Page 31 of Hunted By Them

So much for obscuring my scent with that fucking mud.

I’d gone for the river, knowing that it led back to the safe house. If I could just get into the water, I could…what? Swim upstream? In the dark. Sounded like a suicide mission. Dammit. Meanwhile, my instincts were hurling themselves at my mind and telling me to simply lie down, spread my legs, and let the man take me.

I’d perched myself on one of the higher rock faces that faced the river. I could easily jump down. It wasn’t too far. Maybe about ten feet or so. Maybe…

I had this. One tentative step in front of the other, I shimmied my feet slowly toward the edge of the rock face.

That wasnotten feet. More like thirty. My instinct for measuring sure was off. I wondered idly whether that was because I was a woman or whether I just couldn’t see properly in the dark. I snickered to myself. Maybe that was how men fooled women into believing they were eight inches. Gender and blindness.

All right, so the cliff face wasn’t an option.

Straightening up, I turned away from the edge, my foot catching on a loose rock. Shit. In my attempt to right myself, I tipped off balance, and now I was falling backward off the edge.

From thirty feet up.

Or something like that.

A short scream ejected from my lungs as my body tumbled toward the earth below.

Only to once again cheat death as a pair of strong arms caught me just before I would have been flattened like a pancake.

The air whooshed from my lungs. Fuck, that was gonna bruise.

“Caught you,” my predator purred as he cradled me to his chest. “Now to claim you.”

Let him try.

He’d expect me to give in. To give up. And I used that to my advantage. Kicking out, I managed to hurl myself out of his waiting arms and onto the cold, hard ground.

That was going to leave a mark.

“Red.” Hunter clicked his tongue in disapproval. “You can’t escape me, little omega.”

Omega?

Something inside me recognized the word. It was warm and familiar. Not that I had time to worry about that. I raced toward the river, my feet slapping against the soft sand of the bank. Almost there. If I could get into the river, maybe I could outrun him.

Not that you want to.

Well, that was unnecessary. Of course I wanted to.

Right?

Yeah, that’s right. I wanted to escape those delicious, kissable lips and Godlike abs.

Psh, who wouldn’t?

Just one more—

A hard body tackled me from behind, sending me careening into the river.

Dammit. Water surrounded me. It was dark and murky and, luckily, not very deep.

Planting my feet on the bottom of the rocky river, I pushed up, breaking the surface. There was no time to move. Hunterwas already on me, his heat at my back as he hauled me against his chest and dragged me from the water.

I landed on my back on the sandy bank, already out of breath. A gym membership was definitely needed.

“Now that I have you all clean again,” Hunter licked his lips, “let’s get you nice and dirty.”

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