She shook my steady world and threatened to burn it down. So why was I walking toward her like a moth to the flame? I knew what she was.
Because she was that beautiful. Because the bond was that strong.
I wanted my hands on the curve of her thick hips again.
She didn’t shrink away in fear from the monster I was. There was something calculative in her eyes. As if she had ten exit strategies already in place.
It made a pit in my stomach grow. I’d suffered for a century waiting for her, and she was already planning on ripping my heart out of my chest.
I waited too long to let her escape,
Whether either of us liked it or not, she was mine.
Drew’s screaming startled me awake from my dream. My breathing comes in heavy pants. The dream of claws and a forked tongue made my core clench with emptiness I already knew he could fill.
The way I’d seen myself from his eyes made my cheeks hot. Was that really how he viewed me?
Drew’s voice made me focus on the here and now. The first inkling of light peeping over the horizon softly illuminated the green sky. The soft threat that rain was due any second hung right over me. My eyes went to where the road was already partially flooded.
Time to move.
“Talia.” Shannon grabbed my wrist. I leaned up and saw the muddy webbed tracks circling the sage path over and over again. Like he’d paced around us most of the night. “What if he heard us?”
“Doesn’t matter, the plan is the same. Might just need more of that dramatic flair.” I was hearing more and more of histhoughts. There was no doubt he probably already heard the plan in mine. That’s why I didn’t go any more detailed than that.
I’d have to trust Shannon’s judgement to make the calls as she saw fit, because I was compromised.
It unsettled me that the plan of survival hinged on someone else’s actions, but I had to make peace with this. It was the only way. Relinquishing control was easier said than done. But if anyone could do it, it was Shannon.
“Did you take the journal?” I asked her, realizing I’d gone to sleep reading it the previous night.
“I didn’t touch it.” She frowned, scanning the ground to see if it fell. “Maybe he took it.”
Concern that didn’t belong to me dripped down my spine like ice. That book had his weaknesses inside it, and it was no longer in the possession of someone who couldn’t harm him.
“I don’t think so.” I flipped out of the hammock and went to where my bags were. Maybe I forgot putting it away.
Three dead minks were haphazardly resting near my bag as if they’d been tossed there.
Eat. You haven’t eaten.His voice filled my mind.
Yeah, that probably had to do with the dying man screaming all night and the stench that made my stomach turn.
How kind of him to bring me food? I guess that had been his intention when he abandoned me in that place. After all, he couldn’t let me starve. Because then he might suffer some consequences.
It was my job to follow the script, no matter what: Stay in your cage. Be a good girl. Let me fuck you when I want. Let me treat you how I please. After all, you’re a stray no one wants.
The story of my life.
He was just like everyone else.
Hot anger bubbled in my throat as I grabbed the minks by the tails, plodded to the edge of the sage, and tossed them into the water. “Go fuck yourself.”
A snarl echoed between my ears, but I chose to ignore it, focusing on pretending I would get to leave this place.
Ten minutes later, Shannon and I converted the med cot into a portable gurney. Shannon turned to the group waiting, “Who’s carrying their friend, Drew?”
One of the guys I didn’t know snorted, “He’s not even my friend.”
