The Lycan Hunter

Chapter 2

DEEP UNDER THE HUNTER’S central headquarters just north of Atlanta, Georgia, Alexis James sat on the rough pine bench opposite her locker. The combination locker-slash-weapon room wasn’t much to look at: splashes of gray paint on the walls, eye gouging red lockers, and cement floors that were often like pumice stones against her otherwise smooth feet.

She packed her weapons into a black duffel, which creaked in its newness, the leather complaining at her refusal to understand its capacity limits. She held an awed reverence for her weapons. Each blade, gun, and her single modified crossbow was weighted and balanced specifically for her. Alexis ran a gentle finger across the cool metal stirrup of her crossbow the color of headstones and let a smile drift onto her face. 

With the exception of one assignment that she fought every day to forget, Alexis had gone months without a mission. She felt like an itchy trigger finger, but today she had a meeting with the council member responsible for her assignments.

A sudden increase in noise forced Alexis to turn from her locker and her beloved crossbow, only to find the women of her sector falling all over themselves in classless fashion for the man who just entered the unisex locker room. Suddenly, once secured towels fell like hammers on an anvil, all in the name of garnering his attention. Unfortunately for them all, he reserved it for one woman. 

Alexis came from a long line of top-ranked Hunters, and at twenty- four, dodging claws and teeth was more important to her than changing diapers. Regrettably, the man with the seemingly intoxicating gait wanted her for marriage, sex, and children. Not necessarily in that order. 

She scowled as he came to a stop by the bench on which she sat at and stared at her body, covered only by a towel. If lust had fingers, they would be tearing the towel away under his piercing gaze.

“Alexis, we need to talk.”

“We always talk, Theo. I’m going to start praying to God for fewer talks.”

“Come on, Lexi. You can’t keep telling me no.”

She grimaced. “First, only my mother calls me that. Second, yes, I can. See, watch.” She paused. “No.”

Theo leaned into one of the lockers, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Think about it. As the top Hunters, we could—”

“Ugh, be still my heart.” Alexis rolled her eyes. “Theo, I know all of that, and yet I still find your proposal lacking. Just do me a favor and stop asking.”

“Why won’t you marry me?”

“Do you want the long or short version?”

“Am I really that bad? I mean look at me.”

Damn her, but she trailed her eyes over him. Theo didn’t offer her anything that would make for a long-lasting relationship. Though if she didn’t think too hard about what he lacked, she could admit that she couldn’t go wrong with the creamy pale skin that stretched over his gym-carved body.

At twenty-eight, he was the perfect specimen of a man, with his light dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose and his closely cropped brilliant red hair that clashed violently with the lockers he leaned against.

She caught the spark of amusement in his pale green eyes, as if he was aware of her thoughts as her gaze raked over him. He was a god in dark washed jeans and a ribbed t-shirt that displayed his body for her more indecent impulses. If only he wasn’t so…Theo.

An expression, something between seductive and a leer, passed over his chiseled features. Her face heated, but she held his gaze.

After a rough mental shake to dislodge the images of what his body could do if given the chance, Alexis filtered through possible responses to his arousing presence.