Page 3 of Ravaging Red
This didn’t make sense. Not only was I scared, I was oddly, andshamefully, turned on.
My thighs clenched as another chill crept up my spine, but it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the feeling of being watched…hunted. The thickness in the air pressed down on me with invisible hands. My heart pounded against my ribs, wanting to escape my chest, but I kept walking. One wary step after the other. One trembling breath at a time. Because I didn’t want to be out here whenthat thing, whatever the hell it was, decided it was done playing hide-and-seek.
And yet… I didn’t want to leave either.
That was the most unsettling part of this whole thing. There was a pull, both raw and magnetic, that tugged at something deep inside me, something dark and needy. It slithered through my veins, settled in my bones, and made my body burn in ways I didn’t fully understand. Yet I didn’t want to leave.
The Hollow Woods weren’t just trees and shadows. Theywantedsomething.Hewanted something. And God help me, so did I.
I could feel it.Him.He was out there. Watching and prowling.
Every snap of a branch, every rustle of leaves, every breath of wind brushing my skin felt like his fingers ghosting over me, marking me without touch. I didn’t even know whohewas. But I knew he was close.
Too close.
My breath hitched. My nipples tightened beneath my thin top, my skin was hypersensitive, and it felt alive. With that feeling, came the aching. A strange heat pooled between my legs, and I struggled with the feeling, hating how wet I was just from theideaof him. A trembling clench seized through my core, and I stumbled to my knees, scrambling to get up and keep going.
The rumors were true. People didn’t just getlostin the Hollow Woods…they weretaken.
Claimed.
But something inside me whispered not to run. To let the forest swallow me whole. To lethimfind me.
Because maybe I wasn’t meant to escape. Maybe I was meant to belong.
Tohim.
Somewhere behind me, low to the ground, padded steps moved with precision. Not clumsy. Not human. Silent, in the way predators were silent.
I didn’t hear him. Not exactly.
But I felt the way the world bent around his presence. How even the wind changed course to avoid him.
I stopped at a tree trunk, trying to catch my breath, but something else caught my attention. I gripped the wood and traced the sharp slashes carved into its base. The red sap bled beneath my fingertips and suddenly, I knew what I was dealing with.
The Wolf.
Growing up in Hollow’s Creek, I’d heard stories ofhim. Of what happened to girls if they heard his call. Of girls who vanished in these woods, their shoes left behind on blood-smeared trails. Girls who were never found, but sometimes they whispered warnings in the night. Girls who dreamed of monsters and never woke up again. And one of those monsters was the Wolf. It was said that he was seven feet tall, a massive beast who targeted innocent souls. Some whispered he was hunting for food, others who liked to romanticize him, whispered that he was out finding his true mate. Either way, blood would always spill if you got too close.
And now it turned outhewasn’t just a fairy tale.He was real. And I could feel in my bones that he was worse than the stories told.
He didn’t just hunt, he played with his prey.And for some reason, he had targetedme.
One breath. One step. That was all it took.
He hadn’t even touched me, hadn’t needed to. His presence coiled around me, thick and invasive, seeping into my pores, staining my skin with a scent that didn’t belong to me. It washis. Earth and ash. Blood and something sinfully masculine. It clung to me, and I realized that his invisible touch had branded me from the inside out, leaving an imprint no one else could see.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to befucking devoured.
My knees shook, and my lips parted, a soft whimper escaped me before I could stop it, and somehow, I knew he heard it.
Gods help me.I prayed.
Somewhere in the darkness, the trees trembled, followed by a deep, guttural growl…not angry or wild. No, it was worse than that. It sounded…pleased. A dark, feral moan dragged from the chest of something inhuman, something that didn’t just want me.
