Hunt Me! (I Crave The Chase) - Page 196

Jeffrey and how easily he’d forgiven me for lying to him, even though by all rights he should hate me.

Jeffrey and his obsession with the damn guitar pick in his pocket.

Jeffrey and the fact he’d put the squirrel I’d given him on his night stand. He kissed it every night before bed, then flushed, terrified of getting caught.

Jeffrey and his loyalty—unwavering.

Jeffrey and his bloody knuckles, so distressed when I’d run that he’d punched a goddamn wall till he bled.

Jeffrey and the way he’d giggled over spaghetti, his head tossed back, throat bobbing.

Jeffrey and the ocean. The way water droplets had clung to his skin.

Jeffrey in the woods. The way his heart had raced with excitement and not fear. The way he’d run for me. The way he’d leapt over logs, effortlessly athletic. The way he’d bolted—because he craved the chase.

Jeffrey at the diner, his eyes warm, the way he’d laughed when I ordered wrong. The way he’d watched me through those pale lashes. The way our feet had bumped and he’d flushed when I glanced his way.

Jeffrey and the million wonderful, beautiful things about him.

My sweet mate.

My darling.

My prince.

The red haze bled away. The blackness faded. I curled into a ball on the floor, whining, my ears flattened, my alphaskin trembling.

“It’s okay,” Harry’s voice echoed, scent relieved-relieved-relieved. “It’s okay?—”

“Fuck, can’t believe that worked.”

My heart, my love, my mate.

My sunshine.

And he was?—

I sobbed, keening as the world spun and spun and spun.

Gone.

My sunshine was gone.

I wanted the blackness back. I wanted it back—because this…this hurt too much. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt.

I’d been so terrified of hurting Jeffrey—of leaving him behind—it hadn’t even occurred to me that he could leave me first.

I woke up with a start.

Great, gasping gulps of air. My mouth tasted like ass—in a bad way. My whole body felt bubbly—electric, lighter than ever before. But I could feel the ache there too, veins full of poison, the world swimming in and out of focus. Sounds louder, the crunch of the wheels turning on the asphalt, the snap of a twig beneath the foot of a deer in the woods, the creak of tree limbs, a sparrow flapping its wings high above us. Then all at once they’d fade away again, as memories of Mutt, Mutt, Mutt assaulted me.

Mutt hurt.

Mutt captured.

Mutt dead.

That sunny smile, gone.