by J. L. Wilder
They said nothing, both recovering their breath as the fire crackled before them, the rain still falling outside.
“This place,” she said finally. “It’s a fucking mess.”
He laughed. “There’s the door if it’s not good enough for a princess.”
“Makes me wonder what kind of man would live like this.”
“The kind you’re not going to see after tomorrow.”
He’d intended it as a joke, but the truth of the statement stuck with him, made him pause.
Scorn realized he didn’t want to never see her again. His face fell, and Maddie didn’t say another word.
She rested her head on his chest and soon was asleep. The day caught up with him. And soon, Scorn was out like a light.
HIS DREAMS THAT NIGHT were strange. Scorn was in his home, the cabin he’d lived in since leaving the Blackshrouds. A storm raged outside, and he was seated on his couch with his bottle of whiskey, as usual.
During the dream, he sipped and watched the rain, lighting illuminating the living room. But to his shock, the walls of the house grew smaller and smaller. He tried to ignore it, figuring it was his imagination.
The more he drank, the more he realized the house was closing in on him, that it’d crush him unless he did something. He threw down the bottle of whiskey and ran outside into the rain. The cabin vanished into nothing, and he was alone in the storm.
At least, he thought he was alone. Maddie, as gorgeous as ever, stepped out of the trees, a smile on her face.
He woke up the next morning, two realizations hitting him. The first was that, for the first time in a long while, he wasn’t hung over. He’d fallen asleep with Maddie before he could reach his whiskey-induced oblivion.
The second was that he felt more...balanced than he had in years. The rage, usually there to greet him in the morning, was surprisingly absent.
And speaking of surprisingly absent, Maddie was gone too.
Scorn rose, the embers in the fireplace glowing a soft orange. He sat up, grabbing his jeans and shirt and pulling them on as he got up to find her.
“Maddie?”
Nothing. His voice echoed through the house. He pulled on his socks and boots and made his way into the kitchen, then the dining room.
Nothing still.
He went up to the second floor, thinking she might’ve wanted to take a quick shower.
Nothing there either.
Then he sniffed the air, trying to find that familiar scent of lilacs and sex.
Nothing.
Fucking hell—don’t tell me she’s gone.
He hurried through the house, calling her name and trying to find her. But no response came to any of his cries.
She’s gone.
“Fucking hell!” he shouted. “You stubborn, stubborn woman!”
He grabbed his coat and hurried out of the house. No doubt in his mind that she’d decided for one reason or another that she wanted to leave on her own terms.
But Scorn didn’t give a damn why she’d left. He only knew that it was dangerous as hell for even a powerful dragon like him to be in these woods, let alone a human woman.
The morning was bright and sunny, the grass glistening with last night’s rainfall. Scorn closed his eyes and sniffed the air, trying to catch a whiff of her.
He did.
Lilacs and sex, he thought. Damn, she smells good.
Scorn opened his eyes, taking off in a full-blast run, tearing across his cabin’s clearing and into the forest. As an alpha, he was an expert tracker. And there was something about Maddie that made her scent even more pronounced.
He followed it, running through the woods and soon catching sight of her boot prints in the soft mud.
Maddie, what the fuck were you thinking? I’m sure you think you can do anything, but you really think you can make it back to human country all on your own?
The nearest town to Scorn was a good thirty-minute drive away. No doubt in Scorn’s mind that Maddie thought she’d be able to wander to the nearest highway and hitchhike back home.
But as Scorn ran, he caught the scent of something else on the wind, something that most definitely was not Maddie.
“Wolf shifters,” said Scorn, his eyes narrowing. “Feral.”
He knew he had to run hard and fast to find her as quickly as he could. If Maddie had enticed him, Scorn realized there was no telling how much of a temptation she’d be to the feral wolves that stalked the woods.
Maddie’s scent grew stronger and stronger, along with the scent of the wolves.
Then a scream cut through the air.
It was her...... CONTINUE READING ON AMAZON
About The Author
J.L. Wilder likes wild things! Her alpha shifters are gruff and tough, with a pinch of tenderness. Curl up with these bad boy book boyfriends, and they will have you howling at the moon!
When not writing shifter smut, J.L. spends as much time as possible exploring the outdoors. She loves getting into trouble with Ace, her Siberian Husky.
You can grab a free shifter romance and join her email here.
