Taken by The Hunger: A Blood Thirst Novel (Book 1) Paranormal Romance/ Erotica/ Urban Fantasy Read Free Page B

month, just days before I tried to flee. She was still under rigorous training and wasn’t allowed much time with me, but that all changed once I was found. Darius said I needed a woman companion because it was unhealthy for me at eighteen to be surrounded by so many men, but I think he soon realized he needed her more than he first anticipated. The truth was he didn’t trust me.
    The guard who found me carried me back to the mansion while I was in out of consciousness speaking freely to me about things he knew I wanted to hear… he did this to keep me from blacking out. He either thought I wouldn’t survive, or I wouldn’t remember the information he relayed to me. I had nearly starved myself to death in my failed attempt to escape.
    It was Jeffery’s plan. It should have been perfect, easy, but nothing is ever what we think it is. Jeffery was a guard who’d been here probably just as long as Darius, so I trusted he knew what to do.
    He told me the property was massive, and I had to prepare by wearing hiking gear with jeans to protect me and help me cover the rough terrain before I could make it where he would be waiting for me with a jeep. The plan was simple. I was to wait for him, and he would take care of the rest.
    When I set to plan my escape, I started noticing him always trying to be near me. What I soon realized was… he had fallen in love with me. He helped me plan all of it. His part in the plan was he would create a distraction. Then with the map he had provided, I would go to the location he mapped out. The biggest problem was that he never showed. Undetected, I’d taken a horse from the stables to our first meeting point. He gave me instructions with a backpack containing the map, some bottled waters, protein bars, and a .22 handgun. He quickly taught me how to shoot it just as he assured me that it wouldn’t be necessary.
    I remembered how he looked on the last day we were to ever be together. His golden hair blew in the wind as he embraced me. I was on edge as I held him because I doubted my plan would work. I was expecting to see Darius at every turn, any moment- uncertain about so many things, and thought maybe it was all a mistake. He drew away, his eyes searching mine. I remember looking up at his honey colored eyes and seeing so much strength in them. So I shook away my fear, allowing his belief in us to fill me with calm and reassurance. I realized then why I had picked him. He’d always looked at me with such sincerity and yearning. It was there written all over his face as he took his leather jacket off and put it on me, shielding me.
    “Don’t worry love, nothing can keep me away from you,” he said as he gently kissed me.
    It was not a lover’s kiss by far, he’d kissed me so tenderly that I thought to myself, he knows… he knows I don’t love him, yet he’s allowed for me to use him. I felt such shame in the moments that followed as I watched his retreating form until I no longer saw him. It was the last I ever saw of him, and I regret not giving him something of myself, some emotion other than my selfishness. I wish my feelings towards him had been pure… God, I wish I’d loved him.
    When I saw he wasn’t at our next meeting point, I automatically panicked. I waited and waited telling myself that he would come. I expected to see him rounding the corner of the cabin, but finally I could no longer refute he wasn’t coming.
    I waited for as long as I thought possible then set out to carry our plan on my own; futilely hoping he would find me along the way. I feared... and deep inside knew Jeffery must have been caught because he would have come for me otherwise. If I was certain about anything, it was that he loved me. God, I’d been so stupid. I worried he would lose his job, and I worried about his family- the people that depended on him.
    I really met Kimmy in the days that followed which can only be called my own personal hell. I thought Darius had not been home when I was