Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
I've been obsessed with Karolina for years, but she has no idea that I've been stalking her every move.
Any man who dared to try to touch what's mine is dead.
Now, I've finally become the man she'll want, not the monster I've hidden from her.
She only knows me as "Bones", her online masked man.
But it's time for the mask to come off, even if I can never reveal who I really am.
I'll insert myself into her life as her new professor, and she'll finally be mine in every way.
I crave to torment and cherish her.
If she ever tries to run away, there's nowhere on Earth she can hide from me.
Because I know her darkest, most depraved secret: Karolina wants to be hunted
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
KAROLINA
Ashadowy form stalks me through the moonlit woods.
I hold my head high, treading carefully so that I won’t trip over fallen branches in the darkness.
He likes scaring me, and I won’t give him the satisfaction of showing fear.
Not yet.
By the time the trees thin and I near the clearing, my pulse is thrumming through my veins. My feet itch with the urge to run from the perceived threat, but I’m not ready to surrender to our twisted game.
I know this is wrong. Perverse.
But I’ve never felt more alive than I do when Brandon chases me. I’ve never felt freer than I do when he captures me in his arms and tackles me to the damp earth.
At the house, our lives are strictly controlled, our emotions cruelly suppressed.
But out here in the woods, we can let the wildest parts of ourselves overtake reason and decorum.
In our stolen moments when Brandon claims a savage kiss, I don’t care that he’s my foster brother.
I step into the clearing, and my eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the wash of moonlight. Animal instincts start to take hold, and the intrinsic sense that I’m prey makes my heart flutter.
I clench my fists to hide the way my hands are shaking and turn to face him.
My stomach drops when Carter, my worst bully, emerges from the trees.
“What are you doing here?” I try to issue a demand, but my voice is too high and thin.
A sick smirk twists his blandly handsome features. “I knew I’d find you out here. You’re breaking curfew. I should tell Shirley.”
I take a step back, physically recoiling at the prospect that our cruel foster mother will punish me for my infraction.
“No, you won’t,” I hiss with more bravado than I feel. “You’re out after curfew too.”
His smirk tilts into a sadistic smile. “Maybe she’ll drown you for real this time.”
My throat constricts, and for a moment, my head is submerged in icy water, my foster mom’s fingernails digging into the back of my skull.
I narrow my eyes. “And what do you think Charlie will do to you if he finds out?”
Our foster dad is as quick and vicious with his fists as Shirley is with her cane.
Carter’s sick smile doesn’t waver. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
He closes in, and I back away, edging towards the woods.
“Where’s Brandon?” I demand, my eyes searching the shadows frantically for salvation.
Carter’s low laugh coats my pebbled skin like toxic sludge. “Who do you think told me I would find you here? You love being chased down and fucked, don’t you? I thought you were a stuck-up prude.” His grin widens. “But you’re just a filthy little slut.”
“He wouldn’t.” I barely force the words out in an agonized wheeze.
My heart twists, threatening to tear asunder.
Carter spreads his arms, gesturing at the empty clearing—where I’m utterly alone with him.
“Brandon isn’t coming tonight,” he taunts. “You get to suck my cock instead.”
Nausea surges. “I won’t. Stay away from me.”
Even though I’ve engaged in Brandon’s deviant games, we’ve never been together like that. He kisses me with harsh passion and touches me with possessive hands, but he looks at me with reverence, like I’m his own personal miracle.
The quiet, brooding boy who used to glower at me has become my closest confidante, my safe haven in the hell that is our home.
“It’s my turn,” Carter says, moonlight flashing on his dark brown eyes in a mocking glimmer. “Do you think he cares about you? As though Brandon Harcourt has ever given a fuck about anyone.” He barks a laugh. “You really did think you were special, didn’t you?”
“Don’t come any closer,” I warn, my hands curling to fists.
But despite my show of aggression, my heart cracks open in a painful rift.
I’ve been such an idiot. Brandon barely looks at me when we’re at home. And what have we really shared out here in the woods other than stolen kisses and harsh caresses?
I thought he cared.
But I was just deluding myself because I couldn’t bear for my love to be unrequited.
I’ve been alone since my parents died, and I’ve been acting like a foolish girl clinging to scraps of affection.
“This will be our little secret,” Carter drawls. “Well, ours and Brandon’s. Maybe next time, I’ll let him watch. He seems happy to share you.”
Carter takes a single, prowling step toward me. I unstick my feet from the grass, spin on my heel, and sprint into the woods.
His delighted laugh follows me, weaving through the trees to clutch at me—icy claws raking down the back of my neck.
My breath saws in and out of my throat, lungs burning. Fallen leaves and twigs crunch beneath Carter’s shoes behind me, far too close.
A scream tears from me.
“Karolina!” Brandon’s distant bellow draws a sob from my chest.
They’re both hunting me. The boy I love betrayed me.