Hunter Hunted

Dianna chuckled. "Sure you do. Did Mira ever tell you about how she came to have her curse? Or of how she lived before that?"

"I've never asked. I always figured if she wanted me to know, she'd tell me." He shrugged his wide shoulders before moving to the chair that sat in front of her desk. The office was a small room and one that seemed even smaller with him in it. Hunt nodded at Dianna as she fixed him a cup of coffee from her own private stash and then one for herself as well, before sinking down into her chair behind the desk.

"I think you need to know," she said after sipping the warm brew. "Mira hasn't had it easy, Hunt."

"None of us has, Dianna. I mean look at Beast. You'd never have known that he'd been a man with a family and a job before that Wendigo bit him. If the poison of that bite hadn't reacted strangely in his blood, he could still be out there, living life with the human race. But he's had to run and to hide for so long, he doesn't know of any other way of life."

"Yes, for someone like Beast, living here in ASP is perfect. But Mirage is different, Hunter. She had a husband and a daughter once, a long, long time ago. She'd been happy, living her life. Then a rumor was spread about her, a vicious lie made up by a woman who was jealous of Mirage and of her life. That rumor caught the ears of the gods."

"Which ones?" Hunt felt his own interest perk. He'd often wondered about what had happened to Mirage to make her the hard, almost calloused woman he'd come to know. He'd seen the hurt in her beautiful green eyes; he'd even seen the regret, though he hadn't understood it.

"Greek," Dianna answered, rolling her eyes. "I don't think anyone else would have gotten so bent out of shape for what was really no more than wasted breath. Anyway, they decided that she needed to be punished. The Greek gods are good for almost nothing, except they know how to take things too far and how to be complete asses." She shook her head and took another sip of coffee.

"So...what did they do?"