Savage Monster (Boys Without Remorse #2)

Chapter 1

one

Korain

I jerked awake, my eyes snapping open. A shriek I would never admit to ripped from my throat when my eyes instantly landed on the chair across from my bed—a chair that was supposed to be empty . Yet, sitting right there was a fucking stranger . In my chair. In my bedroom. In my fucking cabin. In a state park that was closed to the goddamn public .

I snatched my gun off the nightstand, pointing it at him. The man just smirked—only a tiny movement of his lips. He was the perfect picture of calm. Steady. Completely unaffected. Meanwhile, my heart jackhammered against my ribcage, and breathing was becoming a fucking issue.

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, gritting my teeth, thankful the gun didn’t shake in my hand.

“Onyx,” he said simply.

I scoffed. I highly doubted that was his real name. He cocked his head to the side the slightest bit—a move that unnerved me and made my stomach curl. It was… predatory.

“Can you put the gun away? I’m not here to hurt you. If I was…” He shrugged. “Trust me, you’d already be dead.”

I swallowed thickly. His voice wasn’t threatening, but his words sent a chill of trepidation down my spine.

“Why the fuck are you in my house?” I demanded.

He lifted one leg, resting the ankle on his knee before he steepled his fingers together over his flat stomach, his elbows resting on the arms of his chair. Daylight was just beginning to break up the darkness, and it cast an almost eerie look over his too-handsome face, gleaming across his dark brown curls and lighting up his blue eyes.

Why the fuck was I thinking about his looks? Jesus, I needed to get my head on straight.

“Stop cursing at me,” he stated calmly.

I blinked at him. Was he seriously giving fucking orders in my house? I scowled at him.

He sighed. “Someone was snooping around your house last night, and you wouldn’t answer the phone.”

I scoffed.

“You mean you ?” I harshly demanded.

He rolled his eyes. “Look at your phone, Korain.”

I shivered at the way my name rolled off his tongue. My name shouldn’t have sounded so fucking sexy when he said it, but it did . In fact, it sounded downright erotic .

I tightened my fingers around the grip on my gun. “You just want me to put the fucking gun down.”

He moved faster than I could ever prepare for, but instead of snatching the gun from me, he gripped my wrist and pressed the barrel right over his heart. Vomit rushed up my throat, and my fingers shook around the weapon.

“Go on,” he taunted, his voice low and dangerous. “Pull the trigger, baby. End me right here, right now.”

I couldn’t pull the fucking trigger. Wouldn’t pull the trigger. And he knew it just as well as I did. Fuck .

Sighing, I loosened my grip, letting the gun fall to my lap. I swallowed thickly when he lifted my wrist and pressed a kiss to my palm, his eyes locking on mine. I curled my fingers into a fist, drawing in a shaky breath, unable to look away from his intense, blue-eyed gaze. I was a deer caught in the headlights, unable to decide if I should run or stay.

He slowly released my wrist and backed away, freeing me from his hypnotizing eyes. I quickly snatched my phone from the nightstand, and sure enough, there were over a hundred missed calls from an unknown number, all of them the same. I looked toward my window before looking at him.

“Why didn’t you call 911?” I demanded, trying to find reasons, grasping at any fucking reason I could, to make him the bad guy. Who the fuck broke into someone’s house and just watched them sleep? “Why didn’t you wake me up when you got here? Why didn’t you alert park authorities?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but he was abruptly cut off when a sharp, high-pitched, female scream echoed through the park from the direction of the campsites. My heart lurched into my throat at the same moment I threw back my blankets. Every human emotion fell from Onyx’s face, freezing me in my steps.

It wasn’t normal to go as blank as he just did.

The scream abruptly cut off, and my heart stopped for a moment, too.

“Onyx?” I asked quietly.

He clenched his jaw.

“Get dressed,” he said quietly. Stepping closer to me once I was out of bed, he gripped the back of my neck, towering over me by a couple of inches. When he tilted his head down to look at me, some of his curls fell into his eyes, and my fingers twitched with the urge to push them back. “Do not leave my fucking sight,” he growled.

Something in his tone warned me not to argue. Warned me he was the true predator here, and disobeying him could turn very ugly. So, instead of opening my big mouth, I just nodded, remaining mute.

We possibly had much bigger things to worry about anyway, especially if he was right and someone had been snooping around my cabin. What if that person had hurt a park visitor?