Page 13 of Bleed the Shadows

“Don’t mind us,” Remy said. “Just passing through.”

“Your girl passed through too,” Viggo said, his tongue darting out to flick the girl’s nipple. “About an hour ago.”

“She went that way,” Jagger said, tipping his head to the right.

“We know.” I kept my eyes trained on the ground, already moving in that direction, following the tracks of Maeve’s boots.

I was glad the Hawks had claimed their prey. I hadn’t entirely trusted them to keep their hands off Maeve — especially afterlast time — despite the fact that we’d made our claim clear in the holding room.

Seeing the Hawks with the blue-haired girl had made my dick hard. Not because I wanted the blue-haired girl but because it brought images of Maeve to mind.

Maeve in the hall of the loft, her cunt wet around my fingers while she tried to pretend she didn’t want me.

Maeve sitting on the worktable in my studio, legs spread while I licked her sweet little pussy until she came on my face.

Maeve stretched out on the blanket at the apple orchard, taking Remy’s dick in her mouth while Bram watched me fuck her.

I would never hurt Maeve, but I couldn’t deny the appeal of chaining her naked to the tunnel wall, immobilizing her while we explored every inch of her body, fucking her, eating her.

Owning her.

“Fucking Hawks,” Bram grumbled as we followed Maeve’s trail.

“At least they’re busy with someone else,” Remy said.

I heard the possession in his voice. Felt it in my own gut.

Maeve belonged to us. She just didn’t know it yet.

And yeah, I wanted to fuck her again. Stat.

But I also just fucking missed her. I missed the smell of her food in the house, the way I knew she was home and cooking from the minute I hit the stairs on the ground floor of the loft. I missed going to the grocery store with her, missed our trips to the farmers market where she studied vegetables like they were works of art while making small talk with the farmers.

I missed her voice, I missed the scent of strawberries, and I missed her face, missed the bright blue eyes that seemed to see into my fucking soul.

Catching her in the tunnels wasn’t an easy fix. I didn’t know what had happened between Maeve and Bram, didn’t know if itwas fixable. And even if it was, I didn’t know if Maeve wanted to see us again, let alone live with us.

And that was how I knew I was really fucked.

Because I didn’t want Maeve to live with us because she had to, because she’d lost the Hunt.

I wanted her to want us — to want me — as much as I wanted her, which was a recipe for disaster if I’d ever heard one.

Because Maeve deserved a normal life. A good life.

And there was nothing about us that was good.

11

MAEVE

I walked slowlyand took a swig of my water bottle. After eight hours in the tunnels, I’d already worked through two bottles, although I still had one of my electrolyte packets for later.

I kept it in my pocket like a talisman, like having it would act as some kind of charm to guarantee that I’d still be in the tunnels, uncaptured, hours later.

The first eight hours hadn’t been totally uneventful. First I’d run into the bird men ravishing the blue-haired girl. Later, I’d hidden behind a stack of wooden crates from the team in skeleton masks.

I’d thought maybe it was all over for me then, but they hadn’t even been on my trail, and they’d walked right past me, talking about a blonde from the holding room that they were hoping to find.