Page 67 of Pretty Little Prey
She sneered at Bastille, “You know nothing.”
“Because you tell us nothing.”
“Because you do not need to know.”
“Whatshouldwe know?”
She stood. “That I want to be set free,” she said, stomping her foot to the ground. Her expression was full of such pride and confidence…She looks like a queen.
“Too bad, Woolly.” Bastille could not control the sheep-themed nicknames. She did not need to know that nicknames were something Bastille gave only to those he liked. “You will never be free of us.”
Her glarepiercedhim. “I should have called out and gone with the dragon,” she said. “It will be my deepest regret.”
The rage is back. Bastille’s lips peeled up to form a sinister, bone-chilling smile. “You’re going to wish you had not said that, Mutton.”
Chapter 27
As they hiked through the forest, the sunlight barely breaking through the treetops, Sly moved ahead in his fox form, scanning the surroundings for threats. An hour earlier, Kobe confirmed that he still smelled the dragon close by.
Am I to always be hunted in the woods?Luna mused to herself bitterly. With the way Bastille clenched his fists and glared at her, she knew she needed out. Now.
But how to slip away?
A pang occurred in her left side, and she stumbled over a fallen tree branch.
Kobe quickly helped her up and brushed one of his large, warm palms over where she scraped her knee. Bastille chuckled at her mistake.Snake bastard.
A trickle of blood came from her scraped knee, and she cursed and wiped it away on her hand.
When she looked back up, Nikolai stared intently,hungrilyat her shallow wound. Thankfully, Nikolai was the only one of the men not completely naked because he did not “shift” away his clothes. Yet, he stared at her now likeshewas naked.
The vampire would drink me down if he had the chance. Vampires were notorious for bloodlust, and Nikolai’s red eyes meant he had killed before, unable or unwilling to stop until he sucked away all of the blood from a victim.Does he feel regret over killing or is it simply in his nature?
Luna still shivered at the memory of Nikolai’s fangs in her neck and the suction of his lips. Yes, she had heard of blood whores: men or women who became addicted to the sexual “high” a vampire’s bite created. But she had never thought it could feel likethat. When he bit her, her mind blanked and her body stilled. It had felt like tiny tongues danced all over her skin. Her nipples had become hard little peaks; her legs had quaked with need. His bite felt like dirty, filthy sex.
She quickly looked away from the vampire, who still narrowed his eyes on her knee and licked his lips.
After a few more minutes of walking, another painful pang resonated in Luna’s side. Like her organs were twisting inside her. She bit back a whimper when another pain came from her lower abdomen. Was this what contractions felt like for pregnant women? Her stomachclenched. What the hell? Was it hunger? The next wave of pain trickled up her spine, and she again stumbled—this time, against a tree on the path they walked.
“Forget how to use your legs, Q-tip?” Bastille mocked, but there was an edge to his voice that sounded like actual concern.
“Q-tip?” Luna remarked. Her random bits of pain fueled her anger. “Because I’m a cotton ball? Duttur may be prey sheep shifters, but we still deserve respect in the paranormal world.”
“You’re right, Future Sweater,” Bastille replied. “You deserve all the respect in the world for the way you can be sheared for a pair of mittens.”
“Do you guys smell that?” Nikolai pondered aloud, interrupting the little power-play sass battle.
“What?”
“I thought…” Nikolai twisted his head to gaze around the forest but frowned. “Never mind.”
Kobe touched her arm, leaning in to scan her face as he asked her, “Okay?” Caveman wolf speak for:“Are you okay?”
She ground her back teeth. Becauseno. “No, I am not okay. I have had roughly seven hours of sleep over the span of three days—”
The men’s eyebrows rose at that, considering she had been with them for less than two days.
“—My feet hurt from running and walking in the woods forhours,” she complained. “I have beenkidnappedby four predators, one of whom endlessly seems to mock me and acts like he hates me being here yetwon’t let me go.”
