Hunger Awaits
Chapter 18

Ryker's POV

"Where the fuck were you?! You had one fucking task and that was to watch her. Now he has her again and it is going to be war to get her back." I couldn't control my anger as I unleashed my anger on Hunter. He was a complete idiot. All he had to do was keep an eye on her while she showered, but he couldn't even do that. Hunter stood cowering in front of me.

"I..I.." He stuttered his words. I lashed out again before he could say more.

" I.. I.. I.. is that all you can say you, stupid idiot! Your lucky I need you or I would rip your throat out right now. Get the fuck out of my sight before I change my mind!" Hunter quickly scurried away like the wounded dog he was leaving me to my thoughts. I knew that I was going to need more help if I wanted Kendra. This Matto obviously thinks he has rights to her, but he is dead wrong. She is mine and I will kill anyone who gets in my way.

Five years earlier...

"Ryker, come to my office when you get done with your training." My father stood in the doorway of the house watching me. I hated it when he watched me train, but over the years I just learned to ignore it. I nodded at him and watched as he walked away. I turned back to Hunter who was now crouch in an attack position waiting to pounce. He lunged towards me claws out and teeth showing. I smiled big then maneuvered out of the way and shifted all at once. Hunter flew past me and right into a tree. I laughed to myself then went straight for his throat. The one thing I was always taught was to not play around and go straight for the kill. I was on top of Hunter before he could even regain himself. I pinned him down to the ground with my full weight and snarled at him.

"Your dead," I said to him, then backed off of him and shifted back

"I don't know why I train with you. You always win." I turned back to Hunter and laughed, as he put his clothes on.

"You train with me because I am the best and you need all the help you can get." He shrugged his shoulders then threw my shirt at me.

"You better hurry up before your highness has a coronary ." I laughed as I put the shirt on and walked into the house. My father was the Alpha of our pack and he made sure that everyone knew it. Even I wasn't safe from his fury when he was mad. I ran through my head if there was anything that I might have done to upset him as I walked to his office. I couldn't think of any reason that he would be upset with me, but I knew that it didn't matter. I approached the closed office door and took a deep breath before I knocked.

"Come in." His voice sounded with authority from the other side of the door. I opened it and walked in.

My father sat at his desk with some papers sprawled out in front of him. He looked up and motioned for me to sit down in front of him. I was trying to read his expression to see if he was mad, but I couldn't tell. I took a seat in front of his desk and wait for him to start talking. After about five minutes he finally looked up at me. "Do you remember me ever talking about a young girl that had been taken from our pack?" I nodded at him. Honestly, I remembered him talking about her but I never paid attention to what he had said. "Well, I think that it is time to bring her home. I have found out that she was adopted out to a family not to far from here and I want you to go and observe her. I need to know if she is truly the girl that was taken from us." I looked at him wondering why he all of a sudden wanted to replace this girl. She had been missing for almost eighteen years and he had never tried to replace her before.

"Why?" I asked him. He looked at me and then sat back in his chair.

"Well son, because she belongs with us. She is our family. Besides she belongs to you.” My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe what he just said.

"What do you mean she belongs to me?" I asked once I could speak. He laughed a little under his breath.

"It's as simple as that. Her parents owed me a favor for saving their lives so they offered her to me for you. I accepted their offer because I knew she would grow to be a beautiful woman and you deserved the best. Then they were killed and she was adopted out before I could replace her." I still couldn't understand what he was telling me, but now my curiosity was getting the best of me.

"So why did you wait until now to replace her if she was so important? Why didn't you just have someone go and take her from her adopted family?"

My father shook his head in disappointment. "I have been looking for her since day one but her adoption was a closed adoption because of the circumstances surrounding it. Since they never found the person that killed her parents they never knew if anyone would try to replace her to. I just recently was able to pay off someone from the inside to replace her info." This was becoming more and more intriguing to me so I decided that I had to see this girl.

"Ok, so what is my future mate's name?" I asked. He smiled big at me and then stood and walked over with a picture in his hand. I looked at the picture and she really was a beautiful girl. Her long brown hair flowed down her back and her smile was amazing.

"Her name is Kendra Meeks. Here is her address and her work address. Remember I want you to just observe her for now. See if you can sense the wolf in her. We have to make sure she is the right person before we make our move."

Present-day...

I had left my home that day with Hunter and Chase to go in search of this girl. I never knew that the next five years would be the longest five years of my life. It didn't take me long to locate her and start my observation. The first time I saw her I knew that she was the one that I wanted. Even if she hadn't been promised to me I still would have chased after her. She was even more beautiful in person. I watched her for three years before my father finally said that I could approach her. In those three years I had learned as much about her as I could and had also watched her go on dates and it killed me when I saw her with another man. Of course in those three years I also became the man I am now. My father had told me to approach her and get her to start dating me. It was almost to easy to do that.

However, the hard part was going to be separating her from her family and friends. I had to make her feel completely alone so that she would willingly go with me back to our pack. I grew to impatient though and before I knew it I was off to jail and she was running as far from me as she could. That still didn't change anything though. I was, even more, driven to make her mine no matter what it took. Now I need to figure out a game plan. I knew that this Matto guy wouldn't be easy to trick, so I was going to have to bide my time and wait. There was a knock on my door and then it cracked open. "Ryker, I have some information about Matto that your going to want to hear." Hunter's head poked in the cracked door. Even though I was mad at him I knew he was trying to make up for it.

"Well, what is it?" I asked impatiently, as he stayed in the doorway. Hunter walked cautiously into my room.

"Well, Matto and his friends are from a very powerful pack that was thought to have been wiped out a few years ago. They are from the Quhalin tribe." Shit! I thought to myself. Even though we were from two completely different worlds I still knew who the Quhalin tribe was. They were actually the only people that my father ever had respect for. However a few years ago word had gotten around that they had been wiped out by some townsfolk that didn't take kindly to them being there. Apparently Matto and his friends must have escaped. "Ryker? You know that your father won't go against this pack." Hunter was still standing by the door waiting for some sort of sign that I forgave him.

"Well he may not go against the pack, but I have a feeling that they are the only ones left. You did good work, but we need to try and replace out if there are any more of this pack left. I don't want to plan an attack and replace out that there are more of them. Get to work. I need to make a call." Hunter left the room and I picked up my cell phone. I hadn't thought that I would have to make this call, but I knew that I was going to need help. Even if Matto and his friends were alone they still were strong and I knew that he wasn't just going to give Kendra to me without a fight. I dialed the number and waited for his voice to come in my ear.

"Hello Ryker, to what do I owe the pleasure?" I took a deep breath I hated this, but I needed his help.

"Hello, father. I need your help."