Chapter 4

FOUR

CARVER

F or the first time ever, I hungered for bunny blood. No. I hungered for her.

The black and purple-haired bunny shifter radiated violence and fury so palpable I could taste it. She'd nearly strangled the driver with his own seatbelt, and before that, she'd sucker-punched that other male bunny in the nose and broken it, judging by how much blood he'd spewed.

The sight of her pale cheeks speckled with the blood of that male had my mouth watering and my cock rock hard.

I was wrong about her being mated to him… So why did she carry traces of his scent? Maybe they had history. Whatever it was, I should have ripped out his throat for the way this girl looked at him. He'd clearly hurt her.

Fuck. Why did I care? I didn't know shit about these people. They were here for one purpose: To feed my pack.

"Follow me." I pushed forward into the woods, leaves crunching as her tiny legs worked to keep up with my stride.

"Shouldn't I go first? What if I shift and run?"

Without turning around, I patted the rifle slung on my shoulder. "Easy. I'll just shoot you. I'm an excellent shot, even with small game."

"I'm a fast runner."

"Can't outrun a bullet."

I kept walking as I waited for the sound of her shift, something resembling anxiety pulling low in my gut.

I'd hate to shoot her. Her death was inevitable, but something about her presence roused my wolf. It felt closer to the surface than usual, and I wanted to savor it. So, the longer I could prolong my time with this curious bunny, the better.

The tension in my stomach loosened when she seemed to decide against chancing an escape and jogged to keep up with me.

"Why does a werewolf need a gun anyway? Why not shift and hunt me down? Isn't that why I'm here?"

"The Hunt doesn't start until midnight." I didn't bother telling her I didn't like to shift. I didn't like giving over control to something I didn't consider an ally.

"Where did you take Hope and Sawyer?"

"Planted them in different parts of the woods. It makes it more of a challenge to find all three of you, and it limits the chances of one wolf killing more than one sacrifice. Makes it fair."

"Fair?" Her voice jumped an octave, frightening a bird from a nearby thicket. "It's hilarious to pretend even for a second that werewolves understand the concept of fairness."

Stopping in my tracks, I whipped around to face her, and she nearly crashed into my chest.

"Listen carefully. You have a small—a very small chance of making it out of these woods before one of my kind catches you. But it's still a chance. Your odds of surviving drop to zero if you annoy me to the point where I snap your neck before the Hunt can even start. Capiche , Little Bunny?"

Her eyes sparked with defiance. "I'm not afraid of you."

She was lying. Her heart thrashed so hard in her chest that I practically felt it on the tip of my tongue. "All bunnies are afraid of wolves. It's instinct for you."

"My hate is stronger than any instinct."

I wasn't sure what response I expected, but it wasn't that. All I could do was stare at her for a tense beat.

I'd been doing this job, escorting rabbit shifters to their death, for years. No sacrifice was ever like her—spiteful and full of fire. She was far too alive for someone doomed to die.

There was something magnetic about this little female that had me bending to breathe her in. The sweet aroma of her lavender shampoo and something else that was uniquely her filtered into my lungs. Her scent was like smelling salts, rousing something inside me to life.

My wolf. This was the closest I'd ever felt to it. Being close to this bunny shifter seemed to rouse it.

A sinister idea unfurled in my mind. Maybe I could make it speak to me.

I wasn't particularly drawn to the idea of scaring her, but I'd do anything to connect with the beast inside me.

She must have sensed the danger boiling just below the surface of my skin as she started to back away from me, her eyes flaring wide. "What's wrong with you?"

I took a step toward her, then another. She slowly backed away—her instincts telling her to keep as much distance between us as possible. Her back hit a tree. Christ, she was small. She had to crane her head to glare up at me.

For a beat, she looked as though she was about to make a break for it. My threat to shoot her must have come back to her because she stayed rooted where she was.

I held out my hand. "Give me your clothes."

A barbed silence stretched between us. Not even the woods dared make a noise. The only sound was her hammering pulse.

"W–what?"

"You heard me." My lips curled into a cruel smirk. "Strip."

A delicious blush seared her cheeks, and a sweet feminine aroma bled from her thighs.

The wolf inside me growled, the sound coming out strangled and not my own.

Her scent intensified, making my hunger spike. My cock thickened in my jeans as I watched her squirm.

The venom in her look could kill a man. "I don't know what twisted game you're trying to play, but you can go fuck yourself."

"I'm not going to touch you," I assured her, though I wasn't sure I could keep my promise. Unlike the rest of my pack, my wolf was barely present, so I didn't need bunny blood to control it. But now it was hungry, ready to burst to the surface any moment. It never ripped control from my hands before. Maybe that was because it never had a reason to... Until now.

This girl had me second-guessing everything I thought I knew about the monster inside me.

"Why do you want my clothes?"

"Protocol for the sacrifices," I lied.

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You'll freeze in your naked human form, and it will force you to shift. You're faster in your wild shape, giving us wolves more of a challenge. Plus, we won't have to cut you out of your clothes to eat you."

An involuntary gasp left her lips. "That's evil."

I gave a dark chuckle. "No, Little Bunny. That's nature. Wolves have eaten bunnies for as long as they've been around."

I held up a finger, enjoying how her eyes shot wide as my nail extended into a vicious claw. I hooked it into the zipper of her jacket and slowly tugged it open.

She moved so fast I could barely track her hand as it shoved into her pocket and brandished a knife. The blade flashed as she slammed it toward my heart. I caught her wrist just as the tip punctured my flesh.

There was a prick of pain—but the pleasure that followed drowned out the discomfort. My wolf liked watching this bold female try to go toe-to-toe with me. Everything about her seemed to lure my wolf closer to the surface. This discovery encouraged me to double down on my plan to tease and torment her.

The girl winced as my fingers tightened around her wrist, and I jerked on her arm to pluck the blade from my chest, grinning at the sight of my blood streaking down the blade.

"Looks like our little bunny has claws."

Lars wouldn't like it if he knew I was toying with one of the sacrifices before the Hunt. But I didn't give a shit. She was the best shot at getting my wolf to speak to me.

"What's your name, Stabby Little Rabbit?"

She swallowed hard. "Ruth… It's Ruth."

I grinned. "Is that short for ruthless?"

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "Do wolves always play with their food?"

"Not always. But my meals are never as interesting as you." I released my hold on her wrist while wrenching the knife from her fingers. I pointed the blade at her, the knife's point scraping the hollow of her throat.

My cock ached at the way some of my blood smeared her flesh. She looked so pretty covered in me.

"Let's make this interesting," I hummed. "You're going to run… And I'm going to catch you. Neither of us will shift. We'll save that for the Hunt. If I catch you, I'll cut you out of your clothes myself. Deal?"

Ruth said nothing. Instead, she took off running.

I couldn't keep the smirk off my face as I watched her bolt into the dark, hanging back a moment to give her a head start.

"I'll take that as a yes."