Read Online Dare: A Stepbrother Romance by Caitlin Daire - Free Book Online Page B

he asked.
    I shook my head. “No. Mom’s friend has wildlife surveys done out here every so often, and there haven’t been any bears anywhere near this land in years.”
    “Well, we should go check that sound out,” he said. “Sounded like footsteps.”
    “It’s probably just one of the other adults.”
    “No, they all went to bed ages ago. Why would they be wandering around outside?”
    We heard what sounded like more footsteps, further away this time, and then what sounded like a shrill cry. The cry was probably just some sort of bird calling out, but I couldn’t be sure.
    “The sound is coming from over near the tree line now,” Drew said, peering out the window that faced the forest behind the main cabin. “I think there might be someone out there. Let’s go check it out.”
    “Are you freaking crazy?” I said, my eyes wide. “It could be anyone. It could be an ax murderer!”
    He chuckled. “Or it could just be some lost hikers. We need to check. If it is an ax murderer, do you really want him coming over here where the kids are sleeping?”
    He was right about that, but I didn’t want to admit it.
    “Well, by all means, go ahead and tell the possible trespassers to leave,” I said, gesturing towards the door. “I’m not going over there unless I have a shotgun!”
    His jaw clenched, and his lips pressed into a thin line. “Fine. Pussy.”
    “Oh yeah, I’m a pussy because I don’t want to walk up to a possible serial killer in a dark forest.”
    “We don’t even know what it is. It could just be the wind making sounds,” he said.
    “Whatever.”
    He shot me an angry look and then headed outside, and I sighed in exasperation and ran after him. As scary as this was, I couldn’t actually let him go out there alone. What if there really was some crazy person out there in the woods? He turned and saw me trailing behind him and grinned.
    “Ah, so you’ve come to protect me from Bigfoot and his serial killer pals,” he said.
    “Shut up. Let’s figure out what that sound was and then get back inside.”
    We trudged away from the cabin in the direction the sound had come from, and Drew turned to the side and spoke in a low voice. “You know what I heard about this part of the state?” he said as we crept towards the tree line.
    “What?”
    “I heard people used to go missing in the woods in this area all the time. About seventy years ago, a group of hunters went into a forest not far from here to hunt some deer, and only one of them ever returned. He was in shock, and he never spoke again. Ended up killing himself not long after.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Bullshit. I think I would’ve heard that legend by now, considering how long this land has been in Mom’s family, but nice try.”
    “Damn. Thought you were easy to scare.”
    We paused and cast our eyes around, but we couldn’t see anyone out here, even with the moonlight slicing through the night sky, illuminating the area for us.
    “I guess it must have been the wind rustling the trees,” I said. “There’s nothing here, and the crying sound we heard was probably just a bird.”
    Drew put a finger to his lips. “Shh. You hear that?” he whispered.
    More twigs snapping. Every hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end, and I gulped back hot tears of fear.
    “Drew…” I said. “We should go back to the cabin. Now.”
    There was another strange sound all of a sudden, and my heart almost stopped. It was like a mixture of grunts and clicks, and it sounded like something from Alien vs Predator.
    “What the hell was that?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
    Drew crept forward, and I followed him, my eyes wide as I looked around in every possible direction.
    “Hello?” Drew called out. “Is someone out here?”
    We’d reached a small clearing, and suddenly two deer dashed past us, startled by Drew’s words. One of them was making that same strange sound we’d heard. Of course. I hadn’t seen a deer in ages,