Page 12 of The Breeding Cave
She was right. She’d had no obligation to come back—I knew that. But here she was.
“Give me your burned hand,” I ordered.
Her eyes widened underneath the dim light. “H-how do you know about that?”
“Your hand,” I repeated.
When she placed her hand in mine, I brought her burned hand to my mouth and licked her wound. I had meant to do this earlier in the alleyway, but she slipped away too quickly. It wasn’t because I had been too distracted by her scent.
Either way, I didn’t know if it would work, but it was the least I could do. Healing saliva was only supposed to work on packmates and mates. But almost all of my packmates were dead, and I had cursed the Moon Goddess to hell that night so she would never give me a mate.
Especially not with my curse.
When the wound began healing before my eyes, I froze.
“Wh—how is it doing that?” she whispered.
It … can’t be.
“Tell me,” she said. “What’s your name?”
Still mesmerized and in shock, I stared at her hand. This is impossible.
“If you won’t tell me your name, can I at least see your face?” she whispered.
A single flame flickered behind me in a vintage lantern, casting a shadow over my face. I didn’t want her to see me, not like this. Nobody had seen me this way for twenty years—since that night. And I wasn’t about to scare her off now.
It was bad enough she already didn’t like me.
“No.”
“Please,” she pleaded.
“Turn around, lean over the rock over there, and arch your back.” I paused. “For me.”
“And if I say no?” she hummed, almost amused. She rocked back on her heels, stared up at me through those huge brown eyes, and gave me the smallest of smirks. “What will you do if I take off through the woods?”
My lips curled into a smirk. “You’re welcome to try.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, and I watched her nipples harden underneath her shirt. And then, suddenly, to my surprise, she twirled around, sprinted out of the cave, and ran through the woods.
Tree branches snapped underneath her feet. Her ragged breaths echoed through the darkness. A low growl escaped my mouth, and my beast took over my body. I had been promising all fun and games as my logical human self, but my beast couldn’t tell the difference.
He thought she was running from us. Really running from us.
I was on her heels before she made it a quarter mile into the woods. She squealed and pumped her legs faster, making it a game that she knew she would lose. She never had a chance, and she had known it from the moment she took off.
When I had bought a night with her, I’d never expected she’d like it.
Never mind want to play with me—or my beast.
So, I let her run while I nipped at her ankles every thirty yards, ripping off some of her pant legs. She moved even more quickly, carelessly hitting branches that ripped her thin shirt and tore through it.
The deeper into the woods she ran, the more clothes slipped off her body, either from me or from the tree branches that her clothing got caught on, until her pants tore all the way up her thigh and her top was pulled off.
Another growl escaped my throat, and I pushed faster, her scent becoming stronger. Moans from another Breeding Cave about half a mile to our left drifted through the woods, and Yeosin slowed down, gazing over toward it.
I took the opportunity to catch up to her, scoop her half-naked body into my arms, and throw her over my shoulder. She shrieked and glanced over her shoulder toward me, but I wasn’t going to let her see my face. Not yet.
