The Hunted (Sleeping With Monsters Book 2) Read online

  “I want more. Even if you don’t,” he said.

  I swallowed, tense, hoping.

  “Come here, Max. Obey,” he said, trying out the words as if for the first time.

  I crawled up the bed to be beside him. I still had my jeans on, I hadn’t wanted him to see how hard sucking on him made me.

  He rose up beside me, pushing me down. He was breathing hard, turned on by the power of taking control over me – as turned on as I was to relinquish it. He wanted to be an alpha, and I yearned to have one care for me.

  He leaned over and rubbed me through my jeans. “I want to fuck you, Max. Not just your mouth – your ass.”

  If I currently had a tail, it would’ve dropped. I’d never let a human mount me before. I’d only taken desperate fuckings from other weres who would pretend not to know me five seconds after they came.

  “You can’t –“ I said, biting back all the rules and reasons.

  “I don’t care,” he said, looking down at me with a cruel smile. “You like me when I’m willful and arrogant. You like being needed – being used.” He leaned over me, chest to chest, his hand still hot over my cock. “I need to fuck you Max. I want to use your ass.”

  I made a strangled sound, and inside me my wolf crouched and whined. We both wanted this. I started panting as he undid the top button of my jeans, yanking them down, exposing my swollen cock. He bent over then to kiss me as I’d so often kissed him, sucking my head with his soft lips as his fingers stroked my shaft.

  “Vincent –“ I gasped.

  “Yes,” he said, not in response, but in triumph.

  I squirmed out of the rest of my jeans without thinking. It was now now now – I turned over, presenting myself to be taken, ready to feel him inside of me.

  “No,” he chided, pushing me down and rolling me back, exposing my belly, my cock swinging across it like a pendulum. “Like this,” he said, moving to kneel in front of me.

  “Why?” Weres didn’t fuck like that, was this a human thing?

  He smiled at me softly. “So I can see your face when I’m fucking you,” he explained, his voice low, as he slid himself in.

  He fucked me more slowly than weres fucked. Weres were all dominance and violence and getting themselves off. If Syd ever knew how many of his pack had broken rank to roughly fuck me, he would have never let me leave alive.

  But Vincent was thorough, and as his hard cock slid in and out of my ass, he reached for my cock and stroked its shaft and I moaned. I brought a hand up to take my cock from him and he stopped thrusting.

  “Stop,” he commanded, and I set my hand down, staring up. “You’re mine. All mine,” he said, stroking me as he took another thrust.

  It’d never been like this before at all. Ever. No one had ever told me to just relax, to just let myself be fucked. It was hard to go with the moment until he started taking my ass in earnest, while still holding on to my cock. I whined and he grunted as the tension between us grew, the friction of his cock inside me and his hand fucking my dick -- I felt my balls begin to lift and knew I was almost past the point where I could stop – all I knew anymore was that I didn’t want him too -- my ass clenched around him tight, as tight as his hand pulled on me, and he fucked me hard as he gasped, shooting his load deep inside me while mine spilled out all over his hand.

  He leaned over me, holding himself up with his clean hand, looking down at my sweaty face. No were had ever wanted to see my face while fucking before – nor had they wanted me to see theirs.

  And then he grinned, mischievous, and painted a mark on my chest with my cum as though he’d claimed me. I knew then, even though he had no mating knot to tie me with, I was chained.

  That night I slept outside his room, guarding his closed door.

  #

  I raced through the forest on all fours, feeling the power surge through me, baited on by the waxing moon overhead, until I found myself in a clearing with a naked man.

  I concentrated. The fur twisted in and manskin spread out, and we were both naked.

  Karl looked at me appraisingly. “Living rough’s been good to you, Max.”

  He was as tall as I was, but doughy and pale. There was gray around his hairline now that hadn’t been there when I’d last seen his human form, years ago. “City life’s making you fat. Why’re you here Karl? Other than to check up on me?”

  He gave me a smug look. “Thought you’d like to know your old employer’s died.”

  I didn’t say anything at first. Karl was an asshole, and I wouldn’t put it past him to come up here just to try to get a rise. But then I saw the gleam in his eye, him preparing for joy from causing me pain. “What? How –“

  “Come on, you knew his line of work..”

  “But –“ I felt as though I’d been punched in the chest by a giant and the world was swinging round.

  “We’re still looking for his bitch – she was going to turn evidence in. She got him killed.”

  I tried, and failed, to get control. I thought I might throw up.

  “Did you know of any hideouts he had? Places she might have known about to go hole up?” he pressed.

  I somehow managed not to sway. “I haven’t seen him or spoken to him in seven years.”

  “I know. But you two were friends. Better than friends,” he said, with that same smug expression. “I remember seeing you two –“

  I stared at him with dead eyes. “That’s enough.” My voice was like a whip crack in the night, we both could hear it echo.

  Karl leered, unstoppable. “How long’s it been since you got fucked out here, Maxie? You still like it rough?”

  “Shut up, Karl.”

  He reached for his crotch. “How about a suck for old times sake? You used to love my cock.”

  Hackles on my wolf’s neck rose. “I’m different now.”

  “My wolf could order you to do it.”

  “But right now I’m a man,” I said, flexing my muscles just enough to be a threat, not a challenge.

  He snorted. “Whatever, I have pussy at home to fuck. You think of anything, you let me know though.” He rolled his shoulders, and descended back to the road.

  I stood there until I heard the sound of his car drive off.

  Why didn’t she tell me?

  I stumbled through the trees as a human, feeling the branches rake and tear, stones cutting the bottoms of my feet. She knew, of course she knew, no wonder she’d been so coy. I’d thought she thought I was strange – not that she was hiding his death from me. It was impossible. It couldn’t have happened. Not Vincent, no – I fell to my knees on and howled like a wolf singing out my pain until I changed back into one and hurtled through the forest at full speed.

  She’d lied to me – and if she’d caused his death, I would kill her for it.

  Chapter Seven

  After finding his clothes in the forest, I decided I’d take my chances at the airport. I packed my bag and tossed his entire cabin, looking for keys. There were two closets at the back. One of them was full of camping gear and clothing for cold weather – the other one was full of what I realized with horror were traps. At least fifty of them, all tangled up, chains ending in silent toothy metal grins. I shuddered – what the hell kind of person had all these? And why?

  I closed the doors, grabbing the copy of National Geographic I’d found underneath a folded parka. His keys might be out there, in the pocket of his jeans. Maybe I should go back and try to get them?

  But I heard a foot on the stair. I fell into the couch, and flipped the magazine open.

  “You’re back,” I said as though I’d been expecting him all along. I used the voice I used to use with guys before Vincent, breathlessly excited.

  “See?” he said, holding a headless rabbit up. He’s a mostly naked man who wrenches the heads off of small animals, and has the props for a horror movie in his closet. Wonderful.

  “I’ll be back,” he announced, grabbing a really big knife and taking it outside.

 
; I stayed in for a moment and breathed. Baby, I don’t know why you wanted me to play Little House on the Prairie with some weirdo, but a girl’s got to have standards. My head was still on my shoulders, and I knew what to do. I’d kill him with kindness, at least until I found those keys. I steeled myself and went outside, where he was cleaning his catch.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” I stood just out of arm’s reach, my chest out, my voice soft and seductive.

  “Not really,” he said, without looking over – until I was frowning.

  “I don’t like feeling useless,” I said, dropping the act.

  He paused to think. “You can stoke the fire. And find a can of beans in the pantry – don’t worry about the expiration dates. And when we’re done eating, you can take the dishes down to the creek and wash them.”

  “Okay,” I said and nodded. It was a start. And the creek was the same direction as the truck was – maybe he was the ‘leave the keys in the sunshade and the doors unlocked’ type.

  He gave me one tentative double-take before I went back inside.

  Rabbit meat was surprisingly delicious – that, or not having eaten anything in a day’d made me hungry. I’d learned not to be picky a long time ago -- you ate when you could eat with what was still open when you walked the street. I never wanted to eat Taco Bell again.

  He was watching me – too closely. I stopped gnawing a rib or a leg, I didn’t know, and smiled at him. Get on his good side, Sammy. Assuming that he had one. “This is pretty good!”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  He was hard to cozy up to when all his time up here had made him forget how to talk. I didn’t want to just throw myself at him again – once could be a lucky accident, twice would be setting a precedent. Instead I took my empty plate over to him, and leaned over to take his. Flash a little bit of cleavage, then I’d be off to do women’s work. “I’ll be right back.”

  He glanced at the window. “Don’t bother. It’s almost dark.”

  “It’s not that far –“ I protested. I didn’t want to spend another night here if I didn’t have to. He was stronger than I was, but once I was off in his truck he wouldn’t be able to catch me.

  “I’ll take you there tomorrow, and make sure you know the path.” He took the plate from my hand and roughly set it down.

  Goddammit. I pulled away from him and he grabbed my hand – and the look he gave me just then – I recognized it. It stabbed me worse than a knife could. He was completely tortured. Scared. Lost. I knew what that look felt like inside. “Sarah – where is he?”

  And maybe I’d been running from this, too – maybe more than the naked-rabbit-murdering. There was no way he wouldn’t ask about Vincent eventually, and I knew I couldn’t lie to him, not when he was looking at me like that. I bit my lips, trying to think of words to say that wouldn’t hurt him, when I was saved from answering by the distant howl of a wolf.

  “Fuck.” He turned toward the window, stood, and pushed me back. “I’ve got to go.”

  “What – why?”

  “No time to explain.” He started for the door, and then turned and looked at me. His face was completely different now – the hurt was gone, replaced by rage and anger. I gasped.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He lunged for me like he had the night before, too fast for me to react, and slammed a hand across my face. “Shut up.”

  I started screaming and didn’t stop until he gagged me.

  What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck – my ankles were tied to each other and my hands were laced through the metal headboard of his shitty bed and then I heard him lock me in and leave me. I thrashed, listening to more howls in the distance – what the fuck was going on?

  At first I thought he was going to – my teeth ground around the fabric he’d shoved inside my mouth. It’d happened before. It was a risk you took every time you went out on the streets. There was always some guy who thought he deserved to get what he wanted, more than you deserved control of your life.

  #

  “How much do you think you’re worth to him?” Philly the Chicken Man asked, leering down. He’d boosted a frozen chicken delivery truck early on in his career, and after that the name stuck. It didn’t match him physically, he was a musclebound 6’4”, but it suited his courage just fine, because here we were, inside a shipping container together, alone.

  He’d yanked the gag out of my mouth so I could talk. “Come on, bitch – how much’re you worth to him? You gotta know.”

  I didn’t say anything and he hit me.

  It wasn’t unexpected. I wish I could lie and say it didn’t hurt, but he hit me like you’d hit a man, a full fist. I could feel my jaw rattle and it made me bite my tongue. Blood welled inside my mouth – and I spit it at his feet.

  He laughed at my small defiance. “That’s how it’s going to be?”

  Philly was on the outs with the family. I didn’t know the specifics, only that a deal he’d been responsible for had fallen through, and others had taken it poorly.

  He paced back and forth in the small room like a caged tiger, one hand in his pocket fondling his phone. He’d picked me up off the street in a van. I hadn’t been paying attention because the streets didn’t feel dangerous to me anymore, ever since I’d become Vincent’s girl.

  It’d never occurred to me that being with him might make me a target.

  “He’ll kill you if you don’t let me go right now. Blindfold me, take me back, drop me off, and I’ll ask him to let you live. He might even listen.”

  Philly paced the other way. “He’ll kill you, he’ll kill you –“ he said, mocking me. “Is that your only threat?” He fished a pair of pliers out of his coat. “If he doesn’t call me back soon, I’m going to pull all your teeth out and make you blow me.”

  I grit my teeth together and fought not to wince as my jaw wiggled.

  He went for his pocket – the one with the phone – and pulled it out to look for messages and check the time. He frowned, not liking either answer, and then turned toward me.

  “I guess I’ll have to set my own price.” His eyes narrowed. “Everyone knows what you used to be.”

  I stared at him with dead eyes. It didn’t matter what everyone knew, only what Vincent thought.

  “So you must be amazing,” he said, stretching the word out with irony, “for V to think about sticking his dick in you after so many other guys got there first. Maybe I should find out and then price you myself, afterwards.”

  “Anything you do to me, he’ll do you ten times worse to you.” My voice was flat. I was ready. He wouldn’t be the first, but Vincent would make sure he was the last.

  “Oh yeah?” he said, coming near me.

  I didn’t answer him. I was already gone.

  Some girls drank, some girls got high, but me – I just had a door on the inside. There was a space inside myself that I was going to fall into. People talk about happy places, visualizing beaches, listening to waves hit shore beneath a palm tree. This place was like that, only for girls like me. It was dark and it was cold and you weren’t yourself there. You didn’t have to be. You didn’t have to be there at all.

  I opened it up, and I went through.

  Cold cement behind me, at head, hips, and thighs. A careless tear of fabric and then flesh moving inside other flesh.

  “Oh yeah, that’s gooooood –“

  Time passing. Seconds or hours. It didn’t matter. It didn’t count.

  “Say I’m better than he is.” Hands on my jaw. A twinge of pain, enough to bring me back. I fought to close the door again, to get to go away.

  “Say it –“ he demanded, shaking me, hitting me again. I focus on him, briefly, his sweaty horrible face with his stinking breath and his awful orders. “Say it,” he shouts, punctuating himself with thrusts.

  I stare up at him, dead inside. “No.”

  He shouts something and shakes me and hits me again and I’m gone, the door’s closed. I’ve been hurt before, but
even the man I love hurts me, and I know pain can be swallowed.

  The sound of rolling metal. Fresh air, a wave of dark humidity. The cessation of penetration, and the beginning of his screams.

  “Sam? Sammy?”

  Someone tugs me up. I’m like a rag doll, limp, arms dragging.

  “Come back, Sam,” Vincent says.

  I look for the door inside me and the door handle slips through my fingers.

  “It’s safe now, Sam.”

  His voice pulls me through the darkness like a pipe player charms a snake.

  “I’ve got you. I’m not letting go.”

  I try to blink my eyes. One’s too swollen to move, and the other’s doubled, seeing three of him. Reality crushes in, bruises, burns and tears, a painful final blow.

  “Is he gone?” I whisper.

  Vincent nods and crushes me to his chest. “Syd’s got him.”

  I nod, and close my eyes.

  #

  I don’t know how much time passed, tied up, surrounded by cricket song.

  I could find my door again if I had to. But who would bring me back? I waited, tears streaming down my face, wondering when Max would return, and what he would do when he got back.

  The door to the cabin unlocked and he burst in. He was by the bed in three short strides, staring down, enraged. He reached out for my neck with both hands and I felt the span of his hands, his fingers touch in back and front, and knew this was it, I was going to die.

  I closed my eyes and thought of Vincent, as he jumped back.

  “You – you,” he stuttered, holding his hands to his chest like he was hugging a child. He stared at me, eyes wild, and then turned and went outside again.

  What was wrong with him?

  What was he going to do to me?

  Minutes passed. The crickets started up again, and the door swung with a gentle breeze.

  He returned a long time later without a shirt and with a resigned expression. I didn’t dare say anything or move. He made a sound of strangled frustration and then ripped my clothes off of me, tearing them along their seams, like I was wearing spiderwebs not denim. And then he untied me from the bed, everything except the gag, and picked me up over his shoulder to carry me out of the cabin, completely naked.