Page 27 of Wolf Hunter

And I stand there gawking at him like an idiot.

Reid steps back and smirks. “Later.”

And just like that, he’s out of the door with the magic clicking into place behind him.

Gone.

ChapterEight

Reid

Kissing Tasha was a huge mistake.

A massive, monstrous one, judging from the tightness in my jeans and the way the material chafes the ridge of my cock.

She’d pissed me off, and I reacted on that instead of using my head. All right, well, I used a head for sure—just not the one capable of making decisions with logic. My little head twitches thinking about the curve of her ass and the way she fits against me.

Grunting, I stalk down the hallway without a clear goal in mind, needing to put distance between me and…

Her. The pink-haired assassin I haven’t been able to get off my mind and haven’t been able to dig up dirt on either. The distraction I can’t afford but must figure out immediately.

Why did I kiss her?

I practically bolt outside, despite the weather, lifting my face to the clouded sky as a howl tears through me.

I let myself do something utterly ridiculous. The kiss blurred the lines worse than they were before, but I couldn’t help myself. One minute she was standing there staring at me like she wanted to decapitate me and the next—

Tasha kissed me back.

She let me hold her, touch her, pour my need and desire into her.

The thought of killing her is now an anchor on my leg, dragging me down. If I let her out, I’ll be the one six feet under. She’ll make sure of it, because that’s what she came here to do. And there has been no denying her craving for death.

She is absolutely sure I deserve it. Making hard choices comes with the territory, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my people safe. I admit fully to doing a few things I’m not proud of in my life, most of which happened before I became alpha.

But kidnapping?

I let the shift take me, my wolf lifting to the surface and shedding the layers of fear and tension and worry.

What happened to Tasha to make her hate me?

The wolf doesn’t dwell on it. We stretch our legs and take off through the woods at a gallop until our lungs pound and our heart nearly bursts from a combination of exertion and happiness at this little taste of freedom.

One of the only tastes I’ll ever have.

Eventually, we find our way back to the mansion, and I shift into human form. My wolf recedes begrudgingly under my skin with a fair amount of pain coupling with regret.

The run helped, but I still have no fucking clue what to do with Tasha.

Or her accusations.

Liam will know better than I if there really are any shady dealings when it comes to the pack. I try to rule with an iron fist along the same vein as our father. If anything happens outside my scope—the way Tasha clearly thinks—then I owe it to myself and my people to see if there’s any truth to her words.

Standing outside while the chill seeps down to my bones helps clear my head even further. It isn’t enough, though.

Behind me, someone coughs delicately and I turn, naked, to find Liam has joined me outside on the rear deck.

“We’re getting a storm,” he says on his approach. “It’s coming in from the east. Should have a few feet of snow on the ground before the end of the day.”

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