Ensnared (Brutes of Bristlebrook #1)

by Rebecca Quinn

Survival tip #51 Carrots aren’t worth your life.

Survival tip #220 Don’t risk your men. No matter how pretty she is.

our little field mouse

Survival tip #12 Laugh lines can be deceptive. Sure, maybe this person is good humored and trustworthy. But maybe they laugh while they dismember corpses. Exercise caution.

No, bad Eden. He is an ass. You shouldn’t be noticing his.

Survival tip #38 Cheese = safety.

Sweet sunshine, what on earth just happened?

Survival tip #2 Don’t wait for the next bad thing to happen. Move on before it does.

You can never experience as much in your lifetime, or see through so many eyes, as you will by reading what others have to say. Books will glue our world back together, if anything can.”

Day Death, they called it.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Our reckoning was over, and it wasn’t pestilence, or death, or famine that killed us. It was war.

Survival tip #230 Beautiful men make your brain fuzzy. Thinking is important. Abort!

On the bright side, I’m no longer lumpy and unfit. I can see the ad campaign now. Starve yourself skinny: the Apocalypse Diet.

My stomach jolts. Just what I need, more men.

“Whatever I agreed, you do not have the right to manhandle me like that unless I give you permission!”

“You will— You will treat me like a lady!”

Survival tip #238 You won’t actually pass out from embarrassment. It’s not a good defense mechanism.

“Answer me, little librarian. This is just the beginning of the inquisition.”

little librarian.

Stop, stop, stop, one voice chants. They’re all watching! Another voice—a better voice, I decide—gasps a husky, I know. Hot, right?

An offering to our king.

Such a good girl.”

Survival tip #124 Everyone has a past. Make sure theirs won’t come back to bite you.

Experience has taught me that gift horses should not only be looked in the mouth, but examined for fleas and attitude problems and secret, nasty packages strapped to their saddles.

Just because I want it, it doesn’t mean I get to have it. And it certainly doesn’t mean I’ll get to keep it.

Survival tip #85 Deal with your messes when you make them. The longer you leave them, the harder they are to clean up.

Survival tip #166 Don’t upset large predators. Watch, listen, and learn . . . and maybe they won’t eat you alive.

And I learned he loves the word “ardently,” and that he thinks Elizabeth Bennett is a “saucy minx”—a scribble that startled peals of laughter from me.

Survival tip #200 A safe place is worth any price. Even your pride.

I’m not their equal . . . I’m just their pet.

Survival tip #278 When manners fail, go primal.

He smells good, I realize. Like cars and wind and raw man.

Oh, God. Time to turn your eyes away, Jesus.

Survival tip #150 When men start swinging their dicks around—duck!

I turned into some kind of wanton, furious, sex-hungry . . . harlot!

Bad librarian. He is not a piece of meat. His eyes are up⁠—

Survival tip #98 Sadists will only hurt you.

Survival tip #183 “The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.”

Survival tip #212 Laugh when it hurts. Tears will only dehydrate you.

hard-on. Heart-on? I wish I gave him a heart-on.

Survival tip #69 The world will twist you up. Be flexible.

That’s it, it’s official: I’m a sex goddess.

Survival tip #301 When in doubt, fight it out.

Survival tip #111 Trust your doctor. They know what’s best for your body.

Nice try, little subbie.

Survival tip #245 Find the biggest predator you can. Then hide behind them.

Survival tip #173 Settling for less than you need only guarantees a slower death.

Survival tip #281 Don’t enter a battle if you don’t know the lay of the land. You’ll lose.

“But in the end, I always lose.”