Page 30 of The Werewolf Cowboy
“Why can’t we shift? We’ll get there faster.”
Grayson stopped, looked at her, his blue eyes cold as ice. “Whatever you do, never shift into wolf in the Feral Forest. Do as I say.”
He turned back and kept going. She followed, fear coagulating in her stomach with worry. Grayson had turned into an arrogant Lupine, no consideration for her feelings or that she might be…
A bloodcurdling scream pierced the air. Katy jumped.
“Don’t look back,” Grayson ordered.
He couldn’t tell her what to do all the time. She could not resist. Maybe someone was in trouble.
Katy turned her head.
A bone-white skeleton, flesh rotting on its slender frame, hung from the limb of a tree about five feet from the water’s edge. The mouth opened.
“Kaaaaty,” it sang out. “Turn back.”
Screaming, she stumbled forward, almost falling into the stream. Grayson caught her, helped her straighten.
“The skeleton…” she gasped, shaking badly.
“It was your imagination. There’s nothing there.”
“But…”
“I warned you, do not look back,” he snapped. “Now follow me and do as I say! We have to get through here before nightfall.”
Since twilight had already started to fill the forest with grayish light, his words filled her with more anxiety.
He picked up the pace, and she struggled to follow. The rocks were perilous and slick as oil. One misstep and she’d topple.
You can do this, a voice whispered in her mind.
The voice sounded like Grayson. She could not be certain. Katy pushed back the fear and focused on Grayson, feeling her wolf rise to the surface. Watching him, she let the beast go, let instinct guide her, not logic.
To her surprise, the slippery, moss-coated rocks seemed less hazardous. She leapt from one to the other as he did. It almost seemed as if her wolf knew this way. But how?
After fifteen minutes, Grayson stopped. The stream diverted to the west. He headed back in the direction of the path. Confused, she followed.
“Where are you going? You said to follow the stream.”
“Shortcut.”
He seemed to know where he was going, she had to trust him. Katy followed, and then the ground became more rocky and treacherous.
Grayson stopped. Before them yawned a rocky slope that seemed to drop straight into the ground. Green and purple fungus sprouted on the boulders before them. The descent led straight into an ink-black cave. Wind rustled the treetops. Something whispered in the air in a deep voice.
Don’t go in there. You will never get out.
Katy balked. No way was she going in there.
“Forget it. I’m going back to the stream.”
If she had to get stuck in the dark, she wanted the safety of water at least, and a place to wait until morning.
Grayson shook his head. “It will save us thirty minutes. It’s a shortcut, Katy. Just a few minutes and you’ll be in the clear.”
Right. In the clear…for what? For him to strangle her in that suffocating space? Hide her body so no one would ever find it? Horrific images danced in her mind…dead bodies piled up like firewood. This cave was Grayson’s hiding place where he liked to store all his victims…
