Chapter 1

Ruby kept her pace steady even as the hairs rose on the nape of her neck, a familiar breathlessness squeezing her lungs. She felt the stranger’s gaze tracking her as she traipsed through the woods. Dry leaves crunched under her feet on the overgrown trail, the smell of dirt and pine drifting up to her nose.

Beneath the terror of knowing she was being watched, a deep sense of relief settled into her. He was still here, still waiting.

Any sensible woman wouldn’t be traveling through these woods after dark. She shouldn’t be here. But she was not a sensible woman. Every night after leaving her shift at the bar, she promised herself she would take the long way home, stick to the well-lit streets through town, and stay out of the woods. And yet every night she found herself back on this same path, her black boots stomping through the underbrush, sticks and vines lashing across her bare legs. And always the stranger’s eyes on her.

Her pulse leapt again at the thought. He was here somewhere just beyond the glow of the moon. He kept to the shadows, so quiet she sometimes wondered if she imagined him. But then the sound of a snapped twig underfoot, or the slight rustling of leaves, and she would be convinced all over again that he was there.

She supposed she should be afraid. Her body seemed to think so anyway. Her heart raced in her chest and her breathing was unsteady. It took all her strength not to glance behind her with every step, to not give in to the tingling awareness at the back of her neck. She had to fight every instinct not to break into a run until she made it to the safety of the little house she shared with her sister.

But beneath the thrumming fear of her body, she wasn’t afraid at all. She was excited. Alive. Aroused. Further evidence that she was just as screwed up as everyone said she was. Rumors had swirled about her for years: she was a witch, she communed with the dead, she fucked ghosts. Whatever the hell that meant.

Leaves whispered alongside the trail and a shape moved through the shadows beside her. Goosebumps raised along her arms despite the heat of the night. Maybe she was just as weird as everyone said. Maybe she would fuck a ghost or whatever it was that was following her because damn it if she wasn’t trembling at the thought.

She picked up her pace, closing in on the path that led to her backyard. The house she shared with her sister sat on the edge of town. The girls bought the tidy fixer-upper with the money their aunt left them when she died. Ruby strode toward it now, the light from an upstairs window shining through the trees. Their closest neighbor’s house was already dark. It must be past midnight.

Ruby was nearly in her own yard when she dared a glance over her shoulder.

She froze, pinned to the spot by a pair of silver eyes shining out from the darkness. Holy shit. A hulking shape stepped from the shadows and into the light spilling from her window.

A strangled sound left her lips, fear and panic clamoring to escape her throat.

He was massive. The man, her stranger, was huge. He hadn’t come any closer, leaving enough space between them that she couldn’t make out his features in the dark, except for his glowing eyes and the dark hair that hung to his shoulders.

Run. The word tore through her thoughts but her feet remained stuck, her body refused to obey her mind. So this was how she died. A fitting death, she supposed. Just as weird and macabre as she was. Strangled to death by a stranger in the woods. What would it feel like to have his hands around her throat? Her breath caught, a choked whimper in the silence between them.

The man shifted, his eyes flashing in the darkness. His enormous chest rose and fell nearly as fast as her own, as though he was just as affected by this moment. Why had he followed her? And why the hell had she wanted him to?

Why even now, when she was sure he was about to crush her with the huge hands fisted at his sides, did she not want to leave him?

Screwed up, for sure.

The man took a step forward and another. Ruby’s breath burned in her throat, her heart threatening to tear through her rib cage. He could reach out and grab her now if he wanted to. He could wrap those hands around her and do whatever he wanted to her.

Ruby’s survival instincts finally kicked in.

She ran.

* * *

Shit.

Rafe slumped against the closest tree, watching the woman flee from him. She raced across the small yard, her short black skirt flapping around her legs. She yanked open the back door and disappeared inside without a backward glance. Of course. Why the hell would she look back? He had obviously just scared the living hell out of her.

But for a minute there it had seemed as if she might…

Rafe shook the thought from his head. Sometimes he really was as stupid as his father always said he was. He spat on the ground at the memory of the old bastard and turned from the little cottage at the edge of the woods.

He strode back toward home, easily finding his way in the dark. He walked fast, letting the humid night air fill his lungs. Maybe if he breathed deeply enough he could wash the scent of the woman from his nose. He forced his body to move faster, his long legs eating up the distance between her house in town and his cabin in the woods.

His efforts were wasted. Even as he dragged in breath after breath of piney air, the woman’s spiced scent lingered in his nostrils. It had been driving him mad for weeks. He’d never hated his wolf senses more.

Rafe lowered himself with a groan onto the steps of the small porch at the front of his cabin. He couldn’t be closed in by walls right now, not with that woman’s terrified face still imprinted on his mind.

Her wide eyes, her heavy breathing, the small whimper that had escaped her ruby lips. His cock twitched at the memory. Damn it. What the fuck was wrong with him?

He knew he was a literal fucking monster, but he’d never wanted to chase a woman before. To pin her down in the dirt and—

Rafe shook his head. Hard. He was normally much better at controlling his beast than this. He’d spent the last five years wrangling that side of himself, denying that side of himself, trying his damnedest to act human, to be human. But lately, his control was slipping. Ever since she’d started walking through his woods. Her scent drove him wild. He couldn’t stay away.

Shit. She had been so fucking beautiful up close. He’d never gotten that close before, had never seen her in the light. But tonight he followed her farther than usual and in the light of her house, she’d been perfect. Terrified, but perfect.

Her skin was like moonlight, her lips a deep blood red, and the rest of her dark pools of shadow, black hair, and black clothes. And that spicy cinnamon scent. Christ, he’d nearly reached out and grabbed her. And for a minute, he could have sworn she wanted him to.

He ran a shaking hand down his face, the ever-present stubble scraping against his palm. He needed to get a grip. There was a reason he lived out here on his own, and stalking innocent women through the woods was not it. Quite the opposite. He lived out here, at least partly, to protect women like her. He’d hurt enough people in his life and he had no intention of adding to the list. The look of terror on her face should have been a reminder to stay the hell away. It’s what he should have done the last time a woman looked at him like that. He shuddered at the memory.

Rafe stood and stretched, his muscles protesting nearly as much as the old wooden steps. He may have overdone it last night in his wolf form. He’d run for miles after following her, trying to purge her from his system. He’d returned home exhausted and still couldn’t sleep.

Tonight would be worse. Now he had images of her beautiful face to add to her scent and the sound of her footsteps through the woods. Now he had even more to torment him in his dreams.

He pushed open his front door and flicked on the light. The cramped interior greeted him, crowded with books and overstuffed furniture. He had outgrown the space long ago but hadn’t had the energy or the desire to move. He strode to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer, popping the cap on the edge of the counter.

He could go to the woodshop out back and work on his latest order, but he didn’t feel up for it tonight. Making furniture had paid his bills since moving out on his own, and he liked the work. And the solitude. But tonight he couldn’t focus. He’d probably end up making a three-legged table or something. He took a slug of beer and dropped onto his couch, sinking into the well-worn cushions.

What would have happened if he’d spoken to her? If he’d acted less like an animal stalking its prey and more like a goddamn human? He suddenly found himself dying to know what her voice would have sounded like, what she would have said.

Shit. He really was an idiot. He’d spent far too long alone in this cabin, and most of the time that was fine with him. But lately, the loneliness had opened up its black jaws and threatened to swallow him whole.

Maybe that’s all this obsession was, his own loneliness demanding companionship. But even as he thought it, even as he tried to explain away his attraction to this woman, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it.

Things had been quiet for far too long in these woods. The pack, his pack, had been quiet for far too long. And that made Rafe uneasy. It made him want to protect this woman of the woods from whatever was coming next. From his brother. From his kind.

Rafe knew that was exactly how he would rationalize it to himself when he went out to find her again tomorrow.