Chapter 38 Hunter and Tara

Protective Fury

Hunter pov

The war room had emptied of everyone except me and Tara, the tactical displays still glowing with plans for their confrontation with Celeste Ravencroft. But I wasn't looking at maps or surveillance photos anymore. My attention was entirely focused on the woman sitting across from me, and the barely controlled rage that had been building in my chest since she'd shown me Celeste's threatening letter.

"You realize what she's really saying, don't you?" I asked, my voice carrying the dangerous quiet that preceded explosive anger. "She's not just threatening to kill you. She's threatening to make it look like an accident, to eliminate you so thoroughly that no one will even know it was murder."

Tara looked up from the intelligence reports she'd been reviewing, noting the tension in my shoulders and the way my hands had clenched into fists on the table surface.

"I realize exactly what she's saying," Tara replied calmly. "Which is why we're going to make sure she understands the consequences of threatening the people I love."

"The people you love," I repeated, my voice growing harder. "Tara, she's threatening *you*. She's planning to kill the woman I'm going to marry in five days because she thinks she has some kind of claim on me."

I stood abruptly, beginning to pace the small space with the restless energy of a predator preparing for violence. "Do you have any idea what it does to me to read those words? To see photographs of someone stalking you, documenting your movements, planning your elimination?"

"Hunter—"

"No," I interrupted, whirling to face her with eyes that blazed with protective fury. "You don't understand. For months after my rejection, I lived with the knowledge that I had hurt you, that my cowardice had driven you away and left you vulnerable. I swore that if I ever got the chance to protect you again, I would never let anyone threaten what we have."

Tara rose from her chair and moved toward me, recognizing the signs of the guilt and rage that had been eating at me since Celeste's first letter arrived.

"And now," I continued, my voice growing rougher with emotion, "some entitled princess who thinks she can have whatever she wants is planning to murder you because I won't abandon the woman I love for her political convenience."

"Hunter, breathe," Tara said gently, reaching out to place her hands on my chest. "You're working yourself into a state that won't help anyone."

"I should be working myself into a state," I snarled, though I didn't pull away from her touch. "Someone is threatening to kill my mate, and I'm supposed to stay calm about it?" Fuck I already lost her once I won't go through it again.

"You're supposed to stay focused," Tara corrected firmly. "Rage won't protect me from Celeste's plans. Strategy will. Clear thinking will. The kind of controlled response we've been planning will."

My hands came up to cover hers where they rested against my chest, my grip tight enough to suggest I was using her presence to anchor myself.

"When I think about what could have happened if we hadn't detected the enchantments on that necklace,"I said quietly, "when I think about her watching us, documenting our private moments, planning ways to hurt you..."

"Then think about this instead," Tara interrupted, stepping closer until she was pressed against me. My cock went hard. "Think about the fact that she failed. The magic didn't work, the surveillance was detected, and the threats only made us stronger and more united."

"That's not enough," I said, my arms coming around her with desperate intensity. "It's not enough that she failed this time. I want her to understand that threatening you is the worst mistake she could possibly make."

"She will understand," Tara assured me, her voice carrying quiet conviction. "When we walk into her territory tomorrow, when we confront her on her own ground, she'll understand exactly what kind of people she chose to threaten."

I pulled back to look at her face, seeing something fierce and determined in her green eyes that both comforted and concerned me.

"I've never felt anything like this before," I admitted. "This... protective rage. It's like something primitive has awakened in me, something that wants to tear apart anyone who even thinks about hurting you."

"That's what love looks like when it's tested," Tara said softly. "The willingness to become dangerous for the people who matter to you."

"Is that what you felt when the Brotherhood operative had that knife at my throat? This kind of fury?"

"Worse," Tara replied without hesitation. "When I saw him about to hurt you, when I realized you might die because of choices we'd made together, I became someone I didn't recognize. Someone who was willing to kill to protect what mattered most."

I cupped her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing over her cheekbones as I studied her expression.

"How do you live with it?" I asked. "This knowledge that there are people out there who want to destroy what we have, who see our happiness as a threat worth eliminating?"

"The same way you live with being a leader," Tara replied. "You accept that there will always be people who want to tear down what you're trying to build, and you decide that protecting what matters is worth whatever price you have to pay."

"And if the price is too high? If confronting Celeste puts you in more danger than staying away?"

"Then we pay it anyway," Tara said with quiet finality. "Because the alternative is letting her think she can control our lives through fear and intimidation. The alternative is proving that threats work, that love can be destroyed if you just apply enough pressure."

I was quiet for a moment, processing her words while struggling with my own protective instincts that screamed at me to hide her away somewhere safe rather than walk into potential danger.

"I don't want to lose you," I said finally, the admission carrying the weight of everything I had learned about the value of what we had together.

"You're not going to lose me," Tara replied firmly. "Not to Celeste Ravencroft, not to European pack politics, not to anyone who thinks they can dictate how we live our lives."

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because I know who I am now," she said, her voice growing stronger with each word. "I'm the woman who rebuilt herself after you rejected her. I'm the woman who fought the Brotherhood for the right to love you. I'm the woman who refuses to let anyone else determine her worth or her future."

She moved even closer, eliminating the last inches of space between us.

"And I'm the woman who chose you, Hunter Blackwood. Not because fate demanded it, not because pack politics required it, but because loving you makes me want to be the best version of myself. No spoiled princess with delusions of entitlement is going to take that away from me."

I felt something settle in my chest—not the elimination of my protective fury, but the channeling of it into something more focused and useful.

"Then we end this," I said, my voice carrying the authority of someone who had made a decision. "We go to her territory, we confront her and whoever is backing her, and we make it clear that threatening our relationship was the last mistake she'll ever make."

"Together," Tara said, and it wasn't a question.

"Together," I confirmed. "As equals, as partners, as two people who've proven that love defended fiercely is stronger than any political ideology."

As we held each other in the war room surrounded by plans for confrontation, both understood that they were approaching something that would test not just our courage, but our commitment to each other and everything we had built together.

Celeste Ravencroft had awakened something dangerous in both of us—the willingness to become whatever we needed to be to protect our bond. She'd assumed that threatening Tara would make me choose safety over love.

Instead, she'd created two people who were prepared to walk into hell itself to prove that some connections couldn't be broken by fear, manipulation, or violence.

The question was whether she would survive the encounter with the forces she'd unleashed through her own arrogance and entitlement.

Somehow, neither myself nor Tara particularly cared about the answer to that question.

Some threats needed to be eliminated, not negotiated with.

And tomorrow, we would prove exactly how dangerous it was to threaten the people we loved.