The door was pushed open and one of his fellow Hunters, Rosalie, appeared. She was in her human form and she could barely look him in the eye as she announced that a visitor had come to see him.
“I don’t want to see anyone,” he growled. Every second he breathed, his shame grew like a cancer.
“What you want doesn’t matter anymore,” Rosalie said, before motioning to whoever was behind her to come inside.
Only days ago, Hiss had stood sentry outside that door. In his quest for revenge, he’d fallen so far down it would be impossible to crawl back up. He knew that, knew he was done for, and he didn’t want anyone else in his face telling him so.
A female with green eyes and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail stepped into the room. She wasn’t remotely tall, but there was a toughness about her, a sharpness that didn’t suffer fools well.
Hiss turned to the Hunter near the door. “You can go, Rosalie. I’m not about to paw my visitor.”
“Not a chance, Hiss.” This time her eyes met his, and they were filled with hot, raw disappointment.
It was a look that scratched at Hiss’s insides, that snaked into the very core of his own Hunter nature and bit at shards of his remaining moral compass. He pulled his gaze from her and settled it on the female in front of him. “Who are you and what do you want?”
Her green eyes narrowed. Not with malice, but with keen interest. “Do you remember me?”
“I believe we’ve met before,” Hiss answered caustically. “Sebastian’s mate, right?”
The female nodded. “But that’s not all I am, it seems.”
“Why do I care?” He couldn’t imagine why the female was here, what she wanted from him.
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Before coming here I really didn’t know what I was. I knew I wasn’t like the other humans I worked with, was friends with, but I didn’t really try and go digging for answers.” Her eyes softened. “Until Sebastian.”
Hiss cursed and dropped down on the cot. “Have you come here to tell me about your perfect little love story, Female? Because that would be a true form of torture for me.”
“Sebastian wanted to know who I was, where I’d come from, how a Pantera female could grow up among the humans without anyone ever looking for me,” she continued, unfazed by his vicious attitude. “He took a hair sample from me.” She grimaced. “Without me knowing about it—”
Hiss growled. “Get on with it, Female. I have all day and night, true, but not for this pointless bullshit.”
Her face fell. “The sample was tested, and DNA—my DNA—matched another shifter here in the Wildlands.”
Something hot and aching rolled through Hiss at her words. Why the hell was she here? What kind of game were the Pantera playing? Or maybe this was the elders—
“I’m your sister, Hiss.”
The words popped out of her mouth like bullets from a gun. At first, Hiss wasn’t sure he’d heard it correctly. Then he replayed it. Again. And again in his mind.
“You’re lying,” he uttered tersely, coming to his feet.
“No.” She shook her head.
“That’s impossible. My sister is dead. My parents are dead. I have no family.”
Tears pricked in her green eyes and she shrugged. “I don’t know how this happened, how we got separated. If our parents are truly gone, or what. But DNA tests don’t lie. I’m your blood, Hiss.” She lifted her chin. “I’m your sister.”