Anger flared white-hot in my chest, but not at his words, at my body’s reaction to them—the extra thuds to my heart and the extra skip in my pulse.
What the fuck was that? I didn’t care what he thought or wanted. I didn’t even know this guy.
I shook my head. “The beast inside you would die for mine. Your beast wants me. Not you.”
“I am the beast, Seraphina.”
Oh, fuck, why was that so hot?
I bit the inside of my cheek. I needed to take control of this conversation. I needed to stop wanting to lick him. “Why?”
“Why?” He arched a brow.
I turned my mouth down and shrugged one shoulder. “Yes. Why? Why would you die for me?”
“You should know. You felt it in the Culling when we were attacked. You would have died for me too.”
I wanted to protest, but the words were dried-up husks in my mouth. Instead, my feet drew me one step closer to him, shrinking the distance between us. The connection binding us was too strong, thrumming and aching and calling to the Loup inside me to submit and give in, to take and be taken.
His eyes were dark pools of promise begging me to strip and bathe, begging me to just fucking strip. I needed to step away. I needed to get away, to run before the Loup inside won and I lost everything, but my body resisted, wanting to get closer. Wanting to touch.
“You feel it, Seraphina,” he said. “And you can deny it all you want, but it’s not going away. You’re mine, and sooner or later, you’ll have to accept it.”
The arrogance in his tone, hell, his fucking words, were enough to help me break from the weird magnetic force pulling us together.
I took a deliberate step away from him. “I’m not a slave to my beast, Hunter. Maybe it’s because I’m more than my Loup. Maybe because I didn’t have it growing up like you did. Whatever the reason, I make decisions whether to sleep with someone based on how much I like them. And I don’t like you. Not one bit. So why the hell would I mate with you? Hmmm?”
His dark eyes glinted dangerously before narrowing with intention. The human part of me screamed at me to run because I’d prodded the beast, and he was done playing, but the Dominus in me, the alpha, stood her ground, chin up and defiant.
“You want to know why?” he said, lethal-soft, stepping closer.
No. No, I didn’t want to know. Not anymore, because I could read the intention in those obsidian eyes and feel the heat of his gaze on my mouth.
Run, Fee, run.
“Don’t.” I took another step back.
He moved so fast there was no chance to evade, and then his hands were tangled in my hair, and his mouth was on mine, crushing and bruising. But instead of shoving him away and punching him in the throat, I kissed him back like I was starving and he was the last chocolate-covered donut in the fucking world. My blood was on fire, my heart was galloping, and my tongue was in his mouth licking him out, teeth biting, mind gone. Totally gone.
“Ahem.”
Eldrick. Eldrick was here.
My common sense came back online. I tore my mouth from Hunter’s and shoved him away. Hard.
He staggered back, and the hunger on his face would have stolen my breath if I had any left in my lungs. We stared at each other, breathing too fast and too heavy. And then he licked his lips and slow-blinked, and just like that, he was completely composed while my body was still firing on all cylinders like a firework being rained on—crazy and frazzled.
I fisted my hands and glared at him so hard I was afraid my eyeballs would pop out of my head. “Don’t you ever fucking touch me again, you hear me?”
“Hunter, leave,” Eldrick ordered. His face was a stern mask, his eyes chips of ice. Hunter kept his gaze on me for a moment longer, then with a final indecipherable look, he turned and casually strolled past Eldrick and out of the penthouse.
“I’m sorry, Fee,” Eldrick said. “I thought Hunter was on patrol.”
“It’s not your fault.” It was mine. I’d lost control, and that loss could have cost me my freedom. “It was my fault.”
I forced my muscles to unknit and relax bit by bit and willed my pulse to slow.
His expression softened. “This is hard for you, I know. When our wolf chooses a mate, it’s not something easily ignored.” A slight frown marred his brow. “Fee, I know you have a dislike for Hunter. I understand he can be…abrasive and arrogant, but he would never hurt you.”
“What are you saying? You think I should mate with him?”
“I think you should consider why your wolf has chosen him. Our primal instincts rarely steer us wrong.”
I didn’t like the look on his face. It was the look that a parent would give a child when they were making a mistake.
I smiled thinly. “Hunter’s an arsehole. An arsehole who told Larson that if a Loup female was old enough to bleed, she was old enough to breed.”
Eldrick looked confused. “Hunter said that?”
“Larson said it when he was representing Hunter, so I assume the sentiment came from Hunter himself.”
Eldrick looked perplexed. “Those aren’t Larson’s views. I’ve known him all my life. He’s a good Loup, a moral Loup. But Hunter…I can’t imagine he’d say such a thing either.”
“Look. I don’t want to be a pack wolf. I don’t want to be mated to anyone, and I’m done talking about it.”
I grabbed my jacket and headed to the door.
“Fee, please. Don’t leave angry.”
I paused at the door and exhaled, forcing the anger out of my system before looking back at him with a wry smile. “I’m not angry with you, Eldrick. I’m pissed at myself. I’ll see you soon.”
I left the penthouse, hoping to all the powers that be that my final words hadn’t been a lie.
Chapter Three
Aunt Lara set down the empty box of baubles she was holding and rested her hands on her hips. “What do you think?” She surveyed the Christmas tree with a satisfied smile on her face.
It was beautiful, as always. In fact, the whole house was beautifully decorated. Two weeks till Christmas. Where had the time gone?
“I love it. The kids will love it.” They were playing in the snow outside, and their shrieks of pleasure could be heard through the windowpanes. “They’re lucky to have you.”
“I’m lucky to have them.” She turned to me with a piercing look, one I recognized from childhood. “So, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”
I put down the slice of carrot cake I was devouring—my victory cake for surviving the Culling. Dayna had made sure to fill Aunt Lara in on my victory, even though it hadn’t been a real victory, but still, I was alive, and that was all that Aunt Lara cared about. I’d been hugged to bits when I got here, not that I was complaining. Aunt Lara’s hugs were perfect.
I hadn’t filled her in on Eldrick yet, though, or anything else that had happened after the Culling. She didn’t know about the mouth attack either.
She was looking at me intensely now, waiting.
I could never get much past Aunt Lara, and there was so much simmering inside me right now. But I didn’t want to taint our time together with worry and anxiety, so telling her about the trip to see Lilith was out of the question. The guys would let Aunt Lara know what was happening if I was forced to go into hiding. The rest, though…That was sharable content.
“Fee?” She frowned. “We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
No, we didn’t. But where to start? “I met my father.”
The words tumbled out, and I pressed my lips together, waiting for her response.
She stared at me for a moment and then plonked herself down on the sofa opposite me. “And? What is he like? Is he nice?”
“He’s the alpha of the Rising Pack, and he’s…I like him. He’s kind, and he protected me from Hunter.”
“Hunter? Wait, I thought Hunter was the alpha of the Rising Pack.”
“Well, it’s a long story…”
“I best put the kettle on then,” Aunt Lara said.
“And more cake?”
She ruffled my hair as she walked past. “Of course.”
By the time I left Aunt Lara’s, the moon was high and the Deadside streets were empty of ghosts. My house waited, lights blazing as if it knew I was here, which it probably did. I could feel this place beneath my skin like a gentle buzz, but as I walked up the path it was hard to ignore my sinking stomach. I’d wanted to be away from Mal and Conah, to avoid facing the possibility that we might fail to find a solution to our problem. But now, all I wanted to do was go home and be with them, even if it meant catching them looking at me as if I was on borrowed time.
I pushed open the door with a sigh and froze as the smell of popcorn hit me. What the fuck?
Voices drifted in from the lounge. Dayna, maybe? Or the guys from Soul Savers Operations? Dayna had a key and could have let them in.
I headed into the lounge. The TV was playing one of the DVDs from my collection and the lamp on the side table had been switched on, but all that was insignificant, because sprawled out on the sofa, fast asleep, was Mal. He was dressed in joggers and a gray T-shirt. His mouth was slightly parted, his face beautiful and relaxed in sleep. One hand was on his abdomen, pushed up under the hem of his T-shirt, and the other was hooked above his head.
I opened my mouth to call his name, then changed my mind. I’d never seen him like this—open, vulnerable, and unguarded. Like this he was soft and compelling. I knelt by the sofa, staring at him, taking him in like a creepy stalker. Fuck, I didn’t even care. He was here. He’d come for me. He’d put on a movie, made popcorn, and fallen asleep waiting for me.
For me.
My heart swelled, a sweet pain that brought tears to my eyes. Who would have thought the arrogant Dominus who loved to goad and needle me would ever elicit this yearning inside me? There was no stopping myself. I didn’t want to.
I leaned in and brushed his lips with mine, the contact feather-light, barely there, but enough for me to taste the salt on his lips.