Page 12 of Wolf Hunted (Rejected Moons 1)

I freeze.

Rat?

I’m not too proud to eat a rat. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to cookthatup either in the present circumstances. But I could catch it now and save it for when the rain stops.

This house has to have a basement. That’s the only way something could be coming from below me.

I try a few doors until eventually I find the one with steps going down behind it. It’s dark down there, of course, but there isn’t much I can do about it other than leaving the door open to let a sliver of light down after me. I know that my eyes will adjust.

I creep slowly down the stairs, not wanting to scare the rat, or whatever it is. When I reach the bottom, I turn in a slow circle, my eyes glued to the floor, searching for movement—

Behind me, something yelps.

I let out a cry, spinning and stumbling backward at the same time, more startled than frightened. When I recover myself, I see that the noise came from a dog—no, not a dog. It's a wolf. And he’s locked in a cage.

That’s why I thought it was a dog. That’s adogkennel.

“Holy shit,” I breathe. “What the fuck are you doing in there?”

The wolf stares at me sullenly.

And then he shifts.

A moment later, I’m looking at a man. I can’t get the full measure of him, curled up in that cage the way he is, but I can tell that he’s tall, lean, and muscular. He has dark brown hair that hangs to his chin and several days growth of stubble on his cheeks.

I force myself not to look too closely at certain other parts of his body, even though my eyes are definitely drawn there.

“Who the hell are you?” he demands.

I blink. “Who the hell areyou?”

“I asked you first,” he says.

“But I’m not the one locked in a cage,” I point out. “I’m guessing this isn’t your house.”

“It’s one of my pack’s safe houses,” he says. “And they’ll kill you if they find you here.”

“So I guess they better not find me here,” I say. “Thanks for the heads up.” I adjust my backpack and turn back toward the stairs. It sucks that it’s already started raining, but I’m not going to hang out here if there’s a chance this guy’s pack is going to come back. I’ll find another house to wait out the storm in.

“Hang on,” he calls.

I look back over my shoulder.

“Let me out,” he says.

I laugh. “Like hell.”

“Come on,” he urges. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yeah. And I totally trust you, a shifter locked in a cage. You just told me your pack would kill me if they saw me.”

“Theywould. I won’t. Especially not if you let me out of here. If you did that, I’d be in your debt. I’d owe you a favor.”

“I don’t need a favor from you,” I tell him. “I can handle myself.”

“Where’syourpack?” he asks.

“What makes you think I’m part of a pack?”

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