On the Hunt by Alexandra Ivy, Dianne Duvall, Rebecca Zanetti

and bring him into her home so she could heal him.
    It was what she did. What she’d been born to do.
    Only her promise to Mika kept her standing in place.
    “Tell me how you were injured,” she instead urged.
    “I was attacked.”
    “By who?”
    “I . . .” His gaze shifted to the side, almost as if he was looking for someone hidden among the nearby trees. Shit. Was he afraid he was being followed? “The Brotherhood.”
    She blinked in shock.
    She’d heard of the secret society that supposedly hated high-bloods, but she’d never realized there were any in this area.
    “Why would they attack you?”
    “Please, I really need to be healed.”
    Bailey shook her head, the hair standing up on her nape at the edge of desperation in Jacob’s voice.
    “I’m sorry, I can’t.”
    Jacob sucked in a sharp breath. “What do you mean?”
    “I can’t let you into my home until my friend returns,” she said. “He wants to speak with you.”
    “I can’t wait.” Jacob smacked his hand against the barrier, his panic a tangible force in the air. “I’ll die.”
    Bailey stepped back, her brows drawing together at the boy’s strange behavior.
    It was true he was wounded. And no doubt in pain.
    But he wasn’t near death.
    “No, you won’t.”
    There was a rustle in the undergrowth before a man stepped out of the trees and pressed a gun to Jacob’s temple.
    “Yes, he will.”
    Bailey’s heart thundered in her chest, her wide-eyed gaze taking in the stranger.
    He was medium height and medium weight with mud-brown eyes and black hair that was neatly combed from his square face. Dressed in a pair of khaki slacks and a pressed cotton shirt, he looked more like a politician than a cult fanatic.
    Well, as long as you didn’t bother to notice he was holding a gun to the head of a poor, innocent boy.
    “Who are you?” she rasped.
    “I don’t give my name to freaks,” he said with patent disdain. Creep. Then he lifted his free hand, gesturing toward her. “Come here.”
    Her mind raced.
    She didn’t know why they were there, or what they wanted from her, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
    Her only hope was that she could keep the bastard distracted long enough for Mika to return.
    “Screw you,” she muttered.
    Soul-deep hatred glowed in the man’s eyes. The sort of hatred that allowed him to view her as an object in need of destruction, not a real person.
    “Do it, or the boy dies.”
    “No.” She forced herself to breathe even as her stomach twisted with dread. God almighty, could she truly stand there and watch the man kill Jacob just to protect herself? “Why are you doing this?”
    “You have something we need,” he said.
    She frowned. What the hell would the Brotherhood need from her?
    And how was Jacob involved?
    “I can’t heal humans.”
    A strangely mocking smile twisted the stranger’s lips. “You would be surprised.” He grabbed Jacob’s hair and tilted the boy’s head back, placing the gun directly beneath his chin. As if he felt the need to make the threat more dramatic. “Now, make your choice. Do you come with us nicely or does the boy die?”
    As if there was a choice?
    It didn’t matter what she’d promised to Mika. Or even that she knew she was being manipulated.
    She was a healer.
    It was profoundly, utterly impossible for her to stand and watch someone being harmed.
    “I’m coming,” she said, resentfully moving forward.
    Stepping through the barrier, Bailey wasn’t surprised when two more men appeared from the trees. Dressed in matching jeans and muscle shirts, they had identical arrow tattoos on the side of their thick necks.
    Bailey grimaced. She assumed the Bobbsey Twins were the muscle of the nasty trio.
    They hurried forward to grab her arms in a painful grip.
    “Check her for a phone,” the leader commanded. “We don’t want to be followed.”
    Bailey swallowed a groan. Dammit. She’d been depending on that phone to help Mika locate her position.
    She didn’t