All Chapters of Knotting the Hunter: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

Noah"I'm driving," Dax says, already in the truck."She asked for me.""And you live here, so it's a package deal now."He backs down the drive before my door's even shut."Also, ten more seconds in that hallway and we'd have let the phone ring out while you thanked me the way you were dying to, so somebody owes me a very specific apology later. I'm keeping a tab.""You can't smell that.""I can smell everything. It's my favorite thing about you. You’re full of slutty honey."Arguing with him about my own intentions is a fight I already lost in a hallway five minutes ago, so I let it go.The gate comes up in the high beams, and past the bars there's a little hatchback parked on the county side, lights on, and Heidi standing in front of it with her arms crossed like she's waiting on a late bus.My heart does something complicated.Two years of dating her, followed by months of her hating me, and some part of me still files her under home without asking permission first."That's her al

Noah"One more time. All of it.""I hold the crossing," Tori says, in the tone of a hostage reading a statement."I stay out of the deep stretch. If anybody comes through the water acting lost, I point them at the county side and I don't follow. I'm a signpost. You smuggled your sister past five trucks of armed men to be a signpost.""A signpost to something nothing in this wood has ever managed to move," Dax says.He's lashing the spade to my pack like we do this every week."Staying within sight of the water is the rule tonight. Anybody gets lost, you don’t go beyond where you can see the creek to save them. If they’re out of sight and don’t come when you call, they’re probably not real. Don't leave your post for anything.”He thinks for a second.“And stay off the stretch past the crossing where the banks pinch. It runs deep through there, and much faster than it looks. No point saving someone from getting turned around just to get them drowned.""See? He briefs me like a soldier.

DaxThe rim of the circle is still eating my grass.That's how you tell it’s linked to a live creature, according to the witch who likes my boyfriend better than me and pretends it’s the other way around just to fuck with him.Old dead ground has a clean edge.This one's got blades browning halfway up, right at the rim, dying while we stand here watching.'Dig it up,' the wolf says. 'Dig it up, bite it in half, and mail her the pieces.'We're doing one of those things.Noah walks the edge one slow time with the spade over his shoulder.Eight patches inside my fence, and out of all of them he picked this one like he was choosing a melon."Tell me your reasoning again. I like hearing it.""You like catching me being smart.""I like a lot of things about you being smart. Most of them aren't legal to do outdoors.""Seven of the patches, we can't tell what they’re connected to because the creatures are already dead and the magic’s been spent."He stops at the spot where the browning is wor

DaxThe plan's simple, which means the catch hasn't shown up yet.Noah sits on a bench by the river looking lonely and sexy.I lie in the brush thirty feet downwind, waiting to watch the thing that's been snacking on this town try to flirt with what's mine.The wolf's been growling about the seating arrangement since sundown.‘We should be on the bench. He should be in the bush.’You know it doesn't want to seduce werewolves.‘Then it's stupid as well as ugly.’Twenty-four hours since Tori's texts lit up our porch, and my boyfriend spent most of them planning how to make himself irresistible to a fairy.His words at the kitchen table this morning, said around a mouthful of toast,"It hunts lonely people, and it's got a schedule. Tristan walks that path after dinner, so I get to the bench an hour early. A fresh sad man in its territory, sitting where its food sits. It'll want a taste before the regular delivery shows up."I hated the plan immediately and couldn't find a way around it,

DaxNoah recites poetry to my ass the whole way up the stairs.It doesn't rhyme and half of it is threats, but it's delivered with total sincerity by a man hanging upside down over my shoulder, so I'm counting it."Put me down or I'll bite you somewhere structural.""You'll bite me anyway.""True. I stand by it."Two days of this.Maybe three if I’m lucky. I’m not wasting any of it.I kick the bedroom door shut.So incredibly grateful that he gave me permission not to stick to the self-sacrificing plan I’d originally made.Resisting Noah in this state would have been the worst kind of torture.Still need to stick to a schedule of watering and feeding though. Take care of his health.I drop him on the bed and the schedule dies on impact.He bounces once, comes up on his knees with his pupils blown black, and gives me the look I give breakfast.'Clothes off,' the wolf says.He's been strutting since the riverbank and it hasn't improved.'All of them. Why are you still standing there.'"