Page 22 of Red's Beast

I yank my arm free, only for him to grab me from behind around the waist.

“No need to be in a rush to get out of here. It won’t take long to replace the scent of our entwined scents with one of our own. I can show you what you’ve been missing out on all these years. It will be yours for the rest of our lives.”

The wolf inside of me rises and I emit a deep, guttural growl. "In your dreams, idiot."

My arm jerks backward, landing an elbow into his stomach. It breaks his grip long enough that I can hurl myself toward the opposite side of the room, near the window. I press my back against the wall as my hand frantically searches the wall for the window to open it.

I feel like a caged animal.

He places his hand on his stomach and rubs it before looking up to find me along the wall. “I love it when a girl fights. It makes it so much more fun.”

“You’re sick in the head if you think this is fun.”

No, no, no. This can’t be happening. I have to get out of here.

I glance around the room once more before my fingers find the latch on the window. I flick it up and turn to raise the window as quickly as possible. It’s not like I can shift or find something to use to fight with, so this is my only option.

“Don’t do it, Lillian. Don’t jump from the window. You might get hurt since you can’t shift. Then what are you going to do?”

I turn and look at him over my shoulder, only to find him a little closer than before. “Well, I’d rather take my chances over staying here with you.”

Without a second thought, I fling myself out the window and fall. I land on the ground with a soft thud and without breaking a single bone.

His raging howl echoes around the area as he looks out the window to where I landed.

“You aren’t going to get away that easily.”

He starts crawling out the window, leaving me with only one thing to do.

I take off running as fast as I can between the houses. Everywhere I think of running won’t be good. He’ll just find me and drag me back, even at grandmother’s house.

“Get back here!” I hear him call out from somewhere behind me.

Go into the woods.

My wolf is crazy, but it’s my only hope. It’s better to get killed by the monster than mate with Corbin.

When I make it into the edge of the woods, I pick up speed and run faster. I almost trip over a fallen long, but I keep going. My only hope is that he doesn’t come into the woods.

Surely, he will stop if I just keep going.

I whip my head around to check behind me to see if he is coming, but the village is no longer in sight and neither is he.

I stop running as I try to catch my breath. My hands rest on my knees and I inhale a deep breath.

But my moment of rest is interrupted.

A branch snaps, drawing my attention to the left, then I hear another. I quickly turn when I hear a low growl followed by what sounds like sniffing.

I have to admit my wolf’s idea originally sounded like a great one, but now I’m faced with the reality of my decision.

This is probably the end of me.

I’m in the beast’s domain.

Lillian

My body is frozen, unable to move as the monster circles around me unseen in the nearby bushes. It does nothing for my pounding heart, but it is racing for an entirely different reason now.

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