Free Torment (Primal Progeny Book 1) by Stacey Mewse Page B

smelled to be.
     
    For what seemed like an age the pair regarded each other in silence from afar, tension building in the room as they both began to seep the scent of nervousness. Finally it was she who broke the silence.
     
    ‘I left a message for you at your cabin.’ Her voice was smooth, her accent hinting at Italian origin.  She moved towards him, her motions fluid and graceful, she held out one hand for him to take. ‘My name is Audra, and I am very pleased to finally make your acquaintance Mr. Dalton.’
     
    Though her enthusiasm seemed genuine enough the way in which she held out her hand suggested she was uncomfortable with the idea of physical contact. It hung in the air limply before him like a dead fish on a stick. Instead of taking the offered hand in his own he nodded warily in response and raised an eyebrow.
     
    ‘That’s very nice of you miss… But I’m not sure I recognize you from anywhere. May I ask how you know of me?’ He danced around the subject he wanted to tackle, wanting to tell her that he knew exactly what she was, but not daring to be the first to mention the secret that was so obvious.
     
    Audra smirked at his response, apparently finding it amusing. ‘Oh, you are quite the local celebrity in certain circles. My family have been keeping track of you for quite some time, and have decided that now the time is right for us to introduce ourselves to you.’
     
    Hunters mind began to race, running at a thousand miles an hour as question after question popped into his head.  Who were they and what did they want from him? Why had they been keeping tabs on him and how was it possible he had not noticed their surveillance?  Why had he not been approached until now? How many of them were there and why had he never scented them? … Were there more females…? 
     
    He shook his head to clear the hormone driven wolf from the forefront of his mind, his face dark beneath his then scowling brows as he spoke. 
     
    ‘I think you have some explaining to do.’ His voice rumbled from his chest, he felt backed into a corner by the intrusion into his privacy and it had his wolven hackles standing on end. ‘I’m not some kind of lab specimen and I do not appreciate being watched.’  He remembered the hot, wet sensation of the beast in him burying its muzzle into the belly of that rotting male were all that time ago, and felt shame burn through him. Had they been there? Had the man been one of theirs?
     
    Audra flinched back at the grumbling tone of his voice and curled her lip in unsuppressed fright.  ‘It is necessary to keep tabs on your kind for the good of us all, whether you like it or not is entirely irrelevant.’
     
    Hunter lurched to his feet, towering over the petite brunette and bristling with rage; biting back a smile of satisfaction when she visibly cowered away from him. ‘I think we need to have this conversation somewhere else.’ He snarled, grabbing her arm and very conscious of the wolf in him desperately begging to be released. It clamored at him to be set free, and to be allowed its revenge for the intrusion into their life.
     
    She shrunk away from his sudden flare of aggression, digging her heels into the ground and clawing at his steely grip with desperate fingers. Her heeled shoes scuffed against the uprooted floor, and dust kicked up around them as she tried in vain to halt his motions.
     
    Having dragged her no more than two paces Hunter stopped in his tracks, turning his head to stare down at the hand that was his own doing the beast’s bidding. His fingers were gripping so tightly that he could feel her muscles crunching beneath his grip; and suddenly he was filled with utter disgust at himself. Slowly he released her, peeling away his fingers as he pushed the beast to the back of his mind. All of a sudden he was acutely aware of how easy it would be for him to snap and lose control of himself.
     
    Seeing the look in his eyes become less feral Audra seized