Page 3 of Mated
I don’t wait for it to spring. I turn and run.
My sneakers slide over the decaying and still wet leaves, but I’m back up and going just as fast as I fall. The beast crashes behind me.
Inside I scream at myself over and over. Running from a shifter is futile. Stupid. It sparks every damn instinct they have and right now, I’m the big cat’s mouse. But I can’tnotrun.
I dive across the basin floor, running parallel to the shallow creek. It’s once peaceful babble is inaudible over the rush of blood roaring through my ears.
Low branches scratch at my running gear. Roots tangle in my shoes, sending me stumbling in the little light from the moon above. My head whips this way and that, trying to find a way out. A way up.
I glance along the slope line, searching for footholds or saplings to aid my steep ascent. Something hot flows over my bare legs. I spin and drop.
The shifter sails past, its lean body twisting in midair to land feet away. I scramble up the slope.
My fingers and nails dig deep into rich scented loam. Leaves squish and dirt imbeds in my skin. I slam the toes of my sneakers into the hill and tug with every ounce of strength in my body.
But no amount of pull ups or hose carries can make up for the too damp debris.
I slide down with a whimper. Burning pain flows over my bare calves. I cry out and kick.
The low snarl sounds again and needle sharp pinches lock into my ankle.
I’m wrenched from the slope.
My body slides over the ground, sticks and small pebbles digging and cutting into my skin. I kick at the beast with my free leg. It releases my ankle and those long teeth gnash.
The cat pounces, ten deadly claws out and aimed for my body.
They rake down my sides like fire. My shorts split along with my skin, leaving hot trickles of blood in their wake. I kick out. The beast snarls and those long teeth clamp into my leg again.
“No. Stop.” I try to pull back. To get away. It’s bulk leans over me, lapping at my blood with a sandpaper tongue. The first nibble makes stars dance before my eyes.
It bites hard at my flesh and I flail at the pain.
I curl in on myself, arms over my head, as I scream and scream. No one can hear me, and no one comes. The burn fades slowly under a wave of darkness as teeth rend my skin.
This is it.
I punch and kick at the beast, unable to see anything past the tears. The pain.
Sharp teeth tear at my stomach, digging deep and eviscerating. Darkness roars over my vision at the wrongness, and I know no more.
Chapter 2
Tanner
The moon is high, nearly complete, and so damn fucking bright it sears my already sensitive eyes as the canopy above thins. Tree branches and thick shrubs scratch at my skin as wisp after wisp of changing mist swirls around my body. The cool vapor tickles my bare sides, adding to the heat in my feverish frame.
But I can’t control it. Not now.
Every breath is a pant; a forced inhale of the humid air that fills every corner of Louisiana. A residual trace of swamp flows to my nose, like stagnant water, greenery, and wildlife.
I huff.
My new captain Gage Whitehorn peers at me in the dimness, a question in his cool emerald eyes.
“Got to love running in a bayou,” I quip past my gritted jaw.
He bares his teeth like a flash of white across his shadowed face. “You could’ve changed with the pack.”
