hooves dragging in the sand. Cold starlight caught the diamond of her supposed engagement ring, and it sparkled on the checkered beach blanket. It’d been such a beautiful thing. It would’ve looked gorgeous on her finger. She would have cherished it and the man who’d given it to her.
If she’d belonged to the human race. If she’d been normal.
As she changed back to human form, her heart bleak, the memory of her happiness hit her in the chest like a truck. When she’d seen Daniel smuggle the ring into his pocket back at the hotel, no woman alive had ever been happier.
What had she done?
Her hooves gave way to human feet, still warm and dry in her boots. She caught her breath as her breasts became human—and filled with lust. Her bra felt too tight, too constraining, and her core ached with desire. She stumbled with her need—and then pushed it aside. She had no time for this.
She leaned over Daniel’s prone form and fished into his pocket, trying not to cringe at the proximity of her body to his. She took out his cell phone and pulled Kai Atlanta’s business card from her purse.
“Hello.” His deep voice rushed through her, lighting up the neurons kindled by her shape-changing. Lust had a physical taste, she realized, a palpable flavor. Her mouth watered for the salt of his skin.
“Kai.” Her voice was too husky, but she couldn’t help it. “This is Dr. Ann Fallon. We met at the hotel—”
“I know exactly where we met.” The deliberate way he spoke, his deep tone, these made her catch her breath. “Your face isn’t something I’d forget.”
His words might’ve stoked her innate lust under normal conditions, but now…so close to her change…she’d be tempted to fuck him silly if he were here.
“I, um—” She paused, wishing she’d thought this out a little better. “There’s a man lying at my feet—”
“Lucky bastard.”
Again, that unwanted lust twined between her thighs. All doubt was gone. If Kai were here, she knew she’d fuck him. Forget that squeaky-clean appearance, she’d teach him to play dirty. “Seriously, Detective Atlanta.” Her voice sounded steadier than she thought it should. “He’s bleeding.”
“I apologize. I’ll call an ambulance.”
“That’s a good idea, but…”
“But what?”
She concocted a plausible story on the spot. “But I was walking on the beach, and I saw him attacking a woman.”
“Where is she?”
“Also lying at my feet.”
“Bloody?”
“Umm,” she hedged. The woman had been bloody, but now…“It’s too dark.” This implied she couldn’t see but didn’t actually say it.
“So…” He apparently searched for the right words. “You’re surrounded by two bloody bodies?”
“Bodies?” She laughed, but it was a nervous sound. A guilty sound. “No. They’re alive.”
“How do you know?”
“I took their pulses.”
“So if he attacked her, why is he unconscious?”
Ann had had enough of this. If he kept giving her rope, she’d hang herself. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I just know that when he wakes up, the woman here might not be safe.”
“And you know this how?”
“Maybe he has a gun?”
“What makes you think that?”
No way she’d answer that one. “This seems like something for the cops, doesn’t it?”
“It does. Where are you?”
“The victims are at…” She looked at the road, making out the mile-marker signs with an ease a human would have found impossible. “They’re at mile-marker 5 on Silver Strand Boulevard.” She turned and her eye caught the rough-hewn wood building in the distance. Gigantic palms waved by its darkened doors. “South of the Silver Strand State Beach.”
“You called them victims?”
“Well, the woman isn’t moving and something attacked the man, for sure.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.” She gave a low chuckle. “I’m not a detective.”
He didn’t laugh. “Was it you?”
“Me?” She didn’t fake her surprise. How’d he suss out the truth so quickly? “This man’s twice my size.”
“I’ll be right there with an ambulance. Wait for me.”
“I won’t be here. I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave a crime scene.”
“I’m reporting it, which is all I’m required to do. You have my cell and you know where I’m staying.” Except it occurred to her to wonder where she’d be staying, exactly. Not in Daniel’s room, that’s for sure. If he’d been hunting her, and if the predators had been hunting her…Jesus, what was she going to do? “Just call if you need me.”
“If you’re not guilty, why’re you running?”
Ann knew goading when she heard it. “Why would I stay alone on a dark beach in the middle of the night where people have just been attacked?” She clicked off the phone before he could answer.
Her pleasure at having such an unassailable final word lasted a nanosecond. A person who belonged to the human race would sit in the car. An innocent person would wait. She couldn’t though. Not in Daniel’s car. Not for the cops. Not even for Kai Atlanta.
She had to find the vials.
In that moment, she realized her future was ruined.
Her fiancé had been hunting her for bounty and was essentially already married—and she had missed all the classic signs of his betrayal. The secrecy? She’d bought it, hook, line, and sinker. His utter refusal to let anyone know about their relationship? She’d fallen for that too.
Why had he done this to her?
No, she thought. Why had she let herself be fooled? She hadn’t missed classic signs; she’d ignored them.
It was time to start putting her family first—really first. She needed to find the vials and destroy them, and then she needed to help her mother destroy the lab.
She stepped away from the beach blanket, face to the wind. The salt air rolled over her tongue and filled her lungs. Ann knew why she’d done it, why she’d pulled the wool over her own goddamned eyes. She’d wanted the dream too much. Tired of running and hiding and scheming, she’d wanted a so-called normal life so badly that she’d spurned her heritage and embraced what this man had to offer.
Which was lies.
A gust of wind rolled over the water and hit her in the face, chilling her. Fuck this, she thought to herself. Just fuck this. She planted her feet deep into the sand and ripped power from the earth, giving herself no quarter. Her equine form took hold fast, too fast. Muscles tore and ligaments shredded themselves as her human form gave way—but she didn’t care. She deserved the pain. She craved the pain, but it couldn’t last. Her biology healed damaged tissue as quickly as it ruptured.
So she ran.
She ran like a hurricane roaring over the ocean. Sand flew from under her hooves as she thundered over the turf, waves licking her ankles. She put her head down and let the strength of her legs dominate her spirit. Soon she heard nothing but the pounding of her heart and the wind in her ears.
She ran for ten miles,