to the route when Saint had grabbed her. It would be too easy for her to get turned around in the woods and get lost.
Saint snuffled in his sleep, luring her gaze back to him. His muzzle twitched, fur rippling in a wave down his back.
Holly almost smiled.
Caught herself at the last moment.
She should be afraid of him. This was a show of power to deter her from attempting an escape and it was a good one, but there was a reckless, bold part of her that wanted to know what his rich brown fur would feel like if she pushed her fingers through it.
Would it resist her? Be hard to move her hand through it? Would it be soft? Coarse?
That same bold part of her wanted to know how he would react to her touch.
Would he snarl and bare his fangs? Roar to drive her away?
Or would he accept her hand on him?
His rounded ears flipped back and forth, and his nose wriggled. A low rumbling noise escaped him, almost like a groan, and he smacked his lips.
What was he dreaming about?
Holly tensed as she realised he wasn’t dreaming.
He was waking.
She twisted on her heel and hurried across the floorboards, praying none of them would squeak and give her away, and rushed up the stairs.
That bold part of her hoping Saint would come to her.
Chapter 6
Saint was slow to shake off the heavy arms of sleep, his head foggy with the need to forget what he had felt and sink back into her waiting arms, into that delicious dream he had been having.
He blinked his eyes open instead, because he was sure the female had been close to him.
He lifted his head and looked around the room, but didn’t see her anywhere. He drew in a breath and caught her scent, savoured it as heat rolled through him, pulling his dream to the front of his mind again. His mouth watered, hunger for a taste of her flooding him, filling him with a need to know if she would taste of berries as well as smell like them.
Gods.
That was a sweet torment.
Saint lumbered onto his paws and focused, summoning the shift. He gritted his teeth as his bones ached, as his muscles burned as some contracted while others lengthened, and rose onto his back legs. The fur that covered him swept away from his limbs, leaving naked skin behind, and then his chest and back, and finally his head. He grimaced as his nose shrank at the same time, his jaw and teeth moulding into new shapes, and shook his head as his ears shifted downwards and transformed.
The shift took only seconds, but each one was agonising, had him wanting to roar out his pain as his body morphed.
When he was back to how he liked to be, he staggered forwards, clenching his jaw as his stiff leg muscles stretched and refused to obey him. His fault for sleeping with his backside against a flimsy door that did nothing to keep the cold out.
He grabbed the bottoms of his long johns and pulled them on, scrubbed a hand over his face and huffed.
Fatigue rolled over him, beckoned him to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He was too deeply aware of the female as his senses locked onto her in his loft bedroom above him. Her rapid pulse drummed in his ears, her fast breaths breaking the silence. She wasn’t asleep then. Had she been contemplating escape?
Or just contemplating him?
He pulled a deeper breath into his lungs and her scent was so clear she must have been in the room a moment ago. She was the reason he had awoken, her delectable fragrance rousing him from a deep sleep.
A dangerous sleep.
With the winter calling him and a storm raging outside, making the world quiet again, it would be easy for him to fall back to sleep and not wake until spring, not even if she clambered over him to reach the door.
Scratch that.
His body ached, hunger riding him hard. He would definitely wake if she was on him. Just the thought of her pressed against him was enough to have him growing aroused.
What was it about this female that made her affect him so deeply?
He crept up the stairs, eased to a halt at the top of them and stared at her, replayed every moment with her as he gazed at her where she lay on her side on the bed, her black hair spilling across his pillow, her