Page 38 of Jesse
He could feel the muscles in his neck bunching tight, the itch under his skin worsening with every second.
Patience. He needed to be patient.
He had waited before. Tracked targets for weeks, sometimes months, to make sure everything lined up just right. This wasn’t any different. Not really.
Except it was. Because his beast didn’t just want blood anymore. It wanted Beck.
It wanted to see his eyes widen in realization. His lips form his name in a choked whisper. It wanted to feel Beck’s heartbeat under his hand as it stopped.
Aiden swallowed hard. His jaw ached from clenching. He forced himself to look away, gaze sweeping the crowd instead.
People laughed and shouted, talked about their favorite trucks, posed for photos, clutched little plastic baskets of food.
So alive. So unaware.
He could end any of them in seconds. Slake the edge of this hunger. The beast would quiet, for a time.
But he didn’t want any of them. He wanted him.
Aiden slipped a hand into his worn wallet and carefully pulled out a photograph. It was creased, faded at the edges, the image nearly worn thin by the years.
Two boys smiled out from the picture. One a little taller, dark hair wild even then, grinning with reckless confidence
The other, smaller, thin arms around his brother’s waist, looking up at him with shining eyes. Himself.
Aiden traced a thumb over the image. The edge of his nail caught on one of the creases.
A life for a life.
The words pulsed in his head with a sick rhythm, in time with the pounding of his heart.
He swallowed again, forcing the photograph back into his wallet before the tremor in his hand betrayed him.
Aiden turned his attention back to Beck, who had just climbed into the truck, Jesse following behind him. The door closed, shutting them out of view.
That did nothing to soothe the fire under Aiden’s skin. He exhaled slowly, lips parted just enough to cool the heat rising in his throat.
Get it together.
There would be another opportunity. Another moment to strike. He couldn’t afford to slip up. Not now, not when the game was finally taking shape.
He’d let Beck have his little moment of triumph. Let him smile, let him laugh, let him believe, even for just a little longer, that he was safe.
But when the time came, and it would come, the wolf wouldn’t be enough to stop him.
Aiden turned away from the fairground, disappearing into the shadows like he’d never been there. The itch remained, crawling up his spine.
But the hunger?
That was thrumming.
Growing.
Waiting.
Chapter 10
Beck
