You aren't good enough.
“Aniyah.” Maso’s voice was close, grounding.
I looked down at my hands, slick with red, and realized they were trembling. Not from regret of what I’d done, but from what Ifailedto do.
“Aniyah?”
I clenched my jaw so tight it ached. The rational part of me knew it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t have known. Magic like this was designed to outsmart the interrogator, but none of that mattered.
He was dead, and I was empty.
Warm hands closed around my shoulders and turned me toward him, then his mouth crashed into mine. No warning. No softness. Just heat and possession and a desperate, anchoring kiss.
I knew this wasn’t the right moment—not when the scent of death still clung to me—but maybe that was the point. I’d warned him. I’d told him this side of me wasn’t easy or soft.
Yet here he was, kissing the monster.
I broke the kiss with a growl, my hands flying to his neck, nails dragging down his skin as I shoved him against the container wall.
There was no sultry smile this time.
No flirtation. No games.
Just raw, coiled fury and the need to let it bleed out of me.
I glared down at him, and when I spoke, my voice was cold and steady. “Your turn to prove it. Show me you can handle this. Handleme.”
* Song: Deathwish by poutyface
29
MASO
Oh, fuck. Shit. Feels so good.
That inner moan rolled through me again and again as her shimmering claws dug into my skin, the sharp pain balancing the pleasure of her lips on mine. The air reeked of blood, metallic and thick, but her arousal was seeping in, too, sweet and wild, twisting the scent into something heady that made my mind reel.
I was never a ladies’ man. Never had a string of women, never chased any either. If they came to me, fine. If not, life went on. My uncle never said it outright, but I knew what he thought.The only girl who’d want you would be one of those filthy supes.
So, I stayed quiet and kept to myself, which, turns out, made me more intimidating. Since I was the muscle, it worked out better that way. Show up, get the job done, move on. You didn’t need charm for that. Just the right skill and the right attitude.
Then Ezra came rolling in. After that, we moved upstate, to middle-of-nowhere New York, and everything shifted. I focused on my family, the land, the next job my debtor would call in.
Then Aniyah showed up.
She looked like no other woman I’d ever seen, white hair braided off to the side, jeans molded to her legs, moto jacket dripping wet, wide-eyed and storm-swept. She looked like an angel who’d fallen from the sky.
My wolf wanted her on sight. He was immediately drawn to her, running images in my head of him rutting into her. I wrestled him back, but God… I was already gone.
She was perfect, and I didn’t want to screw it up. When the night progressed, and we spent it in each other's arms, I was careful, holding her like she’d shatter if I squeezed too hard. Even though Iwantedto squeeze. Wanted to bite down on her neck and spend the rest of the next day licking the wound.
I was so wrapped up in her I didn’t get a single piece of important information. Not where she was headed, not if she had family, hell, not even her name. She bewitched me into bed and disappeared without a trace.
?*Now, her hands were in my hair, dragging those painted claws wherever she could reach, and I gripped her waist harder. Our tongues clashed, hot, desperate, brutal…. We were fighting for dominance in a war I hadn’t realized we’d started but wasdamn sureI’d finish.
She wanted to scare me? To show me she wasn’t an angel but a curvy devil in stilettos? Then drag me to hell, baby, because I wasn’t letting go. Not now.
She tore her mouth from mine, and I buried my face in her neck, needing every inch of her on me, around me,consumingme.
