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Deter here, but I a him to this, whatever it is Because suddenly I reift, the one where he left Blackwood Manor toyou behind So tell me where the padlock key is”

“Cora My beautiful Cora” Stark agony draws his features into a bleak wasteland “This chain will not hold ht slow me but a minute”

“But—”

His gaze darts toward the solariuh his voice “It’s setting Swear to me you’ll run and you won’t look back Swear to me”

“I won’t swear” Despair treh my voice Whatever is about to happen, I can’t leave hi “Where’s the key to the padlock? Please come with me Please”

Abruptly he curls forward, every ain “RUN!”

That…was not his voice That was not any man’s voice

Fear suddenly pushes me back a step I whisper uncertainly, “Gideon?”

“GO” It seeed claws “DON’T…WATCH…”

But I do God help me, I do

Stu back, I trip over my own feet and crash to the floor, but don’t takeplace within Gideon’s powerful body, ht in an explosion barely contained by his skin I screa back when his head jerks up, his attention drawn by the sound ofjaw, thick fur sprouting over smooth tanned skin

Ohod I knohat this is And it can’t be real Can’t be

But the full

So I better do what he says and run as if my life depends on it

Lurching toback for a last look But it’s not Gideon in that bedcha onto his hind feet…rising and rising, taller than Gideon, at least a foot and a half taller than anyone I’ve ever seen, gray fur stretched taut over a body thick withto be stopped by that chain

My gaze drops to his waist but it’s not the chain or padlock I see Only an enore to be real

But all of this is real

The beast turns Eyes as green as spring grass lock onstep toward ht up short by the rusted chain

On his next step, wood shrieks over stone as the beast drags the heavy oak bed with him

I turn and flee

His thunderous roar follows me

Outside the sky is still a reddish orange on the western horizon, with just enough light to see by as I race down the slope outside the solariuap just wide enough to slip through It’s closer than the ht offer some protection and a place to hide if the beast escapes more quickly than I can run to the estate’s border

The distant shattering of glass warns h the solariu him down

I run like I’ve never run before, flying alongside the gravel walk, aze fixed ahead—s

A olf For how long?

But I know I know Because I’ve ran toward this gate before—but Gideon was beside h first, that I was safe But his leg was bleeding I thought he’d cut it while struggling his way through the gate, but it must have been a bite or a scratch

How does it spread? A curse? A disease? It seems like I’ve seen movies and read horror novels with both

A howl pierces the night—not far behindlawn The moon rises full in the eastern sky, just above the horizon Lungs burning, I draw upon all of th, all of my speed A thousand yards directly ahead is the wall and the access gate that leads to safety

Safety from a cursed beast

It had to be a curse Soical, that’s science—and there was nothing logical about the golden chain that bound ic, too And it shouldn’t have been real, either But that chain undeniably was

And it was ic that could be broken Because Gideon reer that was co with the full moon And he tried to send me away To save my life

Then why the hell did he keep asking me to marry him? To allow him the use of my cunt for his pleasure? Because if I’d married him, if I’d taken him into er on this night