Hunter

HUNTER THE UNCHAINED OMEGAVERSE CALLIE RHODES CONTENTS Hunter 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 About the Author Also by Callie Rhodes HUNTER All he ever wanted was her… From the moment she appeared at the Boundaryland border months ago, Courtney has consumed his waking thoughts and haunted his dreams. The only beta whose inner desires elude his senses, she’s a mystery he can’t solve…and the only woman he desperately wants. All she ever needed was him… Past trauma taught Courtney to keep her emotions bound up tight. So far it’s been the only way to protect herself from the chaos swirling around her. But now that war is imminent, and the future of the Boundaryland is in peril, she’ll risk anything to keep her friends safe…even if it means risking her heart. CHAPTER ONE If Courtney Fischer had a dollar for every time she was described as 'fearless' by the media, she would have been a damned millionaire. But as was often the case these days, the journalists had gotten it wrong. Most days, Courtney was downright terrified—and glad of it because fear was what kept her alive. It might have gone against the grain of popular belief, at least for those in positions of power, but to Courtney, fear was never the enemy. Rather, it alerted her to danger, reminding her to pay attention, cover her tracks, and stay on her toes. Courtney had known too many hotshots who'd gone down hard when their overconfidence made them sloppy. She was determined that would never happen to her. Carelessness and inattention—those were the real enemies. You could throw rashness and stubbornness in there too. But most deadly of all was panic. Unlike fear, which was an invaluable warning device, panic offered nothing but sensory overload. All it could do was leave you exposed, vulnerable, and incapable of reason. The best way to avoid panic, Courtney had found, was to steer clear of extreme emotions. Terror, hopelessness, rage, horror—all of these needed to be nipped in the bud, shut down before they had the chance to grow into something dangerous. That was something Courtney was very good at. She'd spent a good portion of her life learning to control her emotions, keeping them tightly contained where they couldn't disrupt her missions or her life. It was a particularly useful skill in moments like this—inching toward an armed roadblock just this side of the Arkansas/Missouri border. Courtney needed to be in complete command of herself if she was going to pull this off. Preparation could only take a person so far, but that didn't stop Courtney from doing everything she could to increase the odds of success—starting with assembling her disguise. By the time she left Geri's house early that morning, her brown braid was pinned up under a long blonde wig that reached past her shoulders, bright green contact lenses disguised her light brown eyes, and her face was spackled with more makeup than she'd worn in her entire twenty-four years put together. As long as Courtney lived—a dicey prospect for a founding member of the controversial Society for Alpha Liberation and Equality—she would never forget the gray-haired former school principal turned SALE member who had taken her in when Courtney found herself in more trouble than usual. Geraldine Weatherby was not only smart, funny, and deeply committed to the cause, she was also tough and sly enough to weather the firestorm engulfing the alpha rights movement. Hell, the old lady had even helped Courtney steal a car—a bright yellow VW bug belonging to one of her neighbors, who had mentioned she was off to spend a week with family out of state. That meant Courtney could be confident the car wouldn't be reported stolen for at least a few more days. For the better part of the morning's drive—an hour and a half of rural Arkansas farm roads to reach the Missouri border—Courtney kept doing double-takes whenever she checked the mirror because the face that stared back was a stranger's. With the curly blond wig, the winged eyeliner and bubble-gum pink lipstick, the borrowed red sweater that was tight enough to reveal the outline of her breasts and a couple inches of her abs to boot, Courtney looked nothing like herself. And that was a good thing. Because her usual tactical gear, no-nonsense braid, and mirrored sunglasses were a lot more likely to draw attention at the checkpoint than her current disguise, which screamed Girls just want to have fun in time with the pop tunes blaring from the radio. Sure enough, the soldier barely glanced up from his clipboard when Courtney pulled up to the hastily-constructed barriers. "License," he demanded before the car even came to a complete stop. "Sure thing!" Courtney turned down the radio before digging around in the purse that Geri's granddaughter had accidentally left behind a few months back, a fire-engine-red leather number with metal hearts dangling from the strap. She wasn't too worried about the counterfeit documents in the wallet she handed the soldier; the Society for Alpha Liberation and Equality—SALE, for short—worked with some of the best forgers in the world. "Jessica Cotter." The soldier glanced from Courtney's fake driver's license to her face, which was starting to hurt from smiling. "What has you visiting Missouri today?" "Prob'ly the same reason as everybody else," Courtney said, leaning into a drawl and rolling her eyes. "Those goddamn alphas." "What does that mean?" The soldier's expression remained inscrutable behind his dark sunglasses. "Okay, so this morning, I get a call from my mom, right?" Courtney had practiced this with Geri last night until she nailed the Ditzy Blonde cadence. "And she's like, 'Jessica, I need you to drive to Fredericktown and get your Aunt Karen. Her car's in the shop, and the tanks are going