The First Hunter

It was a national holiday and we decided to drive back to my husband's hometown to spend the holidays. One day before we left, my husband's childhood crush came crying to him that she had not managed to buy train tickets home. My husband immediately decided to let her have my seat in the car and insisted that I take the train instead. I looked at him in disbelief. There was shock in my eyes. Even my son insisted I take the train. "Mommy, Aunt Rosie is so pretty. How could you make her take the train?" I did not argue. I booked my train ticket right in front of them. However, it was to my own hometown. I no longer wanted a biased husband and a disloyal son.

My fiancé's first love was taking photos on a cliff before the landslide. To save her, he actually left me behind on the crumbling edge. I pleaded with him to save me. "Lucy isn't physically strong—she can't handle this alone. You've always been resilient. I'll get Lucy to safety first, then come back for you." Their silhouettes vanished over the ridge. After a brief commotion, everything went silent. Including me, with my freshly sprained ankle. When he saw the news of my death, he completely fell apart.

The Moon Goddess made a mistake. At least, that’s what Lycan king Asher tells himself the moment he lays eyes on her—his mate. Dirty. Chained. Barely a wolf. A girl with haunted green eyes and a silence that screams louder than any cry. He's king of the moon realm, part Lycan, part vampire, forged from power and fury. She? She’s a broken, powerless, damaged, anomaly with a scent that tempts his darkness and a bloodline that shouldn’t exist. To him, she’s not a blessing. She’s a threat. A flaw. A test he never asked for. But fate doesn’t care. Dragged into his world of cruel politics, ancient wars, and monsters dressed as royals, she’s meant to stand beside him as Queen. Yet all she can do is survive—and somehow, still defy him with every breath. His Lycan wants to protect her. His vampire wants to devour her. He wants to reject her. And somewhere between blood and betrayal, hate and heat, they start to burn. This isn't a love story. This is a war between fated souls that tries to resist the pull—where dominance tangles with desire, and salvation might just come in the form of a girl who was never meant to survive.

When the yacht was sinking, and only one spot was left on the lifeboat, Hendrix Zuckerman chose me. I was rescued, but Yana Bridgeton didn’t make it. She couldn’t wait for the second lifeboat and drowned in the ocean, her body lost forever. Hendrix pretended not to care and went through with our wedding as planned. For five years after our marriage, he trampled me into the dirt, blaming me for Yana's death. When I couldn't take it any longer and wanted a divorce, he decided to die with me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the yacht accident happened. This time, I’ve decided to give the chance to survive to the one he loves most.

When I had only three months left to live after taking the cursed blade meant for my husband Lucian, his first love Lily returned. When I endured the pain and prepared a dinner to commemorate our anniversary, he did not come back, he was having a steamy car session with Lily. When I went to the hospital alone to buy medicine, he was accompanying Lili for her pregnancy check-up. I pretended not to have noticed, I just silently played the role of a perfect wife, and wrote him four letters as a gift for our anniversary. After I die, he saw the gifts I left behind and went completely insane.

The emergency center I worked in went haywire as the typhoon closed in on our town. That night, my husband’s first love made seven emergency calls in a row to me. However, she did not say anything when I picked up. By the eighth call, I thought it was a prank caller, so I gave them a piece of my mind. Then, I heard my husband’s angry voice. “Melinda! This is the eighth time Sadie's called you for help! Haven’t you made her suffer enough?!” After that fiasco, he decided to avenge Sadie by taping my mouth, tying my wrists and legs up, and throwing me into our basement for three whole days, despite it being flooded with seawater, I begged for mercy, but it was to no avail. “You knew Sadie couldn’t talk because she hurt her throat, yet you still hung up on her! I'm going to make sure you feel the same hopelessness she felt!" Those three days left me with a collection of severe infections. I ended up having to remove my kidney. Even after all that, that man still had the gall to kneel by my bed and beg me to give him another chance.

My husband, Mark Thompson, and I went hiking. After eating some wild berries I picked, he was poisoned and died. When I got home, a woman named Sarah Miller and her son, Tommy Miller, showed up at my door. It turned out Mark had given them our house and car. On top of that, he owed them a huge amount of money. I ended up giving them all the savings I had. To care for my sick mother-in-law, Judith Thompson, I worked three jobs. I was surviving on basic meals like bread and butter. After years of exhausting work, I collapsed in the hospital. Judith told the doctors to stop my treatment. Just as I was about to die, Mark walked into the ward with Sarah and Tommy in his arms. He tossed five dollars at me. “Thanks for taking care of my mom all these years.” That was when I realized Mark had faked his death just to be with Sarah and their love child. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day we went hiking together.

After my mother left me, I found out what I could do. I teamed up with my best friend and other teens with special skills. We will fight all sorts of evil, supernatural creatures. Our mission is to protect people and keep the peace. But I find out something that changes my life forever. I am not the teenager I imagine myself to be. I am a human-demon hybrid who falls in love with a man I hate. I didn't know that the man I fell in love with wasn't who everyone else thought he was. Do we, as different beings from different worlds, have the right to be happy and love each other? Will our love for each other take an unexpected turn?

Dean and Cataleya are a brother and sister who help to lead of group of hunters targeting the mythical beings that threaten the humans in their northern Arizona town. They are getting ready to start a new year in college when certain events lead to an unlikely partnership with a nearby werewolf pack they share a rocky truce with. As tensions run high, secrets from the past come to light throwing their lives in a direction neither of them ever saw coming. Alec, Zander, and Kade are werewolves ready to start their leadership roles in their pack. First they have to deal with an odd increase in rogue activity. As they are searching for answers they find a whole lot more than they bargained for when they are forced to work with the hunters they always try to avoid. Keeping everyone safe may be what brought them all together, but will new found relationships keep them together or widen the chasm that has been there for generations?

The Hunters. The legendary Archers of Alestari were known world wide. Many trained for years, from youth to adulthood, to be good enough to qualify to be an apprentice to the Hunters. Every year, the Hunters would travel all across the land of Alestari, searching for a single apprentice. Many hearts were crushed in this process. Because there were many years, that none were selected to train under the legendary Archers. They would travel to every kingdom, city, town, village and tribe, searching. Royalty and common folk alike revered and worshiped the Hunters, for they were the true protectors of the land. A single Hunter was as good as 20 regular Archers. But they were also known to be excellent spies, as well as swordsmen. Any weapon in the world, they knew how to use properly. Thus they were highly sought after for military purposes and occasionally mercenaries. To have a family member who was a Hunter, was the highest honor. They were treated like royalty, even by royals themselves. Whatever a Hunter said, whoever they chose as an apprentice, no one ever argued. To fight with a Hunters choice, was to eliminate any chances you had of your family becoming one. And for years, no one fought their decision. Until this year. In the kingdom of Alestari, anyone was eligible to try and become an apprentice. Anyone, but a woman. Women were forbidden to learn any kind of weaponry, especially archery. So when the King of the Hunters, chooses a woman to be an apprentice, many were angry. And they were out, to make her pay.