Page 13

His lips twitched, holding back a smile. “Food. But that’s never going to happen again. I almost killed one with how greedy I became.”

I was starting to realize why the vampires weren’t welcome amongst my people.

He was dangerous.

“Did you do something to me earlier to wash like that in front of you?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “You wanted to do it, and I wanted to watch. That’s all there was to it.”

But I didn’t believe him.

“We can’t do that again,” I protested, dropping the sea kelp on the clay plate. I didn’t want to eat it anymore. Maybe I’d eat it in a few days when I was starving to death.

“And why not?”

“Your people are about to kill me, and you’re not doing anything to prevent that,” I said indignantly. He was acting like nothing had happened to me. That me living here was just super normal.

“Eat your food,” he said instead, eying the abandoned cooked plant on my plate.

“No thanks,” I said, shaking my head.

“What would you like to eat instead?” he asked, looking at me with full attention.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m about to die soon,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall. I looked down at the rope tied tight around my ankle. “Can you take the stupid rope off? It’s not like I’ll run around here. There are too many vampires around.”

“If I take it off, will you tell me what you'd like to eat?”

“Sure,” I said, unable to believe it when he dropped his tools and walked over to me. I stretched my foot out to him, and he grasped my foot in his hands. His cold fingers on my ankle sent tremors through my body. He deftly untied the complicated knot with his fingers, letting the rope drop to the floor. Was this a test or something? Or was he so sure of himself that I would run?

But later, I would plan my escape.

“So, what do you like to eat?” he asked, sitting in front of me. It still threw me off that he didn’t have a scent. Even betas had a neutral similar scent to them. Alphas had strong masculine energies and scents about them. My scent of pineapple was prevalent since I hadn’t taken a scent blocker in over twenty-four hours or a heat suppressant. I didn’t know what I was more terrified of- to go into heat in the middle of nowhere or to have my blood sucked by vampires.

My body was still wet from the impromptu shower, but it was hot and muggy anyway, so it didn’t matter.

“You don’t have it here,” I said.

“What’s the food?” he insisted.

“Fine, burger and fries. And lots of fruits and maybe a salad,” I said as my stomach growled. His eyebrows scrunched together at the mention of burger and fries.

“What’s burger and fries?”

“Oh, you haven’t lived in the city for years,” I said. But he looked young, like in his twenties. I couldn’t wrap my head around it that he was older than fifty-five. “It’s just a slab of meat between two pieces of bread.”

“You will have it then,” he said, nodding. “Stay put, or you can get hurt by the others if you leave.”

“Okay,” I said, wondering how unlikely it would be for him to get a burger around here. When he left the hut, I got up and paced around the hut. I watched him through the makeshift door until he disappeared out of sight.

This was my only chance.

My heart started beating wildly as I looked back and forth between the outside world and the muggy hut.

I had to get out of here.

If I ran fast enough, maybe no one would catch me. When I thought I waited long enough, I opened the door an inch and looked out. James was nowhere around, and everywhere was empty since it was still daylight. Vampires weren’t walking around right now.

I rubbed my palms nervously on my shorts as I took a step outside.