Page 16 of Twisted Desire
Eleven
Ethan stared up at the nearly full moon. The array of freshly fallen gold and orange leaves crunched under the weight of his paws. Feelings of pain, despair and loneliness poured from him in the form of a sorrowful howl, breaking the eerie silence that surrounded him.
The beast wanted his mate. As did the man. They longed for her smile, her touch, her scent. The one evening they’d had with Cam had not been nearly enough to satisfy their desire for her. Ethan didn’t know if eternity would be long enough with his mate.
He wanted to know everything about her. What made her who she was. He wanted to know what drove her curiosity and passion. There wasn’t a damn thing that he didn’t want to know about her. His wolf, on the other hand, didn’t care about any of that. The animal wanted what fate had promised him—a life with his female by his side.
Even if he could’ve found a way to make Cam see that his fears hadn’t come from their mating, but from somewhere deep inside of him, he still would’ve been forced to leave. No matter how he wished it otherwise.
His situation was growing more dangerous by the day. His former employer was actively hunting for them along with an unknown number of his most dangerous followers. It’s why he’d chosen to remain in wolf form as opposed to human form. It made avoiding his hunters a slight bit easier.
Being in wolf form gave him a much-needed advantage. So far, his attackers had come at him in human form with the guns they’d loaded with silver bullets.
“Fucking Idiots,”his wolf snarled at the memory.
He could smell that shit for miles away. The first of the hunters that he had killed, he’d taken down one at a time, individually. Once he’d gotten a beat on their location, he’d moved in for the obvious and easy kill. Ripping their throats out had been icing on the cake to an already complicated situation.
The bodies of the dead hunters quickly turned to ash. He gathered up any remaining clothes or weapons, stashing them in his truck to avoid suspicion. He needed to keep the little advantage his stealthiness had given him.
He wished he could’ve told Cam the truth. He wanted to tell her that he’d been sentenced to death because he refused to take the life of an innocent woman, but it was too dangerous. His former employer wouldn’t think twice about using her to get what he wanted. Ethan could not allow that to happen.
No matter what.
Keeping her safe, and out of harm’s way had become his top priority.
She was all that was good in his fucked up world. One glance into the depths of her eyes could warm his body. One kiss from her could heal his soul. God, how he needed her. More than his next breath. More than anything that he had ever wanted. He could almost forgive the Fates for taking his parents from him if he could only have his mate.
A twig snapped behind him. Sensing immediate danger, his hackles rose. His wolf readied to spring into action, but it was too late. He felt the cool metal of a gun pressing into his fur, behind his ear. He’d been lost in thought and not paying attention to his surroundings.
“Don’t move a muscle, asshole. Or I swear to God, I will blow your mother fucking head off.”
Did the guy really think that Ethan would stand there and go to his death gracefully? If he did, he was more of an idiot than Ethan thought possible. There seemed to be no shortage of stupidity when it came to the hunters his former employer had sent after him.
“Let’s hope our luck holds,” Ethan said to his wolf.
In a move that he’d practiced a million times over, Ethan shifted back to his human form—quicker than possible for most wolves, and instantly dropped to the ground. With a quick swipe of his foot, he kicked the hunter’s legs out from under him. Another rapid shift, and he was back in his wolf form. Before the hunter could utter so much as a curse word, Ethan chomped down on his throat. Warm, fresh blood poured down his throat and coated his fur.
“Another one down. God knows how many more to go.”
“That was close—too close,”Ethan said to his wolf. If you wanted to stay alive, he needed to pay better attention. Both he and his wolf had been lost in thoughts of their mate. Neither one could afford that luxury right now. They had to stay focused. They had to be proactive. They had to stay alive to protect her.
With hunters searching far and wide for him, he had to keep his head in the game—no matter what. There was no telling where one of the hired hitmen would pop up. He couldn’t let them get that close again.
