Page 5

Chapter

Five

Erin

S hit. Shit. Shit.

Holy fucking shit, the Grim is going to eat me.

My heart slams into my throat, and there’s a kink in my side from running, but I force my feet to move faster as I try to put as much space between me and the monster as possible.

Every muscle tweaks and aches from exertion.

His roar in the distance makes my heart stutter, and I know I only have a few seconds before he catches up. He’s insanely fast and can move in silence through the trees in a way that makes me envious. I understand now why people fall prey to him so easily, and I scold myself for being such an idiot.

At least, I think it’s a he . There’s no way to tell through all the fur. The height gives me the impression of masculinity, but what do I know?

A horrified chuckle burns my throat on its way past my lips. Why did I ever think going into the woods was a good idea? My stupid ego got me right into the center of this mess.

The camera flash bought me a few seconds, but not enough. I might have even managed to get him in the frame, but I’m too terrified to worry about it. Too afraid for my life. I’m flirting with death every second I remain in the woods, and the realization that I might not make it out alive is quickly sinking in.

The light from the portal is nowhere in sight, and there’s no way for me to orient myself in the darkness.

There’s nothing but trees in any direction, with moonlight patchwork trickling down from the canopy overhead.

It feels pointless to keep running, knowing very well that I might just be heading deeper into the tangle of woods where no one will hear me scream, but I sprint anyway, trying to stay a few steps ahead of the beast on my heels.

Leaves rustle behind me and the sound of snapping twigs grows louder as the Grim closes in. My heart leaps into my throat. It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting out of this alive.

All my work will be for nothing if I’m not able to share my undeniable proof of the Grim’s existence with the world. I have to get these pictures out there somehow. I have to leave them for Tyler to find.

If I’m captured, or dragged through the portal, the least I can do is leave my camera behind.

Tyler will have the photos to share on the website, and everyone will see once and for all what lurks in these woods, what appears during the solstice. It’s more proof than anyone else has ever gotten and still a huge accomplishment in my book.

Even if I won’t be alive to celebrate it.

Grimacing, I slip the camera strap off over my head and toss it to the side. Even if the lens shatters, the memory card inside is safe. The proof will live on no matter what happens to me.

I pump my arms harder and leap over a knotted root, running for my life.

The Grim is closing in, the rustling getting louder behind me until I can almost feel his breath on my neck, and I scream. It’s not a cry for help, because I know there’s no one around to hear me.

Even if they did, they’re not liable to come looking for me knowing what day it is, knowing the Grim has come to claim another victim. It’s all the nerves and fear mounted in my body, finally escaping in a single cry before a pair of solid, muscular arms wrap around me and the ground disappears from beneath my feet.

I’ve made a mistake.

Hard muscles like unforgiving boulders press against my back, and I kick, trying my best to make contact with any part of this monster. One of my heels hits his thigh, but if it hurts him, he doesn’t let on.

In fact, he doesn’t react at all, but his warm breath rolls over my skin, sending a chill down my spine. It joins my mounting fear and makes my blood run cold.

“Let me go,” I demand, thrashing against his hold to no avail.

His clawed hands squeeze me with bruising strength, my arms pinned firmly at my sides. I twist and turn, fighting with everything I have, trying to claw at his skin or break his iron-clad grip, but it’s no use.

“Why would I do that, little human ?” he hisses in my ear, and I still suddenly. I hadn’t expected him to speak, much less be so articulate, to sound so incredibly human.

His voice takes me off guard just as much as seeing him in the woods in the first place.

I guess I assumed he would grunt and growl like a regular animal. He looks like a monster, but he speaks like a man.

And this… this is nothing like I imagined.

The Grim turns on the spot, still holding me with my back against his chest, and I thrash half-heartedly in his hold. Running for so long wore me out, and I’m exhausted, but I don’t want to give up. Giving up means accepting my fate, and I’m not ready to be killed by a beast.

My mind races, frantically trying to think my way out of this, trying to figure out how to get away. Maybe I’ll have a chance to escape when he puts me down. It’s probably wise to save my energy just in case.

I still in his arms, struggling against his steel hold for every breath, but not willing to expend any more precious energy. It’s clear that fighting is pointless.

He grunts like I’ve made the right choice.

As we move in near silence, I wonder what he plans to do with me. Would he tell me the truth if I asked, or do I really want to know? Will death come swifter if I’m not dreading every agonizing second beforehand?

My gut says the latter.

He carries me like I’m nothing, and I can’t help but admire his strength. He’s a powerhouse, a force to be reckoned with, and rightly nicknamed the Grim. Anyone who crosses him is certain to meet a Grim fate.

I doubt anyone would stand a chance against him if they didn’t come brandishing an assault rifle. And for some reason, I wonder if even that would be enough. He could easily rip me apart now if he wanted to, and knowing he possesses that amount of restrained power tickles something inside me.

It’s a strange feeling that I might have balked at moments ago, but now that I’m pressed against a solid wall of brute strength and he’s carrying me through the forest like I’m nothing, it stirs something in me.

Curiosity, unexplainable and burning.

I should be terrified, but the desperate want for knowledge quickly overtakes my thoughts. I wonder what else this beast is capable of, what he might show me before snapping my spine and devouring my corpse.

He could easily toss me around or pin me to a tree…

My pussy clenches, making the blood drain from my face and my thighs clamp together. There’s no way I’m aroused right now. Absolutely no way. What kind of person does it make me if I get turned on by being caught by a creature like this?

I almost refuse to believe it until the Grim seems to notice. He sucks in a deep breath and chuckles, a dark, gravelly noise in his throat, then stops walking. For a long second, he just stands in the middle of the silent woods with me still clutched firmly in his arms. Nothing but the sound of our breathing falls around us.

“Your pheromones deceive you, little human,” his voice rumbles against my skin, the hard angle of his jaw bone brushing against my shoulder. “You should be terrified.”

I shiver, fear piercing through me like an icy needle. So what if I am a tiny bit aroused? What’s this thing going to do? Fuck me? Christ, yeah right.

The thought has my head spinning, and my pussy clenches against my will again.

Damn it . Clearly my body is determined to betray me, as much as I try to hide it. This entire situation is bizarre enough to begin with. Why not throw in an out of whack libido?

“You wish,” I scoff, rolling my eyes toward the sky even though he can’t see it. Maybe he can sense the disdain in my voice. “As if I’d fuck a monster.”

He laughs, his chest shaking with the noise. “As if you could stop me.”

Without warning, he throws me to the ground and I barely have time to splay my hands out in front of me before I land hard among grass and tree roots. A branch scratches my cheek, and I worry about it drawing blood, but before I can even scramble to my feet, the Grim is on top of me, pressing me further into the earth.

His hard form is against me, trapping me in place and taking my breath away, and for a second I wonder what exactly he has planned.

Is this a scare tactic, designed to make me admit I’d fuck him if it were on the table?

Or is he really planning to rip through my clothes and take me right here?

He’s more human than I initially assumed, but that doesn’t make him fucking material. He eats people.

My stomach cartwheels when I realize he was right. I wouldn’t be able to stop him. He’s too big, too powerful for me to stand a chance against him, despite my unwavering determination.

And as crazy as it might sound, I’m not entirely sure I’d put up much of a fight. Not when the heartbeat between my thighs rivals the one in my chest.

“I’ve never fucked a human before,” he growls, the sound vibrating through me like a jolt of electricity, goosebumps quickly following after. He drags the edge of his jaw across my shoulder blades, his long tongue flicking out to tease the exposed skin of my neck, and I shudder. “You would be the first for me, if you choose to play this game.”

I open my mouth to snap something back at him, but he flexes his hips and presses a hard cock firmly between my legs. I gasp at the contact and forget how to breathe as he rubs himself harder against my leggings, searching for my entrance.

Holy fuck. He’s huge. In all ways, if you know what I mean.

“Is this what you had in mind?” he asks.

My muscles seize, and I’m not sure what to do, even though I know what I should be doing. I should be screaming, fighting to get away from this beast. I should be panicking and definitely not enjoying the pressure against the thin material of my pants.

But am I really that surprised? A little voice at the back of my mind teases me.

I’ve devoted the last several years of my life to tracking down things that normally have people running for the hills. I’ve always been fascinated by things that live in the shadows, been drawn to stuff that goes bump in the night.

There’s always been a part of me that longed for darkness, like I belonged there more than anywhere else. It called to me, the way home calls when you’ve been away too long.

Now that I’m finally faced with a monster, a true beast in the flesh, my curiosity is multiplied tenfold. Something about the Grim calls to me, yearning burning deep in my marrow, and terrified as I am, the fear only seems to increase the desire.

Fuck.

I’m arching my back against the beast before I can talk myself out of it, tempting him, egging him on. Daring him to do something other than threaten.

He growls again loudly, the sound ricocheting through me like a ping pong ball, and he grabs the back of my neck with one of his hands, hardly gentle.

“You were saying,” he adds, pressing himself between my thighs again and sending a wave of heat exploding through my middle.

I should not be enjoying this , I repeat over and over, but denying it doesn’t change the fact that my panties are soaked and I want him to pick up the pace. This has to be some sort of twisted fever dream, because my body wouldn’t normally react this way to being kidnapped by a monster.

Would it?

My thoughts haze over with lust as I do my best to press back against him, but he has a firm hold on me and isn’t giving me an inch. All I can do is squeeze my thighs together as he grinds against me again, increasing the friction against his swollen cock, and try not to envision what it might look like as he groans in my ear.

“You want me to fuck you, little human?” he growls, picking up his pace. With the increased friction, it’s just enough of a shift for my clit to get attention with every stroke, and I fight the urge to moan along with him. “You reek of lust and desire. Is this what you truly want? An interesting turn of events.”

He draws in another deep breath.

Urges be damned, but I’m not going to let him know just how much I’m enjoying this.

“No,” I grind out with a clenched jaw as his teeth graze my shoulder, sharp enough to draw blood. I wince, knowing without seeing that crimson is beading on my skin, but the pain is gone the second he laps his tongue over the wound.

“Liar,” he snaps, driving himself harder and stretching the damp material of my leggings to its breaking point. If he keeps on much longer, he’s liable to tear through them and sink his cock into my pussy that’s ready and waiting for him, and I hate how much I like the thought of it.

This is so fucking wrong .

Tension builds in my core as he works his cock back and forth between my thighs. With how wet I am, he glides across the thin fabric with ease, creating the right amount of friction against my sensitive clit to have me chasing an orgasm.

I want to tell him to stop.

I should do something to make him stop, but instead, I squeeze my eyes shut as my thoughts get away from me. Thoughts of this monster filling and stretching me, despite how wrong it is. Him slamming into me until I whimper from the pain.

His claws rake over my skin, setting it ablaze before his tongue trails behind to soothe the burn.

I wonder what else he can do with that tongue.

As I reach my peak, desperate to fall over the edge into the strangest climax I’ve ever had in my life, the Grim roars low and deep, picking up his frantic pace until he clenches against me. His cock throbs, spilling a pool of warm cum against me and soaking the crotch of my leggings.

The sensation is enough to finally send me over the edge, and my pussy throbs, aching for something to grab onto as it pulses through my climax. I bite down on my bottom lip, refusing to give this monster more pleasure than he’s already taken from me, and tremble as the orgasm rolls through my middle and makes my legs weak.

When the sensation passes and my muscles stop convulsing, heat scorches my cheeks. I can hardly believe what just happened, but the undeniable proof is between my thighs. A mix of both our fluids drench my clothes, and as desperate as I am to strip them off, I’m entirely at the mercy of the Grim.

He gets to his feet and draws in a deep, shaky breath through the holes on his bony face that are sorta like nostrils. As his chin tilts down, his red-eyed gaze glowing a little brighter in the darkness, I realize he’s smelling… me . The sex-heavy scent in the air.

My heartbeat skips. I don’t know why it’s so hot—him looking at me like he wants to devour me—but it is.

I’m halfway tempted to try and run again, but my legs are jello from all the running and fighting I’ve done, plus the orgasm. I’m drained, entirely spent of any extra energy, so when he lifts me off the ground and tosses me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, I don’t even have the strength to resist.

“A-Are you going to kill me now?” I ask, my breathing still ragged from adrenaline. I wonder if I should start counting down the minutes until my soul leaves my body. I wonder if I’ll get to come back as a ghost. Maybe I can haunt my paranormal investigator friends and scare the shit out of them.

Or if he’s taking me to his realm, maybe there aren’t such things as ghosts.

“Not yet,” he grunts before falling silent again.

He doesn’t seem to be a beast of many words, but this slow, silent trek through the woods is agonizing.

The light from the portal eventually comes into view, glistening in the darkness like a demonic halo. I try to spin and twist on his shoulder to get a view of my car through the trees, but I don’t see it anywhere. Tyler must have driven it back home when I was taken, high-tailing it from the scene.

Will he spread the word in the morning? Run around town telling people there’s been another abduction? Will they even look for me?

I look around a final time, knowing deep in my gut that this will be the last glimpse I see of my world. Whatever awaits me on the other side of the portal is horrifying and potentially deadly. An unknown world, potentially crawling with Grims, all eager to sink their teeth into me.

I grow queasy at the thought.

Maybe my death will be quick and painless. Or at least not be drawn out and torturous. Surely he’d spare me a prolonged, painful death.

My thoughts are still spinning as he gets close to the portal, but the second he steps through, energy crashes down on me. My eyes roll back in my head and everything goes black.