Page 68 of Primal Hunger
“None of which would have happened if you’d eaten me,” I joke.
He flashes his teeth in his version of a smile, and a deep chuckle shakes his chest. “You make a good point.”
Silence falls between us, and I shift on the floor. I open my mouth to speak again, but he beats me to it.
“I want to know about you, too,” he says.
My eyes widen. “About…me?”
What could he possibly want to know about me?
“Yes,” he says slowly, pausing to consider his next words. “You are not like other humans. What were you doing in the woods the night I found you?” His voice prickles over my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. I recall standing in front of the portal, the blinding light rippling like an electric current. Themoment I realized my life had changed forever. “Very few of your kind dare approach the portal, and even through your fear, I could sense your curiosity. What were you doing?”
Would he believe me if I told him that I was huntinghimon the solstice? That I’d spent so much time trying to find him, and then stupidly stepped into the woods. Is it worth trying to explain a blog or the Internet to Syros? I nearly laugh at the thought.
It takes a long moment for me to realize he’s waiting on my response.
“I was… looking for you. I wanted to find a Grim.” The words fall out of my mouth, and my gaze slowly treks to his glowing red eyes. He stares in silence, unmoving, as though waiting for an explanation. I huff out a deep breath. “In my world, I’m what they call a paranormal investigator. I try to find explanations for the unexplainable. I hunt monsters, ghosts, or anything mysterious.”
He tilts his head to the side, and I can only imagine his confusion. “What did you plan to do after you found me? You had no weapons, so I assume you weren’t there to kill me.”
Images of my name in news articles flash through my mind, and I chuckle. It all seems a little silly now that I’ve faced death so many times in the last few days.
“I wanted to share you with the world,” I say, forcing a smile. “I wanted to prove that you exist, that all the stories I’ve heard were true.”
He nods his skull up and down, absorbing the information. I mentally trace the sharp cut of his jawbone, my eyes trailing over his enormous canines.
“What do they say about me?” he asks, his voice lower. “That I’m a blood-thirsty beast? That I kill mercilessly?”
I swallow over the lump forming in my throat. I’ve heard countless stories about the Grim, and while they’ve all checkedout so far, they also lacked some crucial information that I’ve come to learn. Yes, the Grim kills people every Solstice. Yes, he’s a blood-thirsty beast.
But… he’s so muchmore.
He’s intelligent, and his collection of human belongings is a testament to his quest for knowledge. He’s powerful—there’s no doubt about that. He’s fierce, protective,caring.Even though he kidnapped me and planned to eat me, he also saved me. If he didn’t have to go to Earth to find food, if he wasn’t desperate due to his lack of resources, I doubt he’d even hunt humans. He does what he has to in order to survive…
“Your silence is enough of an answer,” he says with a dry chuckle that sounds more like a growl.
“People fear what they don’t know, what they don’t understand,” I respond softly. “But if they knew what I know, if they could see what I see…” I swallow again, my mouth suddenly impossibly dry. “They would feel differently.”
Heat prickles across my cheeks at the admission, and another beat of silence passes between us. I take the moment to admire the details of his haunting face again. My gaze dips to his muscular frame, to the swell of his biceps, his razor-sharp claws, before climbing back up again. They land on his mouth again, and my stomach flutters.
How would it feel to kiss him?The thought catches me off guard, and the butterflies in my gut turn into knots as my thoughts run wild. How would it feel to press my mouth to his and feel the swipe of his tongue against mine? He doesn’t have lips, so it’s impossible for him to kiss me back, but I can’t help but wonder how it would feel.
Would he like it?Would I?
I’m still working up the nerve to move closer when his eyes snap to mine, and I freeze. Even without facial expressions, I canalmost see the wheels turning behind his eyes as he watches me, his glowing sockets lingering on me.
“I do not want to lose you.” His words hit me like a brick wall, and my breaths stutter.
He stands, straight and tall, towering over me, and extends a hand down to me on the floor. More heat spreads over my face, creeping down my neck, and I allow him to pull me to my feet. His rough hands dip over my shoulder, brushing down my arms, before he tugs me close. I slam into his muscular torso, craning my neck to stare up and meet his gaze.
“There is something about you, Erin,” he goes on, a soft rumble rolling in his chest. “You are stubborn and breakable and you infuriate me, but the more time we spend together, the less I care about my hunger and the more I want to keep you alive.”
The pressure in my chest intensifies. My lungs constrict and my heart beats faster in an effort to reach him.
I’ve never felt this way before, not about a human man in connection to romance.
Is that what we have? Is this a romance?
