Page 10

I moved swiftly through the forest, putting distance between myself and the clearing where I had left Alice. Every instinct screamed at me to go back, to make sure she made it safely out of the woods before the hunters found her. But I could not risk leading them to her.

She had come to warn me. Despite barely knowing me, despite the danger to herself, she had risked everything to ensure my safety. The knowledge sat heavy in my chest, a mixture of gratitude and despair that threatened to overwhelm me.

And the way she had looked at me in the clearing...

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to banish the memory of her gaze moving over my body as I worked.

The shift in her scent when she watched me, that sweet, musky aroma that spoke of things I could never have.

Not truly. Not in a woman who belonged to the world of civilization and respectability.

She had called me kind and gentle. Had said she could not forget me. But what future could there be for a creature like me and a woman like her? The very idea was madness.

The hunters would be entering the forest soon. I knew places deeper in the woods where even the boldest men feared to venture. Caves and ravines where I could wait out their search. I adjusted my grip on the axe and picked up my pace.

But then I caught a familiar scent on the morning breeze. Something that made my blood run cold.

Dogs. Close and getting closer.

They had started earlier than expected or moved faster than I had anticipated.

Either way, my time had run out. I led them deeper into the forest, using streams to break my trail and doubling back through rocky ground where the scent would be harder to follow.

The sounds of pursuit grew more distant with each turn I took.

But something felt wrong. The dogs were too loud, too obvious. And there was something else. A wrongness in the forest that I could not place. An absence of sound where there should have been birdsong.

The first rifle shot cracked from my right, completely unexpected. The bullet splintered bark inches from my head. I spun toward the sound and saw Fletcher emerging from behind a massive oak, rifle already being reloaded. He fired again, closer this time.

Behind me, the dogs were getting closer, their baying more frantic. To my left, the ground was becoming treacherous, sloping toward the cliff edge. To my right, Fletcher advanced steadily, his rifle trained on me.

I sprinted toward the only escape route.

Fletcher's rifle cracked again. White-hot pain exploded through my left side as the bullet found its mark, spinning me around.

My foot slipped on loose stones, and then I was falling.

Rocky walls blurred past as I tumbled down the slope, striking stone again and again until darkness claimed me entirely.