RHYS
“Have you got them?”
I cradled the phone on my shoulder while I pulled my jeans on. The large trees in the woods kept me hidden, but I already knew no one else was around. Nobody in Eastown stayed out that late unless they were up to no good, like me.
Unless I counted that crazy woman who’d run out of the park in front of my car.
My heart pounded against my chest when that face flashed through my mind again. It was the face I saw every night in my fantasies— or my nightmares, depending on the day.
But she was dead! I’d mourned her. Our love had burned for a short time, but I’d paid the price. I was still paying six years later; my scars and fucked up head were proof of it. There was no way that woman had been Rae. My mind must have been playing tricks on me again.
“Rhys!”
My thoughts returned to the conversation as I zipped up the bags I’d laid at the tree's base.
“Yeah. Sorry, I’ve still got my hands full, Tyson,” I answered.
“How many?”
“I got two. One slipped through the cracks,” I snarled.
Nothing ever slipped past me, but my head wasn’t in the game. I knew who to blame for that. The ghost of the woman who’d so cruelly ripped my life apart.
But could it be true? Was she back from the dead, or I’d almost run over someone who just looked like her? A doppelganger?
My heart pounded again like I’d had a shot of adrenaline through my heart. My hands shook as I gathered all my tools. I didn’t know if I needed to sit down or go for a run to work it off. If that had been Raechel—shit, I didn’t even want to think about that.
My mind was already seriously messed up. It was an impossibility that I shouldn’t have even entertained.
“You have to stay until—”
“I know how to do my fucking job,” I cut in with a snarl. I instantly regretted it when there was silence on the other end. I could imagine Tyson’s fury at the blatant challenge.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I tried to sound sincere even though Tyson could probably hear that I was bullshitting.
“I want an update tomorrow night,” Tyson growled.
The line went dead. Fuck. Tyson was the last person I needed to piss off. I was only alive because of him, and I was pretty sure he was already sick of me. I slipped the phone back into my pocket and looked at the mess I’d made. Black, gloopy blood had splattered everywhere and the smell still hadn’t dissipated. I had to move before the early walkers and joggers invaded the park and caught me with two dead bodies stuffed in the bags.
I pulled my t-shirt and leather jacket on before picking up the two heavy bags. My beast lived for hunting but cleaning up after myself was another story. Even when I wrapped the bodies up before putting them in the bags, I always ended up with blood in my fucking truck. And the smell was another thing. Rabid rogues smelled like ass on a good day, but dead ones were a million times worse.
If we had been somewhere deep in the wild, I would have left the bodies to decompose in nature. But the rabid rogues had somehow found themselves in a human town, something I’d not seen happen before. It was the reason Tyson had sent me to investigate. But to be honest, I'd been thinking of this town a lot lately.
I didn’t know why, because I hated the place. Rae had pointed it out on a map once after she’d fucked my brains out and told me she wanted to run away with me. Hearing the name made me want to kill something, so every stop I’d made here was quick.
I may have been drawn here by the same thing that had attracted the rogues. Most rogues got moon madness from being cut off from their packs, but I’d never pledged myself to an Alpha, so I would never have that problem. Once that link to their Alpha was severed, some wolves lacked focus and control, among other things. The loud sounds of a city should have been too much for them; it should have been a natural deterrent, yet they seemed to have formed a cluster. I didn’t want to call them a pack because that would mean they had somehow organised themselves, and that wasn’t possible.
But the one that escaped from me had not looked confused or unaware of himself or his surroundings. He seemed to know the city well enough to find shadows to hide in; even his scent had led me to dead ends.
I would find him, though. There was a reason Tyson had trusted me with such an important job.
I threw the bags into the bed of my truck and closed the tailgate before I looked down the street. That woman had run down there. I should have tracked her. I should have confirmed that she was not Rae before I’d started the hunt; then I wouldn’t have missed one.
My fists clenched as the need to go and hunt her rose in my body.
‘Find her.’
“Fuck off,” I snarled.
My beast’s urges welled up inside me, but I had a job to do and hunting the ghost of the dead wasn’t part of it. That wasn’t the first time I’d seen that face in the last six years. She had haunted me since that night. In the beginning, I’d seen her on every corner and every street. I’d seen her face on every woman I met. When I had healed and my wolf came back to me, I’d seen her more. When I ran. When I hunted. When I tried to fuck someone else. When I closed my eyes and when I opened them. Everywhere. Sometimes I even imagined I could smell her sweet scent, and that always fucked me up. That flayed me until I was raw.
She was dead. I just had to accept that.
With a growl, I forced my urges and my beast down and turned back to walk into the park. That demon did not control me. How could I ever trust anything that had made such a colossal mistake before? Mates? I should have known better.
By the time I finished cleaning up the black blood and picking up the bits of flesh I’d left behind, it was dawn. I threw my kit into the car and hopped in just as the first pair of joggers went through the park gates. That was too close. A clean-up team would have done the job in half the time. Tyson had other people to do the shitty side of hunting; maybe I had to start acting like I was part of the team so that I didn’t have to do that shit anymore.
But my mind rejected that thought before I’d even finished thinking of it. I was better off alone. People always disappointed me, whether they meant to or not. Everyone had a built-in dickishness that only came out when I was involved. People sucked; I would live and die alone. I didn’t have much of a fucking choice about that, anyway.
I had been rogue for a reason—a lone wolf. And if Rae hadn’t happened, I would have happily died that way.
Even after I’d driven out of town to get rid of the bodies and then driven back to find the apartment I had booked online, my head was still a mess. My fists clenched as I walked into the dark lobby of the building, and the first thing that hit me was the scent I always tried to forget.
The entrance was full of trash, with a homeless-looking guy leaning next to the elevator who looked like he’d pissed himself. It should have smelled like shit, but it smelled of cinnamon and vanilla. It always happened after I thought of Rae. I’d see her and smell her everywhere again for a while. My mind was still trying to hold on to the memories that had broken me in the first place.
I couldn’t shake the image of that girl out of my head. She was older and curvier than Raechel, and her black hair fell in unruly waves down her back instead of the short cuts that Rae had preferred. And she had been clearly human.
But those eyes... Those hazel eyes had been the same. Rae’s eyes had been a unique mixture of green, brown and flecks of gold that sometimes it had been like looking into my beast’s golden eyes. When my headlights flashed across that girl’s face, I had been looking into the same eyes.
It could have been a trick of the light or contact lenses. Young humans did a lot to change their appearance. I had to stop torturing myself by thinking about something impossible.
The elevator arrived and the filthy man staggered in first. Rae’s scent was worse when the doors closed- like she was standing in the small space with me.
“Dude, you reek.”
I looked at the man with his piss stain, filthy clothes and unwashed hair. Who the fuck was he to say anything to me?
“Can you spare some change?”
The man came right up to my face. I didn’t need to smell him to know he wasn’t just drunk; he was high as a fucking kite, too. I shoved him away and tried not to breathe through my nose, but it didn’t help. Vanilla and cinnamon had burnt to my insides.
“Do you know who I am?” the junkie yelled, coming to my face again. “You can’t touch me! I’ll have you—”
I shoved him again and clenched my fists. My face started to stretch as my anger welled up inside me. To be tormented by someone I loved and hated was a special kind of torture. I felt the hate more than anything else, but I’d yet to completely stamp out the other unwelcome emotions.
I hated Raechel McCall. If she hadn’t been dead, I would have killed her myself.
“Dude, your face.”
The elevator doors opened on the top floor, and I walked out before I ripped the man’s head off. For some reason, the scent strengthened. I marched down like the devil was chasing me and followed the sign to the door number. I pulled the key from where the apartment owner had said he had hidden it and almost ripped the handle off in my rush to escape.
But I knew there would be no escape. There never was. I had to ride this shit out.
I could sense that most of the residents in the building were still sleeping, but I slammed the door anyway. My first stop was the fridge to check if the apartment owner had left any beer as a welcome present. There was nothing, not even any fucking water.
I slammed that door again with more force than necessary and found the bathroom. A run would have been better, but it was too late now. I wasn’t in my little cabin where I could shift and run anytime I wanted. A shower was the next best thing. It would wash off the stench on my body from handling the rabid rogues and any lingering thoughts of Rae.
I’d never once caught phantom scents in Eastown or seen any women resembling the one that had wrecked me. Last night caught me off guard, and I’d allowed a rabid wolf out of my sight. That wasn’t good for any human in town. But I’d have my head in the game tonight. I’d hunt that fucker and make sure I got the whole cluster. I’d have Rae shoved back to the back of my mind where she belonged by the time I woke up then I’d do the only thing that gave me purpose these days. Hunt.
Then I would finally get the hell out of town and forget about Rae’s doppelganger.
RAE “Raechel Bourne!” I cringed and pulled my attention away from the park entrance when Vickie’s loud voice rang through the cafe. She made her way to me between the tables, loaded with shopping bags in both hands. Shit. I’d completely forgotten I was supposed to meet her. Between my sleepless night and trying to finish an assignment before class, shopping had been the last thing on my mind. “Raechel Bourne!” she repeated when she was closer. “Not everyone needs to know my name, Victoria Montgomery,” I said with an eye roll, stirring my latte. I pushed my glasses back up the bridge of my nose as I watched my friend approach. My vision was crystal clear now. I wish I’d had them last night to see what had chased me. Vickie dumped her bags in an empty chair at my table and dropped into the one next to it. “I’ve been calling you for hours! Did you lose your phone again?” Vickie huffed as she raised her hand to call over a server. “Forgot to charge it.” Vickie shook her head
RAE I didn’t want to be there. Crowds made me uneasy. My sixth sense constantly tingled because people with bad intentions surrounded me. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves on the outside, but I could sense the lust, the depraved thoughts mixed in with all of it. Someone would get roofied if they weren’t careful. It made me uneasy how such people could blend in. Innocent young women were hunted by lecherous older men and young men by lustful older women. Give me a picnic in the park any day. Or camping in the woods, surviving off the land, and fishing on a calm lake on a hot day? Now that was a party. But Vickie always dragged me to these places and dressed me up like a sex doll. I pulled the hem of my short dress down even though it wouldn’t get any lower. Vickie sometimes intentionally ‘forgot’ I had an ass when she bought clothes for me. The little blue dress felt completely indecent. I was pretty sure the guy staring at my ass from across the room could see th
RHYS I paced to the filthy window and looked outside for the millionth time. My eyes felt like they had sand in them because I hadn’t slept much. My dreams had consisted of a hazel-eyed, black-haired wench riding me in different positions all over my bed. It had been hours since I’d given up trying to sleep but I was still hard as fuck. Thinking of Rae always did that to me. It was worse now that I couldn’t get her scent out of my head. The sweet vanilla and cinnamon stuck to me, and I couldn't get my head straight. Annoyance surged inside me as I turned away from the window and walked to the kitchen. Why did that have to happen now? I’d been okay for months, and then bam! She was in my head again, and all I wanted to do was fuck her. Fuck a ghost. That shit was messed up. I crushed the empty beer can in my fist and threw it to join the others in the trash before I opened the fridge for another. I’d gone out, hard-on and all, to stock up on food but had only gone down the alcoho
RAE I didn’t know why I still walked towards the VIP stairs when he looked so furious. My head was tingling like crazy and I was uneasy, but I couldn’t control myself. What if my dream had been more of a premonition? Somehow the universe had put this man in my path, one who melted my panties despite the hatred in his eyes. It had to be a vision of sorts. I had the stupid sixth sense that no one else seemed to have, so what if I could also do weird shit like that? How else could I explain seeing this man in my dream? Even the overwhelming attraction was the same. My body was on fire like I had to have him or I’d explode. The security at the bottom of the stairs let me through because Vickie was a regular up there. For those moments while I couldn’t see the angry stranger, my heart hammered and I became anxious. I didn’t want to acknowledge that I hoped he knew me from before. I'd hoped for the same thing many times over the past six years but disappointment always crushed my stup
RHYS Rae turned away and her ass brushed against my painfully hard dick. It was really her. But why the fuck was she angry when she was the cold-hearted bitch who’d almost killed me when she’d rejected me? And then to fake her death after that? That was a fucked up thing to do. I shoved the door shut and forced my beast back, but my eyes remained on her neck, on the spot that should have had my mark. Her scent was all over me, inside and out. I could still taste her sweetness on my tongue, and the urge to finish what we started overwhelmed me. She was still the same. Her body still responded the same. I could almost taste her arousal in the air. What I had gone through since last night was nothing compared to having the real thing in my arms. “What game are you playing?” I whispered. “No games. I don’t have time to waste on a man like you,” she snarled. Those words... Reality hit me like a sledgehammer, and I put some distance between us. That was the same question I had aske
RAE The stranger had snuck into my dreams again. In my lusty dream, that man hadn’t opened his mouth to insult me. He hadn’t said cryptic things like ‘it’s time’. All he’d done was rail me against the door in that private room in the club until I’d lost my mind. I was too tired to move, and sweat dripped from my feverish skin as if everything he had done to me had been real. The real thing would have been mindblowing if he hadn’t opened his mouth to ruin it all. I’d exploded in his arms just by humping his leg like a dog in heat. It was for the best, though. Such extreme emotions were not part of the plan, especially if they were related to an obviously dangerous man. I’d leave the thrill-seeking for Vickie. My body felt tender and my head heavy from all the shots I had done. I stretched to try to loosen the tension in my muscles, and something sharp dug into my skin. My mattress was a lumpy piece of shit but it wasn’t usually this bad. It felt stiff and unyielding under my weight
RAE Not everyone in Eastown was sadistic like the three cows that started the round of laughter. Three Cows. That was what I’d call them. Forget their names; they didn’t need that much effort from me. But it appeared a good number of similar residents had ended up in Beverly’s that morning. With my stupid tingles all over the place, I could sense their pleasure at seeing me laid out on the floor. Like, what did I ever do to them? My back felt like it had split in two, but no one came to help me back up. I was used to the laughter whenever I went on campus, but not at the cafe. That was usually my safe space. “She looks like a beached whale,” Cow One snorted, and the laughter got louder. My embarrassment turned to anger. People had been afraid to say anything wrong to me not long ago. Before the doctor had sectioned me for the last time, I hadn’t feared death. I hadn’t feared anything. My meltdowns had been rather public affairs, and scrubbing those images from people’s memories
RAE“That was messed up, Rae. I spent hours looking for you!” Vickie’s voice echoed in the taxi. My head was pounding so much that I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “I haven’t even slept because I’ve been worrying that something happened to you. I was about to call the police! Why the hell didn’t you answer your phone?”“I’m sorry, Vic. I don’t know how it slipped my mind. I just passed out, and when I woke up, I was already late for work,” I lied.I hated lying to Vickie but how would I explain what had happened?“This is what I mean,” Vickie continued. “You’re so selfish and self-centred sometimes that I have to wonder if you even think about me.”“Of course I do!”“Whatever.”The line went dead, and I sighed as I leaned my head back. I sent her a quick text apologising again and asked her to stop by after we both got some rest. Knowing Vickie, she would have calmed down by then and I’d need to make it up to her. She was my only friend, and I loved her, but I wasn’t the se