Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I ran from the cave. I was butt naked and my right leg was already starting to ache from the force with which I kneed him, but I couldn’t have been happier. He misjudged me. Underestimated me. And he paid for it, dearly.

I ran and ran with little thought about where I was going. I had a general plan, slay the dragon and save the princess, but there was a big question mark in the middle of that plan. How do you kill a vampire? Well the first step was not getting caught. Max had all the advantages. He was stronger, faster and he knew the terrain. The only thing I had on him was that I wanted more. Capturing me was something he had to do, but freeing myself and Abby was the difference between life and death for me.

I continued to run until I came upon a ravine. I stood in the running water and use mud from the banks to cover my scent. I used every strategy I could think of to hide from an animal. But that wasn’t enough because not only did Max have the ability to hunt me down like an animal he had the ability to reason like a man. I crisscrossed over my own tracks hoping that he couldn’t follow me that way. It was too risky to start a fire so I would have to find some other way to eat. I managed to stay hidden for an entire day before that became an issue.

When it did I lifted a large rock and tried not to groan at what was underneath. As I grabbed a handful of grubs I reminded myself that this was a matter of survival and that I was a big girl. I close my eyes and shove the insects into my mouth and tried not to gag. It wasn’t the taste, which was horrible. The part that was unbearable was the feeling of them moving around in my mouth. At that moment enslavement, at least if it involved coffee, didn’t seem so bad.

As I stayed on the move I began to learn the island. Sometimes I could fill Max in the distance searching for me. But somehow I managed to elude him. Something I learned from Max was that sunlight killed the vampire, so all I had to do was find where Julian slept and introduced him to the midday sun. But that was not as easy as it sounded. I was sure that there were multiple protections put in place to stop me. Not to mention if Max couldn’t find me on the island the best place to look for me would be at Julian’s because we both knew that that was where I needed to go before I could leave the island. And even if I succeeded I wasn’t sure how Abby and I would get off the island after Julian was dead. Max might just let us go or he might kill us for destroying his king.

I found a long branch that would serve as a staff. I used a rock to sharpen one individual point. I may not have been the strongest them or as fast as them but at least I had a weapon now. Oddly enough that gave me more comfort than I’d like to admit. In order to avoid Max, I constantly stayed on the move. And when I became so exhausted I was on the verge of dropping, I climbed up a tree and would sleep on one of the large branches. I was turning totally fucking Tarzan in these woods.

After a couple of days and hiding, I was ready to try my plan. I crept towards the main house, listening for the slightest rustle of the leaves. And I heard it, just in time to turn and see Max transforming back into a human as he pounced on me. I hit the ground with a thud. His eyes were filled with absolute glee. “I found you!”

I struggled underneath them. “Get the hell off me!”

“How did you evade me for over two days?” Because he had just shifted he was completely naked and It wasn’t just his tone that indicated he was happy to see me.

“I thought you found nudity sexually neutral.” I squirmed underneath him rubbing his erection even more.

There was a dark glint in his eyes. “You ran from me. You never run from a wolf unless you hope to be chased. Two days I’ve thought of nothing but you, trying to pick up your scent in the wind. That was your plan, wasn’t it? To drive me mad. Another punishment for upsetting you?”

Oh hell no, that hadn’t been my intention at all, but it was easy to understand how hunting me might have this effect on him. I was too embarrassed to admit that I misjudged his reaction to my escape and pretended his infatuation was all part of my carefully sculpted plan. “What you did to me in the cave was wrong.”

“Yes, I know. And I am so sorry. I promise, I won’t do anything like that again. But I do have to ask, if it made you that upset, then why didn’t you tell me to stop.”

Ugh, why did he make me have to think about things like that? And even worse the truth was so disgusting I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. But those big green eyes kept boring into me And I knew they wouldn’t stop until I said something. “Because it was you,” I mumbled.

The look of utter satisfaction on his face made me want to knee him in the nads again.

And then we had a moment where time stopped and birds sing and flowers bloomed and I knew he was going to kiss me and I didn’t have a problem with that. With my eyes half closed and my lips puckered, I waited for his mouth to reach mine. The right before he could kiss me a bloodcurdling scream came from the house. He immediately sprung into action, running inside. And I was right behind him.