His eyes gleamed. “Orin sent me. Said it was time you two had a nice little chat. You’ve been dodging him long enough, don’t you think?”
My breath hitched. I could still hear Beau shouting through the phone, his voice tinny in my ear.
“I gotta go,” I muttered quickly, barely able to keep my voice steady. “I’ll see you soon.” I hung up and shoved the phone in my pocket.
“Nice and quiet out here, huh?” Vito said, almost conversationally. “Shame you didn’t stay with the crowd. Would’ve made things harder for me. But now… here you are.”
I started sidestepping, keeping my back to the trees, heart threatening to crack my ribs. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, I do,” he said, and suddenly his hands weren’t hands anymore.
His fingers elongated into claws, black and curved. The bones cracked audibly as they shifted, his grin never faltering.
“You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve wanted to stretch my legs like this. Run down something pretty. Been a while.”
I didn’t wait for him to finish. I bolted. He cursed, then laughed. The sound sent ice down my spine. He crashed after me through the undergrowth.
Vito was blocking the path back to the festival, so I turned and tore deeper into the woods. My breath rasped in my throat. Branches lashed at my arms and face.
My wolf pushed forward, frantic, snarling for release. For speed. For survival.
I leapt over a fallen log, boots slipping in a patch of mud as I landed, stumbling hard. Pain shot through my ankle, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. He was behind me. I could hear him.
Vito didn’t move like someone chasing a victim. He moved like someone hunting. Methodical. Patient. Like he wanted me to know he could catch me whenever he wanted.
“Sean,” he sang through the trees. “You’re gonna make me work for it, huh? That’s fine. I like a chase.”
My lungs burned. I shoved a branch aside and ducked through the underbrush, the roar of my heartbeat drowning out all thought.
I needed to hide. Or fight. Or heck, I didn’t know. Just not die.
I spotted a thick outcropping of trees up ahead and swerved toward it, hoping I could lose him, circle around, get back to the festival somehow.
And then something slammed into me from the side.
We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and teeth. His claws raked down my side, slicing my shirt. I screamed and kicked, landing a lucky hit to his stomach, enough to roll him off me.
I scrambled to my feet, blood hot on my skin, and sprinted again. My wolf was howling now.Shift, shift, shift!
But fear locked my body down. All I could do was run.
Vito roared behind me, closer now, so close. I could hear him breathing. Hear the animal in him clawing to the surface.
“I like you better like this,” he growled. “All shaky. All scared.”
I wasn’t going to make it much farther.
Chapter 19
Sean/ Beau
SEAN
My legs were cramping, lungs barely pulling in air, and my side burned from where he’d clawed me. But something primal surged beneath my skin, deeper than panic.
Deeper than fear. Something older. Wilder. My wolf.
It snapped awake with a fury I hadn’t felt in years, clawing at the inside of my skin like shift, dammit, shift now.
