Page 8 of Alice and Her Shifters (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 2)

“Come, she’s this way,” Milo said and led the way by instantly stepping through the trees of the Dusang forest.

“How do you know?” I asked, dubious.

He smirked at me. “I have my ways.”

I shook my head and frowned. “I’m convinced you’re making this shit up as we go.”

He laughed.

3

ALLISON

I certainly wasn’t in Seattle anymore.

I had walked around the desolate forest for what felt like hours. There was also a strong possibility I was walking in circles considering I passed the same stone and tree stump three times now. Time didn’t seem to have any relevance to where I was, and I wondered if the little voice that had encouraged me to run through a brick wall was not looking out for my best interest after all.

Not that I was able to do anything about it after the fact, but I should have ignored it and dealt with the men chasing me. I probably should have given them the amulet and moved on with my life. But the necklace, as strange and unusual as it was, was the last thing I had tying me to my mother. I wasn’t ready to part with it yet. And I doubted I would ever be ready.

The shadows around me took on a life of their own, moving and swaying within the corners of my eyes thanks to the brief and dim light of the moon. Trees creaked, and I could have sworn some of them moved their branches out of the way to let me pass underneath them. From what I was able to tell, no living creatures lived among the forest. At least, none I heard or saw. Then again, I didn’t hear a thing outside of the creaks and groans of the old trees as a gentle breeze moved through them.

Then I reconsidered that the movement wasn’t just the breeze.

I was losing my mind.

Of course, I couldn’t deny the possibility that I must have hit my head at some point because there was just no way I was still living in reality. Magic wasn’t real. People don’t shoot fire from their hands or run through buildings prompted by a voice in their heads. Three incredibly gorgeous men weren’t invisibly chasing me down the street before trying to take my necklace from me.

There was an explanation for this. A perfectly reasonable one too. There had to be.

As I continued to walk through the dark forest, searching for a way out and home, I went over the events of the evening starting with when the handsome guy with the intense blue eyes left the shop. Try as I might, I failed to come up with any reasonable, logical explanation of what was going on.

I didn’t slip and fall. I would have remembered that for sure. At the very least, I would remember the slipping part. I didn’t consume drugs. I might have consumed more coffee than I should have, but last I was aware, large consumptions of caffeine didn’t cause hallucinations. For all intents and purposes the events of the night, leading up to me closing shop, were exceptionally normal.

I came across the same stump I kept passing and took a seat on it with a huff. “Where the hell am I?”

Frustration started to grow within me and settled in my shoulders with a pinch. I was literally walking in circles, and I was no closer to figuring out where I was, much less where to go. I needed to find a way out of the woods, but that was proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I really wanted to go home and get some sleep.

As I sat on the stump, strange sounds happened all around me. It didn’t take long for me to realize the trees were moving closer to me. The dark was increasing. My heart raced as adrenaline coursed through my veins. Creaks grew louder and the sound of something sliding across the forest ground didn’t escape my notice.

I was being swallowed by the woods. I was unable to see, and I so desperately wanted to see the things around me. Maybe then I would know if my imagination was playing tricks on me. Besides, if I was going to go down, I was going to go down with a fight, and I was rapidly losing what energy I had left in me to defend myself with.

Almost as if in response to my wish, more vibrations rippled through me, and my amulet started to glow, providing soft white light that surrounded me and illuminated the trees with a dim glow. The sounds stopped. The movements ceased.

Maybe it was my imagination. Or it might have been the light that made everything stop. Either way, I stared at the amulet. This was the second time I’ve felt a strange power. It was so weird.

“Alice!” a voice called out.

I groaned. Figuring out what was happening to me was going to have to wait until I was safer. Because though it took me a few moments to realize the voice belonged to the man with the strange hazel eyes, it wouldn’t be long before they had caught up to me, and I had given them a literal beacon on my location.

“Alice! Where are you?” the man sang through the night air. He sounded close. Too close for comfort.

I sighed. I didn’t want to figure out how he knew my nickname, and it really didn’t matter at this point. My only desire was to put as much distance between me and him and his friends as possible. I stood from the stump and turned around, searching for the direction the sound of the man’s voice was coming from. I understood, given what little I had learned of him, he would say something again just to taunt me.

Sure enough, he did.

“Come on, Alice! We won’t hurt you.”

I snorted. Like I would ever believe someone like him. He seemed like the type of man who would stop at nothing to take my amulet. Never mind the fact he told me my death could be arranged when I told him he would have my amulet over my dead body. Regardless I got the location he was coming from and turned in the opposite direction then ran like my life depended on it.

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