Page 162 of Hunt for You

It was time to stop playing at the edges of this.

It was time to empty my mind, sink into my senses, andhunt.

SOUNDTRACK:Beast Withinby In This Moment

~ BRIDGET ~

I could feel him, watching.

My heart beat so hard I felt it in my fingertips. I’d started the night feeling sad and agitated, but as the darkness surrounded me and the night went quiet, I embraced this.

It was going to end either way. So why not give myself up to the hunt and enjoy it while I could?

I was smiling by the time I heard a boot scuff on a tree root.

I’d taken a wide arc through the trees in the rough direction of my clearing, but with the dark and my distraction, I wasn’t entirely sure if it was still ahead, or I’d overshot it. Still, it didn’t matter, because I could feel him getting closer. It made my breath shake and my skin prickle. It was terrifying and delicious, and I could hardly wait until he got his hands on me.

But since this was the last time, I wasn’t going to make it easy for him to catch me.

I’d always said I would go out fighting, and I had every intention of doing exactly that. So, I kept my hands clenched to fists in preparation. I crept through the dark, sweating a littlebit, but keeping my pace slow so that I could stay quiet and force him to find me.

There was a rustle in the bushes off to my right and I froze, heart pounding, breath coming faster and faster.

The explosion, when it came, was low to the ground—a snap and flutter of wings, quickly followed by a small shriek as an animal lost it’s life.

My heartrate spiked, then dropped quickly when I realized it wasn’t Cain, but a totally natural kind of predator.

I slumped, clutching my chest and shaking my head.

“Fucking anticlimax,” I muttered under my breath, turning in the direction Ithoughtthe clearing was in—just as a shadow moved on the edge of my vision.

I went still again, not breathing at all, waiting, peering into the dark, every one of my senses heightened and alert.

And then the shadow of a tree separated from its brothers about twenty feet away, and I caught the shape of a large, hooded male body.

I bolted.

I wasn’t even trying to be quiet—he was stronger and faster than me, but not as light on his feet. My only hope of staying out of his hands was to keep my path unpredictable.

I sprinted between trees, tripping over tree roots, my shins scraped by brambles.

Then I turned sharply on the back side of a large tree, praying he was close enough behind me to overshoot and have to double back when he realized I wasn’t ahead of him anymore—and instead, ran into a steel bar halfway around the tree.

At least, that’s how it felt.

Every ounce of air in my lungs whooshed out with anoofas that bar caught me right in the middle. My feet swung up, my arms shot forward as my momentum bent me almost in half over his arm.

He swept me up into his chest, clapping the other hand over my mouth and leaning into my ear.

“Hey, beautiful,” he rasped in that gravelly, deep voice that made my blood shiver. “Lovely night for a hunt.”

51. The Takedown

~ BRIDGET ~

Cain was so smug! I could hear the smile in his voice, and it warmed me. For a second I closed my eyes and just let my body sink back into him.

I felt him press his face into my hair, and he inhaled deeply.