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Chapter 8 – Meeting The Hunter

Taking the stairs two at a time while tugging his tie loose – the elevators made his ears hurt and he was only on the fifth floor – Ben was relieved to leave work at the end of the day. He had managed to organize all his files during lunch, so he could go straight to Adam's to deliver his findings before heading home. The day had dragged on, leaving him annoyed and tired, all he wanted was to go home and relax. Getting into his truck he sped off out of the parking lot with thoughts of his assignment in his head.

About 5 minutes from Adam's house, Ben noticed Warren's truck behind him; apparently he wasn't the only one being summoned, though as his third, Warren was expected to be there when vital information came in. Pulling up in front of his alpha's expansive house, Ben collected his things and got out of the car as Warren pulled in beside him. Turning to face Warren as the other wolf got out of his own truck, Ben quirked an eyebrow at the DVD case in Warren's hand.

"I didn't realize it was movie night." He said by way of greeting. Warren gave a slight smile and shrug, over the past year or so the two had become easy friends despite the personality and pack rank differences. Ben attributed their comradeship to all the shit they went through together, that and once he got to know him, Warren was actually pretty cool, even if he was gay.

"It's more of a 'welcome to the family' present." Ben frowned at this, who the hell were they welcoming? Then he brushed it off, Ben didn't really care about family, or welcoming anyone, besides, Warren was already heading towards the front door. Falling into step behind him, Ben followed Warren as he entered the house – not bothering to knock of course, Adam already knew they were there – and immediately noticed the one thing that had evaded him for the past three days.

"Cinnamon." He whispered under his breath. Taking in a deep breath to catch it again, Ben also caught the tang of meat, tomatoes and several herbs.

"Hey Warren, come on in we're making dinner." Jesse's voice came from the kitchen, causing Ben to shake his head, cooking explained the cinnamon; he really needed to stop thinking about his illusive prey.

"Annie in there too?" The name didn't register with anyone he knew, though a part of Ben's brain vaguely decided that 'Annie' must be the person Warren was welcoming for whatever reason.

"Yeah I'm here." It was the third voice that made Ben look quickly towards the kitchen; it was full of warmth, and just deep enough to be set apart from most female voices. Following Warren, who had already made his way into the kitchen where Jesse could be seen, Ben sped around the corner until he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

There she was, the girl from the diner. She had her hair up in a sloppy bun which left several strands curling around her face, and she was wearing almost the very same outfit as when he first was her. It was as though she had jumped straight from his thoughts and into reality… in Adam's kitchen?

Warren stepped up to his prey and she smiled at him.
"Hey Warren, I hope you like Italian." She gestured to the pot she was stirring on the stove. In return Warren dipped his head.

"Sure do. Kyle sent this over; apparently you told him how much you like Firefly." Ben watched as Annie took the proffered DVD and smiled even wider. Since when did Warren and his boy toy know his prey? Annie, his mind supplied, his Annie.

"Wow, I haven't seen an episode in ages, tell Kyle I said thanks."

"Will do." Finally, after he had been mimicking a statue for the entire conversation, Ben exploded.

"What in the bloody hell are you doing here?" every head snapped in Ben's direction, as though noticing him for the first time.

Jesse recovered from his outburst first.
"She lives here." She said, her face going from confused to what had to be the best impression of a teenage 'duh' face anyone had ever seen. Ben glanced back at the girl to shoot her a brief annoyed look before turning back to the woman in question.

The girl had a slightly shocked expression on her face, her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide. Looking into her eyes, he met her gaze and held it, willing her to look at him. All thoughts of sleep or Adam or Bright Future forgotten, Ben stood for an indefinite amount of time staring into those eyes; it was like he was caught by something there, and the wolf in him stirred awakened by the closeness of his quarry and the urge to dominate her, he refused to look away, she must submit to him.

Annie had turned her head away from Warren to look for the source of the voice, mentally berating herself for not noticing the other occupant in the room – she was getting sloppy. What she found was a man, shorter than Warren, but at least a head taller than herself. He wasn't as thin as Warren either, but he didn't have the breadth that made Adam seem so large.

He looked to be in his twenties, with squared shoulders that filled out his button up shirt quite nicely, the fabric just tight enough to hint at a well muscled body but didn't cling like a second skin. His features were angular, with a strong jaw line, higher cheekbones and a very straight nose. His blonde hair was a few shades lighter than her own, though his skin was probably a couple shades darker. Jesse's voice barely registered through her analysis of the unknown man in front of her, and when she got to his eyes everything else seemed further away.

His eyes were hazel, with just enough green to tip them away from being brown. He was looking at her with such intensity that she was unable to look away, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. She stood frozen, staring back into the eyes of a hunter.

He was a werewolf, she could feel it, but it was something else in his eyes that gave her goose bumps, like she had been caught, and the moment she moved he would strike. For the first time since she had been thrust into the world of werewolves, Annie wanted to run. But she couldn't, something deep within her kept her there, it whispered stay. Or maybe it was him that was keeping her there, she thought, with those eyes.

Somewhere to her left, Warren cleared his throat. Tearing her eyes away from the intense gaze of her hunter, Annie looked towards Warren, who was looking between the two with an odd expression on his face.

"Annie, this idiot here is Ben. Ben, this is Samuel's daughter Annie, she's going to be staying here for a while till her an' Samuel buy a house."

The satisfied smirk that had appeared when Annie looked away first was wiped off his face with that last sentence. His prey was not, as he had first suspected, the newest love interest of Samuel Cornick – for which he was quite thankful. However, the knowledge that she was instead his daughter was very bad. If Samuel knew what Ben wanted with Annie, he would be ripped to very tiny pieces before he could say holy shit. What did he want from Annie? He wasn't quite sure, but he wanted something, he wanted her scent, he wanted to look into those eyes, he wanted her to concede to him… he wanted to win.

Annie looked back from Warren to Ben, catching an odd look that might have been dismay before a smirk transformed his face, no longer was he the hunter intent on his prey, he was now a man, still a predator, but he no longer looked like he was going to eat her – for which she was quite grateful. Raising an eyebrow Ben's smirk seemed to turn condescending.

"Since when did he have kids?" Annie picked up the inflection in his voice that made every word sound crisper, and noticed something she should have realized when he first spoke, Ben was English.

"Since nineteen years ago." Adam's voice caused Annie to jump, annoyed that no one else seemed surprised by the man's sudden presence. She really needed to be more alert around here. Warren and Ben both turned towards Adam, who was leaning against the corner of the wall at the entrance to the kitchen. "Jesse, you should probably stir the sauce there," He said, indicating to the steaming pot on the stove that had been previously looked after by Annie.

To Warren and Ben he said. "Lets go upstairs." With that he turned around, leading the two men back out of the kitchen.

Annie watched them go, thoroughly , in comes a random guy who looks at her like she's a meal, then he acts weird when they get introduced – not that it wasn't weird when he looked like he was going to eat her – then, in comes Adam like a ninja and they all go upstairs for some mysterious top secret meeting.

Annie couldn't say why exactly, but she had gotten the distinct impression that Adam had ordered warren and Ben upstairs, though she had no idea why he would feel the need to. Shaking her head and concentrating on Jesse, who had started talking again; Annie pushed all thoughts of ninjas, secret meetings and green eyes out of her head.

When Ben and Warren walked into Adam's office, they found Daryl was already there. He must have parked his car around the side of the house, thus explaining why Ben hadn't noticed it. Closing the door behind him, Adam turned to look at his subordinates.

"Now that we're all here, I would like to hear your reports." Suddenly all business, Ben straightened and pulled his mind away from his prey – or at least attempted to. He fought control of his thoughts when they strayed back to Annie, and her deep, grey-blue eyes. There was something in those eyes that pulled him in, their distinctive dark ring making them striking to the point of hypnotic. Fuck. Narrowing his gaze and forcing his thoughts back to the present he caught the end of what Darryl was saying.

"… No threats have been spotted around the residences of pack members, but there was a Bright Future member caught tailing Aiden near his work." The second-in-command's voice held a growl which demonstrated exactly how he felt about the situation – he was pissed.

"Who was he?" Adam asked, keeping his voice far calmer than his second.

"We're not sure, he was male, and I his early twenties; Caucasian with light brown hair, weight about 170 lbs, maybe 5'8"." At this description Ben nodded, as far as he could tell there were five men and two women in this Bright Future chapter, all of which were in their early twenties. Of the men, only three of them were white with brown hair, and only one of those matched the weight and height description given by Darryl. With a silent cue from Adam, Ben spoke up while he began to set up his laptop on the nearby oak desk.

"That would be James Costigan. He's a second year attendee at Columbia Basin College studying economics and business. His first year econ teacher was none other than a Mr. Fideal himself." By now he had set up his laptop and was able to pull up the files on both the student and the fae. "He was in the same class as that bitch cousin of Tim's, Courtney. I reckon they're going out or some shit, which explains why the bastard's daft enough to spy on a bunch of werewolves. He lives in Kennewick." Opening another file, a picture of James appeared on the screen. Leaning over, Darryl looked at the photo and nodded.

"Yup, that was him. He didn't seem that experienced though, he was in his car parked on the other side of the road two driveways down from Aiden's office building." Adam breathed out thoughtfully.

"Who are the other members?" Clicking around some more, Ben opened and closed several files.

"There's the Queen bitch, Courtney Milanovich, 20, and the first cousin of Timothy Milanovich. She has a criminal record for two speeding tickets and her stint as a vandal last September, where she was fined for the repair costs and told to 'play nice'." The last part came out in a sneer; Ben liked Mercy, and not just because of her status as his Alpha's mate. "The only other female is Sarah O'Connor; she's 23 and has no criminal record. She studies History part time at Columbia Basin and works at a music store at Kennewick plaza."

As he went through the list of Children for a Bright Future members, he clicked on photos and records he had gathered, allowing all present to get a good look at who they were and what they looked like.

"The oldest guy is Riley Utley, he's 25 and has an assault charge from an anti-fae demonstration gone south. Next is James at 23 along with his brother Alan Costigan, 22. There's not much on him, he works at a bookstore in Pasco and got average grades in high school with no applications to University. The next one down the list is a Tyrell Johnson; he's 21 and is in the same course as James, he just transferred up from Chicago where he grew up. He has a website that lists the 'problems caused by fae and other preternatural creatures in society' where he explicitly states that werewolves breed and enjoy violence. The last one is Michael Barceló, 21. Now he's a real piece of work. In his teens he was a firebug with several arson charges. In and out of juvie, he has an assault and battery charge for beating a guy with a crow bar when he was 16. And two years ago his ex-girlfriend got a restraining order on him, stating that she had had several death threats and feared for her life."

The final photo Ben showed his fellow wolves was a mug-shot of a 6ft tall burly man with dirty blonde hair and a visible scar above his left eye. Of all the people on his list of Bright Future members, he was the only one who seemed truly capable of violence. The three other men seemed to agree.

"I'll have Carlos keep an eye on him." Adam said. Carlos worked with him in his security business, though Ben didn't really get along with the guy. Motioning for him to continue, Adam listened to the rest of Ben's report.

"From what I can tell, most of these are new members, the old ones don't agree with some of Bitch's more antagonistic methods, since originally it was just a bunch of pansies sitting around chatting about how scary old fairy tales were. The pansies don't want to stir up trouble with us terrible beasties, so they dropped out. The John Lawrence Society and the American Anti-fae Association are a whole new kettle of fish. The members lists overlap so much they're practically the same club, and they're mostly rich bastards who hang out at country clubs and play golf."

Again Ben's face twisted into the sneer he was best known for. "A lot of them are lawyers, doctors, company men and a few politicians. Senator Stapleton, Senator Reynolds and Governor Miles are all getting their backing officially, there's no evidence of the Secretary of Defense whoring himself out, but that just means that he's more careful than most. They've been contacting several Congressmen that Bran has on his side, trying to get them to bat for the other team, but they don't appear to be listening." Everyone heard the stress on the word, knowing that just because Ben didn't find anything didn't mean there wasn't anything to be found. Adam nodded, taking everything in.

"We can always ask Charles Cornick to look into it, though he probably already is. Is there anything else?"
Ben shook his head in response.

"There was a rumor about them helping to fund some kids in a botched terrorist attempt but the Feds could never tie anything to them. There were a few members who were buddy-buddy with Blackwood, but I can't say for certain that it was anything more than a few business deals." At this Warren frowned.

"Didn't Blackwood tell Mercy about Gerry Wallace coming to him about ammunition for werewolf tranquilizers?"

"Yes," Adam said. "But he didn't help out; he didn't want to take on the Marrok."

"True, but his company dealt in specialty ammunition, still does. We know the government commissioned him to make some weapons specifically designed to take down werewolves, what if his successor decides to help the JLS and the AAA out and give them the weapons needed to kill us? All it would take is a few 'radicals' to start picking us off and someone is bound to lose control." Darryl put in. This was bad. Very bad. Straightening and looking at his watch – they had been in his office for almost an hour – Adam sighed.

"I want everyone on alert; I'll talk to the Marrok and some other alphas and see what they have to say. I want everyone to be aware of their control, we cannot afford to have any bad publicity or make mistakes right now, it could very well be fatal." Knowing that the meeting was over, Ben proceeded to pack away his laptop while Darryl said his goodbyes. Finally straightening, Ben gave a nod to the darker man as he left before turning to face his alpha.

"Well boss, looks like you ended this just in time for dinner." Warren spoke up, lightening the mood as only he could. Smiling ruefully, Adam held the door open and followed his two wolves downstairs.

While the men were upstairs having their top-secret meeting, Annie and Jesse were busy cooking dinner. A lot of dinner. As a general rule, werewolves needed more food than most people, and three male werewolves… well lets just say the grocery store needed to restock their pasta isle. Annie wondered vaguely if a werewolf could literally eat you out of house and home. While they prepared the feast, the two girls talked about nothing and everything all at once as Jesse explained the ins and outs of living with a bunch of werewolves plus one coyote.

"So she's basically the only one left?" Annie asked, stirring the bolognaise – once again in monstrous proportions. Jesse nodded her head as she blew on a steaming noodle.

"Yup, one of a kind." More like all alone, Annie thought. She certainly knew what that felt like. Moving away from her more morbid thoughts Annie contemplated what they could be talking about upstairs. From what she heard both from Kyle and Jesse as well as the news reports the whole werewolf issue was making some big waves in the political ocean, so the meeting was probably about that. Samuel hadn't said anything about it though, and she wondered how long it would take for them to be comfortable enough to talk about big issues like that with each other, how long it would take to trust each other.

"Noodles are done. How's the sauce?" Jesse's voice cut through her musings, and Annie blinked a couple times in rapid succession.

"Sauce is done, but I'll keep it on low until everyone's ready to eat."

"No need to wait, we're all here." Adam's voice was so sudden – as was his appearance in the kitchen – that Annie bit her tongue. She really needed to fix her people-radar. The room suddenly seemed a lot more crowded now that three more people occupied it, especially with their added other that made them at first glance seem to take up more space than their physical forms.

"Well in that case, let's eat." The crowd set about following Jesse's orders, bringing the food into the dining room where the table had already been set. After everyone had been settled in with food on their plates Annie found herself seated between Jesse and Ben, with Warren and Adam across from her.

Silence. It was uncomfortable. And loud. Jesse had attempted to coax her father into polite conversation, but he was too preoccupied with whatever he was thinking about to be sociable. Warren too seemed to be off in la la land, though judging by the frown on his face whatever had him and Adam so wound up was not an enjoyable thought. Annie had resorted to pushing her food around on her plate, eating occasionally, feeling very awkward and intrusive. Sometime during the meal she noticed it, the sensation that she was being watched. Not the curious gaze one sometimes got for simply being a new person in a room, but an intense stare.

Someone was staring at her, their eyes boring holes in her and causing the hair on her neck to stand and her senses to prickle. Sneaking a glance up from her food, Annie looked around the table discreetly. What she saw only confirmed her suspicions; Ben was sitting to her left, eating at an even pace without paying any attention to his meal at all. When she looked up he immediately caught her eye, blatantly staring at her with an intense and somewhat curious look on his face.

The intensity of his stare doubled upon gaining her attention, and Ben abandoned all pretense of eating in order to watch her. This intensity brought on a change in Ben's expression which caused the heat to rise in Annie's cheeks and she immediately looked down in embarrassment, only to become angry for her reaction. She had never met this man before, but judging by what she had seen of him so far, they weren't going to get along. He was loud, arrogant, cocky and rude. No, Annie decided, she didn't like this man one bit.


Ben was barely paying any attention to his meal. For days he had agonized over his elusive prey, only to find her in the least expected place, the pack's den. As he watched her, he took in everything he could; from her posture to her delicate bone structure, from the way her eyes darted across the room to the few strands of golden hair that he itched to move behind her ear. He absently wondered if they were as soft as they looked. Almost as if she had caught his thought, Annie's shoulders stiffened. Pausing her movements, she peered up from underneath her eyelashes and looked around the table. As her eyes settled on Ben he caught her gaze, trapping it with his own.

Her eyes were a misty blue, ringed in black, as he was once again dawn into their depths, as though there was something hidden there, just out of reach. Faintly Ben heard his prey's heartbeat pick up, sending a small shiver of satisfaction down his spine. Her eyes widened slightly, a faint pink blush skittering across her cheeks before she quickly broke away from his gaze, once more looking down at her plate. A smirk formed on Ben's lips as he watched her reaction to their staring contest, the scent of her embarrassment and frustration only fueling his satisfaction.

A sharp pain zinged its way up Ben's leg, effectively squelching any pleasure he felt. Sharply turning his head he was met with another gaze, this one from Warren, who had just given him a swift kick underneath the table. Apparently his brief exchange with Annie had not gone unnoticed.

Ignoring the glare Ben was giving him, Warren shot the younger wolf a look which clearly said 'knock it off'. Ben had always been one to get into trouble, and as his pack-mate and superior it was Warren's job to see to it that such trouble did not cause his untimely death. Antagonizing the granddaughter of the Marrok was not something Ben was likely to survive if it continued. Not to mention that over the past few years Ben and Warren had become friends, Ben being one of only a handful of male wolves to accept Warren's position in the pack despite his sexual preferences, and after what had happened with the demon, they had bonded in a way that only survivors of something horrible can.

Conceding defeat, Ben turned his concentration back onto his meal while Warren continued to look back and forth between Annie and his pack-mate. Ben had been behaving slightly off for the past few days, almost as though his attention was diverted elsewhere and he was running on auto-pilot. Tonight was the first time he had shown any interest in what was in front of him, starting when he had met Annie.

Warren recalled the way Ben had stared her down in the kitchen earlier in the night. He had found it odd then that Ben would put an infliction on 'you' when addressing her, but had chalked it up to his tendency to be blatantly rude. Now however Warren realized that it could have a totally different meaning. He remembered too the scent of Ben's shock, followed by curiosity and… excitement? Narrowing his eyes the cowboy studied the wolf across from him. There was something he was missing. Deciding that this was something he would have to discuss with Ben later, Warren finished his meal along with the others, thankful that Samuel had not joined them for dinner. God forbid that he caught wind of this; it was a well known fact that Ben was not high on the lone wolf's trusted people list.


As Adam saw his wolves out, Annie and Jesse cleared away the plates from dinner. Loading the dishwasher and wiping off the counters, Jesse chattered away while Annie listened with half an ear.

"So what do you think?" Annie turned at the barely heard question, silently cursing her wandering attention.

"What do I think about what?" she asked, trying to remember what the other girl had been on about. At this Jesse rolled her eyes, tossing the now dirty rag into the sink and proceeding to help load the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher.

"About Ben." She stressed, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. At this Annie shrugged, and looked back towards her work.

"He seems, arrogant." She said after a moment, thinking back to annoying way his mouth molded into a smirk. Jesse nodded.

"Yeah, he can be like that, but once you get to know him he's not so bad. He seems pretty curious about you." Looking up at Jesse in surprise, she quickly frowned at the cheeky smile planted on the younger girl's face. Quickly forcing down the urge to blush, Annie surmised that she was not the only one who had noticed Ben's behavior.

"If you say so." She said, closing the dishwasher and turning it on. Annie may not be sure why he found her interesting or what he wanted, but one thing was for sure; she had no intention what so ever of getting to know Ben. With that thought firmly planted in her mind, Annie said goodnight to the Hauptmans and got ready for bed.

Warren and Ben stepped off of Adam's front steps and into the night air and headed towards their respective vehicles.

"So Annie huh?" Ben said, trying to sound nonchalant. He knew that Warren wasn't about to let his little dinner stunt go, he could tell by the way the other wolf had watched him for the rest if the night. Warren slowed to a stop by his truck.

"Yes, Annie, daughter of Sam. Anything you want to tell me?" He turned to look at the younger wolf expectantly. Ben did not discard the veiled warning about who she was, and who her family was in the third's sentence. Leaning against his red Ford he looked back at Warren and shrugged.

"I've never met her before." He stated the truth, but both men knew that wasn't all of it. Deciding to let the matter rest for now, Warren sighed and opened the driver's door.

"Don't do anything stupid." It was an order, and one that Ben was going to find difficult to follow. However, Warren hadn't told him to stay away from the girl, so perhaps there was hope yet. Hope for what though, that was a whole other mystery that Ben had yet to solve. Getting into his truck, the Englishman waited for his pack-mate to drive out first before following him onto the road home.

It was just after Samuel's shift at the hospital was over when he finally got the call he had been waiting for. Pulling over to the side of the road, he answered his phone.

"Samuel." he said, not bothering to look at the caller ID. Charles' voice answered through the speaker.

It's me, I've found something."


And they finally met.

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