Claimed by the Beast Bundle Read Free Page A

shook her head. “No!” she blurted. “What just happened? I was—something—what was that?”
    He opened his mouth but she spun and pointed back down the road. “And what was that woman? Not who—what? She just took off her clothes and—and—and I don’t know!”
    She turned back around to face him and saw him glancing around. She watched him for a moment and realized that he ’d looked ageless at first, but now that she saw him searching for answers, he looked younger. Older than her, probably, but not by much. She swallowed and glanced down, and then realized part of why she felt off-balance. Her shoe was missing!
    “ Where’s my shoe? I need my shoe! Those were expensive wedges!”
    He shook his head. “It’s gone,” he said.
    “ Gone? No, I tripped and it fell off. That’s all! It’s just back down there.”
    He grabbed her arm as she started to walk. She stopped and tugged against him without any success. She imagined his grip was like what a handcuff would feel like, only stronger.
    “Leave it,” he said.
    She spun and pointed her finger at him. “Leave it? Look, um, dude. I don’t know who you or your freaky friends are but I have to get home. My clothes are ruined and I feel like I’ve been in a car wreck. My friends at the party I just left are going to be looking for me and so are my parents.”
    He grunted and nodded with his head back behind him. “Where do you live? I’ll take you home.”
    “ Oh, sure!” she said. “That makes sense. Just show this big freaky biker guy with the nudist friend who likes wrestling bears where I live.”
    He snickered. “Bears? Hardly.”
    “ Oh yeah? Then what was that?” She held her hand up and shook her head. “No, never mind. I don’t want to know. Just let me go home, please?”
    He shrugged. “Take the other shoe off,” he suggested.
    She looked down and saw her torn jeans darkened with her blood. Her knee stung now that she acknowledged it and it brought back the memories of how she ’d landed on her arm and scraped her face. She brought her left hand up and touched the warmth spot on her cheek, making it burn. Her fingers came away wet.
    “ Oh my God!”
    “ Oh shit,” he muttered as she stumbled and started breathing hard.
    “ Oh my God!” Crystal whispered again. “I’m bleeding. My face! Oh God, my arm hurts! Is it broke?”
    “ You’re gonna live,” he said. “Just calm down.”
    “ Calm down? I just—I just—”
    He groaned and moved so fast she barely saw him in time to scream. The world tipped sideways on her again and then righted itself. She was staring at his leather -clad chest. She looked up at his face and saw him staring down at her. She craned her neck around and realized he’d picked her up again. It was a princess carry this time, at least.
    “ Calm down,” he repeated.
    “ You—”
    “ And be quiet,” he told her.
    Crystal clamped her mouth shut against her better judgment. This man was crazy strong . If he wanted to hurt her, he could. She settled against him and listened to him breathing. The air moving in and out of his thick chest rumbled like the speakers in Chad’s house. Crystal glanced up and noticed that his leather vest was open but he wore a white t-shirt underneath it. Above the V-neck of the t-shirt, she saw thick black hair curling out.
    A few moments later , he shifted and set her down. Crystal flailed until she realized she was sitting on the back of a motorcycle. “Oh no!” she said. “I can’t—my mom would kill me!”
    “ At least that’ll buy you a few extra minutes,” he said before he lifted his leg and slid it over the seat in front of her. He settled into the seat and dropped the bike a few inches on its suspension. “Hold on tight.”
    Crystal swallowed and grabbed his sides. The bike rumbled to life beneath her and then the transmission clunked as he put it in gear. She started to lean over to look and see if something had broken when he gave the bike some gas and