Free The Hunted (Sleeping With Monsters Book 2) by Cassie Alexander

inside.
    Since whatever way he took
into the forest was probably safest, I followed his path in.
    It wasn’t as scary as I’d
thought it’d be. What I was on wasn’t precisely a path but I knew where the
cabin was and I wasn’t planning on making sudden turns. Branches and bark caught
at my robe, so I tucked it up around me, ever so glad I’d packed appropriate
footwear back in the day.
    When had Vincent known it’d be
too late and decommissioned his own go-bag? I tried to think back, worried that
I’d missed signs. He’d been more stressed than usual – and a few months ago Syd
had come over, and Vincent had made me go away and wouldn’t tell me what they’d
talked about afterwards –
    Lost in my own thoughts, I
missed a stick jutting out from a fallen branch. It scraped across my ankle,
drawing blood. “Shit –“ I knelt down. I doubted Max had any Neosporin up here.
I licked my thumb and rubbed the blood away – and saw what looked like…jeans.
    I took another step forward.
They were jeans – and a shirt. The same ones I’d seen Max wear out the
door. His boots, too.
    What the hell?
    I stood and looked around. Was
he…out here? Naked? Doing…what? Watching me? The rustling branches of trees
that’d seemed so calming before now sounded ominous. I turned and ran until I
reached the cabin’s porch. 

Chapter Six
    I trotted through the forest,
carrying a rabbit in my jaws. I was hungry and wanted all of it, blood and
bone , but remembered that I needed to share, so I only gnawed its head off,
to share the rest with mate-smell person. I shook my head at my wolf’s
foolishness, making the rabbit bob. Just because Sarah smelled like Vincent did
not mean she was a mate. That was just crazy.
    I stopped in a hole I’d dug
into the side of a hill, and pulled my wolf back in, feeling the pop and
stretch of realigning skin and bones, until found myself gasping in the
dirt, naked. The change always hurt, even when you were prepared for it.
    I could only protect her for
three more days before I needed to figure out somewhere else for her to go – or
for Vincent to come and get her back. I was my wolf’s master for now, but when
the moon was full -- Vincent had to know that when he’d sent her to me. He
remembered, I was sure of it. I stumbled out of the hole like I’d just been
born, blinking in the daylight, and picked the rabbit’s carcass up to walk back
to where I’d left my clothes earlier.
    Two steps away from the
clearing, I paused.
    Something smelled like her.
    Was it my clothing? Because
she’d spent the night? No – it was stronger. I crouched down, feeling foolish
on all fours as a human – but my wolf found the fresh scent of blood .
    She’d been here. Like I’d told
her not to. Shit. How would I explain this? I wondered, tugging my pants
on. Did I have to? Did I owe her an explanation? Not really. I was doing her a
favor – Vincent, a favor, not even her. I hauled my shirt on and buttoned it
and stalked back to the cabin, expecting to find her standing outside, mouth
full of questions. When she wasn’t there I took the stairs and stopped, halfway
up, scenting something unusual and yet familiar. Sex , my wolf informed
me with a whine. 
    My hand on the rabbit’s legs
clenched. What was she thinking? You couldn’t just go leaving all sorts of
smells out here. It wasn’t safe. This was pack land.
    I walked into the cabin,
braced for questions. Instead she just looked up at me from the couch, where
she was thumbing through what might’ve been the oldest copy of National
Geographic in the world.
    “You’re back,” she said, with
a sexy voice.
    I nodded, and held the rabbit
up. “See?”
    She blanched. I’d eaten its
head off as a wolf, but the rest of it was intact and bloody.
    “I’ll be back,” I said,
excusing myself, taking a knife and going back outside to clean the meat.
    In a few moments, she was at
my side. Here it’d come.  
    “Is there anything I can do