The Alpha Hunts Every Runner, and I Took Him Down novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Mark
We drove home over the pass at dawn with the windows cracked and neither of us talking.
Every few miles I looked down at my right hand on my knee.
The crescent lay in my palm, silver and quiet, and it did not go out.
The cabin was cold when we got in, with the smell of cedar and woodsmoke ground into the boards.
The roof was half shingled.
A blue tarp still covered the north corner where Soren had been working at night when he thought I was asleep.
He lit the stove without being asked.
I stood in the middle of the room, in my father's kitchen, looking at his narrow bed in the corner under the window.
I had slept in Soren's lodge, and in a truck bed, and beside a hot spring.
I had not once slept in that bed.
"Tonight," I said.
He turned from the stove.
"I want to sleep in it tonight, and I want you in it with me."
"It's narrow."
"Good."
On the shelf above the bed sat a plain cedar box with my father's name burned into the lid.
I'd carried it over the Cascades in my duffel all the way from McCall.
I kept my eyes off it, and I took Soren's hand and led him to the bed.
I undressed him by lamplight, slowly, one button at a time, and he let me.
He stood very still while I pushed the henley over his shoulders, and the scar on his forearm caught the light.
I put my mouth to it.
"Lie down," I said.
He lay on his back on my father's quilt, with his feet hanging over the end.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Alpha Hunts Every Runner, and I Took Him Down are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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