Kassie laughed and grabbed my hands. “All right, you can. Come over here.”
She led me into the kitchen and had me stand in the corner.
“No cheating. You count to a hundred, and no sniffing around until you’re done counting. That’s cheating.”
I groaned playfully. “That’s not fair,” I joked. “You’re making it so hard.”
Kassie snorted. “Of course. I don’t want to make it too easy on you. Start counting, and cover your ears so you can’t hear either. I don’t want you listening. Now go.”
I chuckled under my breath. Kassie thought she was so clever, but she was in for a surprise. Once I found her, I'd hold her against me until she melted, until her body quivered with pleasure so intense she wouldn't have a single thought left about that troublesome fox. Our little distraction ritual was becoming quite the pattern, and I wasn't complaining.
I counted aloud, my voice echoing against the kitchen tiles. "Forty-seven... forty-eight... wait, was that forty-eight or forty-nine?" My antennae twitched with anticipation. Every encounter with Kassie had christened another corner of this cabin—the couch, the kitchen counter, against the bathroom door. Once Lucien and the others finally caught that fox shifter, we'd have the entire forest as our playground. "Fifty-something... oh hell, fifty-five."
I could take her back to the falls, to the hidden caves filled with glowing rocks, to meadows bursting with wildflowers, and to allthe other places the forest held. We could even mess around at Gideon’s house, especially my knowing how to make him fall to the ground like a damn idiot.
When I hit one hundred, I unfurled my antennae and inhaled deeply. Something was off. The cabin's air carried a crispness that hadn't been there before—less saturated with our mingled scents. I scanned the room. The living room looked untouched. The couch still rumpled from our bodies, blankets in disarray…
Then my eyes caught the door. Something was wrong. The handle—usually lying flat like the hand of a clock pointing to three—angled downward toward five. I rushed over, my nostrils flaring. Kassie's scent hung thick in the air around it, concentrated and fresh.
She. Did. Not.
I yanked the door open and staggered back as the forest air rushed in. Her scent trail was faint—just a whisper… but a single silken thread of it clung to a tiny splinter jutting from the doorframe.
That clever, reckless female.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kassie
Iwas going to get my ass beat by the time this was all over.
Back at the cabin, running away had felt like a stroke of genius. From Atlas' windows, where I'd gazed out each morning with my coffee, the forest hadn't seemed so threatening. Just trees and shadows, nothing like the menacing tangle of darkness I'd imagined before moving in with him. Funny how different things look from the safety of the walls.
I hadn’t wanted to venture into it before, but once you were inside with your match, it didn’t matter anymore. I knew what waited in the forest. The monsters without their disguises.
The delivery poltergeist was quite a shock. They were nothing like what I had expected, and seeing them knock on the door with bags in their hands was far more than I could handle. I got used to it after a couple of days, though. They were just trying to get by, make a living, and have some peace in their regular form.
But I needed to get out and get some air, and Atlas wasn’t going to give me that without some drastic measures.
The game had been a trick in the beginning, but I’d thought we could play it more often. He was going to hunt me down and catch me, and I knew he would enjoy it when he did. I was certain his monster instincts would take over, and that it would be fun for both of us.
I read him a couple of my monster romance stories, and I could tell it helped. He seemed more at ease with his urges, reassured by how completely on board I was with all of it. Especially, the chase scenes because, phew, those were damn hot.
I will finally have my dreams come true of being chased through the woods, pinned down and put into the dirt.
The air was cool against my skin, carrying the scent of damp earth and sharp pine. Shadows stretched like fingers across the ground beneath trees that towered overhead, their bark black as coal and studded with thorns. Even at midday, only scattered beams of light penetrate the dense canopy. The branches ended in violent, splintered points as if snapped by something massive. This forest was feral, untamed—and I shouldn't love it, but God help me, I did.
It felt more and more like home.
Alone in the forest, I felt a strange comfort despite knowing that fox shifter was hunting me… all because I'd beaten him at some stupid game. I rolled my eyes. If TeaBagTitan thought his charm would work on me, he was delusional. Not even thoseperfectly defined abs, gleaming under the ring lights during his matches, had ever done anything for me.
If Atlas thought that I would fall for his charm, he was mistaken. The poor thing didn’t have a lot of confidence in himself. He had already claimed me. If any of my romance books were correct, a bond would keep me from falling for the fox’s charm indefinitely.
That tingling in my teeth was back again. I clicked my fangs together nervously. These weren't supposed to be real, just permanent cosmetic additions—but lately they felt less like accessories and more like they'd grown from my own gums. I needed to tell Atlas, but how? The poor guy was such a worrier. If he found out my fake fangs were somehow becoming part of me, he'd probably molt from stress alone.
My fangs throbbed with a maddening itch, like something crawling beneath the enamel. Every night, I'd wake up with another shredded pillow, the stuffing scattered across the sheets—evidence of how desperately I'd fought the urge to sink my teeth into Atlas instead.
In all those paranormal romance books I'd devoured, it was always the other way around, the supernatural male sinking his teeth into his human lover. Never had I considered I might be the one with the urge to bite. What did that even mean?
