I watched with bated breath as Gabe slowly strode toward the wolf with easy, purposeful strides. His divine energy crackled, electrifying the air, making my knees quiver. He crouched beside the wolf, hands cupping his knees, a delicious grin curling his lips.
“Ready to give up?” Gabriel purred to the wolf, stroking the blood-matted fur between the beast’s ears in a mock show of affection. The question was so soft I nearly lost it to the rain. My angel’s tone was so simultaneously smooth, melodic, and intimidating, it sunk straight into me, making the juncture between my thighs hot and wet.
Trigger’s beast answered with a vicious snarl and whipped his head around with an incredible force of speed. He was all but a blur.
A thick, ragged scream emptied my lungs as the wolf’s massive jaw clamped around the angel’s forearm like a vice. Gabe’s brows pinched, but the rest of his face didn’t betray the fact that he just got bit by a wolf the size of a small car. With his free hand, he gripped the top of Trigger’s muzzle and began to pull. His wings seemed to glow brighter, his shoulder muscles coiling, making pearl-white feathers twitch. Beads of moisture dotted the angel’s brow, slicking his blond bangs.
The wolf’s shrill shrieks of agony numbed my entire being. I flinched and looked away as the crack of snapping jawbones filled the night, followed by the sounds of struggling, the last cries of a dying animal. Then nothing but the sound of pattering rain and the thunder of my own heart filled the silence.
It was over so quick.
I didn’t dare turn around to look behind me. If it were anyone else in my place, they would have probably run screaming by now. There hadn’t been a single detail of my birthday that had been normal. I had lost my virginity to Gabriel. I’m pretty sure my friend had sold her soul to the devil. And I’d gotten kidnapped by a sleazy wolf shifter and chased through the woods, only to be saved by my guardian angel.
My guardian angel.Even in my head it sounded strange. Strange…but right.
“Mel Bell.”
Every hair on my neck stood as the familiar voice wrapped around me like a caress. Slowly I turned my head and looked up to see my savior looming over me.
The rain was unrelenting, pelting down in an unforgiving torrent, yet portions of the clouds had parted just enough for the moon to emerge, bathing Gabriel in a pale light.
My breath stilled.
He had a body carved by God himself, with sculpted muscles and pronounced veins that glistened in a film of sweat and dark flecks of wolf blood. With where he stood, the moon sat just above his head like a halo, illuminating his wings in silver.Holy hell.
He looked like a half-drowned demi-god, an unholy angel drenched in blood and moonlight.
Gabriel was an angel. But he was nothing like the angels I’d ever imagined. This one was animalistic, dangerous.
Which made the unmistakable look of shame on his face seem completely misplaced.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry you had to see me like this. And I’m sorry I almost didn’t get to you in time.”
“Sorry?” I mimicked, blinking rapidly in confusion. “This is why you’ve been so afraid to touch me… It’s not just because it’s a sin to love me. You thought I wouldn’t accept your true form.”
His silence, the pain buried deep in the corners of his eyes, was all the confirmation I needed.
“Gabriel. You’remagnificent. I’m the idiot who ran away,” I murmured, trying to hold the hot tears threatening to spill.
His eyes widened in shock like it was me who was the surprising one in this situation. “You’re not disgusted that I’m not human? I thought that’s why you ran.”
I almost smiled. “I ran because it’s hard for a girl to hear that she’s a literal piece of Heaven and that she’s seduced an angel. I’m not a rule-breaker, Gabe. And I have a feeling a lot of rules were broken tonight.”
Relief washed over his features, and he began to laugh, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Oh, God.Somany. You’re really not frightened? Not even the slightest bit disgusted?” He stretched out his arms, all six of his extra eyes centering on me as if to prove a point.
I gave a slow shake of my head. “No. Horns, tail, wings, extra eyes… I don’t care. I will always be yours.”
Gabriel’s eyes grew soft for a moment, then darkened again. His aura shifted, the light from his wings dousing like water over a flame. He fell to his knees before me and held my head between his palms. My heart leapt into a gallop, beating so hard I was sure he could feel it in his hands. How easy it would be for him to crush me like he’d done only moments ago with Trigger. But as soon as his hands were on me, his touch turned soft, and his blue eyes burned with a carnal fire that made my pussy squeeze in sinful anticipation. The moon was swallowed up by the clouds, leaving only the dark silhouette of the predator before me. Anyone else in my position would have been terrified, cold, and exhausted.
But I’d never felt safer, and the rain felt like sweet relief against my hot, desire-stained skin.
“Say it again,” he rasped, his voice husky and laced with evident lust. “Say that you’re mine.”
