Free Abducted by the Alpha (Wolf Shifter Romance) (The Crestwood Chronicles) by Julia Chase Page B

field. The setting sun painted the sky orange. The grass was up to the knees on my jeans in the places the cows hadn't been in a while.
    Those words had reminded me of him. Matt. My first and only boyfriend so far. We'd actually gone all the way. Sex. And then after that he dumped me. Saying that he wanted a girl he could marry, and he wasn't going to marry someone who wasn't a virgin. Unsurprisingly, that hadn't left me eager to get into another relationship.
    I reached the back of the property, where the field met the forest. There was a wood and wire fence dividing the two, and I began walking along it. From here the house looked like a miniature.
    Then I came across a disturbance in the grass. It had all be pressed down, but not uniformly. It stuck out in all directions, as if there had been a struggle. In the middle there was a large patch where the grass was levelled completely - where the cow had fallen.
    The ground had dark red sections, but Dad must've already taken away all that was left of the body.
    Then I heard a snap.
    My head spun around and I stared into the woods. In the light of the setting sun, it was no use. I could hardly see three feet into the forest. The trees and underbrush were thick.
    Just as I convinced myself that the noise hadn't been anything, it happened again. This time several twigs snapping at once, like a paw had landed on them.
    My eyes darted around, looking for any movement. Any shape that indicated something other than plant. But I came up with nothing.
    I turned to walk back to the house, but once again a noise forced me to look back.
    And this time it wasn't just a twig snapping.
    There was something in the woods. Not ten feet away. It thrashed in the bushes, jumping from wherever it had been hiding, and then bolted. The scrunching of earth beneath its paws faded as it got farther and farther away. And then it was gone.
    I stood still, wondering what I'd just seen. It was too big to be a dog. Too fast to be a bear. A cougar would have been much more graceful. I concluded that I had no idea, and then returned to the safety of my house.
    Dad was already in bed, and I didn't want to panic anyone else. So I went to bed as well. I stripped down to just a pair of panties and slid underneath the covers. I made a plan to tell Dad that I'd seen something first thing in the morning.
    I had no idea that I would be far away before the morning sun rose.

Chapter 2
    I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. Dad had been right - it was a long drive. And that night's sleep came with a very brief dream.
    I dreamt that the town we lived on the outskirts of was attacked. Not by an army or terrorists or anything. But by smooth talking regular people. They all moved to town, made friends, and then started slaughtering them. In the dream I watched this happen, and the second that I saw Daisy's neck get snapped I shot up in bed.
    Awake. Covered in cold sweat. The details of the dream were gone from my head. But the feeling remained. Panic. Worry. Fear.
    And then I realized what must have woken me up. There was a noise. Downstairs. I glanced at my clock. It was three thirty in the morning. Still dark outside.
    I listened carefully. It was the sound of paws. Paws with claws, skittering on the hardwood floor. A sound I only vaguely remembered from the week we'd had a dog living in the house before realizing that Mom's allergic.
    The noise woke me up fully. I had no idea what to do. I pulled up my duvet to cover my chest. Then the sound started moving up the stairs. It was accompanied by soft panting.
    It stopped right outside me door. I wanted to yell for help but I didn't want to let this intruder know where I was. But why did it sound like a big dog? Maybe the burglar had brought the dog with him?
    Then I heard a few new noises. Noises I'd never heard before. It sounded like joints cracking deep in the flesh. There was a sequence of them that lasted not ten seconds. And then my doorknob started to