Huntress

Chapter 13

The good, reliable Honda pulled up to the end of the short gravel driveway. My heart gave out a feeble thump in my chest, knowing that I shouldn't be so excited for something I called a distraction but unable to help it. I might have wanted to be the cool girl in a leather jacket, rolling her eyes behind sunglasses, but to be that girl, I probably shouldn't have been giddy just thinking about hearing his voice, watching his eyes glow. Playing it cool and distant went out the window as I all but skipped to the car and pulled the door open.

"Nice place you got," Ryder commented and his voice was certainly as perfect as I remembered it.

I glanced out the window at the little house. Behind it towered a mountain and it was tucked in a little pocket of trees, like the world was bending to welcome it. Blue siding the colour of an angry sea and a little bird feeder hanging off the porch. Somewhere that many people would call paradise.

And it could have been mine if I wasn't the only one footing the bill for my parents' expensive care facility. Milo was fortunate that his extended family had banded together and was taking care of their own. All I had left of my pay cheques was enough to pay for the little shanty I rented and insurance.

"It's not mine," I admitted, though some part of me begged my mouth to form a lie. It would have been so easy to paint a perfect portrait for him. I think he would like that girl, the one that could own a house like that.

"Ah, I guess I couldn't expect any less." When I raised an eyebrow at him, he added, "You refuse to tell me your name, why would you show me where you live? It would be tragically out of character for you."

It was just a tease. I knew it was from the way his eyes danced and the corners of his mouth tugged upward.

"Georgia."

"What?" Ryder murmured, all trace of his humor gone.

"My name is Georgia." And I wanted someone to remember me when I didn't come back. Someone who didn't know me with a bow and arrow. Someone who wouldn't wonder how the great Huntress went down, which wolf had taken her out. Just a guy, remembering the way I laughed or how quickly I had fallen in love with a kitten that could never be mine.

Ryder's fingers fluttered off the steering wheel. For a moment, I thought he was going to touch me. my mind flashed to an image of him caressing my jaw in his palm and slowly drawing my lips towards his. I would lean in, we would share the same air.

The hand fell on the shifter between us. I stayed right where I was, cursing myself for thinking that anything would even happen. We left Milo's house behind, but the wanting stayed in the backseat of the car, coming right along with me.

"So, do you have a plan?" I asked to break the silence. I so desperately wanted to be the indifferent girl who gave cold shoulders without even knowing it. Then I feared that he could somehow hear the desperate thoughts in my head or he could see it all written so clearly on my face.

"Of course, I have a plan. There is a hike around here that I thought you might like. Easy, mostly flat, but ends at a nice little waterfall. Fairy Creek Falls is the name—"

"No," I blurted before I could stop myself. I knew that hike. And I knew there was a werewolf pack circling it every hour of every day. It was a miracle that more people in this town weren't riddled with wolf-drain considering the popularity of the hike and proximity to the pack. There was no way I was setting foot in that area without a dozen arrows and a couple of knives. God forbid one of them knew my scent. I would be pulled limb from limb.

"Oh, do you not like hiking?" he asked. There was still kindness in his voice, but a slight furrow in his brow now.

"I do, I just have done that hike a million times. Sorry, is there something else you would like to do?"