Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

She wasn’t familiar with the layout of the land and wasn’t sure where she was heading. In this moment, it didn’t matter why her father wanted her dead or how he’d found her. The only thing on her mind was survival.

She made the mistake of looking behind her to see him catching up. She wasn’t watching where she was going and this time when she tripped, she fell flat on her face. Before she could get up, he was on her. Grabbing a handful of her hair, he turned her around and delivered a vicious backhand.

Pain exploded in her cheek but her instinct to survive was strong. The endorphin rush kept her from swooning. Zora brought her knee up, catching him in the solar plexus.

He grunted, falling back just enough for her to get out of his grasp. Zora scrambled to her feet and only got a few yards before he gripped her ankles, sending her to the ground. He was on top of her again, his eyes glistening with madness as he wrapped his hands around her throat.

Zora clawed at him, trying to break the hold. She then tried to claw at his face, going for the eyes. It only made him tighten his hold on her throat. Zora continued to fight, but she was fast losing energy and was getting dizzy from lack of oxygen. With his hands around her neck, she couldn’t do anything but mouth the word, “Why?”

A satisfied smile curved his lips, giving him a look of pure evil. “Because you were born.”

Gavin spotted Zora’s car as well as Logan’s on the side of the road. Logan’s car door wasn’t closed, which meant wherever he’d gone, he’d left in a hurry. He looked around for signs of which direction and sniffed the air. There was one thing he was certain of, his cousin was in bear form, and Zora had definitely been here. He loosened his tie and headed in the direction where the scent was strongest.

He could smell Logan, Zora and someone else. As he headed toward the woods, he heard another car pull up behind him. Without looking back, he knew it was Heath. He kept going, knowing his cousin would catch up. He didn’t want to lose precious time getting to Zora.

By the time Gavin reached the woods, he’d shed his shirt and kicked off his shoes. He could tell from the tattered clothing trail, Logan didn’t bother to undress before changing.

He kept moving as he practically ripped his clothes off, starting to morph before he was completely nude. He paused just long enough to completely transform. Once his bear was loose, his senses were heightened. He could smell better, run faster and see farther.

He reached out to Logan knowing he was much farther ahead. “Do you see anything yet?”

There was a pause before his cousin answered. “I thought I heard some rustling a few hundred yards ahead. Her scent is strong.

I’ll be there in…”

“Logan?”

“I see them!”

“I knew you’d come to this end. You’re an abomination. A whore,” her father sneered in disgust as he continued to squeeze the life out of her.

Zora clawed a deep wound on the side of his face with the last of her strength.

He screamed out and let go of her neck just long enough to slam his fist in the side of her head.

Zora saw stars, and almost immediately those meaty hands were around her throat again. But instead of choking her, he slammed her head into the ground. “Slut. You’ve been cavorting like a whore. Just like her! I saw you in town with those three men,” he screamed. Spittle splattered across her face.

Zora was too woozy and her head hurt way too much to know what he was talking about.

He continued to talk, his eyes blazing with insanity. “You whored yourself years ago and drove that boy crazy, didn’t you? Too bad those bullets didn’t hit you.”

There was no reasoning with or overpowering a crazy person. Her only chance of making this out alive was playing possum. She closed her eyes and went limp.

He squeezed her throat just a little longer and Zora feared it wouldn’t matter if she played dead or not because he was going to kill her. Just as she hovered on the threshold of unconsciousness, he let go. She remained still as she felt him pull away, but instead