Chapter 11 Little Prey
LITTLE PREY
THANE
Ispent the entire day in her orbit without ever stepping close enough for her to sense me fully. My body moved through the edges of the campus like a shadow with a purpose. One silent and watchful, slipping between buildings and walkways as if the world had been built to conceal creatures like me.
The demon inside me was restless from the moment she stepped outside her home.
Its growls vibrated through my bones with a hunger that was no longer simply about feeding.
It was about claiming something it perceived as rightfully its own.
I swear, but her presence changed the air itself.
I tasted it, warm and soft, drifting around her like a scent only I could detect.
Every time she moved, the demon whispered.
‘Follow.
Protect.
Stay near her.
Mine.’
When she entered her lecture hall, I watched from the far corridor, pressing myself back into the shadowed corner where the narrow window allowed me a glimpse inside.
She sat near the window, sunlight painting her hair with a soft glow that tightened my throat in a way that made no sense.
She looked fragile in that moment, her posture stiff, her fingers fidgeting with her pen even though her eyes tried to stay focused on the lecture.
She was pretending to concentrate. Pretending to be fine.
Or should I say, pretending to belong, as let’s just say, that I recognized the signs well enough.
Even from this distance, I could see the tension pulling at her shoulders, the way her breath hitched slightly whenever she sensed movement from the doorway.
She felt me.
It was as if some instinct in her body responded to my presence. The faintest whisper of awareness rippled along her skin like a soft tremor. My demon preened at the recognition.
‘She knows.
She feels us.
She is ours.’
I stayed through the entire class, ignoring the irritated voices of students brushing past me in the hallway.
Ignoring the hunger gnawing at my insides.
I had never lingered over a single person like this before, never watched someone so closely that the world around them faded into nothing.
But the city’s poison no longer satisfied the craving.
Only she did. Only her presence soothed the monster coiled beneath my flesh.
And when class ended, I followed her to the courtyard.
I saw her sit on the low brick wall and watched the way she held her sandwich with small, careful fingers, as if she were afraid it might crumble under too much pressure.
I drank in every detail of her, the way her hair moved in the wind, the way she tucked a strand behind her ear with a nervous gesture she repeated without thinking.
The way her real smile flickered into existence only when she believed no one was watching too closely.
And then a male approached.
The demon reacted so violently that the air around me thickened with rage. My nails lengthened beneath my skin, demanding blood, demanding violence. Demanding I rip the boy’s throat out for daring to stand so close to her, for daring to look at her with even a hint of interest.
He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
A tiny smile.
Soft.
Polite.
Something she gave the world because she did not know how to give anything else. I was unsure how I knew this, but I would have bet my life on the feeling. Either way, it was enough to make the demon roar.
‘Kill him.
Break him.
He is nothing.
He is not for her.
Only us.’
Blood pounded through my head so fiercely that for a brief moment, I thought I would lose control entirely. I had to step back behind the trees, grounding myself against the rough bark, fists clenched so tightly my palms bled before healing almost instantly. The copper scent barely registered.
What did register was her laugh.
Small, nervous, sweet.
The demon snapped its jaws inside my skull.
‘Mine.
She is ours.
Do not let him near.’
It took everything I had not to walk across that courtyard and drag the boy away by his throat.
Only the faintest thread of restraint kept me still instead of committing daylight murder.
I waited until she moved on, her expression dimming the moment he turned away.
The brightness she forced crumbling in the corners of her eyes.
Something inside me softened at the sight, an ache forming so deeply it felt like a bruise across my ribs.
I followed her without hesitation, my steps silent, my presence buried beneath the noise of the afternoon.
She moved toward the footpath leading between the tall trees, her hand gripping the strap of her bag with a tension that pulled at every sense I possessed.
My demon pressed so close to the surface that my skin felt electric, my shadow stretching ahead of me long before she knew I was near.
She walked more slowly as the path curved, each step more cautious than the last, and the air thickened with the charged awareness that flowed between us. An invisible tether drawing her forward even as she pretended not to feel it.
‘Closer.
She feels us.
Do not let her slip away.’
She stopped abruptly, frozen in the middle of the path, and the wind stilled around her as if holding its breath with her. I could see her from where I stood just beyond the bend, her head turning slightly.
“Whoever you are, I know you’re there,” she said, the tremble in her voice was easy to detect, and the demon in me surged with approval.
‘Ours.
She feels us.
Touch her.’
I stepped forward before I even decided to move.
The need to see her face, to breathe the same air, to close the distance overwhelmed everything else.
She turned in that exact moment, too quickly for me to react by stepping back.
This meant that her body collided with mine, and the force of it sent her stumbling back.
A soft gasp escaped her as she crashed straight into my chest. Her hands shot out instinctively, gripping the front of my jacket, and my hands moved on their own, steadying her.
My fingers wrapped around her arms with a firmness that kept her upright but threatened to melt my control entirely.
For one suspended second, the world narrowed to the rise and fall of her breath against me.
Her curls brushed my jaw, soft and warm.
The faint scent of her hair was something sweet and familiar I couldn’t place but already needed more of.
Her hazel eyes lifted slowly, meeting mine with startled confusion, and something inside me…
something I had spent years locking away… cracked wide open.
‘Warm.
Safe.
Ours.’
Her heart raced beneath my palms, a frantic, delicate rhythm that wrapped around my senses like silk.
She swallowed hard, her lips parting as though she wanted to speak but couldn’t quite form the words.
The softness of her gaze, the innocence in her expression it was driving me crazy.
The fragile trust she unconsciously offered me in this moment…
it hit me so abruptly that my breath stalled.
“It’s you,” she whispered softly. Her voice trembled not with fear, but something far more dangerous… recognition. It was as if she already knew me, and the demon purred because of it.
‘Stay.
Hold her.
Keep her.’
I should have stepped back. I should have let her go. I should have done anything but stand there, sinking deeper into the heat of her proximity. The scent of her skin, the way her fingers clung to my jacket like she had been waiting for someone to catch her all along.
But I didn’t move.
I couldn’t.
Not until she finally pulled her hands away as if suddenly aware of how closely she was pressed to me.
She murmured a soft and breathless apology.
Her cheeks flushed with a warmth that made my demon coil possessively beneath my skin.
She stepped back, but only barely, as if unsure of how to distance herself from whatever had sparked between us.
My voice came out lower than I intended, roughened by everything I was holding back.
“You should watch where you’re going.” A weak deflection.
A pathetic attempt to ground myself. A coward’s way out of admitting how she actually made me feel, protecting myself against the hurt and rejection that she had the power to inflict.
Power I knew she already held, but one that I was determined to hide behind a veil of indifference.
She nodded quickly, flustered, the movement tugging loose a curl that drifted across her cheek. She didn’t notice it, but I did. I noticed everything. Yet, no matter how abrupt I was with her, she didn’t turn away and run from me.
Her eyes lifted again. They were wide as she searched my face with a boldness I had not expected from someone who trembled like a frightened heartbeat in my hand’s only seconds ago.
She swallowed hard, her voice unsteady but earnest as it broke the charged silence between us.
“Were you… following me?”
The question wasn’t angry.
It wasn’t frightened.
It was uncertain, as if she didn’t know whether she wanted the answer to be yes or no.
Something in my chest pulled tight, a sharp twist of instinct and hope I never allowed myself to feel. I should have stepped back. I should have denied everything. I should have been the monster she thought she bumped into by chance.
But her gaze held me still.
Her warmth lingered on my palms.
Her scent curled through the air.
Her heartbeat echoed in my skull like a distant drum calling me home.
Fuck, but I wanted her! I wanted her so badly it felt like my insides were churning, and that part had nothing to do with my demon, even as it still spoke to me now.
‘Ours.
Touch her.
Claim her.’
“Well?” she asked, actually folding her arms and arching a brow as she looked up at me. The action made me smirk and decide right then and there to be honest with her, which was why my reply came before I could stop it. One that was nothing short of a challenge, as I told her…
“And if I was… what are you going to do about it…”
“Little prey?”