Page 9 of Run, Little Doe

That small, involuntary surrender steals my breath more than any word could.

My hand involuntarily finds her throat, clamping around to show her how easily I can get to her. I can feel her pulse quicken under my thumb, and I can’t get enough. I can smell her arousal and her fear, and I know the night is escalating. I quickly remove my hand and slink into the shadows; I wasn’t meant to touch her yet.

“You wear the darkness beautifully,” I murmur. “Like a second skin.”

Her lips part, a protest forming, but she doesn’t finish it. The forest is still around us, as if the world itself is listening.

I lower my head and snake through the shadows until my mask hovers inches from the back of her neck. She smells likesmoke and cider and something purely, dangerously human. Her heartbeat drums against the space between us — a rhythm I could follow forever.

“You should run now,” I tell her. It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.

Her breath shudders, but her feet stay planted. Of course they do. She’s not running from me. She’s runningtowardsomething, and she doesn’t know it yet.

I run my fingers down her neck, her eyes flutter shut as I lightly tracing the delicate black and grey floral tattoo on her shoulder, the one I know she got for her parents after they died. I need to contain myself. Growling in her ear, “I said,run.”

I take one step back, just enough for air to rush between us again. Her eyes snap open[1][2][3] — wide, startled, wanting.

I let the distance settle. She needs it. I need it, too.

“Go on then,” I say quietly. “Before I change my mind and keep you here to myself.”

For a long moment, she doesn’t move, as if she’s toying with the idea. Then she turns and slips into the dark, breath ragged, steps unsteady. I watch her vanish into the mist, the ribbon of her mask trailing behind like a trail meant for me to follow, and I will.

Because every predator knows:

The chase is the sweetest part.

****

I watch her go. Each step she takes sends a shock through me — sight, sound, scent, every sense sharpened to only her. The forest itself seems to bend around her, branches swaying as if a paintbrush is brushing against her skin.

She thinks she’s escaping. She has no idea she’s leading me deeper into the dark.

The lanternlight fades completely behind us, swallowed by trees and fog; the canopy of trees above us thickens, letting slivers of moonlight through here and there. Her doe mask glimmers faintly in the moonlight when she turns her head, catching the last of the glow before it disappears completely into the thick canopy.

I stay just far enough behind to hear the quickened rhythm of her breath. Not panicked —thrumming. The rhythm of prey that doesn’t want to get away.

The wolf in me wants to close the distance. To catch. To taste. The man in me… wants to watch. Wants to see how long she’ll deny what she already knows.

I follow behind, close enough for her to hear my footsteps, to feel my heat, but far enough away that there is still an element of the chase. It would be too easy to reach out and grab her now, to have my way with her, but I wait.

The path narrows, forcing her into the hollow between two ancient oaks. Her shoulders brush the bark. She glances back once — wide-eyed, pulse bright in her throat. For a brief moment, I think she’ll speak.

Instead, she just breathes my name. Not aloud. Not even consciously. But I hear it. The sound slides through me like heat. Need coursing through my veins. Possession overtaking my body.

She doesn’t realize it’s me, not truly. Not yet. But some part of her does — the part that dreamed of wolves when she was still small enough to believe in monsters, the part that moaned over those sinful stories.

That’s what I am to her. Something she’s never had and yet her body won’t ever forget.

She’s dreamt of my teeth grazing her jaw, of my fingers wrapped around her throat in the most beautiful of hand necklaces, of my cock deep inside her, filling her with every inch. I’ve heard the moans. I’ve jacked off to them more times than I can count. Tonight, I’ll make those dreams a reality, and she’ll beg for more.

I step forward once more, letting the forest close around us. The scent of her is everywhere now, mixed with smoke and the faint sweetness of the spiked cider still clinging to her lips.

“Beautiful,” I murmur to myself, not sure if I mean the mask, the girl beneath it, or the fear mixed with desire she wears like perfume.

She turns her head sharply, as if shefeltthe word graze her skin. Her gaze finds mine through the dark, and for a suspended moment, the universe goes still.

I could end it here. Step forward. Close my hand around her throat. Make her see exactly what kind of monster she’s called to. But that would ruin it.