Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 29882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
The trees surrounded all four sides of the cabin. The freshness of the air called out to the wild part of him, and he padded down the steps and onto the ground. He tilted his head back, shook his body, and felt his skin move over his muscles and bones.
Damien took off toward the woods, ran past the thick evergreen and blue spruces, heard the small animals scurry away, and growled in pleasure. He needed this, needed the freedom to get this nervous energy out of his blood.
The wind moved over his fur, ruffled his mane, and the feeling of the soft earth beneath his paws had the sensation of his nails retracting coming forth. He stopped when he heard a twig snap in the distance.
Lowering himself to the ground, he scanned left then right, inhaled deeply, and caught the scent of deer in the distance. Taking off toward the direction of the animal, he inhaled again, growling low as his need to hunt it down and tear it apart filled him.
Moving faster, hitting the ground harder, Damien scented out the deer, saw it in the distance, and stopped, pressing low to the ground. He waited until the animal wasn’t looking around, but its ears perked up as it scented the danger in the air. But Damien was the master of stealth, of stillness and silence.
He could wait out the animal for as long as it took. But then the deer slowly lowered its head to the ground and started grazing again. Damien felt the need to attack fill every part of him, so he didn’t hold back anymore.
He lunged forward, but the deer sensed him and took off right before Damien could tackle it to the ground.
He followed it through the woods, weaving in and out of the trees, and felt the pleasure move through him at the chase. He was the hunter, and he was tracking his prey.
He lunged out, front paws outstretched, claws extended, fangs on display, and took the deer down. It might have sated the animal inside of him for the time being,
but Damien felt the anxiousness of being imprinted rise up inside of him violently again. He’d leave for two years, wait until she was of age, until she could decide what she wanted.
But even though he wanted her to be able to decide what she decided, if she wanted him as a mate, he knew that he could not just walk away from her.
Telling Tyler that a scarred beast of a lion shifter had imprinted his daughter was going to be pretty fucking hard. But Damien couldn’t just leave for good, even if that was the right thing to do.
He said he’d let Danika be for now, stay away until she could decide what she wanted, but it would be the hardest fucking thing he would ever do in his life.
3
Four years later, present day
Danika watched as Hayden winked at her in terms of his goodbye for the time being, and was all but hauled out of the living room and down the hall by some drunken girl intent on getting laid.
She smiled though, because seeing Hayden wear this goofy grin on his face because he wasn’t the one having to hit on a girl, instead being all but sexually mauled in front of a room full of stoned people, was a highlight of her night.
She brought her bottle of water to her mouth and took a long drink. She’d taken a beer when she’d first gotten here, and even if she was ready to leave.
She glanced at the hallway again, watched as Hayden disappeared behind one of the doors, and then it slammed shut. She’d just tell him she was ready to go and that she would see him later.
Danika sat on the couch, which smelled of spilled beer and cigarette smoke, and looked at her phone for the fifth time in the last half hour. She was supposed to be home in an hour and a half for a dinner with her dad and Damien.
She thought about the SEAL lion shifter, about the last time she’d seen him and the awkward way he had stared at her, as if he had wanted to tell her something monumental, but couldn’t. That had been four years ago.
Even coming home during breaks from school she’d expected to see him in passing, but he’d stayed away. But tonight she’d see him again, maybe even have the nerve to ask what had happened all of those years ago.
To this day it still consumed her when she thought about it, because there was some part of her that felt what had happened between them, that nonverbal, intense interaction, meant something powerful.
She’d come to this party because Hayden said she needed to let loose. After coming back home after two years of school, she knew that starting her life back in the town she grew up in was the right decision.