All Chapters of Knotting the Hunter: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

DaxThe alley door of Vintage opens before my knuckles touch it."You're late," Maxim says, "Which I'll forgive, and you smell like wet dog and gasoline, which I won't.""Lovely to see you too.""It's four in the morning, puppy. Not even creatures of the night enjoy this hour."He steps back to let me in."Your cargo?""In the truck. With someone I trust. You get me first."Something crosses his face at that, quick and entertained."Words some people would pay to hear, but I’m really not interested. I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for your hunter."The wolf has me baring my teeth at the insult to Noah and Maxim chuckles as he turns his back on me nonchalantly.“You really make it too easy.”The bar's empty and half dark, chairs up, one lamp burning at the corner table.There's a pocket watch lying on a green cloth under it, taken apart into about forty pieces, tiny screwdrivers lined up in size order.So that's what two hundred and twenty years of free evenings looks like.Good to kn

DaxNoah's breathing changes first.I'm standing in his kitchen with my arms full of hunter, wrung out from the longest night of my life, and against all medical advice my body picks now to notice that he's warm and pressed against every inch of my front.Then his scent shifts.The cedar goes syrupy at the edges, honey creeping in underneath, and my exhaustion packs a bag and leaves without giving notice.'Finally,' the wolf says. 'He watched us open every door we had and he stayed. I want him screaming our name by sunrise.'Sunrise was twenty minutes ago.'Then we're already late.'Noah tips his head back.His eyes have gone dark green and heavy-lidded, and there's a flush crawling up his throat that I want to chase with my tongue."We should sleep," he says."Absolutely.""Big day. War starting. Responsibilities.""Huge day."My hands have moved to his hips without consulting me."Enormous.""So why are you looking at my mouth?""You started it. Your scent's been making promises for

NoahDax makes it from my bathroom to my kitchen in about four steps, dripping, a towel around his hips that's losing the fight, and snatches the phone off the counter mid-ring."Mato."Watching a naked wet Alpha take a call in my kitchen should not be doing anything for me after the morning we just had.It's doing something for me.Then his face changes, and that's the end of that.Whatever makes a man who texts in single words pick up a phone and use his voice is nothing good.We both knew it before he answered.Dax listens.Says nothing for a long stretch, which with Mato on the other end means the conversation is practically a debate."Since when?"Another silence."Don't be seen. Don't touch them. Call me if they move."He puts the phone down and stares at it like it bit him."Talk," I say."There's a grey pickup parked on the Reserve road. Been there since first light. Two men inside, scanning the fence line with binoculars. One of them got out to stretch his legs and Mato caugh

DaxNoah walks into my kitchen smelling like another man and I'm across the room before the door finishes closing."Whoa. Hello to you too.""You smell wrong."My nose is already in his neck, and under the cedar there's six hours of truck cab, thermos coffee, and hunter.A strange one."Whose scent is on you?""Pruitt. My shift partner. He’s been sitting eight inches from me since dawn, because that's how trucks work."'Strip it off him,' the wolf says, hackles all the way up. 'Every layer that stranger breathed on. Now.'"Already on it," I tell him."Jacket," I say. "Off.""Dax.""The jacket is coming off you one way or another, and one of those ways involves buying you a new jacket."He laughs at me, tired and real, and shrugs out of it, and I throw it in the general direction of the laundry room, hard.Four days of this.Four days of watching a hunter truck sit outside my fence through the trees, knowing he's in it, not being able to walk over and kiss him.Four days of the fence l

NoahTwelve days of surveillance sits on the council table in front of me, typed, dated, signed, and it might be the most dangerous thing I've ever done."Read us the summary. We’ll go through it in detail later."Dad's using his public voice, the proud one, and I make myself not react to it."Twelve days. Three watchers in two trucks, working rotating shifts, we compiled a full log of the north gate and the east fence."The room is quiet the way it only goes for evidence."Movement in and out is consistent with a residential community. Deliveries. Commuters. School runs. Gym bags. Joggers. Grocery shopping.”The next part is because Dax warned them to stay inside.“No movement after dark out of the Reserve. Zero approach to town limits at night. My read is that they have a curfew and strict rules not to leave after sunset. There’s also been no contact with any site connected to this year's disappearances.""Nothing," Corben says from the wall, arms crossed, "Except the howling.""You