Savage Hunt

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dangerous creatures in the woods 

Walking down the stone pathway that led to the lake, my steps were quick and sure. I didn’t need to look down at the stones. I had taken this walk more times than I could count. My steps were quiet, the rubber soles barely making a sound until I hit the crunch of the leaves that littered the ground. 

I watched the person standing on the pathway that led onto our property. It was so close to the woods that I worried that maybe they had come onto Scott’s land by mistake. I mean, it wasn’t easy to get here from the woods, but maybe this person had gotten turned around in the woods. It was easy to do and I had done it before. 

From the distance, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, their body was slim and they had bright copper colored hair that fell past their shoulders in soft looking waves that ruffled in the cold breeze. 

The closer that I got, I realized that it was a man. His hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers. A thermal shirt hugged his chest and shoulders, showing off a slim but muscular torso. He wasn’t much taller than I was. His shoulders stiffened as the breeze ruffled my hair and he turned away from the water to look at me. 

His face was delicate, there was no other way to put it. His cheeks were sunken in and he looked hungry and I wondered how long he had been in the woods. Bright amber eyes moved over my face and his gaze flicked to my lips before moving back up to my eyes. He looked to be around my age but there was just something about him that I couldn’t put my finger on. The way he looked at me was familiar and triggered alarm bells in the back of my mind, like in some primal way I knew that I should be on high alert around him. 

It was a strange feeling because he didn’t look threatening and I didn’t feel like I was in danger. 

Yet, something in me was screaming in warning that I needed to get away from this very pretty guy. That was also a strange thing to think. Most men, I wouldn’t say, were pretty, but he was. I found myself taking a half step closer to him as I looked at his wavy hair. 

What would it feel like if I touched those strands? 

His eyes widened and he looked up at me, the color in his cheeks spreading. I realized that I had been caught staring at him. I looked away, turning towards the lake so that I could concentrate on something other than the man in front of me. 

What the fuck was wrong with me? 

I shouldn’t be thinking about how pretty this guy looked or how good his hair would feel beneath my fingers. There were three men out there who had marked and claimed me. 

Who had railed me until I couldn’t walk straight, yet as I glanced over at this man. I knew that it wouldn’t be like that with him. 

That he would let me take control with him, giving into my every desire to do things to him that I knew that I shouldn’t want to do. Not when I had Jason, Ryan, and Travis. 

This must be my punishment for having a one night stand with three men. 

There was no way that I could want to be with this guy, yet I couldn’t help but look over at him again. My face burned and I turned away to look at the lake once again as he came closer. 

“Hello, I’m Gideon.” His voice was deep and had a strange, lilting quality to it. An accent that I couldn’t quite place it wasn’t exactly southern but had to be close to it. 

“Hi, Gideon. I’m Tillie. Did you um, did you get lost?” I asked, worrying my lower lip as he stopped beside me. I clasped my hands together in front of me, worrying my pointer finger over the smooth line of my thumbnail. Trying not to think about how close he was standing to me. How his very presence seemed to pull my attention away from the water. 

“No, Tillie. I didn’t get lost.” He said. 

I could feel his eyes on me, so I chanced a look at him again. He had the strangest expression on his face. It was like he knew me, yet I had no idea who he was. I took in his clothing, they looked clean. His trousers were dark green but pressed and his boots were well worn hiking boots. “If you’re not lost, then why are you here? I’m not trying to be rude. I just, I don’t see many people coming out here besides me and my family.” 

“I’m just studying the land and getting ready for the hunt.” 

“Well, you can’t hunt on this land,” I said, wrapping my arms around my body to try to fight off the chill. I didn’t know if it was the cold weather or from the anticipation that his words filled me with. My mates had talked about hunting me and that had filled me with the same excitement that I was feeling right now, standing next to this stranger. “It’s private property.” 

“I know it is. I was just curious about you.” His teeth sank into his lower lip and he looked down at the ground. 

“Me? Why would you be curious about me?” I asked, watching the blush spread across the tops of his hollowed cheeks. How was he all sharp angles like that? Did he starve himself to look like that or did he just have an amazingly fast metabolism? 

“No reason. I just, heard you drive in yesterday-” He said, looking up at me. “And I just wanted to see what you looked like.” 

“Do you live close?” I asked, shivering as the air grew colder. 

“Yeah, not too far from here. You should go back inside. There are dangerous creatures in the woods.” He said and my head shot up. I looked at him closer, did he know about shifters? 

Was that what was in the woods? It would be my luck that there were. Had I run from three shifters into another one?