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But most of all I notice how peaceful he looks.
Usually when he’s awake and going, there’s always something tight and strained about him. Either there’s a light frown on his brows or his jaw is clenched. Or maybe the slant of his shoulders is too severe or the line of his back is too straight.
The only time I’ve seen him completely at peace is right now, while sleeping.
Or when he’s with Halo, and I can’t help but put a hand on my belly, flat and empty.
My heart clenches and I hesitate once more.
Probably because when he finds out that I left him in the middle of the night, his hard-won peace is going to evaporate.
Not to mention, I’m leaving him alone and hasn’t he always been alone?
It’s not your responsibility, Tempest. You need to leave.
Now.
Fisting my fingers at my sides, I cast a last look at him and turn away, heading for the front door. I open it without any issues and then I’m out. Into the night that seems bright even through the canopy of the trees, the moonlight and the stars lighting up my path.
Thanking the universe that at least one thing is going in my favor right now, I take off.
I run in the direction that I think we came in. Although honestly every direction looks the same to me right now, and my only goal is to get as far away from the cabin as possible. So I keep going, my bare feet crunching the leaves, stepping on stray branches and rocks, stumbling every now and then.
But it’s okay.
I’m not going to give up that easily.
Nothing can stop me.
That’s what I think until I hear a huge bellow that rends the air, cutting it in half and halting me in my tracks.
At first I think it’s an animal. A wild feral animal, something that I didn’t think about before but should have; we’re in the middle of the woods. But then that animalistic roar calls out my name and I realize that it’s worse than an animal.
It’s him.
And along with being wild and feral, he has a one-track mind.
To come after me.
To hunt me down and trap me.
So like the frightened prey that I am, I start running again. I run harder this time, stepping onto jagged things that I’m sure are cutting into my skin and making me bleed. But I can’t afford to care about that in this moment. Tears make my vision blurry and my heart pounds so fast and so hard in my chest that I know it’s going to burst right out of my body any second now.
But I don’t stop.
Until I step on something too sharp and I stumble. And this time, I do it so hard that there’s no way I can save myself from falling. When something stops my rapid descent.
A large hand wrapped around my bicep that jerks me back.
And I go crashing into a heated and sculpted — safe — wall of muscles that easily takes the brunt of my body and the speed with which I was running. He not only takes the brunt of it but gives me a soft — again safe — landing as we both meet the ground.
With him below me, cradling my back and keeping me securely tucked against his chest.
I ignore the security and safety and all the cozy things that he provides though and start struggling against him. I kick out my legs, claw at his arms that are now wrapped around my chest and my waist, trying to subdue me as I scream and scream and wiggle and twist my body, trying to get free.
If anything, his hold on me tightens up and somehow he rolls us in a way that I end up underneath him, his powerful body in a position of dominance, jammed up between my spread thighs with his heavy torso pinning me to the ground. My arms are still free though, and until he takes them as prisoners, I fight.
I hit him and punch him and keep clawing at whatever I can get my hands on.
His shoulders and neck and face. His hair.
All the while chanting: “Let me go. Let me go. Let me go.”
He responds to my assault with heavy grunts and growls and giving more of his weight to my small body. Not that I care. He can suffocate me with his muscles and bury me in the ground but I’m not going to stop. Until he manages to get both my hands locked down on either side of my head, stopping my assault.
“Enough,” he growls then, his face somehow both shadowed and clear, jacking up his dangerous aura.
Panting, I still try to buck him off, twisting and rolling my torso. “Let me go.”
He growls at my attempts and presses my arms into the ground. “No.”
