I want this, but I want him to wantme.
Are we only playing hunter and prey because of my dreams? The pound of each step on the ground drags me down, making me feel heavier and heavier. My lungs are burning, and my forehead is damp with exertion.
I run and run, questioning everything and before long, and far too long in silence, I near my house. I pass my fire pit and slow, wondering if I’ve entirely misinterpreted. Maybe he literally just wanted me to go home, that he’d meet me at the house?
From the direction of my house, I can just barely make out Henry’s muffled barks, happy and eager. He’s obviously made it home safe, which means at some point… Seth passed me… silently.
A twig snaps behind me and off to my left, and I glance that way before shaking myself and heading in the opposite direction.
As soon as I’m running again, I hear Seth moving through the forest behind me. Instead of silence, I can hear his footsteps on the forest floor, and then his chuckle echoes to me from across the snow.
“You slowed down, Princess…” he calls out. “I told you torun.”
I squeak and pour everything I can into pumping my legs. “I wasn’tsure you were coming!” I call out.
Seth roars, and it’s a sound no human could make. It should scare me… and I suppose it does, since my chest leaps and I nearly stumble. More than fear though, it makes heat build between my legs.
Each stride provides friction where I need it most. Every pass is more slippery, letting my lips slide against each other and my clit, driving me into a frenzy. My legs burn their protest at my running, but I couldn’t stop if I wanted to.
Running feels like freedom, like flying. The knowledge thatSethis chasing me, that this won’t end like one of my dreams, makes a giddy laugh bubble up from inside of me.
This is real.
This is happening.
Sethwantsme.
He doesn’t answer for long enough that I wonder if he heard me, but in all the tumult of running through the forest, jumping over fallen trees and getting smacked in the face with the naked branches, I’ve lost track of where he was.
“I will…” The words come from my left, growling and barely audible.
I squeak and jump to the side, unseeing him yet realizing he is so much closer than I’d thought.
“Always…”
Seth steps out from between the trees ahead of me, and I scream. How the hell did he get there? I scramble to turn around, nearly falling but catching myself with my hand. Once I’m running, I can’t help but look behind me. Seth is a blur, zipping past me until I run straight into his chest.
“Come for you.”
I let out anoofand fall backward into the snow. Seth looms over me, his dark form blotting out the sun, the trees, until all I see is him. All I smell is his fresh scent, and all I hear is the measured sound of his breathing.
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Princess. I willalwayscome for you.”
It’s supposed to be a threat, but it sounds like perfection to me. I whimper, my nipples tight and sensitive under my shirt.
“Do you like that, dirty girl?” Seth cocks his head to the side and smirks. “You like that your monster will hunt you down. Anywhere, anytime?”
I nod, frantic. It should terrify me, considering well… everything, but if the attention of the past few weeks is anything to go by, being the center of Seth’s attention is exactly where I want to be.
“You want this, Ada? Seth, the monster? I’ll never be the prince you dreamed of. This is what I am now.”
“I wantyou, Seth. But… especially like this.” I blush and turn my head, because it feels wrong to say it, to admit that perhaps I like this version of him better than any prince or knight he’s ever been.
This Seth, it speaks to the darkness I’ve tried to deny in myself, and makes me feel more seen, more special than I’ve ever felt. “And you?”
I need to know that this is for him, too.
It seems I’ve struck a nerve, though, because in another blur of movement, Seth is on the ground, growling and huffing like he’s barely containing himself.
