Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2)

by H.D. Carlton

This world will fucking smolder, and I will hold her face in the fire and watch her melt in my wrath.

I’m going to burn the entire fucking world down until I find her, and I don’t care who gets burnt.

People often only care about life when it’s inside of a woman’s stomach but stop caring once that life is born.

Piece by piece, we both crumble, the chips falling around us in a waterfall of anguish. And I just know that when Zade picks up our scattered pieces and stitches us back together, we’ll be forever entwined.

“Meadows, baby. Our last name is Meadows.”

“Closer, little mouse,” I whisper. “I need to feel if you’re real, and not just another ghost haunting Parsons Manor.”

“Our mouths are touching the same spot,” she says shakily. “Does that count as kissing?” “You tell me, little mouse. When I make you cry out for God, does that count as praying?”

"Without you, I will shatter. But with you, I am indestructible."

“What you’ve forgotten is that the heart beating inside your chest isn’t fucking yours,” he snarls. “It’s mine. And if my heart has stopped working, then pull that trigger, little mouse. Kill the rest of me. I’m nothing if I’m not the reason you breathe.”

“I don’t care if I need to set this world on fire until there’s no one left but you and me. The world will burn around us, and I’ll gladly live in chaos with you as long as the only person that is a danger to you is me.”

Scars only serve as reminders of what we’ve survived, not what killed us.

tip her head back against my shoulder, mouth parted. “I’ve followed you through lifetimes, Adeline. My soul needs you so badly that I’ve become a shadow, destined to hunt you for eternity.”

“You and I will never end, little mouse. Even when we’re six feet under, and our bones are dust, I will haunt your soul until it aches to be free of me. And then, I will hold you tighter.”

“Your hatred has always tasted like heaven, little mouse. If I have to spend the rest of my life on my knees, then I will use my mouth for more than just begging for your forgiveness.”

“You have five seconds, Adeline, or I will fuck you anyway.”

“I love you, Zade. Sometimes I can’t fucking stand it,” I say, my voice raspy and uneven. “But it was the only thing that kept me alive. You saved me. Even when we were apart, you saved me. And I hope to God you never stop hunting me.”

“I will carve a garden of scars into your flesh, little mouse. Only my pain will bring them to life.”