This was the first time where I felt like the kind of werewolf depicted in human movies—an uncontrollable, wild beast.
I was no longer in control of my urge to mate and breed and destroy.
I was a slave to it.
As I was shoved to the back of my consciousness, forced to watch from the backseat, the monster’s voice was a practice purr in my ear.“My turn. Time to show you how we treat our mate.”
NINETEEN
RUTH
Just as I’d hoped, the instant my blood touched the silver wolf’s tongue, he lost his hold over his primal nature.
He was shape-shifting right before my eyes.
Any other bunny in my position would be terrified. But my survival instincts told me I needed his mark. A voice so small, like a breeze in the back of my brain, whispered to me, telling me this was right despite how wrong it all was.
It was unsettling at first, feeling him transform beneath me. Feeling his bones rack and fuse back together, stretching skin with tufts of fur rapidly forming into a thick and flouncy coat of silver.
In the woods, I’d gotten up close and personal with his brother. Well, notthisclose and personal, but near enough to the beast to slay it. There hadn’t been a lot of time to stop and study his features. It was a giant silver wolf, and it wanted to kill me with his pregnant mate not far away. It’s not like I was going to stop and take in his features.
Now that I had time to drink in every detail, this creature wasn’t wolf or man—but something in between.
His chest was still its same shape, only more expansive, with the masculine contours of his postural and abdominal muscles covered in a thick dusting of fur.
His legs morphed into haunches tipped with huge paws in place of his feet, and his hands expanded, growing twice their size, his nails extending into black claws that stood out against his moon-pale coat.
His head took on the shape of a wolf’s—giant snout and a mouthful of deadly teeth—and had the little hairs on my rabbit tail quivering.
I braced my hands against his chest for purchase, my knees clamping tight around his hips as I held on for dear life through his shift.
At that moment, I realized my mistake.
He was still inside me, and if he was big before, he was freaking huge now.
It was too late to change my mind. Not after the lengths I’d gone to get to this point.
His cock and the shape it took on had my eyes crossing and drool trickling from the corners of my mouth.
He was longer, thicker, with maybe a tapered tip. It was tough to tell with how deep it was seated inside me. By the ridges rubbing my inner walls, it was definitely ribbed.
I knew the shift was over when the silver wolf collapsed back into the mattress with a pained growl that turned to a relieved purr on the next breath.
All the oxygen emptied from my lungs when our eyes locked. It was like I was looking at the ghost of the monster whose life I’d taken.
My jaw set as guilt crept into my chest, penetrating my armor of fury and vengeance.
None of this was fair. What had I done to get this dicked over by the universe? I didn’t ask to be born into what was basicallya cult, where young rabbit shifters were sacrificed at random to the local werewolf pack. Where my sister, my cousin, and so many of my kin went to their deaths.
I refused to conform. I refused to just lay down and accept my fate. As much as I hated to admit it, the silver wolf was right. I hadnothingto apologize for.
I’d been forced into being prey and I’d turned out the predator instead.
The werewolf’s post-shift haze seemed to dissipate, and he reached for me. I moved faster than him, grabbing for the ax.
He didn’t move to stop me. He only smiled. At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing. The human expression seemed out of place on his muzzle.
“It’s only been one night since I’ve known you, but I’ve waited my whole life to meet you, Little One.”
