The Hunted

Thirty-Two

Blake

Blake woke up feeling warm and safe, cocooned in the darkness with an arm draped over her and a gentle breath exhaling against her throat. Slow and even, the kind that came with deep sleep.

She turned towards the source of that exhale and found herself face-to-face with Red. He was sleeping, eyes closed and fluttering beneath his eyelids. Dreaming – a good one too, if the quiet smile curving his lips was any indication. A few stray strands of hair fell across his forehead, midnight dark in the moonlight that drifted in through the window.

The lines on his face were softened in sleep. No worry marring his brow or pulling on the edges of his mouth. Those lines had been there more and more these days, especially since Caden had been murdered. As if Red had been spending every waking moment concerned for her; half-expecting someone to jump out of the woods and rip her throat out.

He had no idea that the monsters weren't here.

Yet Blake knew where they were and she knew what she had to do now.

It was time to go hunting.

A lightness and heaviness wrestled for control in her body as she knew her time had come. Blake felt calmer than she had in ages, her limbs languid and relaxed – still tingling with the after-effects of the bliss and release that had coursed through her only hours before.

It was the heaviness in her soul that felt like a lead. Pulling her down, anchoring her to this spot. Pleading with her to stay just one more night, to take another day to be with him.

Red.

Her werewolf.

Her Mate.

Even if that bond was still absent within her. She had half-expected – or maybe hoped – that it would appear after what they had done. But she was still just Blake. Only a human with no ties to this place that couldn't be broken.

Though it might break her to leave. It was a risk Blake decided that she needed to take as she disengaged herself from Red's embrace, pausing only to press a kiss to his brow. She grabbed her clothes from where they'd been flung and pulled them on soundlessly. Red didn't stir, not even as she took her backpack from the closet and slung it onto her shoulder. She angled for the door.

Blake looked back just once to check that he was still sleeping and to feel her heart begin to break as she silently exited, the door shutting behind her but not latching. She didn't want the click to wake him up.

Instead, she crept for the stairs and down them where she made a quick stop into Red's office. Familiar even in the dark. She tried not to stare too long at the spot where she'd kissed him for the first time, knowing that if she did, she might never leave. Blake lingered at Red's desk only long enough to place a folded sheet of paper on it before she made for the hallway and left the house.

The stars were out in force tonight as Blake stepped off the deck and to the grass below. Above, the moon was bright and full. She tried not to dwell on what kind of omen that could be, instead choosing to be relieved that it provided enough light for her to move unencumbered through the woods.

Blake trotted through the trees at a light jog, intending to put as much space between her and Red as she could before he woke up and realized that she was gone. Before he knew that she'd broken his heart and abandoned him.

She knew that she could go any direction and leave the pack without issue but it was the hole that she started towards. It didn't matter that Ejo had warded it up again for Henry and there were sure to be wolves on patrol. From that spot, Blake knew that she would be able to find her way back to that campsite the hunters had congregated at before the attack and it was there that Hix and Mick would be waiting for her with a car.