Hunter's Heart

Chapter 28

Quinn woke to the feeling of fingertips gently tracing the outlines of her Hunter's Mark. Lying still as she tried to shake off the fog of sleep, her head pounded and she felt a little nauseous, as if she had drunk too much the night before.

Though she didn't open her eyes, she could tell that the dappled sunlight that warmed her skin came from a canopy of branches and leaves above where it made it to the forest floor. It was just enough to chase away the slight chill the breeze brought with it, keeping the goosebumps that threatened to break out over her skin at bay. Something warm was curled behind her almost protectively, molding itself to her contours, though she could vaguely tell it was much bigger than her.

Around her, she smelled the rich scent of earth and trees and sandalwood, which wasn't doing anything to help her bizarre case of a hangover.

Sunlight, branches and a breeze on her skin ...

Quinn frowned internally, beginning to sense something wasn't quite right. She didn't remember drinking or falling asleep in a forest at all, but she knew that even if she had indeed fallen asleep in a forest, the only place she should have felt the sunlight and the breeze was on her face.

But as she focused on the conflicting sensations of cold and warm, she realized that she was feeling them everywhere, as if there was nothing to block them from her skin.

Everywhere apart from at her back.

Wait, she thought in a mix of horror and confusion. Am I naked?

Her entire frame tensed as she struggled to comprehend her situation. And, still, the fingertips kept running over her Mark. Fingertips that had to belong to someone. Someone who smelled like a combination of male sweat and shampoo and sandalwood.

Sandalwood.

Christian.

The warmth at her back didn't feel like a blanket or pillow ...

Skin.

She was feeling bare skin against her own.

"What the actual fuck?!" Quinn cried starting to scramble away. Familiar powerful arms wrapped around her and held her fast against a wide chest.

"Relax, little Hunter," the Alpha told her. "Nothing happened."

Quinn struggled to break free of Christian's hold, but she may as well have been fighting against iron bars. "Don't tell me to relax!"

"Just calm down for a moment and think about where you are," Christian shot back and she could hear the amusement in his tone. "How did you get here?"

Grudgingly, Quinn did as she was told, struggling to concentrate with her pounding headache combined with the knowledge that she was naked in front of a man she barely knew and in the middle of nowhere.

After he had shifted forms, Christian had led her through the woods for hours, watching critically as she got used to being a wolf. As she climbed and ran and leapt around obstacles, out of the corner of her eye she would catch him tensing, as if he was afraid she would get hurt. At one point, he decided to entice her into a game of chase, something that had needed a few minutes of convincing before Quinn allowed instinct to take over.

In the back of her mind, her more rational and human side balked at the idea that the two of them, two grown adults, actually playing as if they were children, but at the same time she couldn't help enjoying herself when it was clear that Christian practically radiated delight as they leapt and tumbled over and chased each other. And spending time with her Alpha this way was the most fun she could ever remember having.