Page 3 of Reaper
“I’m preventing it.I know you’re stronger in animal form, and I’m too tired to hold you for long.The scientists wanted to test them in both forms, but the shifters refused, and I learned how to bind them from doing so.It took me a couple days, but I eventually learned.”
Her brows drew down, and he knew that she contemplated why she had told him all of this information.When she glanced up at him, she gave him a small smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Before he could ask her about her apology, he found himself flying through the air, back toward the warehouse.He braced himself for the impact and for the pain that would certainly come with the velocity with which he traveled, but his feet lightly touched the ground before he was released from her hold.
He ran at a full sprint to where he had last spotted her and couldn’t help the panic that rose in his throat when he’d lost her scent.Desperation had led him to search for her until dawn, but she had vanished.
Their short conversation had been branded in his mind, and he replayed it every night as he waited for her to appear.Her smoky voice, filled with doubt yet tinged with hope, had run through his mind every day since he’d lost her.Instead of driving him to give up, it led to the opposite, and made him work harder at finding her.His only mission was to track the woman who had driven his thoughts from mere curiosity to obsession.He had gone as far as taking a leave from Dark Company, letting Ghost believe that he’d found her.
Absently, he lifted his left wrist to glance at his watch.His enhanced vision let him read the numbers without light, and he groaned aloud at the late hour.It seemed as though he had missed her again.
Pushing away from the tree, he was about to turn away when he spotted a flash of movement to his right.
Her scent hit him first, but he didn’t know whether he could trust his senses.Blending into the darkness, he watched as she stalked closer to his position.When his gaze landed on her face, it confirmed what he had known minutes before.
He had found her.
***
All of his muscles locked down as he scanned her, making sure that she hadn’t been hurt.When he found her injury-free, he blew a sigh of relief.
Comparing the last memory he had of her, he took note that she had lost even more weight from her time on the run.Her body, clothed in scrubs that were similar to the pair she wore close to a month before, hung loosely on her curvy frame.
Before he could rein it in, a low growl of disapproval slipped past his lips.Either too tired or determined to get into the house, she missed the noise.
He kept his gaze on her as she ran up the porch and hesitated a moment, before she waved a hand in front of the door.When the door unlocked, she pushed her way in and closed it behind her.He heard the distinct click of the lock sliding back into place.
Although he wanted to rush after her, scoop her up, and take her home while she would be too tired to launch him down the block, instinct told him to wait.If he found her, then someone else could’ve as well.
Less than five minutes after she entered the house, a figure emerged from the woods several yards from where he stood.Without disguising his movements, the man ran up to the porch and jiggled the doorknob.His amateur actions covered the noise of Reaper’s advance.
As Reaper stood feet away from eliminating the new threat, a male voice erupted through the man’s earpiece, making the asshole jump.Reaper paused and listened to the angry voice.
“Have you got her yet?”
Instead of answering, the stupid git removed the offending object from his ear and stomped on it.“I’m going to kill that bitch when I get a hold of her.”
Reaper waited until the man went back to his futile attempt at picking the lock before he unsheathed a knife from his thigh.Not giving his target time to make any more progress on the lock, he stepped forward and wrapped a hand around the man’s mouth and nose, silencing his shout of surprise.Rage filled Reaper at how close this man had gotten to her.So with precise movements, he drove the knife into the man’s chest to the hilt and twisted.The man was dead within a matter of seconds.
He hid the body on the side of the porch.The bushes would prevent anyone from the street happening upon him.After the woman was secured in his home, he would call for a cleanup crew to make the body disappear.
Reaper hadn’t been surprised that they caught up to her, and he knew that this one man’s incompetence didn’t mean that whoever chased her would make the same mistake twice.He had to rush before the man in the earpiece realized that his colleague lay dead.
Stepping up to the door, he placed his hands, several inches apart, and pressed until the locks gave way.He slid inside without a sound before shutting the door.Taking a deep breath to get a trace on where she might have gone, he was surprised because it seemed as the entire house smelled of her.Light and sweet.
He darted from room to room.They were running out of time before they were discovered.Desperation clawed at his chest as he found each one empty.At the top of the stairs, he paused when a faint cry reached him.Unsure of where the sound came from, he wandered farther down the hall, hoping that the sound would repeat.
Mumbles and whines of pain came through the door farthest away from the master bedroom.As he opened the door, the floor beneath him started to shake, which intensified the closer he moved into the room.Not knowing what had caused the house to move, his need to protect her ramped up.
His eyes snapped to the woman who lay curled in the corner of a tiny mattress, whimpering.After a minute, he realized that the louder her whines, the more the house shook.Sprinting toward the wall she had burrowed against, he scooped her up into his arms and tried to soothe her with unintelligible words that streamed from his mouth.He pressed her tighter to his chest when his words failed to reach her, and wondered how he could get her to calm down.
Nothing seemed to make a difference to her dream state; without a thought, he growled, a low, soft growl of frustration.For a reason he couldn’t fathom, his growl had triggered something inside her.She reached her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face against his neck before she let out a sigh.His rioting emotions settled as she relaxed into his hold, and for the first time in a month, the tension dissipated.
His glance roamed around the room until his gaze landed on the empty sleeve of crackers and bottle of water.A pain struck him in the chest when he realized how she had been surviving for a month.She had avoided him and his senses—which was damn near impossible given how hard he searched for her—but at a heavy cost.He could feel her ribs as he pressed her tighter against his body.While lost in his assessment, she burrowed closer, mumbling, as if she craved his warmth.
Although distracted, he sensed movement outside, a harsh reminder that they weren’t alone.Silently, he jogged down the stairs, doing as little as possible to jostle her in his arms, and burst through the back door, not bothering to shut it behind him.Fear for her had him listening for anyone who may have given chase, but after close to a mile, he knew that they escaped without being noticed.
He doubled back to his SUV that he had parked several miles from the house he surveilled, and slid her into the passenger seat.He locked the door and rushed around to the driver’s side.He turned toward her when she mumbled and reached for him, but knowing they were exposed, he turned on the heater and strapped her in.
She settled back into her seat, and he waited until she fell into a peaceful sleep before he put the SUV in drive and headed home.As he drove through the deserted streets, he glanced at the woman next to him often.
When he first spotted her, he thought that she might be too fragile to learn about his world and the dangers that came along with it, but she had proved herself with her ability to survive for so long on her own.She demonstrated defensive techniques, shaking the house when she sensed danger, but not knowing what they had done to her, or why, left her exposed.Vowing again to protect her, he drove straight to his mountain home, breathing a sigh of relief when the garage door closed behind him.
Soon, he would have answers, but first, he needed to get her to trust him.And he would have to work on that first thing in the morning.
