Hunted by the Wolf, Claimed by Three Bears

Chapter2

Olivia POV

I was in shock, and my knees buckled underneath me. How the hell could I have been so naïve, thinking Brady and I had this amazing relationship, planning a wedding, just for him to cheat? And what about Timothy? How could he do this to his son?

As I realized that my family was about to break up, or had already broken up, depending on how I wanted to view it, I couldn’t breathe. It didn’t seem to matter how much air I tried to suck into my lungs, it didn’t make a difference. I couldn’t stop feeling so horrendously dizzy.

Brady Clover had cheated on me. The world as I knew it had just turned upside down.

What the hell was I going to do now? Brady didn’t like me having a job, which he said was because of the constant moving around, but I knew it was a male pride thing, because he wanted to take care of his woman. But now that left me with very little money. Plus, I didn’t really have anyone I was close to, so I was really alone. And now that this had happened, I was about to be even more alone.

“What the f**k?”

I couldn’t stop myself from muttering as Brady lifted the red-haired woman as if she weighed nothing, but it wasn’t in the throes of passion. A bitter ball of bile lodged itself in the base of my throat as I noticed she wasn’t interacting with him at all.

She was lifeless, her skin having no color to it. Holy s**t. What the hell was Brady doing with a dead woman in his boat? And why was he stroking her cheeks like he had some kind of sick connection to her?

I found myself backing away as a million questions flooded my brain. None of this made any sense; I couldn’t make the pieces fit at all. But I was trying my hardest.

And then he tossed the lifeless body over the side of the boat and smirked to himself as he watched her sink. Like she meant nothing to him, like she was just a rock.

I did not know who Brady was. That much was clear.

It was also strikingly obvious that I needed to get the hell away from him, and now. If he could potentially murder a woman and toss her over the boat, there was no telling what he would do to me. No one was safe with a man like that.

Once I managed to wrench my gaze away from the scene of absolute horror unfolding in front of me, I ran back to my car without looking back. I didn’t want to see him again, ever, not even to confirm that the sight I had just seen was true. My gut knew it was.

I needed to get Timothy out of school and get out of here before Brady got to him. I wouldn’t put it past that man to do anything now.

“f**k,” I muttered.

My heart was beating so hard against my rib cage, and I hoped I could keep from getting sick on the drive to Timothy. Nothing would keep me from rescuing my son.

“f*****g hell.”

How had I missed this?

I raked my trembling fingers through my hair as I tried my best to work it out. I must have been so dumb and naïve. Who the hell lived with a killer and didn’t know it?

I was struggling to see straight. The dizziness and confusion had my eyes all blurry. Or maybe that was the tears about to race down my cheeks. It felt like my heart was exploding in my chest. I wasn’t sure it would ever beat normally again.

Why would he kill that poor woman? What the hell is wrong with him? Maybe the rumors about him were true. All of them.

I hated that I had ignored them because I had stars in my eyes, but I was seeing clearly now. When we first started dating, there were whispers that he had been estranged from his bear pack because of his greed. He stole money from his own pack and betrayed them terribly, causing them to turn their backs on him completely. Stealing was unheard of in the shifter community, especially within one’s pack. If that story was true, then it was understandable why he had been sent away.

I found it hard to believe at first, though, because Brady never seemed to have any trouble with money. From what he told me, his job paid well, so I couldn’t work out why he would do such a thing.

Brady explained it away, saying he chose to leave the pack, and I stupidly believed him, giving myself all the excuses in the world. I was young and in love. I thought I knew better. Basically, I thought that our love would grow to be so strong that I could tame him and keep him happy.

How wrong I was. That could not have been further from the truth. Now stealing and being estranged from the pack were the least of my worries…

“Oh my God.”

I clapped my hand over my mouth as something else struck me. Something I really did not want to think about. But how could I not? Not now that I know the truth.

We always moved to small towns, lake towns, which I thought was for fishing. But there was always an incident—she-wolves who ended up drowning in said lakes. We moved as soon as the news of his death broke. Brady always told me we needed to move because of the fish.

Fuck, now I knew all too different. I knew things I did not want to know.

Brady was killing people. Women. Innocent she-wolves.

She-wolves like me.

The man I thought I wanted to marry was a murderer. A serial killer. What the f**k was wrong with him? And what the f**k was wrong with me? How did I miss this?

I needed to get Timothy out of here before one or both of us ended up at the bottom of a lake. I didn’t know where the hell I was going to go, what we would do, or how I would explain all of this to my son, but the practical side of things didn’t matter right now.

I would just take things one step at a time.

The most important thing was keeping us alive.

We needed to run.

Fast.