Wolf Bound

Chapter 28: Chase

I had no choice but to give into the chase. It seemed Vincent never made my life easy.

"Vincent!" I called out his name again, my hands cuffed around my mouth.

I'd run off as soon as Amaury finished telling me of the events from Vincent's childhood; with a cloak in hand just in case. Mariah told me Vincent still hadn't come back from his run but I knew he was nearby in the area. The very faint smell of him was still fused along this path.

That meant he could hear me. If he could hear me, that meant he was ignoring me. I couldn't have been too sure. But I couldn't put anything past him when he'd been avoiding me, and was making it obvious that he was.

I placed my hands on my hips, a growl slipping through my lips before I could stop it. "Where the hell is he? He couldn't have gone that far," I muttered. Was he really going to make me chase after him? That damned alpha. He was probably getting a kick out of this.

"Damnit, stop being like this already and talk to me!" I shouted.

When I, again, received no answer I pulled at my hair and let loose what sounded like a banshee scream. It may not have been the brightest idea for me to have been screaming in the middle of the forest like I'd lost my damn mind, however, I didn't know any better right now.

My ache to talk to him was at an all-time new high. Dare I'd even say . . . I missed him? No, I missed his company. And I only missed it because I'd gotten used to it. Either way, it didn't change the fact that there was a part of me that craved his presence.

"Fine. Okay. I'll just fuck off then." I puffed out my cheeks, exhaling the air I'd inflated.

The moment I had turned back in the direction I'd been walking; a crack reached my ears. I froze. A few more noises, similar to that of leaves crunching into bits, projected from the same direction. Whoever was there was in hot pursuit of my trail.

My ears began twitching, my nose doing the same. My legs were ready to take off if I needed to. But I waited a few more heartbeats. I waited until the noises came to a complete stop and I felt a presence lingering behind me.

"So, you were hiding from me. Seems like you even went as far as to hide your scent too." I folded my arms, my eyebrow shooting up in the process as I turned to the culprit. "Didn't want to see me that badly?"

"It's not like that . . . exactly." Vincent shrugged. There were casual clothes for outdoors hugging his body. A folded cloak rested on his shoulders. He must not have been running in wolf form anymore. Was he just wandering around out here then? Seemed like it.

"Yeah. Uh-huh." I nodded along.

He walked forward and stopped at a safe distance across from me. "I'm surprised you found me this quickly," he said, changing the subject.

"I learned from some of the best, didn't I?" My nonchalant attitude matched his own.

That brought a chuckle out of him. "That is true."

"Vincent," I started with a sigh, "I wanted to talk. For real. You can't keep running and hiding from me forever. I live with you as your hostage, remember?" I joked in hopes of lifting some of the awkward tension. It didn't do what I'd intended for it to do, but he rolled his eyes, so that was as much of a win in my book. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to give me more than that. So, I decided to skip over the small talk.

Jumping straight to the point, I asked, "What happened three nights ago?"

He decided to play dumb. "What are you talking about?"