Savage Hunt

Chapter 55

Chapter Fifty-Five: It starts with a howl

Travis and I walked on the path leading away from the house for quite a while. It was a strange feeling to be doing something so normal with him. We walked side by side and every so often his hand would brush against mine like he was trying to remind himself that I was there.

I tried not to bother him as his eyes moved over the pathway and the trees that lined the beaten path. I watched him look around, how he seemed to take everything in all at once. Every tree, every leaf, it was like he was memorizing it all. Like he was seeing something that I wasn’t seeing with my human eyes. He stopped walking and stiffened beside me. Travis grabbed my hand, squeezing my fingers softly. I looked down the path that led us deeper into the woods.

“What is it?” I asked. His lips twitched, but he didn’t look at me.

“Daddy is coming.” He smirked down at me and I pulled my hand from his.

“Damn it.” I grumbled, turning away from him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Ryan. I just knew that he was going to try to take me back to the house or maybe he was coming to talk me out of being in the hunt despite what he had said earlier. I didn’t want to hear it and I wasn’t going back to Scott’s house right now.

It didn’t feel like home right now. It felt like lies, like everything else in my life.

“Sweets?” Travis called out as I stomped down the trail, not paying attention to where I was going. “Where are you going?”

“I’m not going back to the house.” I called over my shoulder, walking quicker away from him.

“I doubt that he’s coming to do that. I mean, he likes seeing you all angry hot as much as I do, but he’s a softie outside of the bedroom.”

Travis called out and I heard a growl from somewhere in the distance.

“I think he heard you call him a softie.” I stopped walking, looking around the trail trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from. I couldn’t seem to find it and I frowned; this trail didn’t look familiar. I hadn’t realized Ryan was that close, but given how I could barely hear Travis’ steps when we walked on the path, I wasn’t surprised.

It was strange, though, it sounded like it was almost in front of me but I didn’t see him out there. A breeze blew and Travis let out a growl of his own and it was like everything in the forest stopped.

“Matilda, don’t move.”

The way he said it made me stop. I looked over my shoulder at him, trying not to worry. It was like the feeling was bubbling up in the pit of my stomach, threatening to tighten my throat. “Travis, what’s going on?”

“Someone’s out there.” He said as Ryan drew closer to him. “A wolf. Your dad said you knew which paths to stay on. Is this one of his?”

I looked around, worrying my lower lip as goosebumps rose along my arms. My heart hammered in my chest, and I realized we were deeper in the woods than I had noticed. While walking with Travis, I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was going. Now I had no idea where we were and I hoped that I hadn’t put my mates and I in danger.

“1, I don’t know.” I said, taking a half step forward so that I could get a better look at the path. The ones around the house were lined with rocks that Scott’s father had placed along the trail when he was a boy. I had walked all those paths so many times, but this time I had no idea where we were. There was a tree in the distance with some markings on it and I moved closer to see the markings, stepping off the path.

“Tillie, no.” Ryan hissed and a howl sounded out somewhere behind me, followed by a chorus of howls. The sound was eerie and made chills move through my body that had little to do with the cold.

I spun around, looking at Ryan and Travis. Travis had already started coming closer to me, his eyes had grown dark and his body was so tense. I had never seen him look like this and something about the way that he looked at me made me afraid. This wasn’t a man that I was looking at

This was a beast.

Ryan threw his head back, letting a howl out of his own. This one didn’t sound the same as the others, and I knew that it was a warning even without him or Travis saying anything.

Travis stopped in front of me, his hand moving to my arm to tug me closer. “Fuck, they’ve been tracking us. I didn’t notice.”

“What did those howls mean?” I asked, letting him pull me closer to Ryan.

“Those howls mean that the hunt has started” Travis said, as Ryan let out another howl. “Ryan’s warning them that you are ours. I’ve already

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Chapter Fifty-Five: It starts with a howl

let Jason know that we need him. We need to get going now.”

Ryan looked at me. His eyes were different than normal. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that wasn’t like any that he had given me before. It was almost like he was saying goodbye, but it couldn’t be goodbye. He didn’t know how I felt about him and I didn’t want something to happen to him on the hunt.

He pulled back from kissing me to look at me, his hand moved to the side of my neck and he stroked his fingers over the mark that he had left on my neck. The ones that let everyone know that I was his. This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

“Ryan?

“Shh, baby. I need you to stay with Travis.” He said, resting his forehead against mine. “I’ll see you later. I’m going to lead the others away from the two of you. Remember that you are mine, baby girl. Both of you are mine.”

“I don’t want you to go. What if something happens to you?” I asked, moving my hands to his waist to try to make him stay with me.

“I’ll be fine, Tillie. Be good for me, yeah?” His voice was soft and I nodded. Closing my eyes, he rubbed his face against the side of mine, like a cat marking his scent. He pressed a kiss to my lips before letting me go. He looked over at Travis and they exchanged a look that needed no words, but he spoke them anyway. “Keep her safe and stay out of trouble.”

“I will. We’ll find her other mate and end the hunt after he claims her.” He said, pulling me away from Ryan and the path that we had been standing on.

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