Page 6 of Hunted by Them (Primal Desires #1)

SAGE

The storm had limped off by morning, but it hadn’t really gone. It sat just above the cabin, daring me to step outside. I’d spent an hour going through my pack and the room, searching for the small antler. But everything from last night was gone.

Frustration filled me as I munched on a protein bar and chugged some water. I knew I’d seen it, held it, but where the hell did it go?

It was light enough outside to head back to my car.

I pushed up off the floor and grabbed my pack.

The wind picked up, causing me to shiver as it whispered through the pines.

A thick mist seemed to cling to everything.

When I shoved the cabin door open, the hinges squealed like they hated me and wanted to give my position away.

“Shh,” I said, giving the door shit, like it actually cared.

I quickly glanced around for any sign of the men and the insanity that had gone on last night, but there was no one there. Birds and bugs made their usual noises, and I could hear frogs off in the distance declaring they were happy about the rain last night.

I stepped out to the edge of the rickety porch, half expecting that skull face to come running at me and tackle me to the ground.

I licked my lips. My pack was slung over one shoulder, and I slowly put it on the other as I stepped down the stairs.

One. Two. Three. The clearing looked perfectly normal. Ordinary even. Too damn ordinary.

The fire ring was nothing but a shallow pool of rainwater. Confident that no one was charging out of the woods, I walked to the treeline where I’d seen the three of them together.

My mind immediately conjured my masked men, bodies shining in the rain, and their hands stroking themselves. I cleared my throat and shook my head to rid it of the potent and visceral image that made my body hot all over.

The overgrown grass was still flattened down from the rain, but that didn’t stop me from searching for footprints that didn’t exist. There were no broken branches. No antlers left like another offering.

No proof. The storm had erased it all, wiping the slate bare, and it pissed me off. I didn’t imagine it.

Did I?

I laughed once, the sound hollow. Losing my mind would certainly complete the trifecta of crap.

Maybe there was nothing to erase.

Maybe it had been a dream…or the legends were true.

There were things in the forest that you just couldn’t explain, things you weren’t meant to question.

Maybe the voices had been thunder folded into words that I wanted to hear.

Maybe the touches, the whispers, the heat seared into my body were all a hallucination stitched from exhaustion and my overactive imagination.

But the ache in my thighs argued otherwise.

I shoved the thought down—way, way down—and hefted my pack higher on my shoulders before heading toward the trailhead. My boots sank deep into mud, sucking and releasing with each step, like the earth didn’t want to let me go.

Pausing just before the cabin was out of sight, I looked back over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see, but it looked as quiet and lonely as it had last night.

Leave now. Go back to the car. Forget.

Part of my mind screamed at me to just keep moving.

Don’t look back, don’t whistle after dark, don’t wish to see things you can never unsee.

Turning away, I marched the rest of the way along the narrow path that dumped me back out onto the main trail.

The air was heavy, making it difficult to breathe. Water dripped from the branches above, and the scent of moss and pine was strong. I moved fast, the drizzle needling the back of my neck as I muttered to myself like it would keep me sane.

“You’re fine. It’s over. It wasn’t real. Just go. Forget it,” I repeated like a mantra. And yet…I kept pausing to look over my shoulder, expecting to see eyes or antlers.

An hour in, my thoughts betrayed me. I couldn’t shake them. No matter how hard I tried, the image of the three men at the edge of the forest was a steady call, getting stronger with each step.

Somehow, the leader had found a way to seep into my blood with a few whispers. I growled as I stopped and looked up at the sky, praying for answers.

“Fuck,” I mumbled, and slowly turned around. Then I remembered their voices and how my name seemed to be braided into the wind.

Sweet Daisy. Crawl. Open. Come to us.

I stared back the way I’d come. The drizzle hissed in the leaves overhead, a raven’s croak cracked through the silence, and my chest seized like prey sensing the predator was still nearby.

Before me was safety. My car. Other hikers. My sister’s voice when she realized I had gone dark for too long. My mom’s disapproval tucked into the sharp edges of her worry.

Behind me…was them. I knew they were still out there. I felt it. No matter how insane it sounded, or how most people wouldn’t believe a word of it…I felt him…them. They were just out of sight, stalking me…following far enough away that most would never notice, but I did.

I turned my head one way, then the other. Forward. Back.

My mind rationalized that I was too damn young for a midlife crisis, that I needed to get to my car and get the fuck out of dodge. My body didn’t want to move forward.

I still needed to tell my mother that I had broken up with Connor and tossed him out on his ass. I could picture the pursed lips and the shake of her head.

You pick them just like your father. Her voice as sour as a lemon as she lectured me. The selfish ones. The ones who look right through you until you’re convenient again. And you never see it until they break your heart. You’d think you’d learn to listen to your mother.

She wasn’t wrong. My father had cheated and left, and I’d dated much of the same. Liars, charmers, men who turned affection into absence. History repeated like a cruel circle of life.

Were the men in the forest any better? I didn’t know. But the realization hit that I didn’t care because this was different.

The city had given me nothing but men who lied with smiles. The woods had given me freedom and men who didn’t bother lying at all. They had shown me teeth, hunger, and sexuality so honest it felt forbidden. And my body…my body wanted it.

I whispered into the drizzle, half-crazed with the lunacy of the situation and a stirring in my gut that I couldn’t shake.

“You’re not going back because you want them. You’re going back because you need proof you’re not insane.”

The lie was thin. Even saying it out loud, I didn’t believe the words.

Back down the trail—back to the mystery of what was in these woods that called to me.

The storm gathered strength as I retraced my steps. The drizzle had turned to a shower, and thunder rumbled like the forest itself was laughing. Every few minutes, I thought I heard something behind me, branches snapping, leaves shifting. But when I turned…nothing, only wet silence.

My breath quickened, the fear of the unknown and the mystery of the what-if swirled in my gut, driving me to continue.

By the time I reached the clearing, my lungs burned, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the hike or the anticipation clawing me apart from the inside. The cabin hunched where I left it, crooked and waiting.

I stood there, chest heaving, rain dripping from my lashes, staring at the shabby door like it was a passage that could open to either safety or into something else entirely.

Just go inside . Just…spend one more night and prove that you’re either crazy or not.

“Yeah, but what the hell happens if they are real?”

My eyes darted around, searching the dark forest. I took one step forward. The thick, damp air pressed in on me. And then…

“Sweet Daisy…”

It wasn’t loud, but the hair stood on the back of my neck. Freezing in place, I strained to see.

“Who are you?” I yelled.

“Sage,” the voice spoke my name, and the air stopped moving in my lungs.

How do they know my name?

I turned in a circle, and my blood turned to ice.

Another whisper, from the trees. “Sage…Sage…Sage…our Sweet Daisy.”

My knees weakened with a desire so strong that it felt like a punch, while fear gripped me by the throat.

What if they really were monsters, and I had just run right back to them?

I jogged the rest of the way up to the cabin door.

My hand rested on the doorframe like it was the only thing keeping me upright.

Footsteps…I heard them. The mist was thickening by the second. Squish, squish, squish, the sound of mud reached my ears.

“Who are you? Tell me.”

“You know who we are,” the sultry voice answered, like he was whispering in my ear. The sound traveled down my spine like a hand touching me.

There was a chuckle, then silence. Whipping around, I gripped the latch with my shaking hand. I’d been reduced to a bundle of nerves, and every breath came out shallow. My mind screamed to run. My blood screamed to stay. And me…fuck it.

I opened the door.