Ripper(71)

I turned on the shower in the bathroom and let my clothes fall to the floor. A steaming hot shower sometimes helped. I was still alone when I got out. I noticed the clothes I’d worn yesterday were clean and neatly folded on the long marble counter. Syl must have been busy while we’d been gone. When we’d left earlier in the evening, the bathroom looked like a girl bomb had gone off. There had been makeup, curling irons, and clothes everywhere. Though it had hurt Liv’s heart to leave behind a mess, Gray had insisted we be on time. Now the bathroom was pristine.

I dried off and quickly got into my panties and one of Gray’s T-shirts. It was comfortable. I could lie in bed staring at the ceiling for hours in it.

I heard Gray before I saw him. He was standing in the doorway, his shirt gone, his feet bare and a look in his eyes that told me what he wanted. I caught my breath at the sight of him. He was so freaking gorgeous, with perfectly tanned skin that bespoke of hours spent working in the sun and that thick dark hair I wanted to run my fingers through. If I had the chance, I would convince him to grow it out so it waved and curled and went wild in the mornings. His eyes were rich and hot as he looked over me, but he didn’t make a move yet and I just knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t sleep with him when I knew it wouldn’t work between us. It would hurt too fucking much when he was gone.

There must have been something in my eyes because his whole body seemed to deflate. “I’m gonna take a shower, Kelsey. Go to bed, okay?”

I hated that I’d disappointed him, but it was better this way. “Where’s my bedroom?”

He checked the flare of anger that I watched wash over him. His reply was even and controlled. “I didn’t attack you last night and I won’t tonight. Get in bed. If you can’t trust me enough to even sleep beside you then I’ll take the couch, but I’m not leaving you alone. Now let me take the coldest shower in the history of time so we can get some sleep.”

I fled the bathroom and crawled into the big bed where we’d slept the night before. The sheets were smooth and cool against my skin and I stared up at the darkened ceiling. I listened to the sounds of the shower and wondered why I couldn’t take what little happiness I was offered. Why was I so afraid of the pain that would come? Didn’t I want to feel even the tiniest bit alive?

I fought back tears and eventually the sounds of the water running and the fan overhead lulled me to sleep.





I hurry to keep up with my dad, but the boots he’s given me to wear are Nate’s and they’re too big.

“Keep up, girl,” my father says gruffly.

The leaves beneath my feet crunch and the air is cool all around me. It’s winter in the Ozarks. We drove all night from Dallas to get here and then camped during the day. Dad grew up here. I want him to take me to his old house. He took Nate and Jamie to meet his cousins, but he told me we don’t have the time. He never lets me meet the people he knows. When his friends come by the house he tells me to stay in my room, that there will be hell to pay if I come out. I don’t think my dad wishes he’d ever had a girl because, as far as I know, none of his friends are even aware of my existence.

He is ashamed of me.

I wish he’d given me Nate’s gloves. My hands are cold, but I don’t complain. He almost never takes me anywhere with him so I don’t mention my discomforts. If I do a good job, maybe he won’t hate me so much. Maybe I can prove I can hunt like the boys. Dad hunts werewolves who eat people and make humans miserable. He’s a hero so it makes sense he doesn’t have time for me. I have to prove my worth and then he’ll train me like he did Jamie and Nathan. I know that my brothers don’t want Dad to train me, but I can do it. I know I can.

My heart races as my father looks around the woods and decides this is the spot. I can see the Little Red River from here. It’s low in this part of the woods but cold, so cold. The woods here are isolated and filled with game. I let the cold air wash over me and I know that my father is right. Wolves are in the woods.

“They’re here, Dad,” I say with a glimmer of excitement. I can tell they were here. That has to mean I’m a hunter.

My father frowns down at me. “Don’t talk too much, girl.”

“But I can sense them.”

Now my father looks downright mad and I wonder what I said to make him that way. I try to be so good around my dad. He’s only hit me once or twice, but it really hurt when he did it, so I try to avoid making him mad. When he hit me in the face, it left bruises and then I had to skip school so I didn’t have to explain.