Page 22 of Consume Me
The wolf snarls back at me but makes no move to finish it—or me—off.
The darkness slithers and slides across the doors of my mind, looking for any tiny crack it can find. My cheek lands against the cool marble. I close my eyes, waiting to see which predator will finish me first.
I don’t hear him shift back. I only feel his presence—heavy, magnetic—as he kneels in front of me. Then I feel hands sliding around me. Warm and rough and sure. He pulls me into his arms, lifting me as he pushes to his feet. He starts for the door, and I glimpse the dagger still lying on the marble, untouched.
He chose me, not it.
For some reason, that snaps me back to myself, and I’m very aware that a strange man has just picked me up and is carrying me off.
I immediately start struggling. “Put me down. I can walk.”
“Not where we’re going,” he says roughly.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You’re not going home, that’s for damn sure, and you’re not fit to go back to that party.”
“You don’t get to say where I go, you— Hey!”
I’m jostled—hard—and instead of setting me on my feet, the bastard throws me over his shoulder.
Like I’m a damnsatchel.
“Are you serious right now?” I slap at his back, to absolutely no avail. “Put me down!”
He doesn’t answer. Nor does he seem at all thrown off by my fists slamming into the back of his rib cage. He just walks—long, determined strides down the hall.
“I can walk, you overgrown, broody caveman!”
Still nothing. I might as well be yelling at a tree. Or hitting one.
He shoves through another door, and I realize with a start that we’re suddenly outside in the open air. But rather than the main entrance with glowing lights and the possibility of other guests nearby, I see only a high-hedged path leading straight into thick woods.
Not good.
“Where are you taking me?” I demand, twisting to look. Panic threatens, and I consider the idea of screaming for help. “Hey. Answer me.”
Not a word. Just a low grunt and the flex of muscle under my ribs.
A second later, I feel a shift in the air. Magic. Old and sharp. My stomach flips.
A portal opens ahead—silvery, crackling, shimmering at the edges. Through the rippling surface, I glimpse a room, dark and unfamiliar.
“No,” I breathe, realization dawning. “No way. You arenotportal-napping me!”
I kick my legs, slam a fist against his back. “Put me down, you psycho!”
His only reply is to adjust his grip like he’s annoyed I squirmed. I suck in a breath, preparing to scream like bloody murder.
I don’t get a single sound out before he walks up to the portal and steps through.
Chapter 7
Kendall
The moment he sets me on my feet, I sprint for the door. Yanking it open, I manage one step over the threshold—and freeze. Not because my kidnapper has caught me. But because there’s nowhere to go. No path. No lawn. No earth at all. Just endless, gaping black. Like the edge of the world stops here.
My stomach lurches, and I grip the doorframe to stop my momentum. If my feet had gone two more steps, I would have tumbled into the ether.
