The Hunt (Forgotten #1)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

C olt took a deep breath to calm himself before entering the bar, hoping his brothers hadn’t completely wrecked the place this time. Pushing the door open, he stepped inside, expecting the worse and that’s exactly what he got.

Glasses, chairs, and even tables were being tossed in the air. Fists freely flew and patrons scratched, clawed and bit each other, some going for the kill. There would definitely be casualties by the end of the night.

And standing in the center of the melee were his two idiot brothers. Leland had two patrons in headlocks, one under each arm. He squeezed so hard, their eyes practically bulged from their sockets.

Zeke stood on the bar, chugging from a massive glass beer mug. Once the contents were empty, he brought it down on the head of a male charging him. The glass exploded against the man’s head, causing a massive gush of blood.

But Zeke wasn’t finished. He hopped off the bar, lifted the injured man and tossed him down the length of the bar as if his adversary were nothing more than a rag doll.

Colt spotted the bartender, hiding behind the bar, shielding himself from the flying debris. Their eyes connected and the poor guy shot him a pleading stare which clearly said, do something.

Most of the patrons involved in the fight had gone primal, and were in their beast states and there was only one way to catch everyone’s attention. Colt dug into his pocket and pulled out the special high frequency whistle that only beasts could hear. Much like a dog whistle it was almost painful to those who could hear it but went one step farther. It could temporarily paralyze those on the receiving end of its sound.

Colt gave the whistle a healthy blow.

Many of the patrons dropped to the ground holding their ears, while some howled in agony. Others turned in his direction with angry glares. But none of them dared to approach him.

The residents of Serenity Falls lived by their own set of rules. For the most part they lived peacefully amongst each other but most of them hid a monstrous secret. This was a place where it was eat or be eaten, and a challenge could sometimes result in death. So, if someone wanted a fight, they had to be prepared to die.

Colt had survived his fair share of such fights from the time he could walk. In his younger days, most of his opponents weren’t fortunate enough to walk away from the scuffles he found himself in. As he got older and mellowed out, his reputation for being one of the toughest fighters in town still proceeded him.

His younger brothers on the other hand were far less level headed and fought at the slightest offense. Colt lost count of how many bodies those two had on their hands and usually he was able to calm them down but as the years passed and they got older, it was becoming more difficult. Leland and Zeke would soon be more beast than man.

He put the blame on himself for not being a better role model for them. They’d lost their parents when Colt had just turned 18. Leland had been 12 and Zeke 10. Colt was barely an adult at that point but he found himself responsible for the well-being and care of two rambunctious boys on the cusp of puberty. Kids who weren’t completely human like himself.

Colt had done his best to raise them, but he knew in order to provide for them properly, he’d have to go out into the world and leave Serenity Falls behind. By the time he returned, his brothers allowed their inner beasts to rule them, often beyond control.

There were no amount of culling ceremonies that seemed to sooth their animalistic natures, and he feared if they didn’t find mates to satisfy their needs, they’d eventually lose the remainder of their humanity.

In the meantime, he needed to get these drunken blockheads home. Colt surveyed the damage around the bar. There was smashed furniture and shattered glasses everywhere. Blood dripped down the walls and the hint of death clung to the air. The cleanup crew would at least have something fresh for the butchers to hand out to the zombeasts.

His bank account was going to take a healthy hit for the repairs needed to get this place back into working order.

Colt waded through the bodies and trash to get to Leland first. There was a streak of blood trickling from his scalp, and coating his russet mane. Colt gripped Leland by the collar and yanked him closer. “Mind telling me what the fuck happened here?”

Leland who was roughly the same height as Colt at 6’4, grinned without the least bit of remorse. “Clearly you have eyes. As the saying goes, you don’t start something that you can’t finish and that asshole over there,” He jerked his thumb toward a man who was passed out cold on the ground. The only sign of life was the slow rise and fall of his chest. His nose was in an unnatural position and both eyes were blacked and swollen. “decided, he wanted to challenge me.”

Colt raised a brow. The Black brothers had a reputation around town for being troublemakers and playing outside of the rules. He’d lost count of how many times, his younger brothers had been thrown in the tank to calm down.

“Were you really challenged or did you get upset because you didn’t like something someone said?”

Leland broke eye contact and glanced off in the distance. “He said something about mom and dad,” he admitted gruffly.

Colt sighed. “They’re just words. You have to learn how to control yourself. You’re 28. Way too old to be giving into these childish whims of yours.”

Leland pushed him away with a hefty shove, sending Colt careening backward. He barely managed to stay on his feet.

Leland glared at him. “You may be able to pretend they didn’t exist, but some us still fucking care. Don’t bother following me. I’m going to walk back to the house.” And with that last statement, Leland turned on his heel and stormed out of the bar.

Colt shot a weary glance in the direction of his youngest brother who had apparently been watching the exchange in silence. Despite being the youngest, he was the largest by height and size. Standing at 6’7 with shoulders as broad as a four lane high way Zeke Black filled a room wherever he went.

A man of few words, it was said he was the most savage of the three brothers, most beast than human. He mostly spoke in grunts if he used words at all. Though he didn’t have Leland’s hair trigger temper, he was the one you would least want to cross in a battle of pure physical strength.

“You got anything to add?” Colt asked.

Zeke shook his head with a grunt. His shoulder length black locks swayed from side to side. There was a deep scratch on the side of his face with caked on blood but he appeared to be unharmed otherwise.

“Go wait for me in the truck.”

Colt expected some form of protest from his brother, but the big hulking man simply turned around and headed out the bar without a word. Well at least that was one less fight he had to worry about later on although it didn’t worry him any less. Zeke could be just as temperamental as Leland at times, but he was the most sensitive out of the three of them.

Sometimes it took Colt everything in him to hold it together himself. His brothers couldn’t live outside of Serenity Falls without there being major issues which is why it was so important that they didn’t get to the point of being put down by the townspeople, or worse, becoming the zombeasts who were only free to roam on Halloween night when there was fresh meat to hunt.

The thought of his brothers becoming mindless animals, shook him to the core but if something didn’t happen soon, he feared that’s exactly what would happen.

Colt strolled over to the bar and leaned over to see Sandy still cowering in the corner. The top of his shiny bald head reflected the hovering lights hanging from the ceiling.

“It’s safe to come out now. I think the worse of it is over.”

Sandy wobbled to his feet and released a heavy sigh. “You know, I hate to do this but I’m going to have to report them to the council. This is the third time in six months that they caused a brawl in this bar.”

Colt raked his hands through his hair in frustration. Getting reported to the council meant there would be some form of punishment which was usually a few weeks in the tank, but too many reports resulted in something far worse. The influence Colt carried in town was usually enough to keep his brothers out of more serious trouble but this time things looked really bad.

He noticed one of the corpses belonged to the Hendrickson family. Rolf Hendrickson currently sat on the council and wouldn’t take kindly to one of his kin being killed in a brawl caused by one of the Black brothers.

“Look, I’ll pay for the damage of course. But can’t you look the other way just this one time?”

Sandy placed his hands up. “Exactly how many chances am I supposed to give them? I don’t mean any offense but your brothers are menaces.”

“Haven’t we all gone through our wild phases? I had mine and I clearly remember the stories my dad used to tell me about the two of you tearing through town. He said both of you left a trail of bodies in your wake. Can’t you cut them some slack this time?”

“First of all, fuck you very much for using your dad’s memory to get me to excuse the mess Leland and Zeke made of my bar.”

Colt took a sweeping glance of his surroundings. “From where I’m standing it doesn’t seem like they were in this by themselves and yes, if using my father’s memory will remind you that people fuck up from time to time then so be it.”

“Fine! This is the last time though and they can’t come back.”

“I’ll make sure they won’t.”

Sandy pursed his lips. “Somehow I doubt that. I’ll send you a bill for the repairs.”

“Thanks, Sandy.”

Sandy made a shooing gesture with his hand. “Go on, get out of here. I think I’ve had enough dealings with the Black brothers to last me a lifetime.”

Zeke was leaning against the truck staring at the starless sky when Colt made it outside.

“Get in,” Colt ordered hopping into the driver’s seat.

Colt figured the short car ride to their house would be in silence but surprisingly Zeke was in the mood to talk.

“I didn’t intend to fight tonight.”

Colt flexed the muscle in his jaw to prevent himself from saying the first thing that popped into his head. He took a few deep breathes before replying. “Maybe you didn’t intend to but you and Leland caused a lot of damage. It took some convincing to stop Sandy from reporting you to the council, although they’re bound to hear about it soon enough anyway considering one of the casualties was one of the Hendrickson boys.”

Zeke shrugged. “There’s like twenty of them.”

“That’s beside the point. You and Leland can’t do whatever the fuck you please whenever you want. That’s why there’s rules in place to ensure stuff like this doesn’t continue to happen. You don’t want to go back to a time when our kind was hunted and we had to fight daily for our survival.”

“You weren’t around for that either. Mom and Dad barely remembered it.”

“It’s still our history. We don’t want to go back to the way things were. We have a pretty good system going now.”

“Do we really? Because some people think we should be able to hunt freely. It’s the same faction that got our parents killed and turned Sandy into a neutered shell of the man he used to be.”

This was the most words Colt had heard his younger brother string together at once in a very long time.

“Where is this coming from, Zeke?”

Colt suspected that there was more to tonight’s fight than either one of his brothers was willing to talk about.

“The hunt is coming up in a couple of days.”

Colt tightened his hands around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“If I don’t find a compatible mate this year, I’m not going to take the injections.”

Colt’s heart seized within his chest. “I can’t make you take them but you do know what happens if you don’t?”

“Yes.”

The rest of the ride home was in complete silence.

When he pulled up to the driveway of their house, Zeke got out of the car leaving Colt to process his words.