Chapter 23 The Desire to Hunt
THE DESIRE TO HUNT
THANE
Ihad expected fear when she stepped out of that alcove. I had expected trembling hands and wide eyes, sharp with the sting of panic clinging to her skin. What I had not expected was the feeling of her lips on mine.
Soft.
Warm.
Trembling.
So painfully innocent that it struck clean through every line I had drawn between us.
The kiss emptied my mind and made my body freeze.
Even my demon went silent, stunned into stillness as though her touch had stolen the breath from both of us.
I hadn’t trusted myself enough to make the first move because I knew the moment I crossed that line, I would never stop.
I knew the creature inside me would tear through my restraint and that I would devour whatever softness she offered.
I knew that if I kissed her, really kissed her, it would be a point of no return.
Then something inside me jolted so violently, and I pulled back too fast, too abruptly, as if the softness of her mouth had been fire against skin I had spent years keeping numb.
For a heartbeat I stood unmoving, my breath unsteady and pulse hammering as if every instinct was locked in a war between wanting her and fearing what I might do if I gave in.
I didn’t trust the demon inside me, not with something as fragile and precious as her.
I had spent so long keeping its hunger contained that the shock of her kiss had split open places I had buried far too deep.
But then she looked down.
And shame flushed across her cheeks with a pain so raw it struck harder than any blade.
She couldn’t even meet my eyes. She whispered apologies as if she had committed some unforgivable sin.
As if her lips against mine had been a mistake, as if she had broken a rule she did not know existed.
I watched her shrink from me, watched the brightness I had begun to crave dim beneath the weight of her regret, and the sight felt like a blow straight to the chest. After all that…
My will shattered.
All the restraint I had been clinging to, all the distance I forced between us, fractured like brittle glass.
I couldn’t let her think I didn’t want her.
I couldn’t watch her fold into herself because of a kiss I had wanted more than my next breath.
I couldn’t bear the thought that she believed she had done something wrong when the only wrong was the fact that I had denied us both for so long.
My demon rose with a snarl, not in fury at her, but in fury at me, at the pain I had caused by pulling away.
‘Take her.
Show her she is wanted.
Show her she is ours.’
It urged, voice low and hungry.
And I did.
I pushed her back against the shelves with more force than I intended, my hands gripping her waist like I was terrified she would vanish if I loosened my hold.
Then I kissed her, not with caution or fear, but with every ounce of hunger I had kept locked inside me.
Her soft gasp against my mouth nearly undid me.
The way she clutched my shirt, pulling me closer, begging without words for more, made my control crumble further.
She tasted like hope and danger and something my demon purred over with deep, possessive satisfaction.
‘Ours.
Finally.
Our forever.’
It rumbled with need.
When I pulled back, it was only because breathing became a necessity.
I rested my forehead against hers and let myself feel the truth of the moment.
The truth that this, her lips on mine, her trembling breath against my cheek, her heartbeat pounding for me, was something I had wished for far longer than I dared to admit.
Something denied and forbidden, yet now real enough to make my chest ache.
“You have no idea just how long I have wanted to do that. How much I have craved to,” I told her, my voice low and raw.
Her eyes softened, wide and luminous as she whispered her confession in return, a small, trembling, “Me too,” that nearly brought me to my knees. That was the moment I knew I would never be able to stop. That one kiss had rewritten every instinct inside me, reshaping every line I had tried to hold.
But the danger had not yet passed. In fact, I had a haunting feeling that it was only the beginning.
I took her hand and led her out of the alcove, my fingers closing around hers with a firmness that felt like an oath.
“Come with me… now,” I told her, unable to hold back the commanding tone, and in return, she looked up at me with an almost dazed expression.
“Where?”
“Somewhere safe,” I said, my jaw tense as the need to protect her was riding me hard. “You can’t stay here,” I added more forcefully.
“But my father…” I could feel her fear beginning to rise again and all I wanted to do was make it disappear. So, I grinned. An expression that was still foreign to me but was becoming more frequent since she had come into my life.
“Screw the rules… You’re coming with me,” I said, causing a little light of excitement to shine in her eyes as if fed by the idea of defiance.
The moment we stepped into the main hall of the library, my senses sharpened. The air shifted. Something was wrong. The scent of someone I knew who shouldn’t have been here. Someone I recognized from the club.
We walked out into the quiet courtyard, the sun dipping lower between the buildings, students moving toward their afternoon classes. Everything looked normal. But normal meant nothing to someone like me.
Then she stiffened beside me. Her grip tightened as she followed my line of sight directly to the man I was looking for.
He was walking quickly toward a waiting car.
But when he pulled his jacket into place, the fabric shifted just enough for me to see the ink on the side of his neck.
A simple mark. A serpent coiled around a dagger.
A mark I knew all too well.
He was one of Xue’s men. Which was when I truly recognized him, as he didn’t just work for him… he was his second in command, and his name was Ren Qiang.
My demon hissed with lethal clarity. He had been hunting our girl.
He had watched her and followed her. The fury that filled me was vicious and absolute.
My vision sharpened, colors brightening, the world narrowing to the beat of his retreating footsteps.
The demon pressed hard against my skin, its voice a snarl.
‘Kill him.’
I wanted to. I wanted to tear the street apart and drag him from the car before his door even shut. I wanted to rip his throat out and make sure Xue knew exactly what happened to anyone who dared hunt what was mine. Every instinct in me surged with violence so pure it tasted metallic.
But Alora’s hand was still in mine.
“Thane.” The second she uttered my name it anchored me to what was most important and, for once, it wasn’t spilling the blood of enemies.
So, I concentrated on her fear still faint on her skin, still trembling in her pulse.
It too reminded me of my first and only priority.
If I lunged for him in broad daylight, if anyone saw what I truly was, if she saw what I truly was, everything would spiral beyond my control. She needed safety, not a massacre.
“I will deal with him, but not now,” I told her, tugging her gently, prompting her to come with me.
She looked like she was just about to ask where, when I beat her to it.
“Come on, I am taking you somewhere no one can touch you,” I said, forcing my voice to be steady again, pushing my fury back enough so I didn’t frighten her.
She swallowed hard and looked up at me, confusion twisting in her eyes.
“Where? I can’t just disappear. My father will…”
“Your father will survive without you,” I said, and the bitterness in the words tasted like poison. “You're coming with me.”
Her breath caught. Her fingers curled tighter around mine. And this time, she didn’t look afraid. She looked relieved. I led her away from the campus, away from the danger, away from the eyes of the man who served Xue. My demon purred deep inside me, twisted with satisfaction and hunger.
‘Protect her.
Take her.
Keep her.’
I knew exactly where I had to take her. My apartment, where no one could find her. Because no one knew where I lived. So, right now, it was the only place I knew she would be safe. Where I would no longer have to lie to myself about wanting her.
We moved through shaded streets where the city shifted from the polished brightness of the university district into older, quieter lanes.
She stayed close enough that her shoulder brushed mine every so often, sending jolts of heat racing across my skin.
I felt her glance at me a few times, questions building behind her eyes, but I wasn’t ready to answer them.
Not yet. Not while Ren Qiang was now hunting her, a man who never failed a job, who disposed of witnesses with the same ease as most men breathed. A man whose loyalty to Xue was carved from blood rather than trust.
Only when we turned a corner and the campus was fully out of sight behind us did she finally speak, her voice soft and uncertain.
“Thane… are you sure this is safe?”
I looked down at her, at the way worry had carved a faint line between her brows, at the tremble she tried to hide in her breath. I reached up and brushed my thumb along the back of her hand, a touch meant to calm her even as my own hunger burned quietly beneath the surface.
“It is safer with me than anywhere else you could go,” I told her, the words quiet but absolute. “I will not let anything touch you. Not him. Not anyone.”
Her eyes softened, and something inside me ached with the force of the connection in that small look.
We kept walking.
The city felt different with her beside me, as if her presence smoothed the sharpest edges of a place that had never offered softness to anyone. People still turned when we passed, their gazes sliding away from mine, their steps shifting unconsciously to give us space due to my size.
I felt Alora notice it, saw the brief flicker of confusion cross her face before her grip on my hand tightened just a fraction.
She didn’t ask why they reacted that way, didn’t question the fear I bred so effortlessly in others.
Instead, she simply moved closer, as if her instinct was not to run from the darkness she sensed in me but to anchor herself to it.
‘Good girl.’
My demon whispered, its voice a low rumble that curled through my spine with possessive warmth. We kept walking, leaving behind the louder streets and drifting into the quieter parts of the city. Buildings rose taller here, blocking the fading sun.
Her steps grew slower, hesitation slipping between us each time the path narrowed or the shadows deepened, but she never let go of my hand, never pulled away.
I could feel her questions simmering beneath her silence, but trust outweighed the fear on her face, and I felt something in my chest twist sharply at the sight.
By the time we neared the narrow alleyway that would eventually lead toward my side of the city, the world around us had grown almost unnaturally quiet. Even the hum of distant traffic felt muted, as though the city itself was holding its breath.
“Thane,” she murmured, the sound carrying fragile threads of uncertainty. “Is it much farther?”
“Not far,” I said, feeling the words settle heavy on my tongue. “Trust me.”
Her gaze lingered on mine for a long moment, searching for something I couldn’t name, before she nodded and stepped closer again. For a moment, the world felt impossibly small, the space around us tightening in a way I welcomed.
Until something changed.
A shift so subtle most people would never sense it. A break in the rhythm of the street behind us. A footfall half a second too late. A breath drawn to match ours rather than its own pattern.
The kind of mistake only someone trained to follow would make, meaning only one thing…
We were not alone.