My Estranged Lover (Middlemarch Shifters Book 5) (24 page)
Read My Estranged Lover (Middlemarch Shifters Book 5) Online
Authors: Shelley Munro
Tags: #paranormal romance, #rurual romance
Goddess, she had to keep going.
She twisted, rolling and pushing to her feet. She lurched her first steps, only her fitness and determination propelling her forward.
Concentrate on running. Forget the trackers. Don’t think about the past.
The landscape stretched in front of her—one big, inhospitable sandpit. The planet’s sun beat overhead, frying everything in its path. And still she kept trying to run. One foot in front of the other, leading the trackers farther from the
Indy
. Faster. The
Indy’s
crew were her friends, her family. She’d do anything to keep them safe.
Faster
.
Determination gave her a burst of speed, but a glance over her shoulder told her the trackers had closed the distance margin. Their brown-blue bodies glinted in the bright light, strangely beautiful despite their ferocity. Their baying cries filled her head, lent panic to her adrenaline-fueled flight. She rounded a corner and came to an abrupt halt. A box canyon. The wall of rock stretched into the distance as far as she could see.
Trapped.
Nowhere to go.
Slowly, chest rising and falling in uneven gasps, she turned to face the four snapping trackers. Their bulging eyes blinked, their wicked teeth white against the brown blue of their skin. Their stubby tails shifted lazily from side to side, strong muscles in their haunches poised to spring should she attempt evasion. She edged along the rock wall, and they advanced with her. She’d heard their bite was nasty and some people were allergic to their saliva.
But she refused to go without a fight. She reached for a handhold on the rock wall, dug in her fingertips, attempted to lever her body upward.
“Ho, my beauties. What have you caught me today?” The mountain of a man rode up on a cyberbeest—a combination of machine and cheetahbeest by the look of the tawny coat and spots. The cyberbeest snorted, pawing at the ground, restive under the firm restraint. The large rider wore a tight, light gray suit shaped to his body. The man was all muscle with no fat. With his left hand, he controlled the cyberbeest while his right rested on a coiled whip.
Jannike glanced left, speared a look right. A tracker bite or the nip of Mountain Man’s whip. Both would hurt.
“You won’t escape,” Mountain Man said with almost a kind smile. But the smile didn’t reach his wintry-blue eyes and she knew, deep in her gut, he wouldn’t hesitate to act in order to capture her.
Phrull, her past
had
come back to bite her in the bum. There was no other explanation.
“Why are you chasing me?”
“Why did you run?” the man countered.
Shelley lives in New Zealand with her husband and a cheeky Jack Russell/mystery breed puppy.
Typical New Zealanders, Shelley and her husband left home for their big OE soon after they married (translation of New Zealand speak – big overseas experience). A twelve month adventure lengthened to six years of roaming the world. Enduring memories include being almost sat on by a mountain gorilla in Rwanda, lazing on white sandy beaches in India, whale watching in Alaska, searching for leprechauns in Ireland, and dealing with ghosts in an English pub.
While travel is still a big attraction, these days Shelley is most likely found in front of her computer following another love – that of writing stories of romance and adventure. Other interests include watching rugby (strictly for research purposes), cycling, baking bread and curling up with a good book.
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Paranormal
Middlemarch Shifters
Coming Soon
My Feline Protector
My Determined Suitor
My Cat Burglar
House of the Cat series
Contemporary
Love and Friendship series
Clare Chronicles
Military Men
Sci-fi/Futuristic
Alien Encounter series
Gay Romance
Historical
My Estranged Lover
Copyright © 2016 Shelley Munro
ISBN: 978-0-473-35576-0
Editor: Mary Moran
Cover:
Killion Group Inc.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.