Reaper Undone

Now I just needed the right moment.

The meal was over, thank goodness. Hunter cleaned up, and I didn’t offer to help. Fuck the fake camaraderie. I was his prisoner, and I wasn’t about to pretend otherwise. I stood stiffly and lifted my chin. “I’m going to my room.”

“Our room,” he said.

Had I heard him right? “Excuse me?”

He glanced over his shoulder but didn’t bother to stop washing up. “There is only one bedroom in this cabin.”

Not happening. “Then you can take the fucking sofa.”

He shut off the water and dried his hands before turning to face me. “This cabin and everything in it belongs to me.”

There was no doubt what he was insinuating. “I don’t belong to anyone. The heat might addle my mind, and you might get away with claiming my body, but you’ll never claim my heart or my respect.” I strode away. “I’ll take the fucking sofa.”

Hunter didn’t speak to me as I made my bed on the sofa with pillows and blankets stolen from his room. I was tucking myself in when he appeared in the lounge. I tensed, ready to fight him off if he tried anything, and he sighed heavily.

“Can’t you relax?” he asked. “Just for a little while? We could talk. Get to know each other.”

Was he taking the piss? “I don’t want to talk to you, Hunter. I don’t want to spend any time with you. This isn’t a fucking getaway. You. Kidnapped. Me.”

He rubbed his temples. “You left me no choice.”

“Bullshit.”

“You can’t fight fate, Fee.” He sounded almost resigned about that.

But resignation was the last thing in my mind. “Watch me.”

His expression hardened, and he nodded curtly. “Have it your way.” He locked the front door, pocketed the key, and headed to his bedroom.

I waited several long minutes until I heard the distant sound of a shower, and then I slipped out of my makeshift bed and headed for the nearest window. It didn’t take long to figure out the fucker had nailed them all down from the outside. Breaking one would do the trick, but the noise would also alert him that I was trying to escape. There was only one thing to do.

I needed to get that front door key.

Chapter Five

The door to the bedroom was slightly ajar. I held my breath and gave it a push, opening it enough to slip into the gloom. Light spilled out from the crack in the bathroom door, and the sound of the water hitting tile drifted out.

The jeans and the sweater Hunter had been wearing were folded and placed neatly on the chair I’d almost used to break the window. I tiptoed over and searched his pants pockets.

No key.

Fuck. It had to be here somewhere. I was running out of time. I scanned the room in the dim lamplight, grateful for my Loup vision.

No key.

Had he taken it into the bathroom with him? Shit, if I were a kidnapper, where would I keep the front door key?

Somewhere close…

He was about to go to sleep.

I strode across the room and lifted a pillow. Bingo. Hope surged in my chest as I crept past the bathroom, headed for the door, and then the scent of lemon grass hit me. My step faltered and my gaze flitted to the bathroom door, to the gap where a mirror was visible. It was partially steamed up but not enough to block out the image of Hunter’s powerful back. His arms were raised, soaping his hair, so his lateral dorsi muscles popped and the muscles between his neck and shoulders bunched, showcasing power. Rivulets of froth skated down his spine and along the ridges of the V shape of his back. His skin was bronze and smooth and fucking perfect, and I needed to get the hell out of here before I lost my mind.

I made it back to the lounge and tried the key in the door. It opened easily.

I was ready to run, so why weren’t my fucking feet moving? Why was my heart pounding with indecision? I didn’t want to mate with Hunter, but every primal instinct was urging me to stay, to shut the door and fucking stay. The Loup inside me, that part of me that was already connected to Hunter, rose up to cloud my human will.

Stay.

No…

Mate.

No. I didn’t want to…I couldn’t…My body tightened with need as Hunter’s naked, soapy form filled my mind, and a flush rose from my toes to the top of my head.

Oh God.

No! I forced the Loup back, grabbed Hunter’s coat off the peg by the door, and ran.

I had no idea how long I’d been on the move, but I was headed north, I was sure of that. The urge to turn back was gone now.

I guess distance from Hunter helped.

The woodland rushed by as I wove through the trees. The fact that I was continually moving kept the worst of the chill at bay, and my confidence that I could make it grew. Images of cinnamon swirls and chocolate-sprinkled mochas kept my legs pumping. They’d be my reward for getting away. I’d camp out at Lumiers all day and eat what the fuck I wanted once I made it out of this fucking wilderness.

How far had I come? It felt like forever. The breath was hot in my lungs, even though my mouth and nose were numb with cold. I’d hoped Hunter had been exaggerating about how far out we were from civilization, but I should have known by the way he so confidently left me to my devices that he was telling the truth.

I hit a clearing, one of many in this vast woodland, and leaped over a thick fallen branch that curved up out of the snow in an arc. I landed badly, and the sound of tearing ligaments was loud and distinct. A fiery lance of pain shot up my ankle.

“Fuck!”

I went down hard, butt in the snow, hands grabbing for the offending ankle. The pain was a deep throb that tightened with each pulse. Dammit, my foot was swelling up.

Shit. No. Don’t panic. It’d be okay.

Just a few minutes and my body would heal. A tingle spread across my foot and up my ankle. Yes, it was working. I winced as my whole foot began to throb, but this was a different throb, one that told me my ligaments were knitting back together.

A sharp crack sliced through the silence, and my head whipped up, searching the darkness at the edge of the clearing. The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention, and my scalp began to crawl.

There was someone out there.

The throbbing in my ankle ebbed. I was almost healed. My breath came out in puffs of mist as I scanned the trees around me.

Hunter.

It had to be.

He’d followed me. But even as I thought the words, they felt wrong.

Not Hunter.

The presence was a palpable force, though.

The fire in my limb winked out, and tension rippled through me. I fake-winced and touched my ankle again. Whoever was out there, watching, needed to think I was still hurt and vulnerable. I pulled myself up slowly, making a show of testing my ankle with my weight, when in reality my muscles were bunching, ready to make a break for it.

And then a shaggy gray wolf stepped out from the shadows and into the clearing. It fixed its blue eyes on me, mouth open in a pant.

Not a regular wolf, because we didn’t have those. This was Loup-Garou. Small by Loup standards, but still lethal to me in human form.

I held up my hands. “Hey. I’m Fee, and I’m just passing—”

Another wolf, a muddy brown color, entered the clearing from the left. Fuck. Could they sense I was one of them?

“Look. I don’t want any trouble. I just need to get out of here.” I made myself stand tall to look less like prey. “If one of you could show me the way to the nearest road, that would be great.”

Yeah, it was a tall order, because if these were rogue wolves, my protected alpha status would mean shit to them—only the official packs adhered to those rules—and these fuckers would probably try and claim me, or some equally bullshit move.

The gray wolf growled and prowled closer. My hackles rose, and I fell instinctively into a defensive crouch. Fuck Hunter and this damn shackle. With it on, I was buggered. I had no weapon, not even my wolf to fight off these fuckers. There was only one thing to do.

I had to run.

My gaze flitted from the gray to the brown wolf, judging the distance between them and me, working out the odds of my slipping past them.

Not gonna happen.

I wasn’t a moron, and going up against two Loup while I was in human form with no weapons was suicidal. I had no choice but to go back the way I’d come.

I was about to spin and take off when the gray wolf shimmered and morphed into human form.

A female human form.

She was lithe and pale, dark hair spilling over her shoulders to cover her breasts.

“You’re one of us,” she said, her gaze skimming over me.

The brown wolf growled, but I recognized it as a warning.

“Quick,” the dark-haired female said. “You must shift and come with us. It isn’t safe for you here. There are rogue males prowling these parts.”

The other wolf was female too, I could sense that now. “I can’t shift.” I held up my wrist. “This stops me from shifting.”

Her mouth tightened. “A male did this to you?”

“Yes.”

She opened her mouth to say more, but a howl cut her off. It was too close.

“The rogue males come.” She looked torn.

The brown wolf rushed her, nudging her with its nose. The stench of fear was sharp and potent.

The female looked at me, her mouth turning down with regret. “Run.”

She shifted, and they vanished into the trees. The howl cut through the air again, closer than before but on the other side of me. Fuck. More than one.

I broke into a sprint in the opposite direction the female wolves had gone. It was obvious they were hiding from the rogue males, and the last thing I wanted was to lead the bastards to them.

How long had these Loup been in these parts? Did Hunter know?

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. I needed to focus on my path and not tripping or falling. My back prickled with awareness, and then pants filled the air.

They were behind me. Two of them. I didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know.

I was being hunted, and if they caught me, then Hunter would be the least of my worries.

My lungs ached and burned as I pushed more speed into my limbs. My thighs were on fire. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer, and then I didn’t have to because a weight slammed into my back, taking me down.