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When I left Charlie’s earlier, I wasn’t in any rush to go home. Why? It’s not like I have anyone to go home to.
Six weeks ago, Aleks told me that he needed some space. Even though I haven’t officially mated Ryker yet, we’re definitely together, getting to know each other and, yes, working our way toward performing the Luna Ceremony that will make us forever mates at last.
Aleks… hadn’t taken the news too well.
For months, he’d made it obvious that he was in love with me and that he was willing to wait until I returned his feelings.
And then Ryker showed up in Muncie and that was the end ofthat.
So, yeah. Six weeks ago, Aleks left the apartment that we shared—strictly platonically—and he still hasn’t come back. Not to the apartment, and, I’m pretty sure, not to Muncie.
Aside from a single weekly message to let me know he still plans on returning one day soon, he refuses to answer my calls or my texts so I don’t really know where he is or what he’s doing. It’s like he’s fallen off the face of the planet, all because he wanted me to choose him instead of Ryker and I couldn’t do that.
He told me when he initially left that I was free to stay in the apartment while he went off to clear his head. The stubborn half of me—well, more likethree-quartersof me—wanted to move out once it became obvious that Aleks was going to be gone for longer than I first thought, but that was something else I couldn’t do. He gave me a place to stay last year when I had nowhere else to go. He’s trusting me to watch over his apartment which is exactly what I’m going to do.
The apartment is twenty blocks away from Charlie’s. That’s nothing to a shifter, and I usually choose to walk instead of drive because it helps me burn off some of my wolf’s excess energy before I head home to sleep.
With someone matching me step for step, though? Hiding in the shadows, stalking me like I’m some kind of unwitting prey? The twenty blocks might just give them a chance to turn that stalk into a pounce. I’m an alpha. To be reduced to prey is unacceptable to a predator like me.
Good thing I have a backup plan.
Instead of going straight, I turn down the next cross street. If I go down another, then cut over about five blocks, Muncie’s urban downtown becomes a little more suburban. There are trees over there. Spots of grass breaking up the continuous asphalt. Townhouses with cute little porches and lawns rather than towering buildings and shop after shop.
It’s not where I live, but I’ve spent some time there lately. Right now, it’s the perfect opportunity to try to beat my stalker.
He’ll be expecting me to be heading toward my apartment. As soon as I take the cross street, he’ll figure out that I’ve changed up the plan, but that’s the best thing about this part of Muncie at this hour of night. If Idorun into anyone else, they’ll either be vamps or humans that are in on our supernatural secret. For once, I don’t have to pretend to be what I’m not and, as I turn down the street, I pour on the speed.
I’d go faster if I traded my skin for fur, but that would leave me naked if I have to shift back.
No. Better to stay fully dressed for now.
People always underestimate how fast I am. I guess it has to do with being so delicate-looking and petite; it’s the same when I go full wolf, too. Pretty, little blonde girls aren’t supposed to be vicious and bloodthirsty. They’re certainly not supposed to be able to sprint like they’re Usain Bolt.
Once I make it to the main street again, I slow down just enough to pass for human. That burst of speed put some distance between my stalker and me which givesmethe advantage now. I can either find a spot to hold my ground and confront him, or I can continue toward the townhouse I’m aiming for that’s only a couple more blocks away. Either way, it’s my decision.
Well,ourdecision.
I ask my wolf. She yips again, reminding me that I’ll enjoy it much more if I break for the townhouse, giving the predator at my back something to really chase.
My lips quirk upward in a teeny, tiny grin. My wolf is absolutely right. As I sense him getting closer, I realize that I’ll definitely enjoy it more if I let him catch me.
Can’t make ittooeasy, though. Where would the fun be in that?
I lope forward, my long blonde hair swaying behind me; in the darkness, the pale color gives him a target. Moving quickly, I’m beginning to think that I might make it to the townhouse after all without being snagged. I still can’t scent him, and unless I’m wrong, he seems farther than he should be, like he’s decided to back off.
Huh. Not gonna lie. That’s disappointing.
I keep going anyway. Since the male who lives in the townhouse isn’t supposed to be back again until tomorrow night at the earliest, I’m sure he won’t mind if I crash at his place. It’s closer than the apartment, I’ve got a spare key in my pocket that I keep for emergencies, and though I’ve never been there without him, there’s a first time for everything, right?
The townhouse is the third in a row of six. I’m just passing the second when, all of a sudden, my wolf orders me to turn around. A familiar scent fills my nostrils, shivers coursing down my spine as, suddenly, a pair of inhumanly strong arms wrap around my middle and my boobs, trapping my arms at my side. Before I even know what’s happening, he’s lifted me off the ground, all without so much as a “gotcha”.
Luna damn it. I should’ve realized that such an elite hunter might have gone the longer way around, sneaking up the cross street after letting me think he gave up on the chase.
I should’ve known better about that, too. He’s proven time and time again that he’llnevergive up where I’m involved.
Because he won’t expect anything less from me, I struggle, but I think we both know my heart’s not in it; if it was, he’d put me down in an instant. Still holding me tightly, he bends his head just enough to place a warm, welcoming, open-mouthed kiss to the corner of my neck, then moves even faster to carry me the rest of the way to the townhouse.
He must have stopped home before he staked out the outside of Charlie’s because he doesn’t waste time with a key. He turns the knob, the door pops open, and he easily muscles me inside.
