Page 59 of Prey for Rabbit
“You can start by renegotiating terms with the Elders of my burrow. It’s the twenty-first fucking century. If it’s rabbit shifterblood you need, we’ll hire a mobile blood donation bus or some shit and deliver it to you in pretty plastic bags. I hear modern vampires do that. Get with the times, you fucking hicks.”
“I can see why you like her,” Lila mused, equal parts irritation and amusement underscoring her cadence. “She’s ruthless.”
Carver seemed to hold back a grin as Lila accidentally stumbled across the pet name he’d given me. “Casey would probably find this shit funny.”
“Yeah. You both had twisted senses of humor.” Stepping over Lars’ body, the new alpha nuzzled Carver’s chest. “I’ll talk with the burrow. We’ll be changing a lot of things around here. Go, Carver. Get out of here like you’ve always wanted.”
“Will you be alright? The pup?—”
“We’ll be fine,” she assured him with a hum. “You’ll meet him one day.”
It took Carver less than an hour to pack the possessions he wanted to take with us into the back of his old pickup. Most of the boxes were his books. I sat on the bench seat in the cab, wearing another one of his flannel shirts and, this time, a pair of his black briefs. It was all too big for me, but it sure beat driving to the next town naked.
“You look so fucking sexy in my clothes,” Carver said as he stood beside the driver’s side door, the last box in his arms. His gaze skated over my hair, and his grimace tugged at his facial tattoos. “What, no ears?”
“I can’t be caught in my half-form when we drive into town. Don’t worry.” I tossed him a wink. “You can tug on them later.”
He flashed me a filthy grin and disappeared, the truck sinking ever so slightly on its suspension at the extra box of books added to the truck bed. The door groaned open a second later, and Carver sat behind the wheel.
With his hand paused on the keys in the ignition, he eyed me for a moment, staring at me like he couldn’t quite believe the turn of events over the last twenty-four hours. I never used to believe in fated mates, but what else could bring a bunny and a wolf together if not the universe and its twisted sense of humor?
Carver reached for me, tucking the purple section of my hair behind my ear before leaning over and planting a kiss on my temple.
When he chuckled against my skin, I angled my head to pop an inquisitive brow. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s just… Can you believe other people are opening Easter baskets, going to church, and doing egg hunts right now? And this is our Easter.”
“That sounds so alien to me. People do that?”
He laughed again. “Oh, babe. You need to watch more TV. And that’s coming from a book guy.”
I giggled happily against his heat, then angled myself in my seat to examine the cardboard boxes through the cab’s back window as he turned the ignition and started down the road. “No creepy animal heads?”
He laughed, raking a hand through his silver tresses. “I figured you wouldn’t appreciate my hunting trophies. Wherever we end up settling, we can get new things. Things without any uncomfortable memories attached to them.”
“Fresh start,” I said with a small smile.
He started the truck, and as we drove away from the cabin, his eyes never went to the rearview mirror for so much as a glance at the old life he was leaving behind.
“Oh, by the way, I packed something for you.” Keeping one hand on the wheel, Carver reached under the seat and pulled out the ax. Sometime in the last hour of packing, he’d found a moment to clean it.
He placed the ax in my lap. The weight of it felt familiar and uncomfortable at the same time. “I don’t know,” I hedged. “What happened to leaving uncomfortable memories behind?”
“It’s complicated, sure. But that ax brought us together. Think where you’d be without it.”
I opened my mouth to voice the rebuttal in my throat, but the words were swept away with my gasp.
There, on theside of the road, was a brindle bunny rabbit, running as fast as his small legs would take him.
Holy. Shit.
It was Sawyer.
Carver noticed him too on my next breath. “Is that?—”
“Yeah. That’s Sawyer, the male sacrifice I came in with.”
At the corner of my vision, Carver’s fingers flexed around the steering wheel, and a vein ticked in his jaw. “Are you going to tell me what he did to you now?” His voice was that dangerous and electric timbre from before.
“He…” I swallowed, my eyes darting back to the rabbit. “He took my first heat and the fact that he was around as an invitation to…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t trust myself not to get emotional, and I was so tired of being angry.
Luckily, Carver didn’t press the issue. And judging by the murder that flared behind his eyes, he got the picture.
“Wha—!” The truck took a sudden swerve off the dirt road, and my hands flung out to steady myself against the dash. Thetruck jolted, and I heard a sickeningthunkas we ran over something.
Carver pressed the brakes, cut the engine and shot me a psychotic smile that had my body burning, his gaze centering on the ax balanced across my lap. “What do you say to us having one trophy head on the wall of our new place?”
My fingers curled around the wooden handle, and slowly, a smile as crazed as his own stretched my lips. “You got yourself another deal, wolf.”
The End