Hungry Like a Wolf (Claws Clause 1)

And she was crushed all over again to realize that he left her with nothing.

No phone. No purse. No wallet. No keys.

Evangeline let out a soft sound that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob. At least he didn’t strip her of her shoes.

She was going to need them.

Poking her head out of the window again, she took a deep breath and looked down. A bed of crisp green grass was below. One problem, though: it wasn’t directly below. About fifteen feet kept her from the ground.

He’d stowed her in a room on the second floor.

Of course he did.

It wasn’t going to be so easy to get away from him as that. No wonder he felt confident enough to leave one of the windows unlocked. The shifter thought he knew everything about her. He never would guess that she’d risk a broken leg rather than stay with him.

Gritting her teeth, Evangeline was going to prove him wrong.

She was tall, but she was slender. Without a screen, it was only a matter of a couple of minutes where she maneuvered her body so that she was perched on the ledge of the window. She didn’t believe him when he said that he was going to leave her alone. Sooner or later, he was going to check on her. There was no time to waste.

She had no idea where she was. Help could be on the other side of the trees, or she could be swallowed up in the shadows within minutes, forever lost.

Evangeline glanced down, swallowing back her nerves.

It was a pretty big drop. No way she was going to make it without hurting something.

She started to second-guess herself. Would it be so bad to see what it was he wanted? He… he had seemed so nice, so kind, whenever she met him at Mugs. Except for the time she was afraid he had followed her home, she’d never felt any fear or trepidation in his presence. She knew better now. If he’d been watching her long enough to know every last detail about her, no doubt he had followed her home. Even so, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was harmless.

And that was fucking insane.

He kidnapped her. She didn’t honestly believe he was so hard up for a dinner date that he had to abduct one. As intimidating as he was, as terrifying as this situation was, Evangeline would be lying if she said that the spark of attraction between her and her captor had been snuffed by his actions.

That scared her more than free-falling out of a second-story window.

Golden eyes. This Maddox had golden eyes.

One part of her wanted to stay. That was even crazier than anything else. One small part of her, the part she tucked away, the part that was too painful to live with following her accident… it wanted her to stay. It wanted to hear what he had to say, and it wanted to drown in those familiar golden eyes.

Good thing it was easy for the rest of Evangeline to drown out that voice, too. Dealing with a hole in her memory made it easy for her to compartmentalize. She’d unpack all her baggage way later on.

Now?

It was time to go.

Evangeline braced herself on the ledge. As impossible as it was, she tried to relax. If she hit the ground hard while her body was all tensed and tight, the risk of hurting herself was even higher.

“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered to herself. “I’m gonna be fine.”

Then, once she was as ready as she was going to get, Evangeline lowered herself along the rough siding of the rustic cabin.

It was smart to get as close to the ground as possible instead of jumping straight out. She twisted her body as she slowly dropped, hand over hand until she was facing the cabin, her arms extended.

The fifteen-foot drop was less than ten now. Hopefully the grass would be enough to break her fall without breaking any part of her.

Right before she let go, she closed her eyes and fervently wished for wings.

17

This was going to have to be the fastest shower of his entire life.