Page 6 of Taken By the Lycanthrope

I jolt and spring to my right, hoping to perhaps get out of the trees and into the grass again. I don’t know why I’m even trying; any attempt to escape is going to be futile. I’m onhisturf, threatening his pack, and this wolf will kill me. My only hope is to find David and see if the kid can get in a shot.

And then, like a blessing in the darkness, I see him.

Annie’s pale hide looms in the darkness behind the kid, her hoof scuffing the ground. I run toward him, but the wolf is on my heels, my heart pounding in my chest. I try to wave down David, but as his eyes light on me, I realize he’s holding up his gun.

He’s panicking.

All he sees is the wolf behind me.

Heshoots.

The world explodes in a burst of white hot pain, sending me sprawling flat on my face to the forest floor. I hear the horses scream as they spook from the shot, and then the sound of pounding hooves. I don’t know where he got me—it hurts all over—but the pain seems worst in my stomach.

This is bad. Gunshot wounds to the stomach have a tendency to kill slowly.

I let out a ragged breath as I manage to roll over onto my stomach, reaching for the gunshot wound. Fuck, I’m bleedingso much.I croak out a few words of resistance as the lycan looms over me, its opal eyes flashing in the darkness, its teeth bared.

I’ve never known these things to eat people, but they seem to get more monstrous every day.

I feel its teeth scrape against the wound, my shirt in tatters. Searing pain tears through me.I’m so sorry, Enid, I think to myself, and maybe I say the words…but I can’t really tell. My senses are all closing in as the creature gets closer, crouched over me now like a predator over its kill.

That’s exactly what I am, I guess.

It was justDavidthat shot me.

The wolf growls, and something strange stirs in my chest. I have to believe it’s just the effect of the gunshot wound, of bleeding out, of my sprint through the grass. The lycan sniffs me all over, its breath puffing out over bare flesh. And then it does the strangest thing.

Itlicksme.

One big long lap over my wound, which instantly makes the pain go away. I blink through the tears filling my eyes—not tears of fear or sadness, but sheer agony. Somehow, the way he licks my wound is helping, butwhy?

I’m losing consciousness fast, though. I’ve lost too much bloodnotto pass out. My fingers are still slick with crimson, even though the lycan’s saliva seems to have staunched the flow. In fact, I get a little loopy. Or at least, IthinkI’m just loopy…because when I look back at the wolf, he’s shifted into a man.

A completely naked,completelygorgeous man, with bronze skin, salt and pepper hair, and a thick beard.

“You…” I start, but I’m losing steam. I can’t finish the sentence, my head tilting back into the grass.

“You,” he says back, his voice deep and resonant.

And as I pass out, I realize that I’ve just been taken prisoner by the Alpha Prime.

Reyes Garza.

The man I came here to kill.

CHAPTER THREE

?

REYES

“You,” I whisper.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing—what I’m sensing with every fiber of my being, my wolf howling to be set free again. But I’m certain of her scent, blackberries and leather driving me crazy.

The dying woman beneath me is my mate.

I’m so distracted that I don’t even notice the man who shot her is moving until he’s already on his horse. My impulses scream at me to follow him into the dark, to tear out his throat for what he’s done, but my mate needs me more.

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