The Hunted (Sleeping With Monsters Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to run.
    A car behind me honked
– the light’d changed while I hadn’t been watching. I punched the gas, reeling
forward.
    If Vincent wanted me to
keep her safe, why hadn’t he bothered to tell her? I went up two blocks, took a
right, and then another right, and timed the lights. She hadn’t walked far – I
jumped my truck up the wide curb and leaped out of it at wolf-speed, racing to
the far side before she could think to run. I picked her up as she started to
scream, and threw her into the cab and slammed the door.
    “You called me,
remember?” I said, my voice low. She smelled like him so much I thought it’d
break me. All I wanted to do was pull the car over and push her against the
door, hold her there, and breathe her in. The wolf inside me whined.
    “Were you followed?” I
asked her, keeping one eye on the rear view mirror. She shook her head.
    “Who are you?” she
asked.
    I grit my teeth. Who I
was was currently a matter of debate. Packless mongrel? Lovestruck fool?
Definitely an idiot, for being here.
    “What’s your name?” she
pressed.
    “Max.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “Someplace safe.”
    I could tell she didn’t
believe me. It didn’t matter.
    I drove for my cabin. I
knew of safer places deeper in the woods, but we’d have to backpack in, and she
didn’t look like the type. Tomorrow I’d bother to talk to her, come up with a
plan, swallow my pride and ask how Vincent was.
    I parked in the old
washout below the cabin’s ridge. There was plenty of moonlight for me but not
nearly enough for her. I took her bag and led her up the hillside, waiting to
hear an ankle snap. To her credit she didn’t protest and when we got to the
cabin I let us both in.
    I watched her looking
around, then went to stoke the fire. “How long does he want you safe for?” I
stopped from asking what I really wanted to know -- is he going to come and
get you back himself? I wanted that so badly – even as I knew it was an
impossibly bad idea, one that’d get us both killed.
    “I’m not sure,” she said. I
listened closely. She wasn’t lying. Guess I’d have to keep the phone on for a
little longer.
    “The water will be hot soon --
it’s safe to drink and wash with.” I pointed to the kettle I kept full. “I’m
not set up well for company. You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.
I’ll give you a bit – I need to check on some things outside –“
    Too late, outside, I
remembered I should’ve taken a flashlight for appearance’s sake.
    I didn’t think she’d leave the
cabin tonight – but that didn’t mean that we weren’t followed. I went to the
edge of the ridge and breathed the night air in deep. The only scents out here
were smoke from my fire, musk from my fur, and her – who largely smelled like him ,
to me.
    All those years ago – all
those nights – blood raced around my body like it hadn’t in years, like I was a
teenager again, all hormones and hope. My wolf wanted out, as restless as the
rest of me. I shook my head and tightened my reins.
    I walked along the ridge,
listening to the nightlife and for tires, all my senses taut. Coming full
circle I sat down, my back to a tree, and watched her through a smudged window.
I didn’t want to be in there with her alone – and I doubted she wanted to be in
there with me.
    Vincent, you’d better
fucking have a plan.
    An hour passed. Long
enough for her to feel safe, or so I hoped – and for me to catch anyone who’d
tracked us in. The pack knew where I was, but no one else did, and they were
too busy to bother with me. I walked to the cabin’s door and opened it. She was
on top the bed, pretending to be asleep. Two could play that game. I blew out
every light but one to save oil, and stretched out on the couch, eyes
half-closed, listening to her breathing and the steady sawing sound of
undisturbed crickets outside.
    I was still tense. What
had happened? Why had Vincent sent her here? How bad were things? And every
time I