Sinful Instincts (Woodland Creek) Read Online Free PDF

head toward a pile of Scott’s stuff I planned on burning or giving to the homeless. Opening the garbage bag, I grab for a pair of sweatpants. I turn, accidently making eye contact with that , and spin quickly back around. “Here.” I stick my hand out, waiting for him to take them.
    The fabric leaves my hands and I listen to him putting them on. Once I feel it’s safe, I turn around and admire his chiseled body, now covered in a too-small and too-short pair of pants. As I bring my hungry eyes up his body, I remember the scratches. “Oh, no, you’re cu—” I look closer and see they’re almost healed.
    What in the fuuu—
    “Your… Your...” I stutter as I point at his bare chest. Even now they look better and less noticeable than they did thirty seconds before.
    “I told you. I just need time to heal.”
    “But…But…” I glance from his healed chest to mine, back and forth. I shake my head. That’s it. I’m blaming this on exhaustion. I look at my watch and see it’s just past two in the morning. I need sleep. And to never drink again.
    “I can’t do this. I need sleep. You... You need—I don’t know what, but I definitely need sleep.” I don’t even consider the dangers of allowing this odd, yet smoldering-hot stranger to stay in my apartment while I sleep. He could probably dice me up or drug me. He could drug me then dice me up. Hey, as long as he lets me sleep for a few hours, I’d be just fine with it. I push past him and head toward the hall closet. Opening it, I grab a spare blanket from the rack. I turn and shove it into his chest, since I know he hasn’t allowed more than a foot’s length between us since entering my apartment. “Here. You can sleep on the couch. But tomorrow, you’re gone.”
    I turn and walk back to my room. This time, he doesn’t follow me. I shut the door behind me and debate on locking it. It’s not that I’m scared since, for some strange reason I don’t fear him, although I probably should. I want to sit in my bed and go over tonight and what I witnessed. I saw some unnatural things. And I know now it wasn’t from being roofied or the booze. I saw a human change into an animal. And even though I haven’t brought up the main issue at hand, I know I also saw my new roommate do the same exact thing. He is one of them.
    My brain doesn’t know how to rationalize the events of my night, but I know what I saw and I know it was not normal. Wasn’t human. Fuck, it wasn’t real ! Close your eyes, Emma. Go to sleep. My body shakes, remembering the face of the creature about to take my life. My gut tightens, and I fear I may upchuck anything in my stomach onto my bedroom floor. It’s the image of my savior that calms me. The way he looked at me with absolute possession in his eyes, as if he had some sort of claim to me. The way he held me, his touch sending a warming vibration up and down my body.
    It’s the words I cannot form in my head. Shifter. Where did he come from? Besides The Twilight Zone, of course. And why did he choose to help me? His comment before about his ‘enemy’ pings my curiosity, but certainly not enough to go back out there and ask.
    I shake my head for the millionth time. I don’t have these answers. I almost pray I wake up and this will be just a dream. I walk over to my bed and fall face-down into my stale covers in hopes that happens.
    In no time, sleep consumes me.

Emma
    The same dream envelops me—the one of me swimming in the ocean water. I am young in age, possibly a toddler. A young woman holds me, laughing as she encourages me to paddle my tiny feet in the water. “Swim, little one, swim,” she always says to me. The same dream over and over. I try hard to move my feet, but they never do. “Swim, my sweet girl. You can do it,” the faceless woman always sings to me. I attempt to paddle harder and harder, but my feet never work. In my dream, I don’t know whether I struggle more to swim or to see the woman’s face. I