Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Jogging back to the remnants of the train, she shows a good level of fitness. Makes sense, given she is from the mountains where running for one’s life is part of any given day. She was hard to hunt down when she ran the first time, if we give her too many opportunities, and she gets a good enough head start, she might be impossible to catch up with.
We make it to the remnants of the train, where disgruntled passengers are doing their best to see by torchlight. She and I make our way into the cabin we all shared, where she immediately scoops her bag out of the corner.
“They left it behind,” she says. “Idiots.”
She’s quite harsh when she wants to be. Furious at Krall, too. He overplayed his hand with her considerably. She needs a more sophisticated touch. A girl who grew up slaying monsters is not going to be impressed by a man who tries to push her around by force of personality.
“Happy?”
“Thrilled,” she says, gathering the bag to her chest. “I’m going home now. It’s been interesting getting to know you all, but I belong there.”
“We’ve had this discussion. You’ve been mated. You’re going to have pups soon enough and you will want us around. You’ll also want to be somewhere safe.”
“What do you care?”
“I’m your mate.”
“And? What else?”
“What do you mean what else?”
“What else are you? You’re not like the other two. There’s something different about you. You’re not afraid of the gift. And it’s like there’s some inside you.”
“You’re telling me what I am, then.”
Tabby
There’s something magnetic and dangerous about this man. Something that pulls at me with an unspoken tug. We are standing in a destroyed cabin on a train that has been cut in two somehow, and he is smiling as if he is enjoying every moment.
He reaches out and pulls me close, close enough that my legs split around his, my pelvis is pressed up against his thigh, and I feel myself grinding against his leg. I drop my bag and let him hold me.
“You’re going to settle down with me,” he purrs in my ear. “Because I know how to make you feel good, and when you’re bad, I’ll make you feel even better.”
I lift my face to him, and he drops a passionate kiss on my lips. I feel the tugging deep inside me, something that seems to wrap around my spine and take part of me.
“What are you doing?”
“Claiming you,” he says, pulling away. “But not here. Not now. Gather your things and let’s go.”
I pick up my dress, stuff it into my bag, and sling my bag over my shoulder. “Where are we going to go? What are we going to do?”
“Just follow me,” he insists.
I don’t have any choice. He’s absolutely in charge. I tell myself I want to run back to the mountains, but I’m starting to sense a little bit of the mountains inside him. Doesn’t make sense, but it’s a gut feeling.
Evil.
I sense darkness in him. There’s no denying it. It excites me. It calls to me. It makes me want to open my legs and…
“Keep up, please,” he says, turning back to me. “I want to keep an eye on you.”
We are walking a route perpendicular to the train tracks, simply heading into the night. It would scare me, but I can smell the winds, and they are not all that different from those that go to the mountains. Whatever is out here, I am more than equal to it.
“Are we going to walk all night? Would be easier in wolf form,” I say.
“Might be, but we need our human wits about us, and I am not interested in spreading shifter scent around.”
“Why? Does something out here hunt shifters?”
“A lot of things hunt us, girl. The world is much more dangerous than I can easily explain to you. Our kind is powerful, but that means we have enemies. So stay in your human form.”
“Where are Krall and Thorn?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “And honestly, darling, I don’t care. I want you. All of you. And I want you to myself.”
He says it bluntly and plainly. He’s not ashamed of it in the slightest. I like this side of Skor, even though it sends a bolt of fear through me as I realize he’s not really saving me in the typical sense of the world.
“Are you… am I… being kidnapped?”
“You’ve never had real freedom, Tabby,” he says. “You were born as a sacrifice, and you were given as one. All those battles you fought, all that magic you developed, it didn’t do anything for you in the end, did it? You were given to three older men to be used for your body.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“I’m going to free you,” he says.
We cross the plains for what feels like a long time, traveling up the side of a river to avoid detection until we reach a cabin that sits tucked away in the middle of nowhere.