Page 107 of All the Devils are Here

Hunt her.

Eat her alive.

I could still taste her cunt on my tongue, and I wanted more.

In the distance, I heard the splashes of her footsteps coming out of the ocean. I suppressed the growl building in my chest and flattened myself to the ground. My mate was going to run, and I was going to chase her.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

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MEGHAN

It was easy to see with the moon nearly full, and looking out over the expanse of dark water was calming. I loved the beach at night. This was something I wanted more of.

But I didn’t think Ban wanted to be on the beach. He was a cat and a predator. That said trees and shadows to me. He would find me, but maybe I could last a little while.

Trees began a ways down the shore. One of the patches of tropical woods. Perfect.

In all the books, people dampened their scent by using water, and I had plenty of water on hand right now. Wading in, the skirt I threw on was immediately soaked. The water was warm, and when everything was settled, I wanted to spend some time on the beach. Whether it was far from this island or here, the ocean made me happy. I wanted to share it with them.

I walked through the water down the beach until I was across from the trees before I ran for them. It was much darker within the trunks, moonlight pouring through the leaves and creating strange shadows and highlights to pass through.

Ban’s animal form was entirely black, and he was unnaturally silent. There was no way I would ever see him coming.

It was like the world came into crisp focus. The sound of the waves grew louder, and the sea breeze through the leaves was a delicate melody. Grass beneath my feet was soft, and I wandered deeper into the woods.

How far from the house was I? How long would it take him to get here? Every shadow began to look like the shape of a cat. Adrenaline sang under my skin, and I was shaking.

I hadn’t expected to feel so jumpy. In the silence, every small sound set me on edge. And I knew already that this was what it was like to be prey.

Awarenessprickled on the back of my neck. Thinking I was prey unlocked something deep in my brain. Some buried instinct that took my senses out even further. But it also feltright.

Dropping low to the ground, I listened. There was nothing I heard out of the ordinary, but I felt it. I was being hunted. Tracked. He knew where I was.

I needed to move.

Splitting away from where I’d been, I ran inland. There was a break in the trees and a swath of grass filled with moonlight. A risk to cross it to the bigger group of trees, but if he was close, it wasn’t a risk at all.

Peeking around the trunk of a tree, I looked out across the open space. There was nothing there that I could see. But my skin was still tingling, and an unnamed urgency was screaming at me to move.

Move.

I went and tripped immediately. A rock hidden in the grass that made my foot ache. I cursed and froze, pushing myself up.

There.

In the direction I’d first come from, a dark spot in the grass. Ban’s eyes reflected in the moonlight—the only real proof it was him and not another rock.

Low to the ground, I barely saw the movement. He crept toward me, silent as death. Utterly sure of his prey. But he didn’t have me yet.

I turned and ran.

The heavy pounding of paws told me he was coming after me, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. My mate wanted to chase me? Then I was going to give him a fucking chase. Desire crashed over my body, and I had to push it aside.

Catching a tree, I used it to change direction, and then I did it again and again, zigzagging back and forth a few times in order to mix up my trail as much as I could.

I looked over my shoulder, and there was nothing there. He’d vanished. Shit. Ban could be anywhere. How could I hide from him when he could scent both me and what the chase was doing to me?

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