Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(73)

“I’ll pack everything up,” Aiden smiled as he kissed her once more. He stood and started to collect their things and Laurie looked back at the log cabin where she had spent her childhood.

“I’m just going to take a closer look,” she called to him as she walked towards the forest. She could hear him behind her as he waded into the water and started to load things into the boat.

The darkness of the forest came suddenly as she got close to the cabin. The trees blocked out what was left of the sunlight and for the first time that day she felt a chill. She wrapped her arms around herself and was about to turn and make her way back to Aiden when she had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching her. The hairs stood up on the back of her neck and she squinted to try and see in the bushes and trees ahead. She was sure she could see something moving. Her heart started to pound. She was surely just being paranoid. She looked back over her shoulder but she had gone too far into the forest and Aiden was out of sight. She couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see her. She swallowed and looked back into the trees behind the cabin and her heart almost stopped as she realized with complete horror that she wasn’t alone.

Ahead of her, taking long slow steps in her direction, Brad emerged from the trees. His face was still and angry and he held a gun in his hand. She knew instantly he had somehow tracked her here. It could have been by a million clues. This couldn’t be happening, she thought. He didn’t say a word as he lifted the gun towards her. Laurie let out a blood curdling scream as he pulled the trigger.





8.



The bullet powered into the ground at her feet and he shot again. Laurie jumped back in terror. The dirt sprayed around her in a cloud and she fell back onto the forest floor shielding her face.

“I knew you were f*cking around behind my back,” Brad spat as he laughed and moved quickly towards her. “I’d been saying it for months and all you did was lie.” He raised the gun and pointed it at her chest again. “And now you have the nerve to run out on me in the middle of the night. Did you honestly think that I wouldn’t find you?” He laughed like a maniac and in his eyes there was something more than sinister. He wasn’t messing around.

“You followed me?” she said.

“I didn’t have to follow you Laurie,” he shook his head in disbelief, “You used to talk about this place incessantly, and sure enough your albums, you know the ones with all the summer postcards in them? Yeah, those. The address was right there. I knew where you would come. I just had to be a little patient. Truth be told I did start to think maybe you weren’t coming after all. But here you are. You see, you’re not that clever, did you really think I was just going to let you leave?” His eyes were wild.

She closed her eyes as she heard footsteps behind her. Aiden. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest she thought it was going to burst out of her ribcage.

“Oh here he is,” Brad laughed, “The man who stole her heart.”

“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong,” Aiden said calmly. “She hasn’t been cheating on you. We just met.”

“I don’t need your f*cking lies,” Brad spat, he alternated pointing the gun between them. He pointed it frantically at Aiden and then at Laurie, his eyes popping out of his head.

“Put the gun down,” Aiden said calmly, as if this situation was nothing to be concerned about. And then his tone changed, “Now.”

“You think you’re going to tell me what to do?” Brad screamed, “I’ve got news for you douchebag, I’m the one holding the gun! I decide what’s going to happen here! Understood?”

A smile crept across Aiden’s face before he curled it up into a sneer.

“No,” Aiden growled, “That’s actually not how it works at all.”

Suddenly Aiden’s body heaved and buckled, his muscles ripping through his clothes as his voice turned to snarls and growls. At the same time his limbs shortened and his torso grew long as he fell to all fours. Everything about him was changing before their eyes, as he continued to issue a ferocious howl. His tanned skin turned even darker before a coat of luscious thick fur burst forth. His big hands pulled in as they morphed into paws with sharp claws and his gorgeous face morphed into the handsome features of a wolf. A magnificent, and enormous wolf. One with beautiful fierce blue eyes. Laurie blinked, breathless and struck dumb all at once. She couldn’t believe her eyes. What the f*ck is happening? She thought.

Within seconds the beast had spanned the distance between himself and Brad, who had mere seconds to stand there in utter disbelief and shock before the giant creature had clamped his jaws on Brad’s throat. Laurie didn’t want to watch but she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Carried by momentum the wolf knocked Brad maybe ten feet back, even as it shook its head, tearing his throat out. Before she could comprehend what was happening the wolf, or whatever it was, dragged him off into the trees. The only evidence left of them was the gun lying on the ground in front of her. And then there was the blood.


Aiden was a shifter. Holy shit. Her heart pounded even harder as everything suddenly came into focus. That explained everything. His icy blue eyes, the way his skin felt like it was on fire, the power that ran through him… and of course the creature that had saved her. It had saved her. It was him. It was him all along. No wonder he felt so different to anyone she had ever met before, she had never met a shifter before…Of course she had heard the stories, but never believed any of it. How could she know such creatures actually existed?