The Hunt - A Crystal River Pack Novel, Book 1
In the world of werewolves, tradition is everything. Ancient customs, passed down through generations, dictate that females endure brutal mating ceremonies, leaving them scarred both physically and emotionally. When Celeste faces her own impending mating, she makes a daring choice: to escape the pack and forge her own path. Only days before her Hunt, she runs away to the Marines.
The next Alpha of the Crystal River Pack can scent his mate while he is at the Hunt at the Silver Lake Pack. Yet he can't find her. The new Alpha warns Wyatt that if he chases after Celeste, she will run from him. He courts her through old fashioned letters carefully orchestrated through her brother. While he is in the Navy and she's in the Marines, they cross paths, but he keeps his distance.
Will she manage to break free from the oppressive traditions that have claimed so many before her, or will the relentless pull of her family and heritage drag her back?
The Hunt chronicles the terrifying mating rituals of the werewolves. However, interwoven in a story of masochism, true love is born. Are the bonds of love, friendship, and the fight against tradition strong enough to save Celeste? Find out in this moving narrative about challenging the status quo and the courage it takes to forge a new destiny.
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Chapter: 9 Be My ValentineCAMP PENDLETON, CALIFORNIAIt was Saturday and Valentine’s Day. Celeste lay on the couch in her friends’ living room. The rising sun shone through the sliding glass door leading out to the patio. Listening to the bed of the happily married couple creaking upstairs, she considered going out for coffee.Did she stay and listen to Gunny and Sammy going at it upstairs? Or did she go home and listen to her roommates, Jack and Jill, go at it down the hall? She was certain that there would be no coffee here. But it could be picked up on the way home.Just as she decided coffee was needed, her phone chirped. Picking it up off the floor, there was a vague memory of tossing it towards the coffee table, obviously she missed. She grinned at the message that appeared on the screen.HEY GIRLFRIEND!It immediately chirped again and her best friend and roommate, Jill, asked her a question.Guess what came in the mail.They had called the large black werecat Jill for so long, Celeste often forgot that
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: 8 TraditionSILVER LAKE PACKIn less than a week, it would be two years since Sirius took Celeste to the recruiting station before she went off to bootcamp. Now, he was making plans to go to the Nohoch Mul Pack in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. The last time he had been in Mexico, it had been to retrieve his sister’s body.Aria was three and a half years younger than him, and seven minutes older than her twin, Aries. Around the same time that Aria died, Aries found his mate. Had he not found Kaliegh when he did, Sirius doubted that his brother would have survived the death of his twin.Shaking his head to dispel the memories, Sirius once again looked at the list of those who were going. Halfway down the first page were the two names he did not want to see, Aurora Moore and Danika Moore, his identical twin sisters — both named for the times they were born: Dawn and the morning star.Smiling, he thought of the two starring in the community play last night. The dig at their father nearly went stra
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: 7 Mail CallAFGHANISTANTrue to his word, Sirius kept Wyatt updated on Celeste. When she graduated boot camp, he went and watched but stayed away. He fought against every instinct that told him to go to her. But he smiled when the wind shifted, and she caught his scent. Laura was telling her something and then her head popped up and she looked in his direction. He moved further into the shadows to stay out of sight but was glad that she’d had that reaction.A few days later, a package arrived in the mail. Inside the box, along with pictures and a letter, was a PT shirt in a Ziploc bag. He moved quickly and closed the door to his room in the apartment he shared with two other shipmates. Then he opened it and inhaled that wonderful scent.Neither of his pila roommates would understand him sniffing a T-shirt in a Ziploc bag to stave off bloodlust and insanity. He often wondered how his pila friends would react if they found out that werewolves and shifters were real. And that, unlike what Hollywood
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: 6 Council ChambersSILVER LAKE PACKThe Annual Summer Solstice Hunt for Mates was also a chance for the Council to meet. Four Council meetings held throughout the year, each in a different pack, allowed smaller and poorer packs to participate.It was just over an hour after Sirius found Wyatt in his sister’s bedroom that the council chambers began to fill with the Alphas and Betas. The chambers for the Silver Lake pack were in a building adjacent to the pack house.Old colonial style buildings complimented others with their red brick and dark shutters. The former Alpha and his family still lived in the current pack house while Sirius and his family lived in the older and smaller previous pack house. Just like the other official pack buildings for Silver Lake, they were all red brick colonial style. At least from the front.The new packhouse was nearly three times the size of the old one with pack offices on the first floor, the top two floors were for the Alpha family and their guests. The previous pack
Last Updated: 2026-01-25
Chapter: 5 Packhouse MeetingSILVER LAKE PACK“Are you really going to let this happen to me?”The simple question from seventeen-year-old Wenona cut Wyatt to the core. She had demanded an answer from him the day before the Crystal River Pack was leaving for the Hunt in the nearby Silver Lake pack. He had agreed to go, but refused to participate, stating that he had business with the other Alpha. Quite simply, he wanted nothing to do with the Hunt. Because of this, Wenona knew that Wyatt would understand her fears.He did understand her fears. He clearly remembered the terror in his older sister’s eyes causing the deep need to protect his sister. The hunt sparked her need to protect her mate and the Beta’s need to mark her. The only thing they could hope for was that once their youngest sister was old enough for the Hunt, it had changed. In the meantime, he made a concoction and told her to drink it with a simple warning.“This will make you sicker than a dog. Pun intended.”She downed the drink and regretted it
Last Updated: 2026-01-25
Chapter: 4 Family MeetingSILVER LAKE PACKThe following morning Celeste refused to go for a run or even to the training ground to beat up her brothers, even after Sirius pointed out that it would be her last chance for a long time. Instead, her oldest brother crawled into the twin bed beside her and held her close as she waged her internal battle. She knew that she would be breaking her family’s hearts, and that was not what she wanted.Always the protector, he had said that she would be staying at his house for a few days knowing that she would be leaving before that time frame was up. But with their parents believing that she was there, they would not question her sudden disappearance from the family quarters of the pack house.However, they may notice her silence from the family and pack links. Now with the fight between her and her parents yesterday, it would simply be chalked up to anger.“I feel guilty,” he whispered to her brother, pushing long black strands away her eyes and wiping her tears.“You sho
Last Updated: 2026-01-25
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