SeducingtheHuntress (5 page)

His chuckle sounded like thick, dark honey over his vocal
cords. Sexy and arousing. “Just one of many positions I’ll show you before—”

She stiffened at the words he’d left unfinished. She was
wide awake now. “Before what?”

A long, drawn-out silence put distance between them even
before he disengaged. She rolled onto her back and faced him. His eyes fairly
burned with possessiveness, though his words said otherwise. “Before I release
you.”

Her belly plummeted as a band of pain tightened across her
chest. “I see.”

She should have been deliriously happy that he planned to
let her go. Shouldn’t she? So what was with the sickening despair filling her
from the inside out?

You haven’t made him fall in love with you at all. Idiot,
you’ve fallen for him instead! And now he’s had his fun with you, he can’t get
rid of you fast enough.

How had she ever brushed aside the fact that his kind
murdered her brother? The same way she’d conveniently revolted against the idea
that a
nightmix
just like Reuben had killed a young boy, who at eight
years of age had no way to seriously defend himself.

A
nightmix
didn’t know how to love. They were far
more prone to give in to their dark natures.

He moved off her and pushed to his feet. She sat, her forearms
digging into her bent knees and breath barely making it into her constricted
lungs. But she wouldn’t let him see her pain. Not. A. Chance. Not if it meant
him using it against her.

She steeled her spine, needing to lash out, to hurt him even
a little bit. She looked up. “If I’d known fucking you would have changed your
mind, I would have given you my virginity sooner.”

He recoiled, eyebrows drawing together in a hard line. “Is
that how you really feel?” he asked harshly.

She’d lost the last of her dignity, so why stop now? She
lifted her chin, her answer carefully evasive and cold. “More than once I
overhead whispered conversations about women who’ve slept with a
nightmix
.
It’s quite the thrill, apparently.”

A blatant lie. Yes, she’d heard rumors of women who sought
out the bed of the men others feared. But she never in a million years
fantasized about sleeping with one herself. Hell, if she’d been told just
yesterday she’d be lying with the beast she’d wanted to hunt into extinction,
she would have laughed. Or thrown up. Or both.

That she actually craved their joining wholeheartedly was
something she didn’t even want to examine too closely, at least not yet.

“So you decided your first time would be more titillating
with someone of my ilk?” Reuben asked, much more softly this time.

Her senses prickled. She swallowed. There was very real
danger in the air, magnified by his eyes that had begun to glow the red of his
inner beast. She drew on what little courage she could find and said brazenly,
“What if I did?”

He shook his head and in the process cleared any outward
signs of his
nightmix
birthright. “Then I’d say you are a fool. And that
I was totally wrong about you.”

He pulled on his clothes before striding into the kitchen to
finish cutting and dicing the deer meat. No doubt the task was a welcome
distraction from her. And all the while she watched him with burning shame and
not a little resentment.

She pressed a hand to her brow, her head about to explode
with conflicting emotions. She’d watched a
nightmix
murder her brother.
She’d grown up with revenge and hatred seared into her brain. She’d talked
strategies with her grieving father on how to eliminate the monsters before
another could rip apart someone else’s family.

Now here was Reuben making her feel things she didn’t want
to feel. Worse, she was saying things she’d never otherwise utter. Her mindset
and all her beliefs were under attack, uncertainties challenging her from every
direction.

She massaged her temple in an effort to ease the building
tension. Being with a
nightmix
was treachery of the highest order. For
all intents and purposes she’d chosen Reuben over her brother. Except her
undying loyalty would always be with Benjamin.

Always.

Her hand dropped into her lap and squeezed into a fist.
She’d never forget the terrible, soul-destroying memory of her dying, bloodied
brother. And nor would her father. After she’d run from the terrifying scene in
the library, she’d somehow made it to her father’s room to alert him.

The
nightmix
hadn’t stayed around. It hadn’t needed
to. They’d heard soon after that the beast had already murdered three other
hapless humans and eaten its fill of their flesh.

No, Benjamin had been a pleasure kill, left to bleed out in
his father’s arms.

Her father had sated a little of his sorrow by becoming
leader of the
nightmix
dissenters. But more often than not his bitter
grief had been carefully hidden under the thinnest veneer of sanity.

So how had he possibly coped thinking his last and only
child was dead now too?

Her belly rolled. He’d be stricken. Shattered. Destroyed.

A sob caught in the base of her throat. Reuben clearly
didn’t care about her family or her past. And if that didn’t showcase his true
colors right there, what did?

He
was
a monster and she wouldn’t be forgetting that
again anytime soon. She squared her shoulders and pushed back anxiety and
ill-will. Now was not the time to give away her true emotions. If she ever
wanted to escape this place she needed to be furtive, secretive. And right now
was the perfect opportunity to play on the shared intimacy with Reuben.

She stood, naked but gloriously unashamed. Revenge had been
part of her life for so many years now, it came easy to her to act the part
needed to gain his trust. Half-turning, she drew attention to her assets.
Though she was fine-boned and small, her breasts were full for her size, her
stomach flat and lightly muscled, her pussy plucked of all but the thinnest
rectangle of blonde fuzz.

Add newfound sex to the list and, despite the knowledge he
was letting her go—or perhaps because of it—she’d never felt more poised and
self-aware.

His eyes lifted from his self-appointed task. The muscles in
his shoulders bunched, his jaw locking and his too-sexy mouth dropping open.

She smiled, holding the pose for another couple of beats
before swaying her way toward him. He didn’t say a word, just stayed silent and
ever watchful. Then she was behind him, her arms slithering up to curl around
his nape and her breasts mashing against his spine.

Damn he was big; power fairly exuded from him. She closed
her eyes, drinking in his maleness. Even before the musky scent of their union
drifted from between her thighs, her womb clenched with need.

Goddess help her, there was no need to act when she still
wanted him bad!

He moaned, undoubtedly getting a whiff of the scent too,
before he spun around to face her. Her arms dropped to her sides and she looked
up at him from under her lashes.

“What are you doing?” he gritted.

“You mean you can’t tell?” she asked throatily. She glanced
on the bench at the various cuts of meat, dismissing them before she looked up
at him again. “I’m hungry for you. Not food.”

His cock that kicked thick and hard against her belly didn’t
lie. Yet his expression was wary and reserved, his eyes glittering.

Did he guess her true intentions?

Her stare skittered away again, somehow latching on to the
big meat knife that was just out of reach behind him. Her heart missed a beat
and then went into overdrive. She resisted an urge to swipe suddenly clammy
hands on her thighs.

His expression darkened. “Is it my cock you want or my heart
skewered on a knife?” he growled.

Oh shit.

He half-turned from her, before reaching for the bloodied
knife. Facing her again, he proffered her the weapon. “Is this what you want?”
he asked hoarsely. His eyes gleamed dangerously. “Because if it is, do us both
a favor and use it on me now.”

Her hands clenched. Her heart galloped. She had difficulty
focusing; breathing. “That’s not fair.”

“You said it yourself. Life is cruel. Some people die young.
And some people choose to take innocent lives.” He shook his head. “Then again,
most people live long and happy lives. Most people don’t kill other people.”

And you’re nothing like most other people!

“Which category do you fall into?” she whispered.

His face tightened. One corner of his lip curled. “If you
really need to ask.” He thrust the knife closer. “Then here. Have it. Do what
you need to do.”

She knew on some level he wanted her to face the enemy and
confront her inner demons head on. Deal with it rather than carrying the heavy
weight of bitter despair and fury on her shoulders for the next millennium.
Instead, Benjamin’s ashen face, his body bathed in his own blood, filled her
head until she saw nothing else.

Her pulse thudded. Her hands clenched. How could she have
forgotten how much she despised these monsters? She hated
nightmixes
with
a passion and yet somehow this dangerous beast made her imagine she had
feelings for him and left her questioning all her beliefs.

He’d brainwashed her, used intimacy to weaken her resolve!

With an enraged shriek, she grabbed the knife and raised it
high. Reuben’s eyes widened and flashed disbelief before dulling with quiet
acceptance.

Jerky, desperate thoughts crowded in her head.

Don’t look at him. Don’t for a second believe he’s
different.

Her grip tightened.

So why didn’t his
nightmix
beast come out to protect
him? Was it a trick to make her believe he wasn’t anything like the monster
that killed her brother?

Her hand shook as all the empty years she’d grown up without
her brother, years where sorrow and anger were the mainstay of her life without
the nurturing love of her mother, slammed her right between the eyes.

The knife arced through the air. Reuben didn’t move. Didn’t
even flinch until the blade pushed into his chest and slid deep.

She froze. Her stare locked with his. Bile rose past the
lump in her throat.

What have I done?

His eyes glazed. Shock then disbelief. Bright crimson
immediately stained the front of his shirt. But it was only when the
unmistakable red of his inner beast shone through his stare that her inner
self-protective switch flicked on. A scream pushing from her throat, she spun
on her heel and ran for the unlocked door.

There was no time to think things through. No time for
anything but flight. Fear had her in its grip, ruled her. Fear that she’d
killed him. Fear that she’d forever broken his trust. Fear that if he did
somehow survive, his
nightmix
self would hunt her down and tear her
apart, limb from limb.

In the forest she sprinted without direction, her feet
kicking up mud and leaves until her lungs were bursting and her legs were
quivering and weak. She was vaguely aware the bright sky was darkening with
oppressive black clouds. Seemed only fitting. She kept running, pushing her
muscles beyond endurance. And not stopping until the clouds finally blotted the
sun and let loose with another round of heavy, chilling rain.

Head bent and outspread hands clutching her knees, she
sucked in air. Rain pummeled her bare skin and dripped to the ground,
highlighting the fact that she was very much exposed to the elements.

And very much alone.

She might very well die in the forest.

A twig snapped sharply, somewhere to her left. She took a
step away, running her hands up and down her arms in an effort to stop a sudden
attack of shivers. But right then her lack of clothes was the least of her
concerns. She was far more naked and defenseless without her bow and arrows.

She scanned the surrounds. Rain blurred everything more than
ten yards ahead into a dull gray. Endless pine trees towered into the
torrential-carpeted sky. Branches streamed rainwater onto pine saplings and the
damp and rotting undergrowth, where wet soil and decaying vegetation was a sharp,
musty tang in her nostrils.

The best weapon of choice under the circumstances would be a
sharp-ended stick. Then she’d worry about some kind of protection from the
elements.

But oh lord, what she’d do right then for her clothes, her
bow and arrows and Millie.

Something black flashed in her peripheral vision. She
pivoted sharply, her breath catching.
Nightmix
? She swallowed hard.
She’d never outrun such a predator. And without a weapon she was as vulnerable
as a baby without its mother. She looked up. She needed to climb. Fast.

The nearest mature pine with accessible low limbs was only
yards away. She half-ran, half-stumbled the short distance before hauling
herself up the tree and climbing as fast as humanly possible. No easy feat with
rain impairing her vision and slicking the rough trunk and branches.

She stopped about halfway, crouching between the V of the
tree’s trunk and a thick branch. Pine needles helped conceal her while keeping
off at least a little of the wetness. And when the rain eventually stopped it’d
make for a great vantage point.

Yeah, but I’m stuck here. I won’t make it home sitting
still and growing blue from the cold and rain.

Another flash of black stopped all thought. Her heart
restarted when she spotted a big crow. It dipped a wing and landed on a branch
above her, its dark eyes glinting and hungry.

“Get away.” She waved a goose-bumped arm and the bird took
off with a flap of wings and a harsh cry. The damn crow could starve, because
she sure as hell wasn’t about to give up and die anytime soon.

With a frown she subsided back onto the branch, running her
hands up and down her frozen arms. Had the crow been the flash of black she’d
seen earlier? Had she wanted to believe the
nightmix
—Reuben—had followed
her to stave off guilt?

A thick lump formed in the base of her throat. Was Reuben
even now lying on the floor of his cabin dead or dying? Tears slipped down her
cheeks, mingling with the rain. She bent her head and swiped roughly at her
eyes, only then noticing the neat little stitches on the puckered skin of her
thigh.