**CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.**
Karina wasn't at Honey Works Cafe.
Draken and I stood at the entrance for a moment longer than necessary, scanning the area in a futile attempt to find her. The air inside the cafe smelled of freshly brewed coffee and warm pastries, but to me at that moment, it was suffocating. I had hoped she'd be here, sipping her usual order of hot chocolate with pumpkin spice since she didn't like coffee, her laugh filling the air as she spoke about a handsome guy that caught her eyes…or the course giving her trouble and how she would love to eat the lecturer literally, but there was no sign of her—just empty chairs and unfamiliar faces.
After Draken and I left, I handed him a picture of Karina, her smile frozen in time, and we decided to separate. I combed through every cafe close to the school campus, walking in silence, my eyes searching, heart heavy. Time went fast, minutes turning into an eternity as I wandered from one place to the next. All to no avail, not even Tyler could be seen.
An hour passed. Then two, lectures long forgotten. By the time Draken and I reconvened at the spot where he had parked his car, over five hours had slipped through our fingers. My chest felt hollow, every breath painful as if the weight of Karina's absence had settled deep inside me, weighing on my chest.
“Nothing?” I asked him as we both entered the car.
His silence was enough of an answer for me.
I groaned, pulling out my phone as I called her line again—my fingers trembling as I hit her number, praying this time she’d answer.
Once more, the mechanical voice greeted me with cruel indifference. *“The number you have dialed is currently switched off.”*
I closed my eyes, fighting the panic threatening to consume me. Why was her phone off? Why hadn't she called back or replied to my text? Was she really…
“No, she can't,” I said to myself as I shook my head, clearing my thoughts as Draken began to drive.
By the time it was evening, we were at Topper’s building in Tribeca but the warmth of the place was lost on me. Draken had insisted we went there, and I knew it was because he was worried too, even though his expression remained a stoic mask. He didn’t say it, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his jaw clenched each time I sighed.
The rest of the gang had shown up—on Draken’s demand, no doubt—but their presence only made the silence louder. Kelvin sat on the floor, his back against the wall, staring blankly at his phone as though waiting for a message that would probably never come. Betty, looking nonchalant, was curled up in an armchair, munching on a pack of Doritos, each crunch too loud, too harsh against the weight pressing down on me.
Brianna was perched on the arm of the couch where Topper lounged, her fingers carding through his hair like she didn’t have a care in the world. I envied her ease, the way she seemed untouched by the anxiety curling inside me. Hannah Stanley sat next to Links Barlowe on the floor, whispering something to him that I couldn’t make out, their heads close as though this was just another casual evening. Killian stood next to Draken, his arms crossed, eyes darting between us, waiting for someone to speak, to say why we'd gathered everyone.
But none of them knew. Draken and I hadn’t shared
“So, what’s going on?” Betty was the first to break the silence, her voice casual, though her eyes flickered with curiosity as she continued to eat her Doritos. “If you are here to announce your relationship or your mate bond, we already know. Topper told us.”
Draken shook his head, stepping away from Killian as every eye fell on him. His voice was steady, though I could hear the strain behind it. “There’s something you all need to know. Karina’s missing.”
A murmur rippled through the group. I saw the confusion on their faces—most of them didn’t even know who Karina was. She wasn’t part of this group, wasn’t one of them nor was she a friend. She was my friend, someone I had known for years, and now she was missing…the word still felt foreign on my tongue.
“Karina…She’s my friend,” I added quietly from where I saw seated. “Draken suspects she might be one of us. A shifter.”
“Probably a weredog,” Draken added.
Betty furrowed her brows as she sat upright. “Okay? So, she's missing? What does that have to do with us.”
“Black beads and moving tattoos —”
“No way, you think?” Topper was the one who spoke this time, interrupting Draken. He looked better than the last time I'd seen him beating out the life and flesh out of Raphael.
Draken nodded at Topper's silent question that held weight. “Yes. I believe the hunters are back.”
At the mention of the hunters, I felt the tension in the room thicken. Hunters. The one word that sent shivers down every shifter’s spine. The one thing that haunted our kind. And now, we had even more reason to fear them.
“Wait,” Kelvin said, sitting up straighter, his gaze locking onto Draken. “Hunters? As in *those* hunters? The ones we think—”
“Yes,” Draken interrupted, his tone clipped, eyes hard. “Is there any other kind? I’m talking about supernatural hunters. The same ones that took away my childhood years.”
A heavy silence fell over the room. The word ‘hunter’ carried weight, a threat none of us wanted to acknowledge but could no longer ignore.
Hannah's voice wavered as she spoke up, her expression troubled. “How do you know Karina was taken by one of them? It’s been what—eleven, maybe thirteen years since any of us heard anything about them?”
“I don’t know if any of you have met Tyler,” I began, doing my best to paint the image in their minds. “He attends Cortland University. He’s got cropped, dark hair, usually wears an earring, and there’s this tattoo on his neck—it looks like an animal being stabbed by a sword. He also has this black bead that hangs from a chain around his neck.”
Betty’s brow furrowed, her expression deep in thought. “Tyler? Yeah, I know him. Back when I dated Raphael, those two hated each other. Raphael couldn’t stand the guy. Tyler’s the captain of the football team. I’ve seen him around, but I never noticed the tattoo or the bead… Shit. Are you telling me Karina was last seen with him?”