Hunter's Descent

HUNTER’S DESCENT MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM BOOK 2 ALICE WINTERS Copyright © 2023 by Alice Winters All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Edited by Courtney Bassett Proofed by Lori Parks Formatted by Leslie Copeland Cover by Cate Ashwood Designs CONTENTS 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 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Author’s Note Acknowledgments Also by Alice Winters CHAPTER ONE DECLAN There’s someone in my house. Or at least at some point, someone took it upon themselves to break into my house and not firmly shut the door behind them, leaving me to stand beside my car debating whether to go in and shoot anything that moves or wait for Lake who I know is only a minute or two behind me. I get my gun and make sure it’s loaded and ready so that whoever has decided to rain on my parade can regret their decisions. A rideshare car pulls up behind me and Lake hops out. He’s wearing a grin as he gets out, only to find me standing beside my car, staring at the front door while questioning everything. His typically wavy hair is currently standing up in the wind as his aqua eyes latch on to me. “Is this a fun human thing that I don’t…” He’s quiet before sniffing. “There’s someone in my house.” “My house.” “Someone has taken it upon themselves to break into the house that is mine yet I allow my mate to live in…” He gasps as he looks over at me, like he wants to make sure all attention is on him before the big reveal. “I bet they’re here to steal Sir Reginald! How dare they!” Clearly, I should have gone in alone. Shot a few people and left for Canada. There’s probably still time. “Absolutely no one wants your fish, let alone to break into the house to—” “Fishnap him! Sir Reginald, Pop-Pop’s coming!” Lake says as he tears open the door and runs into the house with absolutely no plan or protection or anything besides his own ridiculous actions fueling him. Thankfully—I guess—Lake’s a chimera who would live through a bullet or two, but the way he’s acting makes me realize that whatever is inside that house is even worse than I originally imagined. Likely one of Lake’s… kind… and someone he knows. If it really was someone threatening, Lake wouldn’t have gone running in as he did and probably would have tried getting me to stay back, but he’s obviously enjoying himself. As I tag along after him, I find that I’m quite right. It’s much worse. So much worse. “For fuck’s sake, is that a body in my kitchen?” I growl, wondering again why I have to put up with this. Two monsters look over at me, both still in their human form, which I guess is one upside to this. If the neighbors looked through my windows and saw three monsters frolicking around, I’d be in deep shit and there’d be hunters coming for them. One is Lake’s adopted cousin, Sy, a timid man who has assisted Lake more than once. The other is Indigo, an irritating man who glances over at me before pushing his sunglasses up, like he thinks they make him look something other than foolish. “I was wondering when you two were going to get home! I already ate the rest of your cookies and was eyeing the last Coke in the fridge, but Sy said that was rude,” Indigo says, as though there isn’t an elephant in the room… a bloody one. Because what’s more important than these two monsters that I’d hoped to never see again is the bleeding man duct taped to my dining room chair. “I feel like maybe we have other things that are of concern,” I say as I wave to the man. “If you hadn’t taken so long, he’d have been livelier,” Indigo says, apparently not seeing the issue with any of this. “And anyway, I wanted to bring him once he was dead, but Sy wouldn’t let me.” Sy just stares at him, like he doesn’t quite understand why Indigo thinks Sy is the idiot here. “I was even so kind as to lay something down before putting him there,” Indigo says as he waves at the tiny square napkin he’d set on the floor that’s caught, oh… maybe one percent of the blood currently being spilled. “Wow, that was awfully kind of you! You’ve always been so thoughtful,” Lake says, and I honestly can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not. “The question is why,” I growl. Indigo lifts a hand in a “let me tell you” kind of way. “There I was minding my own business and this man just ran right out in front of me and bled all over me. Was all ‘Save me, save me!’ and I was like, why the hell do you think I’d ever save you? I am clearly quite busy—you see, I was getting gas in my car—but he was insistent. So I do as any man would do when faced with a dilemma such as this and went ‘Gross, go bleed your human blood somewhere else’ and gave him a gentle push. But that’s where I got the pleasure of him telling me that if I didn’t help, he’d inform others about what I was.” As I listen to the story, I’m stuck wondering how these creatures even pass for humans when they act like this. But when