Page 12 of Ravaging Red
I managed to regain my footing, my legs trembling beneath me. My pussy throbbed like it had lost something. Itmissedthe monster still growling on the other side of that barrier.
But why hadn’t he followed me?
The sudden loneliness hit me hard, and I collapsed, my knees slamming into the cracked pavement. Pain emaciated, but I barely felt it. I crumpled, shaking, my arms wrapped around my middle, trying to hold myself together as finally, I wept.
The sob tore up from my chest, ripped out of me before I could catch it. It wasn’t quiet, and if he was still near, I was sure he could hear it. It was a broken sound, one that left me gasping for air as it felt like it had no end. My palms pressed against the road, dirt and pebbles grinding into my skin as my shoulders shook.
But I didn’t cry because I was afraid. I didn’t cry because I’d been hunted, or marked, or nearly fucked raw in the forest by a creature made of nightmares.
I cried because I wasalone. Truly, terrifyingly alone.
For a moment back there, engulfed by his heat, surrounded by danger, in that breathless pounding of my own body, I hadn’t felt alone at all. I feltseen. Yes, I had been touched and claimed without permission, but I was also desired in a way that didn’t fathom words.
And now that feeling was gone. Slowly dissipating, like when one starts to forget a dream, barely having had a grasp on it.
He hadn’t followed me. He’d just let me go.
And that hurt worse than if he had dragged me back by the hair and broken me into pieces.
Because hewantedme, and he still let me leave.
And now every inch of me ached not from fear, but from the loss of his presence, the absence of his growl, the space where his breath used to be against my skin.
I was no longer being hunted.
And somehow… that made me feel more abandoned than ever.
Chapter 5
HOME
RED
The silver moon was high in the sky by the time I returned to my mother’s house on the outskirts of town. Headlights had already cut through the darkness outside the front yard. At first, I thought the flashing lights were something I imagined, blurring my vision from exhaustion. But as I got closer, the image got clearer. Sure enough, there were headlights and flashing red and blue strobes. Police vehicles and parked cars lined up in front of my mother’s yard. The porch was crowded with people. Neighbors, officers, and even a medic.
That’s when I saw her. Sitting up on the porch, wrapped in a worn quilt and sipping water from a paper cup with trembling hands. There was my Nana, alive, whole, and smiling.
My legs froze beneath me, and suddenly the world tilted sideways. My heart slammed itself against my ribs, and the ache in my chest started to slowly subside. I stumbled forward, a breath of relief shuddering out of me and I swallowed a sob that tried to escape me.
My mother was standing off to the side. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her lips were pressed into a line sotight they were bloodless. Her face was pale, eyes rimmed red, and I could tell she’d been crying. She looked at my grandmother as if she expected her to vanish if she dared blink. And then she saw me.
“Red!” My mother’s voice cracked like glass, raw with relief and panic. She ran toward me, hands reaching, grasping at my shoulders, my arms, my face. She looked like she needed tofeelme to believe I was real.
“Where were you?” she gasped, voice shaking as her fingers pushed my matted hair from my eyes. “I’ve been out of my mind! You disappeared, your phone wasn’t working, and no one could find you. We thought…” Her voice cracked, and she pulled me in, hugging me tight.
“I’m okay, Mom,” I said quickly, too quickly. My voice was hoarse, raw from screaming. “I’m fine, I swear.”
She wasn’t convinced. Her gaze dropped, scanning my torn dress, the scratches across my thighs, the bruises that hadn’t had time to bloom yet. Her lips trembled.
“You’re covered in dirt.” Her eyes flicked down again. “Your dress, your legs, you’re all scraped up. Red, what happened?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” She searched my eyes knowingly and the silence between us twisted tight.
“Oh God, Red…” she whispered, one hand hovering over her mouth.
I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t. Not yet.
“Is she okay?” I asked, trying to pull my mother’s thoughts away from me.
