Page 129 of Hunting Pretty

With little warning, I threw up. I gagged and coughed into the weeds beside Pierre’s corpse.

My throat burned and my stomach seized, even once I was sure there was nothing, absolutely nothing left.

Scáth placed his hand on my back, eyeing me from beneath his hood as I wiped the bloody back of my hand across my mouth.

I whirled on him, knocking his hand away, my chest heaving with each breath. I shook terribly—from shock, from the cold, but mostly from anger—as I balled my hands into fists.

“You did this on purpose!” I spat, my voice shaking with fury. “You killed him before I could get anything out of him!”

His eyes blazed as he stepped toward me, his jaw clenched, barely keeping his own anger in check.

“Are you out of your mind?” he snapped, his voice low, dangerous. “I killed him to protect you. He was going to rapeyou, Ava.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” I shot back, my voice cracking. “That was my lead! The only one I had, and now he’s dead because of you!”

“You think I care more about hiding information than keeping you alive?” he growled, his fists clenching at hissides. “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened if I hadn’t stepped in? You’d be dead, Ava. Raped and dead. I won’t let that happen, no matter what the cost.”

“You always do this!” I yelled, stepping closer to him, too angry to care about the fire in his eyes. “You keep things from me, you make choices for me, and I’m done with it!”

Scáth’s fury simmered beneath the surface, his chest rising and falling with each sharp breath. “You think I enjoy this? Do you think Iwantto keep you in the dark?”

“I’m not a girl,” I snapped.

“If I thought you could handle the truth,” he hissed, “I’d give it to you. But some things are bigger than you know. And I’m not about to let you get yourself killed just to prove a point.”

I stood there, seething, his words crashing into me, but the fire inside me refused to die down.

“You just don’t want me to know who’s behind this,” I accused. “Who are you protecting?”

My stalker grabbed me by the throat and dragged my face so close to his that I could see the blue of his eyes churning like a deadly storm. “I’m trying to protectyou. Even though you keep blindly running into danger.”

I knew his wild anger, his uncontrollable rage. But this was different. This was directed. Focused. Aimed. Aimed atme.

Squeezing my throat tighter, I thought he might actually kill me this time. There was fury enough in his clenched face. His body burned with murder.

Scáth shoved me back onto a cold stone tomb.

“How could you be so stupid to leave with him?” he hissed.

With an angry snarl, he shoved up my dress and stepped between my legs, spreading them.

Arousal swelled like a heat wave between my legs, but I wasn’t ready to let go of my anger.

I kicked at him and rolled to escape over the edge of the tomb, but he caught my hips and forced me back flat against the stone.

“You left with him,” my stalker said in a choked-off voice. “You fuckingleftwith him!”

He leaned over me as he unzipped his pants, his hoodie sliding over my hard nipples.

“I wanted to draw you out.” I grabbed a fistful of his hair. “Youleftme.”

His furious eyes darted wildly between mine as I felt the urgency of his cock against my pussy.

“I’dneverfucking leave you,” he roared as he thrust up into me. “I love you.”

He began to thrust hard into me, fucking me like he wanted to kill me.

Pain and pleasure lashed inside me and I cried out.