Below Fated Skies by Anna Hawke

Author:Anna Hawke [Hawke, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hawke Publications
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Cortana’s legs pumped, carrying her further into the sparsely forested grove. Her smile widened, exhilaration racing through her blood. She was playing hide and seek with a scrumptious beast—and she’d never had so much fun.

The way Riaz had looked at the funeral had broken her heart. When he’d confessed the guilt he was carrying for Benny’s death, she decided she was going to do everything in her power to distract him, even just for tonight. It had gotten her into a world of sensuous, exciting trouble and for once, she was going to throw caution to the wind.

Deciding to make things more difficult, she circled back on her track, then leapt across a stream onto the bark of a tree. Shooting up the trunk, Cortana went supernaturally still.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

By the second hand on her watch, two minutes had passed. A smug chuckle threatened to give away her position, but she held back her amusement. Riaz would never find her. Vampires were far quicker than their wolfy counterparts, and with her split trail, there was no possible way that—

A blur of mahogany fur darted by below.

Cortana froze. The wolf had found her—but he’d bypassed her position in the tree and hadn’t realized she had doubled back. She remained where she was, confident and content. Thirty seconds passed, and her excitement at winning their game went into overdrive.

A soft bark from below made her stomach drop.

At the base of the tree, his wolf scratched his nails against the bark. His tongue lolled out of his mouth in that goofy wolfy smile, and Cortana couldn’t help herself any longer.

She laughed.

Mission completed, Riaz’s beast cocked his head as if waiting for her to admit defeat. In her defense, she hadn’t tapped out, and wolves couldn’t climb trees. So technically, she was still unbeaten.

Huffing a sigh as if understanding her resistance, Riaz lowered himself to the ground, belly against the earth and stretched his massive, white-kissed paws out in front of him. Then, as if knowing how cute it was, he laid his snout between said paws, his beautiful orange eyes blinking up at her sadly.

Even Cortana had to confess: the wolf was adorable.

Not that she’d admit it out loud. “I can smell you from here. Eau de Wet Dog is not my favorite cologne.”

A wolfy whine earned a giggle from the vampire. Shaking her head, she leapt from the branches that were supposed to have concealed her and met the earth below.

Now, face to face with Riaz’s huge wolf, she smiled shyly. All her attention was focused on his silken coat. She tentatively extended her fingers toward him.

When he happily bumped his nose against her hand, she sunk her fingers into his fur. A noise of excitement involuntarily left her, delirious with the fluffiness that kissed her skin and left her wanting more.

Without asking, she moved closer, lowering herself to her knees and wrapping her arms around his scruff. Downy fur tickled against her cheek, and as she inhaled, the cedar scent that she associated with the man assaulted her senses.

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