Operation Minotaur (Monstrous Matchmaker Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

then
they’d reentered the world.
    The rest, as they say, was history.
    “I didn’t hurt her. She always says she knew I wouldn’t
from the first time she got a good look at me.”
    “I knew, too,” Liz said, her voice a smidge stronger
than it had been. “You had a kind smile.” Looking up, she flushed again. “The
children like you. My mom told me you help sometimes around the pack house.”
    How had this delectable wolf remained hidden the entire
time he’d been living on pack land?
    “Do you like to chase, little wolf?” He was curious.
Would her instinct to hunt override her shyness?
    She squirmed and looked away.
    Ahh. Perhaps it was the other side of the hunt she
longed for. The one where she was prey.
    “Or perhaps you’d like me to chase you as I did Ari,” he
said, keeping his voice low.
    A shiver shook her frame and Akakios knew he’d hit on
something.
    Reaching out, he plucked the half-eaten sandwich from
her hand and wrapped it back up. He kept his movements slow so as not to
startle the shy little wolf watching him with such wary, hopeful eyes.
    As one of the predator species, it wasn’t often one came
across a wolf who preferred submission. Given her shy nature, it was likely Liz
had been too afraid to ask any of her partners to take control.
    And that was what she was asking now. She wanted Akakios
to chase her. Take her down. Make her prey.
    He wanted it, too. Gods, how he did.
    He didn’t dishonor her by asking if she was sure. Liz
might be a young wolf by his standards, but she knew her own mind. Her shyness
might keep her from straight out asking, but he understood what she hadn’t
said.
    And he was more than happy to oblige.

Chapter Six
     
    Closing the picnic basket tightly, Akakios looked up and
caught Liz’s wide-eyed stare. Her breathing had accelerated, he noticed. Her
nipples peaked beneath her thin top.
    She looked scared and excited as he stood at his full
height and offered her his hand.
    Blowing out a breath through his nostrils—the sound
startling the pretty wolf and making her jump—Akakios took her by the shoulders
and turned her until she was facing away from the house where Ari and her mate
were cozied up.
    “Run, little wolf,” he said, his voice deeper than it
had been just moments before. “Run and see if you can get away.”
    She stood poised with her back to him for a long moment,
trembling with nerves and arousal. Then she took off, her lithe body flashing
into the trees, barely making a sound.
    Akakios let her get ahead. He’d spent much of his life
chasing mortals—to keep them away, to keep them from telling what they knew, to
flat-out keep them—and he knew tricks the lovely wolf could never conceive of.
    She might have the senses of a wolf, but he had the
cunning of a minotaur.
    Muscles quivering with suppressed excitement, Akakios
waited until the slight sounds she made had faded before following. Her trail
called to him. It whispered lush promises of pleasure and release.
    Lips curled in a dark smile, he tracked her.
    Liz was wily. She backtracked a time or two, hoping to
throw him off. The false trails didn’t fool him, however, and he kept on,
closing the gap between them with steady confidence.
    When he got close enough he could hear her panting
breaths, he let out a rough snort and sent her scrambling off again. He liked
that. He liked having her on the run.
    Her scent saturated the air, leading him on. She was
less careful in her haste and he could hear her now. Twigs snapped underfoot as
she ran. Her breathing was overly loud to his sensitized ears.
    The last woman he’d chased had been Ari and she’d banked
on being caught. She’d wanted it.
    Liz wanted it too, although for different reasons. Ari
had wanted him to herd her to the exit, show her the way out of the labyrinth.
Liz wanted the joy of the chase.
    It exhilarated him to know that.
    He sped up, closing the distance between them with ease.
Startled golden eyes met his when she