The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(2)

I have the worst luck in the world. My gaze flew to the right, and I saw that the limb, my sweet safety, had started to break.

Fido still circled below me.

Crap. Crap. Crap!

“Go—” I began again, but the dog stopped mid-snarl. Its head tilted to the right, and its ears perked up. Then, without even another glance my way, it turned and lunged into the woods.

Yes. I sagged back. Blood dripped down my arm.

This would teach me to leave my mace at home. But I figured, hey, not in Chicago anymore. What bad thing can possibly happen in the boonies of South Carolina?

Apparently, wild, vicious dogs could happen.

My breath hissed out when I touched the claw marks. Ten to one odds they’d scar. Then I’d be the not-so-cool girl with claw marks on her arm.

“Uh…you okay up there?”

The male voice was deep, hinted with just a bit of the south, and…amused. Amused at my expense.

My head snapped up, and my gaze searched the ground. I frowned because I didn’t see anyone, not at first and then—

Then he stepped out of the shadows.

Oh, wow.

Tall, tan, with lots of muscles. Muscles I could see because the guy didn’t have on a shirt. A pair of old faded jogging shorts, tennis shoes, but…nothing else.

His thick, black hair was a little too long, and his eyes had to be the absolute bluest that I’d ever seen.

He looked like he was around my age, maybe a year or two older. One look, and I knew he was trouble. The really good kind of trouble that can make a girl want to sneak out late at night.

And I was stuck up in a tree, bleeding. Right. Way to make a killer first impression. Things were supposed to be different this time.

I cleared my throat and felt I had to warn him. “You need to be careful! There’s some kind of wild dog running loose out here.” Yeah, my voice broke a bit because I’m super cool and sexy like that. Nice.

He blinked and his brows rose. “Dog?”

There was another crack. Louder this time and I knew that—

The limb broke, and I went down. In that half-second, I prepared for the impact and the staggering humiliation of falling at the hot guy’s feet.

But I didn’t slam into the ground. He caught me.

He caught me.

Up close, I realized that his eyes weren’t solid blue. Gold circled his pupils.

My arms locked around him. He was warm and strong and…I cleared my throat. “Thanks. You move fast.” How lame did that sound?

A ghost of a smile lifted his lips. Nice lips. Not too thin. Not too thick. “You spend a lot of time falling out of trees?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Only on days when Fido chases me.”

The smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, and his gaze dipped to my arm.

I was still holding on to him. Okay, now this was getting awkward. “You can put me down.”

His face was truly perfect, in the dark-and-dangerous kind of way. Strong features. Hard jaw. Incredibly white teeth.

Slowly, he lowered me to the ground. I didn’t want to be bleeding all over him—and I didn’t know him and we were alone in the woods and my dad hadn’t raised a fool—so I took a few quick steps back. Adding a little space might be a good thing.

“What happened?” He wanted to know as he put his hands on his hips.

Do all the guys here look like you? I bit the question back. So not the time or place. I have a tendency to blurt things out. I’m working on that tendency. Really. Kind of.

And I’m also supposed to be working on my attitude. The teachers at my old school had pretty much thought that my attitude sucked. Because, you know, it did.

My hand covered the marks. “The dog clawed me.”

“So you ran up a tree?”

I blinked. Where was the flaw in my plan? Oh, yeah, the breaking limb. “It seemed like a better idea than just standing still and letting him bite me.”

His gaze came back to mine. “You sure it was a dog?”

“Uh, yeah…”

But just then, a new sound filled the forest. A long, mournful howl.

He laughed then, and his white teeth flashed in a grin that made me think again—trouble. “Chicago, you don’t know much about animals do you?”

Chicago. So he knew who I was. I cleared my throat. “You’re saying it was…a wolf?” I’d just been nearly eaten by a wolf? I could never do anything half-way.

He stepped forward then, and his hand lifted toward my red hair. I flinched because I wasn’t expecting that move.

“Easy.” He seemed to barely breathe the word. Then he pulled a twig out of my hair.

The ground could have just opened up and swallowed me then. That would have been merciful. But, no such luck.

Bloody, dirty, and with twigs in my hair. Normally, I presented much better than this. I had style—I just didn’t have it right then.

I swallowed and tried to calm my racing heart. I’d been in situations much, much worse than this before.

I took another step away from him. Not because I was nervous. Or maybe because I was. “My name’s Anna Lambert.” Not Chicago. I waited just a beat. “Who are you?” My eyes darted behind him. That howl hadn’t sounded close. A good thing.

A wolf? Guess I sure wasn’t in Chicago anymore.

Another howl filled the air, and I rocked back on my heels.