Page 17 of Escaping Monsters

The glowing orb darted around me. “Come to our party, pretty wolf. Come dance with me, and I’ll make you forget. Forget with me, sweet child of the earth. We can hide you. We can take you where he’ll never find you again.”

“Teagan,” the low male yell came from somewhere behind me in the forest, but I reached out toward the glowing light.

“How would you hide me?” I asked.

The glow brightened. “In the deepest places, my sweet docile wolf. You’ll be mine, and I will protect you from the monsters that chase you. Follow me…”

The light darted away, and I stepped into the glowing path as the sound of feet trampling underbrush crashed behind me.

“Come quick,” the light whispered as it darted between the trees.

I fell into a run, following the streaming light as hope flared to life in my chest. Finally, I’d be hidden in a place that Kane could never find me. This was my chance—maybe my only chance.

The footfalls behind me grew louder, and though I hastened my pace, within minutes, Jasper appeared beside me.

“Teagan,” he growled. “This is a fae trap,” he said.

The ball of light sped up, darting through the trees, and I continued to run while I kept Jasper in the corner of my eye. If he grabbed for me, I’d dodge and keep running. But he didn’t reach for me, he just kept an even gait beside me.

“I’ve suspected that their queen, Mab, has been trying to trap a wolf for a while now. Do you want to exchange one collar for another?” Jasper asked, and his words woke me like a bucket of ice water poured on my head.

What the fuck was I doing? I slowed to a stop and watched as the glowing ball of light darted into the forest.

“Shit.” I rubbed my fingers over my eyes. “Thank you, Jasper. I don’t even know what I was thinking.” The full scope of what I had been about to do hit me, and I staggered a step. Fuck. I was about to give myself over to a fae for protection and willingly go with her to a deep place where I’d never be found again. I peered back the way I came. Declan had said the fae lured us out to their parties like the fucking Pied Piper. He’d shown me that there was so much more magic around me than I could even perceive and that only fae were safe from other fae. He’d fucking spelled it out for me in thick red letters, and I’d disregarded his every warning. “Are Declan and Lucas okay?”

“They’re sleeping soundly,” Jasper said. “I would have been too, but…” his blue eyes met mine, “I heard you.”

“Running?” I asked.

“No.” He lifted a finger to his temple. “I heard you in here, calling my name. I felt the danger you were in.”

I blinked at him. “That’s not one of my powers.”

“Yeah,” Jasper said, with a nod, but he didn’t sound surprised. “We should get back.”

A shiver passed through me, and I remembered that I was standing here, naked for the world to see. Suddenly, I felt hyperaware of every inch of my body and how close I was to Jasper.

The only interaction we had before this was me holding a broken bottle to his throat and him tracking me through the streets, and now we were standing here in the woods, alone, and naked.

“Are you okay?” he asked, ducking down his head to make eye contact with me. Moonlight caressed his features, the break in his nose, the dark stubble on his chin, the muscular set of his shoulders that were at eye level with me. I could feel his warmth and his presence, and it felt at the same time strange and familiar.

“Kicking myself, but otherwise I’m fine.” I did my best to sound casual. Nudity wasn’t supposed to be taboo between shifters. It was a very different thing for shifters than it was for humans. We were undressing around each other too often for it to be a big deal.

However, spending all this time naked around Jasper and Declan didn’t feel whatsoever like I used to feel undressing in front of my pack before a hunt. We were just standing here, not quite touching, but my body was reacting to his presence, nonetheless. My nipples tightened and skin prickled as awareness tingled through my belly. Every inch of my body felt awake and aware.

“How did you know my name back at the bar?” I asked him, maybe to wake myself up from this sudden stirring inside me, or maybe because the question had been rattling around in my head.

Jasper didn’t respond at first. He crossed his arms over his chest, and his expression morphed from concern to something colder. His full mouth twitched, and then he said, “Of course I know who you are, Teagan. I would have recognized you right away, but Grayhaven fucks with my ability to sense you. I was beginning to feel your presence in the bar when you tried to slit my throat. Then, I gave you an order and it muddled my mind with that strange sensation I got from dominating you. What I want to know is if you’ve figured out who I am?”

I grimaced. “No, sorry, Jasper. I’ve never heard of you. To be fair, though, I know almost nothing about the supernatural world. Is there something I should know about you?”

“Yeah, there is. You should know that I was the werewolf who challenged Kane on the basis that you were my mate.” Instead of waiting for me to sputter some kind of response to that, Jasper simply turned away and walked into the forest.