I’m close, so fucking close, when someone raps on my passenger window.
I nearly have a heart attack, frantically tucking myself back in, hands shaking as I fumble with the zipper.
A young woman in a liquor store uniform peers through the glass, cataloging the mess, my suspicious behavior.
I lower the window two inches. “Yes?”
She whips an orange flyer from the stack in her hand. “Halloween party. Tailgating, drink specials, the works.”
I take the flyer with fingers I pray aren’t visibly trembling.
She chatters on about costume contests and two-for-one shots while my eyes track Haven getting up from the picnic table.
“Delightful, thank you,” I interrupt, rolling up the window.
She looks offended but walks away without another word. I crumple the flyer and shove it into the side compartment with the other evidence of my unraveling life.
When I look back, Haven is climbing into the Land Rover. My erection is painful now, demanding release that isn’t coming. The interruption has turned my arousal into something darker, more violent.
God knows where she’s headed. Maybe back to the sorority housing I arranged for her. Maybe back into Kai’s bed at his frat house.
Maybe she’s going to Lookout Point to admire the view.
I don’t need to follow her. She’ll land herself back on my radar soon enough.
What I do need, is something to satiate my hunger.
I would never hurt an animal in my life, hence why I feedbothmy wolves. But I learned a long time ago that Bad Wolf’s hunger can never be sated.
Haven, whether she knows it or not, is looking more and more like a tasty meal.
“Soon, sweet girl,” I murmur, adjusting myself as I drive into a parking bay closer to the taco stand. “Very fucking soon.”
Milo looks up when I walk up to him.
It’s already dusk, and he looks to be packing up for the day. The other shops in the strip mall are starting to close too. Only the liquor store’s door is still wide open, bright fluorescent lights flickering to life inside.
I smile at Milo.
He doesn’t smile back.
“You’re losing control,”Good Wolf mourns in my head.
My smile widens.
As if I had any to begin with.
Chapter 44
Haven
I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor of me and Melissa’s room, surrounded by textbooks and notes. Turns out hiding from the world is great for catching up on schoolwork, when I can concentrate longer than two seconds. My mind keeps wandering into the past like it’s an okay place to be, and not some overgrown nightmare forest filled with voracious memories.
Saturday is the current trending hit, my brain replaying the feel of my father’s tobacco-stained fingers digging into my arm, to the humiliation of having the entire town watching as the meth-head who spawned me screamed about his stolen car.
Last Tuesday is a close second, featuring a range of blurry vignette—from Bastian twisting me open with his fingers and spitting inside me, to him sinking between my legs and fucking me within an inch of my life.
The kiss between Bastian and Kai is a serious contender.
