could twist to tear the vampire off of my back, a silver bullet shot past me. Not the weapon, but a small wolf, not too dominant, but not submissive either.
Skye ripped the vampire off my back, growled, and tore into its neck, twisting its head off its body. I ducked the claw of another vampire and then Skye and I were working as a team, the two of us fighting off the vampires as if we had been fighting against our enemies side by side for generations, rather than the single other battle we had ever fought together.
Considering none of the Aspens on patrol had come yet, the vampires had to be using their magic to keep others from getting through their personal wards. Because my sentries would be here—hell, my Enforcer, Steele, would be here if they could hear what was happening. Someone had known where I would be tonight and was making damn sure no one would be able to get to me.
It was just the two of us, and I was grateful Skye seemed to have been within the barrier of magic when the attack came. That was the only way she could have been through the vampire magic which seemed to be stronger than the shifters and witches combined.
It worried me because we did not have the coven’s support, as the coven did not have the magic needed to protect us. Nor did the shifters have the same connections to this demon that the vampires did. There were either witches working with the vampires, or demon magic was stronger and worked in different ways than we had ever seen before. Either way, we needed to find a way to become stronger in magic.
I couldn’t think of that right then. No, that was something for the Alpha part of me to work on later. Not the wolf part that needed to keep Skye and me safe. And that wasn’t only because she was the daughter of a powerful Redwood family. The granddaughter of the former Alpha before he had been slain by the demon.
No, she was also a friend. One who I was not going to let die trying to protect me.
She did not deserve to get hurt because I wasn’t strong enough to protect myself.
Finally, as the last vampire came at us, blood coating Skye’s silver fur, as well as most of my body, I looked into the bright gold and green eyes of Skye as she gave me a tight nod, and we lunged.
The vampire grinned and shook his head. “Not today.”
And then he turned, running full tilt, faster than any other vampire I’d seen—other than Valac and Sunny, the general of the vampire army and his wife. He tossed magic behind him, and black smoke filled the bubble of magic that Skye and I had found ourselves in.
I threw myself over the silver wolf, protecting her as shards of painful magic slid into my skin and threatened both of us. I knew that those icy shards of pain would dissolve quickly, as they were just there to stun, but I was stronger than Skye, and it would take longer for her to heal.
She growled low as I cradled her to my chest, covering her with my entire body before she wiggled and nipped at my ear. I pulled back and ran my hands down her fur, checking for injuries, before I slid my hands over her flank and between her ears.
“Are you okay?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. Her eyes were no longer gold with power but green with anger. She stood back and lowered her head, as if remembering I was an Alpha. I always found it odd that she could meet my gaze. I was an Alpha, and most shifters did not have the dominance to meet my gaze. Skye shouldn’t either, as she wasn’t a full dominant.
She was somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy, someone who could aid with the submissives and not scare them, but she wasn’t a maternal either. Maternals had a set place within the Pack and cared for our young, their personal dominance of protection and caring in an interesting and needed combination.
Skye, by contrast, was somewhat odd in the structure of Packs, but it was the strength of her human self that allowed her to connect with so many of the dominants in every Pack in the Pacific Northwest.
I also had a feeling it had to do with her being the granddaughter of an Alpha and the daughter of two dominants herself. Her uncle was the current Alpha, and her cousins and aunts and uncles were all part of the hierarchy, too.
She glared at me before she began to shift her shoulders back, her body slowly going from wolf to human.
It wasn’t a flash of light or a painless process. Some people could shift quickly, as if they were just breathing from one step to the next, but many took a good five minutes to break bones and tendons and twist their bodies into a new form. As our new ways of connecting to the moon goddess and Supreme Alphas settled into us, we were starting to shift far more quickly than before, but it still wasn’t an easy process.
Skye was decently swift, but from the whimper that escaped from her mouth, I knew there wasn’t a lack of pain from that quickness. She didn’t shift as rapidly as me or her cousins.
And, by the time she knelt in her human form, her body covered in blood and sweat and grime, I could hear the footsteps of the others running towards us. Only they couldn’t get through the bubble of protection, not yet, and we had to either wait for the vampire magic to subside or for one of our witches to get through. I wasn’t sure when that would happen, but this did give us some privacy so Skye could finish her shift and find her balance.
I tore off my bloody shirt and tossed it to her when she looked up at me. She caught it, then stood up, naked and free, and I did my best not to look at her.
We shifters weren’t supposed to notice nudity. When we shifted from one part of ourselves to the next, we didn’t bring our clothes with us. It was easier to shift while we were naked, so we didn’t have to tear through our clothing or end up as an awkward wolf in a shirt and pants.
Skye just tilted her head at me, and I didn’t look down at the shape of her breasts, or slope of her waist, or the thatch of curls between her legs. I knew better than that, though I had seen briefly, and my mouth had watered. I couldn’t help it, the urge of the hunt was still upon us, and my wolf was at the forefront, wanting her.
She might not be my mate and would never be, but Skye Anderson was beautiful. Only, I couldn’t notice that just then. It wouldn’t do us any good. She sighed, then slid my shirt over her shoulders.
